Internet marketing tips for Discovery Toys

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 00:12:00 +0000

Imagine That "Ready-to-buy" Discovery Toys Customers Wore Brilliant Orange Jerseys?

As I reflect upon the people I've assisted in my consulting practice, I remember quite often having the enjoyment of consulting directly with Discovery Toys educational consultants. No matter how many tips I blog, articles I write, or trainings I teach, I still occassionaly get folks that say, "marketing on a per-click basis through the various search engines might be marvelous, but perhaps it's not for my educational toys."

Even though this type thinking always surprises me, I'm certain that one of the reasons I hear this is because the "strategy" of marketing on a per-click basis through the various search engines is still not understood.

I'll attempt a little analogy to see if I can get everyone confortable with the concept...

Step into a fantasy world for a moment and imagine how interesting it might be if you could park at the front door of a Wal-Mart or CompUSA and immediately spot customers who were looking for your product? Lets say they wore brilliant Orange shirts shouting out what they were shopping for. Think of the business you'd generate if these buyers somehow knew to go straight to you rather than shopping in a hit and miss fashion?

With Yahoo's Sponsored Search, Google AdWords, or any of the top 10 pay per click search engines, you connect with interested site visitors immediately, the second they want to hear from you.

Let's take this concept a step further. What if you could have a thousand little helpers at the door of every market center in the country. What's more, you'd have to pay them only if they generated interest in your things and began selling them your educational toys.

Now, even if other big companies have made giant ad banners, hovering over everyone, it doesn't matter. Few shoppers care for a general ad when something more targeted to their wants and needs is more readily available. All the while, your "agents" are continually reaching out to every single prospect that seems targeted for what you have.

Running a pay per click ad is like deploying a team of non-stop "agents", except that these search agents won't require breaks and they'll work for free until they deliver a ready-to-buy potential customer. Your "agents" will be waiting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for customers looking for your products or services. As soon as customers start shopping, you'll be the first to know.

Where are people advertising these days? According to TNS Media Intelligence (03/2005) Internet advertising showed the strongest gain (21.4%), followed by outdoor (20.1%), cable TV (13.8%) and national syndication (15.8%).

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:48:00 +0000

Have Mompreneurs Discovered Discovery Toys?

Source: DSA.org

I recently checked the "gender stats" available from the Direct Sales Association, 79.9% of people in "direct sales" are female. Do the math and the men total a paltry 20.1%. Many of the women in our industry (and customers we seek) are current or future moms. It was only a matter of time before a new term has marched to the forefront: Mompreneurism.

Yes, you're reading it right. According to authors Patricia Cobe and Ellen Parlapiano, who trademarked the term "mompreneurs" and were recently featured in Time magazine and various other programs like CNN; their mompreneurs online website draws millions of visitors each month.

In reading through the Mompreneurs Online web site you'll find that they've interviewed hundreds of work at home moms. Their interviews revealed that these 'Mompreneur' women share certain secrets for their savvy web strategies. Don't miss the interesting points they offer. For example, below is a sampling of why and how mom-owned businesses are surviving and thriving on the web according to Parlapiano and Cobe:

Team Work. Mompreneurs® forge powerful alliances--both online and off! Together they harness technology to build an instant network of personal and professional support through online communities and marketing cooperatives.
A Natural Niche. Cyberspace opens up a wealth of business ideas, allowing moms to tap into their talents, skills and passions to create products and services for highly targeted audiences.
The Control Factor. Moms start home businesses for family flexibility, so they grow their enterprises slowly and steadily to retain control over their work/family time. The 24/7 availability of the Internet lets them work when THEY want to.

Do you think Discovery Toys is a wonderful opportunity for moms? Maybe you're hoping to attract work at home moms to your site, blog, product or business? Or, maybe you already have lots of moms and a true mompreneurial ground swell in the works?

Whatever the case, it's an important niche and your pay-per-click marketing strategies can target these moms. Moms are both a consumer and a business force to be respected and understood.

