A note from the editor and webmaster:Below you will find what we guarantee to be the most comprehensive collection available anywhere online of articles by internet marketing pioneer Mark Joyner. While some of the material will seem dated by contemporary standards of our Web 2.0 world, and most of the links are obsolete, these articles are still jam-packed with invaluable advice. Joyner remains the best source to help aspiring internet marketers and web entrepreneurs to drive swarms of targeted traffic to their sites and put more money in their bank accounts.
- T.S. "Steve" Minton, "The T.S. Minton Blogs Guy"
How I Made $4,000,000 on a $0 Ad Budget, by Mark Joyner
Part I - Dead Rule Of Internet Marketing #1 - Make Everything Sound Bigger Than It Really Is
I'm as guilty of this as anyone. I'm guilty of it in the very title of this article.
Here's the deal - we sold a high traffic website for $4,000,000. The advertising and marketing budget for the site was $0. That's the reality. I'll show you how I did this in a moment. In the meantime, let's take a sober look at the harsh reality of this deal.
Part II - "$0 Ad Budget"? Yes. "No Cost"? No Way!
While we paid $0 for advertising per se, what we had to pay in terms of time and effort was great. You, too, should be prepared to sacrifice. You *can* generate great business without an ad budget, but, let's get real - it takes effort.
Marketing on a $0 budget is like North Viet Nam fighting the United States: The U.S. had big guns - The Viet Cong had speed and ingenuity. When you're up against companies that have big budgets, you have to out-think them and use your smaller size and agility to your advantage. The problem is, this fast movement takes energy - *lots* of energy.
I could list the thousands of ways this endeavor tried to sap my energy day in and day out. Rather than bore you with the minutia, I'll pass on the wisdom that allowed me to succeed:
a. If someone tells you that you are crazy or that you will never succeed, this is the big voice in the sky telling you that you're on to something big.
b. Sometimes it will seem that you have suffered an irreparable setback. If you're alive enough to think about it, you haven't.
Part III - "$4,000,000?" Yes. "$4,000,000 in Mark Joyner's Pocket?" Ha. Ha. You Kill Me.
The sale of SearchHound was for $3,000,000 in cash and $1,000,000 in strike warrants. The warrants could end up being worth much more than the cash amount - or they could mean nothing at all. I'm focusing in on the cash. The company that purchased SearchHound is a fast mover for sure, and if I were an investor, I'd jump in on their IPO the moment it hits - but I don't play the market. I'm a marketer, pure and simple.
Now, after I pay off our broker, give 1/2 of the remaining proceeds to my founding partner (who designed the technical back-end), pay the tax man, and give a sizeable bonus to my staff (I go to sleep thankful every night that I have them), I'll end up with just over $1,000,000 in my pocket. And then there are those warrants.
So, having a cool million in my pocket after taxes and all is not bad. It's not $4M, though. If you think I should have received more, send me an email and I'll send a reply from my yacht. (I'm kidding about the yacht - most of the money will go into the expansion of my primary business. If you're a competitor, the answer is: "yes, you should be afraid - *very* afraid".)
Part IV - How I Did It on a $0 Ad Budget
The actual marketing plan itself was very simple. I did not create a standard marketing plan like they teach you in school. Some people swear by them, but I just don't find it necessary (if you think I'm crazy for not using a standard marketing plan, send me an email and I'll send a reply -*from my yacht*! - OK. OK. I'll stop with the yacht jokes).
What I did was create an Internet Marketing Battle Plan. If you've read my course then you already know what I'm talking about. The Internet Marketing Battle Plan is a system I created which can be applied to any website for any purpose, consisting of a series of "Killer Tactics" tailored to your particular situation.
An Internet Marketing Battle Plan consists of 5 tactics for:
1. Getting People to a Website
2. Keeping People at the Website
3. Getting People Back to the Website Once They've Left
4. Closing the Deal
5. Working the "Back-End"
Then you just execute your plan. That's all there is to it. OK, I'm simplifying things greatly here. There is more to it than that, of course, but you get the general idea. You'll probably develop several Battle Plans and refine them before you find one that really sticks. Any good marketer will tell you that testing is the foundation of all this. A combination of testing with this clear methodical approach is your blueprint for success. I don't care if you're selling a product, selling advertising, generating leads - it doesn't matter.
People have offered me obscene amounts of money to teach them my methods. When I tell them that there is nothing I do that is not covered in my course (I just don't do consulting or lectures any more), they say: "come on, you're holding back on me". The truth is, there really *isn't* anything I do that I didn't reveal in my course.
I wish I could tell you otherwise. Really. I seem to regret publishing the course every day. That is, it always comes back to bite me. I now must face an army of competitors using my own tactics against me. Live and learn...
Well, the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, so I may as well let you in on it as well. Here's where you can find it in case you don't already have a copy:
foreverweb.com
Part V - Some Final Advice
As a final note of encouragement, here's a little story. When I was a young enlisted soldier in the Army, I decided that I would like to attend Officer Candidate School (OCS) and earn a commission. There were hundreds of annoying little hoops I had to jump through before I could even submit my *application*. Most of them consisted of going from one administrative office or another to get some paper work signed or some form approved.
I kept a running count of all the times I heard some "desk-jockey" tell me "you can't go to OCS". I stopped counting when I heard my 29th "no". I'll tell you what these "no's" amounted to in a minute.
A similar story can be told about the sale of SearchHound. I get really angry when I think about all of the negativity and "nay saying" I had to overcome to make this happen. A personal friend even sent me an email that said, "dream on" when I sent him a copy of the press release for the sale. Even after I showed him all of the independent news sources covering the story - he still couldn't believe it:
biz.yahoo.com
Some people are programmed for failure. Allow the following information to program *you* for *success*:
I went to OCS and graduated with one of the top ten academic averages of my class - that was the result of 29 "no's". And, as you know, I sold SearchHound for a tidy profit despite all the nay saying and disbelief.
Why Test?
By Mark Joyner
Marketing should be treated like a science. If you are serious about making money on the Internet, it is absolutely crucial that you spend some time testing your results and refining your approach.
Let me drive this point home. Say for example you have a website that gives you a visit to sale ratio of about 200 to 1. Not really bad as far as web sites go. Most do far worse.
Now, assume that you get 5,000 visits per month. Do the math. That’s 25 sales per month. If your profit from each sale is $50, you are making $1250 per month profit from your website.
Now, what would happen, if by changing one small thing on your website, you could improve that ratio to say 150 to 1. It may not seem significant, but let’s see how it works on paper.
