Internet marketing tips for Nikken

2005-08-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

Could You Make More Sales If Nikken Customers Wore Bright Turquoise Tee Shirts?

As a consultant to this industry, I have oftentimes had the pleasure of acting as a consultant directly with Nikken consultants. Regardless of my blog tips, my trainings, or any number of tutorials I publish, I still often get entrepreneurs that say, "internet search marketing might be wonderful, but not for my health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems."

I'm certain that one of the reasons I hear this is because the "concept" of internet search marketing is still not understood.

Let's use our imagination a bit and see if we can get this concept vividly clear in our mind. OK?

What if you could stand at the front door of a Kmart or Blockbuster and immediately spot customers who were looking for your product? Lets say they wore loudly colored Turquoise tee shirts revealing what they were shopping for. Think of the business you'd generate if these buyers somehow knew to go straight to you rather than go round and round the store searching out the items on their shopping list?

With Yahoo's Sponsored Search, Google AdWords, or perhaps any top pay per click search engine, you connect with your prospects the very instant they want to hear from you.

Let's take this concept a step further. What if you could have 1000's of college students at the door of every shopping 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 health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems.

Now, even if other big companies have made huge ad banners, hovering over everyone, it doesn't matter. Few customers are going to pay that any attention. All the while, your "agents" are actively interacting with every single customer that passes by.

Managing a pay-per-click ad campaign is like deploying a team of non-stop "agents", except that these search agents won't require breaks and they require no pay unless they produce results. 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.

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)

2005-08-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

Nikken might be a Mompreneurial Haven?

Source: DSA.org

Perhaps I was bored when I stumbled upon this statistic, but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got... based on numbers available from the Direct Sales Association, 79.9% of people in "direct sales" are female. Any way you look at it the guys total a paltry 20.1%. Many of the women in our industry (and prospects we seek) are current or future moms. It was only a matter of time before a new term has appeared on our horizon known as 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 CNBC; their mompreneurs online site 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 women share certain secrets for online results. 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 Patricia Cobe and Ellen H. Parlapiano:

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.
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.
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.

Perhaps you think Nikken is a wonderful place 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 mindset?

Whatever the case, mothers managing kids and a business from home are an important niche and your internet marketing can target these moms. Moms are both a consumer and a business force to be respected and understood.

Maybe your health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems 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!

PPC Tips list continued from previous weeks:

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.

Reaching Out to Mompreneurs

Here's one way you can be compelling and relevant 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.

2005-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

Ho can health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems be promoted or marketed via pay per click

Nikken pioneered the concept of total wellness. This philosophy is centered on the five pillars of health - healthy mind, healthy body, healthy family, healthy society and healthy finances. Instead of curing disease, total wellness focuses on prevention. It emphasizes not only better physical health, but also peace of mind and financial security. Our physical, mental and overall well-being are based on proper attention to each of four interrelated areas:

Rest and relaxation
Nutrition
Environment
Fitness

The objective is to keep these four areas in balance. When all are in harmony, the result can be a dramatic improvement in the quality of life. Nikken brings each of these components into your home -The Nikken Wellness Home. Nikken offers a selection of wellness technology products and each is designed to address one or more of these specific areas. Together, the Nikken products provide an intelligent and practical approach to the challenges of modern living.

As A Nikken 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 people visiting your web page.

Can your health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems be sold via pay per click or not? That's your first question, right? But equally important, can you orchestrate a strategy that produces more profits and results than cost?

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

Tricks of the trade for the successful 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.

2005-08-09T19:49:00.000-07:00

What's Best? Yahoo or Google Pay Per Click Ads for Nikken.

There are many PPC search engines, with some being better than others. The top two are Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search. It's a good idea to start your marketing drive 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. View the sample tutorials 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.

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

Google AdWords: How to Optimize
http://services.google.com/tutorial/opt_tips/google_opt.html
Edit your Google ads to attract more qualified visitors

Bidding Rules Are Different at Google and Yahoo:

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

AdWords by Google

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.

