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It’s not as hard as you might think. 

To begin, let’s look at the demographics of Web 2.0 social networking sites, Myspace.com, Facebook and YouTube.com. This will give you an idea on how to position your message in the Web 2.0 World.

The Web 2.0 Social Networking Revolution

Web 2.0 is a real revolution on the Internet. And these aren’t just college kids…

62% of MySpace visitors are older than 25 (40% are 35+), and 83% are makíng over $30,000 a year. Nineteen percent (19%) are makíng $100,000 and up…

On Facebook.com 46% are over 25 and 34% are 35+, but they’ve got deep pockets. Eighty-eight percent (88%) makë more than $30,000 and twenty-three percent (23%) makë $100,000 or more. 
In the years ahead these numbers will get ridiculous…

Social media giant Facebook is currently ADDING a million 25+ (non-student) adults per week to their rosters. That’s 52 million new users a year.

YouTube.com gets over 50 million unique visitors per month. That equals over half a billion a year.

Facebook and MySpace have the equal daily traffic of Google. Experts predict within the next year they will DOUBLE the daily traffic of Google search. 
So your prospects are there. The traffic is there. The spending power is there. So NOW is the time you want to establish your presence on the social networking websites. 

Web 2.0 Strategy: Why You Should Be a Maven, Not a Marketer

As a website owner, how should you position your message in the Web 2.0 world?

The increasingly savvy buying public will quickly shun marketers. Internet readers want information from the Internet. They don’t want advertising, marketing, or a “pitch”.

According to Schefren in his Attention Age Doctrine, the solution is to become a social media “Maven”.

A Maven is a trusted authority, like a friend, on the social media websites. As you gain their trust, your audience will return to you over and over again wanting to invest in your advice.

Five Steps to Becoming a Social Media Maven

Social Media Maven Step 1: Get in the Game

Begin blogging immediately. Create a video explaining how to solve a problem and put it on YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook with links back to your main website. Just those two things alone will establish more Web 2.0 presence than 90% of your competition.

Social Media Maven Step 2: Share your passion

Build your Web 2.0 website around your passions. Thirty-two year old Gary Vaynerchuk transformed his wine knowledge to his video blog. It now has thousands of subscribers and does $50 millíon dollars a year in wine sales.  http://tv.winelibrary.com/

Social Media Maven Step 3: Be Controversial

Your audience will remember you more when you challenge the status quo. Controversy sells. Think like the tabloids and the local news channels here.

Social Media Maven Step 4: Create World Class Content

You will drive repeat traffic to your website by offering top notch “how to” information. Gary’s wine tastings are highly educational on the benefits of wine, how to cook with wine, and how to choose a wine for your special occasion. Rich’s reports teach Web 2.0 marketing principles.

Remember, as soon as your audience feels that you are “pitching” them, you’ve lost them. So provide content not advertising.

Social Media Maven Step 5: Engage in the Conversation

Web 2.0 is a dialogue not a monologue. Internet businesses profit more when they observe and listen to their communities first before they broadcast their messages. Savvy mavens such as Gary and Rich encourage their audience to ask questions. The answers to these questions then become part of their user-generated content.

How Marketing in a Web 2.0 Social Media Environment Is Exciting.

Visualize it like a big radio or television station or movie screen where you’re the star. You’re building a fan base so you need to entertain, inform, and deliver consistently for your audience.

You have more publishing power at your fingertips right now than at any time in history.

So use it.

Share your passions.

Reveal your trials and tribulations

Tell your story.

And, watch how quickly your audience builds. 

About The Author
Master Copywriter, Gary Smith www.rightbraincopy.com has taught thousands of entrepreneurs how to write copy that persuades, motivates and inspires prospects to buy.

The ABC’s of domain names, which as a title may come off as a little corny to you, is an exercise that makes you think about your industry or business, what you’re doing in it, and how you go about doing what you do as it relates to domain names. The use of the ABC’s format is to provide a simple, back to basics approach to deliver fundamental concepts that provoke thoughts, ideas and questions on domain names and how they are a part of your world.

So, whatever all of that means - lets dive into the ABC’s of domain names and find their relevance in your line or work, personal life, hobbies, educational background, experience or special areas of interest to see what jumps out and comes naturally to you:

A: Advertising - domain names offer the perfect venue to advertise your product or services or to provide potential revenue by domain parking and/or affiliate programs.

B: Branding - the brand is in the name. Having a great targeted domain name can really build a brand, or can actually be the brand (eg: Google.com)

C: Community - the Internet is all about an interconnected community. Through domain names, you create a real destination and an identity for what can become a community.

