The Marketing Mercenary

Let’s be honest, when we think about being successful online, Search Engines come to mind and having your website indexed high enough in these Search Engines is your main focus.

Beware, solely concentrating on search engine marketing alone may very well keep you from getting ahead online.

Let me explain, so much time may be spent in just one area which in this case is search engine marketing, that some tend to lose focus on the main objective, your customers.

Waiting for Search Engines to index a new website may be a timely process and there is never a guarantee that you will place well at all. No Indexing, No Website Traffic.

So what do you do?

First lets change the term from Search Engine Marketing to Internet Marketing. Simply stated, Marketing to the Internet as a whole and not just search.

Imagine having your website generating targeted traffic without your site even being indexed well at all.

Here’s how: Buzz Marketing or Viral Marketing. This is the process of spreading your website message widely across the Internet were other website’s are acting as a traffic portal to your site which builds links and ultimately doing the Search Engine Marketing for you.

Articles, Press Releases, Forum Marketing, Ebook Marketing and more. These potential marketing materials are picked up by other high traffic websites for their content value.

Websites need to supply their visitors with new fresh quality content and these materials are indexed by search engines, which generate visitors to your site without your site being indexed.

How? With your signature line which contains short but important details about your website and or business along with a link to your website. The more websites pick up your content the more links, which lead to more website visibility and traffic.

Market to Search Engines with out directly Marketing to Search Engines.

Note: All content created should be optimized in the same manner as your web pages would be, with targeted keyword and keyword phrases as well as good keyword weighting for your targeted terms.

Separate yourself from your competition with a solid well-rounded Internet marketing campaign strategy that is designed to serves your visitors and the Search Engine Marketing precess will take care of itself in time.

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

Winners are ALWAYS looking for ways to grow their business.  They trust their company, trust their customers to come through for them, and realize that a financial crunch offers advantages that aren’t available during better economic times.

1.  Get More For Your Advertising Bucks
When the economy makes a turn for the worse, it just makes sense that your advertising will give less of a return than during and economic boon.  Sure there’s a lot less money being spent, but you don’t have to have to watch your profit margin plummet!

Think about it… advertisers are feeling the recession just as much as you are, and are more desperate for clients.  It’s the perfect atmosphere to negotiate your way to lower costs – even if you are already getting a good price.  Every advertising penny you can save, is that much more profit you’ll earn on the products.

Have you thought about getting free publicity?  Local newspapers are always looking for something of local interest.  Make the news!  Publicity is free, but a wonderful way to get your business in front of potential clients.

Do your advertisements really need to be as big as they are?  We tend to think the big is better, but the facts are that short ads with 11 words or less often generate higher response than large ads.  Give it a try, and trim some costs right off your advertising bill.

2.  Take Advantage Of Big Ticket Sales
Not all of your customers suffer during recession.  Remember that there are always people who are thriving financially, so don’t be afraid to make big ticket sales offers.  Additionally, when money is tight, people who place a lot of stock in your product will value it even more.

Think about ways to create products similar to yours, but with much higher prices.  Internet marketers often create members only sites and sell their products at much higher prices.  Hey, they’ll obviously make fewer sales, but the people who really value the product will buy.  Each sale will net an immensely higher profit.  Think about it like this… even though the sales are fewer, the actual profit may be even greater than when it was sold at a lower price.

3.  Maximize The Customers You Have
Your customers already know that you have great products and provide satisfactory service.  They trust you to come through for them.  Think about it…  it’s much easier to make sales to someone you already have a relationship with.

Use every opportunity to increase your sales volume within the customer audience you already have.  Do you have a product that goes with the one they are purchasing?  Offer it to them at the register.  It’s a proven and effective method for increasing sales.  You may be shocked at the additional sales you can generate from those who are already buying from you.

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

There are many ways to reach out and find the people you are trying to attract for your business. Here are just a handful of ways to get you started:

1) Attend organization meetings

Where do people in your target market hang out? Research this, and then plan to attend a meeting or two to mix and mingle. What better way to meet and get to know these individuals while learning more about the market?

2) Offer to speak at a meeting or conference

What do you have to offer that you feel could be of value to those you are trying to reach out to? Present a short talk or slide show on a helpful topic. Be sure you present something of value to the group. What helpful tips or other material would hold ther attention, and entice them to learn more about you and what you do? Just give them a small taste of your skills and knowledge. Chances are, they will want to talk to you after the presentation.

