Ray’s Blog at imadspace.com

“I made $5,000 in the first week with only 30 minutes of work!” 

“Give me 5 minutes of your time and I will show you how to make a 6-figure income in your spare time!” 

“I’m going to let you in on my secret, guaranteed method for massive multi-stream income potential!” 

You have most likely seen web sites shouting headlines such as these.  It’s virtually impossible not to encounter them at some point.  If it wasn’t for my spam filter, my inbox would be filled to the max with similar pronouncements. 

Welcome to the world of Internet Marketing (IM). Ah yes, the lure of untold riches.  The flashy and compelling web sites with screaming headlines and pictures of Corvettes, yachts, huge mansions, swimming pools, and crates full of cash.  Of course, one must suspend his or her disbelief and ignore the fact that 99% of the time, the Corvette, yachts, large house and so on don’t actually belong to the person who built the site.  Those are stock photos.  But damn, do they draw people in. 

Before I continue, let me stipulate one thing very clearly.  Internet Marketing is a perfectly legitimate business.  There are numerous people in the IM field, some of whom I know, who operate with a high degree of integrity and honesty.  Their various programs offer people a realistic opportunity to make money.  These people are professional marketers who know how to do things the correct way.  They don’t make promises built on fog and illusion.  They will be the first to tell you it is extremely hard work.   

Unfortunately, there are all too many people who are willing to sell you snake oil.  The programs they offer run the gamut from questionable, to absurd, to outright illegal.  And that has nothing to do with the Internet.  The unscrupulous people who perpetrate these sorts of scams were around long before the Internet.  Some of these schemes, pyramids, ponzi, and the like, have been around for centuries.  The Internet simply provides another vehicle for their deception.  You can put lipstick on a pig, but ultimately, it’s still a pig. 

If your desire is to get into the Internet Marketing field, then by all means do so.  But do so cautiously and with your eyes open.  Don’t fall for the first flashy web page you see that offers staggering promises of income with a minimum of effort.  That is just not reality.  If you run across a web page offering to tell you the “secret formula” for how to make $250,000 your first month, or some other such drivel, and you fall for it, well, let me offer something my dad taught me many years ago.  “Son”, my dad would say, “you can’t fix stupid”.

-Ray
www.imadspace.com

Anyone who has spent even a few brief weeks in the Internet Marketing business knows that one of the techniques used to promote your website(s) is article publishing.  There are literally thousands or article directory sites on the Internet, although I only publish to about 50-60 of these since quality does matter.  I will list some of the sites that have provided me the best results in another blog entry.  For now, I just want to encourage everyone reading this entry to seriously consider writing and publishing articles.

Publishing articles is highly effective at accomplishing several objectives.  First, it will assist you in becoming known throughout the Internet based on your area of expertise.  Whatever your particular niche might be, becoming a known expert in that niche will not only help drive traffic to your site, it also serves as a significant factor in your efforts to “brand” both yourself and your products/services.  Just look at the success someone such as Willie Crawford has had.  If people who read your articles are interested in what you have to say, they will often click the link in your Bio section to visit your site.  That is targeted traffic at its best.

Article publishing will also provide your site(s) with one-way backlinks.  It is generally accepted by SEO experts that one-way backlinks are much more valuable than two-way (reciprocal) links.  Depending on how many sites you submit your articles to, once they are published you now have those one-way links back to your site.   Such one-way links indicate “popularity” to the Search Engine spiders.  Popularity is one of the factors the SEs used to determine page ranking (PR).

Using my own experience, when I do a Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., search for my name, that search produces hundreds of results.  The majority of those results stem from the articles I have placed in the various directories.  Doing a search with keywords related to one of my niches may not produce as many results, but they are there. 

Of course, writing a well thought out, informative article is key.  No one wants to read through a rambling discourse, nor are they likely to clickthrough to your site in that case.  Before you publish, let a few friends read your article to solicit their opinions.  Make changes if you have to.  If all else fails, consider using a ghostwriter.  It may cost you a few dollars, but it will be worth it.