Maybe your educational toys will be just the thing these mompreneurs are looking for? Now, let's continue (below) with more tips in our series on how to best implement a successful pay-per-click campaign. Maybe you can get some moms clicking!

More tips for your PPC campaign:

When cooking-up your keyword phrase list, use an extended "keyword discovery" phase. Your competition, like you, will do basic keyword research. You can only beat them if you take it to the next level, and that won't happen in the first day. Having a large number of targeted keywords in your campaign is a side effect of an extended period of brainstorming, discovery, research, or whatever you want to call it.
Not very wood with gords? There is a hidden target market of quality visitors who type in incorrect spellings of what they are looking for. Site owners often overlook this. In a recent 30 day period on a major search engine at least 108 people where searching for a 'buisness'? Hundreds more were searching for: 'vitiamins', 'vitimans' and even 'vitamens'... You can bid on misspellings and have very little competition on the search results page.
Assume that at least half your keywords will be rotten eggs, that is, no one will ever look for them and end up at your site. Because there is no extra cost to add as many keyword phrases as you can think up, treat them like biscuits and bake-up as many as you can... 100 or more keyword phrases for each destination page you list in any PPC search engine.

Becoming Relevant to Mompreneurs...

Here's one way you can be relevant and compelling in reaching out to work at home moms:

FLEXIBILITY: Understand that mompreneurs have unwieldy schedules. Strive to deliver your products and services with to fit their schedules. You might develop e-learning courses that are conducted by live phone coaching or web conferencing. This is much more convenient than scheduling babysitting to attend an in-hotel seminar.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 06:40:00 +0000

Educational toys. The perfect product to be sold successfully by a PPC search engine campaign

Discovery Toys has been offering families toys and games that lead to learning for over 26 years. And, with the expansion of the Discovery Toys line into books and software, they now offer children even more exciting adventures on the path to success. Plus, every product has been kid tested and expert approved. You can't get better than that!

As A Discovery Toys educational consultant you know your product and you've set your goals. Your web page, site, or blog is up and you're pondering methods to get visitors to your site.

Can your educational toys be sold by a PPC search engine campaign or not? You've got to answer that first, right? But equally important, can you put together a campaign that produces more profits bottom-line results than expense?

Exciting news, the answer is: "most likely."

Pay per click tips for this week:

Remember that with PPC campaigns, you are not sending search visitors to a site, you are sending them to a web page (called: a destination or landing page). You must discover keywords and set-up ONE page at a time.
Remember that people search by typing in more than one word:
The 7 most used word phrases in search engines according to OneStat.com:

2 word phrases 32.58%
3 word phrase 25.61%
1 word phrases 19.02%
4 word phrases 12.83%
5 word phrases 5.64%
6 word phrases 2.32%
7 word phrases 0.98%

Start your "keyword discovery" process by visiting the destination page you intend to send your search engine visitors to. Put on the 'reading glasses' of a customer and look at your page through their eyes.
Ask yourself this: "What keywords might a person type in a search box where when they arrived at this destination page, they'd say 'BINGO' this is what I was looking for?" Find these keywords and you've discovered your best keywords.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Wed, 10 Aug 2005 02:45:00 +0000

Pay-per-click Tips. Google and Yahoo for Discovery Toys.

Sometimes you feel like flipping a coin when choosing a pay per click search engine. Which one is really best for you? The top two are Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search. It's a good idea to start your search engine traffic campaign with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.

A good place to start is by viewing the wonderful tutorials and flash overviews offered by Google and Yahoo. Start your exploration below, you'll find others at Google and Yahoo:

Pay-per-click Yahoo Search: Overview
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tu_srch.php
Flash presentation explains Yahoo sponsored search.

Keyword Matching Options with Google AdWords
https://services.google.com/marketing/stats/tutorial_redirect

Improve your AdWords targeting and cut down on 'lookie-lou' clicks.

Local Targeting with Google AdWords
http://services.google.com/tutorial/adw_loc_target/adw_loc_target.html
Reach new prospects in specific regional or local areas.

