Marketing

Marketing is a whole tutorial all by itself. So I'm not going to try and get too technical about it here in this HTML Tutorial. What I'm going to try and communicate to you are some things that you should NOT do in your marketing.

This entire page may not pertain to you at all. If your site is simply a family site, that you really do not want everyone to see it won't pertain to you. It won't pertain to anyone that doesn't want lots of people to find and visit your site.

There are a lot, and I mean a real lot, of sites about marketing online. Most, and I'm not kidding here, MOST of them are pure rubbish. Most are sites trying to sell you something, or get you into a downline, matrix or members group. Steer clear of anything MLM (Multi Level Marketing). Steer clear of anything that is actually trying to sell you something else. Steer clear of anything that asks you to join a group.

Just recently I received an email from someone touting a new marketing method that is sure fire, absolutely failproof (if you act), and is completely free. My ears perked up ... my SCAM alarm went off. I read on.

The name being dropped was one of some marketing notariety online, so I did pay some attention. I read through a couple of pages and read the name Napoleon Hill and since I know that Mr. Hill is from the old school of money making, way before the internet times of today, I paid a little more attention. The first half hour or so that I read on made some real sense. It got into some good ideas about money making that I've heard before. I thought I should keep going. After a little of that, the truth came out. I had to join a MLM group and the only way was to make a purchase for $147.99 of some health food nutritional supplement or some such thing. Ya, right. OK. I'm really going to eat that stuff. (Well whether I should or not is irrelevant). That was this ploy ... bait the reader into thinking it will make him money. Bait the reader with several lengthy pages of sales pitch. Then sink the hook with your offer.

What happens (to many people) is by the time you get the sales pitch you are sold and go ahead and spend your money. In this case, I was supposed to be sold on the fact that I was going to make $10,000 monthly within a few months time. I was going to make that money by selling this health food supplement. What was really happening was that I was giving someone my money for their $10,000 goal! I suppose someone within these rackets does make money. But believe me, most people who actually took the bait and purchased their supplement don't go on to keep making money. But, since they purchased, they are hooked into a repeat monthly sale and will spend that $147.99 a month again, and perhaps again, until they finally cancel the subscription to this health supplement. Get the idea?

It should be plain to you that the people making the real money in this scenario are the ones who own the Health Store all these people are buying the supplement from.

As a quick aside, if you are looking to make money I suggest you read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I recommend you get it and read it ... read it again, and again and put into action the steps outlined in that book.

That book will tell you the secret to making money and being successful. Actually, it's the secret to success in anything at all, not just making money. I'd tell you what it is, but then your search for the answer would be over. You'd have nothing else to do. Well, maybe I'll tell you anyway. If you really want to get down to it what makes success is ... action.

There I gave away the biggest secret of all to making money online, offline anyline ... OK, so that's not a word. But the secret is now there in your lap. Take an idea and act on it. Make positive steps every day towards your goal. You will succeed.

It's worth noting that most (if not all) of those notable online marketing names, got their notariety from getting their names emblazoned all over the internet. They are good marketers, make no mistake about that, but are they really trying to help you along (out of the goodness of their hearts) ... or is it all just a ploy to get some of your money? If you're smart you answered; ploy!

FREE FOR ALL SITES
Free for all sites are simply link sites that allow you to add your URL (usually for free) to their ever changing list of sites. What happens on most of them is that your sites gets listed, within a few minutes it begins it's move down the list (as it's replaced by new entries) and within a day (usually within a few hours) it's dropped from the list altogether.

Not the greatest uses of your time. There are lots and lots of these sites around. In practice you join some plan that for $x.xx will submit your URL to 10,000 search engines, FFA, and link sites. Since there are only eight or so major search engines, 70 or 80 of lesser importance, that leaves about 9,912 of the submissions you are paying $x.xx for to be FFA and link sites, which are pretty much useless for generating traffic to your site. They do make money for the submission sites though. Get it?

If you fall into the FFA trap expect to get a gazillion useless emails. They call them confirmations, but they are really nothing more than email solicitations promoting programs for you to join and spend more money on. Get rich quick schemes galore! Once you have submitted to an FFA site(s) you can expect to get this type of email forever at whatever email address you used with them. Forever. I am not kidding. Forever. They will input your address into an autoresponder and every day (or whatever period of time they set it to) that autoresponder will send you their latest and greatest scheme.

There was a time when there was a slight advantage to getting listed on these sites. I will mention this only because it has been written elsewhere and the idea needs to be updated. The advantage was in link popularity. Once in a while an engine would just happen to come by and spider one of these sites when your link was present and you gained an inbound link.

The advantage has come and gone however as Google now considers these sites to be "bad neighborhoods" and any link to one will hurt you. Any link from one will hurt you too! Stay away from "bad neighborhoods".

The biggest no-no in online marketing are the scams. You'll find them. They are unavoidable. They are everywhere. It seems that alot of people have sites, programs and ebooks that will show you how to make money online. Most of them are selling something to you, which is making money for someone else. I don't want to sound like sour grapes on this subject. It's just that I feel that someone who claims to be able to teach you how to make money online, or teach you marketing online, or whatever, should teach you that. Even though you may make some money online by selling their products, the point originally was to make money online! Their approach should change and be more like Let Me Show You How to Sell My Product and Make a Commission. That would be truthful.

Information marketing is probably the hottest way to make money online. The Internet is an enormous pool of information. People know that. People use it to get answers to questions, and to learn things. It is that very reason that makes it a great place to market your eBook about growing tomatoes in Alaska, or whatever. If there is any kind of market for an information product, i.e., eBook, book, pamphlet, tutor whatever, the Internet is a good place to sell it.

Keep your nose clean. My usual way to judge something is if I could sell it (or even tell about it) to my wife, mother, family and friends. If I would be hesitant to tell those people about it, then there is probably something wrong somewhere. That's the test I use. If I wholeheartedly can tell and recommend to my family and friends, whatever the item is, then it's worth trying to sell to someone else. If I am hesitant to tell my friends, I don't try and sell the product to someone else. This is the simplest way I know of to keep my nose clean and run a legitimate business.