 Finally, if you plan to post to a large number of article directories you might want to consider purchasing one of the submission programs or services available.  I use ArticlePostRobot.  I’m not affiliated with APR in any way, other than as a customer.  I just like what it provides, and the time it saves me.  But as I said, there are other good programs/services available.

In closing, I will once again emphasize that article publishing can be a powerful component of your overall site promotion strategy.  Many of the top gurus in the Internet Marketing utilize article submission.  There is a reason for that.

Ray
www.imadspace.com

From time to time, it’s healthy to poke a little fun at ourselves.  In that spirit, I offer the following:

You MIGHT be an Internet Marketer IF…….

1) You are familiar with names such as Mike Filsane, Gary Ambrose, Joe Vitale and Mark Widawer, but you think Barack Obama is a type of sushi

2) You have more email addresses than silverware

3) You are considering replacing your office chair with a port-a-johnny because going to the bathroom takes away too much valuable computer time

4) You are actually able to convince people that they will make more money by reading emails at 3-cents a pop than getting a part-time job at 7-11

5) You manage to get visitors to your splash page to believe that the mansion, sports car, swimming pool and yatch displayed on your page actually belong to you

6) Words such as niche, matrix, and AdSense roll off your tongue effortlessly, but you occasionally struggle to remember the names of your kids

7) You consider 1:00am a reasonable time for lunch

8) You believe spending $5000-$10000 on a particular “gurus” mentoring program is a better use of funds than spending it on a college education, or food

9) You use the term “guru” regularily

10) You spend more time in Internet Marketing discussion forums than you do in your own living room

11) You believe there are ebooks available that are actually worth $97

12) All of your products are priced ending in 7 rather than 9

13) You have a spiral-bound notebook to keep track of all your UserIDs and passwords

14) You think “Winepress” is a new type of blogging software

15) Your spouse tells you in the morning that you kept uttering the word “downline” in your sleep

16) All your “friends” on MySpace are Internet Marketers

17) You don’t see the irony of the words “bum” and “marketing” appearing in the same sentence

18) You have the Paypal support number assigned to the “1″ button on your speed dial

19) You believe people actually read every word of those mile-long columnar sales pages

20) Your family and friends suggest that you are becoming obsessive/compulsive with this Internet Marketing “thing”.  You spend the next 3 days developing an “Obsessive/Compulsive Internet Marketer’s” niche site with AdSense.

21) Unlike the general population, you use the word “viral” in a positive context

22) When your teenager comes home from school, he tells you he made the JV team.  You ask him what his product is.

23) You believe firmly that your products are worth $97, $197, $297, or more, but you constantly ask others where you can buy a domain name for $1

24) You think “I want to make money” represents a valid business plan

25) When you woke up, your spouse reminded you that today is your 8-year old’s 10th birthday

26) You think a Pop Tart is a new kind of floating ad

27) You celebrate the freedom that running your own IM business from your home gives you, while you sit at your computer for 80+ hours a week

28) And finally, you understood more the 90% of the above

Your are welcome to add your own little ditties to this list in the comments. 

-Ray

http://www.imadspace.com
 

As the Internet has grown dramatically over the past 10 years, many people in the online business sector have adopted the view that they no longer need to worry about marketing strategies that were successful in the not so distant past.  They seem to think that since they can have their sales sites displayed all over the Internet, nothing else matters.  Unfortunately, that is a somewhat short-sighted view.

The mere fact that sites are displayed all over the Internet, not just their’s but their competitors as well, goes directly to that point.  With so many options to choose from, a potential customer often looks for some other reason to purchase from a particular business above and beyond the product itself.

Word-of-mouth has been, and still is, an effective marketing strategy that many people overlook.  I ran a computer hardware/software business in the early 90’s.  A large part of my business resulted through one person talking to another person.  Nothing has really changed over the past 15 years.  My own recent experience bears this out.

