They’re Obviously Related
Marketers decide when and where a product will be displayed. Advertising agencies determine how pretty the box will be.

Both marketing and advertising seek to inform consumers of a product or service and turn that knowledge for a profit, but for all practical purposes, would it not be fair to say that marketing is an umbrella, and advertising a single supporting spoke?

Marketing is a process by which a consumer and a provider are brought closer together. This entails everything from designing the product or service, to seeing into creation and branding. It also involves gathering important data on consumer demographics. Who is your target audience, and where do you want to set up shop to keep traffic consistent?

In light of all this research, all this planning, marketers then turn to the ad agency of their preference, and talk with them about how to introduce their product to the world in such a way as to get people talking, to get people buying and to get people smiling.

This comes at the end of a long list of chores that marketers must get through first. Ultimately, marketing, as a whole, is a process, of which advertising itself is a small, though very important part. It’s a tool to help you build your business.

Advertising is a seller’s interaction with consumers, with the ad agency in the background. How long will the ad air? Which magazine should it be placed in? Marketers rely upon the savvy of advertising agencies to present their product with utmost professionalism and in a way that turns a profit. Often, it’s not the product that sells, it’s the advertising. Marketing is really everything leading up to the point of sale, including advertising.

When business owners market a product, they do more than just advertise it. They compile massive amounts of data, analyze it, and release the product strategically to conform to the demands of the public. Not everyone looks at a pretty box with admiration. Some believe it’s an advertising ploy, and it may be. It may be that such a consumer is middle-aged. Would such a product be better suited for a mall, where teenagers are more liable to hang out?

Often, stores receive communications from the corporate office to lay out their store a certain way. The company is likely aware that products of more excitement sell better at night and on the weekends. Is this because more teenagers hang out at the mall in this time slot?

Content is at the heart of any successful blog. One of the biggest benefits of cloud technology is the large storage capacity available to you via the service. This allows you to add more content to your blog without worrying about your own server limitations. This allows you to do things like archive more content, post more videos, and even add some animated graphics here and there. Even if you blog via another server, your space is still limited. This isn’t a concern if you use cloud storage.

Protection of Your Content

If the server that your blog is on goes down, you’re out of luck until it’s back up and running. However, you may still lose some or all content if something happens and data can’t be recovered. Cloud storage provides better protection of your content since your data is stored on a remote server. Granted, there are some concerns about pinpointing the exact location of your data in the cloud, but security has greatly improved since the inception of cloud technology. Other benefits of cloud storage in terms of protection include significant backup and recovery systems to ensure that your data is always available.

Easier Sharing

A blog isn’t much of a blog if you can’t share content. Cloud storage allows you to keep more content at your fingertips for easy sharing. This can include extra email content for subscribers or content for e-books and other perks for loyal followers. Cloud storage also provides plenty of space to store content that followers share with you, especially if you’re not sure you want to post it to your blog right away.

Update Your Blog Anywhere

While you can update your blog anywhere there’s an Internet connection, you don’t always have access to your content and other tools you need to fully update your blog. That’s no longer a concern with cloud storage. You can access your blog and any related content you have stored via any device with an Internet connection. Think of it as having access to your own personal storage unit wherever you go. You can “go in” and get anything you need and “put away” what you don’t need right now.

Better Organization

Cloud storage is also an easy way to get organized. There are plenty of services that use cloud storage. Some of these services offer some free features, while others require a fee. Keep in mind that you can always access cloud technology free of charge. What you’re paying for is a more organized way to access the cloud. Services like ASUS WebStorage web interface allows you to move files you save in “MySyncFolder” to “My Collection,” or vice versa. You can do the same with mobile devices with an Internet connection. You can store any unfinished or ongoing content in your “MySyncFolder,” for example, so your saved content automatically syncs to all your devices. This allows you to add to your saved content anytime you wish to do so. Finished or old blog content can easily be moved to “My Collection” when you’re ready to archive your content.

The biggest advantage a blogger gets from cloud technology is storage. You are no longer limited to the power or your server or the server you’re using for your blog. Cloud storage also requires little maintenance and upkeep on your end. This gives you more time to focus on running your blog without worrying about the technical stuff that goes on behind the scenes. The final result is a more engaging blog with more content and the ability to share that content with your followers. Happy blogging in the cloud!

Katelyn Roberts is an SEO enthusiast who writes for NetQin, and is continuously looking for way to better themselves.

Step 1: Do the Math

Before considering a PPC campaign, you need some important data. If you know your site’s conversion rate, you can calculate approximately what each visitor is worth in terms of potential profit. Be sure you have enough visitors to get an accurate sampling. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is over-estimating your conversion rate.

For example, if your sample consists of 1000 visitors, and you made 25 sales, that’s a conversion rate of 2.5 percent.

(That figure is slightly below the industry average. If your conversion rate is over 3 percent, you’re doing better than the average website.)

