Online Marketing RoadMap
How to Start your Own Online Marketing from Scratch and Start Earning Money
Overview on web marketing
Overview on web marketing
Nowadays, internet business is becoming one of the productive business form. The main cause of its success is it's availability and the fewer resources it needs. You have probably bought this e-book because you have already heard about it. If it's not the case in the following lines you you are going to learn what that is and get professional techniques and advices on how to start your own and a sure roadmap to your success.
This e-book is covering 3 important parts:
I. Create a successful website
II. Build audience
III. Market your website
IV. Drive your business to success
V. Earn from your website
Part I: Create your website
Whether you already own a website or not, you probably know that marketing is the most powerful potential of a website.
Step 1: Plan Your Web Presence
Now that you’ve made the decision to put a shiny new business Web site among the tens of millions of others on the internet, you’re no doubt in a hurry to see the face of your company looking back from the screen – slick, professional, inviting, with eye-catching graphics and exciting text that just begs new customers to check you out. But right now it’s important to take a breath, clear your mind and plan, plan, plan. A well thought-out blueprint will guide all the other decisions you’ll make in the next ten steps. It can also help you avoid spending more than you need. Skimp on planning, and you’ll have problems down the road. Now let’s get going.
A. Defining your Customers and Mission
You may think this goes against common sense, but the essence of your Web site isn’t really about you. What? It’s true. Sure, it presents your business face to the world and you’ll carefully make choices later on to put that together. But your Web site is a specialized tool, one that enables you to reach countless new customers and, if it’s a retail site, sell to them and process their purchases.
Here, your primary purpose is to know your customers so well that you answer any questions they might have before they ask, then make it easy for them to buy what you’re selling. This bedrock principle applies whether you’re creating a one- or two-page site that simply tells who you are and where you can be reached by e-mail, snail mail and phone; or a fully functioning retail site with hundreds, even thousands, of pages and a “shopping cart” that let’s your buyers collect products and pay for them, comfortable that their financial and other personal data are secure. Exactly who are they and what do you know about them, what they want, what they need, what they don’t know they need, what gives them the willies on the Web?
- How old are they?
- Are they men, women, kids?
- What do they expect when they come to a company like yours?
- How smart are they and what specific talents or skills do they have?
- Where do they live? What are those places like?
- Are they Web savvy or are they just beginning to use it?
what scares them off?
Answer those questions, and any others that suit the specific customer you’ve now identified, and you’ll know how to go forward in writing your raison d’être, your reason for being – your mission. You’ll tell them why you’re qualified to do what you do, and why your company is unique and better than the competition. You’ll tell them exactly how you’ll serve their needs right here, right now, on your Web site. You’ll sell your company as one that knows they, too are unique, and that you’ve tailored your goods, services and shopping experience to these special people.
Now, draw a simple diagram of your Web site, starting with the home page and proceeding – as your customer would – from page to page to page. Keep it simple – more detail comes later.
B. Choosing and Buying your Domain Name
To be the master of your domain, your first have to give it a name. This is simple – if your company name is Passionate Pigfeet, you’d likely choose passionatepigfeet.com. But there could be a snag. However unlikely, someone might already own the domain name www.passionatepigfeet.com. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a Web site by that name; some people buy up endless variations on domain names hoping to cash in later when somebody wants to use one of them. But your domain provider’s Web site will have a simple method to check almost instantly. Web hosts – those with the computing power to “host” your site and all its inner working on the Web – commonly offer domain names as part of their basic package. To find one that meets your needs and budget, search online for “domain hosts.” Or have a look at Domain name checkers (Resource I)
C. Text, Images and other Graphic Elements
You might as well get going now on writing copy – the text – for your Web site, and how you intend to use images. If your writing skills are sharp, follow your diagram of Web pages and decide what you want to say on each. This is a rough draft, so don’t sweat over it too long. Writing effective Web copy is a special skill, and you need to edit and rewrite your draft along some specific guidelines.
