Internet Marketing Magazine Dec2012-Jan2013

DECEMBER 2012 - JANUARY 2013

PER S M BU TMA R IS CHR W YEA E & N SSUE! I

internet

marketing magazine

> SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW PAGE 34

> BUILDING LINKS TO WITHSTAND PANDA & PENGUIN UPDATES PAGE 37

> 7 WEBSITE SELLER MISTAKES PAGE 42

> TOP SOCIAL BOOKMARKING SITES

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> TURN YOUR COMPETITORS TACTICS ON YOURSELF

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> KEY PLAYERS OF MOBILE ADVERTISING

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> 10 WAYS TO GET MORE FACEBOOK FANS

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> 10 ACTIVE & PASSIVE CONTENT MARKETING

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MAL EMERY

> HOW A CHINESE ECOMMERCE RACKED UP $3B SALES IN ONE DAY

DIRECT RESPONSE MASTERY

>> THE ORIGINAL AND BEST INTERNET MARKETING MAGAZINE internet marketing magazine 2012 - january 2013 DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR THE IPAD, KINDLE FIRE, ANDROID december AND THE WEB

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INTERNET UPDATE

THE STATE OF THE INTERNET In this section of Internet Marketing Magazine we cover the low down on what are the big plays that have happened online recently and how they affect you.

Amazon Going Negative to Go Positive

Amazon has a very smart business model of buying the customer in order to have a captive audience Amazon’s Kindle Fire media tab- to sell them ongoing services such let carries a BOM cost of $185.60, as its Prime service or the new according to findings from the IHS Kindle FreeTime unlimited which iSuppli Teardown Analysis Service. is a $4.99 per month subscription When manufacturing services ex- that gives access to kids books, penses are added, the cost in- games, educational apps, movies and TV shows. creases to $201.70.

Other services Amazon sells on its “The Kindle Fire HD, at a retail Kindle Fire devices to monetise it price point of $199, is sold at a include games, apps, TV shows, loss by Amazon, just as the basic movies, magazines, books, music Kindle is also sold at a loss at the and audio titles. current $79 retail price point,” said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director, teardown services for IHS. Amazon Web Services Now Down “Amazon makes its money not on Under Kindle hardware, but on the paid content and other products it Amazon Web Services has anplans to sell the consumer through nounced the launch of a new Asia the Kindle. This is a similar busi- Pacific (Sydney) Region, the ninth ness model to wireless companies in its global cloud computing platsuch as AT&T or Verizon. They sell form. you a phone that costs them $400 to $600 or more to make for a “Over 10,000 customers in Austraprice of only $200. However, they lia and New Zealand are already expect to more than make up for using AWS, and this is before that loss with a two-year service opening our new AWS Region in Australia” said Andy Jassy, Senior contract.”

Vice President, Amazon Web Services.

Kindle Fire HD

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At launch, the Sydney region consists of two separate Availability Zones (datacenters in separate distinct locations within a region which are designed to be operationally independent) and will support numerous AWS services including Elastic Compute Cloud, Map Reduce, DynamoDB, Simple

DB and the Amazon Relational Database Service among others.

This is good news for Australasian businesses and Internet Marketers using Amazon’s web services for compute cycles, databases and storage as it will result in lower latency of services and a better level of support.

E-Commerce Spending On Black Friday Tops $1B For The First Time; Amazon Is The Most Visited Retailer ComScore is reporting that U.S. retail e-commerce spending was $1.042 billion, an increase of 26 percent from last year. “This is the first time Black Friday sales surpassed $1 billion in online spending”, says comScore.

“Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-andmortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the ecommerce channel – particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni, in a release.

In terms of specific retailers, Amazon was the most popular ecommerce site by visits, followed

by Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and Apple. In total, 57.3 million

Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday, representing an increase of 18 percent versus a year ago. Amazon also posted the highest year-over-year visitor growth rate among the top five retailers.

enabling those advertisers to do that, too.

Google Reincarnates Dead Paper Mill as Data Center of the Future

Facebook Is Quickly & Quietly Making a Killing With Ads That Stalk You

In February of 2009, Google paid about $52 million for an abandoned paper mill in Hamina, Finland, after deciding that the 56-year-old building was the Wall Street wants Facebook to find a new source of ideal place to build one of the massive computing aggressive growth, and the largely agile social net- facilities that serve up its myriad online services. work appears to have done just that — with ads that Part of the appeal was that the Hamina mill includfollow you from site to site and remember you for ed an underground tunnel once used to pull water lengthy periods of time. from the Gulf of Finland. Originally, that frigid Baltic water cooled a steam generation plant at the Facebook publicly launched its Facebook Exchange mill, but Google saw it as a way to cool its servers. ad-bidding network less than three months ago and has been testing it only since June. But the system is already shaking up the ad business, say partners who have been on the exchange since the beginning, delivering a huge volume of users with a strong propensity to click on ads and helping advertisers follow those users for longer periods of time than is possible under competing systems. In the process Facebook is giving Google, long the undisputed leader in the so-called “retargeting business,” a run for its money.

“Nine months ago, it seemed patently clear to me as a longtime participant in this industry that [Google’s] DoubleClick was just running away with the opportunities; they were just leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else,” says Josh McFarland, CEO of ad targeting company TellApart. “There was no other game in town, and then suddenly Facebook came on the scene and then literally in about three months became an exchange that is almost as powerful and almost as highly performing as the oldest, best ad exchange out there, which is DoubleClick.”

Retargeting lets advertisers utilize data they have about their customers. When I go to Backcountry. com and I look at a pair of skis, in the same way that Backcountry.com might send me an email saying, “Hey, you know these skis are on sale, you should buy them,” or the way that they would change their site to show me the skis that I looked at the last time, when I visit again — they can also do the same thing with their ads. So that, when they show you their ads, they can show ads about things that you’re interested in. So, on Facebook, they’re now

Google’s Finland Data Center (Photo: Google)

As it turns out, all 450 meters of the tunnel were in excellent condition, and Google was able to use it to start moving sea water to heat exchangers inside Google’s new data center, helping to cool down thousands of machines juggling web traffic. Thanks in part to that granite tunnel, Google can run its Hamina facility without the energy-sapping electric chillers found in the average data center.

This is an excellent example of how Google “thinks outside the box” when building its data centers, working to create facilities that are both efficient and as kind as possible to the world around them.

The lifecycle of this facility is interesting as it accurately reflects what is happening in many medias with physical printing very fast being replaced by digital versions of those medias.

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From the Desk of the Editor A big thanks goes out to you the Internet Marketing Magazine community for your support in 2012.

We’ve had a massive year of growth. This growth has largely been in the Apple Newsstand and Appstore space as Apple recommends us for ‘marketing’ and ‘internet marketing’ related searches.

Zinio has also been a strong platform of growth in 2012. The big one to watch will be what happens in both the Amazon Kindle Fire space as well as Microsoft Surface. These are two leading edge platforms that are destined for big growth.

2013 promises to be a massive year online with eCommerce growing exponentially and mobile and social always becoming more and more important.

We’ll be right on the leading edge of everything that happens and will give you the blow-by-blow reports of the big plays online.

We’d especially like to thank our featured expert contributors this year. We’ve had some amazing experts that we’ve interviewed and also who have contributed articles on all aspects of digital marketing.

Have a great Christmas Break and we’ll see you again in February 2013 as this current issue is our bumper Christmas/NewYear issue covering both December and January.

The members area continues to grow in usage, although it’s still only a relatively small percentage of Internet Marketing Magazine readers who have claimed their free membership. If you haven’t got access to the members area please feel free to do at http://internetmarketingmag.net/becomemember/ (it’s free). This months Direct Response Mastery complete audio interview with Mal Emery has now been added. It has lots of learning’s in it that were not included in the magazine, so be sure to check it out.

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A special thanks to those who have left reviews in the apple platforms as it really helps us out. If you are getting good value from Internet Marketing Magazine and you can spare 1 minute of your time to click this link to give us a quick honest review that would be greatly appreciated (click ‘view in iTunes’ then scroll down and click ‘write a review’, thanks :).

internet marketing magazine december 2012 - january 2013

Until next time… Cut your losers short and run your winners long. Have a great Christmas and a Fantastic New Years from the entire team here at Internet Marketing Magazine and our sister marketing agency Internet Marketing Done For You.

GregCassar Greg Cassar

Internet Marketing Strategist & Editor – Internet Marketing Magazine

MAL EMERY

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EXPERT INTERVIEW

DIRECT RESPONSE MASTERY An Interview by Internet Marketing Strategist Greg Cassar Mal Emery is a master of direct response marketing. Originally with a background in buying and selling businesses Mal went on to specialise in direct mail, followed by selling from the platform, mentoring, and mastering many other digital and print medias.

For those who are not familiar with the term could you clarify what you mean when you talk about ‘Emotional Direct Response Marketing’?

Mal: I suppose the simplest definition is it’s the polar opposite of branding. You know, you’re led to believe by the media people, like TV and radio and print, that if you just run your ad often enough eventually you’ll make a sale.

Of course, that’s what they want you to believe and it suits them because you run the ad over and over and over and you get little or no response and without any methodology for actually measuring that response.

So, as the term implies emotional, direct response. So, that means if we take some of the words in definition – so, firstly, it’s emotional. Now, that’s because a business doesn’t buy from you, a person buys from you. So a person is what I call a skin bag of emotion. There are five emotions that get any body to do any thing - and they’re love, greed, guilt, fear and pride.

Types of Emotions

Now, by response that means we expect to make some money, or we expect lead generation to produce a prospect. So it actually is measurable. Everything about emotional, direct response marketing is measurable and that way you know if your dollar is actually making you a dollar.

In most traditional media that’s not the case. You’ve only got to read every ad in the newspaper today, or go to TV or radio and you’ll find that there’s literally

no methodology for measuring the response.

If you’re not a master of direct response marketing, you’re leaving an enormous amount of money on the table.

