Imagine If All Melaleuca Prospects Wore Bright Yellow T-shirts?

Imagine If All Melaleuca Prospects Wore Bright Yellow T-shirts?

For years, I remember quite often having the enjoyment of consulting directly with Melaleuca representatives. No matter my recommendations, I still from time-to-time get folks that say, "online pay-per-click marketing campauigns might be the best thing since sliced bread, but perhaps it's not for my homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care."

While this still shocks me, I'm certain that one of the reasons I hear this is because the "idea" of online pay-per-click marketing campauigns is still not understood. Perhaps an analogy will clarify.

How fun it would be if you could camp out at the front door of a Wal-Mart or Blockbuster and immediately spot customers who were looking for your product? Lets say they wore vividly colored Yellow shirts revealing what they were after. 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 Google AdWords, Yahoo's Sponsored Search or a Major Second Tier PPC Player, you connect with interested site visitors the moment they want to hear from you.

It gets even more interesting if we take it a step further. What if you could have a thousand advertising agents at the door of every supermarket in the country. What's more, you'd have to pay them only if they found prospects and began selling them your homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care.

Now, even if other big companies have made large advertisements, hovering over everyone, it doesn't matter. Few customers are going to pay that any attention. All the while, your "agents" are constantly interacting with every single prospect that seems targeted for what you have.

Deploying a campaign of pay-per-click advertisements in Google, Yahoo, or another PPC search engine is like deploying a team of workaholic "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 people begin the shopping process, you'll be the first to know.

Search marketing will represent 39% of all online advertising spending this year and will account for 44% of online ad spending in 2010. (Source: Forrester Research 02/2005)

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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Yahoo Sponsored Search | Dan Hollings | personal care | nutritional supplements | nutrition
Other recommended blogs:
Herbalife | Home Interiors Gifts | Homemade Gourmet

Melaleuca, a perfect home for some Mompreneurs?

Melaleuca, a perfect home for some Mompreneurs?

Source: Direct Sales Association

I recently checked the "gender stats" available from the Direct Sales Association, 79.9% of people in "direct sales" are women. Guess what that means? Yes, the boys 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.

Mompreneurs Online: Using the Internet to Build Work@Home Success 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 NBC Nightly News; their mompreneurs online site and Message Board draws millions of visitors each month.

In reading through the Mompreneurs Online web site you'll enjoy reading that they've interviewed hundreds of at home mompreneurs. Their interviews revealed that these work at home women share certain secrets for success on the wild, wild web. Of the many things mentioned, below is a sampling of why and how mom-owned businesses are surviving and thriving on the web according to Ellen and Pat:

• Money Smarts. Moms don't overextend their financial resources and are less likely to use outside funding during start-up. So they don't have to worry about venture capitalists pulling the plug on their businesses.
• 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.
• 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.

It's possible you think Melaleuca is a ideal place for moms? Maybe you're hoping to attract at home mompreneurs 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, mothers in business at home are an important niche and your search engine marketing strategies can target these moms. Moms are both a consumer and a business force to be admired and respected.

Think optimistically that your homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care will be just the thing these mompreneurs are seeking? 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!

Tricks of the trade for the successful PPC campaign...

• 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.

Reaching Out to Mompreneurs

Here's one way you can be very appealing in reaching out to at home mompreneurs:

MAKE IT VIRAL: Viral marketing is huge among mompreneurs. Easy-to-forward articles, mini-ebooks and cards are perfect. But low-tech solutions can be equally effective. For example, Clorox offers a new mop which includes several postcard-style coupons that let happy customers share the handy product with their friends.

Last week I posted the another round of search engine marketing tips and even more tips in the weeks before that. Check previous weeks for more suggestions.



For additional marketing help visit:
Internet Marketing Tips for Melaleuca

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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | mompreneur | mompreneurs | mompreneurism | entrepreneur | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Dan Hollings | personal care | nutritional supplements | nutrition
Other recommended blogs:
FreeLife | Global Health Trax | Gold Canyon Candles

Homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care seem hard to sell online. Can these be sold successfully via pay-per-click

Homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care seem hard to sell online. Can these be sold successfully via pay-per-click

Melaleuca offers wellness products the family. Yes, Melaleuca consistently delivers unique and high-quality natural products at reasonable prices. From everyday products like soap and shampoo to vitamin and mineral supplements - each Melaleuca product is scientifically designed to improve the well-being of you and your family. Melaleuca relies on the latest scientific research and the finest natural ingredients to create products that produce exceptional results.

Here's what makes Melaleuca different:

• The highest quality natural and safe ingredients
• Exclusive formulations (many of which are patented)
• Extensive research and quality assurance
• Concentrated formulations that save you money over store brands.

As A Melaleuca representative 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 people visiting your web page.

Can your homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care be sold via pay-per-click or not? You've got to answer that first, right? But equally important, can you implement a search engine campaign that creates more profits and results than promotional expense?

Exciting news, the answer is: "without a doubt, YES!"

Pay per click tips for this week:

• 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.

Looking for more search marketing tips? Check my posts from previous weeks for more ideas and strategies.


Until next week, happy pay per click campaigning...


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Network Marketing | Yahoo Ads | Dan Hollings | AdWords | personal care | nutritional supplements | nutrition

Google and Yahoo Advertising Tutorials (Flash) for Melaleuca.

Google and Yahoo Advertising Tutorials (Flash) for Melaleuca.

