4 Key Points to Cover When Writing Your Article
Article writing should be part of the mix in traffic building strategy of any internet marketing program. Articles have the benefit of driving traffic of qualified motivated visitors to your site if you offer quality information that offers a solution to their problem. This will have a direct bearing on how the search engines rank your site and your rank will determine the volume of visitors you will draw to see what your site has to offer.

Writing your article requires some research and careful attention to good, solid content. It also requires that you cover key points to ensure that your readers finds you and stays with you for the present and well into the future.

 
Quality Content
Your first and most important step is to commit to your reader and his/her underlying need or problem. The reader should be finding what they are looking for in the content of your article and should take away the satisfaction of a solution that will make his or her life easier. What you want to get on your end is not just customer satisfaction, but customer loyalty. You want that visitor to look to you as trusted resource to whom they can return anytime they need information or a product that will satisfy a need.

Write for your audience and write using content that has substance. Use a natural style that reflects your personality and natural approach to people. Be who you are and that will translate into a comfortable tone and style that makes you a non threatening and trusted source of information. Proper grammar, correct syntax and well structured sentences are a given. If the article calls for it include facts, figures, statistics, charts and any kind of visual imagery to prove your points. All of this will establish your authority and build confidence with your audience.

Keywords and Keyword Phrases
Your article should be very clear as to the purpose and intent of your product, service or solution. Keywords and keyword phrases play an important role in showing you know what you are talking about and are offering a solution. Your reader will be typing those keywords and keyword phrases when they set about looking for the product or service to help them with a need they have. So your article should use these keywords and relate directly to the purpose of your Web site. Each page of your Web site has to be keyword or keyword phrase driven. That helps your reader find what they are looking for. Your article should point them there with keywords and keyword phrases linked to the page with the solution.

Keyword Density
Keyword density refers to the use of keywords and keyword phrases in the copy of your article. The presence of these keywords and keyword phrases allows for the search engines to find in your articles markers that will rank your article and put it in front of a Web visitor who is looking for that information. If someone is looking for copyrighting information and your article has the right density of that term in its title or paragraph content, chances are that reader will find you in the search results and click to read your content.

How often you use the keywords and keyword phrases is a matter of judgment. Over use of keywords or keyword phrases will look like a spam message and turn off your reader and the search engine. Too little use and you will not be found in the search process. A rule of thumb is 2-3 keywords per 500 words of content. Something in the title of the article, maybe two mentions in the body of the text. The main point is to use your keyword density wisely and you will reap the benefit of increased authority and trust.

 
Article Signature
Articles are obviously posted in blogs and newsletters but they are also submitted to article directories for more general distribution. This allows for you to get widespread recognition throughout the Web and increase your reach and potentially increase your traffic. It is a great way to establish affiliate marketing program and brand yourself as an expert.

One thing to bear in mind is that article distributors and directories are becoming more strict about writing original material and about self promotion. An increasing number will not allow any material you may have bought from an article reseller. Many do not allow any mention of affiliate marketing or affiliate links in the body of the content. So you will not be allowed to use anchor text to cross sell an affiliate product. You can still have keywords and keyword phrases but you simply cannot link to an affiliate site. This leads to the following point.

There is one area where directories still allow links to appear and that is in the signature or biography box where you present information about yourself. This is where you can put links, usually no more than two, to your affiliate product or service. Now again, some directories will not allow a raw affiliate link. They will allow a link to a site you own. So you can link to your own site or sites and simply forward to an affiliate site from there. That is why it is important you write a signature for your articles that will link to your solution based site. That is what sends you traffic and grow your internet marketing program.

These are four important elements to cover and understand as you design your article marketing plan for your affiliate marketing business. Master these and you will see results in the growth of traffic to your site and growth in profits in your bank account.

 
Author: Claude Pelanne

Having experienced a large number of web site tracking programs over the years, I looked Google Analytics over with a somewhat sarcastic attitude, what could possibly make this particular program worth my time?

What is Google Analytics?
Analytics is Goggle’s very own visitor tracking utility, allowing webmasters to keep tabs on traffic to their site, including visitor numbers, traffic sources, visitor behavior & trends, times spent on the site and a host of other information gathered via two pieces of JavaScript embedded in the source-code.

Unlike other free visitor trackers, which insist on displaying annoying and often amateurish badges or buttons when they are being used, Google Analytics simply runs quietly in the background, gathering the necessary information without any visible signs of its presence.