Let's compare how Yahoo and Google handle keyword bidding:

Yahoo Ad Sponsoring Rules (bidding)

Yahoo sets your keyword bid only 1 penny over your next lowest competitor. Thus, if you bid $3.00 per click, and the next highest bid is $1.95 per click, you will only pay $1.96 per click.
Yahoo allows you to see who you are bidding against and what they are bidding, so you know exactly where you will rank, and how much you will pay.
Yahoo's maximum bid is $999.99
Yahoo's minimum bid is $0.10

Google Ad Bidding Policy

Believe it or not, Google never reveals what you will pay per click. Thus, if you bid $3.00 per click, you will pay anywhere from $0.05 to $3.00 per click.
Google does not allow you to know how much your competitors are bidding per click.
An advantage with Google is that you will rank higher if your click-through rate (CT rate) is better (a CT rate is the ratio of clicks on your ad to the number of times your ad is shown). Thus, you may have a better rank than your competitor, even if he or she bids more than you (because of your CT rate).
Google's maximum bid is $100.00
Google's minimum bid is $0.05

New Google AdWords keyword status changes: Simplified keyword states and quality-based minimum bids.

UPDATE: Google announced in early August 2005 that they will simplify their keyword status system and introduce quality-based minimum bids, giving us more control to run all keywords we find important.

Google Pulls The "Trigger"

Each keyword will now be assigned a minimum bid that is based on the quality (also called Quality Score) of your keyword in your account. If your keyword or Ad Group's maximum cost-per-click (CPC) meets the minimum bid, your keyword will be active and trigger ads. If it doesn't, your keyword will be inactive and will not trigger ads.

Previosly, keyword statuses were called normal, in trial, on hold, and disabled. Under the new rules, this will be replaced with active (triggering ads) or inactive (not triggering ads). No more slowed or disabled keywords if no do not have a minimum clickthrough rate (CTR) threshold.

More tips for your PPC campaign:

Pay-per-click advertising tips for the Discovery Toys educational consultant continue below:

Forget stupid characters. We are talking search engine listings (not eBay) so cool the clever punctuation it L@@KS stupid!!!!!!!! Don't make SOME words CAPITALIZED; it looks like you're shouting desperately for business. Respect the people who read your search engine listings.
People are by nature often interested in things like 'saving money', 'making money', 'curing something', 'striking a deal', and getting anything of value that is 'free'... but be careful. The addition of such self-interest phrases in your ad copy may skew your clicks upwards while leaving your sales flat. If you're tempted to try such phrases... test, test, test... while keeping an eye on your bottom-line.
Bluntness works: 'Refinance 4.5%', 'Viagra $39', 'No Interest VISA', etc
These are the type words that appeal to searchers: more information, complimentary, love, youthful, safe, new, benefit, gain, money, happy, glad, proven, guarantee, resource, fast, results, discover, how you, how to, your, yours, you'll, healthy, natural, magic, secret, comfortable, save, proud, secure, solution.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 22:33:00 +0000

Discovery Toys? A fickled market might picture your business differently?

Have you ever thought about the public's perception of what you do?

Discovery Toys

Do you guess that people already perceive this about Discovery Toys?

That's an often overlooked part in any search engine marketing campaign; you should consider upfront (as you are preparing your keywords, your ads, and your landing page) what the majority of visitors already 'think' about you and the educational toys you offer. Not sure? Then If at best you're guessing, then assume they've never heard of you. That's always the safe bet.

If you're selling iPODs or something very well known, you can approach things much differently. Less time explain 'what' you've got and more time explain 'why' they should buy from you.

If your selling something that people consider a common commodity (vitamins, shoes, cosmetics, telephone services, etc), then you must differentiate your product from the other seemingly similar things your potential customers could associate you with.

Much of these consumer 'mindset' conflicts should be handled on your landing page, that is, the page where they land after clicking your ad; so before you start any attempts to generate traffic, put on the eye glasses of your customer and take a hard look at your landing page.

