The Click Depot Blog

Archive for August, 2009

Do you know what in-text advertising is? You’ve probably seen it. Just about any article you read online these days is going to have a double underlined phrase or two peppered throughout the article, and you’ll notice that when you hover your mouse over these phrases, a little “pop up” advertisement comes up enticing you to click and go to another website. For example, if the phrase that’s double underlined in the article is “weight loss,” you may find that when you hover your mouse over that double underlined text, you’ll come up with a particular advertisement for a popular weight-loss program.

Okay; so that’s what in-text advertising is, but do you use it? And if you do, do you use it correctly? How do you use in text advertising correctly? Here are several key tips you should follow when you use in-text advertising.

First, when you write your copy, make sure that the text used as in-text advertising is relevant to what you’re writing. In other words, both other businesses and consumers themselves are going to get savvy very quickly if you simply try to load your copy with irrelevant keywords that have nothing to do with what you’re actually saying, just so that you’ll get more advertisers.

Second, make sure you use in-text advertising SPARINGLY. A double underlined phrase or two per paragraph is probably a little bit much. Try to go with no more than three or four very targeted phrases for every 500 words you write. Again, people are going to nix your copy very quickly and quit reading you altogether if they feel like they’re being hit over the head and simply being “sold” something.

And third and finally, write your copy as though you’re not using in-text advertising at all. I’ll say that again; write your copy as though you’re not using in-text advertising at all. That means, what you write should be interesting to read on its own merits and nothing else. That’s true for a couple of reasons. Number one, you insult your readers’ intelligence if you think you can simply “advertise” to them without giving them interesting content. Not only that they won’t click on your in-text advertising, but they’ll also quit reading you altogether. And number two, your readers are much more likely to click on your in-text advertising and go see what it’s all about if they feel good about you — which means they have to feel good about what you write, too.

So remember, don’t insult your readers’ intelligence, and write your copy as though you’re not doing any in-text advertising at all. Make the in-text advertising you do match the copy you’re writing, so that it’s relevant and interesting to your readers. And that should give you more interest and more click-throughs, so that this type of advertising does exactly what it should do – that is, make you money.

Image Courtesy: http://www.dotperformance.com/service.php?Online-Advertising-21p

The concept behind viral video marketing is simple. You create or hire someone to create a video about your company, product, idea, concept, organization, band, movie, book, or whatever you want to promote, and then you upload it to free online video sites like YouTube, Yahoo Video, and Google Video. The hope is that thousands and millions of people will then view your video and be motivated to take additional interest in whatever it is you are promoting and hopefully follow a link back to your website and become a client or purchase your product.

Orchestrating a viral video marketing campaign is not quite so simple. In fact, as this technique like many other forms of marketing online has become more popular and prevalent, the competition is fierce and it takes ever more time, money, and creativity to generate the results you want from this type of marketing. Still, it can be effective as long as you follow a few guidelines when you decide to go this route.

First, before you even embark on creating a video to upload, you need to know exactly what your goal is with this video, who your target audience will be, and how much money you are willing to spend to achieve this goal. In other words, have a plan, a budget, a target market, and a definitive way you can determine whether your campaign is successful or not. Like any other business decision, you need to know if you will be able to generate a good return on your investment (ROI).

While getting a million views can be a goal, more importantly, determine what you are really trying to achieve with this. If you are simply trying to show a million people that your organization exists, then this may be a legitimate way to achieve that goal. But if you really want to get 100,000 of those people to go to your website with the ultimate goal being that 10,000 people will purchase your product, then the video you create and the way you promote it are going to be different.
For instance, a funny video clip or spoof could accomplish the first goal of getting a million visitors, but that same video is not likely to drive 10 percent of those people to your website and then prompt 10 percent of those viewers to buy.

Many experts classify videos as going “viral” when they are viewed by 100,000 to 1 million plus viewers depending on who you ask. Others define “viral” as a means of distributing the message meaning it is spread through interaction with others (kind of like the flu). By the first definition, you may not have a snowball’s chance in you-know-where of achieving viral marketing success with your video and your goal. But by the second definition, you definitely do. Depending on how you get your message about the video out there and depending on who views the video and the results you get from those viewings will determine the overall success of your campaign. You could be able to achieve your goal such as to promote a local business to local viewers seeing your video clip with far fewer than 100,000 views if you get the word out to the right people. So you need to know how you will determine if your video viral marketing campaign is successful.

