1. Building a list is the key to success. If you have spent any amount of time looking into email promotion internet marketing, then you have probably heard people say, “the money is in the list.” The reason so many people say it is because it’s true. In fact, it’s so important that everything that follows revolves around this tip.

2. Opt in once, market forever. Sending traffic to your website takes a lot of resources. It’s necessary, but email marketing simplifies things. Here’s how: once people are at your site, you encourage them to share their email address with you. Then it doesn’t matter if they ever come back to your site or not. Instead, you can then market to them whenever the need arises.

3. Always provide value. One of the most common questions about email promotion internet marketing is how often to send sales messages, and how often to send informational messages. There is a myth that you shouldn’t send too many sales messages, but that’s not true. As long as you are providing value with what you are selling, then you are good to go.

4. Spend time crafting compelling subject lines. The subject is what the people will see in their email inbox. If they don’t like it, if it doesn’t make them want to see what’s inside, then they will simply delete it…without ever opening it. And that means no sales. However, if you can at least get them to open your email, then you’ll get a chance to present your message to them.

5. Don’t be tricky. Yes, there are some subject lines that will give you a much higher open rate, but you should never use them to trick people into opening the message. If you do, they will open your email, but once they realize that you have tricked them (read: lied to them), they will unsubscribe. A simple way to put it is to always make sure that the body of the email message delivers on any promises you make in the subject line.

These are only a few tips to help you with your email promotion internet marketing efforts. There are plenty of other things you can do, but these are a good start. The worst thing you can do is wait to build an email list. With all of the things it has going for it, every minute you wait is another minute you will be leaving money on the table.

The post One of The Best and Effective Way to Advertise Your Business appeared first on Smadso.

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The above list is only touching on the functionality you can add with Widgets. If you want to take it to the next level you can also add widgets that don’t come standard with your WordPress install.

I will share 3 that I have found very handy. Most of these widgets are added by using plugins.

1. Video Widget – This plugin will add a video widget that you can add to your sidebar. It will allow you to choose from over 25 video services. You can control video size within the widget. With this widget you only have to add the video ID as well – no embed code. Lastly, this widget will also allow you to add a list of videos that will be randomly chosen for your visitor.

2. Sexy Bookmarks Sidebar Widget – A quick note first, this plugin works with the original Sexy Bookmarks plugin so you will need that installed for this to work. It is a great and unique social media sharing plugin that you will find handy even if you don’t want this widget. The widget itself will allow you to add Sexy Bookmarks to your sidebar. This widget looks great and should lead to more social media submissions for your site.

3. Flickr Widget – Flickr is one of the best and easiest ways to both store and share your images. With this plugin you will get a Flickr widget that will display your latest Flickr images in your sidebar. The widget will display up to 10 photos from a Flickr photostream.

These 3 widgets are a drop in the bucket compared to all of the widgets available out there. If you want to add something to your sidebar and can’t figure it out – check out the WordPress plugins, they may have an add on widget that will give you exactly what you need.

One last suggestion: Please don’t pack your sidebar so full of widgets it stretches out the screen. it looks sloppy and unprofessional, not to mention people usually don’t scroll beneath your content to see your sidebar so it is wasted.

When used properly widgets can be a powerful addition to your WordPress site.

The post Harnessing The Power Of WordPress Widgets appeared first on Smadso.

If you are interested in joining a social networking website, the first thing that you will need to do is find a network to join. You can easily find a number of networks by performing a standard Internet search. For the best search results, you may want to search with the words social networking or social networking websites. In your search, it is likely that that you come up with a fairly large number of different networking sites. Popular sites that may be included in your search results may include, but will not be limited to, MySpace, Orkut, Yahoo! 360, FriendFinder, FriendWise, Facebook, and Classmates.

Once you have made the decision to join a particular social networking website, whether or not it is one of the ones mentioned above, you will need to need to register with the site. Even free networking communities require that you go through the registration process. Once you are registered, you should be able to start communicating with other community members. Before you start communicating, you may need to develop your online profile or profile page, depending on the networking site in question. Although it may seem easy enough to create a profile, there are many Internet users who are unsure exactly what they should and should not include.

Perhaps, one of the most important things to include in your online website is your picture. While a personal picture is optional, it is ideal. Many Internet users enjoy taking to someone that they can see in their minds, without a picture this is difficult. If you are looking to use social networking websites just to meet new friends you may not necessarily need to post a private picture, but you may need to if you are looking to find love online. When it comes to Internet dating, many individuals will not even view an online profile if a picture is not included.

