Top 5 SEO Copywriting Mistakes That Will Cost You Money

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


Just as there are different ways of writing for novels, for advertising and for films, there is a way to write for the Internet. To find content on the web we use search engines. To make sure the search engines find our content we optimize it. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) copywriting is writing content that the reader wants to read and will be easily found and rank well with search engines.

The object of writing for the Internet is to get the reader to use your content to click through to your website. If they don't get to your website, they can't look at your products or services and you will have lost a potential customer. Here are a few mistakes that you'll want to avoid.

MISTAKE #1 - Have a Boring Or Vague Title

This is a very important mistake not to make. If they don't even look at your article, all your time and effort are wasted. If you provide an attention grabbing title, one that makes them curious enough to open your article, you're halfway there.

Here are just a few ideas to get you thinking: Use titles that describe the content of your article but are short and concise; Use keywords in your title that people might be searching for; People can't resist articles with lists or tips such as, "Top 10 Copywriting Mistakes" or "Top Tips on Getting Your Articles Read"; and "How to" articles are popular as well.

The bottom line here is to put some thought into your title. Think about how to get a reader's attention.

MISTAKE #2 - Create Bland Content

From beginning to end - try to keep it interesting. Make reading your article a pleasurable experience for your reader. Here are a few suggestions.

Make it fun, relevant and grammatically correct. Nothing pulls the reader out of a story more than bad grammar and misspelled words.

Use short sentences and try to limit paragraphs to two or three lines. Concentrate on writing rich and appropriate copy rather than just practical words.

Have a sense of humor. This gives your articles personality. Don't give a sales pitch - use a call to action. The purpose of your article is to get your reader to get to your website. Your writing could include a reason for them to find more information, either from another article that you've written or from your website.

"Content is king". If you keep this in mind, you'll be ahead of the game. Search engines love well-written and useful content. So do readers.

MISTAKE #3 - Make Your Article As Hard To Read As Possible

Every post should be easy to scan. That means your reader should be able to easily scan your article and find headings that will tell them what the section is about. You can use numbered lists and bullets to organize your ideas so they are quickly read. If you italicize, bold or underline a word, the search engine assumes that it's a keyword. You can use this to your advantage. However, if you use these tags a lot or if you use them on non-keywords, you'll confuse the search engines and lose any advantage you would have gained.

The other thing that makes a page easy to scan is short paragraphs. When you look at your copy on the page, you should see a lot of white space. Looking at a page that's completely filled with words is intimidating to a reader. You want to make it as friendly and welcoming and as easy to read as possible.

MISTAKE #4 - Misuse Keywords

Keywords are at the core of writing for the web. You should research and know your keywords. Here are a few suggestions about keywords:

Target a set of keywords in every post but don't use them more than three or four times on a page. If you use the same keywords again and again, search engines can tell that the article isn't very useful.

Use a wide variety of words that pertain to your topic.

Use synonyms of your keywords in addition to the keywords.

Don't stick to a standard keyword density for every article or post. You want your words to flow naturally, and overuse of keywords makes your copy sound forced.

Review your keywords every so often. Sometimes your business changes and you want your articles to change also.

If you provide your reader with content that lets them learn or experience something, you'll have a happy reader. If you provide the search engines with good keywords and a variety of them, you'll have a happy search engine.

MISTAKE #5 - Try To Trick the Search Engines

Practicing questionable tactics like cloaking and using hidden text is a bad idea. The last thing you want is to get your site banned. These kinds of tricks will do it. So can using hidden links, link farms, linking to bad sites, distributing viruses and sending spam. Don't try to trick the search engines and don't work with any companies that use these techniques.

Overcoming these common mistakes can give you head start when creating effective content on the Internet. SEO copywriting requires effort. Putting content on your site and distributing it on the web takes time. If you work at it over time and create lots of valuable content, effectively "brandcasting" your site, you'll be rewarded with more traffic.




About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. 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. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


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Brand Awareness and the Fundamentals of Brandcasting

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


For a company to become well known in the online world, you might think that they would have to spend a large amount of money. While marketing budgets of leading companies are extensive, many effective online branding strategies can easily be achieved with nothing more than creativity and determination.

You have a good brand if people can recall your product or service from memory. You want them to trust you and think of you and your website before they think about any competitors. Branding isnÕt just for big businesses; small businesses, especially those with an online presence, canÕt afford not to start some kind of brand awareness campaign.

There is no shortcut to branding success. If you take a look at some of the sales promises made today, you would think that all you need to do to make millions is to launch a website and use free search engine submission services. These kinds of tactics donÕt give you the whole truth.

Brand awareness, or brandcasting, is a strategy that will define a company, show how it is unique, while creating a comfort level in the potential customer. A large part of branding is being consistent in everything about your company. This includes the companyÕs message and vision, the website, the employees, and even the packaging. Who are you and what are your values? All this takes time and vision.

Before even starting to get your brand out there, you should develop a winning slogan and logo. These will be the first things remembered by the public. If you hear the word McDonaldÕs, you will see the Golden Arches in your mind; if you hear KFC, the Colonel will present himself, if MSN is mentioned, it is reasonable to see the fluttering of a butterfly. Defining a simple, two or three tone image that can be inexorably linked with your company can be extremely powerful.

While this is fundamental to both successful offline and online branding strategies, it is important not to forget the actual development of your brand. You might have an excellent logo, but consistent failure in delivery of customer service can take its toll. Your brand and your message should focus on your clients and not on you. Customer benefits that are consistent with your marketing message will get you increased sales.

Your website should be an integral part of your brand as well. It should incorporate the promise you are making to your customers. Remember that customers make their decisions to purchase based on friend and family recommendations,advertising and experience. Building a brand is like building a reputation. Companies interested in long-term success must invest in creating a targeted brand experience for their customers.

While providing great customer service will help your reputation, customer service does not always have to be in the form of responding well to queries. Be proactive; FAQs and well-targeted, well-researched help guides on your website are immensely powerful in garnering a strong reputation. Use article marketing to its fullest advantage to leverage your position as an expert in your field.

Beware of online gimmicks, though. Many companies have seen a surge in business through competitions and contests. But these numbers are impossible to maintain once the offer is over. Use them sparingly, and tie them in with press releases and long lasting deals.

Whether large or small, local or global, social networking can be your key to the successful implementation of online branding strategies. If you have something to say, be it a product launch or exciting development, put a teaser on your social page. People will take the bait.

In much the same way, you can create a blog for your company. Twitter can also be a great way to use a short, snappy sentence to announce a new online initiative.

Many companies have made the mistake of trying to differentiate between their online marketing campaigns, and their offline equivalents. This couldn't be more wrong. Your customers exist in the Real World. Use the reliable marketing double-hitter (where online and offline branding strategies are in complete unison). Indeed, offline advertising can drive your online commerce significantly, if tailored well.

Long before the economic crash of late 2008 hit us; competition in the world of e-commerce was becoming ever more ruthless. However, as a result of the global recession, many companies are looking to the net to not only push forward, but also to survive the storm. Online shopping is actually on the increase, as people rein themselves in and limit their impulse purchases. They do this by not visiting the malls, and keeping away from temptation. Take advantage of this by creating an online brandcasting strategy so you can see more traffic on your website.


About the Author:
Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat. 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. Go to http://www.Brandsplat.com/ or visit our blog at: http://www.brandsplatblog.com/


Read more Articles written by Enzo F. Cesario.

How To Build A Profitable Twitter Profile

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Harold Hemmings


Twitter is one of the fastest growing marketplaces on the Internet. The reason why so many people like Twitter is because it is actually the perfect communication tool for people who don't understand and don't want to learn about Internet technology and the technological geek-speak that goes along with it.

A few years back, I asked someone for his dad's email address. The son replied telling me that you just email his name. The son was clueless that there was an actual email address behind the shortcut for his dad's name. He did not understand email, and he did not care that he did not understand it. He was able to use it in a manner that was easy for him, and that is all that really mattered.

