And is having a logo really that important? My answer to both of these questions is an emphatic YES!

A logo is a graphic or visual representation of your brand. Your brand is your business, product or service and what it stands for. It’s whatever you are out in the marketplace selling.

Why do small businesses need a logo?

Why can’t they just market using their company name? Logos are expensive, right? Can a small business owner really afford to get a logo? Or at least a good logo? Lots of questions. Some I’m sure you’ve pondered yourself at one time or another.

I believe ALL businesses should have a logo

You need a graphic element that captures the essence of your business and communicates an idea to your prospects and customers. A mark that can lead the look and feel of all of your marketing materials.

You only have a split second to grab someone’s attention

You need to make the most of that time. A good logo mark can communicate a message or intrigue a prospect to want to find out more.

Before you decide you can’t afford a good logo

Let me assure you that is absolutely NOT the case. Look, I’ve been in the ad agency business for 20 years. During that time I’ve worked with some of the most talented graphic artists and designers in the business. But even I did not turn to them when I needed a logo for my small business. Why? I couldn’t. They were simply too expensive for my small business budget. So what did I do? I found a great alternative that’s inexpensive, fast and good.

LogoWorks

For $300 to $500 you’ll get a variety of logo designs to choose from and you’ll have them within just a few days. Plus you’ll get several rounds of revisions to make sure you are completely happy with your final mark.

What I like most about Logoworks

They require you to complete a creative direction worksheet that ensures their designs are strategically on target with your brand. This is KEY if you want your logo to be a good representation of your business. If anyone offers to design a logo for you without some form of creative brief or direction worksheet, don’t do it!

If you don’t have a logo, or if yours is in need of an overhaul

I just bought a artefact afterwards accepting on a account for over two years. I hadn’t spent one red cent with this guy for two years, but like clockwork, his e-mails just kept coming.

Day afterwards day afterwards day. Anniversary afterwards week.

I assuredly gave in and purchased his artefact afresh (it’s in a acreage WAY alfresco marketing).

Why did I break on his account for so long? And why did I assuredly pony up the cashola for his product?

It’s because he had accomplished me to respond. Just like he accomplished anybody on his account to respond.

How did he do it? Lucky for you, I’m a administration guy.

Here are three things he did to body a acknowledging list…

1. He Built Affinity With His Readers

2. He Created Excitement And Anticipation

3. He Expanded His Line Of Products

Let’s attending briefly at anniversary one

1. He Built Affinity With His Readers

The guy told stories. He fabricated it personal. Over the two years, I got to apperceive him through his emails. And here’s the clincher…

I attending advanced to accepting his emails! Even admitting I get hundreds a day, I apprehend his first.

That’s powerful. If you can get your readers to attending advanced to accepting your stuff, you can tap into that monee timberline like a faucet.

So, body affinity with your readers by authoritative your being personal.

2. He Created Excitement And Anticipation

It never failed. He told me all the time…

“Hey, watch out for what I’ve got planned next Wednesday.”

or…

“During the endure anniversary of this month, I’m gonna do something absolutely appropriate for you. Watch your e-mail.”

He got his account aflame about things he had planned. I bent myself consistently adulatory the day would bustle up and get actuality so he’d bare his abruptness for me.

My associate Jeff Walker does this brilliantly. If you’re not on his account at…

http://www.sixinseven.com

… you should be. Apprehend the e-mails you get from Jeff. You’ll apperceive EXACTLY what I’m talking about here.

When you body YOUR lists, try to accelerate and burn them by authoritative ‘em attending foward to your stuff.

3. He Expanded His Line Of Products

One affair that consistently fabricated me appetent about this guy is how fast he created articles for his list. The dude was like a machine!

It seemed like he was advancing out with something every brace of weeks for us to buy.

Now, this is important, so accept up here…

If you wish to advise your account to RESPOND, you accept to accord them something to acknowledge to over and over.

Read that endure book again.

Give your account something to buy (either your articles or associate products). Accord them something to do (fill out surveys, acquaint you what they want, acquaint you area to being your latest product).

Then, do it over and over. Train your account to RESPOND.