How much profit did you make from those 25 sales? Divide that figure by 1000 and you have the profit potential for each visitor. Your PPC amount should be significantly lower than this amount to maintain profit.

It’s important to stay informed about your site statistics. A change in your conversion rate can signal a need to improve your site design to increase sales. A dramatic drop in conversion rate may indicate potential fraud from a PPC affiliate.

Step 2: Do Keyword Research

One of the biggest mistakes made by new pay-per-click marketers is buying the most popular AdWords. These are also the most expensive and most competitive AdWords. Look at alternatives, such a keyword phrases, synonyms, or generic terms. A service such as WordTracker can assist you in identifying keyword trends, and your own site statistics will reveal what current visitors are searching for.

Step 3: Do the Dance

Another big mistake made by PPC marketers is throwing away the opportunity to connect with non-buyers. If 2.5 percent of your visitors are buying, 97.5 percent aren’t. Instead of wasting the money you spent for their click, give them an incentive to give you their contact information for follow-up marketing messages. Common incentives include free reports, downloadable checklists, or email newsletters. This classic two-step marketing strategy can build a lead database of people who have been pre-qualified as “interested” in your niche.

Your follow-up emails to this targeted list should continue to provide helpful information as you build your trust and credibility. Ultimately, the conversion rate from these targeted mailings should be significantly higher than the conversion rate from the one-time site visitor.

Pay-per-click advertising can boost both current and future sales if you take the time to develop an effective strategy.

The homepage of a website business is critical for the success of any business that follows from the opening page. The customers’ initial impressions of a business are important and may lead to further interest in the company or may generate sales. The homepage needs to be attractive and bring in the type of customer that would be more likely to purchase from the website or, at least, go by a brick and mortar facility.

SPECIFIC BUSINESS TYPES

Therefore, the homepage should fit the specific business type that is going to purchase from the company. Design an initial page that is unbelievable for the crowd it is attracting and is definitely going to bring conversation to the website. Specific business types may include the following:

1) The artistic homepage can be used for the entertainment or media audience and should cater to this crowd’s creativity and love for design and shapes.

2) The athletic crowd is wanting to see something that interests them, and having sports memorabilia is certainly going to add to the value of an attractive website, in the athlete’s estimation.

3) The finance crowd is wanting to see everything that relates to their profession, such as general business news and articles, and is interested in information that they may use in their respective businesses.

4) The general retail entrepreneur may want to look both professional and a little more traditional. The homepage may include more giveaway items and certificate coupons for the ever discriminating modern shopper.

WORKING NAVIGATION

The pages that follow the homepage are unique to each shop but, also, the navigation for the website should be in perfect working order and flow easily for the online shopper. There should be clear explanations for each website feature and further instructions displayed if necessary.

USABLE TEXT

The homepage text should be usable and explain the relevant images displayed on the website. Vagueness or anything written that is unnecessary will only cause the time conscious shopper to move on or at least be uncertain about what is being read.

TRACKING VISITOR INFORMATION

Tracking visitor information can be useful for future promotion sales or newsletters. Emails can include the website’s new products and may lead to additional purchases. Signing a guestbook is another way to collect and publish comments from satisfied customers.

BLOGS

Blogs on a business’s homepage is another good way to generate traffic. Blogs may include information that can be followed from week to week or even daily. A satisfied customer may begin to depend on the daily information for either personal news or business news. Having a dedicated visitor may lead to further business and additional business through the customer’s friends and colleagues.

LINKS AND AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES

Links to associated products or services are good ways to keep a customer satisfied and generate a good name for the business. The links may expand the network of shopping options for both the shopper and the business. Reciprocal links are often a good way to share business referrals.

Siting authoritative sources gives the website reader the ability to further research what is being shopped for. Linking to relevant images in this category of website tools is important since the reader is usually wanting to go a little further in gathering information. After reading through any information on an authoritative source the shopper is, at least, ready to make the initial beginnings of a decision.

VISIBLE CONTACT INFORMATION

Visible contact information is important since the website customer may want to know specifics in order to decide to purchase. If the company has a brick and mortar facility, then the shopper may want to stop by to see the item. If there are questions about a service or product, then the customer may want to address these with a customer service representative.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a strategy to ensure that your site appears on the top of the search engine result pages every time customers search for your kind of products or services using your niche keywords. This mostly concerns major search engines such as Google, MSN, Bing, and Yahoo because they account for more than 90 percent of search engine traffic.

Search Marketing- How Does It Work?

Whenever somebody is interested in any product, he or she will most probably use search engine to get further information. For this reason, search engine marketing is fast becoming the most preferred marketing strategy for small, medium and large businesses as they can reach out to their target audience on 24/7 basis, either free or within a modest marketing budget. With the kind of prominence that Internet is now being given by billions of people around the world, it is now playing a big role in connecting businesses with their customers directly.