Pay per click tips for this week:

Below are this weeks tips for better search engine marketing (using pay-per-click):

On the subject of ad copy (the words which will comprise your numerous different listing titles and descriptions) we can sum it up briefly: RELATE your listing to the keyword the searcher has typed, SPARK curiosity in their minds to encourage a visit, be TRUTHFUL, be BRIEF, be CLEAR, don't HYPE, and FILTER out bad clicks.
FILTER OUT BAD CLICKS? Yes, if your product is NOT for certain searchers, be clear upfront before they click. Example: If you bid on the keyword 'herbal shampoo' because your product is an herbal dog shampoo, make sure your ad copy reads: for dogs, pets, or animals. If you only fulfill orders in Canada, state this upfront in your listing ad copy. There is no need to pay for a visitor click if you cannot service a particular customer's needs. Use words to filter out bad clicks.
There are many good resources to help you with ad copy, writing, and knowing what to say about your product. We recommend the eBook by Kim Klaver, "If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It". Click here for a complimentary 'Mini-edition' of this eBook.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 01:02:00 +0000

It's not a fad, it's FadSense! Like "What Not To Wear" and getting paid for it!

What Not to Wear fashion consults Stacy London and Clinton Kelly would go bonkers with this! Google FadSense for fashion! At least I know know what to get my wife for her birthday present. I figure I can buy here some FadSense fashions and earn the cost back following her around the house!

Check it out now: Google FadSense™

As A Discovery Toys educational consultant, you might be wondering why I'm talking about a futuristic contextual AdSense (AdWord) program like FadSense. It's partially because it's funny, but more importantly, it's because I feel the type of advertising we have been discussing here at my "Internet Marketing Tips for Discovery Toys" blog, is critical to your future. What I'm hoping to teach you are skills and tips that will not only work for Google today, but for any similar type advertising in the future. Google FadSense, real or not!

To summarize the core of our current discussions, we want to know:

How to find keywords related to your products and services.
How to determine "tags" that help categorize your content.
How to create a destination or landing page that works.
How to write effective ads.
How to manage your advertising budget.
How to create eye catching headlines for your ads.
How to use the internet effectively in any marketing campaign.

My Continuing Tips To Help You With Discovery Toys...

This week I shall continue with my PPC search engine recommendations. If you have been following (or subscribing by RSS feed) to these tips, you are aware that over the past few weeks we have hammered away with dozens of valuable tips. This week we continue.

Sometimes people type in web addresses in those search boxes! So bid on those if the search engine allows it: 'www.website.com', 'website.com', 'http://website.com' and every combination full or partial you think a searcher might actually type.
Match up keywords with words in your ad copy. Even though a 'spa', a 'hot tub', and a 'whirlpool' might mean the same thing in your mind, if a searcher types in 'hot tub' and your listing says: "Relax and save in your new Spa", you will miss out on many interested customers.
Think negative... yes, people search for herbs that can kill, plastic surgery pitfalls, mlm scams and sundry other peculiar things. Invite them to explore your related listing. Do you offer cosmetics or skin car as an alternative to plastic surgery? Is you mlm a beacon of light in a sea of seemingly dubious scams?
Get creative with interest spikes in the news. 'Mad Cow' might be a great keyword for your all vegetarian product line. The 'SARS' outbreak might have generated millions of searches that your 'immunity booster' could have benefited from (just don't make any false claims). And where were all the bra ads when a gazillion people typed in 'Janet Jackson' after the 2004 Super Bowl surprise?

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 22:27:00 +0000

Search all you want, but you'll not find "Google." On this day (after 118 years) someone typed in the last keyword and got no results...

What started as a search engine using a unique approach to link analysis (initially called BackRub) and grew to become the "five-and-dime" of pay-per-click search engines, pulled the plug on the last server on this date in Mountain View, California. It's a story of a future time that could be soon, or beyond our horizon.

If anyone back in the late 1800's or early 1900's had been thinking ahead to the future of Woolworth Corp., it's unlikely they would have ever predicted that the famous five-and-dime would be a line item on a "Today in History" script published to millions of readers across this thing we call the internet.