About a year ago, I developed a small site for my former bass fishing club.  There is nothing particularity fancy about the site but the club members love it.  Several months after the site launched, I received a request from the President of another fishing club asking if I would consider developing a site for his members.  He had heard “word of mouth” from members of the first club that I did good work, delivered what I promised, and responded in a timely manner.  As a result, I had another customer.

 Several months later, I received another email from a person who had heard from one of the members of the second fishing club that they were very happy with the work I did.  As a result, I received a request to develop a site for a Homeowners Association.

Two weeks ago, I was contacted by the Pastor of a small church asking if I would do a site for them.  One of the homeowners in the above mentioned Association just happened to be a member of that church.  He told the Pastor that the Association was very happy with the work I had done.  So yet again, I obtained a new customer.

I use a variety of means to market my site(s) and services: email lists, traffic exchanges, article submission, forum postings, blogs, and so forth.  None of these new customers had seen any of that.  They had become aware of what I offered through, you got it, word of mouth.

 If you think word of mouth isn’t effective, think again.  It is viral marketing at it’s very best.  But the trick, of course, is to make sure you have happy customers who are willing to spread the word.

-Ray
http://www.imadspace.com

One of the current crazes in the Internet Marketing sector is the “Randomizer”.  These are nothing more than a variation of the classic Ponzi scheme, and are blatantly illegal.   They sell no product.  Their means of bringing money into the program is by recruitment of new members.  The person at the top is guaranteed a payout but the other members aren’t.  The primary means of funding is from the members themselves, not by sales to people outside the membership.  By legal definition, that is a Ponzi scheme. 

If you think I am overstating this, I invite you to research the legal definition of ponzi/pyramid schemes as defined by the Federal Trade Commission: http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/other/dvimf16.htm 

 There is typically a lottery associated with these programs.  Of course, they use some convoluted language to say it isn’t really a lottery, but all you have to do is look at how these programs work.  Lotteries are legal, but only if you are licensed and officially sanctioned to do run one. 

When a new member joins, usually for $10-$20, a part of that immediately goes to the program owner; he can’t lose, except perhaps legally when he/she winds up being indicted for fraud.  Another part of the cut goes to the person who referred the new member, which makes the referrer an accessory to felony.  And finally, a part (typically $5) goes into the “pool”. Each time a new member joins; someone within the program is randomly selected to receive the $5 pool allotment. 

I don’t know any other way to say this, so let me be blunt.  The people who think they are going to make money through this system obviously have no understanding of basic mathematics.  Not only are the odds against you, those odds continue to decline as the program grows. 

The math is painfully simple. If there are 100 people in the program and 5 new members join, your odds of being randomly selected for the $5 are 1 in 20 (5/100 = 0.05%, which translates to 1 in 20). When the membership increases to 500 and 5 new people join, your odds of winning one of the randomly selected pool slots drops to 1 in 100 (5/500 = 0.01%).  When the membership reaches 1,000 members, the odds drop to 1 in 200.  If the membership reaches 10,000 and 5 new members join, your odds drop to a rather daunting 1 in 2,000. 

All Ponzi schemes are beset with a basic conundrum.  The schemes need additional members in order to pay out to the current members.  But as those additional members join, your odds of a payout decrease dramatically.  Eventually, the scheme collapses due to the sheer weight of its increased membership.  When that happens, the vast majority of people walk away with less money than they started with.  The owner walks away with a bundle.  Yet people get sucked into these scams.  

 Of course, you don’t have to rely solely on the lottery.  You also receive a “commission” for bringing new members into the program.  That means, of course, that in order to make money, you are now in a position of having to recruit people for what is an illegal activity. For those people who are thinking of joining one of these idiotic programs, I suggest a 2-step detox program: 1) go to your local community college and take a fundamental mathematics course, and 2), make an appointment with a neurosurgeon to have your head examined. 

