The Bitch Ditch

A newcomer to the world of investments in the notion of “Virtual Real Estate Investing“. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

To find out the real story, I had a conversation with Bryan Ellis, widely considered to be one of the originators of the concept of Virtual Real Estate Investing.

“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.

One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property ” those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc.

I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. After all, if you own a valuable piece of real estate, it’s “valuable” because other people are interested in that specific piece of property. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

The only way that you can get the word out about a product or service is through marketing. There are many ways to do marketing. It can be through advertising or word or mouth. Sometimes people market without realizing they are doing marketing. Even talking about a product or service to someone can be considered marketing.

When someone markets, they should keep a tight eye on the return on investment. This could be determined both in money and time. Ask this question: How much time and money did I spend, and then how much was the return? If you spend more time and money on marketing and not receive a decent return, then you have to look at other ways to promote your product or service. You might not hit it right the first time and you may end up losing some money and time. If you sit back and analyze your efforts, you can make decisions on where to put your resources next.

Some people are just born to market. It is in their blood and is natural for them. They can promote anything to anyone. They are believable and trustworthy and others want what they have because of that. Other people do not have the skill and should put their time and effort into other things. Every product and every service has to be marketed in some way, shape, or form. If you want to sell a health or beauty product people have to believe that it will make them feel healthier and more beautiful.

What is it about the combination of the words “self promotion”
that makes most women cringe? And why is it that, in particular,
women struggle the most in this arena?

Research has shown that there are a number of barriers women must overcome with the concept of self-promotion. Unfortunately, we are socialized as children not to talk about ourselves. And like most children, some of us took this message to heart. The result is that many women not only loathe talking about themselves but they also loathe talking about their accomplishments. Why? Because most women feel that this is - dare I say it? - bragging.

In our adult lives, many women often feel that their work should
speak for itself. While that sounds good on paper, this strategy
simply doesn’t work very well for most women. The result is that
many women are often passed over for plum assignments, or worse,
for that coveted pay raise or promotion.

It is critical for women to develop a comfort level with talking
about themselves and their accomplishments. Self-promotion can
help do the following: make you visible, help you realize your
goals and dreams, establish you as an expert in your field, and
perhaps most importantly, lay the groundwork for future
opportunities.

Effective self promotion requires preparation. Here are a few
simple steps to get you started:

1. Take Inventory. You need to have a sense of what is worth
promoting about you and why it is important.

2. Identify Your Key Accomplishments. These should be
quantifiable and showcase your contributions.

3. Describe Your Accomplishment. A simple technique is the “CAR”
method: Describe the challenge, the actions, and the results.
Think in terms of telling a story.

4. Craft a Vision for Your Self Promotion. Start by answering
these questions: What is the outcome you want to achieve? By
When? How will you measure success? What is your timeframe for
getting started?

5. Identify Individuals to Help You. Include individuals both
inside and outside your organization. Don’t be afraid to ask for
help!

6. Implement Your Strategy!

It’s critical that you feel comfortable with whatever steps you
choose to take in your quest for self-promotion. One piece of
advice: start small and practice with a trusted colleague or a
business coach. Keep telling yourself that there is nothing wrong with self-promotion. And remember, success doesn’t usually come to those who wait for it. It comes to those that have their “face in the place” both literally and figuratively.

Regina Barr is a business consultant with a passion for helping companies develop their full potential by focusing on their most valuable asset: their people. For more information on her programs and services, check out her website, http://www.RedLadder.com and sign up for her free email newsletter, Developing People…Inspiring Success.

There’s a headline that gets anyone’s attention.

There is actually a post on WebMasterWorld from a forum user who calls himself markus007 that makes that claim. I think the few initial suggestions he makes bear repeating:

1. Get a database of IP’s so you know where your traffic is coming from. Then create channels for each country. Its not uncommon to see US traffic with a CPM of $5.00 and a CDN traffic at 20 cents and vice versa. If you have access to the hints option, give different hints based on IP. ie if your page is about 401k plans, that won’t get you anything outside of the USA.

2. You have to create sites that will bring in repeat traffic. If you think you will get rich off SEO think again. If you create a Free jobs site you could net 30 million + a year if you got big. Club listings site, free religious personals etc would all be big money makers. Look for established markets and offer a service for free and support it with adsense.

3. Have your users create content and lots of it. User reviews of night clubs, Resorts, golf courses etc. Build your site around your users and make them part of your site, don’t build your site for consumption.