Now, instead of 25 sales per month, you are doing 33. Multiply that by $50 and you are now making $1650 per month. That’s a difference of $400. It’s not like you’re having to work any harder for that additional $400. Your website is always there.
Now, the example I have shown you here is quite mild to some of the drastic improvements I have seen as a result of market testing. All my life I’ve heard people say "don’t work hard – work smart!"
This is excellent advice. Working smart means getting more from less effort.
Well, testing is a systematic way of helping you to work smart. It’s just like the scientific method, really. You may remember it from school. There are many versions of the scientific method for different disciplines and many scientists will argue about which approach is best. For our purposes, let’s take a very bare-boned and simple version. It’s really all we need:
a. Generate a hypothesis.
b. Test your hypothesis by performing an experiment and recording the results.
c. Perform calculations and draw conclusions.
d. Confirm or refine your original hypothesis.
For example, let’s say in the above example, we hypothesize that by adding a money back guarantee, we will get a better visit to sale ratio. This is our hypothesis. To test this, we make the change on our websites and record our results. That’s our experiment. After a few weeks (or any period of time we determine to be sufficient) we conclude the experiment and perform calculation on our data. We then discover that the visit to sale ratio did, indeed, improve during the course of our test run. We can then draw a conclusion that our original hypothesis is correct. Seems pretty simple, right? Well, actually no -
* Controls and Statistical Significance*
In the preceding example, we did a pretty straightforward and simple test. However, the results we have drawn may not be valid.
For example, what if the majority of visitors we received before the test run came as the result of a banner ad campaign we were running? Then, without us knowing it, sometime during the campaign a company favorably reviews our product and drives people to our site. It could be the case that people who read that review were more likely to buy the product.
It could also be the case that they were much more likely to buy and that adding the guarantee lessened the effectiveness of the site. Or, it could even be the case that the guarantee did increase the effectiveness of the site, but not as much as we thought.
The problem is, we just don’t know. To address this issue and to improve the reliability of our tests, we need to establish "controls". A control is a measure that allows us to isolate the factors which are causing the effects we record.
For example, a better way to run this test would have been to run two websites at the same time. Both of them identical in every way (promoted the same way, designed the same way - everything) except for the one element we think will make a difference. The site without the change is called the control site. The site with the change is the test subject.
This same principle can be applied to any other type of marketing. If you want to test the effectiveness of a banner ad, run two banner ads on the same site for the same period of time. If you run one banner ad on one site and the other on yet a different site, you can’t be sure that your results are valid.
Using strict control techniques improves the chances that your findings will be valid.
* Statistical Significance*
Even if we use good controls, we can still never be sure of our results. There may be something affecting the test we haven’t thought of. That’s why we also need to resolve ourselves to the fact that the results of one single test should not be accepted as conclusive.
Rather, we need to perform a great many tests and look at the over all trends. Only after we have compiled a considerable amount of information can we safely draw any conclusions.
Just how much testing is enough is up to you. You should test until you are satisfied, but be honest with yourself. Don’t just stop testing out of laziness!
* Turning tests into profits*
The idea here is to test as many different methods as possible, discover the most effective method, and crank up the volume on your best method. When you get into serious volume and your business is really doing well, even minor differences in results will have a major impact on the amount of money you take home. And sometimes very subtle and minor changes to a website will make huge differences in your results.
If you could find out which of your advertising campaigns was bringing in the most money for you, wouldn’t it make sense to put more effort into that campaign? Or do more of that type of campaign? Wouldn’t you be crazy not to?
... we’ll show you exactly how to track and monitor the results of all of your Internet marketing efforts. After we show you the logic behind each method of testing, we’ll show you the physical tools and techniques you need to employ to track your success.
Tracking is just recording the results of one campaign or another.
Testing is the systematic monitoring of these campaigns to discover what is working and what is not using the scientific method.
How to Easily Increase Your Affiliate Commissions
in Two Days or Less
by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop Marketing Corporation
Clearly, the people benefiting the most from affiliate programs
are the companies running them. My goal here is to help you -
the affiliate - earn more money. If you've gotten past the idea
that you can simply slap a banner up on your site and start
earning money, but you're not sure what to do next, this article
is for you.
Allow me to cut right to the chase. Here is a plan of action.
This may seem like a lot of work, but don't worry! At the very
end, I'll show you how to automate all of these steps. For now,
just read through to get a general idea of how you need to
proceed:
**Day 1**
Step 1 - Vow to organize your affiliate efforts. Begin with
organizing all contact information, payment information, and
vital statistics about your affiliate programs in one central
location. This may seem like a silly step, but believe me; you
don't want to spend your time digging through emails for contact
information and codes. You should also know, with just a few
mouse clicks, how much is owed you by the various affiliate
programs in which you are participating.
Step 2 - Select one affiliate program on which to focus your
efforts for the next 3 weeks. In order to apply some of the
various principles I will show you in a few moments, you need to
select one area of focus. It's best to select an affiliate
program that has several products, instant online tracking of
sales, instant notification of sales, and the ability to segment
your promotions. Internet Marketing ProShop has all of this and
more: http://foreverweb.com/
Step 3 - Select three promotion methods and two products to
promote.
This is crucial. This will make sense in a few moments. If you
can't think of three promotion methods, here are a few ideas:
An ad in someone else's eZine A mailing to your own subscription
list A text link on your site with some ad copy A banner on your
site A product review on your site An FFA submission
Now, some of these methods are more effective than others. But
you don't need me to tell you that. I'll show you how to find
out for yourself.
Step 4 - For each promotion method and each product, develop two
ads. So, since you have three promotion methods, two products,
and two ads for each - you will have to write 12 ads total. So,
for each ad, let's give it a code. If it's method one, product
one, ad one, you can call it:
M1P1A1
For method one, product one, ad two, you can call it: M1P1A2
For example, if you plan to promote my marketing course 1,001
Killer Internet Marketing Tactics using ads in someone else's
eZine, you will need two ads. One would be M1P1A1, and the
other would be M1P1A2. If you also plan to promote it using a
review on your site, the first review would be M2P1A1 (method 2,
product 1, ad 1) and the second would be M2P1A2 (method 2,
product 1, ad 2). This is just one way to code your ads. You
can do this any way you like as long as you can distinguish
precisely which campaign these codes refer to.
This sounds like a lot of writing. Don't be daunted by this!
Just crank it out. Don't think too much about each ad. We'll
find out in a while which one is good and which one is bad. You
won't decide this - your customers will! Don't be afraid to try
something wild.
