All you know how much I love to share really great SEO or Internet marketing tools that I come across on a regular basis. Here's one that I think you'll find useful:

Targeting the wrong keyword can leave you battling giants; targeting the right one can lead to search engine success. So, depending on your current ranking, it may be best to avoid hotly contested keywords and go for those that are ripe for the taking.

The Keyword Difficulty Check tool will guide you on your way. Just type in a keyword or phrase, and it lets you know how easy or difficult it would be to rank for that term. Get high rankings for less-common keywords, or at least know what you're getting into with more popular words.

http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-difficulty/

I found this tool incredibly easy to use, and yes, it's FREE. Give it a try. Simply navigate to the URL noted above and type in a keyword phrase. This is a great place to start before choosing your keywords or evaluating the competitiveness of the keywords you're optimizing for. Enjoy!

SEO for the Small Business Owner

If your company generates less than $10 million dollars in a calendar year, you may be classified as a "small business". Regardless of your size, Search Engine Optimization is an important strategy for growing your business. In fact, as a small business owner, SEO is probably one of the most important marketing strategies you can use to improve traffic and sales through your website.

Can the small websites compete with the big guys?

I'm often asked by small business owners if they stand a chance against larger websites when it comes to organic search results. My response is that size doesn't matter. When it comes to improving natural search results, it's all about the keywords you choose and how competitive those keywords are.

What makes a keyword competitive?

One way to determine the competitiveness of a search term is to simply type that search term into Google and notice the number of webpages that contain that search term. This number appears in the upper right-hand corner of the search results page and appears as, "Results 1 - 10 of about 117,000,000 for [your search term here]."

The large number you see gives you an indication of how many websites contain the keyword term or phrase you're searching for. Not all of these sites would necessarily be competitors, but have been indexed by Google none-the-less. From my perspective, when this number is less than 3 or 4 million, the particular search term would not be all that competitive in and of itself.

Determining just how competitive the search term is.

There are a variety of methods to determine true keyword effectiveness (KEI, etc.). However, if you're just a regular person trying to figure out how difficult it will be to rank well for a particular keyword, consider the following. In addition to the number of sites that contain your keyword, how well optimized are the top 3 sites that appear on the search result. You can determine this by:

1. Visiting the site and determining the Google PR of the page. This information is available by downloading the Google toolbar and looking in your browser. You will see a green bar and ranking (ex: PR5), which tells you how Google ranks this page/website with regard to popularity. Any site with a Google PR6 or better is well established and will be difficult to outrank in the near term.

2. Visit Google and type, "link:www.competitorssite.com". Be sure to replace 'competitorssite' with the website name you are researching. Remember, this should be a website that appears on the Google search result for the keyword term or phrase you're reseraching. This will tell you how many sites are linking to this particular website. The larger the number the more difficult it will be to outrank.

3. Look at the website code. Simply visit the competitor's website and go to "View", "View Source". Look for the meta tags of "Title", "Description", and "Keywords". Are the meta tags at the very top of the page? Does the website also use h1, h2, and h3 tages? If so, they probably know something about SEO and have applied some on-page optimization techniques.

Using the above will give you a good sense of whether of not you can compete for given keywords. As you've figured out by now, a company's size is no indication of their level of experience in optimizing their own website. You'd be surprise of the type (and size) of companies that call me for SEO advice. Keep this in mind the next time you think that size matters!

Affiliate Marketing: Finding the Products That Sell!

With more than 24,000 products in the ClickBank, how do you know what to promote on your website? If you're like me, you want to find products with high payouts that require little marketing or promotion. This results in a high sell through even if you have only small amounts of traffic to your site. After many years of finding and marketing affiliate products, I've learned some very simple, yet powerful techniques for generating large revenues promoting others online products.

The best place to start is by visiting one of the largest collection of affiliate products, "ClickBank.com". There are others such as PayDotCom.com and Commission Junction, but I prefer clickbank as it gives me the variety I need and is simple to use.

When visiting clickbank, find the category most closely related to your website. By finding something that's relevant to your site, it increases the chances of your audience find the product(s) relevant. This segmentation increases your sell through rates.