In addition to your photograph, you may want to include your name. Now, when it comes to your name, you need to be cautious. You are advised against giving your full name, especially if your profile or profile page contains a personal photograph of you. In addition to your name, you may want to put down your location. As with your name it is important to display caution. Your picture, your address, and your full name can be dangerous, especially if it falls into the wrong hands. As much as you would like to fill your social networking profiles with personal information, you are advised to think about your safety before anything else.

You may also want to include information on yourself. This information may include your hobbies, issues that are important to do, your likes, and your dislikes. With many social networking websites, including MySpace, you will find that there are preset profile fields for this information. In addition to preset questions or categories on your likes and dislikes, you may also find additional information, including fun questionnaires. Many social networking websites will ask that you describe your favorite color, your goals in life, your most embarrassing moment, and so on. As with your other personal information, it is important to stay as vague and possible and not use any full names, especially real ones.

By keeping the above mentioned points in mind, you should not only be able to create an online social networking profile that is filled with valuable information, but you can do so while staying safe at the same time. Your safety on the Internet is in your hands, that is why it is important to think about safety, as well as Internet popularity.

The post Setting Up Your Social Profile appeared first on Smadso.

2. Plan and write out your next sales conversation. Got a meeting next week with a hot prospect? Write down the words you will use to find out who the decision makers are, what the budget is, the scope of their problem, and how you’ll ask them to take next steps. If you have no idea how to do this, send me an email and I’ll help you think through it.

3. Read a marketing article. Most non-marketers don’t go out of their way to read about marketing. A painless way to stay motivated, though, is to read one new article every week. Start here: YOUR BLOG HERE

4. Pay attention to the marketing messages all around you. See if you can pick out the WIIFM (What’s In It For Me?) and call-to-action (what they want you to do). Practice thinking like a marketer.

5. If you manage others who perform your client work, visit a client with your employee to show interest. This keeps you fresh and demonstrates your commitment to the client. It also shows the client that there’s more to your organization than their sole point of contact.

6. Give a copy of this article to your staff and ask them to come to the next staff meeting prepared to talk about the ideas that this generates. Ask people to commit to one new task. Have them give a progress report at the next meeting. Rinse, repeat.

7. Draft a 3 or 4-question survey to do short, conversational telephone interviews with your target audience to find out what they struggle with…what’s on their wish list…what they want from you.

Do NOT ask them if they want to buy anything from you. This is a relationship-building task, NOT a sales call. That comes much later. Ask others you work with to pick two clients or prospects and call them. Compare notes and discuss your findings.

8. Think of small solutions that you can offer to important problems. Or small solutions to little problems. The key is to think small. It’s less intimidating for your customer to “sample” you and makes it easy for them to take a first step.

9. Practice saying your Positioning Statement out loud. To the mirror. In the car. In the elevator. If you don’t know what your Positioning Statement is, that’s a problem. Email me and I’ll give you a hand.

10. Visualize doing any one of these things successfully. Really – it’s what professional athletes, speakers, performers, and successful people do all the time. Visualize it, and it will be so.

The next time a scientist tells me they can’t market, I’ll know better. These ideas clearly prove that theory wrong!

The post Marketing Tasks You Can Implement Now! appeared first on Smadso.

An ezine is basically a newsletter that is delivered to the subscriber’s computer via email. The ezine will cover one topic and appeals to those who are interested in the topic. Each issue of the ezine may contain ads, but such ads will be competing with other ads as well as the actual content of the newsletter. That’s where solo ezine advertising comes in. This is where the publisher of the newsletter will send your ad to all of their subscribers, without anything else competing for the reader’s attention.

Safelist solo ads are a bit different. A safelist is an email exchange. Everybody that signs up agrees to read email messages in exchange for their message being read. Readers click a special link within the email to prove that they have read the message, so they can receive credit. The more messages you read, the more people you can randomly send to. However, if you pay for a solo ad you can normally choose how many people will get it, or (at the highest level) have it sent to everybody participating in the safelist.

The big benefit of solo ezine advertising is that the newsletter covers one topic. Therefore, if you sell a related product or service, then you can be sure that you are targeting people that will be interested in your offer. Safelists typically don’t have any requirement as to specific topics, so the targeting of safelist solo ads is more tricky. Your best bet with safelists is if you’re selling something safelist users would want; such as information on how to make more money with safelists.