Greg: You know what’s interesting about that, a lot of people online are interested in the next traffic technique, or the next widget, or tool that you can buy, but in reality if you don’t underinternet marketing magazine december 2012 - january 2013

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Mal: Well marketing is about two things – and that is psychology and maths. So, your mathematics is the money side of things – that is, your profit, Mal: Well what – you probably know and the mass- what it costs you to do what it is you’re doing. es don’t know, is the gurus of the Internet, and Your psychology is the ability to enter the converyou can list them if you like (particularly the guys sation that a prospect is having – and that prospect that hang around Dan Kennedy) – they’ve all pre- needs to be – in pain (if you really want to get viously belonged to a particular cult that thought rich) and they need to know they’re in pain - and the Internet was everything. they need to have money. There is no point solving problems for poor people. Let’s do that when you Now, that said, is the Internet the money spew- want to change the world after you’ve fixed your ing, cash making, opportunity that dreamers said own problems first – so fix the money thing first. it was in the early 1990s? Yes. They were right.

It was a bit early, but they were right. But then Psychology – let’s take an example. Let’s say we’ve we bred this culture of the Internet as everything. got a cellulite product right now. Most beauty saWell, it’s not. And the gurus of the Internet – they lons offer you every single thing under the sun, are taking their clients offline, or driving from of- and marketing to the masses as a giant piece of fline to online as fast as they possibly can – be- meat is a losing economic model. That’s why you cause it is more effective and more reliable than see so much niching on the Internet – that’s why any other media. you see so much niching in business. It’s because the riches are in the niches.

Use direct mail. Get them offline as fast as you can and use direct mail. But I’m saying; use every So, if we took over that salon that sells everything, single media - the online media and the offline including hair removal, facials and everything else, media. Because direct mail to your list of clients, and if we had a conversation with that salon and or prospects who are interested in what you have said, “Ok, where’s the money in your business?” to say, is an absolute game changer.

And that salon owner said, “Well you know, it’s in cellulite”. So, I would niche that business into celSo, am I saying the Internet is not a great way to lulite first – and here’s what I’d do. I’d make it a go? No! I’m not saying that at all. I’m saying, mas- cellulite business that only fixed cellulite. ter everything, but master offline direct mail.

Now, as a specialist it’s so much easier to dominate your category, or industry. As a specialist it means your business solves the one problem every day, so you need less skills, less clutter in your business.

And, on the other side of the coin, the psychology is that you only enter the conversation a woman was having with herself about her cellulite. stand direct response it’s very, very hard to smack it out of the park.

You can charge what you like in a niche, because it’s easier to dominate that category, or niche and affect the market place better.

One of the biggest lessons I ever learned from you was about Psychology and Maths in a winning offer. What’s been your learning’s in this space?

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Now, if I did cellulite under the banner of everything I do, you can’t charge 4,000 dollars for ten treatments. But if you only do cellulite you can charge so much more. So, the psychology becomes – we solve the problem for women with cellulite; who go to bed thinking about it and wake up worried about it.

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There are five emotions that get any body to do any thing and they’re love, greed, guilt, fear and pride.

“

And then the mathematics of course, it becomes spectacular (because this is an actual example I’m sharing with you) and after you’ve bought that machine, which costs about $85,000 you’re maths are, it costs $22 for a technician to do it to a woman for an hour – so that’s your cost – yet you can charge three to four thousand dollars for ten treatments. So there’s psychology and maths.

None of my trained clients will touch anything without ticking those big rocks – that is, you have a client, or a prospect in pain, and you can enter the conversation they’re having. Two, that the mathematics is spectacular. Now we might test cheaply, in terms of the mathematics. In other words we might try something and the maths might not be perfect, but we have the knowledge that we can fix the mathematics – because rarely can you fix the psychology. If they’re not in pain you generally can’t fix it.

So, there is a formula for this and it’s eight times cost of goods. If you want to get rich, you want a minimum of eight times cost of goods. You can sort of make four times cost of goods work, but boy oh boy you start getting into the eights and your bank accounts going to explode. So there you go. That’s what it takes.

Greg: Just to add to that, I’ve found one thing is that you’ve got to have both, the psychology and the maths side. You can’t just have great psychology, or you can’t just have great maths – both parts really need to work together – because I’ve made that mistake myself.

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Mal: Yes, that’s a very good point.

This is the formula online and it’s the formula offline. Now, like You can have a situation with everything in life there’s lots of great psychology but if your prof- ways to skin the cat. I’m sharit is poor, that means, you’ve got ing the particular formula that’s one part of it right and you’ll die worked brilliantly for me and it slowly in business. works in every single marketing piece I write, including a TV Conversely, you can have great commercial, a radio commercial, maths – you make fantastic prof- a blog, an email, a website, a its, but you don’t know how to sales letter – every single piece sell. So you haven’t mastered of marketing; a yellow pages ad psychology, which is marketing, – there is nowhere where I don’t and you’ll be dead in the water – use this formula and it will never you’ll never make a sale. let you down, provided you follow it truly and correctly.

The balance is you need to master both. And understand, marketing Now, I’ve broken it down to a is two things, and two things only very simplistic formula.

– it’s maths and psychology.

So, first you’ve got to identify a problem. Now that problem is a One of the most important mar- problem that a group of people keting formula’s you teach is are having. So in my earlier exProblem / Aggravate / Solve / ample it would have been ladies Prove / Call to Action. Can you with cellulite, probably between talk us through this briefly and the ages of 20 and 45 years of when to use it? age; might be your hypersensitive group.

Mal: Well, I use it everywhere.

If I can’t have that conversation In other words it might even be with the marketplace, I won’t do a bit younger than that, but 20 it - because that’s the psychol- year olds have cellulite also – but ogy. So I won’t do it. It is very as they get a bit older they probmuch a science. If you leave any ably aren’t as concerned with part of the science out – it’s a bit their cellulite. like a recipe baking a cake – if you leave any bit out you get a So, your sweet spot is probably mess. somewhere between 25 and 35.

So, that’s your market. The probThe Internet is unforgiving - If lem they’re having is, they can’t you don’t master these secrets go down to the beach and wear (well, they are secrets because that bikini they’d like to wear; very few people will know it) and they use mood lighting with their if you don’t master emotional di- husband, or partner because they rect response (and this formula don’t want their partner to see I’m going to share with you in the cellulite. just a moment), you’re going to fail dismally.

So, the point being you don’t walk past the mirror, you don’t get changed in front of the mir-

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ror, a whole bunch of things, you haven’t worn that little black dress for years. So there’s the problem and you go to bed aggravated by it, you wake up thinking about it.

Now, aggravation, so firstly you point out the problem. Do you suffer from ugly cellulite? Aggravate the problem. Well, you know, it’s not going to go away. You won’t be able to get in to that bikini, or that one piece; you will use mood lighting and heck, he might leave you for someone without cellulite. I mean, I’m making this up now – but there’s the aggravation.

Solve! Here’s our equipment, here’s the machine, revolutionary treatment from France seems to melt cellulite and fat away for almost any woman that uses it.

So, that’s the solve side of things.

So, first we have the problem, so we aggravate the problem, then we solve the problem.

The next one is proof, or proof that it works. So that’s testimonials, case studies, guarantees – all sorts of things that would go to prove. It might be your expert qualifications that will allow you to cure that problem. It may be the machine has been used by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of women to great success.

Then you have some sort of call to action, and I’m often aggravated by this one, because this is where a lot of people fall to bits. I mean, again, watch TV, listen to the radio, read a print ad and there’s no reason to respond now, and no urgency, no scarcity. So, in other words, if you’re one of the first 20 women to respond in the next ten days we’ll give you a free report, it reveals the big mistakes women make when choosing cellulite treatments, and how to avoid them. So there I’ve created scarcity and urgency.

And some form of offer, usually free in particular, because the marketplace the free line has been moved.

So there’s your working model. It’s problem. Aggravate the problem. Solve the problem. Prove that it works and then the call to action with urgency, and scarcity.

business owners have no idea about how they’re going to sell it, or have an exit strategy.

I do digress slightly, but the point I make, is if you want to build the perfect business, the way to do that is to start with the intention of selling it. Am I saying that you have to sell it? No I’m not.

Most people get into business with only one intention, and that intention is to make money. 99.9% of business owners – that’s what they’re doing. That’s to make money this week, or this month and pay the bills.

We, of course start the business with other intentions. Our intention is to build a passive income as the second thing we do and the final thing we want to do is, we want to build the value of the asset.

That is sell it for a fortune one day.

For any business owners in the Internet Marketing Magazine community who are struggling online or in offline business – what advice would you have for them to set themselves apart for an amazing 2013 and beyond?

Mal: You want a simple answer to a complicated question. I will give you the simplest answer that I can – bearing in mind you need to consider all the factors I’ve pointed out previously.

“If you want to get rich, you want a minimum of eight times cost of goods”. - Mal Emery

Mal, you have an amazing track record of successfully buying, building and selling businesses from an early age. I know you teach business owners to prepare for the sale from Day 1 – what do you mean by this?

Mal: The definition of the perfect business is one that works without you and makes you a ton of money. That is what it is about so one day you can sell it for a fortune and lie on a beach and relax.

81% percent of businesses in this country will be for sale in the next ten years – 75% percent of those

And in no particular order, one of the most important things you have to figure out and fully understand and appreciate is the ‘who’, or the market you want to help. So, who’s in pain? Do they have money? Do you have a media to communicate with them, that’s affordable, predictable, reliable and profitable? Can you craft a message at the end of the conversation they’re having with themselves?

So, number one is ‘who’. So, find out who your ideal who is, that will give you money, and lots of it – if you solve a problem for them.

That’s one of the biggest problems I see with everybody online and offline. It’s not what you’ve got to sell; it’s what they want that you then create.

It’s in total reverse and of course it’s re-engineering, and little or no business owners get it. They want to sell you what’s in their wagon. internet marketing magazine december 2012 - january 2013

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That’s one of the biggest problems I see with everybody online and offline. It’s not what you’ve got to sell; it’s what they want that you then create. It’s in total reverse and of course it’s re-engineering, and little or no business owners get it. They want to sell you what’s in their wagon.

