6 Tips to Better Banner Advertisements

Let us face the fact that banner advertisements are everywhere. There are plenty of online marketers who utilize the power of banner advertisements. Plenty of online marketers have recognized the potential of using banner advertisements to promote their business.

However, there is always a difference between banner advertisements, some are affective some are not. Better return on investment and website traffic are the things that you get if you have an effective banner advertisement. That is the reason why it is important that your banner advertisement stand-out amongst the sea of banner advertisements.

But the question is, “How can I make my banner advertisement stand-out?” As an online marketer of course we would like our banner advertisement to stand-out,; we want our banner advertisement to generate a high click-through rate and we also want our banner advertisement to create an impact on our prospects. But how can we do all these things if we do not know “how-to”.

To avoid making a mistake in banner advertising and loosing advertising money in the process let us go over some basic things. To make an effective banner advertisement we should know the basics and the important points that make it effective.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #1: Remember the K.I.S.S (keep it short and simple) rule

The first thing that you need to know when it comes to banner advertising is that you need to keep it very simple and short. Why? You only have a few seconds of your prospect’s attention so you should get your message across using a few words as possible. Keep in mind that not everyone reads super fast, so if your banner advertisement’s message is long then chances are it will not be read in its entirety.

A banner advertisement can be said as successful if the viewers remember it and if it makes an impression on the viewer.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #2: Present something that your prospects find interesting

As always people cannot overlook something that is interesting. That is the main reason why we need to present something that is highly interesting to people otherwise they will not read the banner advertisements that you produce.

So, it is not true that people do not read advertisements; the thing is that they only read advertisements that that they find interesting. I mean personally, would you really take the time to read something that you do not find interesting? Answer: Of course you won’t.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #3: Why should people click? Give them a reason to

The third tip to an effective banner advertisement is give people a reason to click. People will only take action if they are convinced enough or if they are moved enough with your banner advertisement.

Attract people by producing convincing banner advertisement that will compel them to take the action you want. People react favorably to banner advertisements that will give them something in return, like some special discount, free gift, etc. Keep in mind that banner advertisements that give something for free get a very high click-through rate which is the goal of banner advertisements in the first place.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #4: Make sure that you follow-through

Guiding people straight to your website is a good way of branding which can be achieved through banner advertisement. However, if you presented some sort of promotion for people who clicked your banner advertisement then be sure that you have a follow-through system in place.

Allot a webpage that will explain in detail how the promotion works and what should be the next step. It would be advisable that for each banner advertisement (if the promotion is different) you need to produce one webpage for each.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #5: Be sure that your banner advertisements are targeted

The success of your banner advertising campaign is not just measured by the CTR or click-through rate we also have to take into consideration amount of qualified prospects that the banner advertisement solicited.

A banner advertisement that is targeted on a specific audience yields better results than banner advertisement that caters to everyone on the internet. One of the best ways to make an effective banner advertisement is to select your target audience.

Effective Banner Advertisement Tip #6: Test your banner advertisement before launching it in full

The last tip to make an effective banner advertisement is to test it before launching it to its 100%. As an internet marketer you should know by the now the importance of testing the waters before investing heavily.

Same thing goes with banner advertisement; you need to experiment with various banner designs, layouts, etc. to estimate the appeal of your promotional offers and the type of message that brings a high-interest customer. Most of the advertising networks that you will see allow marketers to conduct series of test runs.

I sure hope that these tips that I have cited today will help you to create a more effective banner advertisement. If you have any other tips that I was not able to post here, feel free to share it with everyone. You can write your comment/s below and share your knowledge with everyone.

Building a Website

As an online entrepreneur we all dream of building a website. Building a website will do wonders for our online business but of course you need to apply the right strategy when building a website.

Building a website is an investment because you have to use some of your capital. So it would be advisable that before you go ahead and start building a website that you know the right things. Building a website that is efficient means you make sure that your website is flexible which will assist you in growing your business in the long run.