Which brings us to this programs first major plus, the price, it’s FREE. What webmasters and site owners are effectively getting, is a fully-fledged visitor tracking utility without all the irritations and limitations normally associated with free products of this type.

You Are Probably Saying: Oh Joy another free program; but is it any good? Yes.

The depth of information gathered, is adequate. From search engine analysis to page views, bounce-rates and more, the available data is presented so as to give users an easy overview of the most essential elements, with the ability to ‘drill down’ to less commonly accessed or more in-depth statistics and figures.

The Dashboard provides a simple, at a glance, visitor statistics for the previous month, as well as a graphical breakdown of your visitor’s geographical locations in the form of a world map. A pie chart clearly shows what proportion of visitors reached the site through search engines, by referral or through direct access, whereas the ‘Content Overview’ provides a list of the most commonly accessed pages.

What makes Google Analytics special though?
Although Analytics boasts all the features and statistical data to be expected from a top-class keyword analysis and statistics tracker, it also features a number of additional tools which put it ahead of the most of the pack where ease-of-use and depth-of-information is concerned.

Map Overlay:
Essentially, this feature brings up a map of the world, highlighting the countries a site’s visitors stem from. Clicking on a country produces a close-up view, along with a geographical breakdown according to the region and/or city from which visitors accessed the site. This tool in itself is invaluable for all those webmasters with geo-specific sites, concentrating on a particular catchments area.

Site Overlay:
This is conceivably Google Analytics’ single most important feature from a Webmaster’s or online business owner’s perspective, as it provides a hands-on view of visitor behavior. When clicked, ‘Site Overlay’ opens the tracked web site in a new window and, after a moment’s loading time, overlays each link on the screen with a bar, containing information about clicks to the target page and goal values reached [more about goal values in a moment]. Since it allows the webmaster or site owner to navigate his or her site and see exactly how visitors flow through it, it is difficult to imagine a more effective tool than this as far as raising a site’s conversion rates is concerned.

Goals and Funnels:
This portion of Analytics takes additional configuring to make it work in a meaningful manner. In order for Google Analytics to calculate goal conversion metrics, you must create one or more goals. Before setting up a goal, please make sure you have the following requirements.

Requirements:
The name of the goal: Specify a name that you will recognize when viewing the goals within each set of your reports. Examples of names you might use include “email sign-up” or “article ABC download.”

The defined funnel: You may specify up to ten pages in a defined funnel. Although funnels are optional, defining one can help you map where visitors drop off during the path to completing a goal.

The value of the goal: Google Analytics uses an assigned goal value to calculate ROI, Average Score, and other metrics. A good way to value a goal is to evaluate how often the visitors who reach the goal become customers. If, for example, your sales team can close 10% of people who request to be contacted, and your average transaction is $500, you might assign $50 (i.e. 10% of $500) to your “Contact Me” goal. In contrast, if only 1% of mailing list signups result in a sale, you might only assign $5 to your “email sign-up” goal.

How To: “Setting up Goals & Funnels
After you’ve thought of what your goals will be, start setting up them up by following these instructions:

• Sign in to your Google Analytics account at https://www.google.com/analytics/.
• Select the account that contains the profile you’ll be creating goals in from the Overview page.
• Find the profile for which you will be creating goals, and click ‘Edit’ under the ‘Actions’ column.
• Under the ‘Goals’ section, select one of the four sets to create your goal in (each set contains up to five goals) and click ‘Add goal.’ You can create up to 20 goals if you use all four sets.
• Enter the goal’s name so that you can quickly recognize it when viewing reports.
• Turn the goal ‘On’ or ‘Off.’ If you choose ‘On,’ that means you want Google Analytics to track this conversion goal at this time. Turning it ‘Off’ will only make the goal inactive without deleting it.
• Select the goal’s position. The pull-down menu lets you select a goal’s position from within a set so that you can control the order in which it appears from the ‘Goals’ tab in your reports, or lets you move a goal from one set to another.
• Decide one of the three types of goals you want. This can be URL Destination, Time on Site, or Pages/Visit. You can learn more about them and how to set up the goals for each one by visiting a separate Help Center article. Once you select the radio button for the goal type, a field for ‘Goal Details’ should appear.
• To learn how to fill out the fields for each goal type, please refer to this Help Center article.