So, in a world of clutter where it costs more than it ever did today you need to build bigger better baits. You need to go negative and you need to know very clearly who your who is. This is a very precise science. You need to master all media. You need to master the marketing triangle – that’s market, that’s message and that’s meIn a world of clutter where the dia, and be able to dominate all cost to get them has tripled and of those things, or you are going the results have halved today to struggle, and you need to be in you need to have a mathemati- constant reinvention. Just when cal model that allows you to buy you think you’ve made it somea client. So we buy a client every one’s planning to steal your cliday of the week knowing what our ents. Your clients are testing your lifetime value of a client is. prices against your competitors, trying to pay less, and if you’re not I’ve always been prepared to go constantly reinventing yourself tonegative to buy a client knowing day you’re in big, big trouble. my maths. I might do a free seminar or send out a free gift and pay The other main one that I would for all of it, but I know what you add to that is to the focus on mean to me over your lifetime. building your database of leads and clients and market to them over and over again.

How can our readers and listeners find out more about you online and also your Streetsmart Business School coaching environment?

Mal: We have several web entities worth checking out such as malemery.com and the rebelliousrant. com. The http://www.ultimatesuccesskey.com.au/imm - it is the ultimate financial driver and key to success today, and when you see it, or read it, or listen to it you will understand that I’m not, like a 100 percent right, I’m a thousand percent right. There will be winners and there will be losers, and if you don’t master this ultimate success key, well you can never enjoy the sort of success that I’m speaking about today.

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SOCIAL BOOKMARKING

TOP 35 SOCIAL BOOKMARKING SITES LIST

By Angelos Papaioannidis Social Bookmarking is a way to organize and share your bookmarks on the Internet. Apart from being able to store your bookmarks categorized, helping you find what you search easily, it’s a very effective way for webmasters to promote their website.

The two most important positive effects of using social bookmarking sites are the increased number of direct visitors if the story you submit gets voted and appears on the front page and the link value that they give to the article. Submitting your articles to social bookmarking sites will help each post get “link-juice” and rank much better for its main keywords.

connected to the Internet. Delicious can bring a lot of traffic if a story submitted reaches the frontpage but mostly that has to happen organically: you just submit your article to it and that’s it.

Digg is one of the first social bookmarking sites set up that still ranks in the top 5, whose popularity suffered a small decrease after its redesign (which I’ve actually found to be pretty great). Don’t get me wrong though, getting on the front-page of Digg will bring you thousands of visitors to your post and hundreds of backlinks. It’s an asset for your promotional efforts. Stories that work very well for Digg are world news, technology, and humor posts. If your website niche is close to one of the aforementioned, your chances are increased.

StumbleUpon is not only my favorite soThere are two types of Social Bookmarking sites: cial bookmarking site, but the guys who general bookmarking sites and niche bookcreated it sold it to eBay and after two marking sites. In general you can submit almost years of steady drop in traffic, they bought all your posts in whatever niche it belongs to, it back in order to resurrect it, and they excluding of course adult oriented posts, gam- did! Now StumbleUpon is more powerful than ever. bling, etc. Niche social bookmarking sites have less traffic than the general ones but are much StumbleUpon is heavily based on its toolbar that more focused, helping you spread your message Firefox and Chrome fully support. After the regisin a much more efficient way. Getting on the tration, the system asks you to enter your interests front-page of a niche social bookmarking site of- and hobbies and then starts to show you relevant ten can also help your branding tremendously. sites to your interests when you press the Stumble button on your toolbar. By liking and disliking the Let’s start by mentioning the gener- pages you visit, you “train” StumbleUpon for it to al ones first and then go to the niche ones. serve you pages much closer to your taste, making it the perfect tool for missing your deadlines :P As you Delicious is the first social bookmarking can imagine, it is an amazing tool for you to promote website that went live on the Internet your own pages as well. You can discover a page in and remains one of the most important stumble upon, set its category and hope that the of its kind. If you want to use only one users who stumble upon it will like it too, creating a site and you just need to organize your bookmarks, snowball effect, bringing even more traffic. NeedDelicious is the way to go. Its tagging system will less to say that in my 7+ years in Internet Marketing, help you organize everything according to the tags SU is by far the number one referrer to my sites. you specify and you can access it from any device

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But beware: It’s not a tool to shamelessly promote your web properties. You must first be a user and then a promoter. Stumble doesn’t like it when the same account discovers pages from the same domain all the time and there’s really no way to fool it.

If you like using stumble on your free time, you might do very well when submitting your own content too, otherwise you’re out of luck!

you want your story to appear.

People vote up or down a story and then you have a chance to make it popular on that sub-reddit. If it becomes that popular and the subreddit is big, many people will start seeing it on the main page. And that’s where you’ll get amazing traffic!

So to make the long story short, Reddit is not somewhere you just go to submit your posts and leave: it’s a one way road, and Reddit is a love-hate that’s to actively participate in relationship for me. it, engage in conversation, help If you’re looking for others and at the same time proa site with the best mote your properties too. community that will sometimes help you, sometimes Pinterest is the troll you, hey, that’s what Rednew social media dit is for! The most powerful user craze. While being driven site on the net. a new social media website, it already For simple users it’s heaven but has managed to become one of if you want to promote a story, the most visited websites on the there comes trouble. A ban can internet (Alexa Rank: 53). While come as easy as adding a post in the majority of the traffic comes a sub-reddit. To see if you are from a female audience, lately banned, copy your username and after the thousands of posts page url inside reddit, log out that spread on the Internet evand then refresh it to see if it is eryday about it, its male audivisible. If not, you’re banned and ence started to get an increase in there’s no point in submitting numbers too. I don’t know if this new pages. climbing in traffic will continue, but if it does it’ll be something Reddit has what it calls sub- that I won’t be able to explain. reddits, something like a social bookmarking comminity inside If you’re promoting products a social bokmarking community. that heavily rely on images and Each subreddit has its own rules design, then Pinterest is your that submitters and users have to heaven. You should create new follow, and it’s self maintained content with amazing product by the users. Every subreddit has shots and images and promote it the url structure of http://www. on Pinterest. reddit.com/r/subredditname, and when you submit a story, you While Facebook is not have to type that name where even close to a social

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bookmarking site, it would not be fair not to include it in this list because it plays such an important role, even in organic results in Google. In Facebook you have two ways that you can promote your articles: one is to submit your articles in your personal feed, and the other one is to create a fan page, and while promoting that to your friends and readers, distribute your article links there. In the long run, creating a fan page is the best thing to do and what we do with our in-house projects is to always buy some Facebook ads in order to gather a good amount of links to the fan page, increasing the initial likes by a bit every time we post something on it. It’s not something you should ignore, no matter what type of site or store you have.

While Twitter as well, is not a social bookmarking site, it really has to be in this list too. We both added Facebook and Twitter to this list because they are both part of your social bookmarking efforts. When you submit a post to social networks and social bookmarking sites, you hope for mentions, links and visits and both Facebook and Twitter can help you in that. In Twitter, you create an account and have a stream where you post interesting links that people who follow you can see.It’s great for any niche because when someone follows you it’s sure they will love to see more from what you’re posting and that’s why you shouldn’t go off topic a lot.

Google+ again, is not a social bookmarking site but if you are serious about your website and especially if your niche is business oriented, Google Plus is the place to be. And I’m not talking about just pushing your links to your stream; that won’t do anything. You have to become active and network with other like-minded people and players in your niche. It’s actually the best social networking tool you can use to build your reputation. One tip goes a long way and that is to try to get into the most shared circles you can (relevant circles with your niche, ofc). There’s only one way to do that and that is to share amazing content with the network. The force is strong with this one.

LinkedIn is the most popular business social network. While Facebook has many more times the traffic that LinkedIn does, with LinkedIn you can build a brand and reputation while at the same time explore new job opportunities and partnerships.

You can also use LinkedIn to promote your latest posts by sharing your posts’ links on your timeline and in groups you belong to and are relevant to that post’s theme. LinkedIn is one of the best referring sources of traffic for this site and works amazingly well for all business types of blogs.

Bloggers is a social network for bloggers but it can also work very well for social bookmarking too, and without the need to manually submit your posts to it. All you have to do is to add your site to the bloggers platform and add their banner to your site. Then, when you publish a new post, it will automatically get it and show it as your blog’s latest post and others will be able to vote for it. If it gets enough votes, it will be promoted to the site’s main page and get much better exposure. The key is to make friendships with other users so you will be able to mutually vote other people’s posts that are worthy and at the same time get votes on the good posts you publish too.

utilize FriendFeed to get one more link to a post you have created? I wish it was still being actively developed, but well, you can’t have everything, they still have the site up and running well. :) Pinboard is very close to Delicious and gained a lot of traction when there were rumors that Delicious was about to close.

It’s a paid website but giving close to $10 once is nothing when you’re in it for the long run.

It’s a great and fast way to bookmark your links so if you haven’t already registered, do so now.

TiltZero is the brainchild of this team and just got released to the public. You might think, why the heck does the world need one more social bookmarking site?

And the answer is that if everyone thought of that, the Internet would have less than 1000 websites.

Social Bookmarking is something we actively do and we thought that creating our own social bookmarking community would benefit both us and all the users of the site. Being one of the first people that use a website has its benefits (having a powerful account when the site goes mainstream), so jump in the bandwagon with us and start submitting your useful and inspiring posts with the rest of the world. It’s a general social bookmarking site that accepts links on many categories.

BlogEngage is a well established social bookmarking website with good traffic and a well established community. It’s a general bookmarking site that prefers business and motivational articles, but anything goes. It’s one of the sites that are worth your attention because its results can be quite good for your website. The key is to participate in the community and make friendships. Give it a try, you will most probably like it.

BlogInteract is the brainchild of Bryan Hollis, and while it had some uptime problems in the past it has now While FriendFeed has been acquired by become more stable than ever. BryFacebook for quite some time and its an is heavily involved with it and feed is displaying the links with a nofol- we’re expecting many great new features for it low attribute, it’s still a powerful website in the future. BlogInteract accepts all kinds of to post your links to. It works like twitter most- posts and if you haven’t already got an account ly and it’s very fast to submit a link; so why not there, give it a try, we’re sure you’ll love it.

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Chime is one of the new players in the Twitter competitor list and while maintaining good traffic levels, it hasn’t yet become a great threat for Twitter yet.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t promote your posts there. In fact it’s a very good site to ping with your posts and updates and the use of tags is very well thought.