4. Do not enter markets with a lot of competition monitized via adsense. Try and undercut paid content markets by offering a free service, or better yet create your own market.

5. Keep your site dead simple, it has to load fast and have no more then 2 ads and 1 or 2 pictures other then your logo. Do not confuse your user, give them what they want and give it to them fast.

6. Troll around various forums and if people are not talking about your market, there is a good chance you will make money.

Here are some other interesting tidbits from the thread (it spans 25 pages):

Traffic is step #1, conversion is step #2, then for #3 we have to play with psychology

I like this one because it follows the process I have been preaching for years:
impression -> conversion -> action

So, in summary, users can find in his sites free services that are usually paid elsewhere, and they get them in a simple and fast way, and targeted to their locations, with lots of user feedback.

This seems to confirm the often quoted #1 Google’s advice:

1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.

Well said.

Markus again:

I found that you should just ignor monetization issues. I focus most of my time on trying to increase my dailly visitor count. [Emphasis added] If i don’t increase my users/pageviews by 10% a month there is something wrong. If you focus all your time on trying to make money, your site tends to not grow.

With trends in advertising currently, it is best you build for the long term anyways. Google is coming out with rich media ads which would increase my CPM to $4+ and other ad platforms are working at tracking the users intentions. Ie if you searched for a new car on google a week ago, a random site may display car ads when you visit it. I think in 5 to 10 years, the internet will monitize at the same level as offline. Now is the time to get ahold of as much traffic as you can.

The beauty about what i’ve done is that my site constantly grows 10% a month, and I build long term value and actually help millions of people and my time spent working on the site stays at about a hour a day.

Read the thread. It’s long but interesting.

Matt DeAngelis runs AffiliateBlog.com Matt is the former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution, Matt devised the technology behind many of the most successful ad campaigns of the time.

AffiliateBlog is his latest venture, and was started as a resource to help site owners and bloggers get more revenue from their sites.

Wouldn’t we all love to get Free Traffic to our home business web site all the time? I certainly am a big fan off this and always get completely fired up when I see the traffic coming from these sources.

Today I will talk a bit about how to build a decent linking strategy to achieve this kind off traffic.

The first thing what you should do is start thinking outside the box. Let me explain.. everybody seems to think that linking is good for your search engine rankings. And even though, to a certain extend, this might be true, to many people seem to forget what the main reason for linking to other sites used to be.

Give your visitors extra value by providing great content!!

Why still try to get as many links exchanged as possible.. does anybody still believe that the search engines reward links which don’t even fit the content of your web site? I certainly hope not.

The search engines do reward you with higher rankings, when you offer quality content through your links.

How to get these quality links

First make sure not to hide your links anymore, who would want to exchange links with you if they can’t be found. Show the owners of other web sites that when they exchange links with you, they get a chance to receive some visitors in return. Don’t worry about losing that one visitor that goes to your link directory, you really think he would go there if your site was appealing to him? So.. you would have lost him anyway.

Get a decent link manager program, you can download a good one for free at http://www.linkmachine.net. This program will help you to keep track of the link requests you have send and you can set up a template to get the same look and feel to blend in with the rest of your web site.

Make a list of all the keywords which fit to your web site, any single one you can think of. Then use a search engine to fill in these keywords. When you conduct a search, check every single web site on the first five pages, to see if they have a links page. Only, and I do mean only, ask them to exchange links when they offer an easy to reach link button or text link from their homepage.

Also, if they have 30 pages full of links where you will never be found.. Don’t even consider them as link partners. What good would it bring you.. you are looking to create free traffic remember!!

Whilst doing this, please, don’t forget to check the Paid Ads on the search engines. If you can find a link exchange opportunity there it would be very promising. Imagine them paying for ads on Google or Yahoo, and you might join the ride for free.

This simple but effective tactic is time consuming but rewarding. Just make it a habit to get at least 10 new links like this every week and I can promise you a very fair amount of free traffic in return. Because of the process of you providing quality content to your visitors, the search engines will also reward you with higher rankings.

That’s what I call a win/win situation!

Harrold Swalve is a published author and successful online entrepreneur. He owns the Home Business Resource Center http://www.pocketmoremoney.com To read more off his articles just visit his blog at http://www.pocketmoremoney.com/blog/blogger.html

Testimonials are a great way to build consumer confidence in your product. Hearing from other people who have purchased the product and are satisfied with the results goes a long way toward making sales. Testimonials can range from short blurbs (a sentence or two, or a paragraph) to letter-length endorsements. The blurbs are great for interspersing with the text of your autoresponder messages; longer testimonials are excellent for posting on your web site.

