Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario
Social media is social. Social, an adjective that one definition gives as pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club. That's what social network sites are - social clubs. Where people with the same interests get together and learn, teach, grow, and bond.
Hopefully you were taught social etiquette while you were growing up. You remember, elbows off the table, shake hands when you meet someone, send thank you notes, say please and thank you. Just as there are proper ways to behave in the world, there are proper ways to behave online. Here are a few ways to make your online experience a pleasure for everyone else.
Be Nice
This is the big one. Everything after this is icing on the cake. There is nothing wrong with being nice; it doesn't mean that you're weak. Making enemies on social sites gets you nowhere, so drop your hatred and e-rants. It's okay to have an opinion, even an extremely opposite opinion from everyone else. What's not okay is to call other people names. If you're trying to make a persuasive argument, use persuasive language and prove your point. It doesn't help your cause to call someone an idiot. And, if you use the Internet to rant and rave, people eventually tune you out.
Just like in real life and business, we get what we want by knowing people, networking and building quality relationships. It's the same for online relationships. And, as the old saying goes, "you can catch more flies with honey..."
You should value relationships over transactions. Gaining links from commenting on blogs should not be your main objective. Blog comments are just that - you are commenting to join the conversation. And you are joining the conversation to build a relationship.
Be Accountable
Just because you sit at your computer, anonymous, doesn't mean you are not accountable for your actions and words. Don't believe that there are no rules to social media. Don't believe that you can do or say whatever you want without consequences just because you can hide behind your computer. People are smart and if you are a shameless, self-promoting jerk, they'll figure it out and you'll be done. By being accountable for your words, people will respect you, whether they agree with you or not.
Be Respectful of the Community
You are there to add value to the community you join, not to push your agenda and make sales pitches. The thing that will bring you relationships is making sure that when you add to the community, it's with quality content. You may want to sit back and just listen for a while to learn about a community you've joined instead of just jumping in, maybe being ineffective and wasting everyone's time. Before you submit anything to a social site, ask yourself if it will add value to the community. If not, don't.
If you are commenting on someone else's blog, don't just promote yourself. If you have a post that refers to that conversation, then it's okay to post that link in your comment. However, if you do it too often, you'll get ignored or thought of as just a spammer.
Be a Listener
Yeah, sure, you think you know everything, but, if you listen to what others are saying, you might learn something. Listen to people that comment on your blog and see if you can understand where they are coming from. Your first reaction does not need to be a rant telling them how wrong they are.
Be a Giver
You know this one - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. This saying applies to online relationships as well. If you want attention, you have to be willing to give it first. Do the people who burst onto your site or group and think that they should be at the top immediately annoy you? And how about the ones that constantly ask for your help by commenting on their blogs or always push their content on you. We all try to avoid "users." Don't be like them - you have to earn respect by giving more than you receive and by making sure that what you give is useful.
Remember to link to posts that you find interesting or informative. Chances are that if you've found it interesting and related to your group, someone else will too. This is a great way to get involved in social networking sites.
Be Nice
I know, this was the first suggestion, but it's important so it bears repeating. You can't get away from it, The Golden Rule concept can be found in cultures and religions all over the world. That's probably why it's the "golden" rule. And if we all lived by it, in real life as well as online, we'd all be a little better off.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/
Read more of Enzo F. Cesario's articles.
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I will seek to answer those questions here, as well as to provide a Day Planner to enable the new online entrepreneur to navigate the maze of building a successful online business. When I find great advice by other writers, I will include that information as well. --- Clinton Douglas IV, Founder of Vasrue.com |
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Has Your Company Name Landed You in Legal Hot Water? Renaming Tips
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
The #1 reason business owners hire my company to create a new business name within a week is they've received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney. Often sent by certified mail, this legal document informs you that you are infringing on the registered trademark of another company, and if you do not stop using your company name after a specific date, you will be the target of legal action. I.e., you will be sued.
Such a letter means business. Never ignore it! It requires prompt action on your part.
In most cases, deciding to fight the case is foolhardy. It's best to acquiesce and look for a new company name. Here are the steps you should take.
First, read the letter carefully to determine what was objectionable about the name you have been using. For example, if they objected to you using a certain prefix or suffix, or a rhyme of their name, you'll need to make sure that factor is high on your list of criteria for the new name. Although this sounds obvious, I've seen entrepreneurs get so angry or upset about the demand to change their name that they don't proceed rationally in selecting its replacement.
Second, identify the business goals and objectives that you want the new name to meet. Who is the target market? What kind of statement do you want to make about your company? How do you want to be perceived? Should the name be cute or sedate? Trendy or conservative? Emotional or matter-of-fact?
Third, brainstorm possible names. Along with this article, you'll find a link to a free brainstorming guide for company names. Also see if you can remember or find notes on the runner-up names you considered just before you decided on the name you now have to discard. Sometimes it helps to look at lists of companies in your industry to trigger memories of important keywords or naming approaches you like and dislike.
Fourth, use the business goals and objectives you identified in Step 2 to reject names that will not work. Be ruthless in eliminating names you may like but that do not get across the proper message, don't fit your desired image or might not be understood by customers. From the names that remain, select your top three candidates.
Fifth - and please don't hate me for this! - hire an attorney to check out your top three name candidates to make sure they are legally in the clear. After all, this is the step you probably skipped the first time around. One entrepreneur I know failed to do this and had to change his company twice in one year, which made him look extremely careless.
And last, take the time to live with your top choice for a few days before finalizing it. Imagine saying it on the phone, at business meetings, seeing it on signage and so on. Is it a name you feel completely good about? If so, you're done. Congratulations! If not, repeat some of the previous steps as necessary.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
The #1 reason business owners hire my company to create a new business name within a week is they've received a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney. Often sent by certified mail, this legal document informs you that you are infringing on the registered trademark of another company, and if you do not stop using your company name after a specific date, you will be the target of legal action. I.e., you will be sued.
Such a letter means business. Never ignore it! It requires prompt action on your part.
In most cases, deciding to fight the case is foolhardy. It's best to acquiesce and look for a new company name. Here are the steps you should take.
First, read the letter carefully to determine what was objectionable about the name you have been using. For example, if they objected to you using a certain prefix or suffix, or a rhyme of their name, you'll need to make sure that factor is high on your list of criteria for the new name. Although this sounds obvious, I've seen entrepreneurs get so angry or upset about the demand to change their name that they don't proceed rationally in selecting its replacement.
Second, identify the business goals and objectives that you want the new name to meet. Who is the target market? What kind of statement do you want to make about your company? How do you want to be perceived? Should the name be cute or sedate? Trendy or conservative? Emotional or matter-of-fact?
Third, brainstorm possible names. Along with this article, you'll find a link to a free brainstorming guide for company names. Also see if you can remember or find notes on the runner-up names you considered just before you decided on the name you now have to discard. Sometimes it helps to look at lists of companies in your industry to trigger memories of important keywords or naming approaches you like and dislike.
Fourth, use the business goals and objectives you identified in Step 2 to reject names that will not work. Be ruthless in eliminating names you may like but that do not get across the proper message, don't fit your desired image or might not be understood by customers. From the names that remain, select your top three candidates.
Fifth - and please don't hate me for this! - hire an attorney to check out your top three name candidates to make sure they are legally in the clear. After all, this is the step you probably skipped the first time around. One entrepreneur I know failed to do this and had to change his company twice in one year, which made him look extremely careless.
And last, take the time to live with your top choice for a few days before finalizing it. Imagine saying it on the phone, at business meetings, seeing it on signage and so on. Is it a name you feel completely good about? If so, you're done. Congratulations! If not, repeat some of the previous steps as necessary.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
How To Find Work At Home Jobs For Work At Home Moms
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Glen OReilly
As the economy continues to tighten for many American families, more moms are looking to the Internet to find the extra money needed to help their families survive during this economically challenging time.
The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities for the mom seeking to earn money from home. The bad news is that there are a number of scams out there designed to trap the newcomers - to making money online, who simply do not know how to recognize the righteous among the wolves.
Be Very, Very Careful
Far too often, newcomers to the online job world have experiences similar to those experienced by Elmer Fudd, whenever he crossed the path of Bugs Bunny - as in the movie, "Wabbit Twouble".
Elmer Fudd: Wabbit, I came here for gold, and I'm going to get it!
Bugs Bunny: No! No! No! Not that! Not that! Anything but...
[Elmer and Bugs fight until Elmer has a gold tooth in his hands]
Elmer Fudd: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Smiles, showing a gap where his gold tooth was]
Bugs Bunny: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Points at his intact gold tooth]
When money is tight at home, it is important to absorb the lessons I am going to share in this article and not to be an Elmer Fudd. While spending money to operate an online enterprise may often make sense, be vewy, vewy careful. Oh - sorry... Be very, very careful...
Lessons From The Days Of Mail Order
If you go to McDonald's, Wal-Mart or any other Main Street employer, you do not have to pay money to get the job. While jobs are free... A good education is not free...
In the days of mail order, the big scam was that you could pay money to get a job "stuffing envelopes". The scam was that you would pay money to get the kit that enabled you to stuff envelopes, supposedly for pay. In the advertising, it was said that companies would pay you X dollars to stuff and mail the envelopes.
What the scammers never said was that what you were sticking in an envelope was a sales flyer, and you would only be paid if someone purchased a product as the result of a piece that you mailed.
The Internet equivalent of "stuffing envelopes" is affiliate marketing. That is not to say that you cannot make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, because you really can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing. But you should be aware that most people who undertake affiliate marketing - without first getting a good education - will fail to make any money with affiliate marketing.
Yes, affiliate marketing has a learning curve, but once you have perfected your formula for success, affiliate marketing can be very lucrative. It is true that a lot of Internet marketers are making a handsome living through affiliate marketing, but most of those people who have worked their way into "earning a living" from affiliate marketing had several months or several years of trial-and-error, before they could leave the job world behind.
If you are at all curious about affiliate marketing, the basic premise is that companies will pay you for helping them to acquire new customers. If a person that you referred to the company makes a purchase, you will earn a sales commission as a result of the purchase made.
If You Are Seeking A Job
You do not have to pay someone in order to get a job, whether offline in the real world or on the Internet. If someone offers you a job, and then asks for cash up-front in order to be able to give you that job, you should hearken back to the wise words of Elmer Fudd, "There's something screwy around here..."
For many telecommuting is just a dream, but when you know where to look for those telecommuting jobs, they are not that hard to find.
The only real telecommuting jobs on the Internet are frequently found on Freelance websites. But, you should keep in mind that these Freelance jobs are usually not long-term, and they are based on specific performance criteria.
For example, I could have hired someone to write this article for me for a fee. Many freelance opportunities are actually available in the content creation arena. Webmasters need content to fill and to promote their websites, but many of these webmasters simply do not have the skill or the time to do the work themselves. If you have the ability to write intelligible content, then there is ample opportunity to write articles for other people.
On the freelance websites, content writers are generally paid anywhere from a few dollars up to about fifteen or twenty dollars to write one article. If you are willing to put up your own website and to advertise your writing to other companies, it is not unheard of to be able to charge anywhere from $30 an article to $100 an article. But you should be forewarned that setting up your own website can be a very tough road, as there are thousands of other freelance writers competing for those more lucrative writing jobs.
If you don't consider yourself much of a writer, the good news is that there are thousands of freelance jobs offered that would enable anyone with a computer connection to participate.
For example, I know one company who pays people to write "every man" reviews of tourist destinations, motels, hotels and restaurants. The managers at this company do not want professional writers to write these reviews. Instead, the employer wants the reviews to appear as if Jane Doe, with an eighth-grade education, had written them.
Another company recently paid people to research and compile a list of all of the hotels in one metro area. This company wanted the names of the hotels, addresses, phone numbers, and it wanted to know the availability of swimming pools and other amenities. That particular job paid two dollars for every record compiled.
Other companies are willing to pay to have a list compiled of web pages that talk about a very specific topic. Manually compiled lists are popular, because we all know that the search engines don't always show the best content pages on a topic, and some webmasters feel that having such a list would be beneficial to their users.
I have even seen companies seeking freelancers to look at pictures and write a short description of what the picture contains. Others have paid to have a set of pictures reviewed and placed into their proper categories.
Interestingly, if you have a digital camera, there are hundreds of companies willing to pay you to travel around your local area and take pictures of specific homes, streets, addresses, tourism spots, and nature shots. Some of these companies are in the stock photography industry; and others are in the real estate industry.
If you are more of an artist, you will also find ample opportunities for graphic design jobs through the various freelance websites. Another graphics-related freelance job that some employers have sought is for people skilled with Photoshop to stitch together pictures to provide a panoramic picture of a particular event.
Other freelance gigs for moms include business support services, administration support, accounting, answering services, resume writing, grant writing, translators, virtual assistants, editors, fact checkers, gathering interesting quotes, and more... If you can envision an assignment that a company might need completed, chances are there is someone out there looking for someone to do those jobs from home...
Here Is Where To Find Those Freelance Jobs
There are many more Freelance Job websites than what I will mention here, but this will give you a good start towards finding jobs that any mom, in any part of the country, can use to find and earn the extra money she needs to help supplement the financial needs of her family.
General Freelancing Websites:
Elance.com Guru.com/pro iFreelance.com FreelanceJobs.org/projects/ Jobs.FreelanceSwitch.com Mturk.com (from Amazon.com) LimeExchange.com FlexJobs.com FreelanceWritingGigs.com GoFreelance.com TheFreelanceNation.com HireMyMom.com GetaFreelancer.com
Sell Your Photography:
Fotolia.com iStockPhoto.com ShutterPoint.com BigStockPhoto.com StockedPhotos.com Inmagine.com StockXpert.com CreStock.com
At the end of this road, there are many places to find jobs that can be worked from home. Many of these jobs are ideal for mom, and possibly even for dad.
If you are looking for extra money or a job you can work from home, print out this article now, so that you will have it available when you need it. If you have friends or relatives looking for work from home opportunities, print this article out and give it to them.