Tagza is a good place to bookmark your post but that’s it; no reason to stay longer on the site since the community there is underdeveloped. That’s what you get when you focus more on promotion and less on the community. And we’re not saying this to blame them, we’re just trying to repeat it so we never forget it. ;)

Whenever you add a new “chime”, you should add the most important tags for that specific post and that will help other users find your post within their most preferred categories. It’s a great promotional tool to use.

BizSugar is the most popular social bookmarking website for business articles. They’re heavily promoting it using all kinds of online promotion but most importantly, banner retargeting. This gives BizSugar the traffic it needs to be the number one social bookmarking site for business blogs and sites. Getting on the frontpage of BizSugar will give you many benefits. While the traffic to your story is not that big (approximately around 200 visits), top stories are distributed via their newsletter; plus, the link value benefits are great. If you’re in the appropriate niche, BizSugar is one of the websites you should first submit your articles to.

Diigo works like Delicious and has quite some traffic: you should submit your articles to it but more than that, I can’t find any other reasons than link value to be more involved.

Fark is the strangest of ‘em all! A social bookmarking site to submit funny, strange and amusing posts. If you have a site with funny images, it would be a great site to submit your posts to. Or any other offbeat news to be honest!

ZooTool is a great social bookmarking website that also has an iPhone application. You can create folders and submit your articles in a folder, making their retrieval later on a breeze.

While Folkd seems to have a lot of traffic, it does not have a strong community. Just submit your links and you’re good to go. One day I’ll study this site more but until that day comes, that’s what I would suggest.

NewsMeBack has decent traffic and from the quality of links seen on the frontpage, should be moderated, so send your links to it without being afraid of being blacklisted without reason from the search engines.

Other than that, I can find many more reasons to be more involved in other social bookmarking networks. It’s a great place to enter a link into but not a community site.

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Inbound is a brand new website, but being created by the CEOs of SEOmoz and HubSpot, we’re sure that it’ll soon be the most popular bookmarking site when it comes to sharing Internet Marketing posts. It’s mostly for Internet marketers, but will gladly accept anything about blogging, startups and business too. And in the Internet marketing space, this is the front page you should be looking at every day for all your link building and Internet marketing news and updates. It’s a tool that shouldn’t be missed.

My SEO Community is a social bookmarking community dedicated to search engine optimization posts, but also focuses on blogging and design too. It’s a great place to start your bookmarking efforts because it’s a moderated community and if your social media profile is not that powerful, it’s a great place to submit your good content and you will have a good chance for inclusion to the main page. The moderating team is great and the articles accepted are 99% frontpage worthy.

MMO Social Network is focused in the general niche of making money online but also accepts articles about blogging and web design. It’s also moderated so it’s a good place to start submitting your helpful articles if you think that they belong to what the site wants in terms of content category.

Blokube is a Social Media oriented social bookmarking website that accepts everything from SEO to WordPress, design and technology articles.

It’s traffic is quite good and you should invest some time and connect with its members.

Serpd is all about Internet Marketing and Blogging. If your website is about something related, Serpd is the place to be.

While not having the best traffic on the planet, Serpd has a very strong community, in fact one of the best, and believe me, that makes up for the lack of amazing traffic. One other thing that I haven’t seen on any other social bookmarking site is that when you try to submit a second link from the same domain it won’t let you, forcing you to submit something else first and then something from the same domain again. This forces spammers to leave the site without submissions from the same site again, and at the same time, Seprd wins because of new quality content that they wouldn’t otherwise have. When I need to submit something from my domain again, I just open my RSS feed, get something from my favorites that has provided me with something useful and submit it, waiting 2-3 hours before I submit the next one.

Tip’d is a social bookmarking site that is different from all the rest. It’s focused on a sub-niche, sharing financial posts. While most of us would easily bet that the site wouldn’t have a lot of traffic, Tip’d showed us that it can happen, having a lot of traffic, more than the most social bookmarking sites out there. If your niche is finance and economy related, not only this is a great opportunity for a good amount of visits to your blog but also a great source of information laser-targeted to your niche.

Hacker News is the number one source for programming, geeky, and startup material. Its community is very helpful and will many times go to great lengths to help a person who has a technical problem. Even some types of business articles go very well in hacker news because let’s not forget, programmers also need to promote themselves, their startups and their projects too. Personally I’ll check Hacker News at least once a day to see anything new interesting to read, most of the times spending more than 30 minutes reading great content found on the site.

DZone is an amazing website for any type of developer out there. You will find anything about tutorials, videos, cheat-sheets plus help from the community. If you are a programmer, not only you should submit your posts there, but also participate in the community and often check out their hope page for programming gems that can help you in your work.

Design Float is the most popular design oriented social bookmarking website on the Internet. It’s a great place for Designers to get feedback on their creation and showcase their work or templates; plus it loves programming tools that will help designers make their life easier.

If you’re a freelancer and trying to find more ways to get new clients over the Internet, you should really start promoting your designs and create freebies for other designers and start distributing them through social bookmarking.

The Web Blend is a web designer community that was recently re-designed and has went live for the public. It’s one of the best social bookmarking sites to promote your articles and designs, plus it allows news about advertising, Apple and programming too. It’s by far the best designed social bookmarking site and that’s how it should be, because being a site for designers, it too should have an amazing design! Kudos to the guys who redesigned it.

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Design Poke is a design oriented social bookmarking site, but also focuses on marketing, usability design, programming and WordPress too. It doesn’t have that much traffic (compared to the two previous sites) but it’s a great place for you to submit your link to. After all, you never know how well it’ll do, plus, when you are promoting your articles, posts or designs, you should think that whoever does the most work will win in the end. (This is not a life lesson, nor an Internet marketing one: please don’t sue me for giving advice that didn’t work out for you.

DeziNews is another design oriented social bookmarking site and a great place to find freebies for your own designs too!

Traffic is close to DesignPoke but as we said before, the links are permanent and you want the extra exposure. In addition, you never know

which social bookmarking site will be the dominant one in two years from now, so why miss the chance to have an account in great standing on the site?

This is not a complete list of the social bookmarking sites that exist on the internet. And it shouldn’t be! The rule “the more the better” doesn’t apply to social bookmarking too. Stay away from services that will submit your website to 1000′s of social bookmarking sites, because most of them are not moderated and you really don’t want your links to be placed together with God knows what else. You WILL see an increase in your ranks, but that’s only temporary.

Angelos Papaioannidis

is an Internet Marketing Consultant, Social Media Manager and Business Development Expert. You can find more about him at http://moneytized.com

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BUSINESS SUCCESS

ART OF THE WARRIOR

WHY YOU SHOULD BE TURNING YOUR COMPETITORS TACTICS ON YOURSELF

By Tony McAuslan

Aside from the family home, your biggest asset is most likely to be your business. In fact, rather than relying on the old saying that a “man’s home is his castle”, I prefer to get my clients to think of their business as their most important ‘castle’ – it needs to have strong foundations, kept in good order, and most importantly, remain impenetrable. Your business protects both your lifestyle, your intellectual property and provides for the welfare of your staff and their families.

the king ever need a handy place to hole up in. As it turns out, the place was impenetrable, and the only time it ever fell was when the Welsh caught the king’s army off guard when they were all out at a Mass in the local town nearby.

But history shows that the reason the place was so impenetrable, was that Master James was famous for constantly putting himself in his enemy’s shoes, by trying to think of ways he could compromise the castle’s defenses if he were on the outside trying When Edward the First decided to tame the Welsh to get in. If the water supply could be tampered uprisings back in the 1200’s, he had his most trust- with, he would have his men dig additional wells. ed advisor – Master James – build him a string of If a gate looked like it could be compromised, he’d castles along the southern Welsh coast. The most add a holding area in front of it (known as the impressive of these being castle Conwy at Caer- ‘murder hole’) where archers could keep attackers narfonshire (don’t even bother trying to pronounce bailed up under a rain of relentless fire, and if he it). thought some of the terrain looked easy to cross on the outside, well he’d just have his men dig a steep Carved into a solid rock base, and with its 3 double trench that made it impossible for any foot soldier gateways and 21 towers, the castle was built as to comfortably run across. an ‘if all else fails’ place to fall back upon should

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Now fast forward to your modern day business. Whenever I have a client who is trying to get a major uplift in their share of a market, I like to suggest an exercise that goes like this – “What would be the most disastrous thing a competitor could do to undermine your business?”

And I don’t just mean something as simple as cutting the current market price for a certain product or service by a small percent. I mean let’s think something radical. I try to get them to imagine they’ve just logged into the latest edition of whatever trade news site they subscribe to, and there in big bold headlines is the announcement that their major competitor has just done something so radical, dastardly and rat cunning, that their particular industry will never be the same again.

For instance, what would be the effect on your business if you’re trying to sell software as a service (SaaS) on an annual basis, and your major competitor announced that they were going to give their software away to everyone in your industry, for free for a whole year? It would make it pretty damned hard for your own salesmen trying to pitch for the same business, while waiving around a price list and a contract.

It may be something quite radical, or it may be something simple and bleedingly obvious, like poaching one of your key staff.

I once had a big client that had just spent over $50m acquiring a competitor, just so they could

get access to a very small, but important group of developers with unique skills. When I arrived on the scene, they had got themselves into a right tangle trying to merge all of the other (redundant) staff and divisions into their own corporate culture, and there was a bit of a “DOH!” moment when I suggested to them that it might have been a whole lot easier to just offer the 4 key staff they wanted, a ‘sign on’ fee of $2.5m each. $10m verses $50m for the same result. Obviously, no one was on the outside of the castle, looking in.

offer low interest terms? If your selling high-end capital equipment, a few percentage points can translate to thousands of dollars, which can look very attractive to some Purchasing Officer under orders to cut costs.

In the luxury goods marketWhat would happen if your competitor suddenly partnered up with a premium product provider – like QANTAS or American Express, and suddenly they had major reach via a massive email list, which then allowed them to offer their product directly to thousands of pre-qualified frequent fliers, while you’re still relying on Google Ad words?

It may be something simple as bundling some of your products, or it may be something radical that involves some product innovation. Who would have ever thought 20 years ago that the mobile carriers would give you the phone – as long as you bought the air time from them?

