Are you Froogling? Are your food & beverage products displayed there?

Are you Froogling? Are your food & beverage products displayed there?

As A Tastefully Simple consultant, the first question you need to ask yourself is: "Where do customers shop?"

• Customers shop at a place that s familiar
• Customers shop at a place they trust
• Customers shop at a place with good prices
• Customers shop at a place that s well promoted
• Customers shop at a place they ve shopped at before.

So what does a customer's shopping habits have to do with Google's Froogle? Well simply put; many people trust Google's Foogle and they are familiar with Google because it's well promoted, they've been there before and it's always convenient. While Google's Froogle doesn't establish pricing on any items listed in their comparison shopping engine themself, they do allow shoppers to hunt down good prices and merchants to set whatever pricing they prefer. They've hit the consumer's nail right on its head.

It seems to be a rare exception to the old expression, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". At Froogle, if you're attempting to promote your products or services, lunch is on them. It's easy and free.

After some few facts about Froogle, I'll cover the steps for uploading your products or services information.

Points About Froogle

Froogle is on the Google home page.
Millions of people come to Google each day, and many are actively looking for the products you're selling. Froogle connects shoppers with merchants.

You can list your products on Froogle for free.
Unlike other online shopping sites, Froogle costs nothing. There's no spending account to set up and maintain. No cost-per-click. No cost, period.

At Froogle you control your product information.
Simply upload a new product feed at any time to ensure Froogle displays the most accurate descriptions and promotions for your products.

Froogle is forever free to merchants who wish to participate.
Upload your product info (data feed) and you'll be listed overnight. The entire system is supported by 'Sponsored Links' which are paid advertisements Froogle displays along side the regular Froogle listings.

Food & beverage products seem an awkward web product? Can they be listed in Froogle.

Below are some helpful instructions toward getting your food & beverage products listed in Froogle using their data feed system:

1. Go to the Froogle Merchant Center and sign-in
   If you do not have an account, open one and enter the merchant area.
   
2. Set-up an FTP account
   Set up an FTP account so that later you can upload your 'product or service' feeds in the Froogle system.
   
3. Adjust your feed's settings
   Your feed will have a filename and other parameters. You must set this up as well.
   
4. Upload your feed
   After you create a feed according to Froogle's instructions you'll upload it by FTP. Check that your feed name matches the filename you chose above in Step 3.
   
5. Final content review
   We will review your feed to ensure that its content is consistent with our program policies.

Check back next week for the next in this series of pay per click and online marketing tips...


Technorati:
Tastefully Simple | Froogle | Dan Hollings | Food | Beverage
Other recommended blogs:
Innovage | Integris | Jafra Cosmetics

Tastefully Simple. A company for Mompreneurs?

Tastefully Simple. A company for Mompreneurs?

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 males 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 Maury; their mompreneurs online site draws millions of visitors each month.

In reading through the Mompreneurs Online web site you'll discover that they've interviewed hundreds of mothers in business at home. Their interviews revealed that these women share certain secrets for their savvy web strategies. 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 Mompreneurs® Online:

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Maybe you think Tastefully Simple is a wonderful opportunity for moms? Maybe you're hoping to attract mothers in business at home to your site, blog, product or business? Or, maybe you already have lots of moms and a true mompreneurial mindset?

Whatever the case, moms running their own business from home are an important niche and your promotional campaigns can target these moms. Moms are both a consumer and a business force to be understood and respected.

Maybe your food & beverage will be just the thing these mompreneurs are wanting? 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!

Pay per click tips for this week:

• 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.

Reaching Out to Mompreneurs

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

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.

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 Tastefully Simple

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Technorati:
Tastefully Simple | mompreneur | mompreneurs | mompreneurism | entrepreneur | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Dan Hollings | Food | Beverage
Other recommended blogs:
Herbalife | Home Interiors Gifts | Homemade Gourmet

Food & beverage products seem an awkward web product? Can they be successfully promoted via Google or Yahoo pay per click

Food & beverage products seem an awkward web product? Can they be successfully promoted via Google or Yahoo pay per click

Tastefully Simple offers easy-to-prepare gourmet foods for people who like to eat - even if they don't necessarily like to cook! Tastefully Simple is the original company offering convenience-driven gourmet foods through home parties, catalog sales, and corporate gift accounts and website sales. Tastefully Simple's primary line consists of items selected for high quality and distinguished by their preparation with just one or two additional ingredients or open-and-enjoy simplicity.

As A Tastefully Simple 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.