So here are some tips to help you out in your goal of building a website that is effective.

Building a Website Tip#1: Reconstructing your website

A website as we all know is one of the best methods to expand online presence. We must understand that before we go about building a website keep in mind that your website is a marketing tool and just like any other marketing tools that we use it is constantly changing.

Building a website is not the same as publishing a book wherein the contents are as is. This is the reason why experts advise online entrepreneurs who want to start building a website to avoid set website packages this is just their (web developer) way of making sure you become dependent / rely on their services constantly.

Building a Website Tip#2: Websites are forever changing

As what I have said earlier when building a website you need to keep in mind that it is always changing. As of the moment you might have a working website that contains 5 pages however in time you need to make certain changes to the website, product, promotions and so on.

As of the moment you are paying to build the basics of your website. But in time you need to keep in mind that you are going to spend some money to reconstruct your website so be ready to shell-out more money when it comes to building a website that is effective and a website that will help you grow your business.

Building a Website Tip#3: Make sure that you are building a website that is SEO ready

Search engine optimization is one important thing that you need to look into when you are building a website. So make sure that you are building a website that is SEO ready. The mistake of many entrepreneurs is that they did not equip their website with SEO capability as a result they spend more money rectifying the mistake.

Keep in mind that your website plays an important role in business success. So you need to be able to build a website that can be changed, a website that lets you add pages, edit the contents and upload files. And because you have these needs, the best solution is using some type of content management system.

Building a Website Tip#4: Keep in mind that you need something that functions

As what people say “content is king,” rings true for our third tip. Online businesses should be able to control the content of their website. When building a website you do not need to use all the latest technology what you need is a website that functions accordingly.

In short I am talking about a website that lets you change the text on all the pages, lets you add photographs to your web pages and a website that lets you embed codes from other sources.

Keep in mind that building website is not synonymous to buying a box with 4 corners. A box is somewhat limited while a website is not. You are using your hard earned money on something that is flexible and something that is subject to change.

Building a Website Tip#5: Know the basics of how-to add images

With the technology we have today one does not have to be an expert or a guru in HTML or even however if you have plan on adding images to your website that you need to know the basics on how things work.

Building a website requires work of course and it would be to your best advantage if you know something about how to add images, resizing, cropping, etc. Using an image program to resize or crop images before uploading it will help you understand how size and image are related to each other.

So one tip that you can use is learn the basics of images (resizing, cropping, etc.) before you start building a website. Knowing and understanding the basics will give you better chances of being successful when it comes to managing the visual facets of your website.

To end this post I just want to leave you with a reminder when it comes to building a website, keep in mind that websites are forever changing, it goes with the flow of time and the needs and wants of the customers. So do not be boxed in to what is being used today, be open-minded and explore the various facets of your website and make it better.

Affiliate Merchants - 5 Advantages of Being an Affiliate Merchant

Affiliate programs come in various shapes and sizes. There are plenty of affiliate program scattered in the internet. There are two people who work in an affiliate program the affiliate merchant and the affiliate representative. Both affiliate merchant and affiliate representative have one goal and that is to earn money.

Affiliate merchants may be investors, product creators or service providers. Having the capability to market your product / service to a large number of people is a dream come true for any entrepreneur. However, if you are a new merchant affiliate then it can get a bit overwhelming and at the same time exciting.

In order to start-up as a merchant affiliate you may want to join an affiliate program but you also have the option to start your own affiliate program. Starting your own affiliate program or joining existing affiliate programs as an affiliate merchant has advantages.

Joining an affiliate program as an affiliate merchant will allow you to focus more on producing more quality products, it will also allow affiliate merchants to keep current products of the highest qualities, and generally focus on running your online business.

In our article today we are going to discuss the advantages of being an affiliate merchant.