The broader ones:
• Don’t make your Web site look or read like an ad. You may be planning to attract and sell online space to advertisers, and you’ll confuse visitors dismissed if your content looks like ad material.
• Keep your copy concise and use bullets
• If you refer to your company as “we” in your copy, be sure to address your customer as “you.” Engage them in this personal experience.
• Keep it simple and kill jargon. The point here isn’t to show your mastery of insiders’ language, but to make your customers feel welcome, at home and included.
• Write like you’re talking face-to-face, using contractions if it sounds natural.
• Be succinct. Don’t write: “If you happen to encounter anything that raises questions, we are prepared to address them.” Do write: “Questions? We’re here to answer them.”
As a start, look to these resources for more detailed guidance:
• Power Words and Phrases
• UseIt.com
• e-Gineer.com
• WebDesign.com
• About.com
You’re not done until you spell-check your copy, then print it out and proofread, proofread again, and do it a few more times. Bad grammar, misspellings – especially proper names – and other basic errors will make you look like an amateur, not the world-beating pro you really are. Invite others to read over your text and point out errors, or hire a freelance copy editor. You’ll find them all over the Web, but check their references. It won’t cost much and will be money well spent. If you don’t think you can handle the copywriting yourself, you’re probably right. Hire a professional with Web experience. There are thousands of freelance writers online offering to do the job at a wide range of prices.
Graphics Content:
Your only task now is to decide what photos, charts and graphs, illustrations and other visuals you need to help tell your message and show who you are. Note what they are on each of your Web page diagrams, but not necessarily where they’ll go. We’ll get to that later. And keep these rules in mind:
• Use only as many images or other graphics as you need to bolster your text and make your pages attractive. Here, as in nearly anything on the Web, less is more. Don’t visually assault your visitors.
• Good pictures can speak a thousand words. If a photo or other image will save a lot of explaining, use it instead of text.
• If your purpose is just to put candid snapshots on the Web, your visitors will understand why they’re not slick, crisp and professionally done. For everything else, be sure your photos and graphics are all three.
Budgets, and Who Does What
Setting smart budgets saves money – period. Get your planning done now, and you won’t waste precious cash on things you don’t and won’t need. Set your Web site budget so you can comfortably handle the costs with available resources. One of the great things about Web sites is their changeability. You can add bells, whistles, services and other enhancements later, as you need them and have more cash to spend. It’s impossible to tell you exactly how to divide the pot in building a Web site. There are many factors in endless combinations, and countless ways to handle them. But think about these things and you’ll be in great shape to work out the details:
• How many products or services are you selling?
• If you’re a retail operation, how will you securely process orders?
• Do you need professionals for writing, editing, photography, Web design, even
budgeting?
• How many marketing functions do you want? Newsletters? Surveys? Blogs?
• How much can you spend on hosting, your domain name, your Web design
package?
• Does a free, all-in-one Web site service like Microsoft Office Live Small Business cover you, or do you need more flexibility, an e-tail “shopping cart,” an original look, detailed analytics?
• How will you drive traffic to your Web site after it’s built? When it comes time to shop for these things, let your budget dictate your choices. As revenue starts coming in the door, your business Web site can grow, too, in scope, sophistication and ambition. That’s the plan, right?
Step 2: Choose DIY or Go with a Pro
In this step, we’ll fill you in on:
• DIY Web Site Packages
• Choosing a Web Design
Professional
• SEO and Red Flags
Promotiom SEO and Red Flags
Visibility on the Web, especially ranking high with major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN on relevant keywords, is essential to online business success. Be sure to look for search engine optimization as part of your Web design package. SEO is arguably the biggest single challenge in designing, building and maintaining an effective business Web site – or any other sort – because the “rules” keeping changing, Feeling adventurous? Are your creative juices flowing like floodwater? Do you enjoy learning new skills and sopping up new knowledge? Do you, as a user, know your way around the Web and have clear likes and dislikes about sites you visit? Then you’re probably ready to take on much of the work of building yourself a Web site.