Can your food & beverage be sold via Google or Yahoo pay per click or not? That's your first question, right? But equally important, can you come up with a pay per click strategy that produces more solid customers than lost money?

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

More tips for your PPC campaign:

• 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?

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 pay per click tips, you might consider subscribing to my RSS feed.


Technorati:
Tastefully Simple | PPC | pay per click | Google AdWords | Network Marketing | Yahoo Ads | Dan Hollings | AdWords | Food | Beverage

Google AdWords or Yahoo Sponsored... What's Best for Tastefully Simple.

Google AdWords or Yahoo Sponsored... What's Best for Tastefully Simple.

Sometimes you feel like flipping a coin when choosing a pay per click search engine. Which one is really best for you? The top two are Google AdWords and Yahoo Sponsored Search. It's a good idea to start your 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.

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

Refine your ad targeting and reduce irrelevant clicks.

Targeting a Local Market with Google AdWords
http://services.google.com/tutorial/adw_loc_target/adw_loc_target.html
Reach local area prospects by region or locale.

Let's Look at The Google and Yahoo Bidding Rules:

Yahoo Ad Sponsoring Rules (bidding)

• 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 AdWords

• 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.

NEW: 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 Tastefully Simple consultant continue below:

• 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.

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


Until next week, happy PPC campaigning...


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

Tastefully Simple? What lurks in those consumers' heads?

Tastefully Simple? What lurks in those consumers' heads?

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

Tastefully Simple

Tastefully Simple offers easy-to-prepare gourmet foods for people who like to eat - even if they don't necessarily like to cook! Tastefully Simple is the original company offering convenience-driven gourmet foods through home parties, catalog sales, and corporate gift accounts and website sales. Tastefully Simple's primary line consists of items selected for high quality and distinguished by their preparation with just one or two additional ingredients or open-and-enjoy simplicity.

Do you truly believe that consumers already have a mindset like this about Tastefully Simple?

That's a 'guess-work' element 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 food & beverage 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 products or services that customers will associate you with.

Much of these consumer 'mindset' challenges must be worked out by setting up 'mindset adjusters' (fancy phrase for good educational content snippets) on the page they hit immediately after clicking your ad; so before you start any advertising effort, put on your visitors shoes and take a fast walk to your landing page.

Search engine marketing tips:

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

• 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.

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


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


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

Bend over, someone might want to see your "Google!" (FadSense Ads)

Bend over, someone might want to see your "Google!" (FadSense Ads)

Yes, right where the sun don't shine, you might see your next Google ad! I'm still on the floor laughing about this one, but gee whiz, maybe there really is a beta in the works?

Is this the future? Google FadSense™

As A Tastefully Simple 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 Tastefully Simple" 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 prepare your marketing campaign from the ground up.
• How to track your traffic, results, and advertising ROI (return on investment).
• How to create a destination or landing page that works.
• How to write effective ads.
• How to manage your advertising budget.
• How to create eye catching headlines for your ads.
• How to use the internet effectively in any marketing campaign.

My Continuing Tips To Help You With Tastefully Simple...

In my previous blog entries (last week and several weeks prior) we have hammered away with dozens of valuable tips. This week we continue.

• 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.

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.


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


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

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

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

www.flickr.com

What started as a play on the word googol, becoming the search engine everybody loved (or envied) 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."

What a day (historically speaking)...

In 1997 - After 118 years, the Woolworth Corp. closed its last 400 five-and-dime stores. The Woolworth building (opened in 1919) in New York City was the world's tallest skyscraper until 1930.

Could this happen to Google? Well, yes. Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? Google, the darling of search is moving into software and that's Microsoft's turf. Fortune story here. 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 Tastefully Simple consultant

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

In a news story from Reuters (2005) there were some interesting stats comparing search to other forms of advertising using a cost per lead comparison. Citing Piper Jaffray, he says the cost to acquire a lead is $8.50 for search, $20 for yellow pages, $50 for online display ads, $60 for e-mail and $70 for direct mail. Cost for television leads were not covered. There's little wonder why search is gaining so much attention from advertisers.

"It's a marketer's dream tool because we can monitor it in so many different ways and watch the effectiveness of it," said Jeff Saville, a consumer direct marketing manager at Deckers Outdoor Corp. (Nasdaq:DECK - news)

Are there dangers or flaws in search advertising?

• At times, advertisers and their online business affiliates find they are competing with each other in auction-style bidding for key words and pushing up their own costs.
• 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 :-)

Search engine marketing tips:

• 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.

In earlier blog posts you'll find the first, second and third installment of my PPC tips.


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