What if a competitor suddenly partnered up with a major supermarket chain or bank, thus giving them unprecedented reach and distribution? How would you feel if you had to look at your competitor’s brochures every time you went shopping or did your banking? Or if they partnered with a big finance company in a way that allowed them to

Ideas such as these can prove to be ‘game changers’ for many industries, and if you’re thinking “That would be great, but we’re not big enough to ever get through the door with someone like that” – think again.

If there’s one thing big businesses love more than getting new customers, it’s getting MORE business out of the customers they’ve already got. And more importantly, big businesses have big competitors – who are constantly looking for ways to tunnel under their castle walls. So your product or service, if

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presented properly, could be just the ‘game changer’ they’re looking for also.

The great thing about many of of these partnership deals, is that there is rarely a lot of investment needed up front (i.e. they’ve got the client base, you’ve got the product), so they tend to be a win/ win for everybody.

And even if your big idea does involve investment, there are plenty of venture capitalists and angel investors out there who would love the thought of investing in an idea that’s going to be a ‘game changer’ in a hot market.

So next time you’re sitting around on a Friday afternoon with some of your key staff, play the “What could our competitors do to ruin us?” game. You may be surprised at what they come up with. But having identified your greatest weakness – you need do it to yourself before your competitors do it to you. It’s nice to sleep at night, knowing the castle walls are secure.

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Tony McAuslan is the epitome of a modern day ‘Entrepreneur’.

After working for some of the world’s largest companies in Advertising and then Gaming, Tony launched his own start-up business in 2001.

Starting from a base of only 3 staff, Tony raised over $25m in venture capital and grew his company to over 80 staff with offices in Sydney, Los Angeles and London. After exiting the company in 2005, Tony went on to work as a Business Development Manager for one of Europe’s largest private VC firms, where he helped raise over US$80m for a wide range of start-up ventures. He now splits his time between mentoring various startup firms, and consulting for clients who are seeking venture capital funds. He is based in Sydney and can be contacted by email at tmcauslan@ hotmail.com

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MOBILE ADVERTISING

THE KEY PLAYERS OF MOBILE ADVERTISING

By Mick Armstrong

campaign optimization technology.

• Demand side platforms (DSPs): These function similarly to ad networks, in the sense that they help match advertisers with inventory, but tend to work hand-in-glove with brands. DSPs are complementary to the ad network business because they more richly describe mobile audiences. But once DSPs start hiring their own staff to sell ad inventory, the complementarity could end, and DSPs would compete more head-on with ad networks.

It is projected that we are rapidly approaching a time when billions of consumers will be connected with their mobile devices for up to 16 hours per day. We’re close as it stands now.

So where does that leave marketers? Instead of rushing out to tailor all ads to be fit for mobile, there has been a slow build in terms of adaptation on the marketing side, but with no clear reasoning.

As a result, it’s hard to project exactly where mobile advertising will be in years to come.

Where We Are Today As it stands now, the overview of the major players in the mobile advertising ecosystem looks something like this*: • Mobile ad networks: Mobile ad networks aggregate advertising inventory and match it with advertisers, much as online ad networks do.

Networks build up ad inventory, analyze its potential, and sell it by matching it to advertisers’ needs. Where networks differentiate is in valueadded services, such as aggregating buying power to strike better deals, or improve targeting. The largest ad networks have their own sales forces reaching out to advertisers, as well as their own

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• Mobile ad exchanges: Exchanges automate many parts of the mobile ad process, and can connect publishers with multiple ad networks. Ad exchanges are primarily supply-facing at the moment, and have relatively few interactions with mobile ad agencies (even less so with brands).

Agencies are disincentivized from using exchanges because they threaten their lucrative role as the brands’ media buyers.

• Mobile Ad Agencies and Mobile Marketing: One of the gripes you often hear around the mobile ad industry is that agencies don’t get it. According to the U.K.’s Association of Online Publishers, 55 percent of publishers blamed “agencies’ attitude” for low mobile ad revenues.

That may be changing. Several people we talked to said agencies are doubling down on mobile, and competency is improving.

• Natives: Other companies are emerging that don’t neatly fit the established categories. They resemble ad networks in that they connect advertisers with publishers’ inventory, but they express disdain for the traditional mobile advertising model. These companies are trying to find a native approach to mobile advertising that will break through consumers’ apparent disdain for mobile ads. We call them “the natives.”

Other current trends to keep in mind As seen in the chart reflecting the % of Companies Building Sites For Mobile: • More and more, companies are now designing their site for mobile. However, many are not even testing how their sites look on mobile devices.

• According to Econsultancy’s Conversion Rate Optimization Report, the proportion of organizations designing their websites specifically for mobile phones has increased from 25% to 35% since 2011.

As seen in the chart reflecting the % of Companies Still Not Building Sites For Mobile: • 61% of companies are still not designing their sites for mobile • 55% of companies who do design their sites for mobile, do not do usability testing specific to mobile phones or tablets.

Optimizing for mobile works; 62% of companies that designed a website specifically for mobile and 64% that designed a site for tablets had increased sales.

Sources: *Business Insider, “Here Are the Major Players in Mobile”; Business Insider, “BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Mobile Marketing Stats You Should Know” Mick Armstrong

is from the Performance Marketing Specialists at GlobalRevGen.com

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FACEBOOK

10 QUICK & EASY WAYS TO GET MORE FACEBOOK FANS

By Cara Pring

tact page, so that people know that they can get in touch with you there (they will also like your page!).

2. Set up Facebook POS signage If you have a store or some sort of physical presence, be sure that you have signage that encourages people to like your page – and be sure to include a reason. Special promotions, new products, updates, industry news… whatever it might be, tell them what they are going to get from liking you or else they might not bother.

There have probably been a thousand articles written detailing how to get more Facebook fans – half of them are salesoriented trying to encourage you to ‘buy fans’, the other half are simple fluff pieces that don’t give you any real practical advice. Only my article, and mine alone, will actually help you implement real, actionable strategies to boost your Facebook Page with relevant fans – not random people who don’t give a fig about what you have to say. OK to be fair there are quite a few other articles out there that probably do this too, but since you’re here you may as well read mine. Enjoy.

Make sure you have a Facebook ‘like box’ on your homepage.

I know it doesn’t always ‘fit in’ with everything else, but seriously this is what is going to drive people to your Page. The bigger and more prominent, the better, but Facebook gives you a number of options. For example, if you visit the Social Skinny homepage, you’ll see I have a small version at the top of the page (but underneath the header).

Facebook makes it super easy to get the code for your like box in HTML5, XFBML or iframe format by visiting https://developers. facebook.com/docs/reference/ plugins/like-box/ and inputting your preferences for style.

1. Add a Facebook Like box + links to your contact and Also make sure you add links to homepage. your Facebook Page on your con

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3. Run a Facebook competition This has to be one of the most popular methods of getting more Facebook fans. Run a competition that has a valuable (and relevant to your business) prize that you will give to people if they like your Page and go through some sort of entry mechanism (eg. a form). You do need to be aware of what is required for a Facebook competition and this includes the fact you must use an application. If you’re not that Facebook or tech-savvy, you can use a third-party service like Shortstack or you can speak to someone like me, who will come up with the strategy, put it together, do all the graphics and implement on your Page for, say, a few hundred dollars.

4. Implement a Facebook advertising campaign I know when you’re a small business implementing any sort of advertising campaign seems pretty daunting. We are taught to expect things to cost thousands of dollars when the word ‘advertising’ comes into play. The good news is that with Facebook advertising, you can spend any amount that you like. I have run a Facebook ad campaign for $50 that attracted over 50 new likes. I’ve also run a campaign for about $100 that attracted over 1,000 fans, which was pretty damn amazing… but it was in Turkey so that might have something to do with it. The point is, if you want to get your community started (and advertise your business at the same time), Facebook advertising might be a great way to go. The ability to target your desired market is unparalleled.

Page is about – if they see it may be of value to them as well, they might like you too. Plus, your friends and family are likely to ‘like’ the content on your page too, which helps with your post ranking in others’ newsfeeds. While you’re at it, share your Page with your social networks (even outside Facebook) – they might be interested to like your Page too.

7. Include a link to your Facebook Page in all stationery, business cards and your email signature This one is a no-brainer. Remind people at every chance you get that you have a Facebook Page, and make it easy for them to find it by providing the link. Don’t just have a ‘Find us on Facebook’ badge, but put the link in there so they don’t have to waste time searching for your Page on Facebook. It’s crucial to include a link in your email 5. Send an EDM to your customer base signature (though this can just be an icon as long If you have an email database, make sure you as it’s hyperlinked), because you know people are send out an email letting everyone know you have already online when they are viewing it, so the a Facebook Page, providing them with a reason chances they will click through to your Page are (or incentive) to like your page, and obviously di- even higher. recting them there. Your customers should have a direct interest in your business, so they are the 8. Comment on other Pages’ posts as your Page second people (after staff) that you should get on This one can be quite effective, but granted it’s board. not as simple as the others. If you’ve got a bit of time, you can ‘use Facebook as your Page’, like other similar or related Pages (or those who share a similar customer base) and interact with their posts. By doing this you’re getting exposure on their Facebook Page too, and others who are reading the post might be prompted to click through to your Page to see what it’s about.

6. Ask your staff, friends, family and your social networks Ask your employees, friends and family to like your page to help spread the word. When people like your page, their Facebook network can see this and are prompted by curiosity to see what the

9. Encourage check-ins (plus merge place/normal page) If you have a physical presence, make sure you own your Place page, and that you merge this with your normal Page (or just use the Place page as your normal Page to begin with). That way you have a branded place for people to check-in to.

They may also then like your Page from their mobile. Even if they don’t, the check-in is displayed to their friends (even on a nice map to show where you are located) which not only promotes brand awareness and effectively an endorsement for your brand, but also allows them to click through to view, and hopefully like, your Page.

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10. Create a Welcome Page It’s one thing to get someone to your Facebook Page, but it’s another thing to convert them to a fan by getting them to click that ‘like’ button.

You have to give them reason to want to receive updates from you, and the best way to do this is by creating a Facebook Welcome Page. The best tactic is to not just say LIKE US, but provide some form of detail about what they will get from liking your page. Will you be posting exclusive special offers? Letting them know of sales? Sharing important updates and/or info on new products? It doesn’t have to be rocket science (and in fact, it shouldn’t be too complicated), but make sure you’re giving them some indication of what you have to offer – even if it’s pretty pictures and/or a few words.