D: Direct Search - having a generic word based domain name is your best path to direct search traffic. Direct Search is here to stay and will likely take an increasing share of the overall search marketplace. Direct search bypasses the likes of yahoo.com and google.com as the user types in the destination site directly into their browser (ie: www.computers.com).

E: Ecommerce - want to conduct business online - you need to start with one primary thing - a domain name. Ecommerce is one of the leading uses of the Internet.

F: Friends & Family - connect with your friends and family with domain names - either by email, your favorite websites, or photo sharing sites and videos, etc.

G: Global - synonymous with the Internet - domain names (particularly .com) have mass broad appeal on a global basis, with global potential.

H: High Returns - where else can you buy a piece of virtual real-estate for $8.00 and sell it within a matter of weeks or months for over $1000? Fund.com just sold for $9.99 Million in March of 2008.

I: Investment - domain names are appreciating more than any investment for the price. Similar to investing in stocks, bonds, real estate or insurance - domain names offer what I believe to be stable long lasting appreciation with the potential to create astonishing returns. Want to learn more about domain investing - you can always check out www.domainprofitsbook.com.

J: Justify - Justify your web presence and online business with a great domain name that demonstrates who you are and what you do.

K: Keywords - domain names can be based upon major key words for your industry or target market. Just the same, the key words you use in your Internet marketing can be generated from the domain name you choose and how it relates to your target industry/product/service/noun/verb.

L: Localization & Location - targeting niche audiences by location and a specific geography has proved to be a very strong, identifiable marketing opportunity for anybody online. Embracing localization for your domain investment objectives is a great path to consider.

M: Monetization - making money and creating multiple sources and streams of income are the cornerstones to the potential and reason why people buy savvy domain names.

N: New Markets to seize - new products and services are always being launched, just as new companies and markets are being formed. Finding with a good strong domain name to capture the essence of your business or target market for your online presence is always a great starting point.

O: Organization - a domain name is the perfect way to identify with your organization. Whether it’s a product, service, or brand - your domain name is your face on the Internet.

P: Profits - Domain are a great way to make money and profits. Invest wisely and you can find yourself with a great windfall.

Q: Quest - Like any business venture, you are on a quest to explore, learn and make money.

R: Revenue - domain names offer a myriad of ways to generate revenues. There are numerous ways and avenues to generate revenues with domain names, however, in some cases are closely held ideas and resources. Becoming educated about domain names and being focused on creating a long lasting business is a great path towards generating revenue.

S: Search Engines - Search engines are the gateway to choices on the Internet and essentially, a directory of domains classified by the type of information, product or service they offer. Search engines are a powerful marketing tool and a source of traffic for the domain name owner.

T: Technology - simply, without technology, there are no domains, websites, search engines, email or the like. The beauty of domain names is that you really don’t have to understand or learn too much technology to get started, or to make money.

U: Unique Users - people coming to your website/domains generate traffic. The more unique users that visit your website - the more traffic they create. The more traffic - the greater the value. The best way to create long lasting value with domain names is creating a venue where a consistent and growing base of unique users visit your domain name/website.

V: Virtual - Domain names are virtual real estate. Some represent ocean-front property while others can represent sky scrapers, apartments or vacant land in the middle of a barren desert. Build your portfolio of virtual real estate for the longer term or flip your domain name for a quick sale and profits.

W: World Wide Web - The world wide web and its beginning started with domain names and/or their underlying numerical identities. With the advent of the world wide web, email, search engines and the increasing convergence of communications and media - business and industry has created high demand and appreciating values for good domain names.

X: The X Factor - there is a mystique and certain unknowns regarding the true value of domain names, how to create revenue and profits, and what strategies are best to create traffic to your domain name or website. The more knowledgeable and prepared you are to dive into the domain name world - the better off you are in managing the X Factor when it rears its head.

Y: You - buying, selling, and owning domain names is a reflection upon you, what your goals are, where your interests lie, and how you want to make money with this virtual real estate. You need to decide what your objectives are and how you are most comfortable in approaching your investment and dedication towards making money with domain names.

Z: Zeal - approach your domain activities with passion and enthusiasm. The more positive your thinking and focus is with domain names - the better you will be able to manage it, be prepared, and have an open mind to seize new opportunities and make money with your domains.

We hope you enjoyed this article and find that each time you read it you take away something new and different that can add value to your world of domain names. 

——————————————————————————–

About the Author: This article is written by Chris Kern. Chris has been a serial entrepreneur, corporate finance specialist and domainer for the past 13 years and is the author of the authoritative resource book on domain name investing “How To Make Money With Domain Names”

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Offline advertising is particularly relevant if you are selling a product, or offering a service, that attract customers locally. For example, you could offer a fitness aid at your local leisure center. Many leisure or fitness centers will allow you to put a free poster offering your product, but even if they charge you for it the price is usually small. Perhaps you have a golf training aid that you can advertise at your local golf club.

