Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages – A Whole New Vocabulary for Small Business Sales – Marketing
Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages - A Whole New Vocabulary for Small Business Sales
Dr. Lynella Grant
Buyers want both online and local information about where to buy. Most small businesses are local in nature, serving people who live nearby. Their customers found them through traditional methods like the Yellow Pages or newspaper ads. So far, the Internet hasnt figured prominently in their marketing efforts.
Thats about to change, as Local Search methods become more widespread. Even for buyers expecting to spend their money close to home, more and more of them go to the Internet to locate desired products and services. They rely on search engines to find suitable vendors in the fastest, easiest way.
Local Search combines the search query word or phrase with specific geographic terms, like city or zip code. That way, search results only include enterprises in that local area. Instead of information about a small enterprise being lost among millions of pages of search results, it shows up in a small pool of local providers. Thats good for them, as well as the person looking for what they provide.
Small operations can easily be located by a whole new group of buyers Consumers dont simply go to the Yellow Pages when ready to buy - as they once did. Studies show that an astonishing 36% of online searches are conducted to find local businesses. About a quarter of all Internet users already conduct local searches. Theyd do even more of it, if the desired small business data were more complete.
Local enterprises need to prepare for the impact of changing customer habits. An easy first step is to include your business in Internet Yellow Pages IYP, along with the printed Yellow Page directory. That puts your enterprise on the radar screen. Learn how your business can make the most of Local Search by visiting http://www.yellowpagesage.com Youll find reliable advice from experts in Yellow Pages and Local Search so you can get more mileage from your promotional dollars.
Start by getting comfortable with search concepts, and improve your odds of being found when people search online for what you offer. You dont even need your own Web site to benefit from Internet Yellow Pages and Local Search.
Learn the Relevant Terms
Search Engine - method for locating the information available on the Internet; a program that searches Web pages for requested keywords, then returns a list of documents where the query terms were found
Google and Yahoo, the major general search engines, have both shifted gears to make Local Search a priority when delivering relevant results.
Spider also called "crawler" or "bot" - goes to every page on every Web site and reads the information so it can be available to searchers; to "crawl" a site it collects and indexes information from it
Specialized Search Engines - narrow focus of information crawled and indexed, like medical, business, or shopping sites
Keywords - word or phrases used by search engines to locate relevant Web pages; words chosen to improve a sites search engine placement and ranking
Search Query - search request, which the search engine compares to the spidered entries, then returns results to the searcher
Search Results - compiled list of Web pages that a search engine delivers in response to a query; the number of items returned is usually overwhelming in the millions, so searchers only bother to view results on the first pages
Relevant Results - the test of a good search is whether the results obtained relate to what the person wanted to find, without a lot of irrelevant links
Local Search - combining a geographic term in a search query to locate suitable providers in a specific area
Pay per Click PPC - method of building traffic whereby site owners bid on search terms keywords that link to their site
Geographic Terms - specific information about the local area that can be included in a local search: zip code, town, county, geographic region, state
Top Ranking - sites shown on the first pages of search results
Search Engine Optimization SEO - fine-tuning keywords and page content so the Web site rates high in search engine results
Tags and Titles on Web Pages - provide site keywords and information to search engine spiders for indexing a site
Internet Yellow Pages IYP - directory of business phone numbers and locations in a geographic area, organized by category; searchable data base accessed on the Internet
Make your business easy for searchers to find The public is embracing the convenience of searching on the Internet to find information about local businesses. However, their searches for desired information are compromised because so many local enterprises dont show up in the databases as yet. Those that do have an edge in their local market. Climb aboard! Make sure searchers can find you. For little or no money, you can expose your enterprise to the whole world.
Whether or not your business has a Web site, you need to provide the information people are looking for in the places that they look for it. Local Search and Internet Yellow Pages open new avenues to buyers ready to spend. Best of all, they support and compliment your traditional methods of finding new business. So you cover all your bases.
c2004, Lynella Grant
About The Author
Dr. Lynella Grant, an expert in visual communication. How printed materials send signals that strengthen or undo the words. Author, The Business Card Book & Yellow Page Smarts http://www.yellowpagesage.com Off the Page Press 719 395-9450
grant@yellowpagesage.com
Weekend Internet Money Project – Internet Vending Machines – Affiliate Programs
Weekend Internet Money Project - Internet Vending Machines
Iszuddin Ismail
Do you remember when you were a kid and you have that little piggy bank. Every now and then, your mom or dad, or your uncles and aunties come by and drop in a few coins for you.
What if I can show how to have that again - even if you are 70 That would be great right No saving effort, yet you have a small little saving that you put a way every now and then.
Infact, later I will even show you how to turn this piggy bank into a line of vending machines, scattered all over the internet. You will have money thrown at your everyday, around the clock.
So heres your weekend internet money project, generating that little change for the rainy days.
I have been on the internet since 1997 and I think that now is the easiest time for you to make money from the internet.