What makes Twitter so popular to the masses is that one does not have to be tech-savvy to use the service. The new user simply needs to locate the profile of the person he or she wants to follow, and then the user simply clicks "Follow". From that day forward, anytime the person "Followed" posts (tweets) new information to his or her micro-blog, Followers will be notified about the message in the Twitter Timeline.

The only thing that is really difficult about Twitter is that new people seldom understand that they must "Follow" someone, before they start to receive messages from others. But once someone has chosen to follow a few people, they get the idea behind Twitter very quickly.

With its' system of 140 character micro-posts (referred to as "tweets"), users are able to communicate information to other users. Sometimes the tweeted info is a random comment, but often the tweets mean something to somebody.

For the average consumer, they can log into Twitter to update grandma about the lives of the grandchildren and to provide links to family pictures.

Although the service has been available since 2006, the Internet marketing community was really slow to catch on to the value of the Twitter community. Most Internet marketers had never heard of Twitter until 2008. Even then, online marketers were slow to see any real value in the platform. But in 2009, Twitter finally hit its stride in getting the word out about its service, in large part due to the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN Twitter Follower Challenge.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) challenged CNN (@cnnbrk) to a race to one million Twitter Followers. On April 17th, 2009, Ashton became the first Twitter user to reach one million followers. CNN passed the mark a few hours later, but Ashton won the race fair and square.

Understanding The Value Of The Twitter Community

In March of 2008, Twitter was estimated to have one million active users, according to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch (http://bit.ly/RICvf). But amazingly, over the course of the following year, Twitter was able to expand its user base by 32-37 times, according to which news source you trust for your data.

On July 30th 2009, the Philadelphia Enquirer reported that Twitter had "increased its user base by 37-fold to more than 32 million users worldwide, 18-20 million of whom reside in the United States" (http://bit.ly/dhAIE).

Now, the naysayers are fond of pointing out that Twitter's attrition rate is quite large, with 60% of new users disappearing after signing up for the service. But if the Philadelphia Enquirer's estimation is correct that "only 40 percent of first-timers become habitual visitors", then the remaining 12.8 million users still make a viable and vibrant Twitter community.

Each individual user inside the Twitter community is capable of building his or her own community of Followers.

As Ashton Kutcher has taught us, building a Follower list is fairly straight forward - when people are interested in you and what you have to say, they will follow you on Twitter to see what you have to say.

To date, nearly 3 million Twitter users have decided that they care enough about Kutcher's life to follow his personal tweets. Of course, I am sure it helps that he occasionally posts pictures of his wife, Demi Moore, in his tweets (http://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1366791709). Not only did Kutcher share a shot of his Demi's derriere, he also proved that rich people have ugly furniture too.

How Can One Benefit From A Large Twitter Following?

Some of Twitter's 12.8 million active users will benefit handsomely for building a larger Follower's list, while other people will not.

It is pointed out by @ web2marketer, "It's not about how many Twitter followers you have...the only thing that matters is - are they listening?" (http://twitter.com/web2marketer/status/2939696759)

This is the key, of course.

Some people build huge lists of Followers, but never say anything worthwhile or interesting. Some are only interested in building their Followers list for the sake of building Followers.

If no one wants to listen to what you have to say, it does not matter whether you have 1 Follower or 2.9 million Followers. If no one is "listening" to what you have to say, you will not make any money from your participation in Twitter.

On the other hand, if people are "listening" to what you have to say and "clicking" the links you tell them to click, then you have a good chance of earning real money as a result of your Twitter activities.

It has been said that the consumer needs to see or hear your name or your marketing message 7 times, before they will trust you enough to buy from you. Professionals in the direct marketing industry suggest that 82% of all consumers (business people or otherwise) will buy your products or services on the second to the ninth exposure to your marketing message.

Twitter allows you to carry a continuous dialog with those most likely to buy what you are selling - through the Public Timeline of the people following you in Twitter. Once people have started to pay attention to what you tell them, and once they start absorbing your marketing message, then gaining your Followers trust is made easier. Once people are listening to you, you can earn their trust fairly quickly.

An idea presented by @contentmanager is that television has had 80+ years to perfect its advertising model. Television seems committed to the concept of 42 minutes of content to anchor 18 minutes of advertising. These numbers translate into 70% content to provide an anchor for its 30% advertising. (http://twitter.com/contentmanager/status/3106295397) In context, he says that the 70% content is designed to attract attention and win trust, and then the 30% advertising is designed to earn profits and cover the costs of building content.

Understand That It Is A Numbers Game

As a successful Twitter marketer, your first goal is always to attract Followers (an audience). Your second goal is to win the trust of your Followers (your viewing audience). Only after you have won the trust of your Followers should you endeavor to advertise to your Twitter Followers list (to earn revenue). If you have earned the trust of your Twitter Followers, revenue is certain to follow.

But, as with anything in business, it is a numbers game. A certain percentage of the number of people exposed to your Twitter profile will become Followers. A certain percentage of those people following you, will actually read what you have to say. A certain percentage of those people will click your links. And if that link leads to a page where you can earn revenue, only a certain percentage of people will buy your offer.

For most people, the only certainty is that they need to grow their audience, and in the case of the Twitter community, they need to grow their list of Twitter Followers. In the numbers game, if you can increase your audience, you can increase your revenue. It is as simple as that.

If you visit our website shown below, we will show you how we can help you build your Followers' list. But after that, it is up to you. It is up to you to gain the interest and trust of your Followers. Once you have done that, then the only thing that will matter is - are they listening?




About the Author:
Harold Hemmings is the owner of a website dedicated to helping people grow their Twitter Followers List at an accelerated pace. Learn more about his inexpensive service at Buy Twitter Friends: http://buytwitterfriends.com/


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Top Mistake #1 When Naming a New Company or New Product

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


Bear with me, because when I tell you the number one mistake people make when selecting a name for their new company or new product, you are going to be surprised. Ready? The top mistake in choosing a name is deciding on the name you like best.

That very obvious-sounding strategy is wrong because of several pitfalls. First, names can go off the rails because you, the namer, are not your target market. The name needs to appeal to potential customers, not to you. Second, the name you like the best may have negative connotations that you didn't stop to think about. Third, your favorite name, or a close variant of it, may already be in use, causing you to seem imitative or even landing you in legal trouble. And fourth, the name you like most may limit you in ways that may become painfully clear in the future.

Let's go through these pitfalls now one by one.

Not long ago New Jersey fell into the trap of thinking of themselves rather than of the target market when officials asked their residents to vote on a tourism slogan for the state. The winning entry, "New Jersey: Come See for Yourself," received just a few more votes than "New Jersey: The Best Kept Secret."

Both of these tag lines fail because they do not give a reason for outsiders to come explore. Outsiders, who may have an image of New Jersey as an over-industrialized collection of chemical factories, won't see anything compelling in those phrases. If the contest organizers had let non-New Jerseyites react to possible slogans, it would have become clear that those slogans were lame and uninteresting to the target market.

For business names, what insiders to the business choose may have a meaning element that customers don't relate to or cannot pronounce. For example, if an optical shop decided to call itself Refractions, they'd be sabotaging themselves, because the average person doesn't know that "refraction" is the principle of physics that enables glasses to correct vision.

Likewise, a bakery might fall in love with the name Painique (pan-EEK), where "pain," which means "bread" in French, was supposed to be pronounced in the French way rather than as rhyming with "rain." However, where the typical shopper doesn't know French, the name would be baffling and off-putting.

Choosing the name you like best can also be disastrous if you don't take the time to explore whether or not there are negative implications to the name. This happened to a shoe company in England, which was exciting about naming a sport shoe Zyklon, not realizing that this was the brand name of the gas used by the Nazis to kill millions during World War Two.

Similarly, someone who went with the company name Grand Poobah Publicity because they loved the way it sounded would eventually find out that to language mavens and Gilbert and Sullivan fans, the company was mocking itself. The Grand Poobah was a haughty character in "The Mikado" who had an undeservedly high opinion of himself.

Going only by what you like can also blind you to the fact that your name, or something resembling it, may already be in use. For instance, a golf course near me in Western Massachusetts called its modest little eatery Tavern on the Green, and found it ridiculous when the famous restaurant by that name in New York City sent it a letter demanding it stop using the name. Ridiculous or not, most businesses receiving such a letter sooner or later have no choice but to give in. It's smarter to check whether or not a name is legally in the clear prior to finalizing it.