Affiliate Merchant Advantages #1: Systems are more secured

Nowadays when everything is advanced and sophisticated affiliate merchants can now feel safe from fraudulent affiliates. In the past affiliate merchants are always worried about wasting their money on senseless advertisements that will not yield the results that they want. Back then affiliate marketing was based on cost-per-click or systems in which websites were paid out based on the number of visitors but of course some people found a way to manipulate that.

Nowadays as an affiliate merchant you are now secured. You need not pay anyone anything unless of course they were able to make a sale of your product or service. As an affiliate merchant you do not have to worry about wasting your precious money on people who does not deserved to be paid.

Affiliate Merchant Advantages #2: Presentation will be professional

Affiliate programs exist for the mere fact that it aims to market, promote, network, etc. By doing business with a reputable affiliate program you can count on your product or service to be promoted or represented in a professional manner. Using reputable affiliate programs will increase the popularity of both the affiliate merchant and the product and services that are offered.

Make sure that you choose an affiliate program that markets the same line of product as yours but of course these products should not be in a direct competition with your products/ services.

Affiliate Merchant Advantages #3: You get a chance to have a lot of marketers

If you plan on being an affiliate merchant then you should also know that you can now have affiliates who will market your product for you round the clock. To better promote your products / services be sure that you provide affiliates with the necessary tools and kits to help them sell better. Of course if your affiliates sell then that means success for you as an affiliate merchant, right?

People who want to be affiliates of the affiliate merchant need only to sign-up with websites like Click or Shareasale, PayDotCom after which they can start selling whatever product or service they have chosen. Now to ensure that affiliates do the right thing affiliate merchants can provide them with the best tools to work with, which includes graphics, pre-made ads and product overview such as articles and a series of email auto-responder messages that the affiliates can use.

Affiliate Merchant Advantages #4: Less hassle

With the technology that we have now affiliate merchants do not have to be overly involved in marketing their product or services. Tools are now available at the disposal of affiliate merchants which makes life easier for them.

There are people who we call affiliate managers who can also aid the affiliate merchant in managing the program. These people are professionals trained to handle internet marketing. Again, affiliate managers will make everything easier for the affiliate merchant because he will handle everything that is associated with the program. Top of the line programs and knowledgeable affiliate managers make an affiliate merchants life so easy it is a dream come true.

Affiliate Merchant Advantages # 5: Not as tiring as other marketing strategies

Admittedly at first affiliate marketing can be a bit overwhelming for both affiliate and merchant. But once you get the hang of it will be a breeze or as they say “a walk in the park.” Why? With affiliate marketing once you get the hang of it there is very little work involved especially for the affiliate merchant.

While your affiliates set-up everything you as the affiliate merchant only has to concern yourself with paying money when your affiliates make a sale on your behalf. This type of benefit cannot be found elsewhere which makes affiliate marketing very unique.

Blogging Benefits - 6 Benefits of Blogging

Blogging is just another inexpensive way wherein an entrepreneur can market his business. For people who are new to this a blog also known as web log is a collection of articles, videos, and graphics that is maintained by an individual or a group.

Currently there are around 14 million blogs and it is said that everyday 80,000 more are added to that figure. To make the long story short blogging has become so popular over the years and because of that plenty of people are now writing/composing their own blogs.

Blogging is not just for personal use (like you want to write everything that is happening to you) but it is also used for online marketing. Blogging has certain benefits that entrepreneurs should take advantage of.

One of the advantages of blogging is that it allows you to communicate with quite a number of customers and reach most of your business objectives. Blogging can also deliver results in a very cost-effective manner because it is indeed inexpensive.

Blogging is just one online marketing tool that entrepreneurs can use to market their business. So in today’s article we will discuss the various advantages of blogging.

Once you as the entrepreneur realize the advantages of blogging then you would be able to maximize the opportunities it represents. Blogging can be one of the best marketing tools you can use to promote your business. Here are some of the advantages of blogging:

Blogging Benefits #1: It has the ability to drive traffic to your website

The first advantage of blogging is that it is capable of driving traffic into your website. If you are an entrepreneur who is concerned by the lack of traffic that you are getting then one way wherein you can generate traffic is by writing a blog.