Once you have found the proper category, you will see a listing of products. These products at listed or ranked based on a variety of factors. The ranking is important because it shows the most popular product (similar to a Google ranking). You can also sort the listing in a variety of ways. I prefer to sort by Gravity because this factor is an algorithm that essentially tells you how many of each product has been sold over the last 8 weeks. The more that are sold, the more popular the product and efficient the jump page which promotes the product. In a nutshell, the higher the gravity the EASIER it is to sell.

Also, be sure to look at the payout. If you can generate a fair revenue from selling the product $30 or more, you may consider promotion using Google or Yahoo! pay-per-click advertising. Your promotional methods are up to you but it all depends on choosing the right product.

More to come on finding and promotion affiliate products. Stay tuned....

Duplicate Content, Friend or Foe

I've been reading a lot of information about this concept of "duplicate content". Essentially, duplicate content is what happens when individuals post content on their website that was originally published elsewhere on the web. If the content has been indexed by Google on the original site, and then appears on a different website, Google apparently devalues the content.

What this means for you
If your website is largely comprised of duplicate content than this issue could impact your websites popularity and in-turn search engine results listing. For those of you who have been reading my blog or have used my products (like The Webmasters Book of Secrets) know that I am a large proponent of Article marketing and original content creation. This seems somewhat confusing because article marketing is the practice of creating a single article and distributing it to many sites resulting in DUPLICATE CONTENT.

Article marketing tip
Since the information about Google and how they treat duplicate content has been posted, I've made some adjustments to my article marketing tactics. Here's what you can do:

• When developing an article, post to your website first. This informs Google that it is in fact your content, and as a result, you won't be significantly impacted when it appears on other sites.
• Find high ranking article directories like EzineArticles and GoArticle for primary articles submission. When you submit to these sites (after posting on your own site and waiting a few days), add your article with a different title, intro, and summary paragraph.
• Once you know that the articles have been added to these websites, begin your general article marketing using what ever method you prefer.

These tips will make your article marketing effective in light the recent changes announced by Google and the issue with duplicate content. When people ask me whether or not duplicate content is friend or foe, I simply respond, "Article marketing is here to stay".

Nothing New About Link Building

Everyone knows that building links to your website is essential for increasing search engine results. I recently got a question regarding the methods I use for building effective links. After responding with a thorough discussion about researching websites, finding possible link partners, and a variety of link building ideas, I reached a simple conclusion... stick to the basics.

Even though the "basic" approach to link building isn't sexy, it works. Here are just a few techniques you should focus on for building quality links to your websites.

1. Find authoritative websites in your industry. Look for those websites that list a number of your competitors and approach them for an inbound link or link exchange. These sites command a high PR and are subject matter related.

2. Develop a link exchange program. When you exchange links with a site, the overall value to Google and other search engines isn't as high as a one-way link but it does improve your rankings. Take your time, find the right sites, and make sure that the Google PR of the site that's linking to you is the same or better than your outbound link.

3. Link to something of value. Get other sites to link to you by offering something they do not have on their website. A widget, tool, or content can be enough to encourage a link to your site. Let others know what you have and what's in it for them. You'd be surprised how quickly people will link to something that ads value to their website or webpage.

Find more link building tips and strategies like these in The Webmaster's Book of Secrets.

Marketing Secrets: Finding a Deal Online

If you're like me, you love a bargain. This is especially true when it comes to buying marketing related products online. I should know... since launching the Webmasters Book of Secrets, I've been approached by dozens of websites who wish to sell my product. But which ones are legitimate? And where can you get the best price? Although I haven't begun to offer my SEO related ebook anywhere other than www.webmastersbookofsecrets.com, I'll soon be offering it to a hand selected number of sites who I know and trust. One such website is IMOffers.

This website has assembled some of the BEST discounts on marketing related products anywhere online. Before you buy anything to improve your marketing or website, be sure to visit IMOffers.com to see if there is an available discount. I personally like having some "go to" websites where I can always count on a discount for products that are essential to my business.

The other technique I like to use for finding discounts is searching for coupons online. You can do this by typing in the name of the product and "coupon" in a Google search box. This should get you a listing of sites that offer coupons for the product or where you can get the product at a discount. Make sure that the site you purchase from is legitimate. A good way to do this is to search for reviews or trust those who have spent some time in the industry reviewing these types of websites. Happy shopping!