Last Thoughts

Building lists is great. But, if you body a asleep list, you’re just crumbling your time.

You accept to body RESPONSIVE lists. You wish humans to WANT to buy your stuff. You wish them to attending advanced to affairs your stuff.

I accept a acquaintance who makes added bill with his account of beneath 1,000 than added knuckleheads accomplish with lists of 100,000.

I’m serious.

A acknowledging account can abutment your absolute business.

There are many advantages you and your business can collect to publish your own bulletin.

1. To remain in contact — Your customers and customers are the vital element of your business. Which best manner of remaining in liaison with your existing customers than by a bulletin? A bulletin enables you to add personal contacts to your report/ratio and to celebrate big steps, your clean and your customer ’s. in addition to promoting your relationship with your customers, a bulletin can also enable you to present the products, to offer special sales or discounts to your existing base of customer, and to encourage references.

2. Hook in new customers — Unless they have an immediate need or came on your premise by a powerful reference, majority of the gained potential customers ‘purchase of T immediately. Often they will compare the prices and will compare that the means you will probably never re-examine them. However if you have a free bulletin which gives to the interested customers the opportunity to learn more about you, your business, and your products for free and they can also learn more about your interaction with your existing customers. A bulletin can be a very simple strategy to transform a disposable visitor into customer of life.

3. Establish your expertise — Nobody knows any more about your businesses that you made what does you an expert. Probably the construction of your own businesses has more left you with much of expertise in your field. Divide your nuggets of knowledge by your bulletin to look further into your relationship with your existing customers and to convince the potential customers who you are the answer to their problems.

Now that I convinced you that you must publish your own bulletin, I want to go above some questions that the writers and the editors of budding always pose.

Which is exactly an electronic bulletin?

Just like their paper counterparts, the electronic bulletins provide the messages usually written concerning a common topic or a matter. The principal difference is that an electronic bulletin exceeds paper and ink and most probably only never exists on a screen of computer.

A certain electronic bulletin are delivered only via the email while others are delivered only on the Web. The majority are delivered in a certain combination of both. The majority of my electronic publications and bulletins are provided via the email but also available immediately via the Web page (or rather of the page of blog) and of the food of RSS.

You can choose the method is adapted more to you and your assistance.

How do you publish an electronic bulletin?

It is much easier to begin the publication of your own electronic bulletin than it is to start to the top a publication of impression. You simply must decide on a matter, call your publication and start to write. It is easy to find an assistance (beyond your own user base if you choose) by the various directories of electronic publication and bulletin around the Internet as well as to go directly to the source, for example the discussion embarks for people interested in your matter.

You will have to determine a method of the delivery, which means the establishment the most likely your Web own site or page on your existing Web site; creation of the files for your exits once they are created, which could mean to install a blog; and detecting your readers, who average probable installing a sending or a service of autoresponder. However you can use the free tools to make unspecified among these things.

Budget is the biggest problem for the business owners, especially the one with limited capital, to promote their service and/or their product to the world. Many campaign techniques have been try to reduce the cost for this part. 

Social media marketing has been touted as one of the cheapest campaign methods that reach customers worldwide. Producer or service provider should register themselves into hundreds of different social media sites to start promoting their products as soon as possible.

As a first step, you need to build your brand image by creating particular identity on social media sites such as social networking, video sharing, social bookmarking, etc. Social media identity should be protected to avoid wrong usage of the identity when your business growing fast. 

Submitinme.com help you to keep your social identity safe. They are very experienced with their job and know what they are doing. With cheap price, you can assure yourself that your identity in social media sites are yours and ready to use. Start growing your business with social media marketing.

To achieve sales target, you need some important tools. For you online marketers, I will write short review about one very important tool. Which is email marketing tool.

Email marketing is general yet powerful tools to build your brand and put it tight straight into your customer’s email address. There are obvious advantages when you using this tools for marketing purposes. 