3) Advertise in publications your target market reads

The Internet is a great place to research what publications are out there. You can probably even get your advertisement to appear online as well as in the hard copy of a publication. Advertising can be rather expensive, so be careful with this one!

4) Present a free TeleClass

If you are not confident in your public speaking skills, but still feel you have something of value to teach those you are trying to influence, try offering a no-cost teleclass. It is usually fairly inexpensive to rent a bridge line to host your class. You can teach from the comfort of your own home, too. This is also a great way to get a list of names to add to your subscriber list for mailings. If you are comfortable with this option, you can charge a small fee for future teleclasses you hold, which will bring you some passive income.

5) Start a blog

Write daily or weekly posts related to subject matter that will pique the interest of your target market. Spend time researching particular topics that you can write about. Then, add some pizazz…get excited when you post the information to your blog. If you’re excited about something, others will be too. And don’t forget to use keywords. These are what the search engines will use to find the content in your blog and draw others to it.

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

On-page search engine optimization is definitely one of the key methods if a website owner would like to improve the results for his or her website’s searchability. However, on-page SEO often entails technical skills. Why? Not a lot of people are HTML enthusiasts. This is often what needs to be tweaked to do an excellent job in optimizing web pages.

What if a geek friend already did the on-page optimization and now you want to know how you can contribute to the “search engine goodness” of your website? Off-page optimization is the next step. And the results you will have to pine for are one-way backlinks. Why? This is how many of the major search engines such Google, Yahoo! and MSN rank websites. The more backlinks from relevant sites with good page rank, the merrier.

So how exactly do you gather backlinks? It’s not an easy task but it’s definitely less nerve-wracking than HTML if you are not the techie type. Here are some off-page SEO tips:

1. Article Marketing

Quality content has been discovered to be real king. Everyone is hungry for fresh and quality info and providing it will make backlinks go pouring in. It helps a lot to be a keen writer to be successful on this endeavor. Also, practise the proper way of using a resource box. It should only include a website that contains information relevant to the article you submit to article directories.

2. Forum Participation

Look for forums that are relevant to your website’s content and keep on sharing information that will be indispensable for the members of the forums. Your signature or that tag-along message at the last part of each of your posts is what will work for your off-page SEO campaign. Keep it simple and make sure that it conveys something about your website. Learn how to hyperlink to make it easy for the people who want to visit your site.

3. Blogging

Blogs or web logs are now the most popular weapons of SEO experts. Aside from being easy-to-update, they don’t require a too formal tone, which is what many readers are into. Informal dialog which can be accomplished through readers leaving comments and the blog author replying to the comments is what also keeps blogs fresh and search engine friendly. Maintaining a blog that’s again relevant to your website’s content will keep the search engines in touch with your site. Don’t forget to have a link on your main website from your blog.

The secret to be successful in carrying out these off-page SEO methods is to be consistent. Submitting quality articles to websites at least two to three times a week and regularly producing content for your personalized blog is a surefire way to make your website stand out. Forum participation should also be something done more frequently since it will not only help you up your website’s popularity with the search engines but also make you learn new stuff from other forum members’ participation. Also, if you discover that you don’t enjoy these stuff, there’s always a plan B – hire someone to do them for you!

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

Driving traffic to your website is important. But it is likewise important to ensure that your web design makes your visitors stay. After all, what is the use of spending thousands of dollars and wasting lots of effort and time in creating a unique product, securing top rankings on search engines and creating a hundred page site if your visitors donít stay once they found your page?

There are a lot of factors to consider in creating a successful site. First of all, your site should be easy to navigate. Donít make your visitors click on ten links and scroll down each page just to find what they are looking for. All pages on the site must not be five clicks away from the homepage. Visitors will enjoy surfing your site if it is easy for them to find the information that they want.

Second of all, your site must load fast. This is often one of the biggest problems on the Internet. Some sites take more than twenty minutes to load and some visitors donít have the time and patience to wait for a long time. As a result they click away from your site. One of the best ways to make your site load fast is to use more text and fewer graphics. Keep in mind that not all visitors have fast connection so you have to design your site the way everyone can view it quickly.

Third of all, always remember your purpose in designing your website. Ask yourself, do visitors say wow when they see your site and then click away? Or do they stay and surf your site for a while? Does your site sell or just impress people?

It does not really matter is your visitors are impressed by your graphics and animations. What you have to keep in mind is your purpose. If you want your site to sell you have to design it in such a way that your visitors get interested in your offer and are encouraged to buy.

