Imagine That "Ready-to-buy" NSA Customers Wore Bright Orange Jerseys?

Imagine That "Ready-to-buy" NSA Customers Wore Bright Orange Jerseys?

As I reflect upon the people I've assisted in my consulting practice, I've often had the pleasure of working directly with NSA independent distributors. No matter my recommendations, I still often get entrepreneurs that say, "marketing through search engines might be great, but not necessarily for my air filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems."

While this still shocks me, I'm certain that one of the reasons I hear this is because the "concept" of marketing through 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 invisibly appear at the front door of a Home Depot or Circuit City and immediately spot customers who were looking for your product? Lets say they wore bright Orange tee shirts revealing what they were hoping to find in the store. And what if they 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 your potential prospects the very instant they want to hear from you.

Now let's dig a bit deeper into this idea. What if you could have a thousand advertising agents at the door of every shopping center in the country. What's more, you'd have to pay them only if they found customers ready to buy and began marketing to them your air filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems.

Now, even if other 'big dog' companies have displayed giant billboards, hovering over everyone, it doesn't matter. Few customers are going to pay that any attention. All the while, your "agents" are continually reaching out to every single prospective customer.

Managing a pay-per-click ad campaign is like deploying a team of enthusiastic "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%).

Until next week, happy internet campaigning...


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NSA | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Yahoo Sponsored Search | Dan Hollings | educational products | water treatment | nutritional supplements | nutrition
Other recommended blogs:
Network marketing | New Vision | Nexx

From Moms to Mompreneurs, are they taking note of NSA?

From Moms to Mompreneurs, are they taking note of NSA?

Source: Direct Sales Association

Based on statistics available from the Direct Sales Association, 79.9% of people in "direct sales" are female. Do the math and the guys total a paltry 20.1%. Many of the women in our industry (and customers we seek) are current or future moms. Just when we thought the dictionary had all the words we needed a new term has come on the scene: Mompreneurism.

Books by Mompreneur: Patricia Cobe 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 Maury; their mompreneurs online website 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" business moms. Their interviews revealed that these work at home women share certain secrets for internet success. I borrowed a few points about mompreneurs from their site... 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.
• Web Wisdom. Work-at-home moms understand that a dot.com name alone is not enough to power success. But the Internet can be a very valuable tool when used in conjunction with more traditional business strategies.
• 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.

It's possible you think NSA is a wonderful opportunity for moms? Maybe you're hoping to attract "at home" business moms to your site, blog, product or business? Or, maybe you already have lots of moms and a true mompreneurial spirit?

Whatever the case, work-from-home mothers 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 understood and admired.

Perhaps your air filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems will be just the thing these mompreneurs are desiring? Now, let's continue (below) with more tips in our series on techniques to assure a successful PPC search engine campaign. Maybe you can get some moms clicking!

PPC Tips list continued from previous weeks:

• 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.

How to Appeal to Mompreneurs

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

SOCIAL SYSTEMS: Social system technology is a new and exciting technology comprised of blogs, tags, photos and the sharing of many other things. Find ways to connect like-minded women. Use technology if you can. Being a mompreneur can be isolating, so business owners are eager for information, resources and social connections.

Review my last several blog posts for many more 'tip-set' in this series of PPC search engine tips.



For additional marketing help visit:
Internet Marketing Tips for NSA

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


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NSA | mompreneur | mompreneurs | mompreneurism | entrepreneur | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Dan Hollings | educational products | water treatment | nutritional supplements | nutrition
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MonaVie | Multi-level marketing | NSA

Do you wonder how filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems can be successfully marketed by PPC

Do you wonder how filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems can be successfully marketed by PPC

NSA's Juice Plus+® really is "the next best thing to eating fresh, raw fruits and vegetables". The mounting evidence of the importance of whole food based nutrition, in general, and the effectiveness of Juice Plus+® in particular, is leading to increasingly wide acceptance of Juice Plus+® among doctors and other health professionals. Health professionals of all kinds are recommending Juice Plus+® in record numbers today.

As An NSA independent distributor 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 targeted traffic.

Can your air filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems be sold by PPC or not? This is question number one, right? But equally important, can you implement a plan that generates more real buyer than expense?

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

Tips, Tips, Tips... They just keep on coming!

• 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.

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.


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


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NSA | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Network Marketing | Yahoo Ads | Dan Hollings | AdWords | educational products | water treatment | nutritional supplements | nutrition

Sponsored Ads? AdWords? Help for NSA.

Sponsored Ads? AdWords? Help for NSA.