With this information in hand, you should have no problem finding the real work-at-home jobs that many people seek to find. At this juncture, one more quote from Elmer Fudd seems the perfect conclusion to this article:
Elmer Fudd: I finally got even with that screwy wabbit...
Keep your chin up and your mind clear, so that screwy wabbit will not clean your wallet, when you are in need of every penny you have available.
About the Author:
Glen O'Reilly lives with his wife and children in Detroit, Michigan. In good times he likes to travel with his family, and in slow times, he likes to help others through his writing. Recently, his wife was laid off from the job she had held for ten years. This opened a new chapter in their lives. His wife recently was able to find a job using http://www.jobsandpaychecks.com/ Thrilled about his wife's success, Glen signed on with the website to help get the word out about this excellent online jobs resource.
Read more Articles written by Glen OReilly.
Copyright © 2009 Glen OReilly
As the economy continues to tighten for many American families, more moms are looking to the Internet to find the extra money needed to help their families survive during this economically challenging time.
The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities for the mom seeking to earn money from home. The bad news is that there are a number of scams out there designed to trap the newcomers - to making money online, who simply do not know how to recognize the righteous among the wolves.
Be Very, Very Careful
Far too often, newcomers to the online job world have experiences similar to those experienced by Elmer Fudd, whenever he crossed the path of Bugs Bunny - as in the movie, "Wabbit Twouble".
Elmer Fudd: Wabbit, I came here for gold, and I'm going to get it!
Bugs Bunny: No! No! No! Not that! Not that! Anything but...
[Elmer and Bugs fight until Elmer has a gold tooth in his hands]
Elmer Fudd: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Smiles, showing a gap where his gold tooth was]
Bugs Bunny: Euweka! Gold at wast! He-he-he-he!
[Points at his intact gold tooth]
When money is tight at home, it is important to absorb the lessons I am going to share in this article and not to be an Elmer Fudd. While spending money to operate an online enterprise may often make sense, be vewy, vewy careful. Oh - sorry... Be very, very careful...
Lessons From The Days Of Mail Order
If you go to McDonald's, Wal-Mart or any other Main Street employer, you do not have to pay money to get the job. While jobs are free... A good education is not free...
In the days of mail order, the big scam was that you could pay money to get a job "stuffing envelopes". The scam was that you would pay money to get the kit that enabled you to stuff envelopes, supposedly for pay. In the advertising, it was said that companies would pay you X dollars to stuff and mail the envelopes.
What the scammers never said was that what you were sticking in an envelope was a sales flyer, and you would only be paid if someone purchased a product as the result of a piece that you mailed.
The Internet equivalent of "stuffing envelopes" is affiliate marketing. That is not to say that you cannot make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, because you really can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing. But you should be aware that most people who undertake affiliate marketing - without first getting a good education - will fail to make any money with affiliate marketing.
Yes, affiliate marketing has a learning curve, but once you have perfected your formula for success, affiliate marketing can be very lucrative. It is true that a lot of Internet marketers are making a handsome living through affiliate marketing, but most of those people who have worked their way into "earning a living" from affiliate marketing had several months or several years of trial-and-error, before they could leave the job world behind.
If you are at all curious about affiliate marketing, the basic premise is that companies will pay you for helping them to acquire new customers. If a person that you referred to the company makes a purchase, you will earn a sales commission as a result of the purchase made.
If You Are Seeking A Job
You do not have to pay someone in order to get a job, whether offline in the real world or on the Internet. If someone offers you a job, and then asks for cash up-front in order to be able to give you that job, you should hearken back to the wise words of Elmer Fudd, "There's something screwy around here..."
For many telecommuting is just a dream, but when you know where to look for those telecommuting jobs, they are not that hard to find.
The only real telecommuting jobs on the Internet are frequently found on Freelance websites. But, you should keep in mind that these Freelance jobs are usually not long-term, and they are based on specific performance criteria.
For example, I could have hired someone to write this article for me for a fee. Many freelance opportunities are actually available in the content creation arena. Webmasters need content to fill and to promote their websites, but many of these webmasters simply do not have the skill or the time to do the work themselves. If you have the ability to write intelligible content, then there is ample opportunity to write articles for other people.
On the freelance websites, content writers are generally paid anywhere from a few dollars up to about fifteen or twenty dollars to write one article. If you are willing to put up your own website and to advertise your writing to other companies, it is not unheard of to be able to charge anywhere from $30 an article to $100 an article. But you should be forewarned that setting up your own website can be a very tough road, as there are thousands of other freelance writers competing for those more lucrative writing jobs.
If you don't consider yourself much of a writer, the good news is that there are thousands of freelance jobs offered that would enable anyone with a computer connection to participate.
For example, I know one company who pays people to write "every man" reviews of tourist destinations, motels, hotels and restaurants. The managers at this company do not want professional writers to write these reviews. Instead, the employer wants the reviews to appear as if Jane Doe, with an eighth-grade education, had written them.
Another company recently paid people to research and compile a list of all of the hotels in one metro area. This company wanted the names of the hotels, addresses, phone numbers, and it wanted to know the availability of swimming pools and other amenities. That particular job paid two dollars for every record compiled.
Other companies are willing to pay to have a list compiled of web pages that talk about a very specific topic. Manually compiled lists are popular, because we all know that the search engines don't always show the best content pages on a topic, and some webmasters feel that having such a list would be beneficial to their users.
I have even seen companies seeking freelancers to look at pictures and write a short description of what the picture contains. Others have paid to have a set of pictures reviewed and placed into their proper categories.
Interestingly, if you have a digital camera, there are hundreds of companies willing to pay you to travel around your local area and take pictures of specific homes, streets, addresses, tourism spots, and nature shots. Some of these companies are in the stock photography industry; and others are in the real estate industry.
If you are more of an artist, you will also find ample opportunities for graphic design jobs through the various freelance websites. Another graphics-related freelance job that some employers have sought is for people skilled with Photoshop to stitch together pictures to provide a panoramic picture of a particular event.
Other freelance gigs for moms include business support services, administration support, accounting, answering services, resume writing, grant writing, translators, virtual assistants, editors, fact checkers, gathering interesting quotes, and more... If you can envision an assignment that a company might need completed, chances are there is someone out there looking for someone to do those jobs from home...
Here Is Where To Find Those Freelance Jobs
There are many more Freelance Job websites than what I will mention here, but this will give you a good start towards finding jobs that any mom, in any part of the country, can use to find and earn the extra money she needs to help supplement the financial needs of her family.
General Freelancing Websites:
Sell Your Photography:
At the end of this road, there are many places to find jobs that can be worked from home. Many of these jobs are ideal for mom, and possibly even for dad.
If you are looking for extra money or a job you can work from home, print out this article now, so that you will have it available when you need it. If you have friends or relatives looking for work from home opportunities, print this article out and give it to them.
With this information in hand, you should have no problem finding the real work-at-home jobs that many people seek to find. At this juncture, one more quote from Elmer Fudd seems the perfect conclusion to this article:
Elmer Fudd: I finally got even with that screwy wabbit...
Keep your chin up and your mind clear, so that screwy wabbit will not clean your wallet, when you are in need of every penny you have available.
About the Author:
Glen O'Reilly lives with his wife and children in Detroit, Michigan. In good times he likes to travel with his family, and in slow times, he likes to help others through his writing. Recently, his wife was laid off from the job she had held for ten years. This opened a new chapter in their lives. His wife recently was able to find a job using http://www.jobsandpaychecks.com/ Thrilled about his wife's success, Glen signed on with the website to help get the word out about this excellent online jobs resource.
Read more Articles written by Glen OReilly.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Does Your Company Tag Line Pass These Five Crucial Tests?
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Judging from the many disastrous slogans that state tourism boards have happily paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, even marketing professionals often use totally subjective criteria to select tag lines. Do we like it? Is it catchy and memorable? Does it make us feel good?
I suggest replacing the "feel-good" test with five much more grounded criteria. When you're trying to decide on the best tag line to accompany your organization's name on the web site, brochures, business cards, stationery, ads, mugs and mouse pads, make sure your winner passes these five tests.
1. Does it apply to you and not to competitors? Few people would match "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." to any other state than Idaho. But there's nothing in "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" to indicate Maine any more than Minnesota, Michigan or Montana. If your tag line does not highlight something distinctive about your company, it's not making much of a difference to prospective customers, either.
2. Does it have nothing but positive connotations? I'm baffled about how "Seize the Day Off" is supposed to reflect well on Maryland. Are all the jobs in that state so horrible that everyone there lives for the weekend? Likewise, "Things Look Different Here" could equally be taken as a bad thing as a good thing about Oregon, which used that slogan for many years.
3. Does it have emotional oomph? "Greatest Snow on Earth" is certainly an energetic advertisement for Utah. Similarly, Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit," which refers to its horse-related traditions, has emotional strength. Your tag line should convey energy rather than being flat and factual.
4. Are the tone and content appropriate for the target market? The District of Columbia has had "Taxation Without Representation" on its license plates, which functions well as an activist slogan for its own residents. But for tourists, that slogan would come across as bombastic and irrelevant. Always keep your target market firmly in mind when generating and screening tag lines. You are not writing it for yourselves but for those you want to attract.
5. Do you have good reasons for wanting to replace the previous tag line? Don't toss it in the trash just because you are tired of it. Remember that because you undoubtedly hear and see your own tag line much more than your target market does, you may get tired of it years sooner than they will. It's very rare for a state to keep a successful slogan alive for more than a decade because politicians and tourism officials get more and more itchy to put their mark on their entity's branding. That's a very bad reason to change. If the audience has stopped responding to it, or it has begun to be ridiculed - those are good reasons to look for a new tag line.
When you weigh your favorite tag lines with these five tests, you reduce the chances of choosing one that exposes your organization to ridicule. You boost the chances of coming out a winner.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Judging from the many disastrous slogans that state tourism boards have happily paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for, even marketing professionals often use totally subjective criteria to select tag lines. Do we like it? Is it catchy and memorable? Does it make us feel good?
I suggest replacing the "feel-good" test with five much more grounded criteria. When you're trying to decide on the best tag line to accompany your organization's name on the web site, brochures, business cards, stationery, ads, mugs and mouse pads, make sure your winner passes these five tests.
1. Does it apply to you and not to competitors? Few people would match "Great Potatoes. Tasty Destinations." to any other state than Idaho. But there's nothing in "Worth a Visit, Worth a Lifetime" to indicate Maine any more than Minnesota, Michigan or Montana. If your tag line does not highlight something distinctive about your company, it's not making much of a difference to prospective customers, either.
2. Does it have nothing but positive connotations? I'm baffled about how "Seize the Day Off" is supposed to reflect well on Maryland. Are all the jobs in that state so horrible that everyone there lives for the weekend? Likewise, "Things Look Different Here" could equally be taken as a bad thing as a good thing about Oregon, which used that slogan for many years.
3. Does it have emotional oomph? "Greatest Snow on Earth" is certainly an energetic advertisement for Utah. Similarly, Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit," which refers to its horse-related traditions, has emotional strength. Your tag line should convey energy rather than being flat and factual.
4. Are the tone and content appropriate for the target market? The District of Columbia has had "Taxation Without Representation" on its license plates, which functions well as an activist slogan for its own residents. But for tourists, that slogan would come across as bombastic and irrelevant. Always keep your target market firmly in mind when generating and screening tag lines. You are not writing it for yourselves but for those you want to attract.
5. Do you have good reasons for wanting to replace the previous tag line? Don't toss it in the trash just because you are tired of it. Remember that because you undoubtedly hear and see your own tag line much more than your target market does, you may get tired of it years sooner than they will. It's very rare for a state to keep a successful slogan alive for more than a decade because politicians and tourism officials get more and more itchy to put their mark on their entity's branding. That's a very bad reason to change. If the audience has stopped responding to it, or it has begun to be ridiculed - those are good reasons to look for a new tag line.
When you weigh your favorite tag lines with these five tests, you reduce the chances of choosing one that exposes your organization to ridicule. You boost the chances of coming out a winner.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Create Information Products - Step by Step On Using Ghostwriting Services
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng
Successful online marketers create information products that are in-demand and sell them online. It's one of the most popular and effective ways to make money on the internet. An information product, or an ebook requires no inventory and the profit margins are huge.
In this article, I'll summarize the crucial steps you need follow to create your own information product by outsourcing to respectable ghostwriting services...
The reasons you would want to outsource your information product creation are:
1. You have a phobia with writing, or you just don't like the task
2. You don't have enough time
3. You don't have the expertise to create information products
If any of the above applies to you, then you can consider using special ghostwriting services to create the information product for you. This is a fast and easy way to create a quality product to sell, while you can fully concentrate on just marketing the product.
Here are 5 steps on how to create information products by hiring a professional writer.
1. Choose Your Niche
To decide the topic for your ebook, you need to do some thorough online research. You should choose a niche which many people have an interest in, and who are willing to buy the information. It will be even better, if the niche is something which you're knowledgeable in.
Go to forums that are related to the niche, and view the posts. See if there is a lot of interest on certain problems which people want to know about.
Next you can search for magazines whether online or offline, and see if there's a magazine for the niche. This is proof that there is demand for the topic. Otherwise, people would not run a magazine on it.
Never, try to create an ebook on a topic which has never been done before. Chances are that it won't sell. Try to look for similar ebooks that are already selling well and create an information product which is better.
2. List Out The Problems
Once you've decided what your information product is about, you need to list out certain problems which the market is interested in. If the subject is about PC repair, then you need to list out the common problems people would want to know about repairing PCs.
Get this information from forums and from search engines. Consolidate the list of problems and choose the best ones which you think your prospects will be interested in.
3. Hire A Ghost Writer
Your next step is to hire a ghost writer, or ghostwriting company to write your information product. There are many professional writers which you can find online, but don't choose one based on the lowest price.
You need to hire a professional writer who has experience in creating information products for their clients. This includes the ebook, website, sales copy to sell the ebook, squeeze page to capture prospects' emails and a thank you page.
Some companies offer these ghostwriting services as a whole package, but there aren't many of them. An example of such a company is 'Best Instant Sites' which offers a complete solution for creating information products.
