Staying On Top Of Changing Trends

As humans continually evolve, so too do our patterns of internet use. As internet users who are continually focusing on new strategies to stay out in front, it is imperative for us to notice and embrace those changing trends.

While many internet marketing strategies will advise you to write and publish articles online, and it’s a strategy that does it’s job, there is an even more effective way to get the word out about you, your business, and your product—video.

Recently I took the time to conduct a test between the use of articles and the use of videos. Over the course of 10 days seven carefully crafted articles were launched on the internet with many differing publishers. I gave the articles a few weeks to circulate, noting small traffic numbers from those articles everyday. Last week, I prepared a small two video series, shot in the back corner of my basement, under the most primitive conditions. The videos were launched this week online and to my utter amazement, I discovered that within 24 hours my videos were being viewed by four times the number of people than my articles were. The consistent pattern of traffic generated in my video to article comparison remains a constant ratio of 4:1.

You can view my two test videos on the marketing subject of “Speaking The Right Language” by going here:

Video #1

Video #2

Is article writing important? Absolutely! The writing of articles helps to create many web pages with links pointing back to your website. Article writing does generate traffic to your site and any traffic at all is important as it all adds up.

Is video creation important…absolutely! It’s been a long known fact amongst copywriters that people do not read all the content on a web page. People skim over web page content focusing on the highlights or bulleted points, titles, and sub-titles.

Video creation does not require much effort as to content. In researching other’s videos I was surprised to note that most videos were two and a half minutes in length, or less. From a scripting perspective, it is really difficult to communicate a solid message in less than three and a half minutes as most people will speak at a rate of 50 to 60 words a minute. In creating short videos, inorder to get your message out, the careful writing of the script is critical. While a script can be varied from slightly, one must be careful to not stray entirely as your timeline lengthens with every “add-lib”.

Video creation does not require expensive equipment. I personally use a 8 megapixel digital camera with a built in microphone on a tripod. The video is then edited in Windows Movie Maker software and it’s ready to go. While some video creators utilize a green screen behind the speaker, it isn’t necessary to provide a professional quality video. The one thing that both articles and videos have in common is the rule “content is the key”!

No matter how we evolve, or our internet useage habits change, we must all, in everything we do, remember to grab hold of the excellence life has to offer.

About the Author

Copyright © 2008 James C. Tanner. All Rights Reserved.

James C. Tanner of http://www.magneticinternetmarketingstrategies.com is a published writer, business course creator and trainer. His newest books include, “Secret Magnetic Internet Marketing Strategies”, “Let Loose The Promotional Genius In You”, “The Encyclopedia Of Traffic Building Tactics”, and “Website Monetization And Paid Online Opportunities”.

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Recession Proofing Your Online Presence

With the United States showing a slow struggle in shaking it’s recession style economy, the question arises, “How does a person or business recession proof their online business, or online presence?”

Everyday I received tons of email from people and organizations offering this latest $97 or $147 solution to traffic flow to my websites. I chuckled yesterday as three different parties contacted me to offer the exact same marketing strategy program. It’s becoming very clear that much of what’s circulating on the internet today is re-hashed or an affiliate related program. Multiple approaches regarding the same product cheapens the psychological value of that product, so it’s imperative that approaches be fresh, original, and current.

As I study the internet, and global economics, there is a trend cmoing clear. As the price of oil rises, the reality of a global recession grows stronger. When oil hits US $200 for a barrel of crude, many European banks believe the world will plunge into a global recession. Financial forecasts predict oil will top the US $200 price within the next year and a half. There is not enough oil capable of being produced right now to meet current demand levels, and it would take 10 to 12 years to increase production enough to maintain current levels. The only way for the globe to avoid a recession is to reduce oil consumption to match or be less than current production levels. Our dependence on oil at this time is too great to be able to accomplish this in time, on a global level.

So how do we adapt and how do we adjust?

There is a very clear marketing problem on the internet today. Most websites are being published in only one language—the language of English.

Today’s hot economies are located in India, China and Russia. These are non-English speaking countries.

The internet provides is with access to a global clientelle, and yet most of us are limiting ourselves to the English speaking only populace.

One way you can help to stabilize your presence online during a recession, is to begin to think globally. Most of our webpages have menu bars which read “Home”, “About”, “Contact”, “Products”, and possibly “Services”. Imagine the impact, if your menu bar also included links to copies of your main web page in foreign languages. Links could be written in their foreign language for Russian, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, French, Ukrainian, etc.

If we are going to position ourselves on today’s internet, then we must begin to accept a larger client base. Google Translator provides an excellent tool whereby your web page can be quickly translated into a specified language, and all you would have to do is simply cut and paste that new translation into a web page. One important tip to consider is that some languages such as Russian do use more characters than the English language and as a result, blocks of text may require a little bit more room.

Why don’t you join me! This week I’ve made the decision to take my web pages global, and in the weeks ahead, you will find my web pages changing to become multi-lingual. It’s a modern twist on internet customer service.

In all you do, take time to grab hold of the excellence life has to offer.

About the Author

Copyright © 2008 James C. Tanner. All Rights Reserved.

James C. Tanner of http://www.magneticinternetmarketingstrategies.com is a published writer, business course creator and trainer. His newest books include, “Secret Magnetic Internet Marketing Strategies”, “Let Loose The Promotional Genius In You”, “The Encyclopedia Of Traffic Building Tactics”, and “Website Monetization And Paid Online Opportunities”.

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Internet Marketing Strategies That Measure Success

“Email Marketing Is Dead”, the headline touted. It was an ominous start to a carefully crafted work on the effectiveness of market strategy, and in particular the internet marketing strategy of email campaigns.