Local classified ads are also a good means of getting your product some local publicity. The classified ads pages or even adverts placed on selected pages of your local press, frequently provide you with local orders. The beauty of these is that they are very easy to follow up, either with back-end products or new ones. You need not even restrict yourself to the local press. How often have you seen an internet marketing advert on the national press? They are not uncommon, and although expensive, they must produce a good return.

If you have a niche website, it could be worth your while browsing round your local newsagent and checking out the magazines on display. You know the kind - all these racks upon racks of magazines on every topic you can think of. Have a word with the newsvendor and find out some of the more popular magazines that cover your niche. These could be good publications for placing your adverts, especially if they are not too expensive and they have a good circulation.

Poster campaigns can also work well. You can advertise with posters in many shopping malls, and some stores also offer you the opportunity place an A5 poster for only pennies a week. Have your own business cards printed with your internet business contact details, such as website address and email address in addition to your phone number. Put your website address on everything, and have a signature that use on all correspondence. Not just emails and forum postings, but also offline correspondence such as letters, invoices, receipts and anything else you send to other people.

Another form of offline marketing that most people have never heard of, let alone use, is buzz advertising. This type of advertising has been growing in popularity recently, especially by offline businesses. It is used extensively by some auto companies and by cosmetics companies. Buzz advertising involves getting a verbal buzz going about your website or product. Some companies pay people specifically to verbally promote their products by approaching strangers, striking up conversations and bringing up the product in the conversation.

“Say, have you heard about the latest perfume from —-!” While not yet common it is getting more popular. Of course, the buzz need not be started off by someone you have employed to do it, but you can do it yourself. You can get your family and relatives involved as well. Before you know it, everybody might be talking about your product or your great new website. That’s how YouTube and MySpace got so popular.

If you have a van or pick-up get your business name and website address painted on the site. It’s easier to get a buzz going if people see your website in their face all the time, on vehicles, on posters, in newspapers and magazines, and even chalked on walls! Well, perhaps not the last one, but that would sure get people noticing your website! Do you get the idea? Get your website name known in every way that you can.

How about a local radio slot, with you explaining the virtues and benefits of your product, service or website? Stress the benefits, and you need not restrict it to local radio. Try for a national radio slot or even TV if your business is sizeable enough. There are no restrictions to the advertising methods you can use. Hire a loudspeaker and shout it from the rooftops!

Online advertising methods are very effective in internet marketing, since they can be visible to people all round the world, but if you know how to use offline advertising it can also work very nicely for you, and bring you a lot of business you would not otherwise have.

  The world was once black and white. The television had black and white programs and publications were mostly black. However, in the 60s, all that changed to what we see today. Therefore, we know color is now the best means of drawing attention to any media.

  We each have our own tastes. Therefore, different people have different ideas in associating colors with products. There is no actual answer on what the best color would be for a product and at one time everything was done by chance. Now you can now find the best equipment and personnel in the design and printing industry that help produce beautiful labels. The same importance is now applied to producing the appropriate label as it is to producing a product. There are many family owned companies that guarantee in creating a label with 100% satisfaction and that gives a lasting impression.

  Getting brand awareness that gives a lasting impression is a point of major concern for most companies today. By using a variety of logo or product colors you may decrease your marketing efforts.

  Furthermore, the effectiveness of retail space is greatly reduced with the wrong colors. Sometimes, the variety of colors from different products may make a unique product blend with other products on the store shelf. Therefore, uniformity of a color is very important in creating brand awareness and a presence in the retail atmosphere.

  The best way of making a product stand out from other products is with colors and materials that pop. Large manufacturers know that value and this is why they are always striving for color brilliance. You too, are sure to experience increased sales when your product has good shelf appeal.

  Colors have a psychological influence in marketing The effect of colors in influencing the mind of the prospective customer is high. The moods and the sentiments are represented with colors. Symbolic representation is not blind, but an effective way of communicating the feelings spontaneously and strongly.

  The changes we observe on earth with the advent of spring, the blossoming of the colorful plants and the joyful moods of the birds and other living beings. They all have been so synchronized that it stands testimony to the fact that color does have an effect on the human mind and the living beings. Therefore, as we verbally communicate to people in different dialects, so do the effects of colors in nonverbal communication.

  The best example would be nature. As a creative artist, Mother Nature has made the best ever color combinations on earth. Whether it is color in flowers, in butterflies or in the other millions of living creatures. We as a civilized world had the basic lessons of the uses and impacts of the colors from Mother Nature.

  While Mother Nature has used the same impact for its continuity, reproduction and sustenance, we today make use of the same for our selfish motives. Even more so in getting the target market attracted. To the ever expanding clientele, the language of the color has evolved as an effective marketing tool.