Fourth of all, use the right colors. Color is a very important to your website. When they are used correctly they can highlight important points and add clarity and impact to your message. But when they are used incorrectly, it can confuse your visitors and compromise your message.

Keep in mind that current trends play a big role in color schemes. A good strategy is to design your site in such a way that if a color change has to be made, it can be done so easily.

If you are able to follow this tips you will not only attract many visitors but you will also encourage them to stay for a while and maybe you can turn them into paying customers.

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

Marketing a business can be fun, exciting and creative. It can also be very frustrating and expensive if one doesn’t know what outcome they are looking for or how to evaluate cost effective methods of marketing.

With a bit of forethought, planning and desire while using the right strategies for your market, you can realize some incredible results.. Below are seven proven strategies sure to increase visibility, leads and sales.

1. Business Cards
Business cards are often one of the most underutilized tools in one’s marketing. Use the front and back of your business card to gain full benefit. Depending on your market you can put some very valuable information on the back such as a special offer, a referral program, or website address to a free download.
Keep some in your wallet or purse, your automobile, on your desk, and some at home. Be sure to carry them with you wherever you go and be willing to hand them out as opportunity presents itself. Creatively distribute your card. When you eat out you can leave one with the tip. If you borrow a library book, use one as a book mark. Hand them to clerks in stores who may know other people who could use your product or service. When someone gives you their business card be sure to enter their information in your database. Send them a short note or email within 48 hours of meeting them to keep your name fresh in their mind.

2. Send a picture
A great way to keep your name fresh in a customer’s mind is to send them a picture of when they purchased a product or service from you. Put a picture of a buyer’s auto purchase in a beautiful calendar. Likely, the proud owner of the vehicle will display the calendar for the next 365 days. For specialty gift shops, when a customer makes a substantial purchase, have a picture taken with the shop owner. Frame the picture and send it to the customer. Chances are very good the picture will be displayed proudly for friends and family to see. A dentist who specializes in smile makeovers can easily arrange to have a professional makeup artist and photographer capture the patient’s beautiful new smile. No doubt the patient will be more than happy to show others their new look.

3. Associations
Associations particular to your market are a great resource for marketing. There are associations specific to virtually any industry, job type or business. A quick web search will likely show you how much is available. A major opportunity within many organizations is the chance to network. Additionally, to make presentations. Along with presentations come publications. Often, when you do a presentation, you will get a mention in the association newsletter, their Ezine and/or on their website. In many cases, when an organization has a newsletter or Ezine, they welcome the presenter writing a press announcement for them. It saves them time and often assures you have a better chance of the information making it into the publication. They may also welcome you writing an article for their publication or website. This lends itself to pre-presentation visibility. Additionally, you will position yourself as an expert and increase credibility. Most organizations have the following opportunities that can help you to gain visibility and do some very effective marketing:

-Newsletters
-Internet listings
-Links to you website
-Discounted advertising rates
-Networking opportunities
-Business referral services
-Special recognition events
-Education seminars
-Business and membership directories

In many cases you will need to be a member of the association to take advantage of the multiple marketing opportunities. In other cases membership is not necessary.

4. Committee Involvement
Committee involvement is a great way to give back to the association or community while building visibility for you and your business. In some cases, you may even want to get involved in a committee where you have little experience or knowledge. This will give you an opportunity to stretch yourself and meet and network with individuals you may not have otherwise had the chance to meet.

5. Contests and drawings
Contests are a favorite for many businesses such as restaurants or those that have high foot traffic. Contests are a great way to build your database quickly.
You are generating very hot leads when you have a contest with people who have already frequented your place of business. The key though is to do back -end marketing. Far too many businesses hold contests, get lots of names and do nothing with them. In this case, it is a complete waste of time to hold a contest. You can advertise a contest to gain new foot traffic in your place of business. Trade show booths are a great place to hold a contest. Pre-show marketing helps to generate traffic at your booth. Invite people to stop by booth # _____  (whatever your booth is) to enter to win. Creative contests can also generate free publicity.

6. Cross-promoting
Join with other companies who have products or services that compliment yours and promote each other. Let’s say you have a massage business. You could partner with a candle company to sell their candles to your massage clients. They can give out coupons for your massage business. Or the candle company can partner with a gift basket company. Cross-promoting is only limited by your imagination. This can considerably cut down the cost of business promotion and allow each business to use promotion techniques that might be too expensive to implement alone.

