Welcome to 2012! What an exciting year ahead. One thing that I am particularly excited about is the mobile marketing opportunities that are rapidly growing for marketing in many different niche markets. And is saying this I am really have a great time using my iPad more and more to run different functions of my business, including this blog. Noticeably I have not been updating it as regularly as I would like, but here I am typing this post via the WordPress app for iPad!

I know I could just type the blog post up in an email and email it in – but this seemed like a nice lead into the point about mobile and how much these devices are becoming integrated into our everyday business and personal lives.

So if you have a WordPress blog, try out the app and see for yourself just how flexible this is going to make managing you blog post updates!

Here is to an awesome 2012!

Mobile phones and mobile devices and using mobile marketing to target, attract and create sales for your business is not something that is necessarily new, nor is it overly innovative.  However, there is massively growing trend to create marketing campaigns that reach people via their mobile devices.

Think about the reach that mobiles have?  There are more people with mobiles than internet users, and for that matter, they are pretty much always with them.  You know yourself, if you lose your mobile or it is stolen, it is possibly one of the worst things that could happen – particularly if you have not backed up the contacts and the content.  But importantly, it is something that you always have with you.

So, here are some ways that you can expand your marketing reach by integrate some mobile marketing channels.  By integrating, I mean supporting your current marketing channels to give you even more exposure and sales.

1. Integrate your email list building that you would be doing off your website opt-in pages or squeeze pages to create a list of mobile numbers that you can then send SMS messages to.  You can do this using a “keyword” which is texted to a mobile number shortcode.  For example, you can register the keyword “offer” with a mobile marketing company that provides these services.  They will also give you a number that is connected to your account, which if someone texts “offer” from their phone to their text messaging phone number, it records this into your account and you can then SMS market to that person.  There are various companies and software providers that can help you create a keyword and provide you with their mobile SMS number.  You would then include your keyword and the messaging, something like “Text “offer” to 1235456 to receive your free online order voucher number which will save your $20%”  This sort of messaging can be used on print vouchers or print ads in the newspaper.  And for that matter, I have seen this used by a presenter at a seminar where they basically got every to text in their email address so he could send a free report.  Very powerful.
2. Once you have built a list of mobile phone numbers, you can use SMS marketing to keep in touch with both customers and prospects.  Once again, there a several software systems that you can use to manage and broadcast SMS messages.  And generally, you can buy bulk SMS credits which cost less per text than normal mobile phone plans.  Because a person generally always has their mobile with them, you can send out personalised SMS messages quickly and have them focused on a taking a particular action within a few minutes.  This is the power of mobile marketing.  And because there is generally not as much clutter as there is with email marketing, the recipient is more likely to convert.  It also means you can integrate your SMS marketing with your online channels to make for consistent and repetitive messages or offers.Some examples of this, include texting a discount code to a potential customer and giving them a set expiry date to use the voucher.   Or simply sending a message with a link to a special website.

1. Using a QR Code.  What is a QR code?  Well simply, it is a special type of bard code, that requires a QR code reading software to scan and then take the particular action.  Many smart mobile phone devices have the ability to have the QR Scanning software installed.  So if you create a QR code graphic, you can place this on your print advertising as a call to action, and when someone scans in the QR code, you can redirect them to a particular optin page to build your list of email subscribers, or even to your mobile enabled sales site where you can generate sales.

Integrating your marketing channels not only reinforces your marketing messages, it also increasing the chances of a prospect converting to a sale, particularly where you can link the person to a mobile enabled web page to place an order or take a particular action.

Hot tip: Make sure your website is enabled to be viewed on a mobile device.  If you are going to using SMS messages to link back to your website, it is important that your site can be correctly viewed on an internet enabled device.  Any good web developer will generally be able to help you with this.

Has your business considered using webinars or online seminars to attract, educate and sell products and services to your customers?  If you have, that is great.  But if you haven’t here are some easy steps you can take to start creating sales for your business or product via webinars.

A webinar is simply an online seminar.  This means that you as a presenter can show a presentation to many 100s if not 1000’s of people over the internet, so that those that are invited to attend the online presentation can watch your presentation on their own computer screens anywhere in the world where they have an internet connection.  Through this software, you can run a presentation, have other presenters connect and share their own presentation, demonstrate software or other components on your own desktop and even demonstrate via video camera.

This is all very powerful, but how do you create sales from webinars?