Yet today, has I opened my RSS News Reader, there it was. I can recall shopping at the five-and-dime as a kid. It was the "best" store in town. Just like Google; the best. Now, its history. Perhaps the best is not good enough?

"The perfect search engine, would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "Never settle for the best."

On this date...

By 1997, only a little over 400 Woolworth stores remained in the U. S. (and a few hundred more overseas). It was announced that the stores would be closed and the remaining 9,200 employees terminated. That was on this day.

Could this happen to Google? Well, yes. In the Fortune story, "Search and Destroy" It states that Bill Gates is leading a charge against Google. Forced to watch Google's stock soar the way Microsoft's used to, while Google's Brin and Page enjoy new roles as tech's rock stars, Gates brings to the fight a ferocity that nobody has seen since the Netscape war a decade ago. Google's popularity gets under his skin. For now however, it's all fantasy thinking as the titans of search (Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft) battle it out in cyberspace.

Research shows global Web search advertising revenue, which is big business for the Internet giants, will be almost $8 billion in 2005 -- more than 20 times what it was four years ago. (Source: Reuters 2005)

Good news for the Discovery Toys educational consultant

The Cost Per Lead using Pay-per-click is Cheap Compared To Other Ads

As compared to other methods of getting customers, PPC search ads seem to perform better. The cost to acquire a customer is approximately $8.50 for search, $20 for Yellow Pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. according to Piper Jaffray & Co. research. Pay-per-click is obviously the lead horse.

"Paid-search advertising has become a do-or-die proposition," says Jeff Saville, a consumer direct marketing manager at Deckers Outdoor Corp. "The market is growing fast, primarily because the ads are trackable and target people who are already interested. The medium is also inexpensive compared with television, radio, direct mail and Web banner ads." (Nasdaq:DECK - news)

Are there dangers or flaws in search advertising?

At times, advertisers and their online business affiliates find they are competing with each other in auction-style bidding for key words and pushing up their own costs.
An estimated 5 percent to 20 percent of clicks are believed to be fraudulent -- the result of people clicking on ads to drive up advertiser costs or to make a profit for Web site publishers who get a cut of revenue.
Certain campaigns fail because they are ill-conceived or unsuited to the medium.

Adding all this up, we come to two conclusions: 1) It pays to get good at pay-per-click advertising if you plan to do business online and 2) we may only have 118 years left with Google :-)

Pay per click tips for this week:

When thinking up keywords, use examples of specific things your product is used for: 'clean floors', clean countertops', 'wash floors', 'mop floors', 'polish stove top', 'remove grime', 'shine appliances', 'disinfect bacteria', 'hide furniture flaws' etc.
Explore variations: 'soy milk', 'soymilk', 'soy-milk'
Add plurals: 'protein bar' and 'protein bars'
Use abbreviations and acronyms
Use US and UK spellings
Keyword phrases may be questions: 'how to repair bad credit', 'when should I diet', 'how do I lose weight', 'where are discount cosmetics', etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 22:48:00 +0000

A Discovery Toys educational consultant strategy for search engine marketing.

I bet you're not counting, but would you believe that 192 days have passed since the beginning of 2005?

As if racing off for next year's cork popping celebration, 2005 is rapidly marching on, yet for may web entrepreneurs few visitors are marching over to see what's up. Are they marching to a different drummer or is it that your attempts to generate traffic are just not keeping the beat?

Do you market to women?
It's important to note that the e-commerce gender gap appears to be widening, as more women opened their purse strings than men last quarter: the percentage of online purchases made by women reached 62 percent in the fourth quarter with men accounting for just 38 percent of transactions.
(BizRate 2004)

With 173 days remaining in 2005, imagine how much different your business would be if you could get a marketing plan implemented that dropped dozens of targeted prospects and visitors to your web doorstep each and every week.

If you're asking "What approach should I consider for my online marketing?" Maybe a little internet advertising is in order? Seems that's what a lot of successful online marketers are doing. And of all the methods out there, nothing seems to beat running a really well planned PPC search engine campaign.