4. More link popularity from social media sites.

5. More activity on their blogs, such as more commenting and interaction.

6. Direct traffic from incoming links on social media sites (One good StumbleUpon.com submission can net thousands of visitors alone.)

7. Fast traffic increases and steady growth in unique visitors month after month.

8. An increase in subscribers and sales. Social traffic, properly acquired, is very warm to your message and products.

The problem for most people when thinking about social marketing, after getting a taste of all the hundreds of sites there are to interact with, is becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed into inaction.

They assume established social marketers gained their “social authority” in a short period of time. This is simply not true. Although the opportunities for driving serious traffic and rankings from hundreds of social sites exists, it is an embarrassment of riches.

And it cannot be conquered over night. It is a gradual process you manage with all your other responsibilities and grow as time allows.

What I encourage my clients to do is set aside enough time each day to get one more link, participate in one more conversation, or sign up for one more account on a social site. 

A little goes a long way and social marketing is not an “all or nothing” situation. Eventually you will have established yourself on the major social media sites you need to be on. And you will have a schedule that allows you to keep up with your other work while adding this extremely powerful marketing method to the mix.

10 Steps For Starting a Social Marketing Campaign

6. Once you have established yourself on all the sites above, meaning you have a decent profile in each that shows you’ve been active and involved, move on and search for networks that are geared toward your particular market niche. There are a lot of new “vertical” social sites popping up that focus on much more narrow markets and their membership is far warmer to your kind of information than on the bigger, more general networks above.

Add a new site to the mix as often as you can and repeat the steps for becoming established there as mentioned in Step 2 above.

7. Join a group dedicated to social marketing to pick up tips from other social marketers and find new places you can sign up with to continue building your social authority. New sites pop up every single day. Follow places like Go2Web20.net to find new opportunities to connect with your market.

8. Remote blog. Join blogger.com and put content there that is good, just not good enough to go on your main blog. This serves two purposes: 1) you get to use more of the great content you find as you travel through all the social news sites and 2) it gives you another place to link back to your main site and pass on traffic and link popularity over time.

9. Track your progress diligently. If something you are trying on a social network isn’t working, you need to know that in order to save time and move on to something more fruitful. MyBlogLog.com (above) has a tracking system which will show you where your traffic is coming from so you can avoid time wasting efforts and focus more on the sites that are really pulling in good traffic for you.

10. Don’t freak out! This is only overwhelming if you act like someone at an all-you-can-eat buffet with no self control. You have other things to do and this needs to fit into, not dominate, your current business and marketing.

Social marketing, once you’ve established some authority, will replace some things you are currently doing to promote your site. Many people completely drop their paid advertising or PPC campaigns once they see the organic, natural traffic and search engine rankings pile up from social marketing.

Until then, just take it one step at a time and do some social marketing. A little goes a long way and before you know it, you will reach a point where a lot of traffic and lots of search engine rankings are piling up because you simply started doing something each day.

There’s a lot you can learn about social marketing. And not all of it can be found on free blogs. 

About The Author
Jack Humphrey is the author of The Authority Black Book and the creator of a powerful social marketing community at SocialPowerLinking.com 

Check out our other posts on Social Marketing

There are several tools you will need to use to create your landing pages, build your list, and run your list. In this section, you’ll learn exact what tools you can use that any newbie could learn. Now you aren’t going to be left in the dark about how to use these tools. You’ll learn how to do that step by step in the next sections.  The tools used don’t require a huge learning curve and that’s why they were used.

How to create a landing page quickly by using a simple method

Creating the content of a landing page does not require a special tool, but with this simple method that you will will be taught; you will quickly and easily begin to build landing pages as if it were something you already knew. Remember…it’s already in you, you just need someone to take you by the hand and show you how to do it.

How to put the landing page together and make it look nice without knowing HTML

By this section, you would have known how to create the content for a landing page and you’ll have the web form code in hand from Aweber. In this section, you will learn how to use a web editing tool to put everything together. Without a drop of knowledge of HTML, you will learn how to use this editor tool to make nice looking landing pages…

How to create a responsive list and drive traffic to build your list

By now you would have known how to create a landing page that is ready to build your subscriber list. You want to build a list that is of quality, not quantity, as your goal is to produce better results in the future right? Well…Building a responsive list doesn’t need to be scary; in fact to build one that is responsive, can actually be fun and therefore fun for your readers. You’ll learn several tips on increasing your conversions.

Now, without being left in the dark, you will be given marketing methods that are low cost, yet powerful enough to start increasing your subscriber rate to your list. You want people who want to be on your list and you’ll learn how to target these people.

Check out the Video Series Here