How do you get testimonials?

Once you start selling your product, you will likely receive unsolicited notes from buyers who are pleased with their purchases. But at the outset of your campaign, before you have actually began selling anything, there are several ways to get testimonials:

• Friends and family. Ask friends and family to review your product and write a few sentences describing what they like about it and why they would recommend it to others. This may seem like cheating, but no one has to know you’re acquainted with your testimonial writersand besides, if they actually like the product, there is nothing dishonest about it.

• Colleagues and experts in your field. If you work or have worked in a field relating to your topic, ask your coworkers (or former coworkers) to write up a testimonial blurb for you. If you don’t work in a related field, look up people who do online (groups or forums are good places to start) and e-mail them to ask if they would mind reviewing your product in exchange for a free copy. Most reviewers work on a free-product basis and will be happy to do so.

• Other affiliate members and resellers. Think all people trying to sell the same product as you are bitter enemies? Think again! Many internet marketers working with affiliate and reseller programs are happy to help other entrepreneurs, because believe it or not, there is plenty of market to go around. Of course, they will expect the same courtesy from you. Since they are already familiar with the product, they will have no trouble coming up with a testimonial for you.

NOTE: Always make sure you have the permission of the person who wrote the testimonial to use their name and words in your marketing materials. Get it in writing or by e-mail, even from friends and family. Make that especially from friends and familyyou never know when a disagreement will result in a rescinding of an offer to help. If you get permission via e-mail, simply end your disclaimer message (I hereby give [your name] permission to use my name and remarks for marketing purposed, signed X) with a line that states: Typing my initials here constitutes my official signature___. Then just ask them to reply to the message, add their full name and initials, and hit send. Most people will be willing to do this.

Did you know that 99.92% of the people trying to earn a living on the Internet are failing miserably? The problem is the frame of mind that most of the “dreamers” are in! If you want to change this make sure to visit the website: www.online-marketing-center.com

The first and most logical step in whether or where to start a business is to conduct a market analysis. For a retail business, a few general locations should be chosen for detailed analysis to identify where the opportunity is greatest.

A market analysis is a study of the market area and of probable future patterns. It should include the current state of the market, and the nature and extent of competition. The purpose of the analysis is to make it possible to develop more accurate, that is, more fact-based sales forecasts. The method is to identify the pattern or trend of sales over the past and to use this information to project or estimate sales for the period ahead.

Another important issue is how much it costs in selling effort to produce a given volume of sales. It involves two types of costs: advertising costs, and salaries and wages paid for selling. If the business requires sales-people in the field, as a manufacturer might, information on reimbursable travel expenses should be included.

A study of the competition should be included in any market analysis. The competition may be local and well defined, or quite generalized, depending on the nature of the business and of the market. Trade associations and other data-gathering agencies, both governmental and non-governmental, are sometimes helpful in this area. A good deal of the information about competition, such as estimated sales, pricing policies, advertising and promotional costs , services offered, performance of sales personnel, must come from direct investigation, business by business.

Of interest also are whether there are businesses entering and leaving the competition recently, and changes in the competitive structure through product mix or services offered. If there is a lot of flux in the market, we need to look into the causes, and whether they are favorable to our entry.

When evaluating a location, be sure to investigate whether there any plans for proposed changes that may have an adverse effect on the future of the business. Urban revitalization programs, changes in highways and streets, flood-control programs, changes in zoning ordinances, could all severely impact what looks today like a favorable location.

The number of people within the market area and the amount of disposable income they have are important market factors. For many kinds of businesses, the total population is less important than certain segments of the population. A business selling hearing aids, for example, will be interested only in persons who have hearing difficulties, which would generally imply an older demographic.

General population figures are obtained from Federal, State, and local government sources. The Federal census gives not only total population figures but also breakdowns that are useful in many business situations. For most of the larger cities, census figures are further classified by sections within the city, called census tracts, on the basis of certain population and economic characteristics.

Business population figures may be available from numerous sources. The Yellow Pages of the telephone directory and the city directory are local sources that are immediately available. Chambers of commerce, trade associations, and State and Federal government agencies can often be helpful.

Many trade associations report the results of research on consumer expenditures. Other sources of data on income include planning commission offices, employment offices, and utility companies. Many newspapers research and report on building permits and demographic trends, especially in newly developed areas.