 

1. Build strong relationship with customers or leads. With good email campaign, you will get not only one time customers but also returning customers that might use your services or your products over and over again.
2. Rapidly achieve your customers. Speed of email is unbeatable. Since email has been one important tools for everyone and everywhere, your campaign will arrive in their inbox in seconds and might be read in the same day. Campaign with printed media or online advertisement may have same speed but but too costly.
3.  Easily update the information and/or special offers for your customers. For old customers, there are always a space to make them comeback with special offers. Email marketing will do better in this case.
4. Free to put your links everywhere. You an put your promotional links everywhere you want. This fact differ email marketing with another advertisement methods which limiting us to place our links at strategic places.
5. Fully monitoring each feedback from customers. Any comments, feedback, and requests easily monitored and the responses are always updated. 

Those advantages above should assure you how important email marketing is. And with help from Marketing Automation tools and proper usage, it will help you to achieve your target in sales. I will write about another marketing tools on the next post. So stay tune.

In the marketing world, there is the statement “Customer is the King.” I fully agree with the statement, because without customers, a company or the seller will not be able to sell their products. In the blogsphere, there is also the statement “Content is King.” But for this statement I do not agree. 

Content or content of a blog article is important, because from the content people will see characteristics and quality of a blog. Even as the once mentioned in the article - previous article, that the content quality, the opportunity to get more traffic and backlink will be very large. But whether the only writing articles that can guarantee quality blog has become a successful blog? The answer of course impossible. 

In addition to quality content, 1 thing needed is another Marketing (market or promote the blog). Without doing marketing, as well as the content of any blog, we will not have people who know her. Sebagai contoh : Someone has a bakery and able to produce delicious cakes, but if the owner didn’t promote their product to the public, no one want to buy their cakes. 

Two words combination, the Content + Marketing is the right combination in the basic of a successful blog. The rest is depends on how good we do two things with the appropriate, effective, and efficient. How about you? do you agree with the term Content is the King?

This is the 1st articles from the How to Improve Your Website/Blog Traffic series.

Niche is the niche here is the truth - true niche (niche market, a rare, unique) but at the same time many people sought in the search engine. Is there a such? Clearly, there is, but it is easy to obtain. But at least there are a few tips that can help guide us to make it easier to find and choose a niche topic for the blog and our article content. 

1. For the first step should be to ask ourselves: “What is the field I feel enough cock, quite advanced, expert enough, experienced enough, or simply have a high interest?” That is the basic capital in select niche. Akan better we choose the right topic - true enough we kuasai although much less than we sought people choose a topic that is very much sought our own people, but less control. Why? Because in the end we will experience impasse, running out of ideas, and running out of creativity if we choose the topics that we kuasai less. Ultimately, the failure will be obtained. 

2. If there is still confusion in a niche in the selection step number 1 above, there are some sites that may be able to give an idea of the selection: 

- Http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers 
- Http://pages.ebay.com/sell/whatshot/index.html 
- Http://pulse.ebay.com/ 
- Http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm 
- Http://www.google.com/products 
- Http://magazines.com/ 

There are several products and topics that might provide inspiration for us .. 

3. After some - get some topics that are quite niche, go to google’s site to check the following topics keyword whether the niche is good or bad: 

- Http://google.com/trends?q=&ctab=0&geo=ID&geor=all&date=ytd&sort=0 
- Https: / / adwords.google.com / select / KeywordToolExternal 

It can be said if the search results and the trend is quite large. 

4. Check also google.co.id or at google.com (for the target market abroad) about the niche keywords that have been through the three points above, see the level of competition. To check to see its number of search result. Too many competitors is not good, but there is no competitor is not good. Why? Come try it yourself why .. 

In addition to viewing a number of search result, other factors that can be considered is the AdWords ads on the keyword in the search results. Btw, I just do what the ad is AdWords? Yah I like the tau aja ya, so I need to explain again what is AdWords. Logically, if there is a brave advertiser in keyword advertising is, there is a prospect, and traffic there. 

I think the guide points - points are above tolerable can help us choose a good niche topic. The last step is to live to optimize and maximize the niche is. Points - points above can be used as preparation in choosing niche topics for the article (content-pillar) and the theme for the blog (for those who will make the new blog).