Now, when you promote each product, you'll need to tie each
promotion to the code you created. With the Internet Marketing
ProShop Partner program, you can segment your campaigns by
adding an _code to the end of the URL you use to promote each
product.
For example, if you are promoting 1,001 Killer Internet
Marketing Tactics, you would use this URL:
..../kt.cgi?sponsorID
To segment your campaigns, you would add your campaign code on
the end of that URL for each campaign:
..../kt.cgi?sponsorID_M1P1A1 (for campaign one)
..../kt.cgi?sponsorID_M1P1A2 (for campaign two)
Note: The above method is only valid for our affiliate program,
so don't try this with any other affiliate program. We don't
know of any other affiliate programs that allow you to segment
your campaigns, this way, so please use caution here.
Step 5 - Before you finish for the day, promote the product
using your "ad 1" for each product.
You'll need to record:
Impressions. If you're advertising on a web page, this will be
the number of times your ad appeared on the page - or the number of times the page was viewed if your ad comes up each time the page is viewed. If you're advertising using some form of email, impressions = number of emails sent.
Clicks. You should be able to get this from the affiliate
program you are promoting.
Amount Earned. Again, your affiliate program should provide
this information to you in real time.
Now, in order to do a valid test, you'll need to promote to a
fairly significant number of people. I would recommend that at
least 300 people see each ad. Otherwise, you won't have enough
information to make a valid judgment. Ideally, you should hit
about 2,000 with each ad, but your resources may not allow for
this.
*Learning point: If you're going to send an ad via a
newsletter, see if you can run a "split". That is, get one ad
sent to 1/2 of the list and another sent to the other 1/2. That
is the most accurate way to compare the effectiveness of any
pair of ads.
**Day 2**
Step 6 - Run your "B" ads. Now that you have run your "A" ads
and have given them a bit of time to take effect, run your B
ads. Do this first thing this morning!
By the end of the day, you should have some good results from
both campaigns to compare and see where you stand.
By comparing and analyzing all of the information you have just
compiled, you will be able to start to have a good idea about:
a. Which product seems to sell more.
b. Which type of campaign is most effective
c. Which type of ad for each campaign is most effective
This short bit of testing won't allow you to make clear
conclusions, but it will put you on the right track.
Immediately, you should start using the ads that *sell* as much
as you can. If ad A is making you 5 cents per impression and ad
B is making you 5 dollars per impression - using ad B just
increased your affiliate commissions by 9900%! OK, that's a
dramatic example, but you get the point, right? If you aren't
tracking these things, you'll never know. If you track and
continue to refine, before you know it, you'll have an arsenal
of ads that you know pull well, and you can use them over and
over again. Once you do the leg work, it's easy!
As you see, though, this can get quite complex. How does one
actually analyze these campaigns? What if you have scores of
affiliate programs and quite a few campaigns for each?
Don't worry. As I told you at the beginning, there is an easy,
cost effective way to keep track of all of these things with
just a few mouse clicks. It's called Affiliate Assistant.
I highly recommend checking this out as it will, among other
things, allow you to quickly and easily implement the above plan
in one central location. With just a few mouse clicks you can
compare and analyze all of your various affiliate ad campaigns
so you'll know which are making you money and which are wasting
you time.
You could do all of the same things yourself with a good
database program and multiple spreadsheets, but Affiliate
Assistant will save you quite a bit of time and money without
having to go through all that.
Either way, you should implement some type of organizational and
tracking plan like this for your affiliate advertising efforts
immediately. The amount of time you put into this will pay off
exponentially in terms of higher commissions.
The One Technique that Can Instantly Take You Out of Your Sales Rut
by Mark Joyner
a. What is Back End Marketing?
First, a few words about back end marketing and how it can
multiply your current profits many times over:
i. Selling on the "back end" simply means selling a product to
your existing customer base. Sounds harmless and simple, but
it's deadly. Here's why...
ii. It's far easier (and less expensive!) to sell a product to
an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one.
iii. It's generally accepted that back end marketing is the
simplest antidote for tough times (or the easiest way to make a
successful business far more successful).
iv. It is one marketing principle that just about every
marketing expert in the world universally agrees on.
b. Why You're Not Doing Back End Marketing Now
I'm taking a gamble here and betting that you don't do back end
marketing right now. Well, the odds are in my favor as most of
the businesses in the world don't do any back end marketing at
all.
Most of the businesses in the world fail, too. I would bet
there is a strong correlation here...
So, why is this? Well, mainly because back-end marketing was
quite difficult before the Internet:
i. It meant that you'd have to create a whole new product, or
broker a deal with a company that has an appropriate product for
your back end.
ii. It would make your life more complicated. Suddenly you have
a whole new product to support, more complex accounting...
iii. Back end marketing is totally different from "front end"
marketing. You struggle for years learning how to market your
product, and then you have to learn marketing all over again.
c. How the Internet Makes it So Much Easier
(Did I mention today how much I love the Internet?)
Back end marketing is comparatively quite easy now:
i. With the advent of Internet affiliate programs, you can be
up and running with a back end campaign in minutes. Sign up for
a program - offer it to your various contacts - poof! - you have
a back end. (Be careful, though! Be sure to read my pointers
below.)
ii. Someone else is doing all the hard work. You just need to
get the word out to your customers and the company with the
affiliate program will take the order, fulfill the order, deal
with the customer, and write you a check. Very nice indeed.
iii. The cost is much lower than traditional back end
marketing. Sending an email to your customer base only takes you
the time involved in writing and preparing the email. Compare
that to direct postal mail - it's staggering.
With this low cost, you can afford to get even more aggressive
with your marketing. That is, with direct postal mail campaigns,
you need to be careful who you send to, as you have to pay to
mail to every single address on your list.
Normally, you might think twice about mailing a back end offer
to a postal mail newsletter because it is a high risk
proposition - the subscriber might very well be a *shopper* and
a total waste of your time. However, you know for sure that the
customer is a *buyer* - so there is less risk involved in
sending a back end offer to your existing customer base.
Since the cost is practically nothing for email, you can mail a
back end offer to your newsletter as well as your existing
customer base with practically no risk whatsoever.
d. How to Avoid Deadly Back End Mistakes!
You have to remember, though, that any time you use an
affiliate program as your back end, that you are sending a
customer to another company. You had better make certain that
you're not sending them to a company not worthy of your trust.
A good back end affiliate opportunity should:
i. Offer instant free sign up.