Even when a name just echoes something else rather than exactly imitating it, the public may feel that your name is derivative and unoriginal. If you fell in love with the name Sir Salad for your casual restaurant, people might think you'd copied the chains Sir Speedy or Sir Pizza, even if you weren't aware those existed.

Finally, the name you like most could be so narrow in scope you are unable to expand. With the name Becky's Bookkeeping, Becky may have trouble later when she realizes clients need help with filing and organizing as well as with their financial records.

Perhaps the most surprising point to many people is that it isn't essential to have a blinding love for your new company name. It's far better if you think systematically about what the name should accomplish for you and go rigorously through your brainstormed list with those criteria in mind. You may already have overlooked the name that best meets those clear-headed, unemotional naming criteria!


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.

The #2 Most Common Mistake In Naming a New Company or New Product

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


Most of the time, business owners and organizational marketers look for a new company name or new product name that seems to get the job done. That's unwise because they don't take the time to think about possible shortcomings of the name they settle on. Instead, those shortcomings emerge over time, costing them dearly in sales and opportunities. Sometimes the name problems require an expensive rebranding overhaul.

It's far more cost-effective to name your product or service properly in the first go. Use this checklist to identify hidden pitfalls of some names so they don't blindside you.

1. Are you using meaning elements that are obscure or unknown to your target market? For example, an Australian company hired my firm to rename their business communication product when they were expanding to the U.S. because the name they'd chosen wasn't familiar to American office workers. Words that are everyday terms in Great Britain and Australia but not in the U.S. include "whinge" (for whining) "redundant" (for unemployed) and "turnover" (for annual sales).

An unfortunate mismatch between meaning and market can also rear its head because business owners misjudge the level of sophistication of potential customers. A software company, for instance, was taken aback to learn that small businesses didn't generally know that the initials "CRM" in their product name stood for "customer relationship management." Likewise, a wine shop named Terroir to Taste, using a French term that wine aficionados know, didn't attract casual wine shoppers because they mistook "terroir" for "terror."

2. Is a name or part of it difficult to pronounce? In my childhood, I discovered that my last name, Yudkin, was hard to say for some people, but as an adult, I'm unendingly surprised how often my first name, Marcia, causes people to hesitate or stumble. According to HowManyOfMe.com, "Marcia" is the 433rd most popular first name in the United States, with 138,091 American residents having it. This shows that a word or name you believe is familiar to people may not be.

According to studies by researchers at the University of Michigan, when people have trouble pronouncing a product name or business name, they consider it to be risky. Researchers at Princeton University discovered that companies with hard-to-pronounce names even performed less well in the stock market than those that sat easily on the tongue. So try out your proposed new company or product name on a broad cross-section of people to make certain most can pronounce it easily.

3. Can your name pass the telephone test? By that I mean, if you answer the phone saying your company name, would a caller who didn't already know the name be able to hear it correctly? Some company names are so baffling out of context that people can't sort out the sounds into something that makes sense to them. Someone once told me that when I reeled off the name of my publicity book, they heard it as 6 Debts to Free Publicity instead of 6 Steps. I learned to pause an extra millisecond after "six" to get the name across, but many company names are not salvageable in that way.

Don't let your excitement about a new company or product name carry the day. Consider it from a variety of angles and get feedback from folks in your target audience before committing yourself to a name you're going to promote like crazy in the marketplace.


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.

A Good Business Name Must Be Bold: Oh, Really?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


Visit just about any blog of a high-priced naming consultant, and they'll tell you with oracular confidence that a business name, to succeed, must be X, Y or Z. This is bluster. It is a branding statement of their own, arguing for the kinds of company names they like to create and against the kinds of company names they personally look down on. Such rules are not a valid-for-every-situation fact.

The naming "must" you'll encounter most often is this one: A Good Business Name Must Be Bold. It must make a statement. It must stand out. It must call attention to itself.

Yes, that's often a good idea, especially for a new operation that needs to earn publicity, word of mouth and market share. But not always. Consider a community bank that is expanding into new territory, across a river that to residents marks a mental boundary. Its number one concern is whether or not its current name encompasses the new geographical area in residents' minds. If not, they may be looking for a new name that provides continuity with their current name yet includes the locations where they're opening new branches. Boldness is nowhere on this bank's list of naming criteria.

Indeed, it's a rare bank that goes for, or should go for, a bold name, one with emotional impact and shock value. Much more important for banks is engendering trust. Other goals might be emphasizing rootedness, history or connection. Banks - and many financial services companies - need different naming criteria than a footwear company or an adventure travel firm.

It might surprise you to know that I have had clients hire my naming company wanting a name that didn't stand out. In one case, a financial advisor was moving to a new city and wanted a company name that would blend into the background, not attract any attention and make people assume he'd been doing business there forever.

I encourage you to wipe the slate clean of what you've read or heard and think first about what you hope the new business name you are looking for will accomplish. Do consider guidelines and "musts" because they point to naming factors you might otherwise overlook. Don't let your goals get overruled by someone else's branding agenda.

Don't be intimidated into looking for or accepting a company name that can't take you where you want to go!




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.

Several Ways to Earn Money from Your Expired Domains

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


Making money by selling expired domains is gaining immense popularity because of its potentialities to make lot of profits. Many expired domain traders treat this business very seriously and they use a number of methods and strategies to sell their domains at very lucrative prices. Also known as virtual estate properties, expired domains and domains expiring are some of the hottest business opportunities in the world.

Experienced domain traders use one or a combination of different methods to make money from their stock of expired domain names. These may include such methods as domain parking, domain name selling, or domain flipping. A well-planned combination of these methods will provide you with very high income making potential. Here are some details about each one of these methods:

Domain Parking: This is the starter method to earn money from your domain names. It is easy to set up a domain parking account and simple to operate it, as the domain-parking firm will take care of that aspect. What you want to do is to sign up for an account on one of the well-known domain-parking firms and use the web page provided by them to host your name. Most of your web site visitors are un-targeted and they will click on one of the ads provided on your web page. The method used here is the famous pay-per-click system and the income earned by you depends on the number of visitors who click on the online ads to visit other web sites. The only downside of this income generating method is its inability to provide a large stream of income. However, for a newbie entrepreneur, this is a safe and assured method to make some amount of money.

Expired domain name selling: This is perhaps the most famous method for making money with expired domain names. People make millions by selling their special domain names while the average capacity to earn money by selling an average expired domain is about $25. There are records of unique domain names sold for millions of dollars. Expired domain name reselling is highly competitive and the place where you buy them can be just like an auction house where people will be fighting to buy their products and services. Some experienced domain name traders buy domain names and sell them at regular basis to create a constant pool of income.

Domain flipping: Expired domain names traders also convert one or two of their domains into highly useful and beneficial web sites that will be potential money-spinners. Domain flipping is a thoughtful method of converting an expired domain into information and content rich web portals. Smart domain traders succeed in driving lot of traffic to their flipped web sites. Web sites with plenty of traffic can help them to reach top of major search engines like Google and Yahoo. People love to buy web portals that contain useful content and information apart from lot of incoming links and traffic. You can also use sophisticated techniques like Pay-per-click (PPC) Affiliate marketing Search engine optimization (SEO) and RSS feeds to make he flipped web portal income enabled and value added.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


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Avoid These Five Tragic Tag Line Misfires

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


A tag line is the little slogan that follows a business name on a web site, in ads, on company stationery and elsewhere. A prime branding opportunity, it presents one of the biggest challenges in marketing. You want something that's catchy, appropriate, appealing and distinctive. The tag line should say something that encourages ideal customers to do business with you.

Be sure to generate a lot of possibilities, and eliminate any tag line candidates where you are forced to answer "yes" to any of the five questions below. While I'm illustrating these points using U.S. state slogans (For instance, "Delaware: Small Wonder"), the criteria apply as well to small businesses, medium-sized companies, large corporations, solopreneurs, ecommerce sites and nonprofit organizations anywhere in the world.