Defining funnels
After you’ve entered your goal information, define a funnel if you’ve selected a ‘URL Destination’ goal type:

• Click ‘Yes, create a funnel for this goal.’
• Enter the ‘URL’ of the first page of your conversion funnel. This page should be a page that is common to all users working their way towards your goal. For example, if you are tracking user flow through your checkout pages, do not include a product page as a step in your funnel.
• Please note: Funnel URLs are treated as regular expressions. For this reason, you can include wildcard characters and use other regular expression methods if you want to match more than a single URL. Learn more about regular expressions.
• Enter a ‘Name’ for this step.
• If this step is a ‘Required step’ in the conversion process, select the checkbox to the right of the step.
• If this checkbox is selected, users reaching your goal page without travelling through this funnel page will not be counted as conversions.
• Learn more about the ‘Required Step’ option in a funnel.
• Continue entering goal steps until your funnel has been completely defined. You may enter up to 10 funnel steps, or as few as a single step.
• Click Save Changes to create this Goal and funnel, or Cancel to exit without saving.

Graphical Representations:
A great many visitor trackers out there will present the collected information in a certain way, be it a list, graph, pie chart, flow-chart or whatever. Whilst all these methods of presentation are of course valid, it is nevertheless a fact that most users are different, and a pie chart is not necessarily ideal for those users preferring to work with graphs or vice versa. Google Analytics however, allows users to choose between views on many of its reports. Although this may seem like a relatively minor point, it nevertheless makes things easier, as it allows the user to work with the view he or she is most comfortable with.

Bottom Line:
Google Analytics provides webmasters and site owners with a highly effective means of tracking visitors and analyzing statistical data, easily the equal of most subscription based services in the industry. Like all things it takes a some time to become familiar with, to use it to it’s fullest potential.

Phases to Email Marketing

I am sure you have been hearing that email marketing in the new way to sell, sell, sell and there is truth to this statement, but there also must be a strategy. When using email to sell a product or service you can’t honestly expect to just start selling to your subscribers in the first email. The reason is the odds of the reader knowing who you are or what you are all about are pretty low, even if they subscribed to your newsletter from a form on your website. People do not purchase from those they do not know. So the key to a successful email marketing campaign is “warming up” your readers to the sell.

The “warming up” process can be broken down into five distinct phases. It’s a good idea to keep these in mind as you work to warm up your lists.

Phase 1 — “Cold Readers”
These are folks who have just filled out the form on your website, or whose details you have received via co-registration.

You know nothing about them, and they know nothing about you, so at this phase, your primary job is to introduce yourself, and begin to establish yourself as a source of credible and useful *free* information.

I emphasized the word *free* in that, because “cold” leads are very unlikely to buy anything from you, no matter what you do.

PHASE 2 — “Curious Readers”
At this phase, people may have opened one or two of your emails and have at least decided to stay on your list long enough to find out what you’re about, and what they can gain by reading your emails.

Another way of thinking of this group is that they are the ones who are actually opening and reading your emails, whether they open the first or the tenth that you send them.

Your job with this group remains essentially the same as was true at Phase 1 … you are still in the process of “warming them up” to the idea that you are credible and trustworthy.

Again, not a time to be trying to sell them things, because few of them will buy, anyway.

PHASE 3 — “Interested Readers”
These are the folks who have opened and read several of your emails, and now continue to read them. Perhaps they have “moved” themselves from your “cold” list by opting-in to one or your newsletters or free mini-courses.

By doing so, they have “told” you that they are interested in what you have to say, willing to read more of your emails, and may, in due time, buy something on the basis of your suggestion.

One way to know who your “interested” prospects are is to offer a free ebook or mini-course, and make them “register” for it by opting in to a second autoresponder.

Another is to run a survey form on your site, invite them to participate, and capture their contact information when they do so.

The point is they have taken some *action* based upon your previous emails, and have told you by that action that they are interested in what you have to say, and willing to read what you write to them.

PHASE 4 — “Excited Readers”
These are folks who are almost ready to buy. They may have written you asking for more information, or visited your sales page several times. Maybe they are thinking about joining your business opportunity, but for some reason not quite ready to sign up and pay their money. They need some sort of “push” or “nudge” to get them to take action.

Maybe they need a “special offer” of some kind, or simply a personal follow-up email or phone call from you. Whatever it is, these are your *HOT* prospects.

PHASE 5 — “Customer”
The final phase is, of course, obvious. These are the folks who have bought your product, joined your opportunity, or bought something that you promote as an affiliate.

In the long run, these are the folks who will make you the most money, because it will become easier and easier for them to act on your recommendations, as long as you don’t betray their trust by endorsing poor quality products or programs.