If the company can't manage an efficient sign up process, they
may not be able to manage closing a sale efficiently either.
ii. Be trustworthy.
Many affiliate programs will offer you the moon - only to
shatter your dreams with broken promises. Watch them carefully.
If they say they are going to do something and then blow it off
without an explanation, I would proceed with caution.
Keep in mind, though, that no company is perfect - they all
make mistakes from time to time. No company is going to make you
rich without any effort on your part. However, there is no
reason why companies should not keep their word with you. If
they must break their word, they owe you an explanation.
iii. Pay a residual.
If you send the company a customer, you should continue to make
money from that customer. Some companies will pay you a
commission on a single one-shot product -- and then when the
customer buys more, leave you out. You'll get a much greater
Return on Investment by promoting a product for a company that
pays a residual.
(Note: a company that pays a monthly commission for a recurring
billing type product is ideal, but they are rare.)
iv. Be complementary but non-competitive.
If your main product is cars, you will have a hard time selling
your customers a horse. That's not a complementary product.
Selling the customer a competing car isn't so smart either, as
you could be giving away a potential sale of your own product.
Here's an example:
At Aesop.com, we offer a wide range of products for
entrepreneurs, webmasters, and the SOHO (small office home
office) community.
We are always creating new products, but we know that the
capacity for back end is much greater than our ability to crank
out new products. So, if we're going to promote a product via
another affiliate program, we had better be very careful.
Especially when we own one of the largest affiliate programs on
the net.
A good fit for us was the .WS (WebSite) domain registration
service. "Dot Com" will probably always be king, but people are
waking up to the fact that the Dot Com domain they want just
isn't available (or available at a ridiculous price from a cyber-
squatter). The .WS domain is a sound alternative.
The exclusive registry for the .WS domain has a very polished
system for selling their product. It's a product just about
everyone on the net needs desperately, so it's a super-easy
sale. It's pays a very generous multi-tier residual commission.
It complements, but does not compete with our existing products...
A perfect fit for us.
When selecting your back end, you shouldn't settle for anything
less. However, don't spend too much time shopping around -
follow the guidelines I've given you above and get started. The
money is just sitting there - take it!
Mark Joyner is widely recognized as one of the top Internet
Marketing experts in the world. He recently retired as CEO
of Aesop Corporation, creators of the famous ROIbot Tracker.
He is the author of 1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics
and the wildly popular Confidential Internet Intelligence
Manuscript. Using just one of the techniques he reveals in
this top secret report is guaranteed to increase your
Internet sales by 32%! Before he left, Mark rounded up 14
of his fellow Marketing Masters in a legendary last, tell all
seminar and now this Ultimate Marketing Seminar is available
to you on 15 DVDs. Click here to learn more...
What is Guerrilla Marketing?
by Mark Joyner
History is full of stories where tiny, unadvanced armies have
handily defeated better equipped and much larger armies.
The history of these battles is the history of guerrilla
warfare.
There are similar stories in business.
One example is that of the "Marlboro Man". Before the Marlboro
Man, the Marlboro brand of cigarettes was ranked 31st - almost
rock bottom.
After the introduction of the Marlboro Man, and the guerrilla
branding campaign to promote it, Marlboro became the #1
brand in a multi-billion dollar industry.
It may shock you how many of the "big business" names (that
are now household words) started out as struggling small
businesses.
The history of the ascent of these icons is the history of
guerrilla marketing.
Until 1984, the principles of guerrilla marketing were known
only by a select few people in the world. They jealously kept
this information quiet with almost fanatical secrecy. And who
can blame them? If you had some special knowledge that
allowed you to rise to the top of your field, would you want this
information to be made public? Of course not!
The balance of power was dramatically upset by a maverick
marketing genius named Jay Conrad Levinson - a man who is
arguably the most respected marketer in the world.
He is the man who coined the term "guerrilla marketing" and
introduced these secrets to the average Joe (like me). His
concepts are so successful that he has published 27 books on
the subject (in 37 languages), his books are required reading in the
most respected MBA programs in the world, and he is now the most
widely read and respected author of business books in the world.
And Jay did all this "from scratch". That is, the success of
the "Guerrilla Marketing" brand is a testament to the very
principles Jay himself teaches.
It just so happens that he is also one of the creators of the
Marlboro Man. (Think what you will about tobacco, but you can
not deny the power of the marketing behind Marlboro - arguably
the most successful marketing campaign in history, and the most
widely recognized brand in the world.)
So, what then, is Guerrilla Marketing all about?
Let's take a segment from Jay's new book "Guerrilla Marketing
for the New Millennium" to learn:
"Marketing is absolutely every bit of contact any part of
your business has with any segment of the public.
Guerrillas view marketing as a circle that begins with
your ideas for generating revenue and continues on with
the goal of amassing a large number of repeat and referral
customers.
"The three key words in that paragraph are EVERY,
REPEAT, and REFERRAL. If your marketing is not a
circle, it's a straight line that leads directly into
Chapters 7, 11, or 13 in the bankruptcy courts.
"HOW IS GUERRILLA MARKETING DIFFERENT
FROM TRADITIONAL MARKETING?
"Guerrilla marketing means marketing that is
unconventional, non-traditional, not by-the-book,
and extremely flexible. Eighteen factors make it
different from old-fashioned marketing: "
Jay then goes on to list 18 things that separate guerrillas from
"mere mortals".
(See below for info on his new electronic book - it's recognized
as his most powerful work yet - and can't be found in book
stores.)
So, how then, does this information apply to those of us
marketing on the Internet?
Far more than you think! The Internet is not just a new
guerrilla battlefield - it's the *ultimate* guerrilla
battlefield. There have been more small business mega-success
stories in the last 5 years than in the combined history of
business.
And there are clearly two factors that have influenced this more
than anything:
1. The Internet
2. Guerrilla Marketing
Ever wonder why big businesses are totally blowing it online?
Because they are not guerrilla thinkers!
These big bloated bureaucracies are sluggish and set in their
ways. This means that someone like you can step in and
out-maneuver them. (More and more big businesses are turning
to small business entrepreneurs to teach them how to market
online - the tables have turned!)
So, start thinking like a guerrilla right now. You have the
advantage - all you have to do is take it.
Here's the definitive place to get started - where you will
find an easy to follow step by step plan for launching a
"guerrilla attack"!
Mark recommends Guerrilla Marketing for the New Millennium, the
ground-breaking new marketing course by Jay Conrad Levinson.
Learn to think and market like a guerrilla and crush your competitors.