1. First things first.  You will need to decide on a software system which will allow you to run your webinars.  There are plenty to choose from ranging from some that are free up to those that are high end and cost many hundreds of dollars a month.  Depending on your business size, the number of people you plan to have attending your webinars in one session and how regularly you plan to run webinars will determine the service provider you decide to go with.  For me, the key criteria include the number of people I can have on any given webinar, the ability to record the web Some things that I would suggest are important to consider.  Your business and your brand are important, so don’t give your customers the wrong impression by using a cheap “free” webinar software.  Invest in quality software to host and manage your webinars.  I would recommend something like GoToWebinar, but do your research.
2. Create a sales funnel for your event.  What do I mean by this?  Well, you will be investing time and money to setting up and marketing the webinar event in the same way you would market a seminar.  The more people you have on the webinar, the more prospects you will have to create sales from.  So, although the webinar software generally will provide you with a registration link to share with your prospects, I would recommend doing more than this.  I would suggest creating a webpage which has an opt-in on it.  I would encourage people to join your list to find out more about your “Free” webinar.  This then gives you a list of potential prospects.  So even if they register and then don’t make it to the event, you can still market to them via email after the event.  Also, you can control the reminder emails that get sent to them before the event.  The sales component of the sales funnel can also mean that after the webinar, you can send an email to those that attended and ask for their business if they did not convert after the webinar concludes.
3. Offer massive value and then make an offer and link this offer to a sales page online where the prospect can take immediate action to buy.  By offering really good content to your prospects, they feel that the time taken was worth while to find out what you had to offer them.  Remember, your prospects are always thinking “what is in it for me?”.  Then after the content, allow about 15 minutes to do your sales close.  To streamline the process and allow for an immediate action, explain that for webinar attendees only they will get a special offer or price.  But they can only access this by going to a particular URL.  This is where you can have a web page which summaries the offer and then encourages purchase right there and then.  Limiting the offer to something like 24 hours will also help.

Hot tip: If you are smart, record your webinars.  This allows you to create instant “information products” which you can do many different things with.  Firstly, you can sell access to the webinar at a later date. You can use it as a video to share information with a prospect or use it as a giveaway for an opt-in to your list.  Offer it as a bonus to a bigger product that you sell, which creates value.

Wanted to share this with everyone today. With all the flooding and devastation that happened last week throughout out Queensland in my home country of Australia, this brought to light just what makes up a good life.  A lot of people in Queensland have lost everything – they have lost their coffee cup.

If you feel that you can help in anyway at all, please visit the Queensland Government donation page and help bring the coffee back for some many people that have possibly lost their cup.  And remember the message from this blog and video.  Leave a comment if you enjoyed watching this and any thoughts you had.

Donate at : http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html

Internet marketer? Small business owner? PPC Advertiser? PPC Agency? Huh…. why am I asking so many questions. Well, if you are any of the above, you want to pay close attention.

If you are looking for the best pay per click software, that will save you time, money and effort, as well increase your CTRs and give you increased profits by improving your quality scores, and lowering your minimum bids, then you want to read every word in this post.

Speed PCC is a pay per click software, that myself and many other internet marketers around the global have been using very successfully for the past few years now.
One of the awesome benefits of Speed PPC as a pay per click software, is that saves you and your team massive amounts of time. We all know, that to have a quality campaign, which has exceptional quality score, relevant ads, high click through rates and excellent conversions, you cannot take shortcuts. Tight, targeted adgroups, with small related keyword lists and relevant ad copy, linked to relevant landing pages is what you want – but this takes time. Which means it takes time to get your campaigns 100% right – in the fast paced world of today, time is at a premium – for both you and your clients.

• TIME SAVING: This pay per click software allows you to get your campaigns up super quickly – and get them 100% right! What would take hours manually, can be done in minutes! It will automate the setup of tight keyword adgroups, perfectly matched to the ad copy, and allows you to link to the exact page which matches the search query. Rewarding you with better quality scores, CTRs and conversion rates. All of which result in higher profits.

• STOP LOSING MONEY: Low quality scores on your campaigns will cost you money. Your bid prices will be higher and you are paying for the fact that your keywords, ads and landing page do not represent a relevant campaign for the person searching.