4. Discuss The Terms
With your chosen ghostwriter, you need to discuss the terms before giving payment. Tell them your idea of the information product you want and list the subjects you want written about, from what you gathered in your research.
Ask the professional writer to research the topic in more detail when writing the ebook. Then ask when the delivery date is. Never push the writer for an earlier deadline. You want the ebook to be written professionally. Rushing a writing project seldom creates quality.
For the design of your website, tell the ghostwriter what kind of look you're looking for and the words you want shown. Give examples of website designs that you like so that the professional writer knows your preference.
5. Following Up With The Progress
A few days before the deadline of your information product, contact the ghostwriter and ask him or her for the progress. He would either tell you everything is as planned or he would tell you that there is a possible delay.
The point of following up is to tell the writer that you care and it gives him a chance to ask you any questions he can think of. You can even ask for a draft of the website design to see if it matches what you want.
Good professional writers will always contact you a few days beforehand if there's a possible delay, but just in case you hired a not-so-professional writer, it will be wise if you followed up a few times before the deadline.
Following these steps, you can create an information product of your own and start making money online like the experts. The key to success is hiring the right professional writer. You need a writer that has experience in creating information products. And of course, you also need good marketing skills to sell your product online. Some ghostwriters offer advice on marketing online. You need to ask.
About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, visit professional writer at Best Instant Sites.
Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng
Successful online marketers create information products that are in-demand and sell them online. It's one of the most popular and effective ways to make money on the internet. An information product, or an ebook requires no inventory and the profit margins are huge.
In this article, I'll summarize the crucial steps you need follow to create your own information product by outsourcing to respectable ghostwriting services...
The reasons you would want to outsource your information product creation are:
1. You have a phobia with writing, or you just don't like the task
2. You don't have enough time
3. You don't have the expertise to create information products
If any of the above applies to you, then you can consider using special ghostwriting services to create the information product for you. This is a fast and easy way to create a quality product to sell, while you can fully concentrate on just marketing the product.
Here are 5 steps on how to create information products by hiring a professional writer.
1. Choose Your Niche
To decide the topic for your ebook, you need to do some thorough online research. You should choose a niche which many people have an interest in, and who are willing to buy the information. It will be even better, if the niche is something which you're knowledgeable in.
Go to forums that are related to the niche, and view the posts. See if there is a lot of interest on certain problems which people want to know about.
Next you can search for magazines whether online or offline, and see if there's a magazine for the niche. This is proof that there is demand for the topic. Otherwise, people would not run a magazine on it.
Never, try to create an ebook on a topic which has never been done before. Chances are that it won't sell. Try to look for similar ebooks that are already selling well and create an information product which is better.
2. List Out The Problems
Once you've decided what your information product is about, you need to list out certain problems which the market is interested in. If the subject is about PC repair, then you need to list out the common problems people would want to know about repairing PCs.
Get this information from forums and from search engines. Consolidate the list of problems and choose the best ones which you think your prospects will be interested in.
3. Hire A Ghost Writer
Your next step is to hire a ghost writer, or ghostwriting company to write your information product. There are many professional writers which you can find online, but don't choose one based on the lowest price.
You need to hire a professional writer who has experience in creating information products for their clients. This includes the ebook, website, sales copy to sell the ebook, squeeze page to capture prospects' emails and a thank you page.
Some companies offer these ghostwriting services as a whole package, but there aren't many of them. An example of such a company is 'Best Instant Sites' which offers a complete solution for creating information products.
4. Discuss The Terms
With your chosen ghostwriter, you need to discuss the terms before giving payment. Tell them your idea of the information product you want and list the subjects you want written about, from what you gathered in your research.
Ask the professional writer to research the topic in more detail when writing the ebook. Then ask when the delivery date is. Never push the writer for an earlier deadline. You want the ebook to be written professionally. Rushing a writing project seldom creates quality.
For the design of your website, tell the ghostwriter what kind of look you're looking for and the words you want shown. Give examples of website designs that you like so that the professional writer knows your preference.
5. Following Up With The Progress
A few days before the deadline of your information product, contact the ghostwriter and ask him or her for the progress. He would either tell you everything is as planned or he would tell you that there is a possible delay.
The point of following up is to tell the writer that you care and it gives him a chance to ask you any questions he can think of. You can even ask for a draft of the website design to see if it matches what you want.
Good professional writers will always contact you a few days beforehand if there's a possible delay, but just in case you hired a not-so-professional writer, it will be wise if you followed up a few times before the deadline.
Following these steps, you can create an information product of your own and start making money online like the experts. The key to success is hiring the right professional writer. You need a writer that has experience in creating information products. And of course, you also need good marketing skills to sell your product online. Some ghostwriters offer advice on marketing online. You need to ask.
About the Author:
Download the report "Build Your Own Business Using Information Products" at create information products. Alan Cheng is a professional writer at http://www.bestinstantsites.com/ If you want to outsource your information product creation, visit professional writer at Best Instant Sites.
Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.
Free and Easy Link Building Tips
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario
Okay, you're the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn't like the movies - just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.
If you've spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks - links that point to your website - are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.
You can buy your way into links, but here we're talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.
Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.
Blog-Based Link Building
One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you'll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.
For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog's content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company's name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that - cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.
Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.
Link Building with Social Media
Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.
Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.
Link Building with Organizations and Directories
If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn't be much.
Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.
Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.
Links from Charities or Non-profits
If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a "donors" list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.
Links from Press Releases
Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.
Links from Partners
If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.
If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person's website, linking back to your site.
The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/
Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario
Okay, you're the proud mama or papa to your brand new website. Now what? This isn't like the movies - just because you built it doesn't mean they'll come. The Internet is a huge limitless space with ever-growing numbers of websites. You are just one small website among millions. How will anybody ever find you? How do you become visible? Right now, you just exist out in the web, untethered. You need to become visible when someone searches for you and one way to become visible to people is to become visible to search engines. And one way to become visible to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is for your site to be tethered, or linked to other sites.
If you've spent any time reading Internet marketing blogs you know that link building is a huge part of a marketing campaign. Backlinks - links that point to your website - are a major factor in determining your popularity or ranking with the search engines. And of course, just like in high school, you want to be popular.
You can buy your way into links, but here we're talking about a few free and easy ways. An obvious and natural way to build links is through content. When you start a link-building campaign for your new website, focus on attracting links that will add value for your website visitors and best represent your most important keywords too. It is invaluable to have visitors go to your site and share your content.
Here are a few easy and mostly free ways to build links for your website.
Blog-Based Link Building
One way to get natural links back to your website is by setting up a blog for your company. Make sure you network online with other blogs that complement yours. If you share industry news and have useful and relevant content, you'll attract links. Reference other bloggers in your content and link to other blogs in your industry.
For blogs, content is extremely important. Every time you add words to your blog or website, you are presenting yourself to a potentially huge audience. How does your blog's content reflect your company? This content could be the page that carries your company's name around the Internet world. Cheap content is just that - cheap. Create content that people want to read and that will make them come back again and again.
Reviewing products and services and posting those reviews on other sites is another way to build links. Your honest evaluations and smart opinions can also build your reputation as an expert in your field.
Link Building with Social Media
Another way to build natural links to your website is through social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. These sites allow you to set up a user profile where you can add information about you and your company including a link to your website.
Some sites, Facebook for example, also have a way to promote your business with a page, ad or group. Just keep in mind that there are good ways and bad ways to promote your business on social sites and you should observe proper etiquette when you do.
Link Building with Organizations and Directories
If your industry has professional organizations or associations that you belong to, check with them and see if they have an online directory with links to member sites. They may or may not charge a fee for this. If they do, it shouldn't be much.
Check with your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau. Links from sites like these can be very helpful. Check with other local businesses and organizations that have lists of businesses and request links from them, too.
Online directories are another opportunity to look into. Yahoo! Directory is a good one. If your business is in a specific geographical area, you might also find some local directories to submit to that will boost your local visibility.
Links from Charities or Non-profits
If your company makes charitable donations to organizations and non-profits, see if they have a "donors" list on their website and ask if they will link to your website.
Links from Press Releases
Has your business just started or have you just launched a new product? A press release is a great idea to announce your news. There are quite a few press release distribution services available and some have a free first time offer.
Links from Partners
If your website offers information about other partner websites like business directories, you should make sure to use all your linking potential. You could have a badge that your partner could put on their site linking to you and one for your site that links to theirs.
If you have an RSS feed or a widget on your site that has good value to visitors, those can be taken from your website and displayed on another person's website, linking back to your site.
The Internet is constantly evolving and there are thousands of ways to build links. Look around at other websites and see what they have and how they work. Look at your business, think outside the box and you might come up with other ways to develop links. If it all seems like too much, there are many online consulting companies that can help with link building, SEO optimization and brandcasting.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/
Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Understanding Connotations in Tag Lines, Business Names and Monikers
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
The following closer on an email was meant to clinch my interest in an information product, but it did the opposite:
"I would love for you to experience the same kind of worldwide notoriety my clients have enjoyed for years."
As a professional word person, I knew instantly that this expert had overlooked the negative meaning of "notoriety." But before jumping on her mistake, I checked my authoritative sources - dictionaries.
For "notorious," the American Heritage dictionary provides the definition "known widely and usually unfavorably," while the American College Dictionary has as a first definition "widely but unfavorably known." As synonyms for "notoriety," dictionary.com offers "disrepute, ill-repute, shame, infamy."
For certain audiences, especially those that are young, edgy or avant-garde, one can turn established meanings upside down to create a magnetic message. It's easy to imagine rock bands, movie stars or political activists for whom "notoriety" glitters as a goal.
But clearly this expert did not intend to claim that she helps her clients achieve an unfavorable worldwide reputation or to be held in widespread disrepute. And just as clearly, the fact that she misused this word implies she can't be trusted to formulate a winning message for someone seeking acclaim.
Blunders like this can turn up in company or product names, tag lines, monikers (clever nicknames) and in marketing copy.
Very often, people crafting a marketing piece get tired of using the obvious words for their situation and reach for synonyms. To avoid writing "fame" - a simple, direct and ordinary word - this expert used (actually, misused) the more complex word "notoriety." People also get tripped up by connotation when they fall in love with the way something sounds.
For instance, I once thought up the moniker "Grand Poohbah of Publicity. " I loved its combination of sounds. However, when I looked it up, I discovered definitions like this one, in the Free Online Dictionary: "A pompous ostentatious official, especially one who, holding many offices, fulfills none of them." "Poohbah" comes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado, where Pooh-Bah was a haughty character who held the offices Lord Chief Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Buckhounds, Lord High Auditor, Groom of the Back Stairs, and Lord High Everything Else. Oops, I certainly do not want to come across that way!
Whether you rely on memory or use a thesaurus to jog your consideration of related words, you must always, always take one more step and look up the official meaning of fancier or less common words. If you are aiming at a positive message and you see a negative connotation in any of the definitions, that indicates a high risk of an unintended negative message.
Even if several definitions are positive, one negative definition spoils the word's potential, the same way one rotten tomato mixed with fresh ones ruins a sauce.
The discipline of looking up words not only prevents communication disasters, over time it increases your command of the language. Instead of fighting what words mean to your audience, you increase your ability to nail a thought or idea in powerful names, sentences, nicknames or slogans.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
The following closer on an email was meant to clinch my interest in an information product, but it did the opposite:
"I would love for you to experience the same kind of worldwide notoriety my clients have enjoyed for years."
As a professional word person, I knew instantly that this expert had overlooked the negative meaning of "notoriety." But before jumping on her mistake, I checked my authoritative sources - dictionaries.
For "notorious," the American Heritage dictionary provides the definition "known widely and usually unfavorably," while the American College Dictionary has as a first definition "widely but unfavorably known." As synonyms for "notoriety," dictionary.com offers "disrepute, ill-repute, shame, infamy."
For certain audiences, especially those that are young, edgy or avant-garde, one can turn established meanings upside down to create a magnetic message. It's easy to imagine rock bands, movie stars or political activists for whom "notoriety" glitters as a goal.
But clearly this expert did not intend to claim that she helps her clients achieve an unfavorable worldwide reputation or to be held in widespread disrepute. And just as clearly, the fact that she misused this word implies she can't be trusted to formulate a winning message for someone seeking acclaim.
Blunders like this can turn up in company or product names, tag lines, monikers (clever nicknames) and in marketing copy.
Very often, people crafting a marketing piece get tired of using the obvious words for their situation and reach for synonyms. To avoid writing "fame" - a simple, direct and ordinary word - this expert used (actually, misused) the more complex word "notoriety." People also get tripped up by connotation when they fall in love with the way something sounds.
For instance, I once thought up the moniker "Grand Poohbah of Publicity. " I loved its combination of sounds. However, when I looked it up, I discovered definitions like this one, in the Free Online Dictionary: "A pompous ostentatious official, especially one who, holding many offices, fulfills none of them." "Poohbah" comes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, The Mikado, where Pooh-Bah was a haughty character who held the offices Lord Chief Justice, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Buckhounds, Lord High Auditor, Groom of the Back Stairs, and Lord High Everything Else. Oops, I certainly do not want to come across that way!
Whether you rely on memory or use a thesaurus to jog your consideration of related words, you must always, always take one more step and look up the official meaning of fancier or less common words. If you are aiming at a positive message and you see a negative connotation in any of the definitions, that indicates a high risk of an unintended negative message.
Even if several definitions are positive, one negative definition spoils the word's potential, the same way one rotten tomato mixed with fresh ones ruins a sauce.
The discipline of looking up words not only prevents communication disasters, over time it increases your command of the language. Instead of fighting what words mean to your audience, you increase your ability to nail a thought or idea in powerful names, sentences, nicknames or slogans.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Changing Your Company Name: The Good, The Bad and The Unnecessary
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider.
Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They've received a case-and-desist letter, and it's cheaper and wiser to switch than to fight.
Even those who follow corporate name games probably don't realize that Kentucky Fried Chicken falls into this category. In 1991, the company told the public that they were changing their name to KFC because health-conscious consumers were shying away from the word "fried." Since the name change coincided with the introduction of several purportedly healthier menu items, this seemed plausible.