Revolutionary Change! Internet Marketing
Will Never Be the Same Again!
by Mark Joyner
WARNING: This article may be OFFENSIVE to some. If you're
easily offended by "foul language," I recommend you stop reading
now. Sorry, but I had to quote General Patton, who was famous
for his foul mouth. However, he used foul language for a purpose:
to get the attention of his soldiers and to make them remember
what he said. So, I can't make any apologies for him -history
proves the effect of his words.
Also, he talked about Germans as if they were animals. I hope we
don't offend any of our German friends, and hope they understand
this speech in its proper context. This was a time of war.
When you read the title of this article, I bet you thought, "I
wonder what this big change in Internet Marketing is... I sure
hope it helps me get some traffic and some sales."
Well, I'm going to help you get some traffic and sales, but it's
not what you think. Hear me out - by the end of this article,
you will surely thank me - or want to box me about the ears...
First, the title of this article was a ruse. Yes, things are
changing every day on the net. So much so, that it almost
doesn't matter.
It's been said that the period of time in history between
revolutionary discoveries and inventions halves itself with each
new advance. We're at the point now where we've almost reached
"critical mass". That is, something revolutionary is happening
every day.
Think about that for a minute...
It's a wonderful time to be alive, isn't it?
Well, it's also a confusing time to be alive. Unfortunately,
it's impossible to keep up with all of these changes. If we
tried, we'd never get anything done!
Luckily, there are some things that won't change:
1. The purpose of your business is to make money.
2. You won't do this unless you promote your business
constantly, you're constantly motivated, and you're constantly
focused.
It's time to stop waiting for the "revolutionary change" that's
going to suddenly make you rich, and start *doing*.
It's funny, but many of the people I talk to every day ask me
for the "secret" that has made me and my company successful.
When I tell them the "secret" they are almost always
disappointed; because, it's not what they want to hear. They
want to hear that I have some special formula, or new
technology. They hate it when I tell them that the secret is:
"Guts and persistence".
STOP! Now, before you quit reading thinking this is going to be
some kind of vapid pep-talk, there is some good news. By the
time we're done, I will introduce you to some new technology
that will help, but hear me out first.
First, let's talk about guts. A day does not go by where my
resolve is not tested. Every day someone is there to tell me
that my business will fail, and that my ideas are crazy. I mean
it.
Well, if I had listened to any of these people, I would probably
be stuck in a hateful job somewhere and miserable.
When General Patton addressed the 3rd Army on the eve of
D-Day...
Well, if you know this speech, you know that these are words
that stir the soul.
One of the most memorable passages was about "surrender". I
hope that the next time someone tries to discourage you, these
words will inspire you the way they've inspired me:
"My men don't surrender, and I don't want to hear of any soldier
under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if
you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit
either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like
the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest,
jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and
busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped
on the gun and went out and killed another German before they
knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this
man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!"
(Now, remember that the soldiers of the day then were all men,
so if you're a woman reading this, please understand the time of
this writing. We're a more enlightened species now, I think.)
Not only must you be brave, but you must also be "turned on" all
the time. At times, when opportunity knocks, it knocks with a
light tap.
Being alert and turned on all the time is not easy. It comes
from persistence and "drill".
Here's what General Patton had to say about that in the same
speech:
"All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what
you call 'chicken shit drilling.' That, like everything else in this
Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness
must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's
not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be
here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at
all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime,
a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind
you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit! There are four
hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because
one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves,
because we caught the bastard asleep before they did."
The purpose of "drill" in the Army is to drive a lesson home, or
to instill a habit that will stay with you for life.
Persistence is the key, and you don't get that without being
constantly reminded of what's important.
Unfortunately, most of us don't have "Drill Sergeants" to help
us with our businesses.
************* Side Note
Well, technology won't "cure all that ails ya", and it won't
change the laws of physics, but it sure can help.
Here's a cool little tool that may be the next best thing to a
Drill Sergeant for your business: The Promote-Ivator
*************
Now, let me leave you with a bit of an honesty check.
Ask yourself right now:
A. When was the last time you were discouraged by the words of
others?
B. Are you currently "alert"? That is, are you spending enough
time promoting your business?
Be honest...
And in that moment of honesty, think of Patton's words. May they
inspire you as they have me.
The 3 Secrets of High Traffic Sites
by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.com
It seems to be in vogue these days to downplay the
importance of web traffic. It's popular (and perfectly
valid) to say things like: "Traffic is worthless if you
don't turn it into money."
Excellent point, but this assumes that you actually have
some traffic to begin with. Each step of the Internet
Marketing Process is not just important - it's required for
success. So, let's focus today on getting traffic to your
site, and remember:
A. Getting traffic to your site is like putting gas in your
car. You can have a great engine, but it won't go anywhere
without the gas. Likewise, you can have a perfect sales
letter - but without traffic, it's just pretty to look at.
B. The highest traffic sites of the world do not just get a
little more traffic than the next guy - they get
exponentially more traffic than the next guy. For example,
according to Media Metrix, AOL's network weighed in at #1,
getting more traffic than any other site in the world in
April of 2001. Amazon was ranked #10. Both are top ten
sites... And the difference? AOL had 89,000,000 visitors
that month and Amazon had 19,000,000. That's a whopping
difference of 70,000,000 visitors between the #1 site and
the #10 site.
Interestingly, the higher up the ranks you go, the greater
the gap between each site.
So, what's the difference? Why is it that the better a site
gets, the further behind it leaves its closest competitor?
Here are their secrets:
1. They Set Up "Multiple Streams of Traffic"
Back in 1995 I observed an interesting phenomenon. I found
that the likelihood of someone responding to your website
was highly dependent on the path they took to get there.
People may ask you "what is the conversion rate of your
website," but that is really an irrelevant question.
Conversion rates are meaningless unless they take into
consideration how someone gets to your website. (Test this
yourself and you'll find it to be true.)
So, I coined the phrase "All Clicks are Not Created Equal."
For example, traffic from a site recommending your product
is more likely to generate a sale than traffic from a site
criticizing your product. That's an extreme example, but you
get the point, right?
When people discover this, their natural tendency is to
start getting picky about how they get their traffic. Why
waste your time on traffic that won't generate a sale,
right?
If you're paying for advertising, this makes perfect sense.
However, many people mistakenly throw away traffic from free
sources as a result.
High traffic sites never throw away traffic and constantly
endeavor to set up new traffic streams.