Can You Buy Traffic?

A recent "Marketing Blog" reader asks, "I will like to read your opinion about those paid traffic services. Actually I'm still selling my products but most of the time I use paid target traffic services, it works nice for me but the only problem that I found is that after two or three traffic orders I have to move to another traffic business since the effectiveness only works for small time." - Pete

Pete, thanks so much for your comment. This is a GREAT topic and one that I'd love to comment on. Paid traffic services can be useful as part of an overall traffic generation strategy. I too have used paid traffic services in the past and believe they do present some value when used in conjunction with Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, and Email Marketing.

So What's the Rub With Paid Traffic?

Have you ever wondered where paid traffic comes from? The services that generate paid traffic do it through a few key methods.

1. Traffic Exchange. Using this method, these sites sell access to their traffic exchange networks where individuals surf for credits. As they earn credits viewing websites like yours, their ads/websites are displayed across the network for others to click on. If this method is being used, you may certainly experience a decrease in performance only because the same individuals are seeing your ad over and over, reducing their likelihood to click.

2. Search Engine Marketing. A great way to generate traffic for others is through search engine marketing like Google, ExactSeek or Yahoo! Traffic generation sites buy keywords in bulk or many long-tail keywords and resell the traffic generated from them. If they can do this at a profit, its a win-win. This is a difficult strategy only because the cost of keywords change frequently based on industry demand.

3. List Marketing. Traffic generation websites also generate traffic through email marketing and house lists. These techniques are usually leveraged through daily, weekly, and monthly electronic newsletters. Driving less traffic than the first two methods, the list marketing option usually rounds out a comprehensive traffic generation strategy.

So to answer your question directly Pete, traffic generation sites - paying for traffic - can be beneficial... it all comes down to how you use them and what it costs. Personally, I prefer to sign up for my own traffic exchange, purchase my own keywords, and manage my newsletters and email lists!

The Most Powerful Link Building Strategies

If you're doing business on the Web, then getting your Website to the top of Google and other major search engines should be your top priority. To reach the top of Google, your website will need to offer something of value, provide quality content, and build a lot of inbound links.

Inbound links are a key factor for improving Google rankings. How do you build links to your website? There are a number of strategies that have proven effective time and again. Use these seven strategies for building links and improving search engine rankings.

1. Identify the right websites for link targeting. Getting links from other websites is beneficial, but not if you don't have a plan. Trying to acquire links from just any old website won't generate the type of return you're looking for. To determine the best sites for link targeting purposese, simply visit Google and type the keyword or keyword phrase you're trying to optimize for. Record the #1 Google ranked website for that keyword and see who's linking to that website. By targeting the same sites, you can mirror the acheivements of the #1 ranked website. There are many tools that can help you do this. One is to type in "link:" into the Google search box and the name of the top ranked website. This will list all of the sites that link to the top ranked site.

2. Build a links page. Before starting any link building program, I strongly encourages those I consult for to build their own Partner page. A partner page or links page is where you can post links from your website to those who may be placing your link on their own website. This is referred to as reciprocal linking and is a great way to start building valuable links to your website. This links page can also be used for other types of link exchanges like 3-way linking. The key is to have some real estate on your own website that you can use to barter for links on other sites.

3. Contacting other websites. Once you've identified the sites you should be getting links from, the next step is to begin contacting them and asking for a link exchange or post. There are a variety of ways to acquire links from these sites but one of the best, and most simple ways, is to ask with a contextual email. This is simply an email you send to the websmaster of the site revealing your intentions. The key is to spend some time on the website you're targeting and to reference something on the site and the fact that a link exchange would be beneficial for both parties.

4. Directory submissions. Getting links from quality directories is a great way to start building links to your website. There are many free directories, and some paid, that can provide one-way links to your site. One-way links are the most valuable kinds of links because each serves as a vote from another website to yours. These are even more valuable if the site that is linking to yours has a high Google PR and only a few other links present on the page where your link is placed.

5. Article Submission. Distributing valuable content in the form of article marketing is a great way to build valuable one-way links. When you create article content and distribute the content via article directories or submissions, you benefit by the links which are present in the "About the Author" section of your article. As others post your articles to their own websites, they include your author box and links back to your website. Article marketing is one of the quickest and most powerful way to build meaningful links.

