Internet Marketing and eCommerce Expert – Nigel Burke's Blog

This book is great for business owners and other business executives that are thinking about creating a blog.

There are thousands of blogs launched into the blogosphere everyday. How many of those are going to be successful? Why do they fail? and how can you build yours differently?

This practical guide will take you step by step through the process of setting up a successful blog.

Research
This is the first thing anyone should do before that start a blog and after reading this book, I believe it’s one of two fatal mistakes majority of blog owners make.

The book discusses the following topics related to research -

• Determining your focus – Who is your audience? the purpose of your blog?
• Comittment issues – How much time will you dedicated to blogging?
• Tools available – Make sure you start with the right blogging software for your blog

Setting up you blog
Getting the design and functionality of your blog right from the begininng can save a lot of work down the track.

The book discusses what tools are available for your blog, which ones are important and why.

Maintaining your blog
A blog that is not updated can make you look bad but as the book discusses, this depends on the type of blog and the information in the blog.

Marketing your blog correctly can make or break your blog. Using tools like RSS allows your visitors to subscribe to your blog and get notified when you make a new post.

Conclusion
The book is suitable for all levels. Beginners will learn terminologies and concepts that are vital pieces of information required before setting up a blog.

Advances users will learn from the authors experiences and tools they use. I’m an experienced Internet user and had a few ‘uh ha’ moments and learnt some new pieces of information that I will be using from now on.

If you are going to setup a blog, make sure you are passionate about what you write about and that when the times get tough (no one is reading you blog) that you keep pushing through by continually posting and marketing your blog appropriately!

Why are some people successful and others are not?

I do not believe that you could pin point it to one particular skill. It’s a mix of a number of skills. Some you could consider natural but majority of them can be learned, developed and cultured.

Today I want to talk about how you can become an industry leader. By doing this everyday, you will become the leader in your chosen field.

Study your chosen industry just one hour per day

It is as simple as that. By reading, researching, listening and learning for one hour everyday about your industry, you are guaranteed to become a leader. That’s 7 hours every week and over 300 hours a year.

Today knowledge is power. By keeping up with the latest industry trends and being ahead of your field is everything.

Read a book every week
When was the last time your read an entire book? Set aside some time everyday to spend by yourself while you read. Books do not take that long to read if you read a small chunk every day.

Before you begin reading, write down what you want to learn from the book you are about to start reading. Read with a purpose in mind.

I try and read a book every week. Each book is usually on a different topic within Internet marketing or social media or programming. I’m going to start reviewing them on here as I finish reading each of them.

Read industry magazines and papers
If you do not read them, who do you think is? Your competition of course! Learn what is going on in your field and stay on top of it.

Subscribe to related blogs
There is a wealth of information available on blogs that is updated daily. Get yourself a blog reader and subscribe to blogs that are going to get you ahead in your industry.

Learn while you commute
Many people spend hours every week traveling to and from work. If you drive to work, listen to an audio series instead of the radio. You can listen to podcasts or audio books while you drive.

Information overload
It is easy to get wrapped up with all the information that is available today on any topic using the Internet. You need to learn how to scan through the junk and get to the meat.

Each day, I scan through 200+ posts about Internet marketing and e-commerce. I might only read about 20 of them but by doing this each day, I am keeping up with the latest trends, techniques and strategies out there today.

Writing this blog
When I started this blog, I did not realize how far behind I was with my industry. By starting this blog, it has forced me to learn what is going on with the big players such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter etc and looking at opportunities that exist.

I recommend anyone start a blog even if you are not after readers. By typing out everything you know about your industry, you will realize just how valuable and knowledgable you are.

Conclusion
If you read 1 hour every day, 7 days a week for 46 weeks a year – that totals 40 x 8 work days. That’s nearly 1 1/2 months spent getting ahead in your field.

Read the best information about your industry for one hour every day and let me know how you go.

Author : “Pen Kits & Pen Blanks – Timberbits.com“

Most people dream of handing the letter to the boss that says “I quit!” However the reality is very seldom realized.

Starting your own small business is very daunting and traditionally, doing so means mortgaging the family home or borrowing from family and friends.

Where to start.

Ebay has now the perfect vehicle to test and develop you business model and skills. With a few click and some loose change in your pocket, you can compete in a level playing field with the big boys in town.

Should your sales start to pick up and you get into the rhythm of selling on ebay, you will very quickly notice the advantages and disadvantages of eBay.

Pro’s and Con’s

The main disadvantages of eBay is mainly

1. the enormous fees that it charges, and

2. the price wars and race to the bottom which quickly erodes profits.

The next level.

