Work at Home Based Business

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Targeted marketing is the wave of the future for Internet advertisers. The key to advertising is knowing what consumers want. Once an advertiser understands the potential consumer’s needs, he has a much better chance of making a sale. This is the theory behind online targeted marketing.

And while in the Internet’s infancy the best way to advertise via the Internet may have been to simply rapid fire your advertising message to as many places and users as possible, today’s Internet marketer can make use of targeted approaches to online advertising to create a more efficient advertising model. One interesting example of this is indeed behavioral targeting.

What is Behavioral Targeting?

Behavioral targeting is marketing ads to individuals based in prior buying or surfing habits. When an Internet consumer comes to a website enabled with behavioral targeting code, the site analyzes prior habits and places relevant ads on the site based on those patterns.

To do this a special program is used that, like we mentioned, gains access to where the visitor has been before. The program then uses this information to generate ads on the site.

Why Is Behavioral Targeting Useful?

Psychologists know that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. People who like to buy state of the art stereo equipment over the Internet are unlikely to restrict their online purchases to floral bouquets anytime soon. If advertisers can find out what someone has bought or taken an interest in before, they know the right things to try to sell to them in the future.

Putting the same ads on the same pages for every viewer to a certain webpage is simply a missed opportunity. Just as car manufacturers advertise in car magazines and makeup vendors advertise in beauty magazines, Internet advertisers want to advertise to people who are interested in their products, which is just what behavioral targeting allows them to do.

What Are the Concerns About Behavioral Targeting?

There is an ethical question of whether recording and storing people’s buying and viewing practices and habits is an invasion of privacy. However, since only the practices and not the personal information of the individual are analyzed by the program, this is not as much of an issue as some people may believe.

Hence these programs generally function “blind,” that is to say, they take the pattern data and spit out ads as a result. Not only does this benefit the advertiser but in the end also the consumer. Rather than being bombarded with irrelevant banners and ad-messages website advertisements is tailored to fit our needs and desires. It’s a win-win!

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There are thousands of people who call themselves “internet marketers” sitting at their computers right now with the intentions of making money online. However, most of them will not make any money, or if they do make some money, it’s won’t be nearly as much as they were hoping to earn.

So, why is it that so many internet marketers are not making money?

It’s because most of them are simply wasting their time when they are “working” online! There are countless ways this can happen. Often times when internet marketers think they are working, they really aren’t. One example is checking your email 20 times per day. I could go on and on giving you examples of how you are wasting your time each day but instead I challenge you to sit back and think about that for yourself.

I will, however, tell you that one of the biggest things internet marketers do to waste their time is blogging. I bet that got your attention! You have been conditioned to think that blogging is vital for online business so you are probably wondering why the heck I would say that it’s a waste of time and will not make you any money.

Here’s why…

In order to make money online, you need traffic to your website or blog. There is no way to get around this fact. However, when you spend all day writing blog posts, you forget to do one very important thing… Market your blog! As an “internet marketer” the most important part of your job is to market.

You can have the best blog in the world with more original content than all ten of the top blogs in your niche, but that means nothing if you don’t get any visitors. Your site might contain the secret to life, but if nobody knows about your site they will never read it. Do you see what I mean? Unless you get visitors, you won’t make money!

But you can’t just get any kind of traffic either. You don’t want untargeted traffic. You don’t want Web 2.0 traffic. You don’t want other internet marketers and bloggers as your main source of traffic. Why? Because those are the people that won’t click your ads, buy from your affiliate links, or even notice any of the things you have on your site that will make you money.

You need to get traffic from the search engines! The visitors you get to your website/blog from search engines are targeted, they are actively searching for your topic, and they don’t have a clue what Adsense is or what affiliate links are. Plus, if you have done your research and are in the right niche, they are ready to spend money. These are the visitors you make money from.

So, what’s the lesson here?

Simple… Stop wasting your time posting to your blog just hoping someone will come read it. Or wasting even more of your time on digg, myspace, delicious, or any of the other social bookmarking and social networking sites that will bring you traffic but not the kind that will make you any money.

Instead, spend more time each day getting inbound links and working on other search engine optimization techniques. Use as much time as you can each day getting your website/blog ranked at the top of the search engines so you can bring in more of the type of visitors that will make you money.

