Article marketing is pretty popular these days. The concept of article marketing been around for a couple of years but is finally main stream. This is because it happens to be one of the best methods for developing in bound links to your website and improving search engine rankings.

Even if you are late to the game, article marketing can work for you. For those who haven’t started, I suggest you jump in. Article marketing is still one of the best ways to promote your website. No one needs to be concerned that many are using article marketing as a way to promote their website or blog. In fact, article marketing works regardless of who uses it or how many people author new content.

The reason why article marketing is so effective is because you are doing two things that create value for your site and search engines. The first is that you are producing keyword focused content that can drive interest to your website, products, and services. Additionally, you include links back to your website. These in bound links are powerful tools for search engine dominance.

When you distribute your article to article sites, blogs, or partner websites, your content gets additional exposure. As your content ages, and links are included back to your website, you benefit from the Google page rank associated with that page and your in bound link.

A common mistake that is made all too often is when individuals forget to include a link back to their website or worse yet place their link in the wrong way. The best way to develop in bound links is by using keyword rich links. This means your, usually within the about the author section, is displayed with your keyword not the usual world wide web designation.

If you are unaware of how to produce such a link, do a Google search on create html links. You will find dozens of websites that give you the html code you need to create links in the proper way. If you do not embed your keyword in your link text, you are wasting your precious time and effort in article marketing.

Once you have written your article and included keyword rich links, the next step is to distribute them. Find article directories that have a high Google PR. The value you receive is not just the promise of potential distribution, but the Google PR the website can transfer to your own site.

A lot of article websites do not distribute content to any great extent. The number of webmasters who copy content and paste it into their website or blog in the right way is limited. You can improve your article marketing success by focusing on top article directories.

Develop articles in your area of specialty and include links to your website. These links can be placed in the author box or included in the article. Your keywords must be placed in the text of the link. Test your links to make sure they work properly. After you have validated that links are working properly, distribute your articles at will.

Each year, thousands of companies consistently raise prices to increase margins and offset growth in various costs. For anyone working in corporate America, you are quite familiar with this tactic. For marketers, rising costs are always a challenge.

As marketers, when we have to market and sell the same items at a new, higher price, we may find that the tradition campaigns become less effective. This is especially true when we hear objections from our customers. If there have been little or no changes to a given product, then it is next to impossible to overcome objections related to price.

A key concern among marketing professionals is that customers will quickly move to a competitors product as soon as they hear the words price increase. This is especially true in markets where your competitor has a similarly priced product. There is always someone else that your customer can buy from. The good news however is that few customers migrate because of price increases.

There are a number of factors that explain why this is the case. Also, one must consider the cost to the customer to start from scratch. This has both and emotional as well as financial component.

Customers have been conditioned to find the sale or ask for a discount. When introducing a price increase, customers do not want to incur the full impact. This is why they will continue to ask for discounts even after a price increase has been stated. As noted above however, even with a price increase, customers are not necessarily going to leave you.

Below I list just a few things to consider before communicating a price increase to customers. Do what you can to lighten the load or simply divert attention to something of greater value.

Add value that is greater than or equal to your price increase. Customers do not want to pay more for the same old thing. When they do, their perception of value diminishes. Provide additional services, support, or terms to deliver additional value that is substantiated by price.

Focus on switching costs. If a customer has to leave you, there are direct and indirect costs associated with doing so. Make a list for yourself. By moving to a new vendor, does you customer have to pay a new fee of some sort? Will they lose money by canceling with you or your services? How much time and effort do they need to put into finding a new vendor?

Segment your price increase. Not all customer are equal so treat them differently to make the transition smooth and get the biggest bang for your buck.The truth of the matter is that your customers are different. Some have been doing business with you for a long time. Others are working with you for the first time. Your price increase should be reflective of the individuality of your customers.

In closing, one thing to keep in mind is that you should really understand who your customers may consider purchasing from if you weren’t providing them products or services. Then, be sure to understand what their pricing structures look like.

If you have a stronger package at a better price than you competitors, switching is not an issue. If your offering is less valuable and more expensive, then perhaps you need to reevaluate your pricing. As a marketer, your job is to create a perception of value or remedy for a given need. Identify that need and focus your messaging on meeting that need. When you do, price is rarely an issue.

When you think about website content, most people think of text on a page. But what if you considered content all of the page elements that tell a story? This includes more than simply words on a web page. Quality content includes words on a page as well as pictures, images, and video. It may also include dynamic content in the form of RSS feeds, tag clouds and other elements.

By developing content that is well designed and thought through, you can create compelling content that your users value. Whether your content is developed by you or professionally written and designed, when done correctly it can pay huge dividends.

