When you write the copy for your website you have to make sure that you do a good job of relating to your customers. You need to identify with their wants and needs and explain how your product will make their lives better.

… In short, you have to make your copy all about THEM, not YOU.

This might sound obvious, but it’s actually one of the biggest mistakes we see online business owners make!

In a recent newsletter, we did a free site review for one of our subscribers and showed her how a few easy tweaks to her salescopy could help her do a better job of relating to her market. If you’re currently struggling with your salescopy or looking for ways to improve the performance of your website, you should definitely check it out.

Click here to read the free site review now. Note: It’s the second article, so you’ll have to scroll down.

(WARNING: Includes serious puppy cuteness.)

Your visitors can’t touch or taste or smell your product from a picture — or even a video — so it’s up to you to describe the benefits of your product as convincingly and clearly as possible in order to compel people to buy.

But what if you could get someone ELSE to write about your products on their blog, and get their readers  interested in what you have to offer?

A personal recommendation from a third-party blogger who’s popular with your audience can be an effective way to convince potential customers to buy your product. After all, when it comes to marketing, nothing beats “word of mouth” advertising!

When a popular blogger recommends your product, their readers won’t be as likely to view their words as a “sales pitch.” There’s also a good chance the blogger will describe or display your product in a way you might not have considered — and that unique take might be just the thing to drive a new customer to your site.

Bloggers and content creators love having something fresh to talk about, and your product could be just the thing to inspire them. And from there, the buzz takes care of itself.

How to Approach Bloggers

If you decide to send samples of your product to bloggers in exchange for them mentioning it on your site,  here are some quick tips to ensure a great connection:

• Choose a blogger who suits your product. Make sure the bloggers you approach a) might actually use a product like yours and b) have readers that might use a product like yours. There’s no use in sending your patented wrench to a food blogger! You’ll stand a better chance of them actually writing a review if your product is something they would consider buying themselves.
• Write a personal email to introduce yourself. The blogging world is one that prides itself on being “social”, and form letters can set a conversation off to a rusty start. You can include the same information in each email, but make sure to begin with a personal note about their content and why you wanted to reach out to them specifically about your product.
• Don’t send anything until they give you the “OK.” Even if they have an address posted somewhere on their blog or website, don’t send products without approaching them first. An introduction is a must.
• Don’t put limits on what they can write. One of the quickest ways to get a blogger to refuse to review your product is to tell them you don’t want them to say anything negative about it, or that you want them to address certain points about your product. You have to give them the freedom to give you honest feedback, and to share their honest thoughts with their readers.

  Not only does constructive criticism gives you a chance to learn about how you can improve your product, but it lends an authenticity to the review that blog readers appreciate. (And if you have concerns about some aspect of your product getting a truly negative review, then you probably shouldn’t be sending it out to anyone — including your customers!)

Where Do You Find Bloggers to Recommend Your Products?

If you’re looking for bloggers to approach with samples, plug your keywords into Google BlogSearch, and check the results to see who might be writing about your industry, or might be interested in testing a product like yours.

Then send an email with an offer to get started — and get ready for some great buzz for your product.

If you’re just starting out with building your own online business, or you’re a lone entrepreneur with an established Internet business, it may seem like an overwhelming prospect to get involved with social media.

Where will you find the time? How will you get started?

Well, we’re going to suggest a simple and foolproof way to get started with social media that doesn’t require you to know a ton about social strategies — all you need to know is your business!

Start a blog on your website (most website hosts offer a Wordpress plugin that makes it easy to get the ball rolling) where you post information and thoughts about your industry, and then set up profiles on Facebook and Twitter to link back to your posts and ideas.

The posts don’t need to be super-long or detailed, either — you can do a simple “how to”, or offer an opinion on a big development in your industry, or even share a quick story about how you solved a problem for a customer with your product.

But remember — ONLY post information — no pitches.

Then, once you’ve built up some content and some inbound links from social sites, start joining groups on these sites related to your industry, and “friending” and following people who are in the groups.

But again, don’t pitch them. Just take part in the groups by providing great information, and let people click through to check out your blog and your website on your own.

And they will.

That’s right: even though you’re not pitching, people will seek out your business ANYWAY, once they’ve connected with you at social sites.