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.

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.

Search engine marketing strategies:

Pay-per-click advertising tips for the Nikken consultant continue below:

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?

2005-08-02T15:35:00.000-07:00

Nikken? Is it perceived in the way I think?

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

Nikken

Rest and relaxation
Nutrition
Environment
Fitness

Do you guess that people reading your ads already perceive this about Nikken?

That's the challenge 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 'have learned' about you and the health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems 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 has become a common commodity (vitamins, shoes, cosmetics, telephone services, etc), then you must differentiate your product from the other seemingly similar products or services that customers 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 traffic generation strategy, stop and think for a moment about what your potential customer might perceive as they arrive at your landing page.

PPC Tips:

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

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.

2005-07-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

Dynamic ads on the seat of your pants! A GPS chip allows FadSense to serve Google ads (even where the sun don't shine :-)

I guess Google might have to re-work their privacy policy on this one. Google FadSense; going where no man has gone before.

Is this the future? Google FadSense™

As A Nikken 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 Nikken" 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!

Much of it boils down to learning a few key things:

How to find keywords related to your products and services.
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 create eye catching headlines for your ads.
How to use the internet effectively in any marketing campaign.

My Continuing Tips To Help You With Nikken...

In my last few blog posts we have hammered away with dozens of valuable tips. This week we continue.

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.

2005-07-17T15:29:00.000-07:00

"No Results Found," after 118 years, somebody turned the lights out at Google...

What started as a a unique approach to solving one of computing's biggest challenges (retrieving relevant information from a massive set of data) and 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?

As Google co-founder Larry Page puts it, "Never settle for the best, 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. 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.

Global search advertising revenue, which was $369 million in 2001, is expected to hit $7.9 billion this year, according to research from Piper Jaffray & Co. Those who work in and cover the industry see further expansion as paid search grows overseas and is embraced by ever- larger companies following audiences to the Web. (Source: Reuters 2005)

Good news for the Nikken consultant

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

The choice for advertisers is clear. Pay-per-click search listings appear to out perform other methods when it comes to delivering a cost-effective way to get customers. According to Piper Jaffray & Co., 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. Television data was not mentioned.

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?

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

More 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.

2005-07-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

A Nikken consultant step-by-step approach for quality traffic, click by click.

Old man "Time" is rather unforgiving, and I bet he didn't mention to you that 192 days have passed since the beginning of this year (2005)?

Without question, 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 traffic generation strategy is just not keeping the beat?

Are you getting your piece of the pie?
Internet retail sales are projected to reach up to 110 billion dollars in 2005.
(Source: Shop.org/Forrester 05/2005)

With 173 days remaining in 2005, imagine how much different your business would be if you could get just ONE serious customer, prospect or visitor to take action each day.

If you're asking "Please! Tell me the secret?" 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 pay per click advertising...

Of funds budgeted for search engine marketing this year, marketers said they would spend 51% on paid search ads, 6% on paid inclusion, 10% on contextual ads, 12% on search marketing agency fees for paid search, 11% on search marketing agency fees for optimization, and 11% on other areas of search marketing. (Source: Forrester Research 02/2005)

In the U.S., Canada, UK or most any internet savvy country you'll discover 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.

91% of merchants ranked keyword search as "very" to "somewhat" valuable, the highest percentage of 39 features that respondents were asked to rank. Other highly ranked features include E-mail as a merchandising tool, 89%; Sales and specials, 89%; Seasonal promotions, 84%; Cross-sells/up-sells on the product page, 78%. (e-tailing group, 2004)

But I'm A Nikken consultant, I think it's another story marketing what I have?

Maybe you are thinking that "some things" sell online but not your health-fitness-wellness, nutritional supplements & water treatment systems. 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.

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 couple of 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. Without any further delay, I'll continue with my tips this week.

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.

Looking for more suggestions? Check my posts from previous weeks for more ideas and strategies.

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 Nikken interesting or helpful.