Randomizers are specifically banned from inclusion in the imadspace.com ad site.  The diligent owners of traffic promotion sites (traffic exchanges, safelists, etc.) also ban these scams.  Unfortunately, not all owners of such facilites are as diligent.  As a result, these scams appear in promotion vehicles all over the Internet.

To anyone who is considering joining one of these schemes, you would be well advised to run far, far away as quickly as you can.

-Ray

www.imadspace.com

For those of you who frequent the Internet Marketing forums as I do, one of the most common questions you see is “how do I get traffic to my site”.   Since marketing is all about exposure, that becomes the key question for just about anyone with a product to sell.   But not all traffic is created equally.   Traffic volume and traffic quality are not the same.   Receiving a zillion ”hits” to your site doesn’t necessarily translate to sales.   To the contrary, worrying too much about hits can lead you down a false path to success.   In the sections that follow, I will discuss various facilities that can be employed for traffic generation.  I’ll also discuss the pros and cons of each.

PAY-PER-CLICK AND IT’S VARIANTS
Many people are under the impression that Pay-per-Click (PPC) originated with Google AdWords.   In fact, PPC has been around since 1997-1998.  The PPC concept, however, essentially floundered until the introduction of Google  AdWords. While a number of companies offered PPC programs, none of them had the sheer muscle (i.e., traffic) that Google brought to the table to make it work effectively.  Similar models are now used by Yahoo and a number of other search engines, as well as independent PPC providers such as Kanoodle and Bidvertiser.

PPC allows you to place ads in the “sponsored links” section of the search engine results. The order of placement is determined by how much you “bid” on each keyword you select.  The higher your bid, the higher your placement in the sponsored links area.  But as some of my British friends would say, bidding for “clicks” can be a sticky wicket.

As an example, let’s say you bid $0.25 per click for the keyword “candles”.  If three other businesses bid higher than that, your ad listing would be placed 4th in the order. You only pay the $0.25 if someone actually clicks on your link to go to your web site.

But PPC is not a panacea or magic bullet.  In fact, if not approached carefully, it can be a nightmare.  You will have to determine if PPC works for your product.  In highly competitive businesses such as web hosting, where there are literally tens of thousands of providers, you would have to make extremely high per-click keyword bids (often $5.00 or more) just to be listed in the 1st or 2nd page of the results. For niche type businesses the bid rate is typically less. It just depends on the type of business and the level of competition. But for a high-competition business (e.g., web hosting), a $0.25 bid is next to useless as the chances of you receiving any clicks for that bid are remote at best.

Another consideration is your profit margin for the product you sell vs. the cost per click. Let’s assume your margin is $7 per item sold. If your bid is $0.25 and you get a sale, on average, every 10th click, then you are paying $2.50 for each $7.00 profit you make (net profit $4.50). On the other hand, if you have to bid $1.00 per keyword click you would actually lose $3.00 per sale (assuming again you receive a sale every 10th click).

Google and Yahoo use a similar formula. Other search engines use a different approach. EasySeek, for instance, currently charges $12 per keyword for a three-month period. Rather than bidding on each keyword click, EasySeek rotates all the ads on their sponsored listings in a random fashion. While this is potentially a less expensive approach than Google or Yahoo, you also have to keep in mind that EasySeek does not receive the same level of usage.

Since PPC is keyword based, your ads are targeted. That is, your ad will only show up if someone enters your keyword(s) as part of their search criteria. Targeted traffic is good.

The only way to know if PPC will work for you is to try it. But monitor it carefully and make sure you analyze the results.  Check your clickthroughs against your conversions (sales) on a regular basis!

EMAIL ADVERTISING (Safelists)
Joining a “safelist” (aka mailing list) allows you to send your ads to a large number of people via email. Some safelist providers allow you to send email just for registering, while others require a fee. In most cases, free lists require you to read the emails from other people in order to obtain “credits” for sending out your own messages. Typically, your coverage is greater with the fee-based list.