In fact, the lack of pitch leaves them feeling at ease, and sets up a solid foundation of trust between you and your potential customers.

If your fellow members are intrigued by what you have to say, they’re much more likely to come check you out… especially if they aren’t pushed or cajoled to go there.

And on top of all this great relationship building, you’ll see a definite boost in the search engines because of all the freshly updated content you’re posting on your site, and the quality inbound social links.

Two big wins for a single strategy!

Remember: on the Web, your credibility is your calling card, since none of the business that is done goes on face to face. It may seem like a waste of time to give out free information and ideas — but a great reputation is priceless in Internet marketing!

Well, if you’re short on time and long on money, then you might find it more efficient to outsource the job to a web designer. If you choose this option, make sure the designer has a strong grasp of Internet marketing principles.

There are so many designers out there who know how to build a pretty website — but don’t have the first clue how to create a site that actually SELLS.

As you go through your list of prospective designers, ask each one to supply you with a list of web addresses of other business websites they have designed. Then check those websites out for yourself.  Do they conform to the basic web design principles we describe in our lay out in our best-selling online marketing course?

If the answer is yes, chances are the designer knows what he or she is talking about. But if the answer is no, you might want to keep looking for a designer.

Where to find a good web designer

Doing a search in Google like, “web designers – YOUR CITY NAME” can yield good results. Pay special attention to the sponsored listings above and to the right of the regular listings. If the designer is web-savvy enough to have created their own locally targeted AdWords campaign then chances are they know something about Internet marketing.

If you know some businesses in your area who have great websites, you could always contact the owners and ask them if they wouldn’t mind sharing their designer’s contact info. (Assuming they hired a contractor and don’t have their own designer in house.)

Don’t feel you have to be limited to your local area, either. If you find a designer whose work you love who lives far away, you can still hire them to build your site. It’s easy to communicate via phone and email and share files online.

Who do we recommend?

The few companies we deal with are the best in the business; they know how to build websites that generate sales, and they are customer-service oriented. Plus, they are efficient, creative, and reasonably priced. They can design everything you need from scratch, including graphics and logos — or they can just build it from what you have already.

Check out www.marketingtips.com/webdesign.php for more information.

We’ve set up a special form at the site above that you can fill out with your needs. We will forward your request on to the company that is best suited to your purposes and they will contact you to chat about your needs and provide more information.

What you can reasonably expect to pay

With designers ranging from talented “dabblers” to high-end professionals, the price you may be quoted by a designer can vary greatly. Costs can range anywhere from $20 an hour to $100 an hour. For most work, expect to pay a mid-range price to ensure quality.

Did you hire a web designer to build YOUR website? If so, tell us about your experience in the comments!

Local Search — including sites such as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and Bing Maps — is quickly becoming one of the most dominant sources of online traffic. The local search market already generates about $33 billion a year — and with the growing popularity of smartphones such as iPhones, Blackberries, and Droids, it’s about to get a whole lot bigger — FAST.

That’s because people who have smartphones search differently online. If they’re looking for a nearby business, chances are they won’t use the regular Google search engine — they’ll use Google Maps instead. Many of their smartphones have built-in GPS capabilities and can automatically determine the location where the user is. And that information gets transmitted to Google Maps, which can then automatically show them there particular businesses are in relation to their location.

For example, say you’re on holiday in Puerto Vallarta and you’re craving Chinese food. With a GPS-capable smartphone you can simply type “chinese restaurants” into your Google Maps application and your smartphone will automatically show you where the nearest Chinese restaurants are. You don’t have to type in your address — or even know what it is.

… You have to admit, that’s a pretty cool way to get information.

1. Go to Google Maps and run a search for your business. You should be listed, unless your business is so new it’s not even listed in the local Yellow Pages yet. When you see your listing, click on the “more info” link.

2. Click on the link that says, “business owner.”

3. You will be taken to a page in Google’s Local Business Center where you can add, edit, or suspend listings. Click on the “edit my business information” option.