People are always on the look out for good information on the internet, and if you are able to provide them with what they are looking for (through blogging) then for sure people will flock to your website.

Blogging Benefits #2: It builds credibility

The second benefit of blogging is that it builds your credibility and it helps build that image of being an “expert.” By posting regularly on your blog about highly relevant topics then people will see you as someone who knows what is going on.

So how can this help your business? Well, once people perceive you as being an expert in your area then they will feel confident buying from you because you know what you are talking about.

Blogging Benefits #3: Boosts online visibility

In an online business, high visibility is important and by blogging you would be able to boost visibility. Boosting your online visibility is the third benefit one can get from blogging.

Through blogging you gain better placement on search engines which in turn will boost your visibility. More often than not blogs are linked in a way such that popular ideas and products can go viral without much effort coming from you.

Blogging Benefits #4: It gives your business a life

Blogging lets you connect with your customers as well as your prospects. This is a place where you can interact with them and in doing so you will be able to develop a relationship with your readers. Basically when you interact with your readers it is like you are giving voice or life to your website.

Being able to build a healthy relationship with your readers is just another benefit of blogging. You have no idea how many people out there crave for some sort of connection with the owner of the business. And blogging is one of the best ways to get in touch with your customers or prospects.

Blogging Benefits #5: Develop better customer service

The fifth blogging benefit that we are going to talk about today is its association with customer service. As what I have said earlier blogging lets you connect with people, your blog can also act as some sort of interactive FAQ, allowing your customers to put forward any questions that they might have; of course as the business owner it is your responsibility to answer these questions.

In your blogs you can also mention any updates that your products might have new promotions, how-to articles, and other information that is relevant and important to your customers. Whoever will come across your blog will be impressed for sure by your dedication to good customer service.

Blogging Benefits #6: You get instant feedback from people

The sixth blogging benefit is the feedback you get and how quick you get those. Blogging allows you to receive instant feedback and reviews on your products or your business in general. This speedy not to mention instantaneous reply will help you tweak and take action better to the market you are trying to target.

These six benefits that I have pointed out today are not the only benefits that you get from blogging. I am pretty sure there are more benefits out there. So, if you have other benefits in mind feel free to share it here.

Good Sales Copy - 7 Important Elements of a Good Sales Copy

Being able to write a winning sales copy is crucial to the success of your online business. Sales copy should be given a lot of thought and should be written with care. Up to this day there are still many questions surrounding what makes a good sales copy? I am pretty sure that there are still a lot of people out there wondering how to come up with a good sales copy.

If your website gets constant flow of traffic however you are not making sales at all, then the first thing that you need to look at and review would be your sales copy. Most probably the sales copy you have put up is not convincing enough or it is just not a good sales copy all together.

The goal of all internet marketers is to make money, and the main tool used in this industry is the sales copy however if that sales copy is not performing that well then we might be forced to close shop soon.

If you want to come up with a good sales copy then you should know that there are important elements that you have to include in your sales copy. If any of those are missing then you might have an incomplete sales page which will lead to low or no sales at all.

So, here are the important elements that should be included if you want to come up with a good sales copy.

Good Sales Copy Element #1: The headline

The headline can be considered as the most important part of your sales copy since that is what captures your visitors’ attention. Once you have captured their attention with your sales copy headline then you should be able to encourage them to read on the body of the sales copy.

You have approximately a couple of seconds to capture the attention of your prospects before they leave your page never to return. Now with a good sales copy headline which should include the greatest benefit of your product or service, capturing your prospect’s attention will be easy.

In short the headline should be benefit driven, attention grabbing and made to persuade the reader of your sales copy to keep reading.

