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Online Marketing & Web 2.0 Solutions
Online marketing has come a long, long way since the 1990s. In 2010, it's not just email and a stagnant website anymore. Websites are dynamic and interactive and more important than ever. Email has evolved from mostly spam to a professional, opt-in, highly effective medium. And then there's article marketing, backlinking, blogging, PPC, SEO, video marketing ... and so much more. Although we don't offer every online marketing tool available, we offer and excel at what we consider "The 15 Essential Strategies You Need to Be Successful Online." (Listed in order of importance below.)
Website
It all starts here. Because most of your online marketing efforts will be geared towards bringing prospects and customers to your website, it better be well thought-out, informative, and designed to produce results (whatever that may be, from calling you to emailing you to buying now).
Keyword Research
You need to know how your keywords will perform, because if you're competing in a saturated market, that can mean as many as 350 million other websites (competitors). But there are tricks we've learned along the way to find alternative keywords that will produce incredible results. You absolutely must do your research.
Search Engine Optimization
After you've determined your five best keywords, it's time to optimize your entire website, including copy, alt tags, meta tags, title tags, etc. You also need to have a proper robot .txt file and a sitemap so the search engine spiders crawl and index your site as directed.
Content
Probably the most-overlooked part of any website or online marketing campaign is content. You've heard it before, and it's true: Content is king! You need to have timely, relevant and accurate content that is unique, interesting and keyword rich (without being blatant about it).
Email Marketing
Every -- and we mean every -- successful online marketing strategy includes email marketing. After you've done all this hard work, and spent a few bucks along the way, you need to incorporate an automatic and efficient way to keep in touch with your prospects, customers and club members. By combining email newsletter and postcard marketing with a good autoresponder you'll be well on you way to online success. And, yes, the money is in the list.
Autoresponders
Unless you have impeccable organizational skills, you need an autoresponder. With a little work up front, you can have a series of emails, newsletters and postcards sent at predetermined intervals so you don't have to think about it again.
Article Marketing
Article marketing is considered by many online professionals to be the best bank for the buck -- meaning you can spend a minimal amount of time writing and submitting a 500-word article about your niche and it can produce visitors to your site for years to come. It needs to be a good article, of course, but equally important is knowing how to write a bio so attractive it will force the reader to click the link to your website. Plus you need to know a few secrets about how to submit to the 100s of article directories. The Top 10 out-perform all the others.
Blogging
Online marketers have mixed emotions about blogging. Some swear by it, while others think it's a waste of time. They're both right. Unless you design a blogging campaign with specific goals and a plan of action, you're just talking in the wind. But, if you do it right, you will attract followers and bring visitors to your door.
Social Networking
Everybody's doing it -- and because it's so easy to do and costs so little -- it's worth adding to your online marketing mix. Don't misunderstand, social networking is effective, but it takes months and months. Focus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn at first, and then move on to MySpace, FriendFeed, Mister Wong ...
Squidoo Lenses
This is practically a secret in the quest to reach No. 1 or 2 in the Google search engine rankings. Creating a Squidoo lens is key to boosting your organic rankings. Is it hard? No. But it does take some time and you need to know how to do it right.
Hub Pages
To get top page ranking in Google, Yahoo and other top directories, you need to have quality hub pages. Once again, not too difficult, but they take time and there is a strategy you must implement.
Video Marketing
Video marketing is actually gaining momentum and should probably be placed higher on the list, but because video takes a lot more effort and time, it's here. But, if you have the time and budget, video marketing is here to stay -- and it's proving to be a winner!
Pay-Per-Click
This could be right at the top next to No. 1, a quality website, but because it can be outrageously expensive, it's down here. Without any doubt though, the fastest way to bring a lot -- and we mean a lot -- of quality prospects to your website is by using Pay-Per-Click. Because Google PPC reaches 70+ percent of the market, we start there, then consider Yahoo and Bing if you need even more traffic.
Directory Submissions
This won't be the fastest way to bring visitors to your site, but in the long term, adding your web pages to the 1000s of directories is going to help. Search engines look to them for credibility and millions of users use them when searching for products and services. Of course, Google and Yahoo are key, but don't forget about the other important ones.
Social Bookmarking
Maybe not as important as last year (the web's always changing), it's still a valuable tool, and bookmarking on the 10 to 15 most popular bookmarking sites will definitely help your organic search engine rankings. Start with Ask, Delicious, Diigo, Faves, Propeller, Reddit and Stumbleupon, then add the other 15 or so as time permits.
Forums
Forums can be a great addition to your online marketing mix, but the reason it's last on the list is because often they are time consuming and heavily monitored. In other words, you can spend hours commenting only to have your comments deleted by the host. If you find the right forum, however, and you establish yourself as a professional, it can be a gold mine.