The thing I dislike the most about internet marketing is all of the hype that’s involved. Want to sell a product or service? Invent some kind of phony crisis to convince others that your solution is the best solution.
Then there are all of the submitters that will blast your blog comments, emails, and other marketing materials to millions of blogs, as well as millions of people. Although there is some good submission software out there that isn’t a black hat, a lot of these submitters are so untargeted to your market that it’s a waste of time and money to even bother using these tools.
Over the years I’ve seen a lot of internet marketing ideas that were simply mistakes. Although there are some who would argue with me, one thing I’ve learned is that if you respect the search engines, as well as your visitors, it will pay off financially, and you’ll have a business you can be proud of.
Below are 7 myths you can avoid and market your business more effectively online:
1. You have to have a website to make money online.
Tell that one to people like Anthony Borelli, and he’s not alone. I’m sure there are at least another million marketers out there who are marketing without building their own websites, and you don’t need one either.
Find a good merchant with a good product to solve someone’s problems, and you have a winning combination.
Although many free internet marketing techniques will be off limits to you, if you have a little money to invest in search marketing, it won’t matter.
2. Articles won’t do you any good because of the duplicate content penalty.
If you’re an article writer, this really shouldn’t be your concern anyway. It’s the publisher of your article who can be concerned.
Articles are still one of the most effective ways to market your business because you are offering value to your readers and showing them how you can solve their problems. Articles can build backlinks, raise your rankings in the search engines, and cause others to perceive you as an expert. It’s targeted traffic; those who want to buy what you offer.
The search engines are more concerned with publishing good content, and their algorithms aren’t foolproof. Multiple copies of your articles will almost always show up in the search engines.
Keep in mind, those who visit article directories have their favorite directories, so you want your article to be where they are read. Syndication benefits both you and website owners.
3. All you have to do is send your offer to 100,000,000 email addresses, and you will make sales.
This is the biggest pet peeve I have, and it’s the most untargeted traffic on the internet. Worse, it’s SPAM.
When you see a site that offers you millions of email addresses for a low price, RUN. Don’t walk. RUN. These are emails that have been harvested from the internet, and the person you are sending your offer to most likely isn’t interested in what you are offering.
Build a list. Build a relationship with your readers. Address the concerns of those who are on your list. You can’t be everything to everyone. Target your specific market. It isn’t everyone.
4. You can’t get good rankings in the search engines unless you use black hat techniques.
Maybe I am stretching this one here a little bit. However, if you’re thinking of buying search engine optimization services from a firm who guarantees you top 10 rankings, again, run. The only real guarantees in life, according to my mother, are death and taxes.
You can get good rankings in the search engines, using legitimate techniques. It may take longer, but your site won’t get de-indexed like Mercedes.
These techniques include linking, article writing, search engine optimization of individual pages and others. Do your homework.
5. All you have to do is post your offer in an many places as you can find, and you’ll make sales.
This ties into the email addresses, as well as using forum submitters, blog submitters, and other types of tools that blast your offers all over the place. The problem is, again, that the traffic, if you get any, is untargeted, and you’re likely to get deleted and blacklisted anyway, so you won’t be able to post on those sites again.
Your addition to a forum or blog should be a contribution. If you’re not contributing to the conversation, then your wasting your time. And mine.
6. All you have to do is build a website, get it in the search engines, and you’ll get traffic.
I don’t do phone consultations unless I get paid. I’ve learned the hard way that these are the people who will take up the most amount of your time and give you the least amount of money. Although I don’t eat a lot, I do have to eat, and so I spend my time doing things that contribute to my income, not waste my time.
Usually the person wants to know how to get traffic. That’s easy. You have to do something that will make your site get traffic, and not just any traffic, but targeted traffic.
What you have to decide is whether you have the time, or the money, or both, to invest in doing things that get your site traffic: writing articles, SEO, posting ads, pay per click. (There are others.)
Match your marketing to your personality. Find a way to market that you like to do that brings your site traffic and then do it.
7. Free internet marketing techniques don’t cost you anything.
Although I am probably the biggest advocate of free traffic techniques on the internet (teaching others how to do it is how I’ve carved out my niche), free techniques are not free. Although I believe they are more effective than paid techniques, they do cost you time.
Remember, regardless of whether you are spending your time, or your money, on marketing, your time is valuable. Spend it doing techniques that are effective, work for you, and make you money.
“Free” techniques can do that because you’re contributing to the conversation online. What does your business have to say?
Responsive Web Design – The Modern Approach to Designing Websites
The business websites today are expanding their horizons so as to mark their presence beyond mere desktop and laptops. Owing to keep pace with the increasing browsers, platforms and mobile devices, business owners are looking forward to maximizing the online visibility of their website to rapidly flourish and capture a place in all the available platforms. To address the needs of these clients the concept of Responsive Website Design stemmed.
About Responsive Website Design!
Responsive Website Design is basically the concept of building a business website that can work responsively on all platforms, regardless of screen size and devices. This is the website design which works smoothly and reacts quickly to change its size to suit the screen of the device on which it has been launched. It changes depending upon the viewport width. According to web designers, this web design concept is divided into three different components which are described below:
- Flexible Grinds – In a bid to make the layout of the website visible on all screen sizes, the prime obligation is to have fluctuating grind base. There are grinds that are known to hold the highest significance as it lets the website design to accommodate the small space of mobile and larger space of desktop. So, the grid needs to be in proper design so that the alignment of the content can change automatically to fit the browser size on varied platforms.
- Media Queries – These are queries which are being used by the designers when they need to target or include diverse website layout styles that make use of the similar content. These queries make use of the flexible media and flexible grinds which are necessary for an ideal Responsive Website Design. There are usually two diverse processes to start the media queries, of which the first is the @media rule which is used by the designers inside the existing style sheet or layout. The second method is the @import rule which is used when the designer needs to use a new style sheet.
- Flexible Media – Most of the texts or images which find it challenging to fit the screen dimensions usually respite with the Responsive Website Design. Since this is the most sophisticated web design concept, it enables the font sizes and images to become flexible to fit the varied screen sizes. If your business website needs varied versions of same images or demand to conceal the images to emphasize on fonts, then Responsive Website Designs are the ultimate options indeed.
The Several Elements Required for Responsive Website Design
- Navigation – The site navigation usually depends on the width of the browser. So, for users of the desktop computer, the navigation must be either below the logo or at the right top corner, while for the mobile users the navigation bar must be right in the middle.
- Columns – The number of columns in Responsive Website Design vary depending upon the width of the style.
- Calls to Actions – To maximize the essence of Responsive Website it is necessary to include calls to actions.
- Branding – Branding elements are necessary to include regardless of the screen size.
We are a web design and digital marketing company in Minnesota. If you want to establish an effective marketing website, please contact us today!
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