4. You’ll be shown a long screen of information that you can edit and add in.  Make the most of this listing. Not only can you make sure your phone number and address are correct, you can also add an email address, your website URL (if you already have one — if not, don’t worry, you can return and add this information in later), your hours of operation, your payment options, and photos of your business. You can even add up to five YouTube-hosted videos to your listing!

6. Make sure the information about your business is correct and then click the “submit” button at the bottom of the page, Google will want to validate that you are the owner of your listing. They’ll send you a PIN code and activation instructions to the business address associated with your listing. You can then use that PIN to sign in and claim your listing. After that you may edit your Google Maps listing as often as you want.

Congratulations! You have just completed your first Internet marketing task. Once you have claimed your Google Maps listing, we suggest you go through the same process for your listings on Yahoo Maps and Bing Maps.

It only takes a few minutes to complete, but the pay-off will be HUGE.

Some marketers use PPC to send traffic to a site that hasn’t been ranked yet in the “natural” (unpaid)  search results, while others keep PPC in their toolbox even when they’re getting  decent organic traffic. As long as they’re making more money than they’re spending on their ads, they see it as a win-win.

If you’re looking to put PPC to work for you in 2010, here are some key things to keep in mind to make sure you’re getting the most from your campaigns…

Traffic isn’t the key goal… revenue is!

Sure, gaining a ton of traffic to your site can have a positive impact on how you rank in the organic search results — but if that traffic never converts to sales, your financial output will definitely outweigh the reward. Getting 10,000 visitors with a vague keyword that results in 10 sales isn’t as valuable to you as a keyword that only brings 1,000 targeted visitors — but yields 50 sales (and odds are, your bid was cheaper, too!)

Focus on SEO for improving your natural results –  after all, it doesn’t cost you a penny! Then spend your PPC dollars on keywords that are designed to convert... not just draw a crowd.

Give some love to long-tail keywords…

Long-tail keywords (specific, detailed keyword phrases) offer great conversion possibilities, but many beginners just won’t bid on them,  because they’re less frequently searched on than related popular terms — and that makes newbies nervous!

BUT… they’re also far less difficult to rank for organically, and cost significantly less to bid on for PPC campaigns. In addition, searchers using long-tail keywords are FAR more likely to convert than searchers who use more generic or popular terms.

Running PPC as an affiliate? Put quality first!

Affiliate marketers are all abuzz lately about a recent Google “slap” that left many affiliate websites and landing pages flailing outside of Google’s search results… along with a trail of  destroyed AdWords campaigns.

But the sites that survived were those that made quality their first priority. Which means…

• They are “real” websites: Thin affiliate landing pages with a jumble of articles aimed at achieving a good quality score don’t inspire much Google love.  A properly structured website with relevant content is much more likely to get a positive nod.
• They are regularly updated: Google loves fresh, relevant information, added regularly. If you put up a bunch of articles and then ignore your site for months at a time — while still directing traffic there regularly — Google won’t be impressed.
• They were being promoted in multiple ways: Sites that only see traffic from PPC got hit hard in the slap. Affiliates who want their sites and campaigns to thrive should focus on more than just PPC traffic (article marketing, directory submission, social networking…)
  

Put quality first, provide great content, and keep your affiliate sites fresh and relevant… and Google will give you the respect you deserve!

And on the subject of affiliate marketing with PPC, why not move beyond Google AdWords?

Yes, Google gets 80% of traffic on the web, but Microsoft adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing have a distinct advantage over Google AdWords: they allow direct linking to affiliate websites from PPC ads. That’s a big plus if you’re wanting to get into affiliate marketing without building a new website.

If this savvy strategy sounds like something you’d like to try, we’ve got a whole article on using PPC for affiliate marketing — and a review of AdCenter –  in this month’s issue of StartUp — are you subscribed yet?

Click here to dig into our latest issue of StartUp!

No matter how great your product is, or how great your website looks, your online business will be left spinning its wheels unless the search engines know you exist… and your potential customers can find you in the search engines!

We wrote on Day One about giving your website a thorough tune-up, and on Day Two about providing great content on your website to keep your visitors and customers coming back again and again.

Now we’re going to give you some tips on snagging more search engine traffic in 2010.