In fact, however, in 1990 the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name and created the requirement that any business using the word Kentucky for business purposes would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees. Kentucky Fried Chicken took umbrage at the idea of paying for a name they'd used since 1952. Their negotiations with the state broke down, and they adopted KFC as their new name.
The second most common impetus for an organizational name change is a word in the name that's gone out of favor with the industry or with the general public. For instance, the Massachusetts State House is considering legislation to rename the Department of Mental Retardation the Department of Developmental Disabilities, in keeping with altered notions of appropriate labeling.
The same goes for company names that sound old-fashioned and out of date. In 2009, a shop called Fotos and Film raises the issue of whether or not they're in step with today's digital photography.
The third good reason for changing your company name is that the name no longer fits the services you perform and the goods you sell. If you launched as Westfield Wire and now you make mainly cables, renaming is indeed in order.
Likewise, geographical growth or relocations can render a business name obsolete. If Gerard County Savings Bank expands beyond Gerard County, it should put itself in line for a name change.
Got a name that people just can't remember or that they confuse with your competitor? One company came to us for renaming because even people who'd previously bought from them couldn't remember whether they were, let's say, MyGrandPhotos.com (correct) or YourGrandPhotos.com (the competitor). Renaming makes sense for that situation, too.
If you're just plain tired of your name, however, forget about a name change. It involves a lot of expense and effort to convince the public to get on board with the new name. Don't go there for frivolous, unnecessary reasons.
The final situation, mergers and acquisitions, which often prompt renaming, depends on the situation. Restaurants that take over from a disreputable or failing establishment do well to signal their fresh start with both a name change and redecoration. However, a company that was humming along fine before the change of ownership should usually continue with the name they had before. In business, longevity and consistency inspire confidence.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Wondering whether or not to change your company name? Several reasons for doing this are legitimate. Other reasons should make you stop and reconsider.
Most of the time, companies that come to my naming company frantic to find a new name for their firm or for a product do so because of legal problems. They've received a case-and-desist letter, and it's cheaper and wiser to switch than to fight.
Even those who follow corporate name games probably don't realize that Kentucky Fried Chicken falls into this category. In 1991, the company told the public that they were changing their name to KFC because health-conscious consumers were shying away from the word "fried." Since the name change coincided with the introduction of several purportedly healthier menu items, this seemed plausible.
In fact, however, in 1990 the state of Kentucky had trademarked its name and created the requirement that any business using the word Kentucky for business purposes would have to obtain permission and pay licensing fees. Kentucky Fried Chicken took umbrage at the idea of paying for a name they'd used since 1952. Their negotiations with the state broke down, and they adopted KFC as their new name.
The second most common impetus for an organizational name change is a word in the name that's gone out of favor with the industry or with the general public. For instance, the Massachusetts State House is considering legislation to rename the Department of Mental Retardation the Department of Developmental Disabilities, in keeping with altered notions of appropriate labeling.
The same goes for company names that sound old-fashioned and out of date. In 2009, a shop called Fotos and Film raises the issue of whether or not they're in step with today's digital photography.
The third good reason for changing your company name is that the name no longer fits the services you perform and the goods you sell. If you launched as Westfield Wire and now you make mainly cables, renaming is indeed in order.
Likewise, geographical growth or relocations can render a business name obsolete. If Gerard County Savings Bank expands beyond Gerard County, it should put itself in line for a name change.
Got a name that people just can't remember or that they confuse with your competitor? One company came to us for renaming because even people who'd previously bought from them couldn't remember whether they were, let's say, MyGrandPhotos.com (correct) or YourGrandPhotos.com (the competitor). Renaming makes sense for that situation, too.
If you're just plain tired of your name, however, forget about a name change. It involves a lot of expense and effort to convince the public to get on board with the new name. Don't go there for frivolous, unnecessary reasons.
The final situation, mergers and acquisitions, which often prompt renaming, depends on the situation. Restaurants that take over from a disreputable or failing establishment do well to signal their fresh start with both a name change and redecoration. However, a company that was humming along fine before the change of ownership should usually continue with the name they had before. In business, longevity and consistency inspire confidence.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Private Label Rights (PLR) and Spamming
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Glenn Heitkoetter
PLR is material that the author gives rights to change and/or redistribute the product(s). These can be just about any product. The author can be very strict in one extreme, to all the way the other way to letting you change it completely as you want, give yourself the credit and relink any links to your own site(s).
PLR has a bad rap as spammers flood video sites, article sites, blogs, and other sites with this, usually it is going to be duplicate content as someone else has already spammed the site earlier with it. A lot of PLR is watered down filler and/or sales pitches with little or no real information.
The following methods are if the original author(s) allow it according to the documentation.
Find the best PLR with real information.
These are just a few methods that can be used with PLR saving you many hours of time coming up with your own information from scratch. PLR can also give you ideas that may only have been touched on in the material but you can expand on it to make the material original.
Combine products into unique packages that cannot be found anywhere else. Give away part of it and sell another part.
Change the format. There are services that charge to do this so this is a viable service as you can change an article into video slides or video screen capture tutorials using paid or free software. Change audio into articles or the reverse of this. Utilize live video or streaming video services using PLR that has not been done in this fashion before. People benefit from these formats as they may not be able to utilize a product easily or at all in the original format.
Avoid selling products that can be found for free as they are or sending it to sites that want original content.
Give them away as bonuses for free to make an original product more attractive as many people may not have known about this before.
Auction unique packages of PLR. Sell for next to nothing if you want and build your mailing list for your email newsletter.
Find the best PLR and give away in individual packages from your site(s) and build your mailing list.
There are free and paid PLR membership sites that bring in new original content all of the time. Be the first to utilize this content and or give away the memberships using their affiliate programs that these sites offer.
Use PLR to give answers to questions about items in question and answer forums. Run a link to the material. Selling from here is going to probably get you the boot off the forum. Give the first package away free but sell an expanded package. Stay on the exact topic of the forum or the boot is likely to happen. Your sign on signature can have a link to the free content.
Make a free "viraling" Ebook. Many Ebooks are worthless using regurgitated info scraped from help files of sites. People can tell you scraped it as it will be easy obvious information. The better it is the more viral it will go. Give real info that is combined with good PLR. Put it in pdf format using paid or free software with your live links to your site(s).
One of the best uses of PLR is to use part of it for you email newsletters combining it with your own original content to expand a subject.
About the Author:
Written by: Glenn Heitkoetter. For Free membership and 79 Ways To Make Money With PLR Products: http://www.info-soup.com/plr
Read more Articles written by Glenn Heitkoetter.
Copyright © 2009 Glenn Heitkoetter
PLR is material that the author gives rights to change and/or redistribute the product(s). These can be just about any product. The author can be very strict in one extreme, to all the way the other way to letting you change it completely as you want, give yourself the credit and relink any links to your own site(s).
PLR has a bad rap as spammers flood video sites, article sites, blogs, and other sites with this, usually it is going to be duplicate content as someone else has already spammed the site earlier with it. A lot of PLR is watered down filler and/or sales pitches with little or no real information.
The following methods are if the original author(s) allow it according to the documentation.
Find the best PLR with real information.
These are just a few methods that can be used with PLR saving you many hours of time coming up with your own information from scratch. PLR can also give you ideas that may only have been touched on in the material but you can expand on it to make the material original.
About the Author:
Written by: Glenn Heitkoetter. For Free membership and 79 Ways To Make Money With PLR Products: http://www.info-soup.com/plr
Read more Articles written by Glenn Heitkoetter.
Advertisers and Online Advertising Agencies
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Karin Gamble, All Rights Reserved
Ten years ago I founded NetMediaReps, Inc., an advertising agency for online companies, specifically online newsletter publishers trying to find advertisers for their publications. My decision to found my own company grew out of my frustration in trying to obtain agency representation for my husband's company.
After calling more than 25 ad agencies, I discovered that most agencies charged exorbitant commissions and were only interested in representing large companies with deep pockets. As a new startup, my husband's company fell under their radar and follow up was minimal to nil.
Back then, the internet was just emerging as the new frontier of business and it was apparent that small and medium-sized businessses needed effective marketing representation to compete in this new marketplace, to receive the broadest possible exposure and to find other companies which could help facilitate their growth.
My thought was that these companies had an even greater need for a marketing platform than larger companies to be competitive in the growing online commercial market. I decided to fill that niche and started by signing contracts with several online publishers who needed assistance in selling their ad inventory. The rest is history - NetMediaReps.com was born.
Knowledge of how to do business, and advertise, on the internet has grown significantly over the years and data tracking of take rates, website conversion rates and ROI have become increasingly sophisticated, helping online businesses to better target their advertising dollars in a successful and productive way.
Despite these advances in knowledge and technique, there are still a surprising number of individuals who display a remarkable naivety regarding advertising and who ask questions that indicate the lack of a well thought out marketing plan or a basic understanding of the advertising mediums available to them online. Below are some examples of not so uncommon questions we receive and our responses to them:
Question: Your publisher mails to a list of 500,000 subscribers so I should get 500,000 responses - right ?
Answer: An online publication using a mailing list is like a newspaper. Recipients don't always feel like reading or looking at the publication on a given day. They may be busy, on vacation, disinterested in the topic, or otherwise indisposed. And, like a newspaper - just because they see your ad doesn't mean they want to buy from you - at least not at that given moment. It is, however, a good idea to advertise in publications that archive past issues or editions providing advertisers with permanent or semi-permanent back links and the opportunity of receiving trickle through clicks and sales at no additional cost.
Other factors that can affect response rate are:
The number of links in a publication. Newsletters typically run 1 to 2 web pages in length and are comprised of several sections all of which contain a few to numerous links. As a result reader interest and click activity is diffused across the newsletter rather than focused on a particular ad or link.
Ad clarity. A concise, definitive statement describing what your company is selling and how it benefits buyers is essential as is an unequivocal call to action.
Ad Uniqueness. An ad that stands out generally performs better.
Spam triggers. Generally, words and phrases that are the most effective in evoking reader response are also the ones that trigger spam filters both at the ISP level and the reader's Inbox. Blatant commercial message subjects and ad copy rarely do well.
Message Subject. Shorter subject lines are usually more effective than longer ones. More imortantly, large web-based mail services like Yahoo! Mail, MSN/Hotmail and AOL truncate message subjects that are greater than 38 - 47 characters.
Question: (After receiving ad specs, including dimensions and file sizes.) Will my 700 x 300 pixel ad be accepted?
Answer: Most publishers will strive to assist you in placing your ads but are restricted by their newsletter templates from accepting ads that don't conform to the specs provided. Submitting an incorrectly sized ad simply delays the start of your ad campaign.
Question: Why should I advertise when we are obviously in a recession? Does that make any sense?
Answer: McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending from 1980 to 1985. After 1985, the facts showed that the firms which had kept or increased their advertising budgets during the recession in '81-'82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. The companies who cut their advertising? They experienced paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.
So, when is the right time to market your business? All the time.
Question: I noticed my competitor in your publications - can you tell me how they did, so I can decide if we want to use you?
Sorry. You wouldn't want the details of your campaign provided to your competitors. Our advertisers have an expectation of privacy and confidentiality in regards to performance criteria such as click-through rates, sales and ROI. Ad agencies and publishers have an ethical obligation to keep campaign results confidential.
Even if such information was made available, it would not be that useful. Campaign results can vary significantly depending on the product/service offered, price point, message subject, ad copy and numerous other variables.
Any questions?... e-me ! :)
About the Author:
Karin Gamble is the CEO of NetMediaReps, Inc. (http://www.netmediareps.com), an online advertising agency specializing in ad sales for newsletter publications and web sites targeting a webmaster audience. Karin can be reached by email at info@netmediareps.com or by telephone at (204)254-1750.
Read more Articles written by Karin Gamble.
Copyright © 2009 Karin Gamble, All Rights Reserved
Ten years ago I founded NetMediaReps, Inc., an advertising agency for online companies, specifically online newsletter publishers trying to find advertisers for their publications. My decision to found my own company grew out of my frustration in trying to obtain agency representation for my husband's company.
After calling more than 25 ad agencies, I discovered that most agencies charged exorbitant commissions and were only interested in representing large companies with deep pockets. As a new startup, my husband's company fell under their radar and follow up was minimal to nil.
Back then, the internet was just emerging as the new frontier of business and it was apparent that small and medium-sized businessses needed effective marketing representation to compete in this new marketplace, to receive the broadest possible exposure and to find other companies which could help facilitate their growth.
My thought was that these companies had an even greater need for a marketing platform than larger companies to be competitive in the growing online commercial market. I decided to fill that niche and started by signing contracts with several online publishers who needed assistance in selling their ad inventory. The rest is history - NetMediaReps.com was born.
Knowledge of how to do business, and advertise, on the internet has grown significantly over the years and data tracking of take rates, website conversion rates and ROI have become increasingly sophisticated, helping online businesses to better target their advertising dollars in a successful and productive way.
Despite these advances in knowledge and technique, there are still a surprising number of individuals who display a remarkable naivety regarding advertising and who ask questions that indicate the lack of a well thought out marketing plan or a basic understanding of the advertising mediums available to them online. Below are some examples of not so uncommon questions we receive and our responses to them:
Question: Your publisher mails to a list of 500,000 subscribers so I should get 500,000 responses - right ?
Answer: An online publication using a mailing list is like a newspaper. Recipients don't always feel like reading or looking at the publication on a given day. They may be busy, on vacation, disinterested in the topic, or otherwise indisposed. And, like a newspaper - just because they see your ad doesn't mean they want to buy from you - at least not at that given moment. It is, however, a good idea to advertise in publications that archive past issues or editions providing advertisers with permanent or semi-permanent back links and the opportunity of receiving trickle through clicks and sales at no additional cost.
Other factors that can affect response rate are:
Question: (After receiving ad specs, including dimensions and file sizes.) Will my 700 x 300 pixel ad be accepted?
