Other Added - Internet and Businesses Online

Publicity: Marketing-Minded Financial Planners, Never Say These Words to a Reporter
Everyone has something that drives them up a wall. You may be surprised at what aggravates reporters.They deal with horrors like jargon-filled press releases, poorly-written news advisories, and gimmicky pens and mousepads, but reporters consistently and overwhelmingly name one habit of publicity-seekers as their number one peeve.What is it? It's when someone calls after a press release has been sent and asks "Did you get my press release?"This is the single worst way to follow up after sending something.When you make this no-no call, the reporter thinks: "If I wanted to call you, I would" or "Doesn't this person think I know how to open mail?" What's worse, they may even say this to you right over the phone. If they weren't int

s, both Google and Yahoo recently had to settle class action lawsuits regarding this very issue.

Google has to refund an estimated $90 million to advertisers. There is no word yet on the exact amount Yahoo has to refund, although they are liable for $4.95 million in attorneys fees alone.

When you consider the billions of dollars both companies make from their ppc programs, the settlements amount to litle more than pocket change.

Search Engine Optimization is another popular method marketers use to drive targeted traffic to their websites. Should you optimize your website? Yes, definitely. SEO does work. However, I personally don't think you need to invest thousands of dollars in SEO. Here's why:

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Give Your Online Business A Super Boost.
If you have an online business and it isn’t making any money, perhaps through a lack of hits, you can give it a real boost, by writing articles.So how does that work? It’s easy, and it costs you nothing. First of all, write some articles, and that’s not difficult. They can be about anything, and I mean anything, from tuning a piano, to the effects of nuclear fallout at Chernobyl, to running a small business magazine from home. Anything. Of course, it gives credence to your written work, if you have some knowledge and expertise in your subject, but we all have experience of something.Perhaps you were a student once, however long ago. Perhaps you still have your study notes. Dig them out and knock them into shape. Perhaps you have accountancy e

There's no question, the three most popular ways to drive targeted traffic to your website are pay per click advertising, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and article marketing. And if you're on a limited budget like most marketers, you need to know the answers to the following three critical questions:

1. Which of the three methods work the best?

2. Which of the three methods should you use?

3. Which of the three methods is the most cost effective?

In this article, I'm going to answer all three of those questions and then give you my recommendation.

Let's examine the most popular of the three marketing methods first, pay per click advertising:

Pay Per Click advertising is a huge, multi-billion dollar a year industry and are huge cash cows for both Google and Yahoo. There is no faster way to drive targeted traffic to your website than with a ppc advertising campaign.

For instance, with Google Adwords, you can literally be driving targeted traffic to your website and making money in just a matter of minutes.

Does ppc advertising work? Yes and no. For some, it works extremely well. For the vast majority however, ppc advertising simply leads to frustration and money down the drain.

So, what's the problem? Actually, there are several problems:

Inexperienced marketers who don't have a clue about how to write ads that will enable them to get the most out of their ppc advertising campaign.

Exorbitant keyword costs.

Click fraud.

Because of the "pie in the sky" climate of Internet marketing, many marketers have a fatal "get rich click" mentality, because of what they've read in some e-book.

They want instant gratification...that magic pill if you will!

They're not interested in taking the time to learn how to do things the right way. So, they throw a bunch of money at a ppc ad campaign, fall flat on their face and then come away convinced that Internet marketing doesn't work and is nothing but a scam.

Exorbitant keyword costs is another huge problem. While doing research for this article, I visited Yahoo/Overture to price the popular keyword, "Internet marketing."

This is what I discovered. At the time this article was written, if you wanted the #1 position, it would cost you $2.51 per click. Ouch! Just to be listed last on the first page at #31, it would cost you 95 cents per click. Double ouch!!

Needless to say, you have to be one of the "big boys" to play over at Yahoo's sandbox.

The keyword "Internet marketing" was much more reasonably priced over at Google. The minimum bid was only 10 cents.

That price isn't bad. But then you have to contend with another huge problem that could potentially eat away at your profits... click fraud.

It is estimated that 30 percent of all ppc clicks are fraudulent. In fact, according to the June 28 issue of the San Jose Mercury News, both Google and Yahoo recently had to settle class action lawsuits regarding this very issue.

Google has to refund an estimated $90 million to advertisers. There is no word yet on the exact amount Yahoo has to refund, although they are liable for $4.95 million in attorneys fees alone.

When you consider the billions of dollars both companies make from their ppc programs, the settlements amount to litle more than pocket change.

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Herding Behavior and Internet Marketing
Exasperation has brought me to the writing of this Article. Let me ask you how many spam-emails have you received with the opening sentence that goes something like this: “If I can show you how to earn x-amount of dollars a day, would you send me a Thank You card?”My question is one that you should take notice of, if you haven’t already. It tells me that this ad copy is being promoted for a particular program and because many affiliates don’t seem to have a mind of their own, they copy and paste the ad copy and send it out en masse.The phrase “herd behavior” is offered as an explanation of phenomena where large numbers of people act in the same way at the same time. Such people are sometimes labeled with the derogatory term “sheeple.”

-billion dollar a year industry and are huge cash cows for both Google and Yahoo. There is no faster way to drive targeted traffic to your website than with a ppc advertising campaign.