When websites contain powerful content, they experience a significant number of benefits both short and long term. Quality content not only engages browsers but provides search engine optimization that results in higher rankings and organic traffic. If you want a steady flow of traffic to your website, focus on quality content.

Producing quality content that is easily seen by search engine spiders can result in much higher search engine rankings. Be sure that your web content involves your audience and creates a dialog with them. The bottom line is that you may have the best optimized content in the world, but if it’s hard to follow you can loose your audience in a heartbeat. Think about where you want your visitors to travel on your site. Your content should draw them to where you want them to go.

As you build relationships through quality content, the likelihood of website visitors becoming customers increases significantly. In addition, these customers will be interested in referring others to your site to share something they value. These referrals are essential for building website traffic and growing your customer base. Think about your website as a viral marketing tool that can make or break your business.

When you have quality content, you are building links to your website naturally. As others find valuable information, they will link to your content and make references to share their findings with others. This inbound linking is incredibly valuable when it comes to search engine rankings. The more links to your site, the higher your search results placement will be. Keep delivering quality content and watch your rankings improve.

When websites continue to focus on engaging content, they will find that they receive more links from third party websites and higher search engine rankings. This produces a significant increase in website traffic over a sustained period of time. Once you have the right amount of traffic, your opportunity for increased sales can grow significantly. Make the investment in quality content and reap the rewards.

The bottom line is that a website without quality content wont survive given today’s competitive market place. consumer have too many choices and aren’t going to waste their time on website that provide no value. Not only does quality content build a loyal following, but it also provides a viral marketing component that sustains your business.

Before you start authoring new content for your website consider the value of what you are going to produce. Take a few extra moments to deliver something of quality and appreciate the rewards. It takes very little to create engaging content and it is essential for online success.

With marketing budgets facing significant reductions across the board, each dollar spent needs to do more. This is only possible when you think about your most effective marketing campaigns and scaling those activities to achieve true success. When times are difficult for marketing budgets, improving performance is a must.

What can you do with a reduced budget? There are quite a few techniques you can apply that are easy to implement and cost little or nothing. The key is to get viral. Have others do the selling for you. Here are a few suggestions for getting started.

Leverage all you do. Whenever you make a contact with browsers, prospects, customers, or friends, consider how you can communicate information about your products and services. Is there a way to use each interaction as a stepping stone to assess needs, offer solutions, and move individuals through the purchase decision process?

Ask for referrals. You would be surprised by the low percentage of businesses who ask for referrals. To jump start any referral campaign, offer a small benefit to those who refer a customers. At the very least, get your referral program up and running and be sure to send a thank you note for making the connection.

Focus on creating a dialogue. If you are interacting via multiple media such as fliers, letters, emails, etc, make sure that you include valuable information and promotional offers. This can keep your business moving forward and is easy to implement. Think about adding a promotional postcard to your next package with an offer your customers can’t refuse.

Test. Test. Test. When marketing budgets go south, many businesses stop experimenting and trying new campaigns. Although you wont have the money to try anything, you may simply try new „value adds“ or other things that can improve your conversion rates at the retail level or online. Consider adding a frequent shopper club.

Improving ROI doesn’t have to be difficult. When considering where your successes were in the past, you can probably recall some simple campaigns that produced the greatest return and cost next to nothing. Consider all the different ways that you can recruit others to help you sell. How can you leverage your existing campaigns to bring in more money with less? The key is to focus on the tried and true, make some minor tweaks, and measure the results. Rinse and repeat.

Consider a free giveaway. A great place to leverage the power of free is with your website, store, or marketing communication. Ask yourself how you can attract more visitors or improve conversions. How can you acquire valuable information that will help you make a sale at that moment or at a later date. In today’s world, consumers understand that free doesn’t mean free. But consumers are often willing to provide a little information about themselves for something of value.

Did you know that you can improve your website’s ranking on major search engines using online press release services? If you are not familiar with press releases or the idea of online press release distribution, don’t despair. It is so simple to use and is guaranteed to improve the rankings of any website.

A press release is a written communication directed at members of the news to announce something of value. Today, most releases are distributed via the internet or emailed to reporters in a specific niche. Commercial press release services distribute thousands of news releases each and every day.

Press releases are sent by individuals, corporations, and government agencies. The purpose of which is to announce a new product, service, or event. The PR industry has used press releases as a way to filter the news and focus on what is most relevant. Not only has it served as an efficient way to distribute the news, but an effective way to receive it.