Video advertising company YuMe has announced a new ad unit launch today. The new ad unit is called “Insynch” and the company calls it a takeover unit. Basically how it works is that it combines video ads and traditional online ads together on a page. If a video ad is on the left and a traditional ad on the right, YuMe can sync the two together and pass bits back and forth. In their demo, YuMe combines a video ad, a layer ad and a traditional banner ad together.

From the launch announcement, “How does the InSynch Video Takeover work? While the in–stream video ad is playing, the entire page where the player resides turns into an advertising canvas where anything is possible. For example, marketers can have objects jump out of the video ad and into a companion banner placement or have these elements fly across the web page, temporarily taking over the page and captivating the viewer’s attention. ”

It looks like a pretty interesting advertising unit as long as the actual synch always works perfectly. Check out the demo of the InSynch ad unit on YuMe’s site.

The topic of paid social media is something I’ve been thinking about a lot of the past few months. When I met with Scott Monty of Ford, I mentioned the idea of assuming that all social media is paid. Perhaps you already do assume that what you read is already paid or sponsored although I’ve tried to think that what I read is genuine unless otherwise noted. For the purposes of this discussion, I am leaving the “is paid social media good or evil” on the side for another day.

Scott noted that the 100 paid reviewers of the Ford Fiesta will disclose that they are part of the “movement”. That’s great that there will be disclosure - it’s something that many of the paid reviews systems have moved to. And while I am using Ford as an example, they are by no means alone with regards to my question. Whether it’s Izea, Magpie, in-house ad sales, etc, the question continues to grow in importance. And I haven’t even mentioned pimping by investors, friends, family members, etc.

Disclosure is easy on a blog, but what about as the blog entry is pushed around. Does the disclosure travel with the blog entry? And more importantly, what about all of the social media services like Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook, Plurk, etc.? How do we define disclosure on these networks?

Scott says that twitter messages will be tagged with a #tag. But if I am a new/general user of Twitter, how do I know that #tag means that it’s a sponsored message? Magpie sticks #magpie into the Twitter message but the same question applies. What if I want to note my post about the Ford Fiesta on Twitter - if I use the #tag, does it then appear that it’s a sponsored post? What about users who find a Twitter message via a search? What about retweets (that is where another Twitter user shares a message from another user)?

Melanie Notkin was paid by Disney to push out Twitter messages about a new movie release. In her blog post she noted, “Every time I tweet a ’sponsored’ tweet from Disney, I will use #SADisney. That way, you’ll know it.” That works for people who have read her blog post, but what about all of the new followers she gets each day, users searching for Disney or people that don’t read her blog. How do they know that she isn’t just saying she likes the Disney movie and is instead getting paid to push messages to her followers?

Twitter’s not alone - what about photos on Flickr or videos on YouTube. Yesterday I watched a video that was paid for by Intel about Intel. The blog post noted that the video was paid but there was nothing in the actual video regarding the sponsored status. Had they put a note upfront about the paid status inside of the video, that would suffice for the video medium. So viewers on Youtube.com or in an embed have no idea the content was paid.

As more companies expand their efforts to buy users in return for authoritative media impressions and content, this issue of paid social media disclosure will only continue to rise. And companies will increase their spend in this area because it’s cheap and provides a greater return than a traditional banner ad or widget.

The bottom line is that just sticking a hashtag (e.g. #tag) on a twitter message, photo or video isn’t enough to properly disclose a relationship.

Could it be that some companies actually like this usage of paid social media because it looks very authentic and they can claim disclosure that most system users will never realize is actually sponsored or paid? I certainly hope not.

We need to come together to to develop standards around social media disclosure so that we never blur the lines between a person paid for their content and those who are doing it out of true passion or concern. On the other hand, we could just assume everything we read on any of the social media sites is paid.

source

Online advertising optimization service YieldBuild has announced that they now support Microsoft pubCenter in their premium text ad program. Microsoft pubCenter is in beta and publishers need to be approved for entry. YieldBuild notes they can get qualified publishers directly into the text ad program. Microsoft pubCenter is similar to Google AdSense. Apparently some publishers in the pubCenter beta report better performance than with AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network. I can't comment on the results as I don't use pubCenter but as with any ad network, pricing can fluctuate on each individual ad click. Check out my video interview with YieldBuild CEO Paul Edmondson. source