Once you have developed a customer base, it’s time to start to lead them to an environment that you control. Lead them to a place where the big corporation can’t dictates how much their share is (before your even earn a cent), away from the “hand of god” that can delete all your listing because of a complaint of a righteous customer, away from a place which shares all your business statistics with your competitors.

By leading your customers to your own web site, you take back control and you also save a lot of money in the process.

Your website is your shop – give it some street appeal

Have you ever visited a web site that looked like it was done by a 8 year old or a newbie to web design? You wouldn’t get a dodge carpenter or a friend of a friend to fitout your retail premises – we all know this is the case we walk into some shops, why do the same with your web site?

With the invent of the web – small business can compete with the big boys in town. Spend a bit of money up front and get a professional to do the job. To fit out a retail shop professionally expect to pay over $250,000. A professional website is less than $1,000.

I always get complimented for how professional Pen Kits & Pen Blanks – Timberbits.com looks. It cost me less than a $700 to get started – that’s less than 1 months of eBays fees. Now my website’s volume has grown to more than 5 times what I sell on eBay. I now save thousands of dollars a month just on eBay fees, not to mention the time and frustration on eBay.

My word of advice is as soon as you start selling more than 20 transactions a month on eBay, start to invest in a website. When you do build a website, don’t go cheap – we all know what those websites look like, pay a professional because you get what you pay for.

I talk to a lot of business owners that have websites and many of them ask me how they can increase their online business.

I ask them what are their goals of their websites? They usually reply with the same comment – To increase sales.

But what are they doing to promote and market the website? What tracking to they have in place? What changes have been done to improve the site?

So today I am going to describe a couple of points that can get websites back on track and increase their return on their website.

Identify The Goals & Purpose of the Website
You need to determine what purpose is for the website. Is it to increase brand awareness? Provide information and to get customers in the door?

Have you set measurable goals for your website? You need to define what success is for your website and work out ways to reach those goals within a certain time frame.

Optimize your website for search engine visibility
Can a search engine read the content of your website? Is it being indexed? What keywords are your targeting?

I see a lot of websites that are poorly optimised for search engines which is the number 1 source for traffic. People are searching for your product and services but your competition is getting the business – not you because your website does not come up in the natural search results.

Website Marketing
Are you advertising online? Are you tracking where the leads are coming from? Do you know your acquistion costs for a customer?

The Internet is an amazing tool for business. You can set advertising budgets to the dollar, you can see exactly where customers are finding you to the words they enter into a search engine to find you, and track visitor trends.

There is no other tool like having a website performing well for you.

What value to do you provide to your visitors?
If a customer were to visitor your website today, what are they going to walk away with? Only sales material or will they leave smarter?

The sell, sell, sell techniques worked in 2001 but visitors want more. They want to know what’s available and how they will benefit from using your product or service. There is a global marketplace that we are in today – there is a lot of competition.

Demonstrate that you are an expert and give customers value by visiting your website.

Get involved with social media
Become familiar with social media ettiquet and start a blog, a Facebook group, comment on other blogs, start a wiki for your industry.

The main message here is to just get involved in social media but play nicely.

Conclusion
Get your website to be a market leader in information. People will link to your site and you will get more traffic. This traffic will convert into customers.

Have you seen Will It Blend? It’s a crazy series of videos by Blendtec, a small blender manufacturer. The series has been seen by millions of people. My favorite is Will It Blend? – iPhone. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favor and take a minute to watch. This YouTube video has been seen nearly 7.5 million times.

Viral marketing is the phenomenon of other people passing along your ideas to friends via email or blogs or other online means…for free! Best of all, there is very little costs in setting up the costs compared to advertising campaigns. You could compare it to people handing out your business card to all their friends because they think it’s cool.

Here are some tips to make video go viral. Creating a video is easy and it is free to post onto YouTube. All you need is a simple $300 digital video camera, a YouTube account and an idea.

Most importantly: Your video needs to be funny or amazing or remarkable or have some fascinating information or be controversial. Basically the video needs a reason for people to pass it on. If you can find pass along value connected to your organization and its products, great. I’m not a fan of stupid contests or celebrity endorsements unrelated to a company and its products.

Tip # 1 – Homemade is just fine

You don’t need to hire a professional. A homemade quality video can work great. But plan ahead and shoot several takes to get it right.

Tip #2 – Your video should be no longer then 2 minutes (preferably less)

Think very short. You need to get to the punch quickly. Although YouTube will accept a video that is less than 10 minutes, smaller than 100MB try to make the video between 30 seconds and 2 minutes.

Tip #3 – Make your description clear and specific.