A much broader yet vital part of the market analysis has to do with what might be called the general state of the market, that is, overall economic conditions of the market area and of the country. These may be widespread movements such as national cycles of prosperity and less favorable times, or they may be purely local conditions.

Perhaps the prospective entrepreneur favors a particular area, near home for example, and is merely looking for a specific location. It can still be very useful to investigate a couple of other areas, in case the opportunity in the favored area is particularly less than in other neighborhoods. The possibility must always be recognized that the nature and /or direction of the industry, or the competitive situation may prove unfavorable in all the areas investigated.

Options then are to wait for conditions to become more favorable, or to “cast a wider net” geographically or in terms of business niche chosen. In any case, finding out at the analysis stage makes it much easier to optimize the opportunity chosen.

John B. Vinturella, Ph.D. has almost 40 years experience as a management and strategic consultant, entrepreneur, author, and college professor. For 20 of those years, Dr. Vinturella was owner/president of a distribution company that he founded. He is a principal in business opportunity sites jbv.com and muddledconcept.com, and maintains business and political blogs.

When I launched my very first blog, I would get really excited when just one soul visited after several days. I was very lucky to get three regulars (two nice young ladies and a gentleman - bless you wherever you are) very early on, who came calling almost daily. Actually my first site was a fiction blog which I updated daily - or at least I tried to.

Had it not been for those early visitors, I am certain that my fiction blog would never have been finished and my experiment with blogs would have ended prematurely. This article would never have been written. And I would not have grown to become as knowledgeable on traffic generation as I am today.

But that’s just the point - the early days of any business are so critical and if nothing happens chances are that it will get abandoned and that will be the end of it all.

The tricky part of it all is that when a blog or site has just been launched it isn’t so easy to generate traffic to it. Search engines have not indexed pages yet and if you are a novice, you really have no idea what you are doing.

I was lucky in that I started using articles shortly after my first three regulars came on the scene. The result was that my traffic swelled to such an extent that I have long finished writing this fictional blog but it still receives an amazing volume of traffic and contributes to my income from programs like Adsense. Lots of experiences later, I have still not found a better way to launch a new site and I doubt if anybody ever will. But there is a special way in which you need to use the articles to make them work for you (more on that later).

Why Promotional Articles Are Your Best Bet

Promotional articles have many advantages for a new blog or site. To start with they do double duty. Firstly they give you valuable content for your site and secondly they are capable of generating very targeted traffic to your site.

Then there are numerous advantages of using promotional articles for a new site. To start with it is free and utilizes something a new entrepreneur usually has plenty of as they launch their business - time. There are usually no clients yet to spend plenty of valuable time with sorting out problems and issues that have arisen. There is also no cash to account for or receivables to follow up on.

Articles are a good foundation that will continue to get you traffic for years to come. I recently landed a client who read an article I wrote and posted two years ago! Articles will remain online forever, in blogs, search engine rankings and article directories.

But the truth is that many have tried to use articles without much success. Actually if you just write and post articles without a special strategy to ensure that as many folks who read the articles as possible visit your site, then you are short-changing yourself. Chances are high that you will probably fail.

There is a special way to use articles so as to reap maximum benefit from each article you write. Here’s how

You Must Get People To Visit Your Site

Many articles have a serious problem in that when you read them, they are complete in themselves and therefore there is really no point in visiting the site.
Others do not have a resource box that is effective enough to get readers eager to visit their sites for more information.

Both articles fail miserably because they will hardly get you the traffic you require. The first skill you will need to acquire is that of compiling a resource box. Then you will need to use a certain system when writing and posting your articles. This idea is repsonible for a very huge chunk of my traffic.

Christopher Kyalo is a successful online entrepreneur. Read the rest of this article in his free email newsletter. Subscribe now by sending a blank email to articlesrgold-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. You can also visit his promotional articles blog.

Many firms underestimate the value of using their websites to gain significant competitive advantage in their given markets. Most businesses only utilize their website as a means of displaying their corporate profile, list of products as well as things like their contact details and email address.

At the risk of “preaching to the converted” Alex Margarit highlights some of the ways that a firm’s website, when used as an effective Internet Marketing Channel, can enhance competitive advantage.