A press release is simple to create and follows a pretty standard format. Many releases include a date, headline, body, and company description. Online releases include the same information with an added feature, a link back to the company’s website. The challenge and opportunity with an online press release is to create a release that is newsworthy and finds itself being distributed across the web.

Today there are hundreds of online press release websites designed to guide reporters through a significant amount of clutter to find what is most relevant to their given audience. The benefit to those doing business online is that an additional outlet exists for publishing information about your website or product and building in-bound links to your website at the same time.

Press releases are a valuable tool for anyone trying to promote a new website or blog. Years ago, when I began in Internet marketing, my belief was the PR was all about writing a fantastic press. The truth is that press releases today are only partly about the news. For me, they are more about the back links that are created when your news travels across the internet and gets posted on thousands of websites.

There are a couple press release services out there, much like article directories, where you can submit your releases for free. Some also let you include a link back to your website – the most important aspect of your release. Unlike article directories many of these sites are not free but you can still find a few that are.

When I need to build a ton of back links to my website quickly, I always gravitate toward online press releases. You can implement this today. Do a Google search for free press releases and look at the top 10 results. You will find many that do not charge. Be mindful though that a lot of these sites do not let you include a link unless you are going to pay a fee.

I am okay as long as the fees are less than twenty dollars. With a small budget, you can have your release, and your links, distributed across the internet. Try using press releases to build back links to your website. You will be amazed by the results.

With more than twelve months of experience in marketing, Internet marketing, and working with small businesses, Ive seen my share of unsuccessful and successful marketing campaigns. Regardless of the marketing discipline, Internet advertising, direct mail, etc., basic marketing principle stand the test of time.

Even though Internet marketing has changed a great deal over the last decade, the basic principles remain largely the same. Despite the consistent application of basic marketing principles, many marketers, web site owners, and small businesses do not use the best techniques for generating profitable campaigns. This is largely due to a belief that newer is better. However, this simply is not true. In fact, a focus on what works is always the best. Here are some marketing tips that I’ve found to work again and again.

Understand your audience. By having a really deep understanding of your target audience and what’s important to them you can have a significant influence on their buying behavior. A complete understanding of who you’re selling to is of utmost importance if you want to deliver the right message at the right time. Don’t overlook the power of knowing your audience and what motivates them.

Focus on the offer. A marketing offer is the driving force of marketing promotions that drive results. In fact, testing has proven that the offer is the most significant criterion for conversion. Focus on your offer if you want to be successful.

Split testing. The concept of split testing is quite simple but surprisingly, few ever do it. When you split test a web page or direct marketing piece, you determine which version produces the better result. Each time you test a single element so that you continue to improve results over the long term. This is time and money well invested.

Build a marketing team. No matter how talented you are, building a marketing team is a great way to improve results. As you create new ideas, a marketing team can build on that idea, improve it, and consider multiple options. Your team should be made up of a diverse group of people who can add to each others ideas.

Stay away from discounting. Don’t get caught in the slippery slope of discounting. Once you do, it’s difficult to start charging list price for the same products or services that you offer. As a result, you should definitely consider emphasizing value over price. This allows you to sell for list price while making buyers comfortable with the price they pay for your products.

Have consistent messaging. One of the most effective strategies is communicating to your prospects in a way that is consistent. Whatever you are saying to your clients, be sure that it’s not contradictory. Early in the sales process, establish key message points and repeat them time and again. This improves buyer confidence and allows you to establish a long-term relationship with your buyer.

Create value after the sale. As marketers, its our job to understand our market segment and build long term relationships, not drop people off at the front door of our store and walk away. Focus as much of your energy on building relationships with customers as you do prospects.

Keep testing. Testing is essential for the success of any marketing campaign. If you’re not testing your marketing campaigns, then you’re leaving money on the table. You should test everything from headlines and offers to marketing copy and the timing of campaigns. This can only improve results and generate more sales.

Integrated marketing. Find multiple ways to generate business. To do so, test different forms of media such as radio, tv, or direct mail. There are endless sources of leads and customers and your job is to find as many as you can that can produce a positive return on investment. This reduces your risk and improve your options.

Nothing can replace experience. You can run out and hire all of the marketing experts in the world, but you still have to do the work. Nothing can replace actual experience. Having and using your own experience will make you a stronger marketer and more successful in the long term.

Consider these marketing tips before you start your next campaign. If you want to be truly successful keep things simple and apply what you already know works on a consistent basis. These techniques and tips are applied by successful marketers on a regular. The result is an ever growing success rate of effective marketing.

When thinking about search engine optimization and where to begin, think about on-page optimization. Although off-page optimization is essential for improving your Google rankings, on-page techniques can be used to build a strong SEO foundation and support good results on Yahoo!, MSN, and other major search portals.