To best promote your video, you’ll want its text description on YouTube to be accurate and interesting. Use descriptive keywords and language that people will find when they search for videos like yours. And use the correct categorizations on YouTube so people will find it.

Tip #4 – Don’t attempt “stealth” fake customer insertions to YouTube.

Some companies try to sneak corporate-sponsored video onto YouTube in a way that makes it seem like it is consumer-generated. The YouTube community is remarkably skilled at ratting out inauthentic video, so this approach is fraught with danger.

Tip #5 – Try a series of similar videos to build interest

Sometimes a series of videos works great. The Blendtec Will it Blend? videos are a perfect example. The even sell t-shirts now!

Tip #6 – Tell everyone about your video!

When you upload your first few videos, you are likely to hear a deafening silence. You’ll be waiting for comments, but none will come. You’ll check your video statistics and be disappointed by the tiny number of viewers. Don’t get discouraged. It takes time to build an audience. Make sure people know it is there and can find it. Create links to your video from your home page, product pages, or online media room. Mention your video in your e-mail or offline newsletters, and create links to your video as part of your e-mail signature and those of other people in your organization.

Tip # 7 – make sure bloggers know about the video

Sending a link to the video to bloggers or commenting on other people’s blogs (and including a link to your video) is a good way to build an audience. If you comment on blogs in the same space as yours, you might be surprised at how quickly you will get viewers to your video.

Tip #8 – Experiment a lot to find something that hits

While I think it is difficult to purposely create viral marketing buzz, it is certainly possible. Create a number of campaigns and see what hits, then nurture the winners along. Think like a venture capitalist or movie studio and try a number of things in order to get that elusive hit.

Good luck. And if you do create a cool video, let me know.

Post Author: David Meerman Scott is a marketing strategist, keynote speaker, seminar leader, and the author of the hit new book World Wide Rave. His previous book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR is an award-winning BusinessWeek bestseller and is being published in 25 languages.

You can read David Meerman Scott’s blog here.

There are many types of customers that are shopping online today but today, we are going to discuss the price sensitive customer type. These customers use two tools to do their online shopping – online comparison websites and coupon codes.

Coupon & promotional codes
Traditionally and still used today, you would get flyers in the mail box with cut out coupons. These were targeted to customers who would go to the effort of cutting out these coupons and taking them to the shops to get their discount.

Do you remember the times that you were waiting in line at the store and you see someone with a coupon in the line and then you realize you have forgotten your coupon to get your discount? The person with the coupon code is a price sensitive customer who goes to the extra effort of getting that discount.

These same customers are shopping online everyday and still looking for those discount codes. Many of the pizza chains in my area use online coupon codes for online ordering.

How to get your coupons codes out there
Many of the shopping cart software packages that are offered today often include coupon code functionality. You simply create a code by entering a keyword, the discount given – fixed or percentage, expiry date and number of uses allowed.

Promoting your coupon codes
Once you have your coupon code ready to promote, where do you promote it? There are many different places that you can promote your coupon code but the essential thing is to get it to the right customers at the right time.

• On your home page – You can tell visitors when they load up your front page that a discount is given for a certain range for a limited time.
• Special landing page - You can create a special landing page for your Adwords or Yahoo campaigns and include your coupon code on the landing page.
• Social media site – You can have a link from your Facebook page, do a tweet using Twitter or offer the discount code on your blog for your blog readers.
• Mail out – You can include the discount code when you do a direct marketing campaign or sending out flyers.
• Coupon code websites – This is a powerful tool and used in the right way, can get great results. These websites list all the coupons submitted by users to share with other users.

Depending on what your goals are and the type of offer will depend on what method you use to get your coupon code out there. You don’t want to be offering coupon codes if the customer is already going to be buying the product at the listed price.

Google recently published the following data which shows how popular it now is for customers to search for coupon codes online -

*Graphs provide by Google

These graphs demonstrate the popularity of people searching for coupon codes and promotions codes. You can see the holiday period spike in searches will be coming soon so now is the time to start promoting your codes.

Work better than other products
Some products work more effectively with coupon codes. They include popular products and commodity items. It’s up to you to do your market research to see if your competitors are offering coupon codes and if the market would respond well if you started offering coupon codes.

Conclusion
Using coupons effectively can mean more business. Make sure your website uses coupon codes effectively to take full advantage of the price sensitive customer.

Google has introduced a new tool that allows you to check the speed of your website and improve the speed.

This is one of Google’s ways to give back to the Internet community by educating developers and designers to make better websites. This in turn is supposed to make the web a better place.