There are two important considerations when using safelists. First, some allow your ads to be targeted to specific product categories and some do not. Targeted ads are always much more effective.

Second, make sure that the safelist utilizes a double opt-in process for its email recipients.  Double opt-in ensures that the people on the list have in fact agreed to receive email via the list.  Without this protection, you run the risk of someone filing a spam (unsolicited email) complaint.

If you do subscribe to a safelist, you then become part of that list. That means you should expect a large amount of email from the list.  In most cases it’s a good idea to set up a separate email box to receive this email rather than have it going to your primary email account.

It’s also important to make sure any list you join actually goes to “live” people. You have mostly likely seen ads for list providers who promise that your email will go to millions of addresses. That doesn’t do you much good if 90% or more of these are “dead” addresses (no longer used or verified).  In such a case, those supposed million emails being sent out are just going into a big black hole, along with your ad campaign.

In my case, I usually just go to my safelist inbox and click “delete” without even looking at the mail headers.  There are just too many ads for things I have no interest in.  My guess is that most people take the same approach.

It’s worth a shot, but as with PPC advertising, you will have to determine if a safelist will work for the product or service you are selling.

TRAFFIC EXCHANGES
Traffic exchanges put your web site in “rotation” with those of the other members of the TE. When people “surf” the TE your site will randomly be displayed. Traffic Exchanges will certainly generate a lot of “hits” to your site, your site statistics will increase dramatically.  But these are not targeted hits by any means.

Traffic exchanges tend to be populated primarily by Internet marketers marketing to other Internet marketers.  As a TE user myself, I have learned to simply ignore the never-ending display of IM hype sites as they go through their rotation.  Basically, the only reason most people surf is to get credits for their own site.  Most people don’t use a TE to find a product they are interested in.  Since the pages are displayed randomly, it can take a long time to find something that interests you.

Assuming your product is not Internet Marketing related, the very appearance of a web site that promotes something other than the latest IM craze might just cause the surfer to take a closer look. If nothing else, it’s a way for them to break the sheer boredom of surfing.

Just as is the case with many other potential advertising venues, the best way to determine if TEs can work for you is to try one.  If nothing else, using a TE will significantly increase your site visit statistics.  But that may not translate to sales.  If you decide to use TEs, you should also use some soft of tracking software to determine if you are actually getting sales (conversions) from those TEs.

FORUMS
There are forums for virtually every topic and product category in the world, Internet Marketing included.  All you have to do is a search for your product and the word “forum” or “discussion group”.

Forums provide you with several benefits.  First, most of them are free to join so the price is right. S econd, if you join a forum related to your business sector any ads you place are targeted.  Keep in mind however, that not all forums allow ads so make sure you read the rules. There are ways around that of course. Simply putting your web site URL in your tagline let’s people know you have products to offer. It sounds a little sneaky, but everyone does it.

The other major benefit of joining one or more forums is that it helps you become known. When people have questions, take the opportunity to offer advice; let them know you believe in customer support and that you are willing to take the time to help.  Don’t ignore this opportunity to “brand” yourself or your product.

I utilized forums heavily many years ago when I ran my own computer products company.  As people in the forums came to know me they would become interested in the products I sold.  When people had questions or a problem with a particular computer-related issue, I would help them. Many of those I helped eventually became customers.

Forums won’t result in the thousands of page hits you get by using traffic exchanges, but when someone clicks your link in a forum to visit your site there is a high probability they are interested in your product or service.  Your actual site visitors will tend to be targeted.

USENET NEWSGROUPS
The UseNet Newsgroups are conceptually similar to forums. They offer people a vehicle to discuss their particular interests with others. Find the newsgroups relevant to your product or service and start posting.  As odd as it seems, many people in the Internet Marketing sector aren’t even aware of these.  People who frequent a particular newsgroup are, by definition, targeted.  And Newsgroups won’t cost you a dime.