Revisit your keyword research regularly: If it’s been a few months (or a few years!)  since you did keyword research on your market, you could be targeting keywords that no one is searching on anymore, and missing out on keywords that would bring great, highly targeted traffic to your website.   Things change pretty quickly in the search engines!

We’d suggest that you revisit your research quarterly to make sure that your content and your SEO strategies are taking direct aim at your market.

Don’t ignore the power of local search: Showing up at the top of the results for your local area in Google has never been more important, and Google is reaching out to businesses to make sure they take advantage of the opportunity. Google’s Local Business Center offers a robust set of tools to help you get your business listed and exposed to a local audience, and they’re even introducing flat-rate AdWords advertising for local businesses, rather than the traditional bid model.

Also, don’t forget to research location-based keywords when it comes to optimizing your website. The traffic they’ll deliver will be more targeted, since location-based searches tend to indicate a greater intention to purchase!

Extend your business presence socially: Increasing your social presence offers a ton of SEO benefits. First, you’ll show up in searches across social sites like Twitter and Facebook, where more and more people are going in search of information and products.  In fact, if you have video content, you’ll be interested to find out that YouTube is now the second-largest search engine on the Web!

Review sites like Yelp and Epinions are also directing targeted traffic to businesses that interact with customers (and potential customers) on their websites.  You can set up and monitor a business profile within your product or business category, and pepper your description and tags with relevant keywords to show up in searches in your local area — and nationally, too!

Getting more social also enables you to take advantage of Google’s new real time search focus — if people have been talking about you recently, you’ll show up in their “latest results.”

Keep your focus on the 80%: Yes, Bing is offering great results for some business owners, and worth SOME of your SEO effort to keep a solid ranking for your search terms — don’t ignore a new opportunity! But Google is still getting 80% of ALL the search traffic on the Web, so you can’t afford to scrap it altogether for the new kid on the block.

Remember, targeting relevant keywords will always be the key to making sure your traffic generation strategies lead to actual conversions. Too many online businesses focus on getting volume over gaining targeted visits — and end up with few conversions to show for it.

You can have millions of visitors headed to your site every day — but if they’re not looking for what you offer, those visitors simply won’t become buyers.  Focusing on relevant keywords is your best hope of standing out from the competition.

And speaking of traffic generation, we’re doing to dig into your PPC campaigns in the next of  our Your Online Business Tune-Up series!

If you want to make your website “sticky” — in other words, a site people want to return to again and again — your  focus should be on providing valuable content that your visitors simply can’t find anywhere else.

Visitors might not make a purchase the first time they stop by, or even a few visits down the line, but when they’re ready to spend money on a solution to their problem — or on pretty much anything that interests them — you’ll have positioned yourself as someone they can trust to buy from.

After all, you clearly know your stuff… AND you share what you know!

Many online business websites focus primarily on urging their visitors to make a purchase, without establishing their credibility in any way, or giving customers something to come back and check out once a purchase has been made. And that means that they’re missing out on a BIG opportunity.

By providing valuable, credible information at your site, you’ll…

• Give people something to come back and check out again and again
• Encourage people to link back to your website from their sites and social networks, increasing your traffic
• Give the search engines more keyword-rich content to “spider” — doing wonders for your ranking!
• Establish yourself as a trusted expert in your industry

When you provide great content, you’ll soon see a boost in traffic… AND your conversion rates. If there’s one thing the search engines will ALWAYS like, it’s relevant, original content.

There are tons of ways to add content to your website. Here are just a few of the possibilities…

• Create an “articles” directory or page on your site where you post short articles about your industry
• Start a blog with a simple Wordpress or Blogger plugin
• Set up an archive of the email newsletters you send out to your subscriber list
• Post an RSS feed of industry news
• Post case studies/stories from satisfied customers
• Invite your visitors to answer questions/polls/surveys

If you’re wondering what you could possibly write about your industry or your product that your visitors would find interesting, see if the following options give you some ideas:

• A “Frequently Asked Questions” directory to answer the queries you get most often
• Detailed “How to” guides
• Advanced techniques for using your product
• Information about unexpected uses for a product like yours
• Case studies from users of your product
• Articles that directly answer the questions that led people to your site (check your website logs to check out search terms that pop up repeatedly)
• Your unique perspective on, and experiences in your industry
• Big news happening in your industry, or industry trends

The possibilities really are endless… and so is the value to your website. And what better time to get started than when you’re taking a close look at your business in preparation for a successful year?