Another big difference between the two is that ezine subscribers are more likely to actually read each issue they receive. So when they receive your ad, they are more likely to spend time to read it, and consider your offer. Safelist messages, on the other hand are not typically read all that closely. Why not? Because most safelist users are only trying to build up credits to get more people to read their ads. So, instead of reading each message, they are just hunting for the link that will give them credit, and then they move on to the next one.

Does this mean solo ezine advertising is better than safelist solo ads, or vice-versa? Not at all. It just means that you should understand the pros and cons of each one before you use it to market your own business using either one, or both, of these methods.

The post A Comparison: Safelist Solo Ads and Solo Ezine Advertising appeared first on Smadso.

This is why social media is such a popular way for people to touch base, since it can be done anywhere, at any time. While a physical storefront will have hours of operation, the social networking sites never close.

Essentially, the final step in the three part process regarding the offline business’ approach to social media should be getting people to engage with you and your business. You want people to subscribe to you Twitter feeds and Facebook profiles in order so you can communicate with them in a regular manner, and keep them interested in your content and wares.

There are several ways you can use social media to engage your potential customers other than simply leaving messages on a Twitter feed. Many people these days are turning to video blogging, or “videologging,” which is an excellent way to reach out to customers in a way that best simulates the face-to-face interaction that you have with them at your store. If you can post videos of yourself talking about your product, it goes a long way toward creating that kind of proof of expertise that you have when you speak about your product in the store.

A great way to augment the engagement factor you’ll get through working with social media is to have a blog or website to center everything on. This means that you’ll have a place to reference your potential customers to visit. It’s even better if you can offer an online shopping center as well with your website, as this allows you to take even better advantage of the engagement of social networking. It’s important to be able to engage customers local to you so that they’ll visit the store, of course, but don’t forget about the rest of the world, as well! Offering an online store allows you to make the entire world your selling market, not limited to the locality of your physical store.

Essentially, as a business owner who owns a physical store, you are in a unique position to use social media as a weapon both online and offline. You can use it to think both globally and locally at the same time, and end up with incredible increases to your revenue. Don’t let the social media revolution pass you by – even though it might sound like a daunting arena to enter, it’s an entirely free way to up your engagement level with customers both locally and around the world.

The post Are You Engaging Prospects Through Social Media? appeared first on Smadso.

This method can also be harnessed effectively for advertising purposes, particularly with the development of smartphones. All smartphones these days come with Bluetooth programmed in so consumers can use wireless headphones and transmit information from the device in a way other than traditional wireless communication. This Bluetooth toggle is nearly always on, so the smartphone is receptive to information that could be casting around the area.

This is a perfect way to step in for advertising. Bluetooth advertising works by setting up “hubs” in areas where you believe that interested consumers might be hanging out. A good example of a Bluetooth hub might be at a mall, or a dining hall at a busy college campus. Any place where there’s a high density of people is a great place to set up a Bluetooth hub. When a customer with a smartphone walks by that has Bluetooth activated on his or her phone, the hub will pick up on it. At that point, the hub sends a query to the customer’s phone, asking if he or she would like the information that the hub is sending.

The information sent by the hub can be anything from a screensaver to a coupon to a link to your website to ringtones to a multimedia display. Anything that can be sent wirelessly can be sent to a consumer through Bluetooth. The range of an individual hub can be between 200 and 300 feet – so if you’re at a convention or any place where there are a lot of people wandering around, think of all the customers that can be queried by your hub!

If you’re a startup who doesn’t have a whole lot of money to spend on constant mobile marketing campaigns, using Bluetooth technology can be a great way to get started, since it doesn’t require constant costs. If you’re heading to a convention or you have a booth in a mall, you can have a Bluetooth hub set up for that particular event. Even better, you can track the amount of people who accept your Bluetooth-sent queries, so you can effectively figure out how interested consumers are in your information and make adjustments regarding the broadcasting of information and your Bluetooth offerings.

The post Using Bluetooth Advertising To Increase Visibility appeared first on Smadso.

1. Music: I am a big fan of music (who isn’t?) and it is one of the my top inspirations. One reason it works for me is because I blog about music a lot. When I hear a great song, or great album, I instantly feel like blogging about it. Even if I wasn’t blogging about music, I would still be inspired by it. Music is really all about emotions. Certain songs can effect our moods, and sometimes those emotions will inspire us to create. Even lyrics without the music can inspire you if they are well written. Anything that effects your emotions can inspire you to create a blog post. If you are feeling down or uninspired, fire up your itunes and you might find yourself writing a blog post in no time.

