Online marketers all have their own web pages that talk about the products or services they offer. Part of a successful business strategy is directing ample traffic to these websites. And an online marketer may accomplish this goal in many ways.

Purchasing advertisements is a good way, for instance. But this can cost big bucks.

Hiring someone to make top notch videos can be great, too, for video marketing on the web. But this, too, can cost bucks.

Writing articles about the product or service and including back links on the web page in a byline or resource box that directs the visitor to the sales page is a better way. Whether you write the articles yourself or hire a ghost writer, costs are minimal. And on the World Wide Web, there are lots of ezines, article directories and free content websites that are always on the lookout for new content.

Note some of the benefits:

1. You get to create your very own branded message at the bottom of your articles. Don’t neglect to leave out your name, business identity, all your credentials, email address, web page URL and other details in your resource box.

2. You will be treated as a professional in the field of the subject of the articles you write. As you work on, you earn credibility and this helps you survive in a world where the competition can be tough.

3. If you are lucky, the articles you write may be published on the publisher’s home page or other places for extra exposure to search engines and people.

4. Some ezine publishers archive their issues on their web sites. This will show off your articles to a lot more people than you ever imagined, as consumers often read back issues before actually subscribing.

5. Advertising will come virtually free. As a result, you can invest your profits in other more innovative forms of advertising for your business; for example, you can buy advertising space in ezines that don’t yet publish your articles.

6. There is always the possibility of raking in some extra cash. People who have read your articles might want you to do some writing for them. You may be asked to pen your own book or speak at prestigious seminars. Talk about income supplementation!

7. You can let ezine publishers publish your articles in their free reports or ebooks, as people tend to share these resources, so you can get noticed in a big way.

8. Your article can end up being published all over the internet if you submit it to such an ezine that has a free content directory on their web page. Visitors can use your articles for their own needs, and you can be the center of attention of a lot of people in this way.

9. Subscribers will come to trust you. Once they’ve read your article and rated it positively, they will be open to buying your product or service or idea. Automatically, profits can start soaring.

10. Work in sync with other ezines and business people in general. If they publish your writing, agree to publish theirs.

The best thing about ezines is that you brand your articles and yourself in the long run. The resource box is the tool that will allow you do achieve this.

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• 80,585 Facebook applications as of 2009-05-13

• Top most active applications were Living Social, Rock You Live and Movies

• Importance of an architecture of social entertainment

• Tips on application type, title, description, newsfeeds, icon, request/invitations, notification, email and spam

As of 13 May 2009, there were 80,585 applications constructed on Facebook, with hundreds being added each day. The 3 most active applications were Living Social, Rock You Live and Movies respectively. These successfully viral applications on Facebook, all bore a common hallmark, which is they were built upon an architecture of social entertainment.

An application not only creates an element of fun and gets users involved with your brand, it’s also a great driver in generating traffic to your site. Best of all, it is achieves excellent cost efficiency with the results it can produce.

Here are some tips to creating an awesome application that will hopefully plaster the walls of users who would readily adopt your application very soon!

Application Type

First and foremost, you’ll have to decide on the type of application that suits best: web or desktop depending on whether you want the user to download it or use it only on the web.

Application Title

An interesting title will stick in people’s minds when they talk about and recommend applications to their friends. Come up with one that is descriptive, memorable and sets your application apart.

Application Description

Just as important is the description of your application. Make use of convincing copy that describes the highlights of your application to entice the user to add it.

Newsfeeds

Live News Feeds literally feed updates of other users on a member’s home page, and this is an excellent way to get people to notice your application. Designing your application to publish News Feeds can vastly increase the presence of your application.

Choose only interesting and exciting events to broadcast, and not just everything. Decide on the title, body and images of your News Feed and work around with the text and image limits to produce a front page worthy feed!

Application Icon

A 16 X 16 icon size on the application menu only allows for a simple one, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be memorable. Pick an image that users can identify you by.

With a more generous 64 X 64 icon specification for the product category, you have more space to create a graphic icon that best represents your application. Remember that an inviting visual is just as important in trying to attract users!

Requests/Invitations

A fun application users enjoy will have the ability to work its own magic when users invite their friends to use your application. This is an excellent way in which your application can gain popularity. However, users cannot send more than 20 requests or invitations per day for each application.

Notifications

Notifications, sent in response to application activity, is a way in which you can maintain a relationship with your users. This is another way you can entice new users to adopt your application; use action-oriented words that will encourage a response from other users to click on your application.

However, bear in mind that spam control is in place when sending notifications sent to non-users.