When comparing the primary pay-per-click search engines, you might be challenged to figure out which is best for you. The top two are Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search. It's a good idea to start your strategies for getting targeted visitors with search engines with a small budget, spreading it out over a few different search engines to experiment and see where your target market may be lurking.

We recommend you begin by viewing the wonderful tutorials and flash overviews offered by Google and Yahoo. Below are samples, you'll find others at Google and Yahoo:

Sponsored Search: Flash Introduction by Yahoo
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tu_srch.php
Yahoo sponsored search overview.

AdWord Options for Keyword Matching Explained
https://services.google.com/marketing/stats/tutorial_redirect
Perfecting your Google AdWord targeting and filter worthless clicks.

Navigating your account in Google AdWords
http://services.google.com/tutorial/acct_nav/acct_nav.html
Need help getting around in your AdWords account?

Bidding Rules Are Different at Google and Yahoo:

Sponsored ads at Yahoo

• Yahoo places your bid at 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

AdWords by Google

• 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.

NEWS: 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.

Let's See How This Works

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.

PPC Tips list continued from previous weeks:

Pay-per-click advertising tips for the Melaleuca representative continue below:

• 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.

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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Network Marketing | Yahoo Ads | Dan Hollings | Sponsored Ads | Contextual Ads | AdWords

Melaleuca? What's the public's impression?

Melaleuca? What's the public's impression?

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

Melaleuca

Melaleuca offers wellness products the family. Yes, Melaleuca consistently delivers unique and high-quality natural products at reasonable prices. From everyday products like soap and shampoo to vitamin and mineral supplements - each Melaleuca product is scientifically designed to improve the well-being of you and your family. Melaleuca relies on the latest scientific research and the finest natural ingredients to create products that produce exceptional results. Here's what makes Melaleuca different: The highest quality natural and safe ingredients Exclusive formulations (many of which are patented) Extensive research and quality assurance Concentrated formulations that save you money over store brands.

Do you know if potential customers have already heard this about Melaleuca?

That's perhaps the first challenge in any search engine marketing campaign; you must decide upfront (as you are preparing your keywords, your ads, and your landing page) what the majority of visitors already 'have perceived' about you and the homecare, nutritional supplements & personal care 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 appears to be a common commodity (vitamins, shoes, cosmetics, telephone services, etc), then you must differentiate your product from the other seemingly similar things the public possibly will associate you with.

Much of these consumer 'mindset' challenges must be addressed on the page your visitor arrives at after clicking your ad; so before you start any marketing push, think like a customer and look at your landing page.

More tips for your PPC campaign:

Ready or not, here they come. This weeks PPC tips to make you rich and famous (well perhaps that's stretching it a bit):

• 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.

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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google | Network Marketing | mlm | Dan Hollings | internet marketing | Contextual Ads | AdWords

FadSense? All Google needs now is Jessica Simpson or Jessica Alba to wear this stuff!

FadSense? All Google needs now is Jessica Simpson or Jessica Alba to wear this stuff!

Maybe I'm fantasizing, but Google might actually do this. Imagine Jessica Alba wearing Google FadSense fashions (I'll sponsor those contextual ads regardless of the ROI). And if Google got Jessica Simpson in those FadSense sneakers, they'd have more advertiser requests than they could likely fulfill. For real? Well you decide.

Visit Google FadSense™

As A Melaleuca representative, 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 Melaleuca" 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!

Before we continue with this week's tips, let's look at what we must concentrate on:

• How to find keywords related to your products and services.
• How to determine "tags" that help categorize your content.
• How to track your traffic, results, and advertising ROI (return on investment).
• How to create a destination or landing page that works.
• 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 Melaleuca...

Over the past few weeks we have hammered away with dozens of valuable tips. This week we continue.

• 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.

For additional tips that might improve your pay per click ad campaign review the tips in my previous posts.


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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google | FadSense | AdSense | Sneakers | Dan Hollings | internet marketing | Fashion | Contextual Ads | AdWords

It Happened Today... Google Inc. Closed Its Doors, After 118 Years Searching for Answers.

It Happened Today... Google Inc. Closed Its Doors, After 118 Years Searching for Answers.

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?

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

Today in History...

The rags-to-riches story of Frank Winfield Woolworth and his worldwide chain came to an end on this day in 1997, as the last of the Woolworth's stores closed their doors after 118 years of operation. Across America, this closing had a huge emotional impact on countless shoppers accustomed to the finery of the five and dime, a concept of merchandising invented by Woolworth.

Could this happen to Google? Well, yes. If the thought of Bill Gates over throwing Google interests you, read this Fortune Magazine article: Search and Destroy. For now however, it's all fantasy thinking as the titans of search (Google, Yahoo, & Microsoft) battle it out in cyberspace.

People searching for information on the Internet are driving some of the fastest-growing profits on the Web, whetting advertisers' appetites by signaling what they want. By typing in search terms, users are also sending advertisers a clear message about merchandise they might be interested in buying, and search providers like Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news), Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) MSN are cashing in. (Source: Reuters 2005)

Good news for the Melaleuca representative

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.

Jeffrey Herzog, chairman and chief executive of iCrossing says, "When someone conducts a search, only two things can happen. They'll either find your business or a competitor's business. Game over"

Are there dangers or flaws in search advertising?

• 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.
• Some worry that new advertisers are rushing blindly into paid search and inflating key word prices -- a concern underscored by WebTrends data.

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 :-)

More tips for your PPC campaign:

• 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.

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


Technorati:
Melaleuca | PPC | pay per click | Google | marketing tips | search | Woolworth | Today in history | online advertising