2. TV: I know it is cool to hate TV these days – but besides the internet, this medium is one of the most all encompassing ones we have. You can see just about anything on TV, and anything you see can be possible inspiration. I was watching an old TV show the other day that reminded me of a certain part of my childhood, instantly I wanted to blog about it. When I watch the news, and see a topic I am passionate about I want to post my thoughts instantly. Even watching something as banal as realty TV can inspire you. Watching people react to each other under the pressure of the camera, can stir up a lot of emotions that lead to a great blog post.

3. Life: Everyday life can inspire as well. I am not talking about helping you think of blog ideas, I mean the inspiration to post…about anything. Whether you are inspired by positive factors, or negative ones – your life will throw enough of both at you. You will see beautiful things that make you want to post, and horrible things that will make you want to post. That is the reality of life. This is a good reminder for those people who are always connected to the net – sometimes going out and actually living your life will make your online work that much more effective.

Blogging regularly isn’t always thinking about content or topics. Sometimes you need to be inspired to post anything. By using music, television and living your life to the fullest you should be able to find reasons to post as often as possible. Next time you are struggling to produce content, leave the internet behind, and check out some of the above inspirations.

The post Finding Inspiration For Your Blog appeared first on Smadso.

These further serve the cause of generating several useful contacts. There are a lot of like minded people you can find online and these forums help on to garner networking prospects like never before. Thus the forums are extremely useful social mediums too.

One thing that you should definitely avoid while making use of the forums is to push your product indiscriminately and too frequently to ruin your professional image and lose all trust of fellow users.

There is only one way of garnering the trust of the forum members and holding on to it and this can only be done by offering information or services which are genuinely useful to fellow users along with a proper promotion through signature tags, valuable posts etc. There might also be the case when the forum would itself allow for promotion for example many forums have marketplaces where you can actually sell your products and services.

A significant part all online marketers efforts should be framed on forum marketing. This can prove to be another very useful equipment to create a brand of one’s own. To create a professional brand on a forum is the most efficient kind of promotion. Trust does not come as something easily buyable.

The post Forums Are Real Markets appeared first on Smadso.

Why?

One of the main uses and benefits of PLR is in re-branding. You can take a fully finished product and slap your name on it. You gain instant credibility, an asset and potentially a money making tool.  Just like with anything though do you want to slap your name on poor quality PLR?  As soon as your name goes onto that product, it reflects on you and your brand.

Imagine walking into a meeting looking to an offline meeting to secure a 6 figure deal, would you want to toss a bad quality “report” to the customer you are trying to close?  Worse yet do you want your NAME on it?

If you are even considering this, just to let you know the answer is…no.  No you do NOT want to do that.

You want PLR products you can be proud of.   PLR products that will help close a deal and brand you as a pro – not make you look like a rookie in over his head.

When you are buying a PLR product that you plan on rebranding as your own, and you want to be proud of it….then there are a couple things to look for:

1. Packaging – Is the packaging for this product unique and high quality? Are there some graphic design elements included with the PLR.  Packaging can make a report really stand out and adds professionalism.  A proper cover page makes a difference. It grabs and holds attention.  packaging isn’t just about the design though – what about the actual report/ebook?  You want to make sure it is typed out in an easy to follow style that looks professional.  Visual appeal counts in our society so if you buy PLR without any – you might want to consider the extra cost it will take to have some created.

2. How It is Written – You should always read your PLR to make sure it is error free.  While typos happen and can be easily addressed with the editable versions, significant grammar issues can be tougher to tackle.  Since the price of PLR is so low, often producers will outsource there work to people who have English as a second language.  This can lead to grammar issues, a clunky read and other confusions.  English is actually one of the toughest languages to master because of a lot of weird idiosynracies.  Even English speaking writers might not be any good.  This is why you have to read your products through to make sure they are the quality you’d be proud to hand someone.

3. Current – You want to have current info. PLR can be sold for years and if the content isn’t updated then it can quickly lag behind current times.  if you are an offline marketing trying to land web based deals, you want current info.  Your customer certainly will.  The best way to ensure current PLR is to buy freshly created content.  This won’t guarantee the content is current, but it certainly helps.  Often PLR membership sites are good for this because they are constantly adding new content.

The post How To Identify PLR That Is Worthy appeared first on Smadso.