Why search marketing is so important?

Billions of websites are coming up every year, and every business want a bigger market share from amongst the global customers. Now, unless you do something to rank high on search engine result pages, your website would get buried deep under millions of other websites. Therefore, proper search engine optimization is necessary to get your site on the top pages of search engine results where your customers can see your website and visit it for doing business with you.

So how can your website appear on the top of search engine result pages?

Of course, you should have a web site, and if you don’t have one yet, you should get it designed from a web designer who is proficient in search engine optimization (SEO). It should have high quality content and should also have your niche keywords strategically placed inside the content. Aside from this, it should be easy to navigate and should provide relevant information to the visitors without confusing them.

You can get your site listed on the top of search engine results pages in two ways. You can rank high either on organic search results or by running a PPC campaign or banner ads. Ideally, it would be great if you do both because it can get you quality traffic within days and with consistent traffic, your business turnover will increase within a short period of time.

Search Engine Optimization

An SEO service can run a SEO campaign for your business on consistent basis because it takes time. In this, SEO service will submit articles to article directories, press releases, and would also submit blog posts with link to your site at the bottom of post or article. This will definitely increase traffic to your site leading to the increase in organic backlinks from authority sties. These services also create your profile on social medial sites, submit your site to big web directories, and to social bookmarking services leading to further increase in traffic.

Search engine robots rank site according to the organic backlinks it gets, so with higher backlinks your site will start appearing high on the search engine result pages.

How effective is search marketing?

Well, it is possible to convert 50 percent of your search engine traffic. The best thing about search marketing is that it allows your target customers to find you instead of you finding them. Best of all, it costs much less than traditional advertising methods, and all types of businesses can benefit from search marketing.

Well one of the first search engines you can use other than Google is MSN. The search engine MSN will give you a wider audience to help promote your business much better. This is just as popular as Google and you can take advantage of both services at the same time. Getting your business name to come up as one of the top choices on the results is a priority to get traffic in your business. This method of getting more business is called SEO, or search engine optimization. You will be able to use such things as keywords, image searches, local searches and video results, just to mention a few.

Once you get these steps done successfully, you can rest assured that whichever search engine you will use, it will give the results you want. Another great search engine you can use for advertising your business is Bing. This is another great search engine that is gaining popularity due to their advertising on the web and television. Researching a search engine that is popular among the public will help you decide which search engine to use first. You can also use the search engine Find.com for your search marketing as well.

Find.com provides you with a great option that you can use for search marketing besides Google. Taking the time to set up your SEO optimization is vital to the success of your business. Since the internet has taken over a tremendous chunk of how advertising is done, taking advantage of this can be a great resource. You will see an increase of your business slowly but surely as time goes forward. Use the SEO optimization to your advantage on every search engine you choose to get as many hits as possible. The end results of your new venture will not disappoint you.

So why don’t web site owners don’t “just do the right SEO things?”

Sometimes we do shortcuts. Sometimes the technique just doesn’t seem right or convenient. Maybe we simply forgot or ignored some of the SEO basics…reasons why this article was written for you.

Here are five easy, basic rules to ensure you’re on the right path.

Basic Rule #1: When you want effective SEO results, use compelling, keyword-rich titles in your web content. SEO experts tell web site owners that web content of any form with properly used keywords will produce results. Results in page ranking and visitors. This doesn’t mean that your current web content is wrong. It merely means that choosing the right keywords has the benefit of getting your web site better search engine ranking. Search engines will use your keywords to index your content from the title and document body.

Basic Rule #2: Use html meta tags correctly. These unseen and under-appreciated codes are critical to your web page The bottom line is that if you properly, your business customers might never have the opportunity to find your website in the first place.

Basic Rule #3: Make your site design spider-friendly. Your content’s keyword phrases to keyword density or general frequency can help or hurt your web page rankings with the search engines. Write content that flows and follow rules of good quality writing. Good quality writing place in a well designed site is friendly to search engine spiders, as well as your readers.

Basic Rule #4 Structure your content so that it flows from broad to narrow topics. This rule follows the basic element of writing content. When you write content with the end in mind and in smooth and logical sequence “hooks” the reader, you’ve got someone’s attention.

Basic Rule #5: Submit your site to a search engine directory. Getting your web site submitted to any of the major engines and directories is a smart practice. You can visit any one of the large directories and do a URL search to see whether your site is already in their database.

You better make sure that your server is ready for the heightened traffic, because the application of the tips above will bring you a dramatic increase in hits! It might take some time, but seriously, this kind of increase is fairly intuitive and is possible for your search engine rankings. You’ll need to put in consistent effort to achieve SEO results that you didn’t think were possible.

Below are nine trust symbols you can use on your site to encourage customer trust and boost conversion rates.