Implement these strategies and you will get more Facebook fans. Just be careful not to get too obsessed by ‘numbers’, but focus on getting those who have liked your Page engaged with your content.

Cara Pring

has enjoyed extensive experience in social media strategy and campaigns for businesses of all sizes - from small startups to multinational corporates like Qantas and Bupa. Her focus now is small to medium businesses who are looking to expand their social media activity and generate real return for their efforts and spend. She has her own social media blog at www.thesocialskinny.com, where this article originally appeared.

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CHARITABLE GIVING

Building a School with World Teacher Aid In August 2012 Armand Morin and his wife Marianna had the unique opportunity go with World Teacher Aid to Rongai, Kenya in Africa to help build a school and a high school.

The trip was organised by Amy and Stu McLaren of World Teacher Aid. This is the very powerful video they made.

Visit www.WorldTeacherAid.org for more Information on how to get involved.

www.WorldTeacherAid.org

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CONTENT MARKETING

ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CONTENT MARKETING

By Scott Brinker According to the latest research from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 91% of B2B marketers have embraced content marketing. In fact, on average, B2B marketers are now allocating 1/3 of their budget for content marketing initiatives.

Marketers are making a big bet that content marketing tactics will deliver the outcomes they need: brand awareness, customer acquisition, and lead generation. These are their top organizational goals:

• • • • •

Web traffic (60%) Sales lead quality (51%) Social media sharing (45%) Sales lead quantity (43%) Direct sales (41%)

So how well are marketers doing at achieving their goals with content marketing? Unfortunately, not as well as they would like. Only 36% of B2B marketers believe they are effective at content marketing — down from 40% last year.

Part of the challenge is creating great content. But great content is only the starting point.

To harness that content for customer acquisition and lead generation, marketers have two other responsibilities: distribution and value capture.

Much has been written about how to distribute content with social, search, and paid campaigns. But ways of effectively capturing value with content marketing have received less attention. I’m only half-joking when I say that content marketing plans sometimes look like this: 1. Create amazing content.

2. ???

3. Get more leads and sales.

2013 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks - North America: CMI/ MarketingProfs

Brand awareness is important, but hard to quantify.

However, customer acquisition and lead generation can be quantitatively measured. And indeed, more and more organizations are now tying these metrics directly to their content marketing initiatives.

The top 5 measurement criteria for B2B content marketing success — with the customer acquisition and lead generation metrics emphasized — are:

When you author terrific content and successfully deliver it to the right audience, you have accomplished value creation. You have given your prospects and customers something of value. Depending on how it’s presented — do the people consuming the content clearly associate your company with the value delivered? — this achieves the first goal of building brand awareness.

But in the crowded and noisy digital marketplace, and in the busy lives of most prospects, that brand moment is fleeting. The question for marketers — and frankly, many prospects — is: what happens next? internet marketing magazine december 2012 - january 2013

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Active vs. Passive Content Marketing Answering the “what happens next?” question is the difference between passive content marketing and active content marketing. With passive content marketing, the content is not attached to an explicit “next step” for the audience. If someone consumes your content and likes it, it’s up to them to figure out what to do next.

Maybe they wander through your website (and hopefully they can connect the dots with the content piece that intrigued them). Maybe they do a couple of related Google searches (and hopefully your competitors aren’t intercepting those keywords). Maybe they try to find a way to contact you (and hopefully the person handling the contact can provide continuity with the content that intrigued them). Or maybe they simply file that moment away — “thanks, that was interesting” — and move on.

Blog posts are often quintessential examples of passive content marketing. They can build brand awareness, and address goals further down the list such as thought leadership and generating website traffic. But presented in a passive fashion, they may not be effective at acquiring customers or generating leads.

Active content marketing, in contrast, builds customer acquisition and lead generation mechanisms directly into its presentation and delivery. These mechanisms may be simple email subscriptions or social network connections, or they may be more detailed lead forms or deeper-funnel calls-to-action. Whether they’re best implemented as required gateways in front of the content or as optional next steps surrounding or embedded into the content depends on the content, the audience, and the context.

Many content tactics lend themselves to being framed in active content marketing: • eNewsletters, both individual issues and ongoing subscriptions • Case studies • Videos • In-person events • White papers • Webinars/Webcasts

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• • • • •

Research reports Microsites Branded content tools eBooks Virtual conferences

The Power of Framing Content With passive content marketing, the only real content is usually the core content piece itself.

With active content marketing, however, there’s often considerable content around that core piece — call it framing content.

A classic example of framing content is the use of a landing page to promote a lead-form-forcontent-piece offer, such as a sign-up for a webinar or a request for a white paper. (And when I say “landing page,” I really mean any kind of highly-targeted, context-specific web or mobile web experience; it doesn’t have to be a cliché landing page.)

All the content on the landing page — its headline, body copy, imagery, bullets, call-to-action, etc. — is framing content. Framing content is an incredibly important ingredient in the overall content marketing equation. In cases where the respondent is being invited to take an action, either before or after accessing the core content piece, the framing content can have tremendous influence over the conversion rate for that action.

This is where the discipline of conversion optimization intersects with content marketing. You can

run A/B and multivariate tests to find which framing content is most effective in achieving your customer acquisition and lead generation goals. You’re able to hone the value capture component of your content marketing.

But framing content is also valuable for the respondent, as it helps explain the relevance of the core content piece to the context from which they arrived.

Using framing content for relevance is especially helpful when

you distribute the same content piece — say, an expensive report that you sponsored — in multiple campaigns or to multiple audience segments. It’s advantageous for you to reuse that report in as many contexts as possible, but the most intriguing aspects of it may differ for your different audiences. By using separate framing content — e.g., separate landing pages — for the presentation of the core content piece, you can make clear and compelling cases that perfectly match each context.

By using framing content to expand the reach of core content pieces, making them more relevant in more contexts, you can increase the ROI on the investment you made to produce those core content pieces in the first place. This enables you to invest

more in the quality of individual pieces, rather than just continually increasing the quantity of new pieces. And the quality of the core piece is, at the end of the day, the heart of all great content marketing.

You’re probably already engaged in both passive and active content marketing already, maybe without distinguishing them this concretely. My hope is that by understanding the unique aspects of active content marketing, you’ll be able to systematically increase the efficacy of that set of content marketing tactics.

Scott Brinker

is the co-founder, president and CTO of ion interactive, a provider of postclick marketing and conversion optimization software.

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Need to Reduce Your Adwords Cost Per Click & Cost Per Lead?

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to touch base with Greg Cassar and the team at InternetMarketingDoneForYou.com about Adwords Consulting with a real focus on ROI for you the business owner.

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ECOMMERCE

HOW A CHINESE E-COMMERCE COMPANY RACKED UP $3 BILLION IN SALES IN JUST ONE DAY

By John Koetsier Last month Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba shocked the web with news that its subsidiaries Taobao (like a Chinese eBay) and T-mall (like Amazon) sold a massive $3.06 billion in product in a single 24-hour period.

with credit card payment information, as of mid2012.

Three billion dollars is almost triple the entire 2011 Black Friday sales of e-commerce sites in the United States, and this is a testament to both the growing maturity of the Chinese online market and the central position Alibaba holds in China.

So how do you do $3 billion in sales in a single day?

I interviewed an Alibaba spokesperson, who preferred to remain unnamed, to find out.

Almost as many users as Twitter First of all, it helps to have users — lots of them.

The two sites, Taobao.com and Tmall.com, share a combined user base of half a billion registered users. That’s only about 30 percent of the total Chinese population, which means that Alibaba has a long runway for continued growth as the Chinese middle class continues to grow — and suggesting that a $10 billion day is not out of the realm of possibility in years to come.

Some of the goods for sale on Taobao.

A cultural sea change When you’re looking to scale quickly, it helps to be a high-growth company in a high-growth industry in a high-growth country.

But while a huge number of users is necessary, it’s insufficient to generate such massive cash flow.

Just as important is a change in Chinese consumer behavior toward e-commerce “increasingly becoming a primary shopping channel,” according to (It also means, by the way, that it might be crazy Alibaba. The entire industry has had double-digit for Yahoo to sell its stake in Alibaba now. Yahoo growth year-over-year — since 2010 e-commerce still owns 23 percent of the Chinese e-commerce in China has enjoyed an average 10 percent quargiant after pocketing $7.6 billion U.S from sell- ter to quarter growth rate — and Alibaba is outpacing almost half its original stake. Down the road, ing the industry. however, it might be like owning a 23 percent of Google, or Facebook … times 10.)

In addition to a general acceptance of e-commerce as perhaps the first option for shopping, Chinese Both Taobao.com and Tmall process payments via consumers have been increasingly prone to spend Alipay, Alibaba’s payments processor. Alipay has big on “double sticks day,” 11/11. Also referred to over 700 million user accounts, presumably all as “singles’ day,” Nov. 11 has taken on a rough

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Mobile buyers figured prominently in Alibaba’s monster day, with one in four Taobao users accessing the site from a smartphone or a tablet. That compares to one in six last year.

Summing up A $3 billion day doesn’t happen all the time, even in the world’s most populous country. And it’s a huge proportion of Alibaba’s annual goal for Taobao and Tmall, which was one trillion RMB in 2012. That’s closing in on $15 billion U.S., which is serious money. similarity to our Valentine’s Day. Singles try hard to not be single, couples celebrate that they are couples, and probably many more people are simply happy to dogpile any opportunity to shop big and save big, much like Black Friday in the U.S. Stores galore Users and demand are great, but you need supply. That is not a problem for Alibaba, as the representative said that Tmall hosts ecommerce operations for 50,000 companies, while Taobao manages online sales and payments and “several million,” most of whom are likely individuals buying and selling much as we see on eBay here.

Of those stores, 10,000 took part in the 11/11 festivities with special sales and promotions. That’s five times the number that participated just last year, which gave Chinese shoppers “access to an even wider range of products.”

Promotion helped too, Alibaba says:

“We also offered new functions, activities and games via the event landing page beginning mid-October and noticed that many online shoppers were visiting the site and browsing through participating stores and available products as well as adding products to their shopping carts.”