Online ad growth of 33.7 percent is expected in 2005 to $12.7 billion, raising a previous estimate of $11.5 billion for the year. eMarketer had estimated 2004 ad revenue at $9.5 billion. (Source: eMarketer 04/2005)

From Seattle, WA to Miami, FL you hear it over and over... stories and statistics that prove "it can be done". Yes, online sales are happening. Reports are continuing, sales are up, and the drum beats on.

The Web is gaining a larger share of the overall retail market. Total online sales in 2004 reached $69.2 billion, just shy of 2 percent of all retail sales in the country. (stats from: U.S. Department of Commerce 02/2005)

But I'm A Discovery Toys educational consultant, I'm certain it's a waste of time considering what I do?

Maybe you are thinking that "some things" sell online but not your educational toys. Nothing could be further from the truth. In most cases, it is not the product or service that hinders a sale, it boils down to traffic, strategy and page presentation. Whether you advertise using Google's AdWords, or do pay-per-click at Overture, Yahoo or MSN search, it's the campaign strategy that's important.

Over the past two weeks we started our series of PPC search engine tips. These tips will unquestionanly help your marketing campaign and hopefully put some of the statistics on your side. Below are this weeks tips for better search engine marketing (using pay-per-click):

Search engine campaign tips:

If your product or service is something that can be related to a locale, like a city, state or region you may be able to find some ripe tomatoes in phrases like: 'retirement homes in Florida', 'Mississippi flat rate phone service', 'herbal sunscreen for southwestern sun', 'indoor air filters for Los Angeles'.
Discover more keywords by narrowing down to extreme specifics. People can be VERY specific when they search. Use names of months and years like '2004 tax savings', 'May flowers', 'Christmas of 2005' or 'September back to school supplies'.

Let's say you are marketing a broad line of herbal products... why not get a list of all herbs (there may be thousands) and use that list as a keyword list. Maybe your product doesn't contain every herb on the list, but people searching for any ONE herb specifically may be interested in others. Try specific model numbers, makes and designs if your products are sometimes referred to this way: 'Epson stylus CX6400', 'Apple G5', etc.
Add adjectives to your keywords like: big, purple, new, cheap, affordable, soft, aromatic, healthy, etc.

Last week I posted the another round of search engine marketing tips and yet more the week before that. Check there for more ideas.

In addition, I've written a many 'how-to' articles specifically to help get your internet marketing strategy on-track. You might find these internet marketing articles for Discovery Toys interesting or helpful.

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to my RSS feed.

Technorati:
Discovery Toys | PPC | pay per click | AdWords | marketing | search | retail statistics | marketing statistics | sales statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:38:00 +0000

Comet Tempel 1 Gets First Hit This July 4th, Has Your Site Or Blog Got It's First Hit Yet?

After 172 days and 268 million miles of deep space stalking, NASA's Deep Impact successfully struck comet Tempel 1. The cosmic collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT.

"What a way to kick off America's Independence Day!"

And you're asking, "Is this the correct blog?" Yes, this is a blog about improving your business by better implementing your online marketing campaign for Discovery Toys. The bottom line goal is to get quality blog or web page "hits"... not a hit like Comet Tempel 1, but a hit none-the-less from a targeted visitor.

Why all the meteor talk you ask? Well the truth is, I found this news story fascinating (as did thousands of other people would agree) and felt it was rather topical for this 4th of July holiday.

It just so happens that being "topical" and relating what you do with Discovery Toys to news and current events is also an astronomically successful (if done right) marketing strategy. Millions of people are on the web right this moment Google-ing keyword after keyword. They seek info from comets to grommets, meteor impacts to impacted molars, and information about all sorts of current events. If you're writing about that event or news item, you can increase the odds that searchers will find you. If what you do (or what you market) is related in some way, then "bingo" you'll create some real traffic fireworks at your blog or site.

The results that can achieve by riding on the comet tail of current events and news stories can be as spectacular as one might imagine. The impact on your business can be equally stellar.

In my last blog post we started our series of PPC search engine tips that can help your campaign for better targeted earthbound visitors. Without further ado, I'll continue with these tips this week.