Five Common Tag Line Blunders

1. Does it flunk the uniqueness test? A tag line needs to single out your strengths. If your tag line could reasonably apply to your competitors, it doesn't drill down deeply enough to what makes you different. For example, which state would you match up with "More Than You Can Imagine"? You'd have as good a chance at getting this right by picking a state randomly as by trying to guess according to its intended meaning. This is a tag line used by Maryland, but it could equally apply to Nebraska, Idaho, Michigan or any other state with an unglamorous reputation.

Consider also the similarity between South Carolina's slogan, "Smiling Faces. Beautiful Places" and South Dakota's, "Great Faces. Great Places." The word "faces" in South Dakota's tag line probably refers to the presidential heads depicted on Mount Rushmore, and "great" appropriately applies to them. But this tag line is so close to South Carolina's wording that it's easy to see the South Dakota marketers didn't bring out the unique implications of those faces well enough in their tag line.

Some tag lines heavily suggest just one owner because of recognizable associations. Because of the popularity of the movie, The Wizard of Oz, for example, "There's No Place Like Home" evokes Kansas much more than any other state.

2. Is there a questionable double meaning? Not one but two slogans of Colorado become problematic because of this factor. "Rocky Mountain High" and "Enter a Higher State" both use the word "high" in a way that implies not only geographical elevation but also (at least to many in the Baby Boomer generation) marijuana intoxication.

Another state tag line with this weakness is "Oklahoma is OK." To many people, "OK" implies "just OK," which is such faint praise it lacks the power of invitation. Likewise, to someone who believes the American Midwest is boring, Illinois's "Mile After Magnificent Mile" evokes the idea of mile after mile after mile of sameness.

3. Emotionally, is it a clunker? "Utah! Where Ideas Connect" used to be that state's tourism slogan, and it's significant that they inserted an exclamation mark to try to generate some excitement, since the concept itself is flat and unemotional. A tag line should convey positive energy rather than simply state some facts.

Connecticut's slogan "Full of Surprises" doesn't score well on uniqueness, but it does have emotional oomph. Ditto for Maine's "The Way Life Should Be."

4. Does it have an inappropriate tone? "Say WA" (for Washington State) is a prime example of a slogan that sounds like chalk scratching on a blackboard to anyone older than a teenager. Remember that people with nothing better to do than to hang out at a street corner high-fiving their friends are not the logical target of a tourism campaign.

"Live Free or Die," which appears on New Hampshire's license plates, is a brilliant and highly emotional evocation of the no-sales-tax state that epitomizes Yankee independence and political autonomy. However, this slogan doesn't work well as a lure for tourists. Normally it doesn't make a pleasant impression to be reminding people of their mortality in the same breath as saying "Come visit!"

5. Are you junking the previous tag line for the wrong reasons? Simply being tired of it is the worst possible reason. Apparently weariness is why in 1985, Governor Anthony Earl decided that "America's Dairyland" would no longer do as Wisconsin's slogan. Very often, politicians or tourism officials decide to jettison something that's working, then spend a fortune hiring brand consultants to come up with something their constituents hate and that bombs in the marketplace. Don't you follow in their footsteps!

Coming up with a tag line that passes all of these elimination tests is not easy. If I had to select a winner from all the state slogans I've looked at, I'd award first prize to Mississippi's "The South's Warmest Welcome." Only a few other contenders could claim this applied to them, and it's unquestionably and strongly inviting. Second prize goes to Alaska's "Beyond Your Dreams. Within Your Reach." In a positive way, this counteracts the belief of so many in the other 49 states and abroad that they might not easily have the opportunity to experience its charms.

Good luck with your own tag line and branding!


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.

When It Comes to Business Names, Acronyms Are FUBAR

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


Maybe you'll read the following sentence as it was intended, but I sure didn't. It was the lead sentence in an article in my local business journal:

"CA is a fundamentally different company than it was when I arrived two years ago."

To me, "CA" means California, and that's how I read it. But when I reached the end of that sentence, that obviously did not make sense. Then I thought, "Must be a misprint - they left a letter out - but what?" Only in the fourth paragraph of the article did my bafflement clear up. "We simplified 'Computer Associates' to 'CA' and brought the 'C' and 'A' on our brand mark closer together."

"Oh my gosh, 'CA' is a company name?!" Too bad you couldn't see the expression on my face.

This illustrates one of the problems in creating a company name out of letters. With just about any combination of letters you choose, the acronym is probably already in use somewhere. Indeed, CA is also in use for Cocaine Anonymous, as well as an abbreviation for Canada. On the web, a new company name consisting of an acronym will be impossible for the average person to get useful results for from a search engine.

According to the Web Directory All Acronyms, the letters NSA stand for more than 100 different entities, including No Such Agency. Incorporating an acronym as part of a longer name doesn't resolve the issue of multiple meanings. For example, if you named your company SME Services, thinking of "Small and Medium-sized Enterprises," SME could still call up more than 60 other meanings in common usage, including Subject Matter Expertise and Solid Metal Embrittlement.

Second, because acronyms have no self-evident meaning, they require a very heavy investment of resources to become recognizable and memorable as a company name. True, the now-global fast-food company KFC has done well with its initials by trading on its previous incarnation as Kentucky Fried Chicken. But unless you're also serving more than a billion customers a year with a marketing budget to match, that shouldn't encourage you to follow their example.

And third, acronyms invite ridicule. There are scores of jokes purporting to explain what the letters in IBM really mean:

I've Been Moved (because of the company's relocation policy)

I've Been Misled

It's a Broken Machine

Immoral Brand and Management

I Blame Mathematics

Idiots Became Managers

Imbecilic Bad Micros

Invented By Murphy

and on and on.

Perhaps because we dislike how we tend to be treated by governmental and technical acronym-named organizations, many of us find acronyms geeky and off-putting rather than cuddly and comforting. "Acronyms tend to keep non-experts at arm's length," wrote language critic Amy Gahran in 2003. For example, "the original full name for RSS [which most people believe stands for Really Simple Syndication] is 'RDF Site Summary' - a nested acronym that requires two levels of decoding, and it gets geekier at the second level," Gahran noted.

Most of the time, keeping people at arm's length is not a desirable state of affairs or a goal for a new company name. So ditch the acronyms.

By the way, in case you're wondering what "FUBAR" means, since before World War Two it's been an American military expression for the more vulgar version of "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."


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.

Identifying Expired Domain Buyers - Tips and Ideas

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


There was a time in the past, when people would flaunt their visiting cards with their flashy addresses and telephone numbers. However, the present trend is of people flashing their web addresses to their friends, colleagues and business partners. Of late, people from all spectrum of life are opting for web portals to give out information and details to others. Buying domain names is the latest trend among people. People buy domain names for personal uses, while businesses buy them to carry out different types of business operations. People may buy and register domain names by creating their own URLs. However, many business entrepreneurs also buy expired domains to set up online business ventures.

Selling expired domain names is actually difficult considering the stiff competition that exists among domain traders. First, you may never know the personal preferences of people who are looking for expired domain names. People have varied needs and requirements for expired domain names. You may wish to know for what purposes, uses people buy, and use expired domain names. Here are some general tips and ideas:

You can classify expired domains under two broad categories depending on the uses and purposes. Under general circumstances, people may buy expired domain names either for non-profit or personal uses, or for business and for uses of profit.

Expired domain buyers for non-profit and personal uses:

A number of non-profits and charitable organizations keep looking for good domains expired and buy them for their charitable activities. These organizations would need domain names that match the objectives and goals of their charity. On the other hand, millions of people also buy expired domains for personal purposes. Someone may need an expired web domain just to publish family photographs, while others may want to buy them to print personal blogs. The most essential thing for these people is to make a connection with their friends and family members.

Tip:

~~ Most people under these categories look for expired domains that end with .org or .info extensions.

These domains are actually cheaper and people, who look for such domains have a severe budgetary constraint.