Let's take the worst possible traffic source imaginable: FFA
pages. Traffic from FFA ads is extremely sparse. To make
matters worse, this traffic is rarely the source of an
immediate sale. Very little amounts of the lowest quality
traffic in the world - yep, I think that qualifies it as the
worst possible traffic source.
If, however, you have an automated FFA promotion going that
doesn't take you any time to maintain and still brings in
traffic, should you throw it away?
Maybe not...
I still have in place free automatic traffic building
sources that I set up years ago. Much of the traffic that
comes from these free sources is of low quality, but hey, I
don't lift a finger to get it any more.
Most super-high-traffic sites are constantly working on new
ways to bring in traffic - many of which are not very
sophisticated at all. Even Yahoo, for example, uses a
low-budget "tell a friend" script on their site to encourage
people to forward articles to their friends. Does Yahoo care
that anyone can do this with a free CGI script? Of course
not. It's just one of thousands of traffic sources they've
established.
When you read #3 below, you'll realize why "low-quality"
traffic may not be so bad after all...
Remember, though, if you're paying for "cheeseburger"
traffic, don't pay a steak-and-lobster price. Better: get
your cheeseburger traffic for free from as many automated
sources as you can.
2. They Use Viral Marketing
"Viral Marketing" was the vogue buzz-phrase of 1999. Several
books have been written on the subject in hopes of cracking
the code, but still very few sites are taking advantage of
this incredible concept.
Viral Marketing is any type of marketing that encourages
people to spread your marketing message around for you.
Think about this - it sure would be great if people
advertised your product for you, wouldn't it? It beats the
heck out of paying for advertising.
Here's a viral marketing story for you:
When I started the e-book marketing craze back in 1995 with
the release of "Search Engine Tactics," I promoted the book
with a very simple viral marketing scheme.
Here's what I did:
I put a note in the book itself that everyone was granted
permission to give away or even sell the book on their
sites. They would benefit by giving something of value to
their visitors - I would benefit by advertising products in
the book. The people that they gave it to saw the note in
the book, and they gave it away on their sites - and so
on...
So, did this work? You be the judge:
a. The e-book was downloaded over 1,000,000 times when we
last counted in 1998.
b. The e-book was noted by ZDNet as one of the top downloads
of 1999, and is the only e-book ever to be given 5 Stars by
ZDNet.
c. Experts have since written entire books about my little
ploy showing people how, they too, can unleash the viral
power of free e-books as traffic builders.
The point? Well, one simple viral marketing tactic put my
name on the map. Granted, it was an unusually successful
virus, but this was just one simple tactic...
People are still giving this book away on their sites today,
and I haven't done anything to promote it in years.
High traffic sites are always looking for new ways to spread
their message virally.
3. They Turn Traffic into More Traffic
This is where most people blow it. Allow me to explain...
Whenever I consult for businesses I always teach my
"Internet Marketing Battle Plan" concept and use that as the
basis for everything we do. This lays the groundwork for the
best marketing possible. (Side Note: I very rarely do any
consulting anymore - and usually only as a favor to close
friends. I just don't have time for it - I love it, but my
own Internet business is too lucrative to spend time doing
anything else.)
The Internet Marketing Battle Plan is a cohesive system
consisting of 5 unique tactics that represent each step of
the Internet Marketing Process. All successful Internet
Marketing I have encountered follows one form or another of
this plan.
Step 4 is: "A Tactic for Getting People to Come Back to Your
Site."
If you're selling a product on your site, remember that most
sales are not closed the first time someone hears about a
product. Obviously, getting people to come back will greatly
increase your chances of closing a sale.
If you're selling advertising on your site, clearly getting
initial traffic to come back over and over again will
snowball your traffic.
There are thousands of ways to do this, but you always need
to have:
a. An incentive for getting them to come back.
For example, at the killertacticsjournal.com site, we entice
you to come back by offering free marketing advice each week
from world-leading experts. This incentive needs to be truly
valuable or it won't work.
If we offered misguided advice from self-proclaimed experts,
it would not be nearly the same incentive. Instead, we offer
battle tested advice from undisputed world-leading experts
like Jay Conrad Levinson, Brian Tracy, Joe Sugarman, Ted
Nicholas... If we didn't offer you value each time, you just
wouldn't come back, and you wouldn't be reading this article
right now!
b. A method of informing them of the incentive.
For example, you sign up for our newsletter and we inform
you whenever this new information is available. You come
back and this starts the cycle again.
Can you think of other ways to inform people about your
incentives? Use your imagination.
High traffic websites always keep people coming back for
more.
You now have the plan - it's up to you to put it into
action. Work on all three of these secrets every single day
and I assure you that your traffic will increase dramatically.
My 3 Must-Use Secrets for Big Fat Subscriber Lists
- by Mark Joyner
1. Give the Subscriber a *Reason* to Subscribe
Several psychological studies have demonstrated that giving someone a reason to comply to your request will greatly increase their chances of compliance. And the reason doesn't even have to be good! Amazingly, just using the word "because" will increase your response.
2. Really "Sell" the Content of Your Newsletter
People don't know whether your newsletter contains pure junk or gold. You could have the greatest, most informative newsletter in the world - if you don't *tell* them, they will never know.
Now, here's the key. You don't want to tell them yourself "my newsletter is the best". No one will believe you. The best way to let people know how great you are is to have someone else tell them for you!
You should get a testimonial or two about the content of your newsletter and use this to "sell" the content of your newsletter.
3. Provide an Incentive to Subscribe
How many people offer a free newsletter? No one can know for sure, but I'll tell you that the answer is: "too many"!
What is *unique* about what you offer? If you tie your subscription into being able to access something unique, I promise your subscriber rate will go through the roof.
Can you offer a free service? Can you offer a free download? A free (and unique!) report? Access to some exclusive information?
Generate curiosity in your potential subscriber. People are inherently curious and it is painful when curiosity is not satisfied. Set it up so subscribing to your newsletter is the only thing they can do to satisfy that curiosity.
Now, let's put this all together. Here is an example of a "call to subscribe" you can use that puts all three principles together. Put this above your subscription form for one week and I predict your visitor-to-subscriber rate will *at least* triple:
"~Newsletter Name~ is fantastic.
"It's one of the very few newsletters I actually read every time." - Mark Joyner of ROIbot
Subscribe right now; because, for a limited time you will be given instant access to the powerful report: "My 3 'Must Use' Secrets for Big Fat Subscriber Lists."
And you'll get more great tips like this in each and every issue.