ARTICLE SUBMISSION
Article submission is becoming very popular on the Web. Well-written articles can be highly effective in driving traffic to your site. The more traffic you receive, the greater your opportunity for sales conversions. Better yet, it’s free.

As is the case with posting in Forums, publishing articles with links back to your site provides a form of targeted traffic.  Since people are making the conscious decision to visit your site (based on your article), there is a good chance they are interested in finding out more about your product or service. Article submission is an option to consider.  If you don’t have the time to submit articles to a multitude of article sites, you can use one of the automated programs or services available.

BLOGS
Having your own blog on the web serves a similar function as publishing articles. You can use the blog to provide useful information to potential customers, but it shouldn’t be a sales site – you have your primary site for that.

Try to make your blog postings both informative and entertaining. Give people a reason to come back. Use the “ping” services to get your blog listed in the directories.

BACKLINKS
Having other sites link to your site can be a highly effective means of free advertising. The best-case scenario is when the sites that link to yours have some relation to your product or service. As I’ve pointed out previously, targeted traffic is what you would like to have.

There has been much discussion lately as to the effectiveness of backlinks helping your Search Engine placement.  In most cases they probably won’t.  But if targeted traffic is what you want, doing a little work to obtain backlinks may be worthwhile.

There are a number of services (link exchanges) on the web that will make finding backlinks to your site much relatively easy. If you use one of these services, make sure you accept only sites relevant to yours. If you are selling candles it really doesn’t help you to have links coming from a trucking company site.

Just as with Forums and Articles, you won’t get the thousands of hits you get with the TEs.  But the visits you do receive will come from people who are interested in your site and product.

WEB-BASED CLASSIFIED ADS
There are numerous sites on the web that provide businesses with a place to advertise their products and services. Some of these are free while others require a minimal charge.

Classified Ad sites typically divide the items for sale into categories (such as the ads in a newspaper).  As a result, your ads will be targeted to the people that have an interest in the products or services you offer.  They are not just seeing your ad as part of an endless stream or “rotations” or yet another unsolicited email, they are seeing your ad because they made the choice to do so.  That is true targeted traffic.

Don’t overlook using these sites. Remember, most people who are visiting a classified ad site are usually looking to make a purchase! 

PRINT ADS
If your budget allows, print ads in newspapers and other publications are an option for your advertising campaign. They would, or course, be most effective if the coverage area for your business was more local than national or international.

If your budget allows for the placement of ads in national publications that would certainly provide significant exposure for your business. Don’t ignore “offline” advertising opportunities. 

RADIO ADS
Just as with local newspapers, placing ads on the radio would be most appropriate if your business coverage is primarily local. Before placing radio ads however, you need to understand the demographics of radio listeners.

More than 60% of people who listen to the radio do so while they are in their car: driving to or from work, going to the store, et cetera. Considering that most people who are in their car do not have a pencil and piece of paper handy, providing a web site URL during a radio broadcast is essentially pointless.

Unless you have a “bricks and mortar” store location within the broadcast area, radio ads are probably not a cost-effective option in most cases.

TV ADS
Most of us would love to have a budget that allowed for television advertising. But very few of us have those kinds of funds available.

Of course, you may be able to place an ad or two on a local access cable channel. But nobody I know watches those anyway.

SUMMARY
Many people I know wrap themselves around an axle trying to find ways to get the “most” traffic to their site. That viewpoint can lead to futile results if that traffic, no matter how high, fails to result in actual conversions to sales.  More traffic does not necessarily translate into quality traffic.

With several of my online business, I have had more conversions by posting in a forum or publishing articles than I have from literally tens of thousands of hits from other “non-targeted” means.

Ask yourself: are you looking for traffic or SALES?  We can’t guarantee you a bizallion hits, but if you use our Internet Marketing Ad site (http://www.imadspace.com), we can at least guarantee you that the people who visit your site by clicking on your ad will be those who have an interest in your product.

-Ray
www.imadspace.com