These domains are difficult to sell as people tend to register fresh domains. ~~

Finding out an expired domain buyer for this category is actually very easy. People who look for these categories of names are very choosy and specific, as they would need only a specific type of name. Once you segregate these names and list them, you can contact them with your best prices. Make sure that you are offering something that is useful to your personal customers. Non-profits are very specific, because they want web domains based on particular keywords. On the other hand, people who buy personal domains are easy to handle and manage. You can even offer an extra, free expired domain as a gift, when they buy a domain at a profitable rate. Mixing your expired domain portfolio with personal and non-profit type of domains may offer you a streamlined business with varied options and choices.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


Read more Articles written by John Khu.

Create Information Products - Detailed Blueprint To Making A Fortune Selling Information Products

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Alan Cheng


Create information products to solve people's problems is one of the most profitable and easiest online business to be in. It's much cheaper than setting up a traditional brick and mortar business, there's no inventory to keep and you make 100% of what you sell. Here's a business plan of how to get into this online business.

1. What Information Products To Sell?

Instead of creating information products to sell in different niches, you need to focus on one niche. Make a decision on what niche you want to build your business on before proceeding further.

For example, in the self-help niche, you can create information products on public speaking, self confidence, anxiety, anger control, build better relationships etc...

2. Getting the Ideas

Read and study your niche every chance you get. Go to forums and understand what problems people are having. Read magazines and newspapers see what topics are related to your niche.

Regularly make a list of ideas and choose the best one to start working on when it's time to create a new information product.

3. Create The Information Product

Buy an ebook from your competitors and see how it's laid out and the topics that are written.

Do some research and start writing your information product. Make it something you're proud to sell. You can hire a ghostwriter to do this task for you later on after you see how the business works.

Alternatively, you can hire a ghostwriter right away if you absolutely hate writing and don't have the time for it.

4. Packaging

This is what makes your information product sell since people buy based on the packaging. This means the design of your website needs to look professional and your sales copy needs to be convincing and mouth-watering.

If you have no experience in writing sales copy and if you're not good at creating graphics, get them outsourced. This is a must!

Some ghostwriters are experienced in creating information products online. Try to find one that will deliver a complete service which includes the sales letter and website design.

5. Getting Traffic

Once your product is ready, it's time to drive traffic to it. Here are 3 ways how you can drive traffic to your website to test the response.

1. Write articles

Write 10 good articles related to your information product. Again, if you don't like writing, you can outsource this to your ghostwriter. Submit these articles to article directories and ezines. Articles are excellent in increasing your exposure and improve your search engine rankings.

2. Blog and Forum Commenting

Make a list of blogs and forums which have good traffic and are related to your niche. Take time to comment on them regularly with a link to your website.

Offer valuable advice and don't advertise your information product with your comments. Just have a link to your website. This will enable you to "steal" some of the traffic from other websites.

3. Pay Per Click

Use pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords, Yahoo and MSN. Create some ads and drive traffic to your website. Monitor how well your information product sells.

Be careful and calculate how much you can afford to spend. If there are not many sales, then tweak your sales copy.

6. Create an Affiliate Program

Create an affiliate program for your information product either by submitting it to Clickbank or use PayDotCom. Let people know they can promote your information product for 50% commission.

7. Collect Your Contacts

Always collect email addresses with everyone who comes in contact with you which includes visitors to your website who signed up for your newsletter, your affiliates and of course your customers.

8. Repeat

Repeat the whole process with a new information product focusing on the same niche, for example "self help".

Once you've created the information product, you can now email your list. The prospects and customers will buy this product from you if the previous one was good. Affiliates will want to promote your new product to earn more commissions.

The more information products you create, the bigger your 3 lists will get. After launching several information products you'll find that you have a list of a few thousand.

Sending an email to your list telling them about your new information product could produce thousands of dollars immediately without doing any promotion of your own.

If you sold an information product for $37 and 1,000 members of your list bought from you, that's $37,000 you'll make instantly. Don't forget that your product will continue to sell as long as your website is online. The crucial success factor is the professional ghostwriter you chose to hire that can deliver quality and on time.




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, hire a ghostwriter at Best Instant Sites.


Read more of Alan Cheng's articles.

Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Lisa Haneberg


If I read another article that starts with, "during these tough times," I am going to scream. Let's get with it, leaders, these times are why we exist. The more we talk about how the times are tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work as victims.

We are at our best when we catalyze progress - when we create environments that help people, teams and processes do great work together. I invite all leaders - at all levels in the organization - to embrace the opportunity to be great like you never knew you could be or was possible. Here are ten questions you can ask yourself and your team to get catalytic juices flowing:

What's the new opportunity that we are not seeing? How might we learn from other organizations, both competitors and non-competitors?

How might new trends in how people communicate and work open up new ways to improve our organization? What does the workplace look like when we are focused and in action?

When a meeting feels flat and perfunctory, what's going on? What's on people minds that they are not saying? What question could I ask that would open the discussion back up? What's possible if I had the courage to do this?

What is "my best work" and how can I ensure I do that today? How can I enable my team to do their best work?

If we were starting this organization from scratch, how would we design it? What would we do if resources were not an issue?

What's the craziest idea that just might work?

What are the most irksome/damaging barriers facing me and my team right now and how can I reduce or obliterate them?

What is my manifesto (driving philosophy and passion) as a leader and how can I ensure my team understands it? What is our team's manifesto?

What's possible now that was not possible last year/month?

Do I have my team focused on doing the work that matters most? How can I optimize how we spend our precious time?

Create your own list of questions and bring them into your next staff meeting or team huddle. Select one of these questions to drill down on with a small group of peers. Put a copy of this article in everyone's inbox! Great questions help us generate productive conversations and conversations are our currency for getting things done.

We are leaders because we make things happen that would not happen without us. We are driven to create, model, and catalyze excellence. We do not maintain. We do not play the victim. We take the initiative to do whatever it takes to make a significant and positive difference and we have more opportunities to do this today than ever. As the great Henry V said in Shakespeare's play, "All things are ready if our minds be so." And let's not forget Westmorland's response, "perish the man whose mind is backward now!" Indeed. The most effective leaders will shine bright now because they are ready to slog through any organizational muck that threatens to slow their team down. Let's all be a part of the leadership revolution.


About the Author:
Lisa Haneberg is the VP and OD Practice Leader for MPI Consulting. She has written 10 business books and writes the popular Management Craft blog. She speaks to and trains leaders and managers about how to produce uncommonly good results. http://www.managementperformance.com/ and http://www.lisahaneberg.com/


Read more Articles written by Lisa Haneberg.

Expired Domain Gains - Simple Ideas to Create an Income Base

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


You can use a number of simple methods and plans to create a solid income base that earns a monthly ongoing income base. For many expired domain entrepreneurs (both full-time and part time), expired domains offer an opportunity to supplement their current income with money earned out of dealing with expired domains. Domains expired also has a potential to make domain traders to create a big virtual estate. Here are some details about those methods that allow you to play with your domains and later tweak them to generate a solid income

Speculating domain names: the market for domain speculation is not large enough to make a big profit; you can still use this method to sell some good domains. You can develop your own technology and use the current trends to speculate on domains. Technologies and trends evolve and transform constantly and you will need to keep your pace with them to speculate on your domains. You may need to detect and find those expired domain names that portray current trends. There are domains that relate to current business scenarios, technologies and markets. Such domains are worthy buying.

Redirect traffic from your expired domain to your web site: Traffic is the most demanded entity by web masters. In fact, they buy traffic to enhance the value of the domains. Getting some traffic to your main web site is very cheap especially when you use your expired domain as the point. Targeted keyword based expired domains can get you some amount of traffic. Smart web masters always use the power of their expired domain names to sent people to their main web site.

Convert expired domain names into mini web sites: You can create a mini web site out of your expired domains, by using latest web designing technologies and integrating the designed site with third party payment processors as well as auto responders. Always choose those domains expired that has a keyword based URL. Once again, the main goal of using such web sites is to sending traffic to the main web sites.

Purchase expiring web domains that are online: Many of the expiring domain names have web sites on them and they are still on air. Most probably, their owners actually forgot to renew the name or they just want to abandon the name. Buying such domains is always beneficial as they already possess some amount of incoming traffic. In some cases, they may also have a comprehensive directory listing.