This should be enough to get you started. Sit down right now and brainstorm. Think of at least 5 ways you can apply these principles to your newsletter subscription process. Pick the best ones and apply them *today*.
3 Proven Ways to Make Your Newsletter Make You Money Today
by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.com
You may or may not already manage your own email newsletter (AKA "eZine" - short for "email Magazine").
If you do, this article will help you to make more money with it today - no matter how big your list is!
If you don't, read this to learn why you should begin building a subscriber list immediately.
As you surely already know, your newsletter is a must have key to your success online. I don't care what you do - not building and maintaining an email newsletter is suicidal.
Now, everyone knows that much and you will hear many speak these same words - but you rarely here folks talk about the real value of your list. That is, how do you use it to really make money? What I'm about to show you applies to...
1. Educate
"All Links are Not Created Equal." This is a phrase I coined in my marketing course years back.
The idea here is that the state of mind of your customer when leading to your site is crucial in determining whether or not he will buy. This is a natural extension of what salesmen call "qualifying". That is, you need to determine before wasting your time, whether the prospect is ready
to go or not.
Pretty basic salesmanship 101 stuff here. How does it apply to your newsletter?
Well, chances are, your prospects don't even realize that they need your product or service. What may be obvious to you, may be totally unknown to your prospect.
Your newsletter can be used to educate your prospects about the value of your product or service. That is, they don't know they need it - so educate them!
Ad educated prospect will come to your site "pre-qualified" and ready to be sold. He knows he needs what you've got. All he needs now is a little nudge.
2. Endorse
If the content of your newsletter is good, and not just a sales pitch, over time you will gain the respect of your readers. Once you've gained their respect, they will be more likely to listen to what you have to say (they are pre-qualified to receive your opinion - see how this all fits
together?)
When you recommend a product or service to them, they will arrive at the sales site for that product or service pre-qualified and ready to buy. Your opinion means a lot and will go a long way on the path of making the sale.
The application of this concept to affiliate programs is quite obvious - just endorse the products you are offering, right?
What if you are selling a product or service of your own?
If you've read my course you remember the concept of the "Internet Marketing Battle Plan". The 5th and final tactic in your Battle Plan is "Working the Back End".
Once you've sold your product to your customer, continue to sell related products to that customer as long as you can. These don't have to be your own products - they can be products from other companies selling related products...
Heck, they can even be your competitors!
Use the power of your endorsement for these products to sell like crazy.
Endorse and Educate and you will always send pre-qualified and excited prospects to your sites.
3. Automate
Do you manage your newsletter by hand? Or is the tool you are using to manage your newsletter unreliable and difficult to use?
If so, properly automating your newsletter will make you money.
How?
It's simple. Automation of your newsletter management will save you time and spare you the mental anguish of having to worry about your list. In the end you'll have more time and mental energy to apply to your other projects. Or, if you're lazy, it might just give you some extra time in front of the tube!
Either way, you want to make sure that your automation solution for your newsletter: a. Is highly configurable.
You want it to be able to grow and change as you grow
and change.
b. Is reliable and located in a trusted spot.
You can only guess what happens to your newsletter when it's hosted on a remote site, or when it's managed by scripts you don't understand. A solution you run locally solves this problem by putting you in control.
c. Handles subscribe and unsubscribe requests efficiently.
This will save you hours of time.
d. Can schedule and automate the mailing of your newsletter. What if you go on vacation or have a family emergency? Does you business stop? Of course not!
It simply can't. You need a management tool that can run things while you're gone.
TIP: ROIbot Newsletter Server is a new tool that handles all of the above quite nicely. You can learn about by clicking here.
Apply the above techniques today and I promise you will immediately begin making more money as a result of your newsletter marketing.
Just remember to always test everything you try every step of the way.
Ensure Your Site is Easy to Surf!
by Mark Joyner CEO, Aesop.Com
Let's take a little test.
Imagine you are surfing a website. You are looking for an exact piece of information.
Now imagine you have to navigate through an incomprehensible maze of text and bizarre links. After 30 tedious seconds of this, imagine what you would do next.
If you're like me, you'd just hit the back button and go away. Who needs it, right? I barely have enough time to eat lunch. Where am I going to find the time to pour through an incomprehensible site that may, or may not, have what I need?
This is a common problem on the net. Even sites that are otherwise well-designed often miss the mark here.
Take a moment right now and look at your site. Is it easy to navigate? This exercise requires quite a bit of honesty. You have to step outside yourself. What makes sense to you may or may not make sense to someone else.
Wouldn't it be nice to have some hard and fast rules, here? To ensure your site always makes sense to the surfer, you can do one of two things (or both):
1. Provide a linear path that takes you through the site step by step.
2. Provide a non-linear navigational structure that is:
a. Easy to understand
b. Easily Recognizable
c. Consistent
Now, take a look at the following site:
foreverweb.com
This site employs both of the above examples. It provides a linear path through the site in the form of an article. Since the purpose of this site is to sell a product, providing a linear path is an extremely effective choice.
However, what if someone visits the site and has a particular question? For example, they might say: "Look, I just want to download the software."
That is where the non-linear navigational structure comes in. Take a look at the above site again. You'll see that the "nav-bar" (the series of buttons on the left that tell you what else is available on the site) has the following three features:
1. It is easy to understand. By looking at the label of each button, you immediately know what you will see if you click on it.
2. It is easily recognizable. That is, it is where you would expect to find it. The person looking to download or purchase the item will immediately know where to go.
3. It is consistent. On each page, the nav-bar is in the same position. That is, you don't have to hunt for it each time.
No matter what type of content you have on your site, you should follow these rules to make surfing easier. If you can find another way to ensure your site is easy to surf, then go for it! However, these rules will provide a ready guide for you. Apply them to your site now and your repeat visits will increase dramatically.
Warning: Your Email is Invisible
by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.Com
What I'm about to show you will increase the number of people that read your email significantly. (I'm talking about legitimate opt-in or one-to-one emails here, not spam.)
Many email clients will allow you to filter out "junk" based on a set of rules. For example, anything that starts with "ADV:" or includes such text as "this email is sent in compliance with…" can be filtered out and sent directly to your trash file.
If you're like me and get tons of email every day, this can be quite useful. I just don't have time to read about every time some South American pharmacy is running a special on Viagra.
The problem is that these rules are not always accurate. That is, sometimes these "junk email" rules filter out important email as well.
Surprisingly, these rules are not very forgiving at times. If I were to write such rules I would do so under the assumption that it is better to let some spam slip through than to erroneously filter out something important. But, we're not so lucky. Many of the junk filtering rules are valid, but others are not.