Answer: Most publishers will strive to assist you in placing your ads but are restricted by their newsletter templates from accepting ads that don't conform to the specs provided. Submitting an incorrectly sized ad simply delays the start of your ad campaign.
Question: Why should I advertise when we are obviously in a recession? Does that make any sense?
Answer: McGraw-Hill Research analyzed 600 companies and their marketing spending from 1980 to 1985. After 1985, the facts showed that the firms which had kept or increased their advertising budgets during the recession in '81-'82 boasted an average sales growth of 275% over the next five years. The companies who cut their advertising? They experienced paltry sales growth over the next five years of just 19%.
So, when is the right time to market your business? All the time.
Question: I noticed my competitor in your publications - can you tell me how they did, so I can decide if we want to use you?
Sorry. You wouldn't want the details of your campaign provided to your competitors. Our advertisers have an expectation of privacy and confidentiality in regards to performance criteria such as click-through rates, sales and ROI. Ad agencies and publishers have an ethical obligation to keep campaign results confidential.
Even if such information was made available, it would not be that useful. Campaign results can vary significantly depending on the product/service offered, price point, message subject, ad copy and numerous other variables.
Any questions?... e-me ! :)
About the Author:
Karin Gamble is the CEO of NetMediaReps, Inc. (http://www.netmediareps.com), an online advertising agency specializing in ad sales for newsletter publications and web sites targeting a webmaster audience. Karin can be reached by email at info@netmediareps.com or by telephone at (204)254-1750.
Read more Articles written by Karin Gamble.
The Mystique of Numbers in Company Names
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
While visiting the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts two weeks ago, made famous in the 1851 book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I mentally tried out other numbers to see if they would sound as spooky and portentous.
To my ear, House of the Five Gables sounds all too ordinary, while House of the Eight Gables lacks anything that would send a chill up someone's spine. Both the sound of "seven" and its properties as both odd and prime give it a reverberating ring.
I would go so far as to say that numbers have personalities that you need to be aware of when using them in company or product names.
Motel 6: Here, "six" comes across as routine and humdrum, very much like the rooms and prices in this chain.
Super 8: If this motel chain was trying to convey higher quality than Motel 6, it works. Note too that with two long and one short vowel sounds to its competitor's one long and two short ones, the name Super 8 commands more attention while taking up no more space.
Heinz 57: Company founder Henry John Heinz engineered the company's address at PO Box 57 in Pittsburgh in addition to using this number in the corporate slogan ("57 Varieties") and in the name of its steak sauce. I doubt it would have lasted since 1896 as Heinz 28 or Heinz 91 or even Heinz 37.
Note that you don't have to provide an explanation of a number you include in a business name. The Heinz company web site says only that the numbers "5" and "7" had a special significance for founder Henry John Heinz and his wife, not what that significance was. Likewise, the bottle of "Formula 3" shampoo that my hairdresser recently sold me says nothing about what the "3" means.
Just be mindful that certain numbers carry heavy baggage to members of some ethnic and religious groups. For instance, "four" is unlucky to many Chinese because in their language it's a homonym for death. And to Christians, the sequence "666" signifies the devil. "Thirteen" is shunned in many cultures for reasons unknown.
Be mindful also that for a local business, people don't know how to look up company names starting with numbers. If you heard the name "18 Candles" for a party products company, should you look it up in the telephone directory under "E" for "eighteen" or in the front of the book, before the A's? When the number comes after a regular word, as with Studio 54, you avoid this problem.
Finally, when it comes to web domains, most people hearing a company name with a number in it will assume it's written with the numeral rather than in words. They'd look up motel6.com rather than motelsix.com. Even so, you'd be smart to reserve both versions. Motel6.com indeed corresponds to the motel chain, but motelsix.com goes to a site for finding a cheap motel room. Likewise, the founder of fivethirtyeight.com, a political web site referring to the number of seats in the U.S. Congress, thought the written-out-words looked more elegant and neglected to reserve the domain 538.com.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
While visiting the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts two weeks ago, made famous in the 1851 book by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I mentally tried out other numbers to see if they would sound as spooky and portentous.
To my ear, House of the Five Gables sounds all too ordinary, while House of the Eight Gables lacks anything that would send a chill up someone's spine. Both the sound of "seven" and its properties as both odd and prime give it a reverberating ring.
I would go so far as to say that numbers have personalities that you need to be aware of when using them in company or product names.
Motel 6: Here, "six" comes across as routine and humdrum, very much like the rooms and prices in this chain.
Super 8: If this motel chain was trying to convey higher quality than Motel 6, it works. Note too that with two long and one short vowel sounds to its competitor's one long and two short ones, the name Super 8 commands more attention while taking up no more space.
Heinz 57: Company founder Henry John Heinz engineered the company's address at PO Box 57 in Pittsburgh in addition to using this number in the corporate slogan ("57 Varieties") and in the name of its steak sauce. I doubt it would have lasted since 1896 as Heinz 28 or Heinz 91 or even Heinz 37.
Note that you don't have to provide an explanation of a number you include in a business name. The Heinz company web site says only that the numbers "5" and "7" had a special significance for founder Henry John Heinz and his wife, not what that significance was. Likewise, the bottle of "Formula 3" shampoo that my hairdresser recently sold me says nothing about what the "3" means.
Just be mindful that certain numbers carry heavy baggage to members of some ethnic and religious groups. For instance, "four" is unlucky to many Chinese because in their language it's a homonym for death. And to Christians, the sequence "666" signifies the devil. "Thirteen" is shunned in many cultures for reasons unknown.
Be mindful also that for a local business, people don't know how to look up company names starting with numbers. If you heard the name "18 Candles" for a party products company, should you look it up in the telephone directory under "E" for "eighteen" or in the front of the book, before the A's? When the number comes after a regular word, as with Studio 54, you avoid this problem.
Finally, when it comes to web domains, most people hearing a company name with a number in it will assume it's written with the numeral rather than in words. They'd look up motel6.com rather than motelsix.com. Even so, you'd be smart to reserve both versions. Motel6.com indeed corresponds to the motel chain, but motelsix.com goes to a site for finding a cheap motel room. Likewise, the founder of fivethirtyeight.com, a political web site referring to the number of seats in the U.S. Congress, thought the written-out-words looked more elegant and neglected to reserve the domain 538.com.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more Articles written by Marcia Yudkin.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Is a Tag Line Absolutely Necessary Along With Your Company Name?
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
In looking through Entrepreneur Magazine's most recent Franchise 500 issue, I noticed - and cut out - a number of ads for franchises that struck me as exceptionally well named. So clear and meaningful were these company names that they instantly conveyed exactly what the company did in an appealing way.
If you saw the company name flash by on a van or embroidered on an employee jacket, you'd understand the business and maybe even want to chase down the van or person and learn more. From that standpoint alone, imagine the immense advantage such a well-named company has over competitors named, say, Rayne and McFlynn or Standard Specialists.
Normally a tag line - the little phrase that follows a company name on business cards, stationery and web site headers - helps to clarify what line of business the firm is in and how it differs from competitors, as well as to lend a dash of pizzazz. In most cases, a business name and tag line belong together like salt and ___, or like cup and ___. (I'll bet you couldn't help filling in those blanks with "pepper" and "saucer.")
Yet here are five companies whose advertisements caught my eye as being able to get by without a tag line. I give them high points. See whether or not you agree.
1)Relax the Back
This store sells ergonomic products that help prevent back problems, support the back and neck, and relieve pain. Although the ad had a tag line, "The best of everything for your back," neither that nor the silhouette-style logo of a reclining figure were needed to understand what this retail store sells.
2)Anytime Fitness
Again, you don't need any brainwork to guess that this company provides you with a place to work out any time of the day or night. As a member, you gain access to the club with a keycard valid 24/7. There wasn't a tag line on the ad, and the stick figure breaking into a run beside the company name added energy but wasn't needed for comprehension.
3)American Leak Detection
Here too there is no mistaking what this company does. The tag line, "The Original Leak Specialists," doesn't really add anything helpful.
4)Computer Troubleshooters
Another self-explanatory company name. The tag line "Technology Solved" adds some psychological satisfaction to the presentation, letting us know that they don't merely try to solve computer problems, they succeed.
5)Home Instead Senior Care
My favorite of the bunch. I'm not sure anyone needs the answer to the question "instead of what?" I didn't see a tag line for this company, either in the ad or on the web site.
So many factors go into choosing a company name that I'm not proposing all companies seek names like the five above. History, the type of business, the competitive landscape, domain availability and other circumstances figure into whether or not such names make sense and are attainable.
Still, when the stars align, a perfect name can get the message across on its own. That's good to know!
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
In looking through Entrepreneur Magazine's most recent Franchise 500 issue, I noticed - and cut out - a number of ads for franchises that struck me as exceptionally well named. So clear and meaningful were these company names that they instantly conveyed exactly what the company did in an appealing way.
If you saw the company name flash by on a van or embroidered on an employee jacket, you'd understand the business and maybe even want to chase down the van or person and learn more. From that standpoint alone, imagine the immense advantage such a well-named company has over competitors named, say, Rayne and McFlynn or Standard Specialists.
Normally a tag line - the little phrase that follows a company name on business cards, stationery and web site headers - helps to clarify what line of business the firm is in and how it differs from competitors, as well as to lend a dash of pizzazz. In most cases, a business name and tag line belong together like salt and ___, or like cup and ___. (I'll bet you couldn't help filling in those blanks with "pepper" and "saucer.")
Yet here are five companies whose advertisements caught my eye as being able to get by without a tag line. I give them high points. See whether or not you agree.
1)Relax the Back
This store sells ergonomic products that help prevent back problems, support the back and neck, and relieve pain. Although the ad had a tag line, "The best of everything for your back," neither that nor the silhouette-style logo of a reclining figure were needed to understand what this retail store sells.
2)Anytime Fitness
Again, you don't need any brainwork to guess that this company provides you with a place to work out any time of the day or night. As a member, you gain access to the club with a keycard valid 24/7. There wasn't a tag line on the ad, and the stick figure breaking into a run beside the company name added energy but wasn't needed for comprehension.
3)American Leak Detection
Here too there is no mistaking what this company does. The tag line, "The Original Leak Specialists," doesn't really add anything helpful.
4)Computer Troubleshooters
Another self-explanatory company name. The tag line "Technology Solved" adds some psychological satisfaction to the presentation, letting us know that they don't merely try to solve computer problems, they succeed.
5)Home Instead Senior Care
My favorite of the bunch. I'm not sure anyone needs the answer to the question "instead of what?" I didn't see a tag line for this company, either in the ad or on the web site.
So many factors go into choosing a company name that I'm not proposing all companies seek names like the five above. History, the type of business, the competitive landscape, domain availability and other circumstances figure into whether or not such names make sense and are attainable.
Still, when the stars align, a perfect name can get the message across on its own. That's good to know!
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
For a Better New Product Name or New Company Name, Create a Scorecard
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Imagine being asked to judge a martial arts competition while never having studied karate, tai chi, judo or the like. You might latch on to a favorite whose moves you admire only to learn from people in the know that this competitor's form was actually embarrassingly and even dangerously bad. Or you might feel completely frozen in your ignorance, unable to recognize a competitor whose power and style were clearly head and shoulders above the rest.
You'd do better with a list of judging criteria, such as "posture," "balance," "presence," "power," and so on. By knowing what you're looking for, you more easily see it when it's in front of you.
This analogy applies neatly to business naming, whether for companies or products. I've seen organizations pass over a strong, winning name in favor of a weaker one when they go on nothing other than their feelings. And I've seen companies struggle to finalize a perfect name because they can't feel confident that it truly fits the bill. They have no firm criteria with which to assess competing possibilities.
For brainstorming a list of names, you don't need guidelines on what the final name must be like. Indeed, it's often best to generate possible names wildly, profusely and without censoring, and only later to winnow them.
Before attempting to narrow down your list of candidates, create a list of criteria or a scorecard. To name a new sporting goods product, for instance, the criteria might include:
Must make sense at first hearing to both basketball and soccer players.
Should be easy to say out loud and relatively easy to spell.
Must convey that the product has something to do with safety.
Needs to be trademarkable and have a matching domain name available.
Should have a fun sound and positive connotation, without being corny.
Using such a list, you'd go through the name candidates and eliminate all the ones that didn't fit the criteria.
A company in the same line of business but with a different history, goals and corporate personality might generate quite a different list of criteria.
A scorecard would be a bit more complicated than a list of criteria. Not only would you write down the qualities your ideal name should have, you would also give each quality a numerical weight so that some items on the list have more impact in determining the suitability of a name than others. Using this system, a name might turn out to be acceptable even though it didn't meet every qualification if it met the most important points.
A freelance namer for my company, in looking at the memo I created for a product naming assignment, quoted to me this saying by Charles F. Kettering: "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." I agree wholeheartedly. The scorecard enables you to know whether you've come up with a winner, you need to keep at the task longer or you should really scrap the efforts so far and make a fresh start.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin
Imagine being asked to judge a martial arts competition while never having studied karate, tai chi, judo or the like. You might latch on to a favorite whose moves you admire only to learn from people in the know that this competitor's form was actually embarrassingly and even dangerously bad. Or you might feel completely frozen in your ignorance, unable to recognize a competitor whose power and style were clearly head and shoulders above the rest.
You'd do better with a list of judging criteria, such as "posture," "balance," "presence," "power," and so on. By knowing what you're looking for, you more easily see it when it's in front of you.
This analogy applies neatly to business naming, whether for companies or products. I've seen organizations pass over a strong, winning name in favor of a weaker one when they go on nothing other than their feelings. And I've seen companies struggle to finalize a perfect name because they can't feel confident that it truly fits the bill. They have no firm criteria with which to assess competing possibilities.
For brainstorming a list of names, you don't need guidelines on what the final name must be like. Indeed, it's often best to generate possible names wildly, profusely and without censoring, and only later to winnow them.
Before attempting to narrow down your list of candidates, create a list of criteria or a scorecard. To name a new sporting goods product, for instance, the criteria might include:
Using such a list, you'd go through the name candidates and eliminate all the ones that didn't fit the criteria.