Remember :
Higher Quality Score = Lower Minimum Bids

Speed PPC will fix this for you in a matter minutes. It can create huge numbers of focused, long tail search terms, build dynamic ad variations, where it merges in the specific keyword into the ad, and even employs a special function to increase the relevancy of the URL. This allows you to create super relevant campaigns that will increase your quality score and decrease your bid prices. Leaving more money in your pocket and more profit in the bank!

• WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER: You know that you need to increase your quality score and for that you need tight, relevant adgroups, with matching targeted landing pages. You can go about creating these all manually… working super hard to get your bid prices down by getting a better quality score. Or you can use Speed PPC and work smart – their patent pending pay per click software, will even allow you to activate dynamic insertion features and landing page generators, allowing you to display the landing page with the exact search phrase the user typed in, throughout the landing page – highly targeted to the audience and even better for your quality score. Working smarter, not harder to get an even better result.

Pay per click software that saves you time, money and effort and won’t break the bank to acquire, could be just what you are looking for. So why not give Speed PPC a go!
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NOTE : I may make small commissions if you click on the links within this site / blog post which link to affiliate sites. If you do order Speed PPC though, send me the receipt for your order via the Contact Me page and I will send you a special BONUS as a thank you!

1. Before You Begin: Take a moment to write down on paper or type up, what it is you would like to do by creating a page.

Questions to consider:
o What or who is your brand/organization?
o What is the mission of your brand/organization?
o Do you believe in your brand/organization?
o What is your message?
o Does your message align with your brand’s/organization’s mission?
It’s important to consider the above before beginning because you can very easily get lost in the creative process when building out your page.
2. Creating Your Page: When you first create your Fan Page, Facebook will prompt you to choose a name for your page. If you have one, then plug it in. If not, you can choose before you publish your page. I recommend this because once you begin you may discover a name for it that is better suited – just a thought.
Things to consider when naming your Fan Page:
o Have you searched Facebook for other Pages with the same name?
o Does the name of your Page speak to the brand or message you’re delivering?
For example, this Page is designed to engage readers who hate them(remember: everyone has a message!) but where they got it wrong was in the naming convention of their page. If I try to find “I hate how EVERYTHING has a “fan” page” through Facebook with the search term “fan page” you would think it would populate but it doesn’t. The (“ “) around this word are throwing the search off thus resulting in the inability to navigate to the page. I bet this site could have easily been a hit if they did some research on naming conventions before setting it up.

3. Welcome Tab: Many people or businesses start fan pages, setting up the basic features of the page, including the wall, information tab and possibly an photo and events tab. This is fine, if you want your page to be just a run of the mill fan page, where you are not fully leveraging the the page to it’s fullest. Here is something not a lot of people or businesses have fully utilised on their fan page, that could truly make your page work for your business or website. Create a “Welcome” tab. This is easily done, by setting up an application called FBML. This will allow you or someone that you can outsource this to, to create a nice “web page” looking welcome page. This could include videos about your or your business, some nice graphics, and even an option box where you can offer free resources or give aways, in return for basic contact details. Another component, is to make the call to action on this welcome page very clear. It may be just to have the person click the “Like” button to become a fan, and you can have your opt-in on another tab, but make this call to action very clear.
Hot tip: In the page setup for this Page, you can set which page new visitors (that is people that have not yet become fans) and existing fans see, when they visit your page. Remember to set your newly created “Welcome” tab to be the tab new visitors see.

4. Profile Image: This is the hardest part since most people are motivated by visuals. You want to choose a profile image that speaks to your message.
Consider This:
o It’s pretty common that Facebook Users scroll through pages – pick an image that is going to stand out and draw users into clicking. I would avoid low-resolution logos and grainy pictures.
o Make sure to add captions to your photos to help tell a story – this simple step will help in engaging users to become fans of your page.
You may find that a simple brand or organizational logo will work. If you choose this, I recommend adding corporate photos and videos to your Page to help personalize your brand’s image.
5. Applications: I touched on this earlier in terms of creating your “Welcome” tab using the FBML application, but there are a range of different applications that you can run this. Some of these will allow you to integrate other social media channels, including LinkedIN profiles, Twitter accounts, Youtube channel and even one for pulling in data from your blog, called Networked Blogs. I would suggest installing some or all of these applications, depending on how much you want to integrate the messaging of your social networking channels.

Check out my latest Fan page

As a technology expert or having people on your team that may be technology experts, you will be wanting to make sure you are getting the best deal in terms of what the service offers technically, but from a business point of view, represents value for money.