Emails

You can also send simple emails to your application’s users to encourage them to use your application more. Ideally, you should send out an email update to your users every week, as well as on special events or dates.

Spam

Be careful about having spam hinder your efforts as if your application could be blocked from users if it generates spam. An excessive amount of notifications sent to non-application users would trigger the alarm and your application could face blockages and receive a warning.

After you’ve constructed your application, you will need to garner five users or more before submitting it to Facebook for approval, after which it will show up in the application listing upon approval.

A strong application concept, backed by the ability to understand and fully utilize these components can result in a phenomenal application that might just take the community by storm, like what some popular applications have achieved.

Christina Humble Bee is an online marketing associate at Singapore Internet Marketing Company – Conversion Hub. She also actively contributing to forums on topics related to advertising and social media marketing. She is also a website designer in Singapore.

The term “brand” has been around for many years and can be used to refer to a company name, a product name, an advertising campaign or a logo. Branding is used to create an emotional attachment to a product or company. It can also create a sense of perceived higher quality or value.

In Internet marketing, branding is more than logos and theme songs. Branding lets customers know who you are, what you do and how you do it. It’s your promise of value. Effective branding will increase your potential customer base and more potential customers will always equal more sales opportunities.

In recent years, consumers have been spending more time and money on the Internet. In addition to communicating with friends, they’re comparison shopping and making more and more purchases online. It’s imperative for a business to use the Internet to make an impact.

Here are a few ways to define your online identity.

Describe Your Brand First – Start With What You Do

When they land on your website, your visitors should know immediately what your company does and how it can help them. Don’t be ambiguous and don’t try to be too cute. Build a unique shopping experience that a visitor will remember. With regard to graphics on your website, remember that images can convey more than words, and good ones can play a major part in online branding.

Find Your Target Market

The focus of a marketing campaign is people. Your goal is to reach a subset of the population who might be interested in your particular product – your target market.

The more you know about your target market, the more precisely you can develop a marketing strategy. Your branding efforts should focus on that target market. Your message should be clear and should appeal to your visitor and make them realize the benefits of visiting your website, your store and ultimately buying your products or services.

Humanize Your Website

What is your company’s personality? The online world can be a cold and daunting place. Your branding efforts can be much more effective when you add a human element to your website. Brands are like people in that a strong one has personality, expresses opinions and elicits feelings. Your website and brand could and should do the same thing.

If you are the sole owner, put your name and photo on your site to take away the mystery and distrust of a cold, impersonal website. Take a good look at your site. Does your design scheme complement your identity? You should be working toward your site having its own identity, unique language and clear personality.

Take a look at some of the sites you enjoy visiting and see what makes them special and satisfying to you. Branding is not about making your site more corporate – it’s about making it personal so that visitors want to come back.

Be Consistent

For effective branding on the web, you should be consistent in terms of your approach, your message and your language throughout your visitors’ experience. Any gateway to your customers – website, blog, newsletter, emails – should have your consistent, unique personality.

Content, Content, Content

Just as location, location, location is crucial in real estate, having great content on your site is a major factor in getting customers to return. Useful, brand-related information coupled with your unique voice will help you gain fans and ultimately loyal customers.

With good content, your website becomes “sticky”, that is, it’s able to keep visitors on the site browsing and reading longer. When the content is what people are looking for, they are not only more likely to stay longer, they’ll bookmark your site and maybe recommend it to others. They will learn that you are a reputable source of information and eventually go to your site for purchases.

Your branding goal should be to provide rich information on your site to build an expert reputation that will be recognized by both customers and search engines.

Have an Online Presence Outside of Your Site

Post regularly to online forums where people who might be interested in your brand are gathering. Use your expertise in your field to offer intelligent and useful information and include a link to your website in your signature.

With good online content, you can satisfy people’s craving for suitable information and increase your linking strategy at the same time. For example, if you have a site that sells art and painting supplies, you could write a history article on Rembrandt to be published online. This page for history or art buffs will now link potential customers from your target market to your site, and will become part of your linking strategy.

On your website, offer a free newsletter or rss feed. This will allow you to build a database of potential customers who have gone out of their way to express interest in your brand. Your newsletter will then allow you to deliver your message to an interested audience with a controlled frequency that will further build your brand.

Customers are becoming savvy and more discriminating when it comes to online interactions, and retailers need to provide a consistent, positive marketing experience. Great websites put substance before flash and that’s what branding is all about – your promise of value.

