I know that it has been a little while since we have last posted on the Industrial Strength Internet Marketing blog. I have been busy with some recent online projects of my own. I’ll tell you about them later. But first, I just wanted to talk for a minute about three tools that I have found to be very helpful in my own online marketing efforts. Why I use them and why you should too. Continue reading ‘Three tools to help you boost your online business’
I’m a newbie to this whole online business thing. I’ve heard people talk about dropshipping on ebay. Can you tell me more about that and how profitable can it be? Thanks, Chris from Detroit. Continue reading ‘The Ins and Outs of a Dropshipping eBay business.’
It’s been a long awaited process. But we’ve finally narrowed it down and decided once and for all how the website will look and what features need to be included on Industrial Strength Internet Marketing. Please bear with us as we finish up the little nitty gritty things so that we can better serve you.
I admit. This blog is just a hobby of mine. I love internet marketing and making money online. As such, I spend a lot more time on my own internet marketing projects than I do updating this blog. Even though I realize that I would be able to heavily increase traffic to this site by posting more frequently, I just put it off to monopolize my time with other projects. I am making some adjustments in my online routine and as such, I am going to start posting more regularly. What this means for you as blog reader is that there will not only be a lot more content available on this site, but I will have more to offer other ‘netpreneurs’ like yourself.
Big changes are around the corner. I have been trying to start a Question and Answer section and I am finally ready to launch that section of this website. I am very excited for this opportunity because it will help you as an Industrial Strength Fan to participate more and get the very specific answers that you have been looking for. This will be great for ‘newbies’ just starting out trying to make a living online. Are you experienced in the realm of internet marketing? Go ahead and share those experiences with others through ISIM. Gain exposure. Brand yourself as an online marketing professional. Connect with others on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media websites using ISIM as a hub for Questions and Answers.
Given the numerous social networking sites, how do you prioritize what you do and how do you make sure that what you are doing is worth your time?
I would focus most of my time on Facebook and Twitter. I would have to say that the most important activities are connecting with people. Find similar interests with other social networkers and connect with them about something that they like or appreciate. Social networking isn’t about selling or advertising, it’s about creating [online] relationships. Then through those relationships, [advertising] should come naturally because your connections can become interested in you and/or your business. As a participant on these social networking websites, you need to add value to the ‘network’ by getting socially ‘involved’. That is where the real appeal about social networking comes from.
Once you have Facebook and Twitter under control, I would recommend expanding to YouTube.com, StumbleUpon.com and Digg.com. It will also help to have a blog and update it on a regular basis, a blog is something that can become ’social’ as well. As long as you encourage blog visitors to comment on your blog posts and or participate in any other way. The blog should be linked to your social networking profiles and visa versa for the purpose of cross-promoting.
When it comes to advertising your service online there are two ways to make it happen. First is the quick and expensive way and needless to say, you would need a budget. The other, however, would be primarily free (no budget required) but it would need to be built over a longer period of time.
In a brief word, social media is one of the best ways to get started without a budget. It takes longer to build up a revenue because to advertise effectively on social media websites your advertising needs to be viral. That is to say, it needs to be memorable and has to have the appeal that your target audience will want to share it with others. If it is viral then fans of social media websites will ’spread the word’ for you. So depending on what services you have to offer, I believe that through social media and creating a ‘viral’ ad is the way to go. I recommend that you focus your efforts on Facebook, StumbleUpon, YouTube, and Twitter. (Sorry Fast Pitch. You come if fifth though.) I am working on a social media viral ad for one of my online projects.
If you don’t yet, I also recommend having a blog and link your social media profiles to your blog. Blog about things related to your services but make your blog posts interesting. Perhaps with an interesting twist to the blog posts. Depending on the service that you have to offer, I recommend listing classified ads on free classified ad websites. Do this on a regular basis. It may not be the most effective but on occasion it will work even if it just sends web traffic back to your website or blog.
Another long term “budget-free” way to advertise is to ‘give away’ stuff whether it’s your services (depending on what they are) or something related to your services. Create “Raving Fans”, customers that are not only customers but your biggest fans. People that want to keep coming back for more. I think that giving away ‘free stuff’ to your customers and potential customers is a way to show them that you care. For example, you create a “Make Money Online” ebook and want to sell the ebook. In addition to the ebook, create a “Free Report” and give it away in exchange for your visitor’s name and email address. Build a permission-based email list and continue to show those people in your list that you care by asking them what they want then delivering it to them.
Once you start building some revenue from your services through these online advertising methods, I recommend that you create a budget for advertising. Then you can continue to use the above methods but also add paid advertising such as Google Adwords. Then you will be on your way to creating a regular stream of revenue through effective online advertising.