Doing this one simple thing will greatly increase your chances of making money online so you can quit your job to become a full-time internet marketer and live the life you’ve always dreamed of. Now, stop wasting your time and start making money!

About the author:

Trent Brownrigg is a successful internet marketer, blogger, and online business mentor. His passion is helping people start their own home business and make money online. He will also teach you all you need to know about working at home.

You have permission to republish this article on your website or blog as long as you keep it fully intact, with the about the author box, and live links.

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If you’ve been an internet marketer for any amount of time at all you will know that your site’s sales copy is very important to your success.  The sales copy can literally make or break your online business.  Sales copy acts as your 24-hour-a-day salesman.  Obviously, you want to have the best salesman possible.  This post is going to reveal six of the best ways to make your sales copy as strong and alluring as possible to help you make money. 

1. Testimonials
 
Sales copy that fails to include testimonials will be lacking a vital part even if it’s well written.  Testimonials have an almost magical power to inspire confidence in people.  They give a third party, objective view of your products or services.  Most people do not fully trust what the person who sells the product has to say about it.  They know that it’s in that person’s best interest to make his/her product appear as alluring as possible.  Most people put much more trust in what the testimonials have to say, as opposed to what your sales copy claims. 

Usually only after someone has read two or three testimonials, will they begin to trust you enough to make the purchase.  This is because outside sources have confirmed that your products are great.  People feel that if others have had good luck with what you offer, they will too.  This makes testimonials essential to include in your sales copy.  Without them customers must rely solely on your promises with nothing to back it up.  And everyone knows that on the internet, scams are everywhere.

2. Massively Over-Deliver

Once you have touted your product’s benefits and shown how worthwhile they are, you should add extra value to your offer.  You need to make your offer extremely lopsided in the customers favor.  It should appear so good that no one in their right mind would pass it up.  If you fail to do this, you will lose numerous sales.

This is a tactic most TV infomercials use.  They tell you all about how great their product is, and then they add on a bunch of “extras” that you get for free with the purchase.  They tell you the value of everything you will get is something like $250.00, but if you order now you get it all for just $17.95.  This approach may seem ridiculous, but it works wonders in internet marketing.

3. Limited Time Offer
 
Adding limited time to your offer makes many people buy on the spot as opposed to waiting for another day to make the purchase.  Usually if people decide to wait before buying, you will never see them again.  This is especially true on the internet because there are virtually an infinite number of sites out there. When someone leaves without purchasing, they will most likely never come back.  To avoid this, all you need to do is tell people that the great offer displayed is only valid for today.  While this may not necessarily be the case, it will work wonders to encourage people to take action.

4. Offer a Rock Solid Guarantee

A solid 100% money back guarantee is essential on the internet.  Most people are weary of buying off a website that is unknown to them.  They don’t know what sort of person you are or what to expect.  To ease their concerns always include a legitimate money back guarantee on your products.  I like to go a step further and explain that if for any reason they are unhappy with the product, they can get a no questions asked refund and keep all the extra bonuses as a gift.  This doesn’t cost me a thing because the extras I offer are in the form of digital information.  The important thing is for your customers to feel like they can’t go wrong ordering from you.

5. Tell Them What a Mistake They Are Making If They Don’t Order

Near the end of your sales copy you should explain why it would not be in the person’s best interest to decide against ordering your product.  Do this by stating what they will miss out on should they choose not to order.  Almost everyone is motivated by fear of losing out on something great.  You need to make it sound like if they don’t order now they will regret it.

6. Let Them Know Exactly What to Do Next

When you are nearing the end of your sales copy you need to give visitors exact instructions on what to do next.  This is where sales copy is often the weakest.  You cannot allow yourself to do a great job on your sales copy, only to lose orders because you didn’t include proper ordering instructions.  You need to clearly tell the prospect what to do next.  Don’t leave them wondering what decision they should make.  Any message that prompts immediate action will work nicely.  This kind of statement stops doubt from arising in your prospect’s mind.  Tell them to order now to gain access to all of the wonderful benefits your product will give them. Make sure it’s easy to order and be sure to tell them how.

Follow these six tactics for writing killer sales copy and I guarantee you that you will sell more products and make more money.  Go right now and add these vital aspects to your website’s sales copy.

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