Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What Is Smart Internet Marketing

Many business that want to increase their presence online pay for some of the most ridiculous things such as temporary links, ineffective ads and spammy articles. All these may increase your online presence for a small period of time, but it’s not smart and it will fail. With more business becoming conscientious of this, professionals want to know what is smart internet marketing and how do we incorporate smart internet marketing into our online marketing plan?

Smart internet marketing is simply doing things the right way to increase your rank and visibility online by focusing on longevity. So what is smart internet marketing?

  1. Great articles that are distributed correctly

  2. Frequently updated company blogs that draw in readers

  3. Strategic classified ads that are posted near your target audience

  4. Increased presence on social networking sites that are relevant to your product

  5. Increasing linkage using popular websites that will lead potential customers back to your website.

These are just a few examples of smart internet marketing, of course a little expertise and a lot of hard work can take your business from virtually unknown online to having a sustainable online presence.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

The best job in the world - Aussie!

The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is a newly created position. There are a few minor tasks that need to be taken care of, but the most important duty is to report back to Tourism Queensland (and the world) and let us know whats taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.



Island Job

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Internet Marketing Article Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web

Article Length & Structure


Studies have shown that readers read nearly 25% slower and tire much quicker when reading content on the computer as opposed to paper; therefore, Web content should be brief.

  • Limit articles to 2,500 words
  • Be concise – avoid ornate and extraneous words


Write Using the Inverted Pyramid Style


Readers don’t like to have to scroll through paragraph after paragraph of text to find what they’re looking for; therefore, online articles should be structured differently than articles in print.

Unlike some articles in print, which begin with background information, online articles should begin with the conclusion. Yes, that’s right. You need to "give away the ending", so to speak. Then, include a brief summary of the contents of the article. This "introductory" information, which should be included in the first and/or second paragraph(s) of the article body, should be written so as to grab and hold the reader’s attention.

You should structure your article:

  • With the conclusion at the beginning of the article
  • Followed by a summary of the article content
  • Proceed with progressively less important information as you continue down the page.


Scannability

Research has shown that approximately 80% of readers do NOT read every word when reading online content; they scan the page, quickly searching for key information. Therefore, it is critical that your content be easily scannable.

In order to make your articles easily scannable, you should:

  • Keep paragraphs short (3,000 characters maximum)
  • Discuss only one idea per paragraph
  • Use subheadings to divide article into sections that allow readers to quickly find key information
  • Distinguish 2 or more ideas, key points, etc. using the list tags


Using Lists


Lists are much easier to the eye than a paragraph of text. However, you need to keep your lists short. Studies have shown that people can remember approximately 8 items at one time, so keep your lists to a maximum of 8 items. If you have more items to list, try separating them into two lists, each with its own subheading.

Also, when writing your lists, keep the words per line brief. For instance, don’t bullet sentences or paragraphs. The items in your lists should be either a word or a phrase.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

FUNNY George Bush Idiot Quotes

2009 New Year's Resolution - New Marketing Plan

New Year's Resolution Song



Celebrate the New Year with a comprehensive marketing plan! There’s no better time to review last year’s performance than now. Using your company’s year end results you can begin to plan where your valuable marketing dollars should be spent. Here are four steps that will help you develop a great plan that includes goals, tactics and anticipated results.

List your business goals

The first step for the New Year is to list your company’s goals. Is growing top line sales the main objective? Maybe increased customer service results, improved gross margin or reduced employee turnover? Have your quantified your goals? Growing top line sales is nice idea; growing top line sales by 10% is a goal.

Determine your targeted customer for each goal

There are key customers that affect every goal and you need to know who they are before you can plan any marketing efforts to reach them. For instance, growing top line sales by 10% might mean focusing more assets on your core customer or developing a secondary market or expanding to a new territory. Reducing employee turnover might involve improved communications (i.e. marketing) to your internal customers. For each targeted customer list the various communication channels that might influence them.

Decide on the methods you want to use and quantify expectations

There are always multiple marketing methods to reach your targeted customers; develop a list that includes methods you’ve already used (say, direct mail) as well as those you haven’t (maybe new sales materials). With some methods you may be able to expect specific sales results (advertising campaigns usually yield immediate results) while others may be used to increase awareness (comprehensive marketing campaign to explain benefits to your employees).

Focus on specific tactics

Now you can determine exactly which marketing tactics will help you support each method, reach each customer and realize every goal. If direct mail is one of the communication channels you’ve committed to, what will you promote, how often and to whom? What are anticipated costs and what is your planned ROI for each effort.

Businesses should develop marketing goals on an annual basis in conjunction with all other company goals and objectives. Then build a full marketing plan every six months, with course correction and revisions along the way based on performance. A plan allows your company to proact, not just react to market trends and helps an organization, no matter the size, stay focused on the reaching their objectives. The best way to ensure a happy, prosperous New Year is to plan for it now.

Happy New Year!