Good Sales Copy Element #2: Present a solid guarantee

Trust is important in every aspect of life more so if you are doing business. Trust is significant in the buying process and customers are getting more cautious of the advertising that they see with how tight the money is these day this is not surprising anymore. And if you are able to offer a 100%, no questions asked, money back guarantee then you would be able to increase their buying confidence at the same time give them assurance that you are legitimate and might encourage them to make a purchase.

Good Sales Copy Element #3: Provide bonuses for added value

Even though your product may already well go over the selling price that you are asking, providing an additional package that will enhance your customer’s previous purchases will add more value to the product hence it will your sales quite a bit. Just keep in mind that it should be highly relevant to the original item.

Good Sales Copy Element #4: Create a sense of urgency

Say for example your prospect has gone through your sales page and all that and they are now pretty much interested in what you are offering you will now have to give them good reason to buy. You can achieve this by limiting the quantity of the products or services you are offering for example, "This product is only available for the first 100 customers. In creating a sense of urgency you should be able to increase your conversion.

Good Sales Copy Element #5: Be sure that you place a strong call to action

If you are new in the marketing business you might feel a bit shy about asking your customers for their orders. You might feel like you are pressuring them into buying. However, have you ever thought that your customers might not buy unless you ask for it?

It would be to your advantage to provide multiple opportunities in your sales copy for them to buy with statements like, "Click Here Now to Take Advantage of This Limited Time Offer!" This technique has been proven effective to increase online sales. It is imperative that you have a very strong call to action all throughout your sales copy.

Good Sales Copy Element #6: Include your contact information

Leaving your contact information is something that you need to do; you need to show this on your main page. It would be helpful if you provide your name, email address and phone number so that if they need to get in touch with you they can. This might seem like somewhat unimportant to some people however you would be surprised to see how many people overlook this step and end up paying for it dearly.

Good Sales Copy Element #7: Mention the benefits opposed features

On your sales copy, make sure to mention the benefits of using your product as opposed to the features of your product. For example, the phrase “comfy mattress” describes a feature but “Wake up relaxed and rested” goes further to show the benefits of the stated feature.

Audio Products -- 3 Tips To Produce Good Audio Products

What kind of things do your customers find interesting? This is one question that you should know if you are making information products. One of the easiest information products to make is audio products.

To be able to come up with an audio product that will sell you need to know what your prospects are looking for. Knowing the subject that your prospects find interesting will help you come up with audio products that will really sell.

If your prospects see that you offer the information or content that they seek, you greatly improve the odds of sales being made. You can do keyword research before you go and create your audio products. It is important that you know exactly the subjects of interest to your prospective readers.

Here are some things that you should know to make saleable audio products.

1. Invest time. Take time to create your audio products. In making your audio products you need to get your thoughts together and organized into a cohesive master plan for your audios. Be sure that you cover all the major topics you plan to discuss along with the subtopics that support them.

2. Quality. Like with any other products being sold out there quality is of great importance and something that should not be overlooked. For information products it is no different, value and quality are always important.

It is important that extensive research is done to come up with good quality audio products. Research should be done in various ways you can do an online search on the topic you wish to discuss, form a partnership for this project with other experts, or by reading books and papers.

Keep in mind that you have to use resources that are valid and those that can be trusted to be precise.

3. Marketing. Once you have finished producing your quality audio products, then it is time to start marketing it. Increase sales of your audio products by using some tried and tested online advertising programs.

Try using pay-per-click which is a well known strategy used in marketing, you can also try banner advertising, search engine marketing, article marketing, paid listing, search engine optimization and link building campaigns to mention a few. The methods I have mentioned will cost a little money, but the impact that a well run advertising campaign can have on final sales makes it well worth considering.

Landing Page Advantage - 7 Advantages of a Good Landing Page

If you are thinking of starting your own online business then you must have heard the term “landing pages” being used a lot. So, you might be asking what exactly are landing pages. The simplest definition I can think for landing pages is that it is a page where visitors land up after clicking on online ads or links present in emails and search engine result pages.