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

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

2005-07-04T16:39:00.000-07:00

Astronomers Prepare For Deep Impact, Yet Your Site Or Blog May Have Little Impact. Why?

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.

"It's an outstanding success for this 4th day of July!"

And you're wondering, "Is this the blog I was meaning to read?" Yes, this is a blog about improving your business by better implementing your online marketing campaign for Nikken. The bottom line goal is to get quality destination page "hits"... not a hit like Comet Tempel 1, but a hit none-the-less from a targeted visitor.

Why all the deep space fireworks talk you ask? Well the truth is, I found this news story fascinating (as did millions of others around the world) and felt it was rather topical for this Independence Day.

It just so happens that being "topical" and relating what you do with Nikken to news and current events is also an astounding 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.

Last week we started our series of PPC search engine tips that can help your campaign for better targeted earthbound visitors. Below are this weeks PPC tips (watch for more next week):

PPC Tips:

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.

For additional help with your pay per click ad campaign check out the tips in my previous post.

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

It happened on the 4th...
1960 - The 50-star flag, to include Hawaii, makes its debut, in Philadelphia.

Hubble captures Deep Impact's collision with comet (EurekAlert!)
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured the dramatic effects of the collision early July 4 between comet 9P/Tempel 1 and an 820-pound projectile released by the Deep Impact spacecraft.

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:
Nikken | marketing | search | comet | NASA

2005-06-26T14:48:00.000-07:00

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 well matched to your ad offer and visitors whose clicks don't cost you a fortune.

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 busines seppuku .

Is it possible to launch a PPC ad campaign that drives quality traffic without causing a heart attack? What follows below and over my next several blog posts are my personal campaign tips designed to put your PPC project on a solid road to success.

Pay per click tips for this week:

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 the final analysis, you must understand what your goals are and pay close attention to all aspects of your campaign. It can be safely said that if you run any PPC search engine ad campaign over a few weeks and you get zip for 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 targeted visitors . The first thing I'd look at (if results are low ) is your landing page. I've seen many a site that look like a one eyed hooker with fish-net pantyhose. Go figure.

For additional help with your pay per click ad campaign check out the articles linked in my previous post.

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

Best of Luck with Nikken !

2005-06-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

The "Get Rich" not so quick, Tips blog?

It's day ONE here at the "Internet Marketing Tips Blog for Nikken ." I'll attempt to keep this first post brief, but since it is my introduction of things to come, I'd like to at least lay the ground-work so that you, my visitor, will know what you might expect as we blog on down the road together.

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.

Now you're thinking...

What the heck will you gain by hanging out at this tips blog?
-and- If 50% of Dan Hollings' brain is the internet, is the rest hollow?

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 Health-Fitness-Wellness, Nutritional Supplements & Water Treatment Systems .

I started out not knowing any of this tag-vertise-bloggo-tech stuff. In fact, that was about 10 years ago. But today after acting like a loofa sponge for many years, I've mastered a trick or three about generating revenue on the web. My goal is to cut to the chase and offer you hands-on strategies that will increase prospects, customers and visitors to your sites and blogs.

I have helped internet entrepreneurs, website owners, MLM'ers, blog site owners, affiliates, and even large companies with their their internet canpaigns. But what I enjoy most is working with the small business entrepreneur. Hopefully that's that you?

If you decide to hang with me here, I'll be writing, training, and yapping 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 Nikken and how to market Health-Fitness-Wellness, Nutritional Supplements & Water Treatment Systems , 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 type lessons I will cover include ideas related to:

Blogging
Content creation
Contextual ads
Pay-per-click search engines
Tag-vertising
Networking through "social systems"
Lead generation
Site design (with an eye for profit)
Landing pages
Opt-in list building
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 Nikken interesting or helpful.

Finally, you may be asking WHY I decided to do a blog specifically for Nikken ? 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'm a marketing consultant, a web systems developer, a programmer and a regular guy. All my money comes from helping others create a successful online marketing campaign and clearing the way for profitable results. 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...