A company in the same line of business but with a different history, goals and corporate personality might generate quite a different list of criteria.
A scorecard would be a bit more complicated than a list of criteria. Not only would you write down the qualities your ideal name should have, you would also give each quality a numerical weight so that some items on the list have more impact in determining the suitability of a name than others. Using this system, a name might turn out to be acceptable even though it didn't meet every qualification if it met the most important points.
A freelance namer for my company, in looking at the memo I created for a product naming assignment, quoted to me this saying by Charles F. Kettering: "A problem well stated is a problem half solved." I agree wholeheartedly. The scorecard enables you to know whether you've come up with a winner, you need to keep at the task longer or you should really scrap the efforts so far and make a fresh start.
About the Author:
Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, a company that brainstorms creative business names, product names and tag lines for clients. For a systematic process of coming up with an appealing and effective name or tag line, download a free copy of "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm
Read more of Marcia Yudkin's articles.
Making Money With Clickbank - Stop Getting Only Half The Story
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Brandon Weavers
Even if you've got the simplest job on the planet...
I don't care if you're washing dishes or flipping burgers.
Heck, even if you're a roadside fruit seller...
All of those jobs are much more complicated than making money from Clickbank.
I know that for a fact...
Let me tell you a story about how I found that out...
About 8 weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge into Clickbank.
I'd always heard that it was easy to get started, and I had some free time so I thought I'd finally give it a shot. I mean, I'd had some success online in the past, and I thought I was finally ready.
So I just sat down one day at my kitchen table, fired up the old laptop, and started searching the Clickbank Marketplace for products to promote...
I went through the same basic number crunching I always go through with new stuff - I mean real basic - I'm talking kindergarten math...
And after about an hour I'd found a few products with good commissions, so I decided to pull the trigger and start promoting them...
But I didn't take it seriously. I just grabbed a couple of free templates for landing pages, and fired up a couple of Adwords campaigns...
Boy, they were some ugly templates...and right then I figured I'd already blown it.
So I sat back and waited...I figured I'd put a couple hours in, may as well give it a fair shot...
It was incredible.
Everytime I hit the "refresh" button, I had another 2 or 3 sales...
I couldn't believe it...I'd heard Clickbank had some decent products ... but it's not like they were converting at 15-20% or anything...
So I tried again. Found new products. Put together new landing pages.
And guess what happened?
You got it - The money kept coming in. Floods of it. Clickbank was spraying cash like a broken fire hydrant...
So I tried again...new products, new landing page, new keywords, the whole 9 yards...
But the commissions just continued to mount up...
After a few days of watching my stats spin like a slot machine, I decided to look into things a little further.
So I began analysing my competition. The guys promoting the same products as me, the ones using the same keywords...
And man, was that an eye opener...
I found that most Clickbank affiliates are making huge mistakes...errors that drastically reduce the conversions of the vendor's site!
But That's Not Even The Worst Part...
The worst part is that almost every Clickbank affiliate is dropping the ball with their landing pages.
And they're doing it so badly that it's pushing their cost per click through the roof...
If you're using Adwords to promote Clickbank products, chances are you're paying at least double what you should be. Even right now, as you read this page.
Scary huh?
And that's what got me thinking - seeing all those guys wasting money while I massacre their ads and shut down their businesses made me realise something:
Almost everyone has the wrong idea about affiliate marketing. Think about it...
..Just about everyone gets their marketing skills from Internet Marketing (IM) products. I'll bet you've bought a few of them yourself, haven't you?
I know I have.
You've probably also realised that a lot of the time these products - especially ones put out by the so-called gurus - don't quite give you the whole story.
Sure, they'll give you some hints and a rough framework. But after that, you're on your own.
The training wheels come off, and suddenly your "business" sucks money out of your wallet like an industrial vacuum cleaner.
And man, that hurts. You'll probably need to take on a day job just to finance the business!
Really, when you think about it, everyone learning from the same gurus is the main problem.
Learn more at my website shown below...
About the Author:
Written by: Brandon Weavers. Wanna know more? Check out: http://www.ClickBankMoneyMaking.com/
Read more of Brandon Weavers's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Brandon Weavers
Even if you've got the simplest job on the planet...
I don't care if you're washing dishes or flipping burgers.
Heck, even if you're a roadside fruit seller...
All of those jobs are much more complicated than making money from Clickbank.
I know that for a fact...
Let me tell you a story about how I found that out...
About 8 weeks ago, I decided to take the plunge into Clickbank.
I'd always heard that it was easy to get started, and I had some free time so I thought I'd finally give it a shot. I mean, I'd had some success online in the past, and I thought I was finally ready.
So I just sat down one day at my kitchen table, fired up the old laptop, and started searching the Clickbank Marketplace for products to promote...
I went through the same basic number crunching I always go through with new stuff - I mean real basic - I'm talking kindergarten math...
And after about an hour I'd found a few products with good commissions, so I decided to pull the trigger and start promoting them...
But I didn't take it seriously. I just grabbed a couple of free templates for landing pages, and fired up a couple of Adwords campaigns...
Boy, they were some ugly templates...and right then I figured I'd already blown it.
So I sat back and waited...I figured I'd put a couple hours in, may as well give it a fair shot...
It was incredible.
Everytime I hit the "refresh" button, I had another 2 or 3 sales...
I couldn't believe it...I'd heard Clickbank had some decent products ... but it's not like they were converting at 15-20% or anything...
So I tried again. Found new products. Put together new landing pages.
And guess what happened?
You got it - The money kept coming in. Floods of it. Clickbank was spraying cash like a broken fire hydrant...
So I tried again...new products, new landing page, new keywords, the whole 9 yards...
But the commissions just continued to mount up...
After a few days of watching my stats spin like a slot machine, I decided to look into things a little further.
So I began analysing my competition. The guys promoting the same products as me, the ones using the same keywords...
And man, was that an eye opener...
I found that most Clickbank affiliates are making huge mistakes...errors that drastically reduce the conversions of the vendor's site!
But That's Not Even The Worst Part...
The worst part is that almost every Clickbank affiliate is dropping the ball with their landing pages.
And they're doing it so badly that it's pushing their cost per click through the roof...
If you're using Adwords to promote Clickbank products, chances are you're paying at least double what you should be. Even right now, as you read this page.
Scary huh?
And that's what got me thinking - seeing all those guys wasting money while I massacre their ads and shut down their businesses made me realise something:
Almost everyone has the wrong idea about affiliate marketing. Think about it...
..Just about everyone gets their marketing skills from Internet Marketing (IM) products. I'll bet you've bought a few of them yourself, haven't you?
I know I have.
You've probably also realised that a lot of the time these products - especially ones put out by the so-called gurus - don't quite give you the whole story.
Sure, they'll give you some hints and a rough framework. But after that, you're on your own.
The training wheels come off, and suddenly your "business" sucks money out of your wallet like an industrial vacuum cleaner.
And man, that hurts. You'll probably need to take on a day job just to finance the business!
Really, when you think about it, everyone learning from the same gurus is the main problem.
Learn more at my website shown below...
About the Author:
Written by: Brandon Weavers. Wanna know more? Check out: http://www.ClickBankMoneyMaking.com/
Read more of Brandon Weavers's articles.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Online Fax - Five Super Reasons To Fax Online
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins
Internet or Online fax has become extremely popular in the last four or five years. Countless individuals have suddenly discovered this new way of faxing and have truly embraced it. Over the same time frame, many businesses, both big and small, are switching over to this new faxing technology.
But what exactly is online faxing and why has it become so popular so quickly?
Simply put, Internet fax is using your email system and the web to send and receive all your faxes. First, you have to sign-up to an online fax service provider which acts as an intermediary to handle all your faxing. You are given your own local or Toll-Free fax number and your faxes are sent as email attachments, usually in TIFF or PDF format.
You can send your faxes in several different ways, you can logon to your fax service account (interface) where your faxes are stored and send your faxes from there. Some fax services have a desktop application for faxing or you can use your own email program. Plus you can still use a traditional fax machine to send and/or receive your faxes.
More and more individuals are dishing the old fax machine in favor of their computer and the Internet. Many faxes are now simply sent and received by computers via the web - bringing this common business task into the modern age.
Here are five super reasons why online faxing has become so popular:
1. Convenience
Online fax is very convenient to use because it is paperless and inkless. Because there are no more paper jams or messy inks to fool around with - it is quick and fast. Creating your faxes can also be more expedient because you can prepare them on your computer and then quickly send them without bothering with the old traditional fax machine.
2. Accessibility
Your faxes are accessible anywhere, anytime. Since it is web based, your faxes are available wherever you have Internet access and these days that's just about everywhere. Plus, your old faxes can be stored online or on your computer, so you can access them at any time, whether it is yesterday's fax or one from last month.
3. Security
Internet faxing is more secure than the traditional way of faxing. Your faxes can be sent encrypted over the web and only you can access them. Unlike the old fax machine, where anyone can read your faxes, online faxing does offer a great deal more privacy.
4. Easy to Use
Sending a fax is as easy as sending an email. You simply attach your fax as a TIFF or PDF file. Viewing your faxes is as easy as reading any PDF file on your computer. Plus, all your old faxes can be stored and ready for your use at any time.
5. Cost-Effective
Perhaps, one of the major reasons online faxing has become so popular, is because of the low price. Internet faxing is much cheaper than the old way of faxing - you don't need all that paper, inks and toners which you have to constantly keep in stock with a regular office machine. Plus, you don't need an extra phone line since all your transactions take place over the Internet. Online fax services are relatively inexpensive, monthly plans run for around $4 to $15 a month, depending on your faxing requirements. If your faxing is very minimum, you can get a simple plan for around $20 a year.
Some of the major online fax providers are: eFax(r), MyFax, RingCentral, TrustFax, Faxage, MetroFax, RapidFax, Send2Fax... among others. Since this is an on-going business expense, it pays to do your homework now before you sign-up so that you get the right service to perfectly match your needs. It can result in major savings, especially over the long haul.
Regardless of which service or plan you choose, perhaps another underlying reason why Internet fax has become so popular has to do with competitiveness. If your business or company depends on faxing to bring in sales, to deliver orders, to attract new clients, or just for quick business communication; then using a faxing system that's available 24/7, no matter where you're located does make any business more competitive than some one not using this service. In this present business climate and in our "dog-eat-dog" commercial environment; you do need every advantage you can muster. Can you or your company afford NOT to use online fax, that is the real question you have to ask?
It's your call!
About the Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services use this handy online Comparison Guide to get your own: online fax service. Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: internet fax services.
Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Read more of Titus Hoskins's articles.
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins
Internet or Online fax has become extremely popular in the last four or five years. Countless individuals have suddenly discovered this new way of faxing and have truly embraced it. Over the same time frame, many businesses, both big and small, are switching over to this new faxing technology.
But what exactly is online faxing and why has it become so popular so quickly?
Simply put, Internet fax is using your email system and the web to send and receive all your faxes. First, you have to sign-up to an online fax service provider which acts as an intermediary to handle all your faxing. You are given your own local or Toll-Free fax number and your faxes are sent as email attachments, usually in TIFF or PDF format.
You can send your faxes in several different ways, you can logon to your fax service account (interface) where your faxes are stored and send your faxes from there. Some fax services have a desktop application for faxing or you can use your own email program. Plus you can still use a traditional fax machine to send and/or receive your faxes.
More and more individuals are dishing the old fax machine in favor of their computer and the Internet. Many faxes are now simply sent and received by computers via the web - bringing this common business task into the modern age.
Here are five super reasons why online faxing has become so popular:
1. Convenience
Online fax is very convenient to use because it is paperless and inkless. Because there are no more paper jams or messy inks to fool around with - it is quick and fast. Creating your faxes can also be more expedient because you can prepare them on your computer and then quickly send them without bothering with the old traditional fax machine.
2. Accessibility
Your faxes are accessible anywhere, anytime. Since it is web based, your faxes are available wherever you have Internet access and these days that's just about everywhere. Plus, your old faxes can be stored online or on your computer, so you can access them at any time, whether it is yesterday's fax or one from last month.
3. Security
Internet faxing is more secure than the traditional way of faxing. Your faxes can be sent encrypted over the web and only you can access them. Unlike the old fax machine, where anyone can read your faxes, online faxing does offer a great deal more privacy.
4. Easy to Use
Sending a fax is as easy as sending an email. You simply attach your fax as a TIFF or PDF file. Viewing your faxes is as easy as reading any PDF file on your computer. Plus, all your old faxes can be stored and ready for your use at any time.
5. Cost-Effective
Perhaps, one of the major reasons online faxing has become so popular, is because of the low price. Internet faxing is much cheaper than the old way of faxing - you don't need all that paper, inks and toners which you have to constantly keep in stock with a regular office machine. Plus, you don't need an extra phone line since all your transactions take place over the Internet. Online fax services are relatively inexpensive, monthly plans run for around $4 to $15 a month, depending on your faxing requirements. If your faxing is very minimum, you can get a simple plan for around $20 a year.
Some of the major online fax providers are: eFax(r), MyFax, RingCentral, TrustFax, Faxage, MetroFax, RapidFax, Send2Fax... among others. Since this is an on-going business expense, it pays to do your homework now before you sign-up so that you get the right service to perfectly match your needs. It can result in major savings, especially over the long haul.
Regardless of which service or plan you choose, perhaps another underlying reason why Internet fax has become so popular has to do with competitiveness. If your business or company depends on faxing to bring in sales, to deliver orders, to attract new clients, or just for quick business communication; then using a faxing system that's available 24/7, no matter where you're located does make any business more competitive than some one not using this service. In this present business climate and in our "dog-eat-dog" commercial environment; you do need every advantage you can muster. Can you or your company afford NOT to use online fax, that is the real question you have to ask?
It's your call!
About the Author:
For more information on Internet Fax Services use this handy online Comparison Guide to get your own: online fax service. Or if you want more detailed information on Internet Faxing try here: internet fax services.
Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Read more of Titus Hoskins's articles.
All The Good Domains Have Disappeared! Find Me A Good Expire Domain Name!