Use expired domain for affiliate marketing programs: These programs are great opportunities to earn some money by selling products for others. You need not own any products or services to operate this program. In fact, you are redirecting your traffic to your affiliate service providers. You can get income on the basis of commission earned when someone buys a product after clicking the link on your web page. You will need to find those expired domains that have URLs similar to the products sold by affiliate web sites.

You can also use exhaustive method like domain flipping to transform your expire domain into highly profitable entities. It is all up to you to use the power of expired domain to earn money; how you use the available technology depends on your skills and knowledge of expired domains.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


Read more of John Khu's articles.

Does Your Proposed New Company Name Open the Door to Ridicule?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Marcia Yudkin


People who intensely dislike your company or feel wronged by you will always find some way to complain. However, a lack of attention during the naming process can inadvertently make it easier for comedians, protesters and whiners to poke fun at your company.

Before finalizing your new company name, run it by these tests so you can tweak the name or reject it if necessary to avoid predictable problems. Also ask the funniest people you know whether they see an obvious (well, obvious to them, at least) way to make your firm a laughingstock.

1. What do the initials spell? One reason why National Skyway Freight changed its name to Flying Tigers is that "NSF" is a well-known abbreviation for "not sufficient funds." Likewise, you wouldn't want to discover after you'd already invested in and promoted your name that disgruntled customers were calling Condo Renovators United of Detroit, your company, "CRUD."

2. Does the name resemble or evoke a disreputable word? Marketers coined the name Allegis as an umbrella name for United Airlines, Hertz, Hilton and Westin Hotels. However, many people who looked at the first five letters thought about "allegedly" and "allegations" rather than "allegiance." That, together with the challenge of pronouncing it, led the corporation to abandon its $7.5 million investment in the name and go back to its previous name, UAL Corporation. Something similar happened to Allegheny Airlines, which got tagged with the nickname "Agony Airlines" until it renamed itself USAir.

3. Do the letters or anything about the way the name is spelled suggest anything negative? When Standard Oil (S.O.) of New Jersey morphed into Esso, then came in for criticism under the name Exxon, commentators sometimes latched onto the double "X" and called it the "Double Cross Company." Likewise, you might find it cute to call your café that's at the corner of Sixth Avenue and Route 66 "Café 666," but many people associate the number 666 with the devil, so this would be certain to generate notoriety - negative publicity.

4. Does the name suggest a catchy parody version? You can't prevent this kind of lampooning entirely, but you also don't want to make it easy for the public to make fun of you. The natural foods supermarket chain Whole Foods is often derisively called "Whole Paycheck" by those who find its prices high, and the elite department store Neiman Marcus has been dubbed Needless Markup. People who do not like the food at Applebees, a casual restaurant chain, call it "Crapplebees." Be forewarned about this move by asking your comedian friends how they'd twist your proposed name in a satire.

5. Does the name shorten into something you'd be embarrassed about? In New York City, the neighborhood South of Houston Street became known as "SoHo." Washington Mutual, a bank, similarly let its name get shortened into "WaMu." However, if your company was named "California Carriers," you would most definitely not want to be known as "CaCa."

Make sure these techniques don't turn you into a humor target! Be wise about selecting a name that is easier to keep reputable.


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.

Making Money By Using Smart Expired Domain Trading Techniques

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


Expired domain trading is possibly one of the most profitable businesses around and probably the most satisfactory one with least business risks involved. With this wonderful business opportunity, you can create a viable and stable income generating opportunity. Of late, expired domain trading is gaining international prominence, because many people believe that expired domains name will always be in demand irrespective of the state of the world economy. With increasing domain name registration, there is also a tendency of large number of them dropping and becoming dead due to a number of reasons.

Expired domains are similar to scrap materials, which you can use to make decent amount of money. There is a famous saying - one man's scrap is another's treasure. Domains discarded by someone could be a big treasure for you! It is almost like a hidden treasure trove that contains precious gemstones and ornaments. A big pool of expired domains is there up for grab by you. You just need to select and buy few good ones to make money out of them. However, choosing such domains expiring or expired is not so easy! You will need to use the best techniques and methods to buy a small inventory of expired domain names.

Professional expired domain traders use a series of intelligent and well-conceived methods that ensure them very good expired domains. These techniques are very sophisticated and sometimes automated. However, seasoned domain traders also use a number of simple techniques that do not involve complicated procedures. Even you can use one or may of them to choose your domain name.

Professional expired domain traders, who are in the business, know how to pinpoint to a good domain. Street-smart and intelligent, they can easily select the best domain from a big stock of domain names. In fact, most of them avoid long and elaborate domain names that come with numbers as suffixes or prefixes. Longish domain names with hyphen in between two or more words are always inferior to those that are simple, short and without any suffixes o prefixes.

Generic names do not come so easily these days and you may wish to buy those domains that are offshoots of generic domain names. For example, you may like to buy domain name that act as adjectives to the main search term. Books.com is never available for purchase, but you can always buy domains that come with names like hitbooks.com or oldbooks.com. If you go one level down, you can choose domain names like hitbookcounter.com or classicbookshelf.com.

Another commonly used technique is the usage of keywords that are in excessive demand on Google or Yahoo. People always search for information by typing keywords or their phrases. You can use this user's preference to choose a good expired domain name. For example, leather shoes are the most commonly used durables by people. People always search for web portals that sell leather shoes. To find an e portal that sells leather shoes, a typical web user will enter search terms like "black leather shoes" or "Italian leather shoes". Based on this search trend, you may wish to look for expired domain names that reflect the buyer's search preference. For example, you can buy expired domain names that reflect the main theme of leather shoe business. Here, you can easily buy expired domains like blackleathershoes.com or Italianshoes.com. These are some of the most common techniques used to search for good expired domain names. You can use them along with other techniques.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


Read more of John Khu's articles.

Your Good Reputation and How to Market It

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Enzo F. Cesario


To make your business grow in the right way, many things have to be taken into consideration. Marketing and advertising your products and services are the most important. Without developing and implementing intelligent brand marketing and promotional strategies, it will be impossible to see an increase in you customer base.

Marketing is how you let people know about your products and services. Obviously, the quality of your products and services makes people come back over and over again. However, you need to do something to get new customers and that is where using different marketing strategies lends a helping hand.

Reputation marketing is one technique that can create an impact. According to this marketing strategy, you get more customers when others know about your reputation. This is another way of saying that reputation drives word-of-mouth marketing.

A good reputation is the single most valuable asset your company can have. Knowledge and experience are high on the list, but both of those qualities can be bought - you can always hire smart and experienced people to help you. A good reputation can take a long time to earn but can be lost in a moment.

As you gain a body of satisfied customers, your reputation will grow naturally. Internet reputation management will help you protect your good name online.

For the online portion of your business, you'll have to market your products in a slightly different way than for a brick and mortar business. It is important for all business enterprises with an online presence to pay attention to search engine optimization. If you can't do it yourself, you may want to hire qualified SEO service professionals to make specific changes to your website so it will be easier to access the site to purchase products or services. These optimizers are the people who can help you with Internet marketing and reputation marketing. Using a qualified, professional SEO service to establish a strong online presence is always beneficial to a website.

Article marketing is another way of promoting your website and products. This can build your reputation as well. If you write articles with quality information that people are searching for and submit them to directories, you will become a known expert. This will give you and your business the credibility to compete in your business arena. It will also let you gain trust with potential customers. If they read your articles and like them, they will be less hesitant in buying products or services from you.

Here are some tips to get more out of article marketing.

Content

Content is all-important. People go to the Internet for information; they don't want to read a sales pitch. If your articles have valuable information, people will trust and value your opinions and maybe head to your website when they want to buy. Keep to the point in your articles - brevity is best. Consider all the ways you can approach your topics for a good variety of articles. Organize your content with bullets, numbers or headings to help get your point across and make your articles more readable. And, last but not least, make sure you have a strong title that will grab readers' attention.