Firstly, just a quick recap of what the differences are between virtual and dedicated hosting.

Dedicated Hosting : You are paying to lease your own server that is not shared with anyone. This gives you greater flexibility over shared hosting. Generally this will be more costly, but there are still hosting solutions on the market.

Virtual Dedicated Hosting: Simply put, your hosting is on a virtual section of a single physical computer server which is shared with other customers (virtual sections). Your “section” or virtual hosting has the privacy, configurations and even run separate operating systems, however it is still shared, and therefore you are getting cheap virtual dedicated hosting.

If you are looking for best hosting for your business or websites, then consider these 3 components before making a buying decision.

• Cost – naturally, you are looking for the best hosting, so cost may be a big determinate in your decision as to which provider to select. Remember though, that cheap is not always best, so look for things that may not be included, like the level of support, extra bonuses and additional setup fees.

• Monthly Bandwidth – this is given generally in terms of Gigabyte data. You want to ensure that the bandwidth is going to be sufficient for the sites you are planning to host on the dedicated or virtual hosting. The last thing that you want, is for your sites or the sites of your customers to go down due to bandwidth issues, which could have been forecasted when you first setup your hosting.

• Which Control panel: Consider which control panel you will be provided access to with the hosting. This may determine which cheap dedicated hosting or cheap virtual hosting provider you go with, because if you don’t have the technical knowledge within your team to manage the control panel, it may be worth considering different provider. The main ones are Plesk or CPanel

So, there you go, some helpful tips when considering cheap dedicated hosting or cheap virtual dedicated hosting.

Advertisement on Facebook essentially refers to the advertising campaigns that target Facebook profiles (users). These ad blocks – a picture, a heading and short description text underneath – appear on the right side panel of the targeted Facebook pages.

One can easily kick start with this by just uploading an image (standard image size for Facebook ad is 110 x 80 pixels), and adding a heading and description of your ad.

Facebook allows your ads to be targeted at very specific audience (As their punchline goes ‘Reach your exact audience and connect real customers to your business’). For example, it is possible for you to target all male audiences with a particular hobby, in a particular age group from a particular state in the US or any other country with your Facebook ad.

Now that you have the basics, here are 3 secrets which could help you deliver even better results from your advertising on Facebook.

1. Advertise your Fan page: It is really simple to do, and allows you to reach a very targeted audience. This builds engagement with your target audience, because it is not like it is a direct marketing message, where you are asking them to buy or. Once they are on your fan base, the smart thing to do here, is to have content on your Facebook fan page which will obtain their contact details. A simple opt-in in return for some quality content, or a free give away will work best. Then use your email marketing and fan page to continue to build a relationship with your new “fan”, before going for the “Buy my stuff” messaging. Build trust with your advertising and brand.

2. Audience Targeting: The audience targeting in Facebook is really powerful, and can be used to your advantage to target the most specific audience to your business, website or niche. A tip here, is to start off fairly targeted, because obviously this will ensure that you are only paying for the advertising that is reaching your target audience. As the campaign progresses, and you want to expand your reach, then do this in a smart way, while still keeping an eye our costs and conversions.

3. Measure your results: As with anything that you do online, the biggest advantage you have is the ability to measure and test your results. Facebook offers reports to indicate your ad performance, but another area that I like to implement, is the conversion tracking codes. These can be easily created inside the Facebook advertising platform, take the code and paste it on the conversion “Thank You” and then you will see how well your campaigns perform in terms of getting you a conversion – whether that is an opt-in lead from your fan page (put the code on the opt-in thank you) or a sale from your website. Measure this and then look to improve on it.

This can be very effective for your business and website. But focus on your marketing goals before jumping in and starting to advertise.

If you’re scouting for a SEM Firm or Marketing Specialist to perform ethical, effective SEO Search Engine Optimization Services for your business or website, then don’t be afraid to ask questions and request to see client testimonials/references.