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu
It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy a good expired domain these days, because almost all words in a Standard English dictionary have been used to register domain names! Generic and single, two or three letter names are no longer available, unless you buy them at a hefty price. Most of the names available in an expired domain portfolio are just good enough to get you very small income. The secret key to expired domain business is buying one that possesses a flood of incoming links and traffic. If you find a domain name that has this kind of traffic, you can just go ahead and buy it depending on the price bracket.
Look at some of the following domain names that saw astronomical sums quoted by their owners!
Business.com – $7.5 millions
Altavista.com – $3.3 millions
Loans.com – $3 millions
Wallstreet.com – $1.03 millions
Most of these domains are premium. Because they are either single dictionary, word or they represent immense business value to the domain. Such names are very difficult to purchase and most of them may never see the open market in their lifetime. Thousands of them still exist in private auction sales, where an ordinary domain trader will find it very difficult to participate in the bidding process.
If other traders already purchase all the great domain names, what is left for you? How do you buy expired domain names that you can sell in the market? Can you buy domain names with at least some commercial value? It is as difficult as finding a small pin in a big pile of grass! However, there are still hopes left for you, because you can still buy some good names that you can sell for decent profits. Just remember that domain-trading business is a sum game, where you will be selling a number of expired domain names for small profits. Also, note that selling just one or two major expired domain names is not actually a lucrative proposition. You may end up in chasing for these names without any productive results and spend considerable amount of time and energy.
Good domains are those nuggets or gold that can be your invaluable assets for life! On the other hand, you can never keep those nuggets of gold forever, because they will be useless to keep with you when you speak in terms of commercial viability. Common sense dictates that you must sell them for decent profits as soon as possible. Only exception here is that you may keep those domain names that are organic and generic with one, two or three words. Such domain names are the real gems that you can preserve for selling at astronomical sums.
Before you want to buy expired domain names, you may wish to learn the techniques of detecting good expired domain names from a big pool of expired domain names. You can use a number of sophisticated and efficient tools and methods that have the ability to seek and detect excellent domain names.
About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com/ which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets. -- This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website as long as the resource box remain intact.
Read more Articles written by John Khu.
Copyright © 2009 John Khu
It is becoming increasingly difficult to buy a good expired domain these days, because almost all words in a Standard English dictionary have been used to register domain names! Generic and single, two or three letter names are no longer available, unless you buy them at a hefty price. Most of the names available in an expired domain portfolio are just good enough to get you very small income. The secret key to expired domain business is buying one that possesses a flood of incoming links and traffic. If you find a domain name that has this kind of traffic, you can just go ahead and buy it depending on the price bracket.
Look at some of the following domain names that saw astronomical sums quoted by their owners!
Most of these domains are premium. Because they are either single dictionary, word or they represent immense business value to the domain. Such names are very difficult to purchase and most of them may never see the open market in their lifetime. Thousands of them still exist in private auction sales, where an ordinary domain trader will find it very difficult to participate in the bidding process.
If other traders already purchase all the great domain names, what is left for you? How do you buy expired domain names that you can sell in the market? Can you buy domain names with at least some commercial value? It is as difficult as finding a small pin in a big pile of grass! However, there are still hopes left for you, because you can still buy some good names that you can sell for decent profits. Just remember that domain-trading business is a sum game, where you will be selling a number of expired domain names for small profits. Also, note that selling just one or two major expired domain names is not actually a lucrative proposition. You may end up in chasing for these names without any productive results and spend considerable amount of time and energy.
Good domains are those nuggets or gold that can be your invaluable assets for life! On the other hand, you can never keep those nuggets of gold forever, because they will be useless to keep with you when you speak in terms of commercial viability. Common sense dictates that you must sell them for decent profits as soon as possible. Only exception here is that you may keep those domain names that are organic and generic with one, two or three words. Such domain names are the real gems that you can preserve for selling at astronomical sums.
Before you want to buy expired domain names, you may wish to learn the techniques of detecting good expired domain names from a big pool of expired domain names. You can use a number of sophisticated and efficient tools and methods that have the ability to seek and detect excellent domain names.
About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com/ which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets. -- This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any e-zine, newsletter, blog or website as long as the resource box remain intact.
Read more Articles written by John Khu.
Internet Telephone Calls: VoIP Basics
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Nermine Shaker
You've seen the commercials and read the news advertisements for telephone service using your computer: very cheap monthly fees; make all the calls you want; keep your telephone number forever; and voice quality as good as a landline. You've heard the claims and you've heard the term "VoIP." Here's the scoop.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it does what the name suggests - it transmits voice data using IP packets over the Internet. It is also called Internet Telephony. It's easier to understand VoIP if you know a little about our telephone system - PSTN (the Public Switched Telephone Network) and a little about the Internet.
Your traditional landline transmits calls through copper or fiber cables in the ground or on telephone poles with a cable connected to your home. When someone makes a call, one continuous route is made between the two phones and the information flows continuously in this loop. As you know from paying your bills, the longer the route, the more expensive the call.
VoIP works a little differently. It works using the Internet, which is a packet-based network. Packet-based just means that instead of sending one continuous string of information, it sends out smaller packets of information.
With VoIP, your voice is converted into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. There are three ways that this can be done: 1) using a VoIP telephone; 2) using a computer with speakers and a microphone; or 3) using a regular telephone with a VoIP adaptor. Because the IP packets are tiny by comparison, unlike downloading files, this all happens in real time, just like your regular phone.
Advantages of VoIP
Because VoIP provides services through the Internet, once you have the equipment in place there are a number of benefits.
The main reason for VoIP's popularity is its cost advantage. With regular phone service, you usually pay a monthly flat fee for your local calls and a per-minute charge for long distance calls. Internet connections are charged using a monthly flat fee only. Because VoIP doesn't charge a per-minute fee for long distance, you wouldn't incur those charges. If you make long distance calls, VoIP most certainly will save you a lot of money. If you used the Internet for both your data traffic and voice calls, you could get rid of one monthly payment.
The other cost advantage is that since it uses a broadband Internet connection, it efficiently uses the existing infrastructure you already use with your computer. There is only minimal software and hardware to buy.
Disadvantages to VoIP
There are a few disadvantages with VoIP. A major one is QoS or Quality of Service. Since there are packets carrying your voice information instead of a continuous flow of information, there could be delay problems, weird sounds, echoes and noise. VoIP quality depends on many factors - your broadband connection, your hardware, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the destination of your call, just to name a few.
While VoIP has made substantial progress over the past 5 years in terms of Quality of Service, it still has a way to go.
Another disadvantage is that in the event of a power failure, you will lose the ability to make and receive calls unless you have a backup battery for your computer. With traditional phone service, the cables are directly linked to the phone lines and the phone company provides power independently of your home or company's electrical power system. Thus you normally do not lose a phone signal due to loss of power with traditional service.
Another criticism of VoIP service is its historical problems with 911 emergency services. With traditional phone service, the 911 system can identify the location and number of the call because it is connected and routed locally. With VoIP, you are calling through the Internet and the actual signal may travel substantial distances before being routed to a local 911-service center. Thus geographically, the 911 system might have trouble identifying your location. Most VoIP services today include what is known as enhanced 911 service. This is a process by which the signal traveling through the Internet carries with it a physical address for the calling location. At present VoIP equipment providers may charge an additional fee for this service.
Businesses that may want to use VoIP to save money need to consider any security issues that exist. This is because with VoIP, information is sent through the Internet. Just as with any computer connection, it is possible that a hacker can intercept the information being transmitted. It is important to investigate the VoIP equipment provider's network to determine how they route data, what firewalls or other protections are afforded for security purposes.
If you are ready to look into VoIP for your phone or fax service, you can visit electronics retailers, large discount retailers and search online for information. There are a variety of VoIP providers at present. The equipment that is used, the cost of the equipment, the cost of accessories, and the cost of any enhanced services can and should be compared.
You should purchase the system and use the provider that you feel would work best for your needs in terms of how many phones you want to connect to the system, what type of security you require and the cost of purchasing the equipment and the service.
You may want to use a telecom management service for a cost analysis to see if VoIP will be a good fit for your company.
VoIP is still a new technology and hopefully there will be more and more improvements and innovations in the coming years.
About the Author:
With more than twenty-five years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects, Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a Telecommunications Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com
Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a Telecoms Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com
Read more Articles written by Nermine Shaker.
Copyright © 2009 Nermine Shaker
You've seen the commercials and read the news advertisements for telephone service using your computer: very cheap monthly fees; make all the calls you want; keep your telephone number forever; and voice quality as good as a landline. You've heard the claims and you've heard the term "VoIP." Here's the scoop.
VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol and it does what the name suggests - it transmits voice data using IP packets over the Internet. It is also called Internet Telephony. It's easier to understand VoIP if you know a little about our telephone system - PSTN (the Public Switched Telephone Network) and a little about the Internet.
Your traditional landline transmits calls through copper or fiber cables in the ground or on telephone poles with a cable connected to your home. When someone makes a call, one continuous route is made between the two phones and the information flows continuously in this loop. As you know from paying your bills, the longer the route, the more expensive the call.
VoIP works a little differently. It works using the Internet, which is a packet-based network. Packet-based just means that instead of sending one continuous string of information, it sends out smaller packets of information.
With VoIP, your voice is converted into a digital signal that travels over the Internet. There are three ways that this can be done: 1) using a VoIP telephone; 2) using a computer with speakers and a microphone; or 3) using a regular telephone with a VoIP adaptor. Because the IP packets are tiny by comparison, unlike downloading files, this all happens in real time, just like your regular phone.
Advantages of VoIP
Because VoIP provides services through the Internet, once you have the equipment in place there are a number of benefits.
The main reason for VoIP's popularity is its cost advantage. With regular phone service, you usually pay a monthly flat fee for your local calls and a per-minute charge for long distance calls. Internet connections are charged using a monthly flat fee only. Because VoIP doesn't charge a per-minute fee for long distance, you wouldn't incur those charges. If you make long distance calls, VoIP most certainly will save you a lot of money. If you used the Internet for both your data traffic and voice calls, you could get rid of one monthly payment.
The other cost advantage is that since it uses a broadband Internet connection, it efficiently uses the existing infrastructure you already use with your computer. There is only minimal software and hardware to buy.
Disadvantages to VoIP
There are a few disadvantages with VoIP. A major one is QoS or Quality of Service. Since there are packets carrying your voice information instead of a continuous flow of information, there could be delay problems, weird sounds, echoes and noise. VoIP quality depends on many factors - your broadband connection, your hardware, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and the destination of your call, just to name a few.
While VoIP has made substantial progress over the past 5 years in terms of Quality of Service, it still has a way to go.
Another disadvantage is that in the event of a power failure, you will lose the ability to make and receive calls unless you have a backup battery for your computer. With traditional phone service, the cables are directly linked to the phone lines and the phone company provides power independently of your home or company's electrical power system. Thus you normally do not lose a phone signal due to loss of power with traditional service.
Another criticism of VoIP service is its historical problems with 911 emergency services. With traditional phone service, the 911 system can identify the location and number of the call because it is connected and routed locally. With VoIP, you are calling through the Internet and the actual signal may travel substantial distances before being routed to a local 911-service center. Thus geographically, the 911 system might have trouble identifying your location. Most VoIP services today include what is known as enhanced 911 service. This is a process by which the signal traveling through the Internet carries with it a physical address for the calling location. At present VoIP equipment providers may charge an additional fee for this service.
Businesses that may want to use VoIP to save money need to consider any security issues that exist. This is because with VoIP, information is sent through the Internet. Just as with any computer connection, it is possible that a hacker can intercept the information being transmitted. It is important to investigate the VoIP equipment provider's network to determine how they route data, what firewalls or other protections are afforded for security purposes.
If you are ready to look into VoIP for your phone or fax service, you can visit electronics retailers, large discount retailers and search online for information. There are a variety of VoIP providers at present. The equipment that is used, the cost of the equipment, the cost of accessories, and the cost of any enhanced services can and should be compared.
You should purchase the system and use the provider that you feel would work best for your needs in terms of how many phones you want to connect to the system, what type of security you require and the cost of purchasing the equipment and the service.
You may want to use a telecom management service for a cost analysis to see if VoIP will be a good fit for your company.
VoIP is still a new technology and hopefully there will be more and more improvements and innovations in the coming years.
About the Author:
With more than twenty-five years of experience in planning, implementing, managing and consulting on telecommunications projects, Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at The Sygnal Group, a Telecommunications Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com
Nermine Shaker has generated tens of millions of dollars worth of savings for her clients. She is a Partner at THE SYGNAL GROUP, a Telecoms Management Company that offers unbiased reporting, analysis and implementation of telecom strategies to businesses of all sizes. http://www.SygnalGroup.com
Read more Articles written by Nermine Shaker.
Supercharge Your Internet Marketing Using the Improved Google Keyword Tool
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall
As an Internet Marketing Consultant, I know that whether using pay-per-click (PPC) or organic search engine optimization (SEO), the process begins with our research keyword.
This is true whether you're doing your work yourself or working with an SEO Consultant.
The search engine ranking for our chosen keywords consumes us, causing ecstasy when we succeed and sleepless nights when we fail.
But increased sales happen only IF:
the keywords bring enough traffic to meet our sales goals;
the competition in SEO is obtainable (and)
the keywords will actually convert -- they will actually result in increased sales.
Otherwise, it's really wasted time.
And now that Google shows an estimated number of average monthly impressions (instead of just the old green bar), the Google tool can really help with your keyword research.
And it's Free!
If you don't have an AdWords account, you can access the tool independently (just Google: Google Keyword Research Tool).
Grabbing the Best Keywords for your Website Using Google's Keyword Research Tool
Step 1 -- Put your keyword phrase or root keyword into the tool. I suggest one phrase at a time, 1-4 words in length. Click: Get Keyword ideas and wait for the results.
Another option is to click Website Content and let Google pull suggestions from your website content.
Step 2 -- IMPORTANT, change the Match Type to Phrase, which adds quotes to the keyword results. This makes the tool's impressions more closely match organic search, ignoring the "loosey-goosey" broad match phrases for AdWords.