It is fairly safe to say that managers should always view web technology in light of the whole marketing mix instead of merely as an extension of their existing advertising efforts. I have seen this happen again and again and therefore feel it is my duty to attempted to highlight some of the ways that a website can positively impact each of the these marketing mix elements:

Distribution (Place)

Ways to enhance your distribution networks may include using the web portal to enhance logistics, create new marketing channels (for example affiliate channels) or provide better or faster product access for customers. Be careful however when creating new e-commerce sites as it is important to conduct a thorough online market analysis of your product to ensure that you are also competitive as far as other Internet based competitors are concerned. Internet retailers such as Amazon are growing in size and dominance and should be taken into account when planning any online strategy. Affiliate marketing channels may also be something to look into in terms of gaining more traffic to your site. New incoming marketing and information channels can be easily established by creating an affiliate program which entails other firms listing your site URL on their pages which in turn can equate to more traffic for your site. Look at your existing business referrers; can you enhance or strengthen these channels through the use of effective and relevant hyperlinks?

Promotions

The growth of the Internet’s accessibility is inevitable and firms would be well advised to start the web advertising function as soon as possible. The reason for this is that “staying power” is paramount with more and more people starting to use the web. Firms that have been around the longest and which have high levels of interconnectivity will always maintain a pretty big competitive advantage over newer entrants. Once a firm’s web page has established a decent ranking and is featured on other related sites, the ability for firms to utilize this coverage to reach out to new domestic and international markets can be quite powerful. The success of large Internet advertising campaigns is well documented. For me the last US election was a real eye-opener as Internet marketing played a dominant role in key advertising campaigns with staggering amounts of marketing messages being delivered via the Internet to target audiences.

Email marketing lists are also a great way to stay in touch with your customers and their effective use can provide a valuable marketing and information channel. The benefits are two fold with the ability for marketers to use them to heighten brand awareness whilst strengthening customer relationships. Newsletters and other marketing can be used to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide segment relevant information to them designed to offer value and a “good read”. A word of caution though, make sure you clearly outline your privacy and anti-spam policy so as not to breach any anti-spam laws. You will need to get your customer’s consent first as well as provide an unsubscribe link so that they may choose whether they want to receive your communications.

Product

Whilst observing the product part of the marketing mix, an Internet portal can substantially strengthens you’re firm’s current product offering. Ways that a web site can enhance your product offering are many, ranging from offering new web related products through to establishing outgoing affiliate programs. Giving customers better services that bolster the appeal of the core product is a great way to effectively relate products to customer needs. This usually involves the creation of secondary or ancillary products that can either be sold or provided for free. These additional offerings can help to generate higher, sometimes passive, earnings as well as increase a firm’s potential differentiation. Ways in which your firm can do this include:

1. Setting up a knowledge base that your clients can have access to that includes a FAQ or query function allowing your clients to query you for information. This helps them to use the service better or more efficiently.

2. Using a feedback form where clients can offer their input as to their needs and product suggestions can help you to determine valuable information about your customer’s needs

3. If you have a product that is hard to operate, providing free or subsidized training can assist your customers to overcome difficulties.

Many firms actually charge their clients for the support component you will have to refer to the existing competition situation to determine whether this is something that you can implement. Either way product enhancements could include increasing the availability of products and services by putting order forms and support forms on your website.

Price

The automation of some of the firm’s functions using web technology usually equates to a significant saving of operational costs - that’s if you are doing it right of course! For instance having an effective inbound ordering form can reduce sales staffing costs. Because ordering online doesn’t require a sales representative to take the call and then effectively turn it around this costs the firm a certain amount per enquiry in staff time. Encourage clients to use the web form as opposed to other methods of product ordering may be an effective means of reducing these costs. Ways that a firm may wish to do this is to reflect the reduced staffing cost in the price by offering a “better deal” to Internet customers. Also, this can help to establish a pattern of online behavior in your customers that can sometimes be translated to other online firm functions such as support pages.

These are just a few of the ways in which an effective online strategy can turn your small web site into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. I challenge you to make the most of what is available and remember that constant revision of new web technology is always beneficial if you decide that it may or may not be for you. Naturally, not all web technology is suitable for every firm and it is important that you are conscious that ongoing development can be costly both in terms of time and other development and infrastructure expenditure. Effective development research as well as cost, change and market analysis is paramount to ensure that the benefits of any change out way any given realistic investment cost.

Alex Margarit (http://alexmargarit.com) is a Online Marketing Professional based in Brisbane, Australia. Specialising in the areas of music, fashion, information and legal marketing, Alex has dedicated his life to enhancing the online marketing capabilities of firms by thinking outside the square and offering relevant and timely web marketing tips and insights for businesses.