Keywords and Resource Box

Before setting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, do a little research on using keywords and phrases. See what words you would type into a search engine to find information that your target audience would want. You can use these words in your article, but don't go overboard or your article will sound artificial.

The resource box at the end of your article is the place where you can put a link back to your website. This is where you can make your sales pitch, describe your website and link back to it.

Proofread and Publish

Proofread everything. If the content you send out to represent yourself is sloppy, with spelling and grammatical errors, it will reflect badly on you, tarnish your reputation and by association, your products or services. If you aren't a good proofreader, find some friends and listen to their comments.

Publishing your article on your website will strengthen the content of your site and will build your credibility. You can also send out your articles to online article directories. You can even cross-link by placing links in your articles to other articles that you've written.

Yet another way to promote your website and gain a good reputation is by using Social Media Marketing. Visit forums and discussion boards and actively participate in the discussions. You want to try to keep up with your participation; showing up and then vanishing can hurt your reputation. Make sure you include a link to your website or email in your postings. And always observe proper etiquette.

The bottom line is that your reputation is the biggest asset you have. If you do not have good reputation, it is impossible to get any success in business. People don't like losing their money, and that is the reason they research before choosing any particular company.

If you have enough content conveying valuable information to potential buyers, you will always be able to see an improvement in your business. So, always consider the option of reputation marketing. You can either handle the marketing on your own or you can go with a professional company for assistance. It doesn't matter what you choose as long as you stay aware of your online reputation and use it to your advantage.




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.

Expired Domains with Traffic - Buying Tips

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 John Khu


Buying an expired domain with inbuilt traffic could be a risky proposition. Spending your hard-earned money on an expired domain without any meaningful incoming traffic could also be a big wastage of money. Once you decide that you want to invest your money in buying an expired domain with traffic, you will need to be very careful in selecting a domain that assuredly contains incoming traffic. You may face a number of risks and challenges while selecting and buying a domain expired with supposedly full of incoming links and traffic.

Most of the sellers who sell their traffic enriched domains by providing a number of screen shots or an excel sheet containing the traffic statistics or even a detailed spreadsheet containing details about the traffic. Some intelligent domain sellers even provide a link to a parking account for you to check the detail of the traffic. The main purpose of these actions is to provide you guarantee that the domains-expired you are going to buy indeed contains lot of traffic.

However, there are two important issues here that you must pay your attention before buying that domain name:

a) You will ensure that the statistics provided by the seller are not fictitious.

b) You will also need to confirm whether the statistics provided are sustainable over longer durations

Some domain traders advertise their domains to generate some amount of traffic. Once they ascertain that traffic is coming to the domain, they will sell off the domain at a very high price. Soon after receiving the money from the buyer, they will stop the domain promotion program to save their money on advertisement. This may eventually lead to loss of traffic and a situation where the domain may even start losing its earlier traffic.

These domains are actually useless as the incoming traffic is just momentary and non-organic.

Never ever, fall in to this kind of trap! Never buy those expired domains that their original owner manipulated just for the sake of getting an inflated price. The traffic that comes with these kinds of domains is never sustainable and you will be paying for the traffic hype surrounding the domain. Here are some basic rules of buying traffic rich expired domain names:

i) When the domain seller has integrity then the statistics provided by him or her will also be right.

ii) Never ever, feel that the deal is very good. Do not jump into the conclusion that you will be losing your money if you do not buy that domain. You may be burning your fingers in the process.

iii) Trust your intuition and instinct. If you have doubts about their numbers, ask the seller for all possible details. Confirm that they are not promoting the domains just for the sale of selling them.

You may never be sure of what you are buying in the guise of an expired domain with lot of incoming traffic. When you are careful, you can easily buy a very good domain that actually contains real type of traffic.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is also the owner of the path breaking web sites called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com and http://www.expireddomaingains.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.


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Twitter Marketing Explored

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Trey Pennewell


Twitter is growing by leaps and bounds as people begin to appreciate its clean and easy-to-use interface. Twitter, at this point, does not look like one of the many flash-in-the-pan Internet applications that we have seen in times' past.

Twitter's 140 character micro-blogging platform has gained a lot of traction, as individuals and business people have learned to bring together their friends, family and customers under a communications platform that all users find useful.

Mom and dad find it easier to keep up with the lives of their grown children through Twitter. The fact that Twitter allows people to link to other web pages makes Twitter a simple platform to share thoughts, ideas, and links to stories and pictures. Grandma and granddad find it easy to check in on the kids' Twitter account and to maintain daily contact with those across town and around the world.

Friends can make plans and share common interests through the Twitter world. One can reply to a message publicly, or if the message is a bit more private, one can send a Direct Message (known as a DM) to anyone who has agreed to follow you also. Through the DM system, lovers can share flirts that no one else can see, but the persons intended to receive the message.

If you let your kids use Twitter, it may be best to set up their Twitter Account Settings to "Protect The Tweets". In the description of this feature, Twitter says, "Only let people whom I approve follow my tweets. If this is checked, you WILL NOT be on the public timeline."

The Public Timeline is the messages/tweets that everyone can see. Anything not on the Public Timeline is private, with restricted access.

Business People Are Working To Tap Into Twitter Marketplace

Twitter was born in March of 2006. But most of us never really heard of it or even understood it, until this last year (2008-2009). A few of the Internet gurus started talking about Twitter in 2008, and as 2009 got underway, more online marketers started talking about the Twitter community on a nearly daily basis.

We have accounts in Twitter that are a couple of years old, but we never got involved with Twitter really until about April of 2009. In April of 2009, we had 12 Twitter Followers.

In May 2009, there was not a single online business in the Top 100 of Twitter, but those numbers are starting to change. Through May of 2009, the Top 100 accounts on Twitter were dominated by TV and Movie celebrities, a few media companies such as @cnnbrk, politicians and sports figures.

Most online marketers had never given Twitter much thought until "The Great Ashton Kutcher vs CNN Twitter Race" that ended on April 17, 2009 with Ashton (@aplusk) getting the privilege to declare victory. (http://bit.ly/8Nx55) Even now, three months after the end of the race, Ashton is still the champion - #1 in the Twitter Follower counts with 2,975,032 Followers. Ashton is followed by @TheEllenShow - 2,610,357; @britneyspears - 2,553,668; @cnnbrk - 2,431,783; and @twitter - 1,930,821.

When the Great Twitter Race was concluded, I did a backlink check on Ashton's @aplusk account. Literally, Ashton had bought a ton of advertising on websites, blogs, forums, etc. Ashton was also getting tons of free press in print and online in the Great Twitter Race.

Of course, we marketers should not feel bad if we are getting on this bandwagon a little late in the game, because @google has only had their account since Jan 09. Google is currently the 23rd biggest Twitter account with 1,244,976 Followers.

A surprise for me was seeing @WholeFoods, an Austin Texas based grocery store, sitting at #38 with 1,094,093 Followers. According to TwitterCounter (http://twittercounter.com/WholeFoods/all), Whole Foods had only 322,820 Followers on April 4, 2009. A quick look at the Whole Foods profile (http://twitter.com/WholeFoods) indicates that they are using the account to share with their customers: company news, customer support, and available specials.

An honorable mention goes to @kevinrose, celebrity and founder of http://Digg.com. Kevin Rose is the 40th most popular person on Twitter, with 1,092,920 Followers.

Once you get into the Top 100 List below #40, you finally start to see a few online businesses in the mix. @zappos CEO is #45. @woot is #46. @TechCrunch is a web media site at #55. @dooce is at #60. To see the full Top 100 List, go here: http://twittercounter.com/pages/100

Who Is In Your Target Market and What Do They Want To Know?

As you look around at those people who are successful building their own little communities on Twitter, you will notice that each one gives people what their Followers want.

For example, @cussy is an online marketer, and he has nearly 10,000 Followers. His secret to growth: quotes. He gives his followers some of the best quotes about business and reaching goals of anyone on Twitter. I follow him and Retweet him often.

@dave_carpenter advertises himself as a Success Partner For High Achievers. Dave shares quotes and tips, and he retweets others who give good advice also. More importantly, Dave encourages the people he follows. He has nearly 9,000 Followers at this time.