One more thing: don’t forget to use your keywords throughout your content, especially in your titles.

Speaking of keywords, tomorrow we’re going to give you some tips on effective SEO for 2010.

Now that we’ve finished up with the 2009 holiday season — an incredibly busy time for many online businesses — it’s time to make sure your website is ready to serve your visitors and customers effectively in 2010!

We’ve noticed over the years that many e-commerce pros tend to neglect their sites  in favour of product development or new internet marketing strategies… without realizing that they’re putting all that effort to waste if they’re not providing their visitors and customers with a great experience!

Give your website our 5-step website checkup to make sure you’re in top shape for the year ahead:

1.  Does the look of your site reflect your products and appeal to your market? From your header to your footer (and everything else in between!), every element of your site  — your colors, graphics and images –  should be specifically chosen to highlight your products, and to engage your target market.

If someone can’t figure out what you’re selling within seconds of arriving at your site — and if they don’t feel like you’re speaking to them as your ideal customer — you’re putting an automatic dent in your conversion rates.

Your goal should be to get rid of anything that doesn’t fit, and tweak what you’ve got to be as true to your products and your audience as possible.

2. Does your site copy get your message across? Everything from the title in your website header, to your headlines, to your salescopy, to your navigation should be directly related to what you sell, easy to understand (even if your visitor doesn’t know much about your product), and rich with relevant keywords for the search engines to spot.

In addition, you’ll want to make sure your copy (short or long) is easy to read and scan. Short sentences, short paragraphs and bullet points make it easy for even short-term site visitors to grasp your marketing message. And don’t forget your call to action — encourage them to buy!

3. Does  your site function properly? Your navigation buttons should be clearly labeled with terms your visitors can understand, they should be grouped in a logical way (information with information, products with products, etc.), they should be placed on every page of your site, and they should be kept to a bare minimum — but don’t forget essentials like your “About” and your “Contact” pages.

In addition, take an hour or two to do a full link check on every page of your website. Any link your visitors can click on should take them exactly where it says it will. If you find broken links, dead links or duplicate links, clean them up (or delete them) right away!

4. Does your site take payments effectively? If your buyers have to click through more than three screens to make a purchase, you’ll end up losing about 25% of them with every additional click they have to make to purchase your product.

Make sure your shopping cart instructions are crystal clear,  that you offer a message about the security and privacy of their checkout process to put buyers at ease, that you have contact information posted in each step in case they need your help to finish the process, and that you send them an automated email with all the details of their purchase for reference and follow-up as soon as their purchase is completed.

5. Does your site keep people coming back for more? “Stickiness” is a word we use to refer to how much your site makes visitors want to return to it again and again. They might come back to buy more products they love, to take advantage of great deals,  to check out valuable  information you provide, or to interact with your other visitors and customers — but your goal is to make sure there’s something to keep them coming back for more.

One of the most powerful ways to make your site one that people want to bookmark is to continue to connect with visitors after they leave your site. We recommend that EVERY business website includes a compelling opt-in offer to collect visitor information so you can contact them again via email marketing, even if they don’t make a purchase.  Then you can stay in touch… and keep your online business on their radar.

If you can answer all these questions with a “Yes!”, then you’re clearly ready to sell in 2010!

Tomorrow, we’re going to talk more about the power of great content to make your site sticky.

Be sure to stop by!

The answers make for some really interesting reading for anyone who’s thinking about taking the plunge and starting a home business online. This essay will give you some idea of what you’ll be experiencing in the months ahead. Although your home Internet business may be somewhat smaller than the start-up companies in the article, the challenges and triumphs you’ll face will be the same.

Here’s our favorite quote from the essay, from one of the start-up owners that Graham interviewed:

The emotional ups and downs were the biggest surprise for me. One day, we’d think of ourselves as the next Google and dream of buying islands; the next, we’d be pondering how to let our loved ones know of our utter failure; and on and on.

If you’d like a peek at what your life is going to be like as you start your home business online, read the essay now.