Here are a number of on page optimization tips and strategies you can apply immediately to enhance your website and make is truly search engine friendly. As search engines crawl your website, they can apply the proper weight to different content.

Optimize Your Web Site URL. When planning to build a new website, be very careful about the domain name you choose. Select a name that will be memorable and is something you want to build your business around. You obviously do not want to limit your options significantly. Do so can limit the future development of your business. You should however, include your keyword or keyword phrase into your URL if possible.

Optimize Your Page Title. Develop a website title that is relevant to your site and is limited to only 60 characters in length. The reason you want to limit the size of your title is because larger titles cannot be fully displayed on search engine results. You do not want your titles to be cut off when browsers are searching.

The first title or headline that appears on your web page should include your keywords. It is best to have this title display with an H1 tag which signals each search engine as to the importance of the content being displayed. The sub text should be presented with an H2 or H3 tag. This shows the search engines how important your keywords are and helps them promote the key elements of your web page.

Optimize All Your Meta Tags. SEO experts continue to debate the value of meta tags. I can tell you that although meta tags including the title, description, and keywords is less important that it was many years ago, it still plays an important role in optimization.

Search engines use meta tags as a reference for search engine crawlers that view your website content. Your meta tags need to be correlated to your content and also include your keyword phrases. Doing so creates consistency, something that search engine spiders weigh heavily when determining website rankings. Make sure you fully develop your description and keywords.

Optimize your keyword density for Google. Creating a keyword rich content page is essential but do not get carried away. Your keyword density should be around 3 or 4 percent, no more. Some people believe that you could go as high as six percent for Yahoo! optimization but Google seems to like pages that have a smaller keyword density. From my perspective you are better off focusing on the placement of your keywords and the type of emphasis you provide. Remember to focus on H1 and H2 tags and place keywords at the beginning, middle, and end of your web page. In addition you should have an instance of each keyword phrase in bold, italics, and underlined. This variety again reinforces the value of your links.

Keyword Variation. The last piece to focus on is keyword variety. Instead of stuffing your page with the same keyword phrases again and again, use some variety. A great way to do this is to add a word or two before your keyword phrase and after it. Creating variety is important because it shows each search engine that your site has a focus but that you are not intentionally trying to improve your ranking.

The most important part of any search engine optimization campaign is to make your site appear natural, present valuable content, and follow on-page optimization best practices. If you use the above suggestions as a guide, you will be well on your way to a fully optimized website.

After writing a book about SEO and even publishing my own SEO products and services, I still seem to get the same question over and over again. That question is simply what the secret is to top search engine rankings. Other than applying SEO best practices, there are really only a couple of SEO techniques that stand above all else.

I consider some SEO techniques to be true secrets because they are not generally talked about or shared by others. You might wonder why this is. Simply put, there are a number of reasons why these secrets are not shared and it often has to do with the fear that as more use these secrets the less effective they will be.

Anyone constantly focused on SEO and you are anything like me, you probably want the fastest and quickest way to put your website on top of major search engine rankings. You know the value of having the number one position and want to get there.

For someone makes their income online, I can promise you that being ranked number one for a competitive keywords makes a huge difference in your online performance. The difference between a number one ranking and lower rankings comes down to making a living online or making nothing at all.

Okay, so what are some of these „secrets“? I would be happy to share one at no charge. Let me begin by saying that not every secret is complex or all that unique. Often times, secrets are simply techniques that applies in a unique way, create a significant difference. That is how I view these SEO secrets simply because they probably wont move mountains but can have a dramatic impact on your search engine rankings whether you have a website, blog, or squeeze page that you want to promote.

So here it is. If you want to achieve number 1 Google rankings for any keyword, simply follow the road map of the top ranked website for that keyword or keyword phrase. Does it sound too simple? Yes, it is simple but not easy. In order to duplicate the success of your number one competitor, you need to discover why he has a top ranking.

The best place to start is by analyzing the links into your competitor’s website. These are referred to back links and carry a lot of weight when thinking about SEO. These third party links often contain link text that includes the keywords you want to rank highly for. Contact these websites and attempt to have them link to your website in the same manner.

The obvious challenge here is not only finding who is linking to your competitor, but to actually build links from the same web pages. This if often easier said than done. The good news is that there are a number of software programs that can help you do this. I’ve personally used a number of them and can tell you that they work.

Use this technique to improve your rankings. Simply learn what makes your competitor rank in the number one position. Specifically, find out who is linking to him and how they are linking. By duplicating the linking strategy, you can dramatically improve your website ranking for the specific keywords you choose.