Depending on how much functionality you need, you can even do it in a day, start to finish – your business, live on the Web! But if you find basic word processor functions a challenge, have never uploaded an image from a digital camera to your computer or bought anything from a retail Web site, if you still haven’t set up that e-mail account you’ve been meaning to get to, it would be a very good idea to seek professional help. Web-building help, that is.
Some people think of this step at best as BBI – boring but important. But don’t be tempted to skip ahead to the fun parts. You’ll regret it later or maybe sooner. the Web landscape never stops shifting, and new technology regularly adds its own wrinkles. It needs constant tending to stay competitive, and whether you have the time and patience to take on the challenge yourself, or pay a pro for SEO, you should be aware of some warning flags.
• When someone says they’ll “submit” your new Web site to one, 10 or 100 search engines, it’s more sales pitch than substance. As long as your site has solid SEO built into the design, you’ll be found by search “spiders” – automated programs that constantly crawl the Web looking at sites to include in search results.
• If a designer or team promises SEO but doesn’t say which search engines they will optimize your site for, ask. While “submitting” a site is a mostly myth, your SEO must meet the requirements of at least the Big Three: Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.
• Don’t believe anyone who “guarantees” top search engine rankings. Nobody can back up that claim.
• Don’t believe any claims of immediate results. It can take weeks for the spiders to find you and add your site to the search results roster.
Now it’s time to move forward with the hands-on work of building your new business Web site. In Step 3, we’ll explain where and how to begin.
Step 3 : Make Key Design Decisions
This is where the hard work you did in Step 1 comes into play. Having a clear definition of your target customer will help guide many of your decisions when the specific work of designing your new business Web site begins. Doesn’t everybody want basically the same things from a Web site? Well, yes and no. Any visitor wants to know quickly what your site is about, what you have to offer that’s of value to them, a well-designed system to move them through its pages and freedom from sensory assault by unexpected, unwelcome noisy and flashy graphics which can slow page load times.
Remember always: Your Web site is there to serve your customers and their needs. If you’re turned off by endless popups, grating audio and graphics that look like they’ve been lifted from the Vegas strip, then you shouldn’t expect your Web site visitors to react any differently. Your target customer may also have special needs that should be included in your site design. The same features that are meant to serve them may also be just as welcome to a general audience.
This step assumes you’ve already chosen design software (Step 2) or are looking into it. We highlight important considerations for your Web site design, but cannot handle such a complex subject here alone. So we’ve included useful resources and tools at the end of this step to make up for it. General Design Principles Don’t be a showoff. That’s another way of saying what we’ve stressed before, and will again: When it comes to Web design, as in so many other things, simple is better. Of course you want photos and other graphic images to tell your company’s story in the best way. And without some eye candy, any Web page is blah. But use only what’s needed to enhance your central message and tell it quickly and clearly in an attractive setting. Never make your customers work to get the information they need.
As you move ahead in building your site, stick to these basic design rules:
• Keep it clean. Empty white space on your Web pages is itself a design element. Use enough to keep each page uncluttered and uncramped. Do the same if you decide to use a dark background.
• In the dark. Never use dark text on dark backgrounds, or for that matter, light colored text on a white background. Black-on-white is a safe bet.
• Gray blocks. Because you’re already keeping it simple, make your text as concise and straightforward as possible. Don’t waste words – they waste your customers’ time. And break up long paragraphs. What the eyes see in a split second – about all it takes for a Web user to split from your site – is a big, challenging block of gray text. Give it some air.
• Choose colors carefully. You wouldn’t wear red plaid pants with an orange striped shirt (we hope!), and you should use the same design sense in picking the color palette for your Web site. There are even free tools to help.
• Use successful models. The things you like or hate about other Web sites are probably the same for most other users. Take notes on what works and what you’d like to imitate. Better yet, save a screenshot in your design file. It’s easy:
o With your cursor anywhere on the Web page you’ve chosen, hold down
the Alt key and press the Print Screen key.
o Nothing happened? Don’t worry, you just couldn’t see it.
o Now open a blank document page in your word processor or Microsoft
Paint, right click anywhere on it and choose Paste. An exact duplicate of
the Web page you selected will appear!