Tips for your PPC campaign:

Expand your keywords by asking your spouse, friends, neighbors, relatives, existing customers and strangers to look at your web page and offer their keyword suggestions. In this phase you cannot have too many cooks in the kitchen.
Put your biscuits in the oven and watch'em rise... That is, use web based 'keyword expanders' and research tools to expand your keywords beyond what you can come up with on your own.
Remember, searchers may type in something that describes your product, but more often than not they will be typing in words describing their problem. If your product or service solves, fixes, heals, masks or even distracts them from their problem, you want those keywords on your list.
"In-house" keywords (those used frequently by others in your industry or business) are often the most costly because lazy business owners don't often think beyond their own nose. The result is these limited keywords get bided-up sky high. Customers on the other hand seldom search using "in-house" keywords. Your goal is to find keyword niches popular with customers but less popular with your competition.

Check last weeks blog post for the first round of search engine tips.

Check back next week for the next in this series of PPC tips... Until next week, happy PPC campaigning...

It happened on the 4th...
1883 - Rube (Reuben Lucius) Goldberg, cartoonist was born.

NASA's Deep Impact Mission Projectile Strikes Comet (Update4) (Bloomberg.com)
July 4 (Bloomberg) -- A projectile from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft slammed into the comet Tempel 1, creating a crater that scientists hope will shed light on some of the solar system's most mysterious objects.

NASA's Deep Impact Kicks off Fourth of July With Deep Space Fireworks (SpaceRef)
After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space stalking, Deep Impact successfully reached out and touched comet Tempel 1. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT.

Hubble's View of Deep Impact (Universe Today)
The powerful Hubble Space Telescope was on hand to watch the collision between Deep Impact and Comet Tempel 1. Even though Hubble is one of the most sensitive telescopes available, the shroud of dust and gas surrounding Tempel 1 obscures a view of the comet's nucleus. Hubble was able to see the flash from the impact, making the comet 4 times as bright, and then an expanding fan of debris moving

Technorati:
Discovery Toys | marketing | search | comet | NASA

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 21:47:00 +0000

PPC search engine tips (first in a series)

While contemplating the deep dark inner essence of my morning coffee, it hit me like a caffeine brick that lot's of people are running pay per click ads (like: Google, Overture, Yahoo, MSN search etc) and are not having the kind of results they might have expected. After several more java jive jolts, I decided to embark on a multi-week PPC tips post. What am I talking about? I plan to share what I consider the best tips for running a successful pay-per-click search engine campaign. I consider a 'successful' campaign one that generates destination page visitors that are likely to respond to your ad offer and visitors whose clicks don't cost you more money than their results merit.

Unless you have very deep pockets, or you're completely nuts, or you have a solid money-making conversion rate, paying big bucks for clicks that don't pan out is business hara-kiri .

Is it possible to launch a pay per click campaign that produces results without causing a divorce? Maybe. What ensues here and over the upcoming weeks are my time tested strategies to put any pay per click campaign on a path toward affordable results.

Pay per click tips for this week:

When cooking-up your keyword phrase list, use an extended "keyword discovery" phase. Your competition, like you, will do basic keyword research. You can only beat them if you take it to the next level, and that won't happen in the first day. Having a large number of targeted keywords in your campaign is a side effect of an extended period of brainstorming, discovery, research, or whatever you want to call it.
Not very wood with gords? There is a hidden target market of quality visitors who type in incorrect spellings of what they are looking for. Site owners often overlook this. In a recent 30 day period on a major search engine at least 108 people where searching for a 'buisness'? Hundreds more were searching for: 'vitiamins', 'vitimans' and even 'vitamens'... You can bid on misspellings and have very little competition on the search results page.
Assume that at least half your keywords will be rotten eggs, that is, no one will ever look for them and end up at your site. Because there is no extra cost to add as many keyword phrases as you can think up, treat them like biscuits and bake-up as many as you can... 100 or more keyword phrases for each destination page you list in any PPC search engine.