7. Bonuses
Secure special offers from various businesses who want to share a similar market as you. When a customer buys a minimum amount they receive a bonus packet with the various offers from the other vendors. This is a win/win all the way around. The other vendors gain visibility, you have something extra to offer you customers and the customers get incredible value for their purchase. Be aware of who you cross-promote and joint venture with. You want someone who will be equally committed to a campaign.

To Your Success!

Freddie Hornedo
The Marketing Mercenary

Looking for a quick and easy way to give your website a boost in the search engine results?  Here are 3 straightforward and easy tips to get the job done.

1. Add new content regularly

While that may seem obvious, it is really the best way to improve search engine results. There are a number of ways to add content including a blog, reviews, testimonials, articles and so on. Forums are also a great way to have new content added to your site by others.

2. Choose the right keywords

Select specific keyword phrases that are relevant to the webpage you are optimizing rather than general terms. Specific keyword phrases will be searched less frequently, however you will receive more targeted traffic and a higher page ranking for these phrases.

3. Linking

To achieve a high search engine ranking it is important to have other sites linking to your site. These can be one way links, or reciprocal links, where you link to another site in return for them linking to you. Internal linking also helps build the prominence of pages within your website.

Of all the types of links, one-way links have the most weight. To obtain more one-way links, writing quality content is the singular best way to motivate others to link to you. Additionally, posting on social networking sites, and linking to your site, and posting on blogs are other ways you can take control of building links to your website and web pages.

When it comes to improving your search engine ranking there are a lot of little things you can do to boost your page results however the three most important and the strategies you cannot survive without are obtaining links, choosing the right keywords and of course publishing quality content on a regular and consistent basis.
To Your Success!

Freddie

Search engine rankings are an important factor to consider when you have a web site that needs more traffic. If your web site doesn’t have a good position in the rankings then it will be hard to find.

Since most searchers click on the first few results, you need to make sure that your web site is ranked highly enough so that people can easily find it on the first page of search engine results. Although no search engine optimization company or consultant can guarantee a high rankings for your site permanently, often times hiring a web marketing specialist will pay off many times over. For those of you doing it yourself or those of you that want to ensure your marketing company is doing a good job, here are some tips for raising the search engine rankings of your web site.

1. Content

Content is an important factor in high search engine rankings. Make sure that you have plenty of content throughout your site with your target keywords in the articles. It’s also worth doing a search for web sites similar to yours and taking a look at their articles for ideas. Keywords are an important factor and they should be used throughout the content of your website.

2. Web Site URL

Your web site’s URL can help you rank higher with the search engines if it contains your keywords. However, don’t think that naming your site after your keywords will always help your rankings – you need to do more than just that. But still, it is one of the factors in improving a search engine ranking.

3. Search Terms

Search terms should be written out in text, instead of graphics. If you use pictures, be sure to give them alt tags. If you want a good rank in search engines then these things that may seem small should be considered, as search engines can read the text but not the graphics.

4. Page Title

The title of your page is very important, and if you choose the title properly then it can surely make a big difference in search engine ranking. Terms such ‘free article on safe children’s toys’, or ‘contact the children’s toy expert today’ are good to use as titles on pages containing such content. The titles themselves are very specific to the page and also may not have much competition being as specific as they are. The title area is the most important place to include your keyword phrases, so make sure that you utilize it.

Master these four tips and you’ll be on your way to getting free traffic. Look for other tips to keep your site moving up

To Your Success!

Freddie

You have heard from people saying Internet Business is a waste of time,
you will not make any money, there is no real money to be made online,
it will never work and so many others negative words coming from people
who don’t really understand this Internet Business industry.

The thing is, it does work. Why some people make a fortune and some don’t
make money at all? Simply because the people who make thousands or
millions of dollars knew all the lies in this business and they will not trust
these lies.

So what are these big internet lies? Below are the 5 big internet lies that
you should know:

1. Starting And Running A Business On The Internet Is Expensive

Do you know that you can start your business with zero cost? You can
actually earn your income by joining a very high quality affiliate program.
Usually, as an affiliate marketer, your job is concentrating on marketing only.
All the follow up, delivery of the product, answering questions from customers
and so on are done by the owner of the program.

Usually the ‘expensive’ statement often comes from people who are living in
non-U.S. countries, especially if the country’s local currency is smaller than
that of the U.S. Dollar. If it is not a currency issue, it is a vision issue. See and
think small to get small. See and think big and your results will have a
tendency to match your thoughts.