How do we determine when a marketing strategy is dead or non-productive? In truth there is only one way, to establish clear goals for our promotions, and assign to those goals clearly established measurable objectives.

Perhaps you have set down on your list of website goals to increase income through sales; to provide new information to potential customers; to increase an email contact list; to establish a business presence; to increase income through advertising; or to give your business a more contemporary appearance. All of these are realistic goals.

When an person decides to compete in a marathon, there’s more involved in simply getting up off the couch one day and entering a race. As a person comes to the starting line, there’s already occurred a tremendous process of training, and expanding potential skill sets. As the race is run, there are markers. Check points or markers which provide a measure of the amount of the course completed thus far. The ultimate goal is to complete the competition, but in order to know how close you are to your overall goal, you must see and pass those measurable markers.

Business goals are very similar to a marathon. For every goal we must develop the skill sets that bring us to the starting line. For every goal, there must be measurable markers which upon starting identifies for us if we are on the right course and how much closer we are to accomplishing our overall objective.

To most business owners, the most common measurable marker is found in the R.O.I. (an acronym for Return on Investment). Cash flow projections are also routinely monitored to determine if a business is on course.

The problem many people face is knowing how to break down goals, assigning to them clear and focused measuring points. Many people create measuring points which are too broad, or too vague.

For the goal of increasing income through sales, milestone measurements could include observing your rate of sales conversions, monitoring the average dollar value of a transaction, and possibly identifying the number of purchasers who are repeat customers. These are clear measurements which can help a business determine if a website or particular style of marketing campaign is going to achieve it’s goal.

For the goal of establishing an online presence, a business can monitor the number of site visitors is receives and to which pages. Tools exist which enable a business to monitor and identify referrals to it’s business site. In this case a referral is a link on another web page, blog, article, which a person clicks on to access a new web page or blog. Once again tools exist which enable a business to not only monitor how long a person stays on a site, but which links they hover over, and which links they click through on. The more obvious methods would be to observe the number of transactions which would come from a site only special or discount.

It’s easy to simply declare “Email Marketing Is Dead”. Measurable markers will tell us if in fact that particular style of marketing is dead, or if, in utilizing this form of marketing strategy we have failed to establish realistic, clear and measurable goals. Measurable markers which can tell us, email marketing is very much alive, we are simply implementing it incorrectly.

In every goal achieved–in every measurable marker surpassed–in all things, we truly fail to attain our highest goal when we cease in every exercise to grab hold of the excellence life has to offer.

About The Author

Copyright © 2008 James C. Tanner. All Rights Reserved.

James C. Tanner is a highly published writer, entrepreneur, business course creator and trainer. He is recognized by 85 publishers. His latest releases include “Secret Magnetic Internet Marketing Strategies”, “Let Loose The Promotional Genius In You”, “The Encyclopedia of Traffic Building Tactics”, and “Website Monetization And Paid Online Opportunities”.









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The Web 4.0 Age Of Multimedia

Available starting today. Secret Magnetic Internet Marketing Strategies has just been released and is available starting today, June 16, 2008.

FEATURE ARTICLE

As the quality of computers, browsers, and operating systems have improved, so too has the popularity in the use of multimedia. Web 4.0 has become known as the age of rich media (multimedia). In fact it is the use of rich media that defines the new internet era of Web 4.0.

Technology has changed the way we live. How we embrace it will determine whether or not we will run in the forefront as leaders, or struggle remaining behind the times.

There are several reasons as to why rich media can be an important tool for you to consider using.

First and foremost, today’s internet user wants or expects it. Today is the day of mobile devices. Not only do we have a population that takes pictures with their phones, but now they can watch TV on their phones. Rich media has become the expectation of users when they look for sites which want to be viewed as current.

Secondly, if your users expect rich media, then you have to be using it to stay ahead of your competition. Sites must remain cutting edge or they quickly fall back into the bone pile of dinosaur websites.

Third, rich media creates a better over all user experience. All one has to think of is the comparison in numbers of men who will sit down to watch TV compared to the number of men who will sit down to read a book. On the internet, more people will sit down to view rich media, than the number of people who will sit down to read a webpage.

Rich media has a fourth important point to consider. If people will take time to watch a short video on your website, then they are also spending more time visiting your webpage. The longer people sit on your web page, the greater the chance they will buy from you.

A fifth point to consider is how rich media can enhance the marketing capability of your business or web site. If you can create a short 3 to 5 minute video, and post it to your web page, you can also post it to numerous video sharing sites, radically increasing your exposure. Each video sharing site will provide your video with a unique URL which you can link back to your website. One short video can become a massive network or promotion for you , your business, and or/your product.

Rich media will become the mainstream in promotional styles. It doesn’t require any fancy equipment as many digital cameras equipped with sound are now capable of producing acceptable videos. Many personal computers come equipped with great movie editing tools.

The important thing to consider is your reason “WHY”? There’s no point in creating videos for your webpage that lack content. Your message must be valuable to those who view your video. Your message must be inline with the product or service you are promoting. Your message must direct people towards action, as the overall purpose for your video is to be a valuable part of your sales funnel.

Rich media is worth the time spent learning about it and implementing it. It is a critical part of any modern promotional campaign.

Grab hold of the excellence life has to offer.

About the Author

Copyright © 2008 James C. Tanner. All Rights Reserved.

James C. Tanner of http://www.magneticinternetmarketingstrategies.com is a published writer, business course creator and trainer. His newest books include, “Secret Magnetic Internet Marketing Strategies”, “Let Loose The Promotional Genius In You”, “The Encyclopedia Of Traffic Building Tactics”, and “Website Monetization And Paid Online Opportunities”.





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