Let’s get technical While I generally like to ask companies for technical details about their server setup, Alibaba was anxious not to share too much information that might be construed as proprietary, saying only that Alibaba Cloud Computing manages all Taobao and Tmall’s infrastructure from three data centers in Beijing, Hangzhou and California.

It also preferred not to disclose what kind of servers it runs, including operating system and webserver details, but a quick search reveals that Alibaba uses Tengine for webserving, which is a 100 percent compatible fork from the increasingly popular Nginx server, and that Alibaba runs, as expected, on Linux.

Given Alibaba’s trajectory and China’s growth, it would seem that a $4 billion or $5 billion day would not be out of the question in 2013.

This article originally appeared on VentureBeat.

Photo Credits: dcmaster via photopin cc, Autorun! via photopin cc

John Koetsier

run websites with millions of monthly visitors, built mobile apps with hundreds of thousands of downloads, created online learning communities with over half a million registered users, and eaten a 24oz peppercorn steak in one glorious sitting.

He has led product management, spoken internationally at conferences all over the world, blogged for over a decade, and built his own CMS. He lives in Vancouver, Canada, plays ice hockey, and subscribes to the VentureBeat statement of ethics.

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SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS

SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS IN 2013: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

By Bryan Brown

If you’re like most marketers, you’ve been using social networks to push out your latest messages – promotions, sales, thought capital, etc. – and maybe have occasional interactions with customer and prospects. You’ve probably also been working hard to increase your followers and likes. And as more social networks such as Google+ and Pinterest have emerged, you’ve likely established a presence on these sites and begun pushing out your content on these platforms too.

These are all good and necessary first steps for social marketing. But ah, there’s so much more. In

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2013, consider looking beyond social as a standalone channel and beginning to consider how social can be integrated into ALL your channels. For starters, just put yourself in your customers’ shoes: • They’re more social and mobile than ever • They view their experience with your company holistically Now imagine they see a Tweet from a friend about your cool offer and click through, only to arrive at your page and find a bunch of corporate-speak and a 15-field form. Talk about bringing your relationship momentum to a screeching halt.

Today, an “antisocial” feel on ANY of your channels can hinder your marketing efforts, so it’s smart to evaluate the social component of each one. To get you started, here’s a look at four key channels social is impacting today, along with some quick starter ideas for how you might approach them to enable a more relevant customer experience: 1) Search: In the constantly evolving world of search, it now takes more than a few strategically placed keywords and inbound links to move you up in the rankings. As social has exploded, search engine algorithms have shifted to place more weight on social media. The number of people who retweet your content or the traffic driven to your blog post via social, for example, helps determine where you rank. Similarly, video is popping up more in search results. The takeaway?

Your content (see #3 below) must be conducive to social sharing for you to thrive in search.

2) Website: Many sites have been loosely connected with social in the past – a social “follow” icon here, a “share this” graphic there. In 2013, try bringing social data into your website to build trust. For example, you might include info such as number of downloads, user ratings and customer comments beside your content or products. True, you lose some control of the message, but by sharing the opinions of other buyers you’ll enhance the visitor experience and ultimately build trust in your brand.

3) Content: Think about what drives social sharing of your content. It’s likely that one of the biggest factors is how uniquely relevant it is to each of your customers and prospects. So, make it a point to brainstorm new ways you can drive personalization – perhaps by adding more behavioral marketing elements into your campaigns – and connect your content with social conversations. If you’re not already doing so, take a look at embedding content with social sharing options and consider building campaigns around sharing in 2013.

4) Apps: Does your company have a mobile app to help increase engagement with the growing number of smartphone and tablet users? Smart move.

Once you’ve got your app, though, it’s time to

think about the biggest factors in whether a customer downloads it. In most cases, the number of people who downloaded an app and how they rated it are the most critical drivers of future downloads. So, think about how you as a marketer can best respond to what people are saying and how they’re engaging with your app. Perhaps an app email welcome program that educates users on how to get the most out of your app might increase customer satisfaction and boost ratings.

So, what new social strategies do you think are critical to success in 2013?

Bryan Brown

As the director of product strategy, Bryan Brown is responsible for defining the broad strategic vision of Silverpop’s family of products and helping marketers grow revenue. He is a sought-after marketing thought leader, having helped hundreds of businesses adapt and thrive in the everchanging digital age of marketing.

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Make Your Website Easy to Read & Effective on all Mobile Phones

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PANDA & PENGUIN UPDATES

GUIDE TO BUILDING QUALITY LINKS TO WITHSTAND GOOGLE’S PANDA & PENGUIN UPDATES

By Robin Gupta Google has become more stringent on the web owners about ranking the websites. It has come up with various updates on improving the quality. The major effective updates are panda and penguin.

While Panda puts more emphasis on the quality of content, Penguin has given an alert to the web owners who used a lot of links to get traffic on their sites and the low quality links are considered as spam. Due to this, various website owners had to face difficulties because their website started to rank lower in the search engines prove the rankings on the search and some of them even got their engines: website banned permanently.

After the updates, there has been a debate on what website owner can do to improve the rankings on the search engines. Link building has contributed greatly to market the products and services in the web world. It plays an important role in search engine optimization.

However, after the Google’s update, it has become more challenging for link building team to meet the requirements. Here, we will discuss a few effective techniques of link building which can definitely help web masters to im-

Get quality links from Press Release

skills to write a quality Press Release or hire a skilled writer who can do this job for you in an organized manner.

Below mentioned are some of Mainly, there are two ways to get the techniques to create an imthe links from Press Release. You pressive Press Release: can either create your own press release to do the link building • Attention-grabbing heador you can get your links placed line on someone else’s press release.

We all are aware of the fact Creating your own press release is that headline makes an impact a more effective way. The quality on the readers. We only read of the content is the most importhe information which we get tant factor after Google has reattracted to. For an instance, leased its update. You must write a newspaper has various news a quality Press Release which can but we only tend to read the grab the attention of the readers entire news which has an attenand offer valuable information. tion grabbing headline.

You can enhance your writing

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In the same manner, the headline of the Press reto make effective links. You should not use anlease must be very catchy and holds the meaning chor text such as “read more” and link it to the of the entire content. It has also been noticed home page. The relevant anchor text placement that some headlines are very attractive but they will increase the traffic more. are not relevant to what has been written in the PR. This leaves the readers very disappointed.

Know the Importance of image links • Share unique ideas If you want that people must read your press release, you must give the unique ideas in your write-up. You must ask your content writer to use his skills to put together a content which is not just the copy of the information already available on the internet. It is recommended to research a lot before actually writing a press release.

The readers get more impressed by the images of the product & services. Getting links from these images would be the better option. It has been observed that people overlook the technique of linking images to the site. However, they should know that it can bring more traffic because people would view the pictures and eventually visit your site.

• Address Reader’s Problems One of the best ways to engage the readers is to offer solutions to their problems. This way, they will find that they have utilized the time in a better way and would visit the link presented in the Press release. You have to assure them their problems are real and they have solutions too.

Placing Links in a press release You must follow the below mentioned trend in placing the links in a press release: • It is strongly recommended not to use too Below mentioned are some of the best practices many links as it will look promotional. These of image link building: days, Google has started penalizing the websites containing a lot of links. The website either ranks • High quality images lower or is completely banned.

You must get the images on the website which is more professional looking. Apart from that, you • Link all your links in a strategic manner so are needed to know that the pictures must be that they should not appear forced. You must not of high-resolution because blurry images will not start linking the content and the web pages from be viewed by the visitors anyway. It the images the beginning. You can use an effective strategy are good, a good link building can be implementto get better results. ed. You can even hire graphic designers who can work on the high quality images and put on your • Use different URLs for linking press release website. to the website. It is important to understand which the home page is and which one is the • Add images more often landing page. You must not direct your visitors to It is strongly recommended to add the images the same page only. You can link some of them to to the website more frequently. This is because the home page and some to the other pages such people love to view fresh content and the picas landing or inner pages. ture. This is the best way you can grab the attention of the visitors. You can even schedule the • You must place keywords within the content updation on the image such as weekly basis.

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• Compression of images The speed of the page can be suppressed by large images.

This is the reason why it is important to compress the images.

The huge library of the images can really slow down the speed of the site. You must optimize your images. There are a lot of tools available which you can use to perform the compression of the images. The platforms like WordPress offer free and paid plugins to do this work efficiently.

The images can make a great difference in the rankings of the website and you can use them to get enormous visitors. The visuals make more impact on the users than the text and getting traffic with images is easier than any other way.

The power of social media links These days, everyone loves to get associated with the social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. Getting links from these platforms would be a great idea because you will get quality links along with millions of visitors. Social signals have occupied a special place in the search engine optimization technique because it can fetch you the visitors which you might not be able to achieve otherwise.

purpose and ideas such as Triberr. Whatever you publish on such platform will automatically be shared among others. In the web world, you will find the like-minded people very on these sites easily and make the maximum use.

• Make the most of social sharing buttons One of the best ways to share your content with others is to use the social sharing buttons. To make it more effective, you can make them available at the end of the post because people would read the information and act positively if it is impressive enough.

They will even recommend others to view your information and buy the products and services offered by you.

• Encourage others to share You must encourage others to share your content or like your post.

This will build your online reputation and you will not have to do much to bring a lot of visitors to your website. It is suggested to send them emails to share your content with others. You might not be sure if they will do it for you but you must put in efforts to do it. In the social networking site like Facebook, you can invite others to join groups and participate in the events. This will bring you tremendous traffic.

• High quality content In the web world, you have to be true and offer the content which contains the quality. The videos, images and information must be up to the mark; else, you will not be able to get the desired results. Some of the content which makes an impact on the readers include info graphics, blog posts and interviews. Getting links from high quality content is one of the ways to comply with the Google’s latest guidelines. Your website will improve the rankings in the major search engines.

You must follow the below mentioned tips to get the quality links from the social media platforms: • Use relevant platforms It is suggested to create an account on those platforms which offer the same business

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The Anchor Text Many a times, SEO specialists ignore the importance of anchor text in the link building. This may result in the serious consequences. It has been noticed that appropriate anchor text can direct the visitors to your website very easily. Most of the web owners do not pay attention to the anchor text and they just place the links and make the wrong choice of anchor text. Below mentioned are some of the tips which you can use to diversify the anchor texts:

• The links same as the page title In order to be more specific, you must use some of the keywords as the page title. It will make the readers clear on what they are going to view in the next clicks. This is also one of the userfriendly way to bring interact with your customers.