Link building is the most important SEO strategy you can employ for improving search engine rankings. As we've discussed in this article, start by identifying the right sites to target. Contact other websites and ask for a link exchange. Submit to website and article directories and include links back to your website in the about the author section. Using these top SEO strategies are sure to improve your search engine rankings.

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert with more than 12 years of marketing experience. He has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media. For additional strategies to improve search engine rankings, visit The Marketing Blog.

Good Web Design: What It Is

Do you know good web design when you see it? Good web design is essential for increasing the effectiveness of your website.

Good web design is something that can be achieved relatively easily by sticking to a small set of guiding principles and avoiding some very common mistakes.

Truly excellent web design skills are born out of years of experience, dedication and plenty of hard-learned mistakes. Fortunately, being truly excellent at web design is not a pre-requisite for building a fantastic website and the lessons learned from those mistakes can be passed on without the hardship.

This article contains some of the principles which I have learned the hard way and the easy way. Each principle is fairly obvious but so many designers ignore them for one reason or another and the consequence is a hard-to-use, poor looking site that is difficult to manage and fails to make the top 1000 in Google. If your website adheres to the principles below it will almost certainly be much healthier, and you and your visitors will reap the benefits.

1. Keep Everything Obvious - Don't Make Me Think

The book entitled Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug is one of the best selling books on the subject of web design and usability. Personally, I think thinking is a good thing but at the same time I don't want to be struggling to figure out how to submit a web form!

Visitors to a website expect certain conventions, breaking these is a great way of losing visitors. People expect to find the navigation at the top of a page or on the left hand side. Logos are mostly found on the top left. Much research has been conducted into how people view and use web pages. The good news is that you do not to know all of this; instead look at how larger companies such as eBay, Amazon, Google, Microsoft structure their pages and the language they use, then emulate them.

2. Limit Colours

A website using too many colours at a time can be overwhelming to many users and can make a website look cheap and tacky. Any users with colour blindness or contrast perception difficulties may even be unable to use the site.

Limiting a palette to 2 or 3 colours will nearly always lead to a slicker looking design and has the added bonus of simplifying your design choices, reducing design time.

Software like Color Wheel Pro can greatly simplify the creation of a pallet by showing which colours sit well together. If you really do not have the eye for design then software like this provides the perfect way of escaping monotone or badly combined colour schemes.

If your site uses blue and yellow together or red and green then it may present problems to anyone suffering with colour blindness. Vischeck.com provide free software that can simulate different types of colour blindness.

3. Be Careful With Fonts

The set of fonts available to all visitors of a website is relatively limited. Add to that the possibility of a user having a visual impairment then the options become even smaller. It is advisable to stick to fonts such as Arial, Verdana, Courier, Times, Geneva and Georgia. They may not be very interesting but your content should be more interesting than your font and if it can't be read, what is the point of having a site?

Black text on a white background is far easier for the majority of people to read than white text on a black background. If you have large amounts of text then a white or pale background is far more user friendly. Always ensure that there is a good contrast between any text and its background. Blue text on a blue background is okay as long as the difference in shade is significant.

Verdana is often cited as being the easiest to read on the screen. Georgia is probably the best option for a serif font.

4. Plan for Change

If you fix the height of your page to 600 pixels will you still be able to add additional menu items without completely redesigning your page?

The ability to add or remove content from a website is fundamental to the ongoing success of it. Having to rewrite the entire web page or website each time you want to make a small change is sure fire way to kill your interest in your own site and will negatively impact your overall design and usability.

Getting a good idea of how your website is likely to grow will clarify how best to structure your layout. For example, a horizontal navigation is often more restrictive than a side navigation unless you use drop down menus; if your navigation is likely to grow and you hate drop down menus then your design choice has been 99% made for you!

Understanding how to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), avoiding unconventional layouts and complicated backgrounds will all help enormously.

5. Be Consistent

Again, don't make your visitors think! About how to use your site at least. If your navigation is at the top on your homepage, it should be at the top on all other pages too. If your links are coloured red ensure the the same convention is used on all sections.

By using CSS correctly you can make most of this happen automatically leaving you free to concentrate on the content.