1) Security Symbols

The most obvious form of trust symbol is a security badge or seal, indicating that your check-out process is secure and has been verified by a trusted third party. You can purchase security badges from companies like Verisign and McAfee (provided, naturally, that you meet the requirements). Place these badges on your check-out pages to show customers their private data is safe. If your site uses SSL, you’ll also need an SSL certificate.

2) Customer Logos

Have well-known customers? Show them off by displaying their logos on your site. A high-profile client acts as a vote of confidence in your products or services.

3) Testimonials

Testimonials go a step beyond customer logos and show prospects what clients really think of your products. Key quotes can be displayed next to logos to demonstrate customer satisfaction. For example, UpCity a SEO software company that offers a free SEO report http://upcity.com/free-tools/local-seo-report-card that features testimonials from customers on their homepage.

4) Award Badges

If you win any kind of industry award, by all means take advantage of it and place a winner’s badge on your site. A corporate website is no place to be humble!

5) Membership Badges

If you belong to any industry organizations, look for badges you can display on your site. This is another way of showing your business is vetted by authorities in your industry. If you don’t belong to relevant organizations, investigate what’s available in your space.

6) Certification Badges

Though they require time and money, certifications are worthwhile in many service, consulting, and technical industries. If this is relevant to your business, pursue getting members of your team certified and then display badges so visitors will know your employees are up to snuff.

7) Transparent Policies

“Be transparent about your privacy policies, return or refund policies, subscription policies, satisfaction guarantees, cancellation fees, and any other policies of this nature,” explains Sol Hudson of USA News Online. Clear language in these areas shows you have nothing to hide and instills trust in prospective customers.

8 ) Free Trial

A free trial button is an indication that you stand behind your product and trust that people who try it will want to buy. Not all products lend themselves to this, but many software products are natural candidates for a free trial offer. For example, DIYSEO offers a free trial of its search engine optimization software and Web promotion software to help SMBs with small business SEO and to conduct a SEO site audit.

9) Press Mentions

Like testimonials, positive coverage by the media shows your web visitors that you’re worthy of attention. If your products, your website or your blog is mentioned by a popular news source, consider using their logo on your site as another trust symbol.

2008 came along, and the market began to grow steadily. Small business marketing news site, 1 Business Guide, rightly declared that CRO is key to achieving significant ROI on online advertising spend. And a few optimization vendors popped up here and there.

Then came 2009. Momentum roared, even with the world’s financial crisis. After all, conversion optimization is the best way to get the most revenue from the least spend.

Finally in 2010, conversion optimization fully-arrived. Post-click sessions became a standard part of marketing conferences and many industry publications launched conversion rate optimization columns and features.

So what does 2011 hold? Our prediction at Search Marketing Zone is that the momentum continues and CRO will be bigger than ever.

The importance of consistently high rankings in search engines such as Google and Bing should not be underestimated, with Google in particular having become a highly influential factor in determining the online commercial success of websites. This isn’t just relevant to certain industries, but is applicable across the board. As more and more businesses across diverse industries have come to realise the importance of online traffic in the lead generation process, the amount of spending within the search industry has grown significantly.

The recent announcements that social networking activity can also have an effect on search rankings is also likely to stir interest in the business world. SEM industry experts expect to see a large number of businesses that have previously invested their digital marketing efforts in online communities now moving to maximize their visibility in the search market using both social media and SEO activity.

News Tip from Professional SEO Consultant Ken Lyons of MetaRocket SEO, a SEO company in Boston.

According to Search Engine Land’s Barry Schwartz, Mr Cutts announced on his Twitter page that the company would seek to address the issue in the first quarter of next year.

Using the practice as part of an online marketing services strategy is against Google’s webmaster guidelines and could lead to a site being removed from the firm’s index, Mr Schwartz pointed out.

He added that it is difficult to tell exactly what Mr Cutts meant from his brief message, but cautioned any companies that currently use the technique they “may have to be on the look out”.

Earlier this month, Google also announced it had made changes to its algorithm to combat negative search engine optimization techniques, following a New York Times report on a company that deliberately used bad publicity to boost its rankings on the site. Google, though, is a proponent of “White Hat” SEO consulting techniques.

Mr Allen submitted his amended suit to a judge in Seattle yesterday (December 28th) after a previous attempt was dismissed on December 10th for being too vague.

He claims 11 companies, including Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Apple infringed on patents held by his now-defunct firm Interval and has now provided additional information on exactly what products and services he believes violate his copyright.

Some of the technologies Mr Allen alleges use his patents include several features used by internet marketing services and search engines, with the Seattle Times reporting it includes “systems that automatically call up and display related content”.

Although the publication stated his case is a “long shot”, it could be worth up to $500 million (£324.9 million) if it is successful.

As well as co-founding Microsoft, Mr Allen is estimated to have given over $1 billion to various philanthropic causes.