• Make the links on your brand name If you want to highlight your products & services and the brand, one of the best ways is to get the anchor text of your brand name and create a link to your official website. This is the most effective way to get the potential customers for your business. For an instance, any product from Apple can include iPhone, iPad and Apple as anchor text to visit the web pages of the Apple website.

• Exact match the keyword You must match the keyword with the anchor text. This way, you can optimize the blog or article in a better manner and create links using the diversified anchor text.

Conclusion

We must agree on the fact that the link building is • Match the keyword partially a great way to become popular in the web world.

Google has started penalizing the websites for However, it is equally important to adhere to the over optimization. In order to avoid it, you can guidelines of the search engines which would evenmatch the keyword partially with the anchor text tually rank the site. If we do not improve on quality and get the visitors as well as better rankings on and do an effective link building, we cannot expect the search engines. search engines like Google to help us promote the business and brand. Above mentioned techniques • Non-Descriptive links are really helpful for web masters who are considYou can include the anchor text such as ‘Read erate about bringing their website back on the top more and Click here to get more traffic on the positions on the search engines. site. These links have zero keyword value and would be quite beneficial if the content is of high quality. It has been noticed that website owners place these anchor texts in the wrong places.

Robin Gupta You must not use them in the beginning unless is an SEO expert authority who it is required. This will allow the users to read also has strong knowledge of online the information till the end and they will be able business. He writes experts blogs on to get familiar with the services of other details online business and SEO. Robin runs offered by you. On the other hand, if you place an SEO Agency at www.robingupta.co these links in the beginning, the readers would leave the current page and jump to another.

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WEBSITES

TOP 7 WEBSITE SELLER MISTAKES

By Danny Batelic I’ve been buying and selling websites for a few years now and I continually see sellers on Flippa make the same mistakes, so I thought I would share my top seven with you.

any you have purchased. There is no excuse for not having analytics installed.

Then there is proof of income.

You’d be amazed at how many sellers can’t substantiate income claims they make.

Mistake 1: Poor Record Keeping Let’s start at the top, as this is the number one offender when it If your site has been making comes to selling. money through AdSense, affiliate commission, or from your own Buying and selling is a numbers product, most sales will come via game and “potential” really PayPal and you should be able to means nothing. It’s all about the show buyers the PayPal history. proof.

If there have been sale spikes through promotions you’ve run, There is no excuse for poor re- explain that to buyers, don’t cord-keeping. wait for people to point it out to you in the comments section.

When you sell your website, the Being transparent helps remove onus is on you to tell an authen- suspicion, which can hurt your tic story and backup any claims auction, particularly if you have you make with proof. If a seller a string of comments pointing can’t prove any claims, then as out any irregularities. far as I’m concerned, the claim never happen. If I can’t get the Mistake 2: Not Knowing What information I need, I’ll just walk Your Site is Worth away. There is so much oppor- A lot of sellers simply undervalue tunity online that I’m not going their sites and consequently so to waste time on something that many sites are undersold. triggers alarm bells.

Flippa is a relatively new marWhen I buy a website, I like to ketplace and as a seller, it’s your see at least six months worth of job to understand how to value traffic stats. The simplest way to websites and then convey that keep traffic records, is to install value to potential buyers. The Google analytics. This should be best place to learn valuation is installed as soon as you either on Flippa itself. Study the “just build a site or take ownership of sold” section and develop a feel

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for what people are paying, but more importantly look for patterns. I learnt this from bricks and mortar real estate, where any new investors are encouraged to study at least 100 auctions before they even think of buying property.

The more you understand why sites sell for the prices they do, the easier it will be for you to educate buyers as to why they should pay the price you are asking.

Mistake 3: Weak Sales Copy This is where you get to tell the story. You want buyers to feel comfortable, knowing that they are buying the real thing. The number one fear buyers have is being ripped off and it’s your job to remove those fears.

You need to talk about the site’s history. How did it start? Did you build it from scratch, or did you buy it as an established site? Explain what you have done to the site and what will be required by the new owner to maintain it.

You need to discuss all features and benefits. Explain the traffic.

Is it organic, or is it mainly paid traffic? A lot of sellers will try and hide the fact that they pay for traffic, but if a site is making more money than it spends in traffic, then that’s a good thing.

If I can make $2 for every $1 I spend, I will buy traffic all day long and as much of it as I can.

arise here because buyers expected certain things that never happened. The sales letter is the perfect place to explain the whole after sales process.

Another example of why it pays to study a number of auctions before you start to sell, is that you can answer any potential questions buyers might have, in the sales letter itself. Covering potential questions helps having to answer question after question in the comments section, which can be time-consuming.

The headline is a great opportunity for you to grab people’s attention and so many people get this wrong. Again, a great tip here, is to study the just sold section and take note of headlines that grab your attention. Avoid headlines that just sound too good to be true.

Mistake 4: Mismanaging the Whole Auction Process

Explain the monetisation. Show how the site makes money and how the new owner can continue to make money. This is where you need to show proof of any claims you’re making. Proof always trumps potential. Even if your site makes $20 a month from AdSense. As long as you can back it up with proof, your site will be more authentic than one that claims $4000 a month income potential, with no proof.

So many auctions just don’t run for long enough. I know, at times The sales letter is where you get sellers are very motivated and to avoid all those after sale has- after a quick sell. I think 5 to 7 sle. You need to clearly outline days is the ideal listing for most what happens once the sale is sites. You need to consider peocomplete. Be explicit with what ple’s online habits. We all access you are prepared to do from your the Internet at different times. end as part of the transfer pro- Some people are only online durcess. I’ve seen so many disputes ing work hours, others at night

and some only spend time online on the weekends. You want to cast your net as wide as possible, so I recommend including at least one weekend in your listing cycle.

A common mistake is not replying to comments regularly and efficiently. Once a day is okay at the start of an auction and as things heat up towards the end you need to answer any comments as soon as you can. Answer all questions honestly and if you don’t have information, just let people know that you will endeavor to find out and get back to them.

This is where you see so many people caught out trying to cover for mistakes or misinformation.

High end sites can run longer, as they have more traction.

A great tactic towards the end of an auction is to post a comment or two of your own, just to alert any watches or last-minute bidders that the auction is about to end.

A huge mistake I see in the auction process, is when sellers lose their nerve. This is where mistakes are made and money left on the table.

The auction process isn’t linear.

Things start with a little frenzy in the beginning and then there is always a dip in the middle, with things really heating up towards the end. A lot of sellers get to that dip and panic. This is where reserves are dropped, low BIN prices are put in place and lowball offers are accepted.

I’ve spoken to so many sellers who have dropped their prices, only to learn that there were

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buyers waiting to enter towards the end of the auction and were willing to pay top dollar.

auction really helps attract lastminute bidders.

Mistake 6: Not Using Video The option to attach a video to your listing is a fantastic selling Do this and you lose. You would strategy that hardly anyone emnever go to a house auction and ploys. With so many free video have the seller come out and re- tools available, it only takes a veal to everyone their reserve few minutes to screen capture a price. It just does not happen. walk-through of your website and It shouldn’t happen on Flippa ei- even your traffic and revenue acther. You will be asked this ques- counts, which is a great way to tion and the best answer you show proof. A video walk-through can give, is that revealing the is like a guided tour of your webreserve defeats the purpose of site and I have had fantastic suchaving one in the first place. Re- cess using video. member how I wrote about emotion earlier? This is the chance to Mistake 7: No After Sales Supuse it to your advantage. People port buy on emotion. That’s why the I touched on this earlier, but auction process is so successful. this is where any disputes will No one likes to miss out, so it arise and headaches occur This can become more about winning is a trap the new sellers. If you the auction, rather than buying a have been very specific in your website. sales letter as to what happens post sale and deliver on what you Mistake 5: Confused By All have promised, you will avoid alThose Upgrades most all problems. For a lot of With all the listing options avail- buyers, this is probably the first able to sellers, things can get a site they will ever own and it can little confusing be daunting to manage a website the first time.

Upgrades can get a little expensive on lower end sites, but using It’s important to contact the just one or two can really help buyer as soon as the auction has drive traffic to your listing. Most finished letting them know what sellers ignore upgrades as sim- the next step is and what you exply a waste of money. No matter pect from them in order to move what price I’m selling at, I per- forward smoothly. I personally sonally always use the highlight never start any transfers until option when I first list. It’s a the money has cleared and once simple way to stand out from the I’ve been paid. If this is your crowd. On mid to high end sites, approach, remember that it is the rest of the upgrades do help, mentioned in your sales copy to but it is a matter of using them ensure buyers are aware of your strategically. It does require a expectations – having consistentlittle experimenting on your part ly positive feedback will make to find what works best for you. this less of an issue. Once the I find using the featured listing funds are cleared, I work as fast upgrade towards the end of an as possible to transfer everything “PAY ME THE RESERVE!”

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and finish the process. I’ve heard so many stories of things falling apart at this point, because of poor communication and sellers not working with the buyer to finalize everything.

If a buyer is happy with dealing with you, there’s a great chance that they will buy again. As part of the whole follow-up process, it’s important to ask the buyer’s permission to add them to your email list and then follow up with any future listings you have. Once everything is finalized, touch base with the buyer after a few weeks, and then a few months.

Find out how they’re doing with the new site and if they’re ready for another. You’d be surprised at how many buyers become repeat customers.

Danny Batelic

has a background in music and spent way too much time writing and programming computer music, never even considering that those computer skills would come in handy when it came time to buy, build and sell websites.

Danny has spent the last five years, doing just that, renovating and selling web businesses online and teaches others how to do the same on his Trading Websites blog.

Andrew Knibbe

has held Marketing and Operations Management roles at the Flippa.com website marketplace over a tenure that has seen over $50 million in websites change hands.

Andrew authored the popular Flippa Pro Guide to Buying Websites as well as the Guide to Selling Websites on Flippa.

Andrew will be speaking at Affiliate Summit West in January 2013.

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