Enzo F. Cesario is a Copywriter and co-founder of Brandsplat, the only online marketing and advertising company employing Brandcasting, the most effective way to brand your company on the web. Brandcasting uses informative content and state-of-the-art Internet distribution and optimization to build links and drive the right kind of traffic to your website. http://www.Brandsplat.com

Do you know the unique value you bring to customers?

Defining your value proposition is the first step in clearly identifying how your products and services are different from your competition.

What Makes You Different?

The first step in creating a unique value proposition is to discover what your competitors do well and then find a way to either do it better, or offer a guarantee that puts you on a completely different level.

Here are a couple of ways to discover more about your competition.

1. Buy from them.

Buying from your competitors allows you to see how they handle the sales process from beginning to end. In addition, you may also start receiving their emails and brochures, allowing you to understand how they are marketing to their customers.

If one of your competitors sells products on their website, go on and make a purchase. Call their Customer Service and ask a few questions. Do you get the information you need in an efficient manner? Was it easy to find the product you wanted? Was the checkout process easy? Did you get an email confirmation right away? Did the product ship quickly? Did the company follow up with any additional marketing?

Making an actual purchase from your competition can teach you quite a bit about what they do well and what they can improve upon. It can also give you some ideas for serving your customers better.

2. Sign up for their newsletter.

Many companies have a regular newsletter they send out to clients via email. Find the competitors that do this and sign up for it. What types of information are they providing to their customers? Are they offering real value in their newsletter or are they simply pushing their products?

Studying how your competition provides value can help you position your own products and services and to make them unique.

After you’ve spent some time understanding your competition, create a spreadsheet that compares what they do well with what you do well. Doing this always provides additional ideas for improving the value you provide your customer base.

Ideas for Making Your Company Unique

One easy way to make your offers unique is to package goods and services together in a new way. Try packaging main items along with a few accessory items. If you’re a service provider, try offering extended services options at no additional charge.

You can also create value through excellence in customer service. Vow to return customer calls within 60 minutes or provide a compelling guarantee that install differentiates your business. There are many ways to stand out from the crowd that don’t rely on a particular product or service offering. Think about it and be creative.

Once you have defined the unique value you can bring your clients, make sure you communicate this value through all your marketing channels, including your website, direct mail, brochures and newsletters.

Creating and communicating your unique value proposition is the groundwork for your entire marketing program. Don’t ignore it!

Corte Swearingen has been a marketing professional for 20 years and is the creator of SmallBiz Marketing Books and CEO of Small Business Marketing Tips. For more information on value propositions, see Creating Your Value Proposition.

More and more people are seeking to make decent money online without spending too much time or money of their own. There are many ways of doing so while sitting at home, but out of those one of the most lucrative options is affiliate marketing. If you are wiling to put in a fair number of work hours everyday and are open to innovative ideas for your business, then affiliate marketing can bring you good money every month. And you can do this just by sitting at home.

One of the major advantages of indulging in affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to make heavy initial investments into this business. All you need is to build a decent website which you can cover within costs as low as $6 to $30 a month. Other than that you might need to make use of autoresponders to make your work easier. This will cost you about $20 to $30 a month. These are the only two types of cost you will have to bear to be an affiliate marketer.

Another huge benefit of affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to create your own product. Many people shy away from affiliate marketing because they believe that they have to launch their own product in the market. This is not true at all. You can be an affiliate marketer for anyone else’s product. You don’t even have to stick to a single product at a time. You can take up as many products as you want to market.

Sometimes creating and maintaining a website of your own is not even necessary in affiliate marketing. There are many companies that will provide you with a site of their own on which you can market their products. This will save your cost of [paying for the website every month. this also saves you the time and effort of learning how to design a website that is suitable for use in affiliate marketing. Many of us don’t have any idea about website designing. Having a website ready for you is a great advantage for such people. Later on when your affiliate marketing business has already taken off you then you can think of having your own website.

One thing that is indispensable is generating traffic for the website you are working for, regardless of it being your own, or provided by the company. You need to know the tricks that attract browsers on the Internet to the website so that they get to know more about the product you are marketing for. Without adequate traffic generation, you will fail as an affiliate marketer.

There are many ways of generating traffic to the website you are working for. Keep updating information on it that is relevant to the product being advertised. Pay attention to the visuals on the website. Hire a competent web designer to design the website if you are unsure of your abilities. Provide an option for visitors to leave their email addresses at the end of the page so that you can correspond back to them in future with newsletters and updates about the product.

Learn how to make money from affiliate marketing with the affiliate secrets from a Nasty Affiliate Marketing Tell-All who finally reveals his Knowledge. Shhh! That’s Affiliate Black Book