Step 4: Getting Around on Your Web Site
Did it get messy? Too complicated? That’s your draft. Now you’ll refine it. Try the same exercise by starting with the last page on your site diagram and working back to the home page. A lot of designers find that much easier. Now, is every page linked directly to the home page like spokes on a wheel? That can work, but it requires your customers to go back to the home page every time they want find more information, more page links. Do you have patience with that kind of back- and-forth?
Step 5: Take Control Over the Look, Feel and Function
If you’re building an e-commerce Web site, your ability to control how it looks, the way it feels to the user, and how it works can be limited by your choice of “storefront” or “shopping cart” software. These are the most important elements of an online retail site. They provide customers with a secure environment where they can load up their electronic shopping cart with your products, then pay for them at “checkout” without fear that their privacy and personal information – especially credit card numbers and other financial data – are at risk.
Even if you’re not planning retail capabilities on your business Web site, we highly recommend going through this step and reconsidering. It can give you a big edge over competitors with an information-only Web presence.
Amazon.com: The Gold Standard
Amazon has one of the most widely admired – and imitated – storefronts and shopping carts on the Web. Among its best features:
• An “Add to Shopping Cart” button on every product page
• Online bridal and baby gift registries
• A “Tell a Friend” button for to e-mailing the page to others
• Password-protected personal contact and financial information, with the ability to
save your address and those of gift recipients
• “One-click” completion of your order form
• A “Wish List” for saving products you might decide to buy later
• Intuitive customer relationship management (CRM) that remembers your previous
purchases, then automatically offers recommendations for similar products
• Customer product reviews
If you decide to add a shopping cart to your business site, study Amazon.com for guidance and cues. One of the best: It is low-key, flash-free and doesn’t bombard you with jarring, annoying audio pitches or distracting visual gimmicks.
When to Hire a Pro ?
Step 6: Optimize Your Site for Search Engines
Your business can have the best products or services on the Web, but it doesn’t mean a thing if potential customers can’t find your site. The best way to get your Web site noticed is by ranking high in the results when users ask search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN and others to scan the Internet for your kind of offerings. It’s one of the most challenging and potentially rewarding tasks you’ll face in maintaining a commercial Web site, and absolutely essential for success.
How Search Engines Rank Web Sites
Unlike a human archivist or librarian, Internet search engines don’t interact with users and ask for more details, or use judgment and past experience to rank Web pages. Instead, they rely on mathematic formulas called “algorithms.” Despite what you may hear, nobody but the search engine owner knows exactly how their algorithm works.
- Podcast:
But they do follow a universal practice known as the keyword location/frequency method. Search engines look over your Web site to see if the search keywords show up at the top your pages, in the headlines or the first few lines of text content.They assume that any page relevant to a given search topic will mention those magic words right from the start. “Frequency” is how often keywords appear in relation to other words on a Web page. Those with higher frequency are given more relevance, and higher rankings.
Step 7 : Take your Web site Live!
After all the planning, designing, coding, testing and re-testing, your new business Web site is ready to launch – almost. It’s a big day, the culmination of a lot of careful work. But to go live properly, and see the face of your business looking back at you from the infinite possibilities of the World Wide Web, there’s a little more housekeeping to finish. Then celebrate!
Register with Search Engines
As we’ve mentioned earlier, if your Web site is built according to the guidelines we’ve laid out, search engines will find you on their own. But you can give the process a goose by registering your new site with them. Start by submitting your URL to the top search engines, including Google, Yahoo and MSN. Basic registration is free. A great clearinghouse for many other search engine links and advice on how to get higher rankings can be found at SearchEngineWatch.com. You can also use such registration sites as QuickRegister.com (free for a basic submission) or SubmitExpress.com (starts at $29.95). They’ll want to sell you additional Web marketing and SEO services, and if you’re sold, go ahead. Registering is simple, usually little more than entering your complete URL in a form. Sometimes you’re asked for a brief description of your new Web site. Don’t just dash it off. Include two or three keywords that will act as search magnets – one more way to improve SEO.