As you consider which PPC seach engine is for you, you might find our tips this week particularly relevant. The top two are Yahoo and Google. It's a good idea to start your pay per click ads 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 suggested approach is to begin viewing the wonderful tutorials and flash overviews offered by Google and Yahoo. Start your exploration below, 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.

Bids, ranks, and costs with Google AdWords
http://services.google.com/tutorial/bpr/bpr.html
Tips to improve your AdWord ranking while managing your campaign funds.

Google AdWords Conversion Tracking
http://services.google.com/marketing/links/cvt_tutorial
Which PPC ads work and which need improvement.

Google Vs. Yahoo? Do the bidding policies make a difference?

Sponsored ads at Yahoo

• Yahoo adjusts your bid to 1 cent 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

• Google doesn't tell you how much 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.

IMPORTANT: 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.

How it 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.

More Pay Per Click Marketing Tips Below:

Pay-per-click advertising tips for the NSA independent distributor 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.

In earlier blog posts you'll find several installments of my PPC tips.


Check back next week for the next in this series of PPC tips...


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

NSA? Does the public really know what I do?

NSA? Does the public really know what I do?

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

NSA

NSA's Juice Plus+® really is "the next best thing to eating fresh, raw fruits and vegetables". The mounting evidence of the importance of whole food based nutrition, in general, and the effectiveness of Juice Plus+® in particular, is leading to increasingly wide acceptance of Juice Plus+® among doctors and other health professionals. Health professionals of all kinds are recommending Juice Plus+® in record numbers today.

Do you honestly think that potential customers already have a mindset like this about NSA?

That's a mystery-factor 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 heard' about you and the air filtration systems, educational materials, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems you offer. If you're not sure, 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 seems like a common commodity (vitamins, shoes, cosmetics, telephone services, etc), then you must differentiate your product from the other seemingly similar items visitors could 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 PPC campaign, stop and think for a moment about what your potential customer might perceive as they arrive at your landing page.

Search engine marketing strategies:

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.

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


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

"No clicks allowed" with Google FadSense? Still, I bet clicking will be irresistible in some situations!

"No clicks allowed" with Google FadSense? Still, I bet clicking will be irresistible in some situations!

Yes, I took one look and I said, "this click!" I get it! But then I read you can't click, and I was lost? Google FadSense is perplexing at best. But I'll be at the mall soon, looking for potential spots I might want to click :-)

Make sure you're sitting down before you click... Google FadSense™

As An NSA independent distributor, 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 NSA" 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!

Some of it turns out to be as basic as:

• How to find keywords related to your products and services.
• How to determine "tags" that help categorize your content.
• How to prepare your marketing campaign from the ground up.
• How to track your traffic, results, and advertising ROI (return on investment).
• How to write effective ads.
• How to manage your advertising budget.
• How to use the internet effectively in any marketing campaign.

My Continuing Tips To Help You With NSA...

In my last few blog posts 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?

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


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NSA | 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.

www.flickr.com

This is a Flickr badge showing photos in a set called Woolworth. Make your own badge here.

What started as a collaboration between Larry and Sergey and initially lead to a search engine called BackRub (named for its unique ability to analyze the "back links" pointing to a given website) 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...

One of the strange things about Woolworth's announcement that it was closing its doors after 118 years, was that many of the calls to Woolworth's corporate headquarters afterward urging the company to keep the stores open were from people worried about what would become of all the fish sold in the Woolworth's store pet departments. Does anyone know what really happened to those fish on this day in 1997?

Could this happen to Google? Well, yes. And if Microsoft can do to Google what it did to Netscape, perhaps it won't take 117 years. If this facinates you read the Fortune Magazine story: GATES VS. GOOGLE Search and Destroy. 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 NSA independent distributor

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

$8.50 for search, $20 for Yellow Pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. Those are the average cost-per-customer numbers based on research by Piper Jaffray. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know where to spend your advertising dollars.

"When someone conducts a search, only two things can happen. They'll either find your business or a competitor's business. Game over," states Jeffrey Herzog, chairman and chief executive of iCrossing, a search engine marketing company that helps people create and manage Web search campaigns.

Are there dangers or flaws in search advertising?

• Some worry that new advertisers are rushing blindly into paid search and inflating key word prices -- a concern underscored by WebTrends data.
• Certain campaigns fail because they are ill-conceived or unsuited to the medium.
• 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.

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 :-)

PPC Tips list continued from previous weeks:

• 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.

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


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


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NSA | PPC | pay per click | Google | marketing tips | search | Woolworth | Today in history | online advertising