Second, you need to be able to promote your video successfully to this target market. This, then, is the real heart of viral video marketing determining the best way to spread the word about your video and get people to actually watch it. You will need to get educated and become your own PR person to effectively do this or hire a company experienced in doing this if you really want to get the word out and generate views. And this will take time and technique. Common ways include using email, social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace, and commenting on various blogs, but the companies that really get results with their videos have entire teams devoted to plugging their videos online to engage viewers. You can utilize these same techniques, but it will require a sizeable investment of your time to do it, and this relates back to the first point: will you get the ROI you need? Only you can decide.

Image Courtesy : http://www.d3webdesigns.com/viral-video.html

Does anyone remember the days when all you had to worry about on the internet were those pesky viruses? Anyone at all? Well believe it or not there was such a time and while it wasn’t that long ago it seems like another life now. Today you have to worry about all sorts of things online, ranging from spyware, to adware, and of course, the newly popular internet scam.

Why has the internet scam become so popular? It is more than likely because of the economy. Making money has gotten harder and harder, and many people have taken desperate measures, and sadly one of those measures is cheating others out of their money. Well, as sad as it is for them, you have to get the most out of your money too, and that means staying away from those nasty internet scams and being able to spot them early on.

The first step in spotting s cam is asking yourself the following simple question: Is this too good to be true? If you even have to ask yourself then odds are you are dealing with a scam. You might have received an e-mail about some miracle product that the person wants you to invest in so that he or she can get the funding they need to develop the product. Now why would that even tempt you? Well when they tell you this it is more than likely they have promised you a share of the profits that are generated by the product in question. If it is a product that is a huge success, then you would be receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is definitely an attractive offer. While there is a slim chance this could be true, you need to do some research into any sort of offer you get and make sure it is legitimate before you invest ANY money into it.

Of course this isn’t the only internet scam out there that you need to keep a weather eye out for. You also need to look out for the many pyramid schemes that offer you a piece of something for just a little bit of your hard earned money, and often a monthly payment of some sort. You might also run into people that claim they need passage to your country and if you pay them some money for a plane ticket they will give you some sort of service in return. This is generally scam, and sometimes the replies are even scripted so that there is no actual human behind the keyboard that sent you the message. Do yourself a favor and don’t fall for these obvious scams.

The key thing to remember is perhaps the most obvious: If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. You need to watch yourself and make sure that you are not falling for the scams that countless other people have fallen for. You work hard to earn your money, and there is no reason for you to just throw it away at someone else’s whim. Always pay attention and keep your wallet safe when you’re surfing the web!

Image Courtesy : http://www.youngmoney.com/credit_debt/credit_reports/Five_Internet_scams

One of your goals with your ecommerce site is to get high search engine rankings. Getting ranked good on search engines is a key to getting traffic to your site, which will in turn, bring you sales and profit. Improving your search engine rankings and getting a top spot is not always easy, especially when you are first starting out. With 7 easy steps, though, you can optimize your ecommerce site.

Step 1: Create Individual Pages

You will probably need to go back over your website and make some changes when you first start the process of optimizing your website. You should have a page dedicated to each of your products. This will allow you to create unique content for each product and take advantage of the ability to capitalize on more keywords.

Step 2: Unique Content

Now that you have your website set up with each product on its own page, you can begin to get into content. Content plays a large role in search engine rankings, but just having a few lines of text on a page doesn’t do it. You have to have content that is unique and that is valuable. You likely have product descriptions, but these are not unique. If you sell a common product then chances are that same description is being used all over the internet. Reword the descriptions or better; write up a short article about the product.

Step 3: Cross Referencing

When you are creating the unique content you should cross reference other products that you sell. This links the pages of your website in a very natural fashion.

Step 4: Keep Adding Content

Content is very important to your search engine rankings, so do not stop adding new, fresh content to your website. You can add a blog that will allow you to keep adding new content on your site on a regular basis. You can also just add in articles where you see fit. Whatever you do, just add content often.

Step 5: Links

Content is not the only thing that is considered during search engine rankings. You should also have good quality links to other websites. When you link up to websites that have rankings then that will help you in your rankings.

Step 6: Get Reviews

Reviews not only add content to your website, but also encourage buyers. You can ask current customers to review the product for you and give them a coupon for their next purchase.

Step 7: Go Social

Social networking sites are amazing. The potential for a business person on these sites is amazing. You should join as many as possible. Make sure you stay active, add friends and post content. This is free advertising and it allows you to link up to these popular sites.

Optimizing your website does not have to be tedious. You just need to make sure that you are doing everything you can. You have to stay with it as it is an ongoing process. The internet is very fluid and things change everyday, so stay on top of things and your website should end up on top.

image Courtesy: http://www.netlogical.com/