And under the Show/Hide Columns make sure your settings display Approx Avg Search Volume. (If you're marketing a seasonal product or service you might change to a different setting.)
Step 3 -- Analyze the results. What we're all trying to find is the low hanging fruit: the best balance of traffic volume, ease to perform SEO and traffic that will likely convert.
I suggest targeting phrases that are at least 5,000 to 10,000 monthly average impressions. Conversely, keyword phrases with very high monthly impressions may prove too competitive in organic search. Find the best balance for your organic optimization skills and for your industry.
If your sales goals require 200,000 monthly organic impressions and you choose keyword search phrases with between 5,000 and 10,000 monthly impressions each, then you'll need between 20 to 40 keyword phrases to deliver you that 200,000 monthly impressions.
Of course, as you discover opportune phrases that are offer greater monthly impressions and that you're comfortable optimizing for, that will lower the number of phrases needed to reach your monthly goal.
Make your keyword list from this criteria. I like to copy and paste into my email program.
And to determine the number of monthly impressions needed, you'll need:
(1) good organic listing click-through rate data -- what percentage of searchers will click on your listing? (and)
(2) conversion rate data either from your own website or for your industry -- what percentage of your site visitors will BUY?
You will find an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant | Coach who specializes in Keyword Research can help you formulate a keyword list that will deliver BOTH the traffic and sales conversions that you need.
Step 4 -- Evaluate the competing number of pages in organic search from Google. Is this a number you're comfortable optimizing for?
While you're on the SERPs looking over the search results, look at the AdWords ads and the organic results.
Does your service or product sound like it belongs on this page, for this keyword? Or, does it sound out of place?
And for a search phrase to be good, normally you'll want to see several AdWords ads appearing for the search phrase.
Make your list from this criteria, setting aside any keyword phrases from the previous step (at least for right now) where the competition is too steep. Phrases that look good but with too much competition, save for the future.
This brings up a good point: Keep good notes! Otherwise, you'll come back for the next round of research and have to re-do things. :-(
Step 5 -- Evaluate the phrases still on your list for their likely commercial intention using the Microsoft Online Commercial Intention Tool (Google it).
If you're using an SEO Consultant, make sure they use this tool and evaluate commercial intent for the keywords you are considering.
Now, this is a Microsoft tool...I use it and am glad for the data, but I don't make decisions about any keyword phrase off data from just one tool or from just one step in my process.
Having said that, I wouldn't select 15 phrases for optimization where each of them shows there's not commercial intent.
Keep your list of phrases that still meet your criteria and move onto the next step.
Step 6 -- Evaluate your remaining list in Google's Traffic Estimator. What I look for is the relationship of average monthly impressions to estimated daily click throughs in AdWords. Do they make sense and suggest commercial intention?
If one phrase has twice the monthly impressions, but only 1/2 the daily AdWords clicks, something may be wrong. You may want to look closer.
The goal isn't just traffic, it's traffic that converts -- buys, sign up to your email list, calls or emails your company and becomes a sales lead, etc.
When you complete these steps, you should have whittled your initial keyword list down to the "lowest hanging fruit", the most opportune phrases (easiest to rank well in) COMBINED with the largest amount of quality traffic, COMBINED with traffic that should convert.
The Windows Into Your Website
Keywords are the windows into your website. If you target the wrong ones for your business, you won't have the traffic, Internet sales or sales leads that you need.
If you're using an SEO Consultant to perform your work, make sure they do it the correct way -- not the lazy way -- and oversee their work. Your site, your responsibility!
If you're doing d-i-y Keyword Research, be really educated about what you're doing OR your d-i-y effort could cost you more than hiring a qualified company.
NOTE: Another option available from some Internet Marketing Consultants today for those watching their budget is to offering Coaching services. This is sort of a hybrid between the retail price, full-service option and the go-it-alone, time consuming do-it-yourself option.
Achieving the search engine ranking for your chosen keywords doesn't have to be difficult or expensive if you follow my formula. And if performed correctly, the end results will be keywords that work for your business.
About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Internet Marketing Consultant and an SEO Consultant offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit http://strategicwebmarketing.net/ today!
Read more Articles written by Paul Marshall.
Copyright © 2009 Paul Marshall
As an Internet Marketing Consultant, I know that whether using pay-per-click (PPC) or organic search engine optimization (SEO), the process begins with our research keyword.
This is true whether you're doing your work yourself or working with an SEO Consultant.
The search engine ranking for our chosen keywords consumes us, causing ecstasy when we succeed and sleepless nights when we fail.
But increased sales happen only IF:
Otherwise, it's really wasted time.
And now that Google shows an estimated number of average monthly impressions (instead of just the old green bar), the Google tool can really help with your keyword research.
And it's Free!
If you don't have an AdWords account, you can access the tool independently (just Google: Google Keyword Research Tool).
Grabbing the Best Keywords for your Website Using Google's Keyword Research Tool
Step 1 -- Put your keyword phrase or root keyword into the tool. I suggest one phrase at a time, 1-4 words in length. Click: Get Keyword ideas and wait for the results.
Another option is to click Website Content and let Google pull suggestions from your website content.
Step 2 -- IMPORTANT, change the Match Type to Phrase, which adds quotes to the keyword results. This makes the tool's impressions more closely match organic search, ignoring the "loosey-goosey" broad match phrases for AdWords.
And under the Show/Hide Columns make sure your settings display Approx Avg Search Volume. (If you're marketing a seasonal product or service you might change to a different setting.)
Step 3 -- Analyze the results. What we're all trying to find is the low hanging fruit: the best balance of traffic volume, ease to perform SEO and traffic that will likely convert.
I suggest targeting phrases that are at least 5,000 to 10,000 monthly average impressions. Conversely, keyword phrases with very high monthly impressions may prove too competitive in organic search. Find the best balance for your organic optimization skills and for your industry.
If your sales goals require 200,000 monthly organic impressions and you choose keyword search phrases with between 5,000 and 10,000 monthly impressions each, then you'll need between 20 to 40 keyword phrases to deliver you that 200,000 monthly impressions.
Of course, as you discover opportune phrases that are offer greater monthly impressions and that you're comfortable optimizing for, that will lower the number of phrases needed to reach your monthly goal.
Make your keyword list from this criteria. I like to copy and paste into my email program.
And to determine the number of monthly impressions needed, you'll need:
(1) good organic listing click-through rate data -- what percentage of searchers will click on your listing? (and)
(2) conversion rate data either from your own website or for your industry -- what percentage of your site visitors will BUY?
You will find an experienced Internet Marketing Consultant | Coach who specializes in Keyword Research can help you formulate a keyword list that will deliver BOTH the traffic and sales conversions that you need.
Step 4 -- Evaluate the competing number of pages in organic search from Google. Is this a number you're comfortable optimizing for?
While you're on the SERPs looking over the search results, look at the AdWords ads and the organic results.
Does your service or product sound like it belongs on this page, for this keyword? Or, does it sound out of place?
And for a search phrase to be good, normally you'll want to see several AdWords ads appearing for the search phrase.
Make your list from this criteria, setting aside any keyword phrases from the previous step (at least for right now) where the competition is too steep. Phrases that look good but with too much competition, save for the future.
This brings up a good point: Keep good notes! Otherwise, you'll come back for the next round of research and have to re-do things. :-(
Step 5 -- Evaluate the phrases still on your list for their likely commercial intention using the Microsoft Online Commercial Intention Tool (Google it).
If you're using an SEO Consultant, make sure they use this tool and evaluate commercial intent for the keywords you are considering.
Now, this is a Microsoft tool...I use it and am glad for the data, but I don't make decisions about any keyword phrase off data from just one tool or from just one step in my process.
Having said that, I wouldn't select 15 phrases for optimization where each of them shows there's not commercial intent.
Keep your list of phrases that still meet your criteria and move onto the next step.
Step 6 -- Evaluate your remaining list in Google's Traffic Estimator. What I look for is the relationship of average monthly impressions to estimated daily click throughs in AdWords. Do they make sense and suggest commercial intention?
If one phrase has twice the monthly impressions, but only 1/2 the daily AdWords clicks, something may be wrong. You may want to look closer.
The goal isn't just traffic, it's traffic that converts -- buys, sign up to your email list, calls or emails your company and becomes a sales lead, etc.
When you complete these steps, you should have whittled your initial keyword list down to the "lowest hanging fruit", the most opportune phrases (easiest to rank well in) COMBINED with the largest amount of quality traffic, COMBINED with traffic that should convert.
The Windows Into Your Website
Keywords are the windows into your website. If you target the wrong ones for your business, you won't have the traffic, Internet sales or sales leads that you need.
If you're using an SEO Consultant to perform your work, make sure they do it the correct way -- not the lazy way -- and oversee their work. Your site, your responsibility!
If you're doing d-i-y Keyword Research, be really educated about what you're doing OR your d-i-y effort could cost you more than hiring a qualified company.
NOTE: Another option available from some Internet Marketing Consultants today for those watching their budget is to offering Coaching services. This is sort of a hybrid between the retail price, full-service option and the go-it-alone, time consuming do-it-yourself option.
Achieving the search engine ranking for your chosen keywords doesn't have to be difficult or expensive if you follow my formula. And if performed correctly, the end results will be keywords that work for your business.
About the Author:
Marketing online since 2004, Paul Marshall can help you market on a budget. He's an Internet Marketing Consultant and an SEO Consultant offering affordable marketing services (and d-i-y Coaching). Receive your Free Introductory Consultation, just visit http://strategicwebmarketing.net/ today!
Read more Articles written by Paul Marshall.
Monday, July 6, 2009
How to Recognize a Bad SEO Company
Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.
Some unethical SEO firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at SEO - either to optimize it on your own or if you are looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Get Thousands Of Links To Your Site.
It' is not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you' will become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Guarantee A High Ranking On Google.
No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies offer a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, offer you other services instead, start to become unreachable or disappear.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Send "Spammy" Emails.
These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not listed in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Are Secretive Or Don't Clearly Explain What They Are Going To Do.
Most reputable SEO firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the SEO firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Submit Your Site To Thousands Of Top Search Engines And Directories.
Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submit your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free For All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Can Optimize And Promote Your Site For A Low, Low Monthly Fee.
Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an SEO expert. These would include conditions when you would require SEO management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.
Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submitting of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.
Choose Your SEO Company And Services Carefully.
Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.
There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/
Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about getting potential customers to visit your website. It is also about building a quality website full of great content. It uses keywords appropriately and gets links "naturally" because people love what you have on your site. SEO companies can provide very useful services including keyword research, site review, providing technical advice on your website development and also management of online business marketing campaigns. They can also help with content development, article marketing and article distribution. Although it's not brain surgery, it is hard to do and usually requires a lot of thought and real work.
Some unethical SEO firms attempt to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. These practices could get your website ranked lower or even banned. When looking at SEO - either to optimize it on your own or if you are looking to hire a company, here are some things to take into account.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Get Thousands Of Links To Your Site.
It' is not the number of sites that make the difference - it's the quality of the sites. When firms promise huge numbers of links, or say that you' will become part of their "network of sites", it usually means a link farm is involved. A link farm is any group of websites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group. Search engines don't like this and it can lead to penalties. Instead, practice reciprocal linking with legitimate and related websites for better search engine ranking.
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Guarantee A High Ranking On Google.
No one can guarantee a high ranking on Google. Some SEO companies offer a guarantee on their services. This is fine. What's not fine is guaranteeing high ranking in an incredibly short period of time. When these unrealistic results fail to happen, the company will balk at giving a refund, offer you other services instead, start to become unreachable or disappear.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Send "Spammy" Emails.
These emails are unsolicited and usually begin with "We've noticed that you are not listed in some search engines..." You should be searching for a high-ranking SEO company; they will not be searching for you. Spam means scam. You don't buy your medications from spammers so why buy SEO services from them?
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Are Secretive Or Don't Clearly Explain What They Are Going To Do.
Most reputable SEO firms are upfront with their clients and like to share their knowledge. They are confident that even if their clients understand their process, they won't leave them. If the SEO firm claims it's too complicated for you to understand, or if they say they have trade secrets and proprietary technology, it's a sign that they may not be ethical in dealing with your website.
Be Wary Of SEO Firms That Say They Will Submit Your Site To Thousands Of Top Search Engines And Directories.
Besides the small fact that there aren't that many search engines, consider that the guidelines of the search engines themselves tell you that it doesn't do any good anymore. Search Engines are good at what they do - searching for sites - and you don't need to pay someone to submit your site to a search engine. If they make this claim, they will probably use Free For All (FFA) junk sites that might damage your site's standings.
Be Cautious Of SEO Firms That Say They Can Optimize And Promote Your Site For A Low, Low Monthly Fee.
Not all monthly SEO or SEM (Search Engine Management) service contracts or monthly fees are a scam. There are real reasons to pay a monthly fee to an SEO expert. These would include conditions when you would require SEO management: when you or someone else is constantly generating new content or new features for your site; implementing link-building campaigns; implementing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns; or starting a brandcasting campaign. Press release distribution, email campaigns and article marketing campaigns could also require a legitimate monthly fee.
Not-so-legitimate fees could include monthly re-submitting of your site to search engines, "tweaking" your code to keep up with changes and regularly submitting your site to hundreds of useless free-for-all directories. The worthwhile companies that charge a monthly fee will usually be able to tell you exactly how much it is per month to generate blog entries or generate and distribute articles or press releases. And it won't be for the low, low price of $79.95.
Choose Your SEO Company And Services Carefully.
Do your research and don't make the decision lightly. If you were hiring a contractor to remodel your kitchen you would want to see other kitchen projects they've done and speak with the owners about the company's business practices. You should do the same thing when hiring an SEO company. Get referrals and really speak with them.
There are many online tips about choosing and hiring SEO firms that you can check out as well. Remember, SEO is a long-term strategy and you should take the time to do your research before buying or you'll probably be buying again.
About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. The approach is simple, highly effective and affordable. Learn more at: http://www.Brandsplat.com/
Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.
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