Buy Ads for Better Placement
Paid advertising on major search engines is one method used by many businesses to help them climb in rankings. Lately, opinion has been sharply divided on whether the return on investment is high enough to justify the costs or if there are enough safeguards against fraud by competitors. Before you spend the money, research the pros and cons of specific cost-per-click (CPC) programs and other advertising-related ranking services. Forums such as those hosted by DigitalPoint.com, SEOChat.com, HighRankings.com and many others will supply plenty of guidance for making a smart choice.
These are the two major online advertising models being used now:
• Paid Placement. Sometimes referred to as “Search” or “Keyword” Marketing, Paid Placement advertisers buy a place in a section reserved for them on search results pages. When you hear “pay for placement” and “cost-per-click,” this is also referring to Paid Placement.
• Paid Inclusion. You can buy your way into a search engine’s listings quickly, but they’re usually quick to tell you there are no guarantees for improved rankings. Still, it’s a way to get fast visibility while waiting for crawlers to find and list your pages.
Step 11: Constantly Tend to Your Web Site
In this, the last step, we tell you how to keep on top of it in six parts:
Whether tweaking SEO, reviewing your analytics, adding new products and services, updating your site map, launching promotions and other marketing campaigns, keeping your site well-tuned and effective is a task that never ends. Although the hard part is indeed over, the key to long-term business success on the Internet is a maintaining your Web site.
Top of the list: Be vigilant about the security of your Web site and content, your network and your customers’ private information. This includes all of your company’s firewalls, anti-virus scanning, adware protection and Web hosting services. A wide range of online services and software can handle this crucial task for you or help do it yourself. Some are free, some charge.
This is a good starter’s list:
• Qwest Security Services
• Symantec Security Check
• Alken Online Security Check
• Software QA & Test Resource Center
Step 8 : Increase your Website Monetizing Potential
At this level you website is online, up and running. Did you ever mind about making more money with your Website ? There are several Methods throught which your earnings can increase much more than you ever dreamt. There are the best one, used by by thousands onf online marketers:
- Advertising
- Affiliate Program
- Paid per Click Sites
Advertising
Advertising is the best method through which you can get guaranteed money back from your website. There are several companies offering products and services, that are willing to promote themselves all over the net. To achieve this goal they sometimes need to more and more traffic to their websites driven by other sites.As all we know, nothing can be done for free. You or your website can be one of the best tunnel that drive traffic to their website by putting ads on your website. if you have been surfing on the net quite a long you should have noticed that thereare two types of online advertising :
-Banner advertising and,
-Text Advertising
Banner advertising
This is the type of ads that pays more thought they should be more intrusive to visitors and consume more bandwidth. As result this can slowdown your site viewing for your visitors and lose them in case they can't focus on the content and services you are offering to them.
Text Advertising
This method is less intuisive that the first one. It also pays less. This s the one I can recommend as we want to show professionalism and serious in the services or content we are offerings How it works ?
You must first sign up with an advertising company. There are plenty of them over the web. Once your sign up is complete, you will be proposed a type of advertising that will be shown on your website. You will then have the choice, according to the context of you website. You will then be given some scripts that you should insert into the pages of you website, you want the ads to be shown from. Whenever a page is loaded, a feedback is sent to this company. They will then sun up the number of views per day and a payment will be sent to your bank account according to the number of visits, and the type of ads you show, in your website. I suggest you, using Google Adsense that is the best and must used advertising company used.
Search for "Google Adsense" in google and follow the link to sign up.
Web Ressources: Domain name Checkers: Microsoft Office Live Small Business
- HostingReview.com
- NetworkSolutions.com
- GoDaddy.com
- 5Hosts.com
- TopHosts.com
- HostingChecker.com
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