@MattLevenhagen is a professional marketer. His 13,000 Followers follow because he runs a mix of marketing tips, links to great articles, and retweets for great advice. He even uses his Twitter account to give his customer's support.

@SocialMedia411 is a Social Media expert who offers social media tips, links to social media articles and news. With more than 56,000 Followers, you can bet that the advice given here is worthwhile to its audience.

When you learn to talk to the people most likely to buy from you, you have completed the first and most important step to enable you to develop strong Twitter Marketing habits.

Learn How Others Are Successful With Twitter

As always, when you want to learn to be successful, you should look to those who are already successful and try to reverse-engineer the steps that they used to become successful. Once you have taken the time to study many who have been successful in the way that you want to be successful, you may note that success comes from giving people what they want and doing it in such a way that you offer good value to your customers.

Those who have been successful with Twitter have done so, because they put the needs of their Followers ahead of a personal desire to be boring or silly.

The good news is that other business people have started to find success on Twitter and you can too. When you learn to provide the people in your target market with the information that they need and want, you will have started down the path to building a Twitter Follower list to envy.




About the Author:
Trey Pennewell works for http://www.thePhantomWriters.com/ article marketing service. If you write articles and need to distribute your articles to higher value audiences, you owe it to yourself to try The Phantom Writers' services. If you want to learn more about how to develop a large list of Twitter Followers, buy the ebook (under $10) at: http://twitusers.com/autopilot/index.php Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/contentmanager


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New Search Engines - Can Anyone Beat Google?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2009 Titus Hoskins


Can any new search engine beat Google, probably not, mainly because Google isn't going anywhere but up. It is the dominant search engine with around 72 percent of U.S. online searches and its percentages are much higher in other parts of the world. (Source: Hitwise) However, there are some serious new competitors that may just take a bite out of Google's rosy search numbers. Never know, one or several of them, may just give Google a run for those all important search engine dollars.

Recently, there has been a whole army of new search engines debuting on the web. If you're a full-time online marketer like me, you really have to keep your eyes open to what is happening on the web, especially relating to search engines which deliver most of your quality traffic. Also keep in mind, this piece may be fairly biased since Google is directly or indirectly responsible for around 80% of my online revenue, so any opinions may be slanted in Google's favor, not that they need any favors from me or anyone.

But as an online marketer you have to try to remain objective and examine all angles in regards to these new search engines. Despite this, in marketing and webmaster circles, everyone will know even if you have the number one ranking for a certain keyword in all three major engines Google, Yahoo! and MSN - Google supplies the most traffic, hands down.

Despite its obvious dominance, Google is still basically the new kid on the block. We have to remember, there have been many search engines before Google and there will be many more search engines after Google. Every entity has its day and then hands the torch along to whatever comes next. It's one of those subtle facts of life we all learn eventually.

Everybody has their day - empires, countries, leaders, companies... or even search engines. Are Google's days as top dog really numbered? Probably not in the immediate future, but there are some new kids on the block that could definitely kick some sand in the face of Google and stir things up, we might even see a few serious squabbles here and there.

In a recent article on CNN, by John D. Sutter, entitled "New Search Engines Aspire To Supplement Google" the author examines some recent new search engines. The author discusses: Twine, Hakia, Searchme, Cuil, Kosmix, Wolfram Alpha, Topsy, TweetMeme and OneRiot. Each of these are different, making your web search more personal, more visual, or connecting your search to new social networks like FaceBook and Twitter.

Some experts say Wolfram Alpha is the most likely candidate to give Google some serious competition because Wolfram can do something Google can't; it can create information rather than just reading/presenting content already on the web. Will it present a solid threat to Google's dominance?

Perhaps, a more fitting sparring partner will come from an old rival with very deep, deep pockets. We are talking about the new search engine from Microsoft called Bing, which is very similar to Google in many ways, yet different. Bing's results are very similar to Google in a lot of ways, yet Bing serves up the results in a very pleasing arrangement, with a nice preview button for each listing and giving you related searches and your search history on the left hand side. Only time will tell if everyone would rather be binging instead of googling. To Bing or not to Bing, that is the question? There's a very informative article on Bing by Farhad Manjoo on Slate entitled: "Beware Google: Microsoft's New Search Engine Isn't Half-bad." Just Bing or Google to find it!

I personally like this search engine much better than MSN mainly because the home page of Bing is very appealing and only has the search box on it so you're not distracted with other news listings like on MSN and Yahoo! One of the main reasons for Google's success, besides the superior search results, has been its simplicity. Keep it simple and you may just be able to compete.

Then again, this is a bit of a biased judgment, since many of my own keywords and sites rank high in Bing; some even higher than they are listed in Google. I routinely monitor countless keyword phrases in all the search engines and lately Google has been favoring big Brand Name listings on their first page results. We are also seeing more Product Listings (Old Froogle), more video and more news listings... competition for Google's first page has become multi-layered and extremely competitive. What's a poor small online marketer to do when Google goes corporate?

Actually, Bing is not my favorite search engine of the new ones forcing their way into the spotlight.

For me, the one that shows the most promise and may give Google some competition is Searchme, which is a visual search (much like the iTunes interface) where you can shuffle through screenshots of webpages instead of a list of links. Searchme, which touts itself as the first multimedia search engine, has been around for a few years but is not widely known to web users. Performing a search on Searchme with a 24 inch monitor and 64-bit Windows is a hundred times more enjoyable than using Google Search or Bing for that matter. It is a hundred times faster than Google mainly because you can generally find your information without clicking through to the sites displayed.

Searchme is truly an eye opener but can it give Google some serious competition. The jury is still out, but I believe over time as web users upgrade their computers, operating systems, and their graphics... Searchme will be more accessible to more web users. Never know, with the right backing and marketing, any of these search engines, especially Searchme and Bing could blossom into a formidable opponent even for the mighty Google.

Here's why: Human Nature!

Whether we admit it or not, most of us (Humans) are lazy, we want the fastest and easiest route to solving any question or problem. Searchme gives us the answer much quicker than Google and in a much nicer way. Mainly because we are also visual creatures, given the choice between receiving pages of text and viewing images of sites/answers, most of us will take the visual route - we will choose TV over radio, music videos over records... video enhanced content over just plain static HTML. As the web turns into more of an interactive multimedia operation; visual search will always win out over text search any day of the year.

Most humans also have a need for speed, in our fast paced life styles, we all want a speedy solution to our problems. Search is no different, we want quick answers now, we want instant solutions and immediate gratification. Nature of the beast. If Searchme, Bing or any of the other search engines becomes faster than Google at giving the right answer, then it's a whole new ballgame.

Google must obviously know there are challenges to its search engine dominance. Otherwise, why would they be offering many new features in their SERPs; we are seeing more images and videos. Plus, Google has just introduced the "show options" link at the top of their SERPs, which presents their search results in many different ways. They even have introduced the "Wonder Wheel" as another viewing option, which gives a whole new way of using Google's search results.

Google's Achilles' Heel may just be the thing that gives it all its revenue: text ads. There may be a backlash on all those Google ads littered across the web, especially among the younger computer savvy crowd using such sites like the Google owned YouTube, where Google has nearly obliterated the videos with its ads. Everyone dislikes advertising, no matter what form it takes.

However, any news of Google's demise will be greatly exaggerated, because Google, like any smart company with tons of resources, has kept morphing and changing with the times, quickly adapting to new features as our usage of the web keeps changing. Google has perfected the art of staying one step ahead of the competition. This is one champion that won't go down without a fight to the finish. Top dogs rarely do.

If they ever present a serious challenge to Google, Searchme, Bing or any of the above search engines, will have a formidable opponent in the opposing corner, one that has gained almost insurmountable prestige and brand recognition around the world. Any major battle will instantly have a "David vs Goliath" scenario attached to it. And we all know how that one played out!


About the Author:
The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche sites. These 10 SEO Tactics Bring Me Over 2000 Visitors Daily: SEO Tips. To learn more Internet Marketing Tactics try: Marketing Tools. Copyright (c) 2009 Titus Hoskins. http://www.bizwaremagic.com This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.


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