6. Keep it Relevant

A picture is better than a thousand words but if the picture you took on holiday is not relevant to your Used Car Sales website then you should really replace it with something which reflects the content or mood of the page; a photo of a car perhaps!

If you can take something off of your web page without it adversely affecting the message, appearance or legality of your website you should do it without hesitation.

Avoid the need to add images, Flash animations or adverts just because you have space. This wastes bandwidth and obscures the intentions of your website. If you absolutely must fill the space, then exercise your imagination to find something as relevant as possible.

Keeping your content focused will ultimately help your search-engine rankings.

7. Become a CSS Expert

Cascading Style Sheets should be any web designer's best friend. CSS makes it is possible to separate the appearance and layout of your page from the content. This has huge benefits when it comes to updating and maintaining your site, making your site accessible and making your site easy for search engines to read.

CSS at a first glance is very straightforward but is definitely worth investing in one or more books. Two great books are: CSS the Missing Manual by David McFarland and Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm.

8. Avoid Complexity

Using standard layouts for your web page will save you development time and make your site easier to use. Pushing the boundaries nearly always leads to quirky behaviour, cross-browser problems, confused site visitors and maintenance headaches. Unless you really do like a challenge then avoid complexity wherever possible.

Many standard layouts are freely available online with much of the boring, repetitive work already done for you.

The principles above all border on common sense and are well known to most people, yet so many sites continue to deviate away from them and suffer as a consequence. Following these principles will help you keep away from trouble, although it still doesn't guarantee it!

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About the Author: Paul has worked as a programmer and in Web Design for over 15 years.

Asking For the Link Exchange

With over 7 years of marketing on the web and SEO, I've seen it all when it comes to asking for link exchanges. What's so amazing is that the honest and straightforward approach is really the best. I've developed a number of email templates and tested multiple versions of emails asking for a link back to mysite or a link exchange.

When you can provide something of value to a website or offer a valuable link in exchange for a link to your site, your chances of being successful are high. My recommendation is to research the potential partner's website and determine whether or not your site is a fit. Here is a sample letter (email) I've used in the past when requesting a link or link exchange:

Dear Webmaster, My name is ___________ and I am the webmaster of http://www.yoursitehere.com/. I have visited your site http://www.theirwebsiteurlhere.com/ and believe it would be a valuable resource for my website browsers. I’d like to exchange links with you and have already added a link to your website on my partners page at http://www.yourlinkspage.com/. I would ask that you provide back to my website. Doing so would offer a valuable resource to your website’s visitors and increase website popularity for both of us.

If you are interested in exchanging links, please add the following details to your website and let me know when you have done so. The details of our site are given below: Title: Your keyword phrase here | Second keyword phrase here URL: http://www.yourwebsite.com/ Description: [Place a description of your website here. Make sure you include your primary keyword phrase at least two times in a manner that seems natural]. Alternatively, you can just copy the html code Your keyword phrase | Second keyword phrase Place a description of your website here. Make sure you include your primary keyword phrase at least two times in a manner that seems natural.

If you are not interested in completing a link exchange at this time, please let us know and we will remove your link from our links page. Thank you for your consideration.

Kind Regards[your first name]webmaster@yourwebsite.com

Use this as a template for starters and add your own flavor to each email. The key is to be genuine and make sure the website you're requesting a link from would be a good fit with your's. Customize each email appropriately and you will be successful in acquiring both one way and reciprocal links.

To learn other SEO secrets visit The Webmaster's Book of Secrets.

The Webmaster's Book of Secrets is Here!

It's finally here! Announcing The Webmaster's Book of Secrets by me... Michael Fleischner.

Increasing search engine results is one of the most difficult yet rewarding aspects of online marketing. Ever since I began marketing on the Internet in 2000, I've been amazed by the ability of some marketers to understand and leverage the power of organic search results - driving tons of FREE traffic to their website(s). The challenge associated with improving search engine rankings is that there are a series of complex factors that can change your rankings each and every day.

However, there are some proven, "tried and true" methods that top Webmasters use on a regular basis to ensure that they are at the top of Google and other major search engines. From my perspective, optimizing for Google is the most important thing a Marketer can do for his business, website, or landing page. I've spent the last three years focused on Google and improving search engine results for my main website, MarketingScoop.com.