Tutorials
The site has some great tutorials and you can visit them here – Tutorials. Some example tutorials are -

• Use compression to make the web faster

• Capturing and analyzing browser paint events using Page Speed Activity

• Compressing your JavaScript with Closure Compiler

• CSS: Using every declaration just once

• How gzip compression works

• HTTP caching

• Improving website performance with Page Speed

• Make the mobile web faster

Participation
You can participate in discussions about making the web faster here – Share and discuss

Useful Tools
There are some fantastic tools the Google lists here. You can access the tools page here – Try useful tools. Some examples are -

• Page Speed
• Closure Compiler
• Closure Tools
• Cuzillion
• Xdebug
• AOL Page Test
• IBM Page Detailer
• Microsoft VRTA
• MySpace Performance Tracker
• Yahoo! YSlow

I highly recommend you check out the educational tutorials and test some of the tools they have made available and listing on the site.

I am often asked how to get higher rankings in search engines. Perhaps the customer has done everything possible to optimize their website, what next?

Backlinks are key to getting a great search engine ranking.

Next time you send an email to say ‘thank you for doing business with us’, maybe ask that customer to do a blog post if they have a blog. You can return the favour by adding a blog post about them. It’s a win-win situation for everyone – you both will get inbound links to your sites and a higher search engine ranking.

Try and get them to add some links to your site with the keywords you are targeting if possible.

You may not notice a big difference with one or two posts about your business but think if 20+ posts are done about your website. Now that will help you search engine ranking!

This book provides an awesome overview of the new rules of marketing your business in today’s connected environment.It is a must read for any business owner who wants to know what social media tools are available and how to utilize them in your business.

The book does not talk about the complexities of setting up these tools but discusses the concepts and letting you know what’s available. It really gets you thinking into how you can leverage these tools to create exposure for your business using social media tools.

Blogs
For search engine optimization – content is king. Blogs can be a powerful tool to create a high ranking website.

There are many reasons companies should use blogs such as they can put a face to your organization, used for announcements, putting ideas out there, creating a feedback loop. The book explains each of the benefits of having a blog.

News Releases
I believe that news releases are under utilized today. News releases have had a new lease of life thanks for online tools. You can publish your news releases to online news services such as PR Wire to get the word out there.

A great tip about news releases from Scott is including keyword links in your news releases to help your search engine rankings for those keywords.

Wikis
A wiki is site created so people can add content and share knowledge. Anyone can contribute to the wiki and they can work very well.

Creating a wiki about your industry can create credibility for your business. People love working with other successful businesses who are on the forefront of industry changes and knowledge. By creating a wiki, you too can have this creditibility and be known as an industry leader.

Viral Marketing
The beauty of social media marketing is the speed that ideas spread. By understanding the new rules of marketing, you have the knowledge to manage and grow these campaigns.

Scott provides some great examples of viral marketing and how the companies responded to these campaigns. Many of them were just created by the customers themselves. He explains what you need to do when this happens and to make it work in your favour.

Podcasts, Vlogs
Some people may not be great writers but they are create speakers. If blogging is not for you, could look at creating podcasts or video logs.

Buyer Personas
A buyer persona is the different types of personas of your customers visiting your site. When you built your website, did you create it for one buyer persona? Did you identify the different buyer personas and build a site that is targeted at each of these personas? Scott talks about how to identify them and how to create multiple call of actions for each persona.

Conclusion
This is a great book to get a general overview of the tools available for this new social world we are entering. Experienced Internet marketers can learn about the different tools available that are not often discussed in Internet marketing.

THE NEW RULES OF MARKETING & PR
How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing & Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
By David Meerman Scott
Wiley; June 2007
$24.95; 978-0-470-11345-5, Cloth

Australian businesses have spent over $466 millions dollars (AUD) in the past quarter for online advertising.

The total advertising industry in Australia is currently worth $13 billion dollars a year. Traditional advertising has been declining over the past year especially with the global financial crisis hitting many businesses but online advertising is still increasing.

Online Advertising Vs Traditional Advertising
Traditional advertising is so expensive compared to what you can do with online advertising. You cannot measure the reach very easily, it’s often very untargeted and so much of the budget is wasted. You are trying to grab the attention of as many people as possible. Other advertisers are trying to gain peoples attention and pull them away from your ad.

Online advertising allows you to collect data about every visitor that comes to your website. You can see what traffic sources are producing the best results. You can run pilot campaigns before taking the campaign to full scale. You can jump in front of your potential customers right when they are looking for a service that you can provide.

The future of Internet advertising
Internet advertising is feasible for any business to setup. TV advertising and even newspapers and magazines are not feasible for many businesses that are running today. Unless you are a medium to large business, would you like at using traditional media only for building a brand.

A mix of online and offline advertising, worf of mouth (plus social media marketing) can be an effective way to generate more business.