You need to think of these folks as *friends*, because that is what they really are. They have now given you permission to send them follow-up offers and program endorsements.

Even though they may represent only a tiny percentage of the entire population of your list, these people are your long term gold mine group.

Treat them with respect, they have warmed up to you and what You have to offer. Maintain a high level of integrity and they will continue to follow you for years to come

It is interesting to think that out of the numerous ways in which business owners can advertise their products and services, many of them neglect to place their company’s URL in the very advertising they are already paying for.

Sometimes simply placing their website URL in their paid advertising is not that obvious. Here are 10 not-always-so-obvious ways to promote your Web site.

1. Include your URL on business cards, stationery, brochures and other literature. As silly as it may seem, this no-brainer is often overlooked. You’d be amazed how many business owners either forget to place their URL on their business cards or don’t think doing so is all that important. Be sure when printing your company’s promotional and marketing materials, to leave off the http:// part and include only the www.domain.com portion.

2. Don’t neglect e-mail and e-mail newsletters as a way to bring visitors to your Web site. Utilize the signature file option (company name, address, phone number, URL, e-mail address) in your e-mail program. Many business owners sign their e-mails with just their first name, nothing more. Moreover, many business owners still send and receive business-related e-mails using a free e-mail account or their ISP’s email, like Hotmail, Yahoo, or Ameritech, rather than using their corporate e-mail account – another free Web site promotion tool.

While it’s a big commitment in time, publishing a weekly, monthly, or quarterly newsletter is one of the very best ways to keep in touch with your prospects, generate trust, develop brand awareness, and build future business. Don’t forget to place your URL in each newsletter you send out.

3. Take a moment to use your traditional means of advertising to add your URL. Be sure to include your URL in any display or classified ads you purchase in trade journals, newspapers, magazines and more. View your Web site as an information adjunct to the ad – to capture the readers’ attention with the ad, and then refer them to a URL where they can obtain more information and perhaps place an order. Look carefully at small display or classified ads in the back of magazines or trade periodicals. Sometimes these ads are more targeted, more effective, and less expensive than online advertising. Consider other traditional media to drive people to your site, such as direct mail, classifieds, post cards, etc.

4. Become an online expert in your field. Use your expertise to become an expert in your field and promote your Web site for free. Sign up for Yahoo Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com/) or Google Answers (http://answers.google.com/answers/) and answer questions asked by online visitors. You will have the opportunity to write your company’s URL in your profile. This is a great way to gain additional Internet exposure as well.

5. Issue press releases. When your business has a newsworthy event, send press releases to print and online periodicals. Use these opportunities to mention your company’s URL near the bottom of each news release. There are many online PR Websites, including PRWeb.com, PRWire.com and others you may use to promote something exciting happening within your company.

6. Promote your site in mailing lists and news groups. The Internet offers hundreds of targeted e-mail based discussion lists, chat rooms and news groups made up of people with very specialized interests. Spend at least one hour each week searching for groups where a conversation is taking place. Do not use aggressive marketing and overly plug your company, even if you see some people doing so. Instead, add to the discussion in a helpful way and let the signature at the end of your e-mail or post message do the marketing for you. People will gradually get to know and trust you, visit your Web site, and do business with you.

7. Ask visitors to bookmark your site. It seems so simple, but make sure you ask visitors to bookmark your Web site. Use a text link or graphic on the homepage of your Web site.

8. Place URL in any yellow book advertising you already do. I once knew of a company who was spending $90,000 in yellow page advertising, across numerous books in the area, and included front yellow book cover ads as well as full-page, full-color ads throughout the yellow pages. Not once did they mention their Web site, which has been on the Net for many years. The company surprisingly saw no value to it.

Whether placing full-page ads in your local yellow pages, or only paying for a bold listing in the white and business yellow pages of your local directory, consider leaving open one line for your company’s Web site address. Because you are already paying for the directory advertising, this is one particular place you definitely do not want to overlook.

9. Write articles for use in newsletters and other Web sites. You can dramatically increase your Internet visibility when you write expert articles about your field and distribute them as free content for other article directories, e-mail newsletters and other related Web sites. At the bottom of each article written, request a link back to your Web site and a one-line description of what you offer. This is an effective viral marketing approach.

10. Devise other viral marketing techniques. Viral marketing uses the communication networks of your site visitors and current customers to spread the word about your Web site exponentially. Some examples include word-of-mouth, public relations, referrals, blogs, creating “buzz”, and other forms of network marketing.