Of course there are many ways for you to make money on the internet. But the easiest would in a way which you dont have to do a lot of things - no money handling, processing orders, no shipping or any of those things.
And even in times when you have to work, why not be it something that you like doing.
Consider this famous quote -
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius
And I think it is true. Doing something that you love is never a work. It is never a job - its passion.
Now back to the weekend internet money project.
Why dont you start considering what is it that you love and passionate about. What you should do is share with the world about it. How - Build a website.
Today, building a website is childs play. A seven-year old can show you how to build a website. And even if you are totally blur about the internet and computers, there are many tools and software that can help you with this.
Lets not go into detail on this. Lets talk about how to make money.
The big question is - How to generate money from your website. Now this is no secret. There are only two ways to make money from you website - the easy way.
Google Adsense http://www.google.com/adsense
Affiliate Programs
Lets talk about Google Adsense. When you have build your website, register for Google Adsense program and start earning money for every clicks that you refer to advertisers. Just sign-up, get the advertising code and put it in your website. And thats it.
Google Adsense has a technology that will show relevant ads on your website. If your website talks about babies, Google Adsense will display ads on baby products. This will indeed increase clicks on the ads and increase you earning from Google Adsense.
Before you know it, this little website IS your little piggy bank. But instead of having you mom or dad fill it in, you have somebody that you dont even know, willingly giving you their spare change.
I cant say how much you can really earn. Some clicks give you $1.23 and some just gives you $0.06. That all depends on the industry and how competitive that industry is advertising. But whenever anyone gives me a spare change, I take it.
Now, lets talk about affiliate programs. How does this work This is again about advertising, but instead of earning by every click, you earn bigger money, but for every sales that occur.
The miracle of the internet has been able to track visitors from your website and being able to tell whether or not they purchased anything at the advertisers website.
Unlike earning by clicks, a sales doesnt occur as often. But with affiliate programs, you earn more. You may be earning $0.23 for a click but you can earn $50 for a sale.
There are numerous affiliat programs on the internet. Some of the famous on would be like the one I list below
Commission Junction - http://www.cj.com
Linkshare - http://www.linkshare.com
ShareASale - http://www.shareasale.com
Dark Blue - http://www.darkblue.com
ClickBank - http://www.clickbank.com
... and there are more ...
What you should do with affiliate programs is choose the most relevant affiliate programs to your website, and then start promoting them in your website. If you have a website about babies, find an affiliate programs on baby products. That is the way to do it.
Some affiliate programs indeed offer the $80 commission per sale but if that product is not related to your website, I doubt that any sale is to occur.
Now, weve talked about the opportunity of the internet and building your small piggy bank ... now lets talk about the action plan.
1 - Build Your Website
This is easy. Here are some tools that you can use that will help you make building and maintaining your website almost effortless.
Hosted Solution
Site Build It - http://www.sitesell.com
Website Wizard - http://www.websitewizard.com
Third Sphere Hosting - http://www.thirdsphere.com
GoDaddy! - http://www.godaddy.com
Free WYSIWYG Web Page Editors
Amaya - http://www.w3.org/Amaya/
WebPage - http://webpage.vendercom.com/
WebMatrix - http://www.asp.net/webmatrix/
1st Page 2000 - http://www.evrsoft.com/1stpage/
2 - Always Update Your Website With Fresh Content
In your free time, always write more about the thing that you are passionate about. Just let the ideas pour in and write whatever it is that you are thinking about.
Some Other Tips I Can Share
Now, is there more things that I share Well, yes! Just consider the following.
Tip #1 - Is There a Market for Your Topic
Try considering how many other people have the same interest as you. If there are many people that have the same interest as you, they are your possible visitors. What you can do the check this out is to check how many people are searching for the related field.
Try out Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool where you can check out how many times a keyword was searched for the previous month. If there arent many, you may have a website with no visitors.
Run through all the keywords relating to your passion in the tool and see. You might even find a topic that you can really focus on rather than a very broad topic. If you like cats, try cat food, cat care, cat clothing ...
If there are about 5,000 searches minimum for that keyword, you can go with that.
http://inventory.overture.com
Tip #2 - Learn a Little Bit of Search Engine Optimization
This is the skill in which you try to get good listing in search engines.
Now, dont get too hooked up on this. Just do the basics. Learn a thing or two and start implementing it in your website. You can about this at the following website.
http://searchenginewatch.com/
http://searchguild.com/
http://www.lilengine.com/
Tip #3 - Get People To Link To You
Now, on top of writing fresh new content for your website, why not every now and then, find another website and ask that website to link to you. You can even ask them to link to a specific article that you have.
You benefit in two ways from this. One, the visitors on the other website can know about your website and come over. Two, search engines like websites with many incoming links. So having many incoming links can boost your listing in the search engines.
Tip #4 - Turn Piggy Bank Into Vending Machines
Now, heres a big tip. Because when everything is up and running, you dont really have to do much - you can build more website. Each of this websites is like another piggy bank. But because you have so many of them, in every corner of the internet - its like having vending machines in every corner of the town.