I have personally learned so much about SEO and Internet marketing that I've worked hard to compile EVERYTHING I've learned and used for top Google placements into an ebook that I'm sure you'll benefit from. The Webmaster's Book of Secrets reveals everything you need to know for reaching the #1 placement on Google - the world's largest search engine.

This guide provides a detailed explanation of both on-page and off-page optimization factors used by leading Webmaster's for improving search engine rankings. With top Google placements, your traffic will soar! Thanks to all who have contributed to this long-in-coming publication (ebook) as well as all those "SEO Master's" who have shared their personal secrets with me and have allowed me to reveal them here.

Podcasting, Is It All It's Cracked Up To Be?

With the advent of the web, the number of information delivery methods continue to expand. As marketers, its important to stay abreast of the changing ways our customers (and prospects) receiving information. Over time, I have recorded a number of podcasts, but never truly understood the value of this delivery method.

Alternative Forms of Information. We are a mobile society. As a result, a number of people have changed the way they digest information. Radio has been around for some time, but streaming audio, TV programs you can watch on the Internet, and Podcasts have taken it to a new level. It's best to understand all the ways in which your customers like to receive and digest information.

Bite Sized Chunks. As individuals we are overloaded with messages everyday. In order to not get "overwhelmed", we filter messages and choose the mediums by which we receive information. That said, the benefits of podcasting included the ability to easily download the podcast, listen while you work/drive/etc., start and stop at your convenience. Digesting your information in this flexible way works for many.

Easy to Produce. For a sample podcast visit Marketing Expert Podcasts. I recorded a podcast over the weekend using a free audio recording tool called Audacity. It wasn't the easiest tool to use only because I'm not all that familiar with how to use these audio recorders, but it was free and got the job done. I imagine that with a little bit of instruction, developing your own podcasts become relatively easy- giving you a reason to provide this information to those who wish to receive it in this format.

Here to Stay? I believe that podcasting is important, but is it here to stay? Well, people still listen to the radio so I guess it will take a long time to die out. However, with the advent of online multimedia (video), I think podcasting is quickly becoming outdated.

What do you think?

Can Blogging Grow Your Business? Only if You Share!

I've been blogging now for a little over the year and have to say that blogging is one of the simplest, yet most rewarding experiences a marketer can have. As a marketer, having access to like minded individuals is invaluable (that's all of you!). Your comments, suggestions, and commentary around topics of the day are what allow us to learn and improve our marketing practices.

Is there enough for all of us? One question I commonly get is, "If we all start blogging, won't the communities we create be too small to generate any value?" Believe it or not, I have found the opposite to be true. The more that marketers blog, the more awareness we are creating with regard to our craft. Each day the Internet continues to grow and the sheer volume of 'would be marketers' continues to increase. Our websites, blogs, and marketing pieces bring more and more individuals into the fold.

How big is the pie? I don't know how big the actual professional marketing pie is, but do know that the American Marketing Association says that there are a little over 750,000 marketers in the U.S. and Canada. That said, I feel like marketing affects 10 or 20Xs that. Name one person in the free world who isn't affected by this thing we call "marketing"!

Communicate, Share, Grow. As a marketer, share you ideas, your thoughts, and your approach. By doing so you not only strengthen your execution of marketing practices, but you also enhance the consumer experience. I'm always reminded of the need to do this when I receive a letter from the school I graduated from. After receiving the last one I wrote a letter to the head of Alumni marketing that went something like this, "Dear XXX, thanks for your recent note. However, as a fellow marketer I have to say that I am extremely disappointed in your approach. The letter, who's only purpose is to ask for a donation touts the benefits of the school, not the WIIFM - focus more on the value you bring to me, the alum, not what you want me to do for you!..."

The point here is that we must be open and honest communicators with one another. I hope the result of my letter (excerpt above) gets this marketing manager thinking about the value he can deliver for others and maybe even walk a mile in his shoes. Basic marketing principle, see things from the customers point of view, but an incredibly powerful one!

Why Most Marketing Fails!

Have you been spending money on a variety of marketing initiatives but have yet to see a return. There are probably a number of reasons, but a great place to start is with evaluating the basics. Are you segmenting? Do you understand the needs of your customers? Are you leveraging all of the necessary touch points?

