Why There's Never Been a Better Time
to Start Your Home Business - PAGE 2
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#2: Make sure your e-mail gets delivered...
the critical changes you need to be aware of
E-mail marketing is still highly profitable. In fact, we made $2.4
million last year from e-mail marketing alone!
Not only is it a great -- and inexpensive -- way to establish relationships
with your customers, but your promotions and follow-up offers can
be completely automated.
However, while you used to be able to send e-mail to absolutely
everyone, these days you have to be very careful. Spam -- a growing
problem on the 'Net -- cost US businesses an estimated $17 billion
in 2005 (Ferris Research) and now accounts for 57% of all
e-mail (Ipswitch 2006)!
The consequences of spamming have grown far beyond a slap on the
wrist from your Internet Service Provider or a few nasty e-mails
from angry recipients. For example...
- Internet Service Providers now filter all
incoming e-mail for spam by blocking messages that contain particular
combinations of words or phrases and shutting out ALL e-mail from
the domains and IP addresses of known spammers. So if you get
mistakenly labeled as a spammer, as much as 50% of your e-mail
may be "filtered" and never reach your subscribers. And it can
take weeks or months to resolve the issue!
- The CAN-SPAM Act (January 2004) introduced
laws that allowed spammers to be prosecuted if specific guidelines
aren't being met. Under this Act you can be fined, and even jailed,
if your e-mails don't meet certain requirements, such as an "unsubscribe"
link in the body of each e-mail you send out.
The bottom line is that if you want to take advantage of the profit-boosting
power of e-mail marketing, you MUST make sure that your e-mails
comply with the CAN-SPAM Act. You can read the full text of the
CAN-SPAM regulations at www.spamlaws.com/federal/can-spam.shtml.
Once you've made sure your e-mails will be delivered, you need
to think about their content. In the face of overflowing
inboxes, your e-mails and newsletters need to be particularly appealing
and valuable if you want them to be opened.
#3: Keep up with the search engines
and take advantage of FREE sources of traffic
The search engine landscape has changed dramatically since we published
the first edition of our course. We used to recommend getting listed
on eight major search engines: Altavista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek,
Lycos, Northern Light, WebCrawler, and Yahoo.
Today, clear leaders have emerged, narrowing our recommendations
to the top three contenders:
- Google: The most important of the three, Google
has a 49% share of the search market.
- Yahoo: A distant second, Yahoo has a 22% market
share.
- MSN: With 11% of the market, MSN is still worth
focusing on.
With fewer search engines, keeping on top of their ever-shifting
algorithms has become critical. If you can get a top listing on
Google, for example, you can double your potential customers!
A new way to drive free traffic to your site is to write short
articles related to your industry and post them on e-zine article
directories such as Ezinearticles.com.
Include your tagline at the bottom of each article you write and
watch your traffic increase exponentially -- as well as your inbound
links (which the search engines consider when ranking your site!).
Take advantage of as many FREE sources of traffic as you can to
drive tons of targeted traffic to your site!
#4: Instantly boost your traffic
with pay-per-click advertising
Paid search has exploded, becoming a widely accepted way to drive
qualified traffic to your site -- fast. And with each passing year,
it becomes more sophisticated, allowing you to zero in on your target
market with greater precision.
Today, the major players are...
- Yahoo! Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/): Yahoo's sponsored
search lets you advertise your site in the search results of the
following search engines: MSN, Yahoo, AltaVista, InfoSpace, AlltheWeb,
and NetZero.
-
... you can have your ads show up in sponsored search
listings for certain keywords -- and you can also advertise on
other sites that match your audience.
- MSN AdCenter (https://adcenter.msn.com/): MSN has recently entered
the arena of paid search with MSN AdCenter. So far, it's the only
PPC engine to offer keyword-based demographic targeting.
Paid search is one of the fastest ways to drive qualified traffic
to your site... and if done properly, won't break the bank.
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Disclaimer: The information presented and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent the views of Work-at-Home-Business.com and/or its partners.
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