Now - how great is that
In fact this is better than having vending machines. You dont have to refill them, you dont have to get out of your house - its great.
Infact I myself is in the process of building my own small vending machines all over the net. I have a site on paintball, I have a site on airsoft, I have a site on computer cases, and a few more. And I want to add more.
When ever you feel like its time for a new website, just think about what else you are interested in and start the work all over again.
So I guess that is all. To sum it all up, here is a short summary action plan for you.
Find a field that you are interested in
Qualify with Overture Search Term Tool
Build your website
Build links
Build more content
So ... I wish you well. Start building your piggy bank ... err ... I mean your vending machines.
About The Author
Iszuddin Ismail a.k.a. Kidino, the Web Marketing Techie is the editor of MoneyClicking Newsletter where he helps netpreneurs with their website building for internet marketing. Join the MoneyClicking Newsletter Today. Free ebook - Build Content-Site for Internet Income. http://www.moneyclicking.net.
When Internet Marketing Gurus Sell Their Souls – Email Marketing
When Internet Marketing Gurus Sell Their Souls
Gobala Krishnan
If youre just getting started in Internet Marketing, you may be awed by the amount of "Internet Gurus" out there, all making millions of dollars or so they claim and for some reason seem more than willing, for a fee, to teach you their biggest, most intimate secrets.
I believe in one thing - If it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is!
While I have no doubt on the specialized skills and techniques used by these gurus, it can get way too frustrating simply getting into all their hype, and find almost no value at the end of the day. Hype - thats one thing I agree these gurus are really good at. For some of them, unfortunately, hype is the only thing theyre good at.
So the question, for those who are trying to master Internet Marketing, might be:
Can I learn anything from these gurus without paying money
Who is real and who is not
Whose methods should I follow
Can You Learn Something for Free
Most gurus have opt-in newsletters on specialized subjects like website marketing, Pay-Per-Click, search engine optimization or whatever specialized skill they have "mastered". Almost all of them ask you to subscribe to their newsltetter in return for some kind of "breakthrough" report, and promise to deliver "valuable information" weekly or monthly to your email address. Sound great.
Heres what happens 2 weeks later - You realize that the "breakthrough report" is the same old regurgitated information which you can find almost anywhere. You might also relize that the "valuable information" never comes in full, without any hidden agenda. The "valuable information" is actually a soft-selling sometimes even blatant advertisements ad for the gurus products, or even worse, some other Internet marketers products.
Im not trying to shoot down any marketer here, but the irony is in their teaching. Almost all internet gurus would advice you to offer valuable, free information that benefits other people. Profits, as they say, is secondary to actually helping people and making a difference in their lives. What a load of BS. How come they dont practise what they preach Of is that how the Internet Marketing Game is played
Fortunately, not all gurus are the same. There are still some jewels to be found, and they offer some great information in their newsletters, such as:
Vishal Rao: http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com talks about home based businesses.
Mike Cheney: http://www.magnet4web.com talks about building an effective and efficient business web site.
Jill Whalen: http://www.highrankings.com talks about Search Engine Optimization.
Of course there are more out there, but it is not necessary to subscribe to every Internet Marketing newsletter just to hope for nuggets of gold that may never come. Instead, give the guru a "trial" month, and if you dont find anything of value from them, just unsubscribe. It will only be a loss to them, not you.
Whos Real and Whos Not
To answer this question, you really have to "get around" the Internet a lot. Go to forums where you will definately find topics on info-products offered by these gurus, and see what others are saying about them. Forget about all those blaring testimonials that the gurus compile on their site. Forums are where the real testimonials are. You may also want to consider this site:
GuruDaq : http://www.gurudaq.com
Taking on a Nasdaq-like approach, this site lists all gurus according to ratings and stock price. Although I would advice to take it more as an entertainment that actual recommendations, perhaps this site will allow you to get a glimpse of "whos who" in Internet Marketing.
Whose methods should I follow
Honestly, nobodys. At least not word-for-word of what is thought in their newsletters or ebooks. The important thing to realize is that you need to develop your own technique to be really successful. The gurus dont teach you everything, anyway. They almost always feed you the crop but keep the cream for themselves. In other words, no one really tells you the "hot money-making secrets", especially those gurus that have sold their soul a long time ago.
Its really up to you to learn some tips and tricks of the trade from them, but set out on your own course. In order to be successful in anything, you need to do your own thing. Be original in you approach, whether its writing sales letters, doing email marketing, pay-per-click or search engine optimization.
Dont look to someone who has sold their soul to lead you to the path of success. Thats wishful thinking.
Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan
About The Author
Gobala Krishnan is an internet marketer and home business owner. Visit his site at http://www.sfidreamteam.com to start your own Internet based home business today, and get a free kickstart package, one-on-one coaching and a clear, proven system to earn a six figure income.