We All Make Mistakes

Originally Posted by Devil Reincarnated

A young Marketing executive was about to leave the office at 5.30pm when he saw the company Marketing Director standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand. "Listen", said the CEO, "This is important and my secretary has left the office for the day. Can you make this thing work?"

"Sure I can", said the young executive, being keen to please his boss. He turned the machine on and inserted the paper, then pressed the start button.

"Excellent, excellent", said the Marketing Director as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy".


We all make mistakes. People starting in Internet Marketing probably make more mistakes than most and a big part of the problem is that it seems an easy and inexpensive business to get involved in. A couple of $/£ for hosting, slap up a web site, add a little content and watch the money roll in. Well, that's the theory for most. Unfortunately life, and Internet Marketing, can kick you in the teeth. You don't just need to get the basics right. Over the years there are probably millions of people who have done just that, and still failed. To be a success you firstly need a unique product or products. Without that you're permanently paddling against the tide. If you've nothing to set you apart from your competitors then your prospective customers/clients have no reason to choose you over one of them. Whilst I cant tell you what product or service to offer - for if I did then I'd have thousands more in competition with me - I can however give you some pointers on making your products or services stand out.



Business name

Your business name should be something short, punchy and snappy - whilst still being somewhat relative to what your actual business is. A short memorable name can be recalled much more easily than something long-winded. I had some of the most desirable 5 to 8 letter domain names back in the day, and they all earned well.


Website

Make it different. Totally different to others. Something unique that sets you apart. Your website layout and design is what first catches the eye of visitors, before they've even had a chance to read about your products or services. I once had a website where a dinosaur (T-Rex) came running at the screen when the page opened. The visitor was then taken down it's throat and the site map opened up. It got a whole lot of people talking about it, and vastly increased traffic and buyers.

Make your template unique and very different to others by adding something unusual or eye-catching. If you cant do it then save your money up and pay someone to do it who can.


Copywriting

The copy you produce must be informative, enlightening and compelling the reader to take action. Grammatical errors and glaring spelling mistakes are a big no-no here. Your sales pitch will make or break you so it's imperative to get it right first time. I immediately turn away when I visit a page that appears to have been written by a child. Again, if you cant do it yourself then wait until you've got the money to hire a professional copywriter. Steaming ahead with poorly written copy is a recipe for disaster.


Social Media

You absolutely MUST take advantage of all that social media has to offer. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, etc, can all massively increase your visitors, and that's without the income streams that could be earned from them. If you're naive in this respect then make a point of learning as much as you can about all of them. There are also some really good social media consultants out there who can dramatically improve your visitor stats.


SEO

Search engine optimization is perhaps the single most important thing you can do to make your website more visible online. Search engine bots regularly crawl the web and it's how your website has been tweaked to "appeal" to them that is all important. It can make the difference between a page 1 or 2 listing, to being out with the washing on page 300+. GET A PROFESSIONAL IN. It will be the wisest money you've ever spent.


OFFLINE MARKETING

The internet is THE ONLY place to be for those with a product or service with national or global appeal. If you think otherwise then your wallet will be permanently thin. For those who want to reach a more local or regional audience then there are still plenty offbeat ways to attract attention to yourself. One-off adverts in local press can be very successful if the majority of readers were to actually read them. Think out of the box to come up with novel ideas to ensure this.

I once requested a local newspaper place my box advert horizontally (on its side). The heading on it read: "People Usually Fall Over When They See Our Prices So We Advertise Horizontally". It had the desired effect as it immediately caught the readers eye, and with most people believing it to be a printing error they turn the paper to the side to see what it is.

Another time the header to my box advert read: "WellOilBeefHooked". It had nothing to do with my copy but had a huge response, and the newspaper even did a follow up article as so many readers had wrote in saying how they found it so funny.



There are many, many other ways to ensure some online success, but remember, no matter if you were a master of all the above, without a really half decent product or service you've got little to no chance of making it.

Good luck to you all.

Originally Posted by Devil Reincarnated

Withdrawn due to abuse from max5ty, a man who knows everything, and nothing.