After we cleared out the definition of landing pages, let us now move on to its importance. Why exactly should online entrepreneurs pay attention to their landing pages? For one, landing pages play a very important role in SEO campaigns because it is the one that directs traffic towards your website.

Whenever people want to know something they go to their computer and then they input the keyword into search engines and expect to be directed towards its landing page. SEO campaigns leave a trail of landing pages which in turn provide an advantage to websites because prospects get to visit these pages directly without the interference of a third party. These pages take users straight to the page which has details about the keywords prospects typed in.

Conversion rates go up when the visitor clicking on the link makes a purchase. The visitor needs to be further convinced to inform allies and acquaintances and tell them about these services.

The more planned and well develop your landing pages are the better. Good landing pages means higher chances of success. Landing pages have the power to make or break your business. If by any chance the conversion rate remains lower than what you were expecting it only goes to show that the landing pages have failed miserably.

Here are the other advantages of a well planned landing page:

Landing Page Advantage #1: Boost online business conversion

Based on a research done by Omniture (largest technology company focused on CMOs and Online Marketers) did a study about landing pages. According to the study they made the usage of landing pages to target your campaign traffic resulted to an average increase of 25 per cent in terms of conversion rate.

With that fact to go with you should be thinking of using landing pages to direct your traffic too, I mean it is practical after all. If you look at many paid search campaigns send visitors to either the homepage or a registration form, which more often than not confuses visitors. A focused and targeted message will automatically yield better results.

Landing Page Advantage #2: It is more focused

When it comes to landing pages you only have to think about a single message that you want customers to know, hence the focus is stronger.

Before we go on any further, I want you to take a look at your homepage. Your homepage contains multiple messages as well as product pictures right? If you are a prospect there are times you would feel confused and disoriented with all of those things you see. However, with a landing page, there is only one headline, one unique selling proposition, one call to action and a single product photo. A landing page can remove a lot of the user confusion that produces poor conversion.

Landing Page Advantage #3: Uses simple measurement

As I have mentioned above a landing page contains only one call to action statement which in turn makes analytics easier. It is either, your customer takes the action you want or they do not, and it is as easy as that. If they do not, you can massage the page until they do.

A homepage contains over a dozen of links so whenever someone clicks on a link you lose the ability to measure the reasons for conversion success. You also run the risk of having your conversions affected by changes you might not be aware of.

Landing Page Advantage #4: Affiliate opportunities

Message match and trust can be improved for affiliate traffic by using co-branding. Co-branding is when marketers use logos from both parties on a destination page. Co-branding makes your customers feel secure that the offer given to them will be recognized and honored on the target website.

If you are going to depend on your page alone, this would be pretty difficult to come by. This specific step requires you to incorporate a code to differentiate the source, and modify the design so that it will show the logo of your affiliate.

Landing Page Advantage #5: No more design restrictions

Promoting a stand-alone landing page gives you a higher degree of freedom. With a landing page there is no need for you to obey the rules as imposed by your website design. Also, with a landing page there is more visual freedom to experiment.

Landing Page Advantage #6: Test and edit with hassle

Most websites have multiple owners and before a tiny detail is changed on that website permission from all the owners is required. So, by operating a stand-alone landing page you are basically separating yourself from the rest of the website and hence your landing page enjoys more freedom. If ever you need to test something then edit it after-wards, it should not be an issue or a hassle for you.

As soon as you have established your landing page’s base conversion rate, you can go ahead and proceed with testing. Subjecting your landing page through a series of tests will help you learn what your customers respond to.

Landing Page Advantage #7: Campaign liability

Assigning responsibilities is much easier if you separate different campaigns from the main website. If you have different people working to send traffic to your homepage you will never be able to accommodate the needs of each individual when it comes to changes for testing. However, with a stand-alone landing page, you can set up a culture of liability where individuals can be in possession of a campaign.