2. You Can Make Easy Money From The Internet

Most people believe you can make money overnight and by not doing anything
at all. If it is what you have in mind right now, this myth is what sets the realistic
apart from the unrealistic. You have probably heard of stories of how people
make 5 to 6 figure incomes in the shortest period of time imaginable.

These stories might be true but did you know most of them have failed so
miserably several times before they can really make money? They have learned
from their mistakes and move on. It may seem as if some gurus are overnight
successes with the wild numbers some people have brought in during a day or
a week selling information or products online.

Some interesting facts about overnight success – it normally takes months if not
years to realize. In other words, they prepare, they create a joint ventures, they
get ready and then build up anticipation for a launch – then BOOM it explodes!

3. You Must Know HTML, Programming And Graphic Designing In Order
To Start Your Business

You don’t need to know any of these at all. Period. In fact, one of the biggest
shockers was the discovery that most of the biggest of the gurus today do not
have the first clue how to build a web page. These gurus earned more money
because they knew how to reach people. They either outsource for professional
help or establish Joint Ventures with other individuals who can compensate their
lack of knowledge in any one of these areas.

As a matter of fact, most successful people are true successes because they only
focus their time on what brings them successes.

If you want to create your web pages without having to learn programming, HTML
and designing skills, just find someone else that can do it for you. There are many
professional web designer you can find on the Internet which you can hire to
design your web pages exactly like you wanted.

4. On The Internet, There Is No Need To Know How To Sell

Think for a moment, is there any logic to the idea that you can make money without
doing anything at all? Usually these programs are unworkable and some are run by
fly-by-night operators.

In this business, don’t try to sell to other people. Instead, you inform your potential
customers. Show people what their lives would be like with what you offer and you
will have a sale without selling anything at all!

5. You Don’t Have To Build A Mailing List At All

LOL! – that is like saying, “I don’t want to be in business”. Put this in your head,
your mailing list is as important to you as the “Yellow Pages” is to a conventional
B2B business.

“The money is in the list”. You probably heard this from most gurus out there. But
you should also have this statement in your mind, “The money is in the relationship”.
The idea of networking with people is unattractive to most who hate to sell.

Remember though, you are not selling anything. You are just showing people their
life and how it can easily be enhanced by what you have to offer.

All the above are just some of the big Internet lies. Actually there are a lot more
Internet lies you should stay away from. You have to be smart in order to really
achieve the success that you desire. Success is like enlightenment. It is a path and
not a destination.

Download my FREE report “Quick Start Guide to Sales Funnels”
Step-by-Step Process on Making Money Online
___________________________________

Freddie Hornedo, “The Marketing Mercenary”
http://www.freddiehornedo.com

Many internet marketers have questions about customer care in relation to their online business. While wanting to convince just about everyone they encounter to hop on board with them, they could easily be spending precious time, resources and money on people who just don’t really fit in the mix.

When working with niches and sales funnels, it’s important to know not everyone is going to follow you. And frankly, you probably wouldn’t want them to anyhow. If it’s not “their” niche, they aren’t going to get use from it, while your time and resources could be of better use elsewhere.

Understand Buying Behavior – It’s important to understand buying triggers and purchasing behavior.  People tend to buy from those they know, have established confidence in, and like. You can achieve all of these things with your customers without ever meeting them face to face. It just takes some time, email messages with a slightly personal tone, followed by trusting actions. Most people can connect with these, and will feel they know you, even if they have never heard your voice or seen more than a picture of you on an internet web page on their computer screen.

Valuable Information – Another thing required to keep your customers happy and coming back to you, often with much excitement, is a consistent supply of valuable information relative to the niche in question. This information can range from e-books to articles and reports to audio sessions. It’s all dependent on your particular niche sales funnel and what your customer base actually needs.

Consistent Communication – Encourage your website visitors and customers to come back often by offering a newsletter or free product for them if they sign up for further information from you. Offering quality resources makes it easier for even the most reluctant person to divulge their contact information to you thus enabling you to connect with them on a regular basis.

Taking care of your prospects and customers is essential to keeping them engaged in your sales funnel.  They’ll appreciate the effort you put in to the service you are providing when they see something of good or even great quality offered on a consistent basis.  It’s what will keep them loyal to you, as well as have them recommend your site to their friends too.

Download this FREE REPORT to get even more in-depth information on Creating Your Perfect Sales Funnel!
http://www.themarketingmercenary.com/QuickSalesFunnels.htm

To Your Success!

Freddie
http://www.FreddieHornedo.com
http://www.TheMarketingMercenary.com