Here are some of the questions we believe you should ask before hiring a SEO company:

• Find out how long the Firm has been in business.
• Does the Search Engine Marketing Firm or its principals have marketing experience background?
• Do they have long-term satisfied clients? Make sure they prove it with client testimonials and references.
• Do they have detailed case studies to show you with verifiable results of search positions they’ve achieved for clients?
• Will they perform an analysis of your competition’s websites to understand why the other sites rank highly?
• What will the SEO Company base their keyword recommendations on? Keyword research is a necessity to determine relevant, targeted keywords in order for a SEO campaign to succeed.
• What are realistic traffic expectations for your site? Obscure keyword phrases may bring top ten or #1 ranking positions but if only a trickle of people search for the term each month, it likely won’t result in increased sales.
• Does the Firm differentiate between “traffic” and “qualified” traffic? Bulk unqualified traffic arriving at your site for irrelevant keywords are unlikely to convert to a sale or new customer. Does the SEO firm understand what it takes to create a sales conversion?
• Does the Firm adhere to search engine’s posted best practices and a strict no-spam policy to avoid your website being penalized, possibly indefinitely, by search engines?
• What methods will the SEM Firm use to increase traffic? Will they make changes to your existing web page coding or will they just be adding or revising meta tags? Will they be performing SEO copywriting and editing to add relevant keywords to your visible page text? Will they be adding new pages, or possibly redesigning your navigation to make it more search engine friendly?
• How many pages will they be optimizing in your website?
• How much, if any, of their strategy relies on pay-per-click advertising and how much will that cost? Remember, pay-per-click is like leasing vs. buying a car. When you stop paying, the traffic discontinues. We sometimes recommend pay-per-click advertising for specific marketing strategies, but not for ongoing search engine visibility. Pay-per-click is not a long-term solution unless you have deep pockets. Obtaining “free” search engine positions in Google, is the preferred – and longer-term – route to traffic.

Hopefully that provides a good starting point for selecting a Search Engine Marketing Firm.

Over the past decade, pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising has been one of the most effective ways of driving targeted traffic to your website. Fortunes have been made and companies have created huge communities through effective PPC ad campaigns that are in aimed at their target audiences. With PPC, you can generate tons of targeted traffic to any web page in a matter of minutes. You’re only limited by your imagination and your advertising budget.

But, as the PPC marketplace has matured, competition has increased and costs have risen. Gone are the days when you could grab a few keywords, slap up a hastily-written ad, and experience PPC success. Today, if you don’t know what you’re doing, you can quickly spend a lot of money with very poor results. To put it another way… Smart advertisers win. It’s time to take PPC seriously.

That’s where SpeedPPC comes in. SpeedPPC is a revolutionary software solution for dominating PPC marketing. How do I know, my team and I have been using this amazing software for more than 12 months now. With SpeedPPC, you have the tools to quickly build, optimize, upload, and track PPC campaigns that deliver great Quality Scores and help you catch the longtail. In simple terms, by doubling your Quality Score, you halve your costs. And SpeedPPC v4.5 takes PPC campaign building to the next level.

SpeedPPC 3rd Birthday Mega Package

And now, SpeedPPC is having a birthday, and they’re celebrating by releasing a new version of their industry-leading PPC campaign building software. SpeedPPC v4.5 is the latest evolution of their patent-pending software, and they’re offering you a special deal to help celebrate their third birthday.

For a very limited time, they’re stuffing a virtual gift box chock full of PPC campaign building goodies. The SpeedPPC 3rd Birthday Package includes the latest and greatest version of SpeedPPC, version 4.5, and something brand new… Their soon-to-be released Advanced PPC Bootcamp video training.

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Here what you get with this special promotion:

• Instant access to SpeedPPC v4.5 Pro, the industry’s most advanced PPC campaign building software, now with support for pay-per-view advertising and even more PPC search engines.

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• The 2 week, 14-part Advanced PPC Bootcamp that will train you on all the fancy tricks and techniques they’ve learned over the past 3 years, from SpeedPPC’s experience and from talking with thousands of their customers worldwide. This includes some of the best affiliates and agencies in the world. This Bootcamp training will rev up your profits and reduce your learning curve immensely.
• You’ll also receive 12 months of FREE upgrades to future versions of SpeedPPC, immediate access to all of the SpeedPPC training materials (including videos), 24-hour access to the members-only Customer Area, a year of monthly training updates on new techniques and strategies, and free SpeedPPC product support.

There’s a lot more to the SpeedPPC Birthday Bash Mega Package, so you should check out their special video page set up to tell you more. You can learn everything about the new version of SpeedPPC and the Advanced PPC Bootcamp training, and find out how you can claim your gift package.

Online advertising is getting more competitive, but with SpeedPPC, smart advertisers win. SpeedPPC v4.5 is the fastest, easiest way to build and manage PPC and now, PPV, campaigns.

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