Don't forget that if you run any PPC search engine ad campaign over a few weeks and you get no sales or sign-up results, the culprit is most likely NOT the traffic you're generating from your ad, rather it is your site, your landing page, your product, your service, your price or some factor other than your PPC generated traffic . The first thing I'd look at ( if things aren't going satisfactory) is your landing page. Your landing page must be the 'pearl' in your sea of PPC campaign tools. Anything less and you might as well be shucking oysters.

In my previous blog post I included a link for additional marketing tips. You will find lots of help for your PPC campaign there.

To make certain you don't miss this series of PPC tips, you might consider subscribing to my RSS feed.

Best of Luck with Discovery Toys !

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Hollings) — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 00:26:00 +0000

How to make money online. Methods for AVERAGE FOLKS

Gather round, it's day one of the great blogging adventures at the "Internet Marketing Tips Blog for Discovery Toys ." All blogs start somewhere and if you're reading this post, you are starting with me at the very beginning of this blog.

First, let's clear up why I started this blog. OK?

Well, after publishing ebooks, writing articles, and training entrepreneurs for 2000 years (those are dog years) , my dog "Herbie" came to me recently in one of those 'dog to man moments'. With his piercing yet lovable eyes, Herbie convinced me that I should devote a little time each week barking (blogging, to use the human translation) about all this weird web stuff that he thinks dominates about 50% of my feeble human brain.

So, if you like this blog you can thank my dog. If you don't, I recommend you adopt your own dog (from a local shelter) and seek internet marketing advice from him :-) Note: cats are pretty good at this stuff too.

So, here we are, and you're now wondering about 2 things:

Exactly what will you gain by following my internet marketing tips blog?
-and- What exactly dominates the other 50% of Dan Hollings' brain?

I might can help you on the first item, but even I am a bit foggy on what dominates that other 50% on my brain :-) So let's focus on marketing ideas to help you promote Educational Toys .

In the beginning all this techno-geek stuff was over my head. Yes, that was about 10 years ago. But now after sucking up internet "how-to" like a vacuum cleaner without an off switch for many years, I've learned a few tricks about making money on the web. I'll cut to the chase and offer you practicle strategies that will increase prospects, customers and visitors to your blogs and sites.

Over the years, I have helped website owners, network marketers, bloggers, internet entrepreneurs, affiliates, and even big companies improve their internet strategies. But what I enjoy most is working with ordinary 'folk'.

I'll be blogging about anything and everything, as long as it works. It is likely that you are doing some things wrong or inefficiently and if you are like most, you're spending far more money than you should on 'stuff' that has questionable results.

Even though this particular blog will focus on strategies for Discovery Toys and how to market Educational Toys , I may from time-to-time give examples from other industries or areas to demonstrate a strategy or idea. It's your job to apply the concepts to YOUR particular site, blog, product or service.

A preview of the strategies I will cover follow:

Site design (with an eye for profit)
Landing pages
Opt-in list building
Blogging
Content creation
Contextual ads
Pay-per-click search engines
Tag-vertising
Networking through "social systems"
Lead generation
Newsletters
RSS feeds (the why and how)
Press Releases
and Making Money on the Web

In addition, I've written a few 'how-to' articles specifically to help get your internet marketing strategy on-track. You might find these internet marketing articles for Discovery Toys interesting or helpful.

Finally, you may be asking WHY I decided to do a blog specifically for Discovery Toys ? The truth is, I run separate blogs for many types of of entrepreneurs. This is only one of my blogs!

Rest assured I am not a recruiter, I'm not active in any 'company', and I do not sell or share names on any of my opt-in lists. I earn my income ONLY by helping others make money on the internet. I am an internet marketing consultant and I've developed many revenue generating or traffic generating internet systems. Occasionally I offer classes, sometimes I offer eBooks, and I have web systems that many subscribers use to improve their traffic, content and results online. That's the deal.

Everything thing I write here is free. And I do not plan to hold back. I recommend you subscribe to my XML or RSS feed (look for the Feed Frenzy buttons in upper right).

Until the next post... Happy whatever...