There are many reasons that marketing campaigns fail. They range from poor strategy to poor execution. From a strategic standpoint, if you run East looking for a sunset you won't succeed. On the tactical side, if you have the best strategy but can't execute, success can never happen.

So, what should you look for when trying to evaluate your marketing effectiveness? Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Clear objectives: What are you trying to accomplish? Are your goals specific and measurable? Keep in mind that its difficult to achieve success if your not clear on the outcome you wish to achieve. Have your goal in mind and clearly understood by all of your team members.

2. Develop a Concept Based on Customer Knowledge: Are you meeting a need? What problem are you solving. To succeed, your product, service, and marketing message must be centered around a particular consumer/business problem or need. How does your product solve this need? What differentiates your solution from someone else?

3. Multiple Touches, One Message: Is your marketing well organized, disciplined and thorough? Creating a single ad and publishing it in the October edition of a magazine does not constitute a marketing campaign. Your marketing consist of multiple touches around the same theme.

4. Testing Your Offer, List, Creative: Do you know why your marketing campaign has failed? Most marketers don't. Before you market, determine what tracking you will use and how you will test. Develop a control and test for different elements with each execution. Split tests are best as well as dividing a list and creating multiple offers.

5. Continue Marketing: Quantify results and try again. Make sure that each time you market you are learning something. Data isn't information unless you utilize it in the form of knowledge. Learn from your mistakes and successes. Continually refine and improve your marketing tactics!

Before you throw in the towel, give some thought to your approach. Evaluate each step and determine where you went wrong.. was it your list, your timing, or some other factor. Did you have a clear objective? Did you have the proper tracking in place. Each of these elements can have a positive or negative impact on your marketing results.

Building an Effective "Jump" Page

Your jump page, also referred to as a "landing page" or "squeeze page" is an essential tool for generating revenue for your online business.

If you practice Internet marketing, you know the importance of a high converting “Landing Page”. Also called a promotional page, jump page, or squeeze page, effective development of these pages are essential for online marketing success.

After a web browser clicks on a search engine generated link (organic or paid), they are directed to a website or jump page. Depending on your promotional tactics, you may be using pay-per-click marketing to generate sign-ups, inquiries, or sales. Regardless of the specific purpose of your page, one fact remains the same – you want a browser to take some type of action.

In the steps that follow, I will share some landing page best practices that have been provide to increase conversion rates and have those browsers taking the action you’re hoping for. Keep the following concepts in mind when designing your jump-page:

Big, Bold, Relevant Headline. If you don’t catch the attention of the browser with a big, bold, headline that is relevant, than nothing else matters. This is why expert marketers test multiple jump-pages at once – to see which page proves most relevant to browsers. For example, if a user is searching for tinker toys, the headline should be targeted as such - versus saying, “Hey check out these toys you can build with”. Doing so is not particularly relevant and as a result individuals will never get past the first few sentences of your jump page.

Use Visuals. If people have to read beyond your headline and sub-headline before understanding what you’re selling (or offering), you’ll have a difficult time getting them to read any further. This is where visuals come in. Pictures are worth a thousand words and can convey your message quickly and with less effort. Make sure your jump page goes beyond plain text and integrates visuals in the form of a different colored font, pictures, and/or video.

Testimonials Sell. Would you buy a product you never heard of? What if your best friend told you all about it? People like to buy based on recommendations. This is particularly true of online purchases. Having proof points validated through like-minded individuals removes fear and breaks down skepticism. There are a variety of ways to share a testimonial and they all work (photo and quote, audio recording, video).

Provide Something for Free. Encourage action by offering something free in exchange for name and email address. If you’re actually selling a product from your page, consider giving added bonuses for making a purchase. The more you offer at the price point you’ve identified, the more value you create for your potential customer.

Limited Offers. Create a sense of urgency with an offer that is only valid for a short time. You may also make your offer available to a limited number of new registrants. Either method works for creating urgency and encouraging a purchase. You will need to test your time-bound offers to identify the time frame that works best for your potential customer base. The same is true for limited-time offers.

Your jump page can be your livelihood. Don't leave jump page development to chance. Use the tips noted here and be sure to think through your jump page strategy. Lastly, make sure to test multiple jump pages at the same time to determine which is most effective.