There are some of you who have barely heard of this thing called Wordpress. If that is you, then this blog post is for you. Source 47 Marketing is creating a new virtual home and we are using Wordpress as a basis of our operation to handle lots of ‘behind-the-scenes’ stuff that goes on at Source47.com. Since we are using Wordpress on our website, we felt it would be only fitting to tell our readers why we think Wordpress is the best thing to happen to websites since Cascading style sheets.
Wordpress is Open Source software which means that it’s created by everyone and for everyone to use. From what we can tell, Wordpress started out as a simple blogging platform (originally known a web log or blog for short). Because of the nature of it being open source, it was able to grow and develop quickly and because everyone could contribute, plugins (bit of software code to control a certain function) were developed for just about everything, thus quickly expanding the functionality of Wordpress itself.
Wordpress as a CMS. CMS (or Content Management System) does exactly what it says. It’s a system to manage the content of your website. From creating a blog like this one to controlling the individual pages of your website, and even photo galleries, simple e-commerce functionality, media rich websites like podcasting, and much more!
Wordpress works with all types of budgets. Because Wordpress is open source, it’s free to use. You can sign up for a Wordpress blog at www.wordpress.com. There is limited functionality when signing up for a website/blog at Wordpress.com but at least it’s free, right? But if you’re serious about your company’s website then I say have it on your own web hosting account.
Websites that run on Wordpress come in all shapes and sizes. I believe that you’ll get more out of Wordpress by using it on your own hosting account. If you need web hosting, we recommend Bluehost for various reasons but specifically because they are very Wordpress friendly. If you want to use Wordpress but need it setup on your web hosting account then let me know and I’ll be glad to help.
Wordpress Themes control the look of your website. There are many free themes to choose from but if you are serious about having a Wordpress website for your company or business then I would recommend that you look into getting a custom Wordpress Theme developed to use. Reason being is that I feel that the free themes available are being used by probably a lot of other people. This certainly won’t set your website apart from all the others out there. Getting a custom Wordpress Theme developed by Source 47 may not be as expensive as you think. Contact Source 47 today and let us know what you’re website needs are and we can customize an affordable solution for your business.
You can attract a lot of traffic to any site at any given moment. Continue reading ‘How to increase traffic to your site.’
It takes a lot of diligence to write blog posts on a regular basis. It is common to run out of content and then you just blog-fade for a little while. So you need inspiration for new content when writing blog posts. Where does that inspiration come from? It can come from several places and one of those can be Yahoo Answers!
I have been on Yahoo Answers lately just responding to questions related to Search Engine Optimization and Small Business in general. So last night I realized that I could take my answers and reformat them into a blog post. Essentially, I was generating great content that I could use for blog posts. I would just need to rephrase a few things because Yahoo Answers is meant to just be a response to one person’s question so instead of a blog post which is meant for everyone.
Check out Yahoo Answer Secrets
I got my hands on some videos about Yahoo Answers and I would love to share it with you. It’s called Yahoo Answer Secrets. Not only can you use Yahoo Answers as inspiration for new blog content but you can also recommend products to others on Yahoo Answers (this should be done with discretion!) Yahoo Answer Secrets tells you everything that you need to know to get started on Yahoo Answers.
There seems to be a lot of people these days that are doing without some things for Christmas when in years’ past, those things were plentiful. Whether there’s just not enough on the paycheck this month or whether people have wised up and haven’t gone into debt as much this year, I’m not sure why people don’t have as much. Of course there are a lot of things that we can do without. But we want it!
Well, if there’s not as much in your wallet or on your paycheck this year, why not find cash value in some things that are lying around your home, in your basement or garage. I have been doing exactly that and, if you’re a ‘newbie’ on the internet then I’ll show you how to turn that stuff into cash.
The easiest way to do that is to sell your stuff on auction websites or classified websites. eBay and Craigslist are the first ones that come to mind. eBay is great for selling things that are easier to ship because most likely the buyer won’t live close to you and you’ll have to ship it. Craigslist is great for those items that are heavier, larger, or just plain akward to ship. Expect to pay some fees if you sell it on eBay. Craigslist is free for selling stuff.
eBay >> You can see what I have been listing for sale on eBay by clicking on the link below.
Auctiva is a third-party company that helps you organize your auctions and they offer free tools that are very beneficial to eBay sellers. Find out more at: www.auctiva.com.
Craigslist >> Who’s list? Craigslist! If you haven’t heard of Craigslist, then you better start from the beginning – of the internet, that is! (Don’t ask me what that means.) Craigslist is one of the most popular websites in the world. Pretty impressive for how they started out. (On a side note, I always love hearing stories about how these most popular websites got started.) Anyway, back on track.
Advantages of Craigslist over eBay.
- Sell stuff locally.
- It’s free.
- Create’s great exposure for your stuff.
Craigslist and eBay are both very good for making a little extra cash over the holidays.
I will be putting out some tutorials on eBay. Both for beginners (newbies) and also some more advanced tutorials. How to sell more effectively on eBay…
For more on Craigslist and using Craigslist as an affiliate marketer, check this out.