You should comb through any of the automated follow up emails or newsletters you send out and remove anything that might trigger a spam filter. Since some of these rules are quite arcane, it is probably best to send the email to yourself and receive it with a client that has junk-filtering rules turned on. I've found that the Outlook junk filtering rules are the harshest, so you might try that. If the email is not filtered, you're probably OK. If it is, play with it until the email is accepted.
Here are some things to look for that you may not expect. The following will trigger junk email filters in Outlook and keep your email from being read:
"FREE"
When in ALL CAPS anywhere in your email. You shouldn't use ALL CAPS for anything, though, if you can avoid it.
"sales@anydomain"
If this is in the from address. Believe it or not!
"extra income"
When found anywhere in the message.
"for free?" or "for free!"
When found anywhere in the message. This one is really silly. I can think of quite a few uses for this phrase outside of junk email…
Of course, there are quite a few other rules that will trigger junk email filters, but these are ones that could easily trip you up. Just remember to test the mail yourself to make sure. Doing this will significantly increase the number of people that actually read the mail you send them.
The Craziest Internet Business Idea in History
by Mark Joyner
So, you've got a great Internet business idea. Yeah, I'm talking to you. You know who you are. You have this great idea that you love to brag about. You tell all of your friends how it's going to make you a millionaire.
And to you, oh great generator of ideas, I say:
So what!
I know (literally) hundreds of people that come up with million dollar ideas on a daily basis. I can count on my hands, however, the number of those people that have actually achieved a respectable level of success with those ideas.
What about you? Are you sitting there feeling good about yourself with that great idea of yours or are you actually doing something about it?
Now, before you answer that question, be honest with yourself about what you want. Some people, it seems, are satisfied just having people pat them on the back for having such a great idea.
What about you? Is the pat on the back enough? If so, stop reading right now. I'm just going to waste your time if that is the case.
However, if you're one of the elite few that genuinely has what it takes to turn that idea into money, read on.
--- Point of No Return Starts Here ---
Still with me?
OK, then. Let's get started.
1. Pick one idea.
Decide right now that you want to turn this idea into money and try not to get bogged down in other ideas.
You're going to come up with hundreds of other ideas before you see this one to completion. Resist the temptation to treat all of them equally. You will be tempted to pursue every single idea you have. This is the kiss of death. You need to narrow your focus. That's the key to success.
2. Stop rationalizing.
Somewhere along the way you're going to say to yourself: "This idea isn't working, because it's not the best idea. I should have picked another."
Rubbish! This is the lazy part of your mind trying to give you an excuse for quitting.
Don't quit. You don't know that the "other idea" is better. You *can't* know this.
Drive on.
3. It's the marketing, stupid.
You should spend more of your time marketing than on any other task. In the course of running your business, it's easy to get caught up in a million idiotic things.
For example: "Which color paint do you think would look best in the ladies room? Pink or mauve?"
Who cares! Make little decisions quickly, or pass them to someone else.
If you are not spending 90% of your working day on marketing, something is wrong.
Fix it!
Now, you can say to yourself: "Of course he's right - I don't need Mark Joyner to tell me all these things" and then forget everything I've said.
Or...
Or, you can get started right now. I think you know which path leads to wealth and success. The question is, do you really want it?
A Down and Dirty Guide to Search Engine Positioning
by Mark Joyner
I've been asked here to sum up what everyone should
know about search engine positioning. First, two
caveats: 1) Search Engine Positioning is only a tiny
part of the big Internet Marketing picture. It
takes time and there are other things that will pay
off far more in the long run. 2) This is a gross
simplification of the whole process.
With that said, let's dive in.
1. This discussion will focus on spider engines.
That is, an engine that goes to your site and
indexes you based on what it finds. Directories
are a whole 'nother ball game (which we will address
in another article). Good examples of spiders are:
Infoseek, Excite, and AltaVista.
2. Every search engine is different. You need to
learn the "algorithm" (set of rules) used by each
engine to rank pages. An algorithm is a set of
rules.
3. These algorithms change constantly. This is
why tips like "put 3 % of your target keyword in
your title tag" are probably worthless by the time
you hear them.
4. The only reliable way to learn a sites algorithm
is to analyze actual results of a search on that
engine. This must be done using a reliable keyword
density analyzer. This tool will show you the weight
of particular keywords in high ranking documents. You
then simply reproduce this weight in your document to
attempt to reproduce the results. Any advice you find
that did not come from an actual analysis is probably
smoke and mirrors. This method is very reliable.
There are a few other factors that will affect rank
that can not be measured this way (link popularity,
spam filtering etc.), but keyword density is the
easiest to measure and most reliable factor.
Here is the only keyword density analyzer I use:
5. You should not only be concerned with the rank
of your listing, but with the way it appears in the
engine as well. If your listing is #1, but looks
like a bunch of junk (try a search right now and
you'll see what I mean), it will be a waste of your
time. The appearance of your listing depends on
two of three things:
a) your title tag e.g.
b) your description tag <>
content="description here like this"> (applies
to some engines - all others use the following)
c) the first 250 words (or so) of visible text
on your site on your site
"A" above is what the engine links to your page.
B or C are used as descriptive text for your link.
You must balance your work on these tags. That is,
sometimes what gets you a high rank will not make
for an enticing listing. Remember that your title
is most important. Think of it as a headline for an
ad.
6. No software in itself is going to get you a high
position on a search engine. Period. There are many
software products claiming to get you a higher position
on the web. For the most part, save your money.
There are really only two programs you need (and you
may not even need them):
a) A keyword density analyzer. You don't really
need this if you have some other tool that will
allow you to analyze the relative mathematical
composition of any text. If what I just said flew
over your head, a keyword density analyzer is for
you. Again, here is the only one I use
b) A site submitter. You don't really need one of
these, either, if you are strictly focusing on a
high position in the spider engines. You can
probably submit these pages one by one just as
easily since the process of gaining a high rank
is a surgical one. However, if you need to submit
many pages at once (if you do it will save time),
or you want to submit to other types of sites (most
submitters submit to over 900 sites and spider
engines account for about 12 of those), then it is
a good idea to get some software that will automate
this task for you. We've developed a powerful
multi-use tool that will spider all of your pages
and submit each of them to all known spider engines
(it has about 20 other functions as well - all of
them key). You can check that out here:
There is, of course, much more to it than I have listed
here, but this information will get you started on the
right track.
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