How to Find Customers Online
Do you really “get” how to sell your services or products online? If you are failing to reach your customers online, then there is something going wrong with your marketing efforts. Today’s Internet world is supposed to help you sell more of your products and services.
It doesn’t matter if you are a web designer, dog products wholesaler, provide language translation services or write books. Your customers are online. You need to intercept while they are there and add quality to their lifes to stand ahead of your competition. With no real system and implementing “quick fix” methods will never help you find leads or customers for your business.
The first and foremost thing you need to do is pin point where your targeted customers are and what they are doing. Then try to get in their path. Dont wait for them to come to you. Instead go to them. Now, how exactly do you do that? Let us pause here for a while and look at the statistics.
Statistics: According to the US Census Bureau, three out of five households are online which is 110 million households and almost half of them access to high speed Internet. Now isn’t easy to find your customers online?
What are people doing online? This is important as it helps us finding out how exactly we can come across our specific customers. Almost 58% of Internet users are reading or sending email. 50% are using search (this includes all kinds of search engines). 38% use Internet to get news, 38% are online for fun, and, 27% are using social networking sites. If these are the top four activities people make online, then obviously, you need to be where that’s happening.
Promotion: You should be sending periodic emails to your customers. Your site should be showing up in search results. You should be in “news” by distributing the press releases of your services and products. As the usage of social media sites is increasing exponentially every year, you should be promoting your site there.
Start with a primary marketing strategy. That could be advertising, article marketing, video marketing, podcast marketing. Then explore ways to make money from existing customers. It is easy to pin point your customers online if you know what they’re doing and where you need to be to be connected to them. Then all you need is a backend system to keep bringing the visitors consistently.
Here is a small method I use to promote my articles in high profile, authority websites.
Article marketing: If you want to promote your site with your articles, there is an excellent way to find out high profile sites which accept your articles. Here is the procedure.
- Go to www.delicious.com
- Find the articles that have atleast 100 bookmarks by searching the site with your keywords and copy the article titles.
- Open google.com and enter the copied title in the search bar with quotations. For example, “Six Useful Tips for Web Designers and Developers”
- Now, you can find hundreds of websites that published this article, which are usually authority sites having a page rank of atleast 5. You can request the site owners to publish your article too. But your article must be unique. These sites are highly targeted and can send you thousands of visitors to your site who are your potential customers.
You can repeat the above procedure with Stumbleupon and Digg. You can implement the same procedure for video marketing and pod cast marketing too.
Forums: Another excellent way to find your customers is by using forums. You can find n-number of forums for almost every niche with tons of like minded people talking about every topic every day. There are a couple ways to find these forums, the easiest being to just go to big-boards.com and look up your topic in their forum search box. Register in the forums and provide great content.
Remember that the best way to attract your customers is to provide great, valuable and unique content.
SEO: Why should you not use some freelancers Off page SEO for your SEO purposes?
The basic inngredient behind SEO for your wbesite has always been and always be the use of the righht keywords. But the internet is conbstantly evolving whiich means your tactics must be connstantly changing. There are many different areas that encompass the SEO of a web page and site. There are blackhat and whitehat tecxhniques alopng with On page and Off page techniques. All of these have thheir advantages and drawbacks.
Of some of the more popular techniques there is one that is called Off page SEO. These techniques are considerred easier and simpler to use than On page techniques. Off page techniwques are mainly involved with links to other sites. The building of links that are associated with your ancghor key words and key word phases has to be built.
One of the main reasons a website owner should be cautious of using a freelance Off page as an optimizastion tool is becayuse you will have no cointrol of the Off page site or contebnt. You do not want to have a link to your site that uses SEO spamming tactics. One of the more common and often used of these is a link farm. This is a site that can contain over 100 outbound links per page on its website. This will increase traffiic for a short time, but the long term effect will cause you to drop in the rankings or beome delisted. Othre heaavily frowed upon tactics are the use of irrelevant key wiords in your link-ads, the use of gartbage links, link churning, and the worst of them all is the hidden inbound links. Most sites are managed proeprly and do not go from whitehat to blackhat, but that is the choice of the webste owner. Unnless you are constantly checking all the different links and the sites where they exits, there is a chanec it can hurt you and your site.
If you have decided to use Off page SEO techniques, there are some common mistakes that should be avoided for the best possible results. Aviod using duplicate keywrds in your link-ads. To avoid link growth spikes in your statistical counters, do not use site wide links. Keep your loinks to specific apges so that they will be more relevant to your site and your goals as a web site owner. Do not incorpoarte On page SEO tactics to perrform Off page SEO functions. One of the most annoying things that shpould be avoided is to have random links that are not asssociated with any of your kewyords.
Off page SEO is how the internet portrays your site to others. This is why it is important to use professiomnal Off page SEO companies. The better ones not only have good reputatons but provide good results having been ding this kind of work for two years or more. Beware of the Freelnce newcomers that could be doing Off page SEO work for a quicck buck that emlpoy harmful techniques that could not only hurt your ranknigs but csause you to become delisted and make you lose money.
Tags: SEOChina says no limits on use of Google's Android
BEIJING – China said Wednesday its mobile phone carriers can use Google's Android operating system so long as it complies with regulations, apparently trying to limit damage to Chinese industry from their dispute over Internet censorship.
Google Inc.'s Jan. 12 announcement that it would no longer censor search results in China prompted concern about possible commercial fallout. The company postponed the launch of its own smart phone in China but others are developing Android-based phones and could be hurt if Beijing tries to penalize Google by barring its use.
"As long as it fulfills Chinese laws and regulations and has good communication with telecom operators, I think its application should not have restrictions," said Zhu Hongren, a spokeman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, at a regular news briefing when asked whether Beijing would permit use of Android.
The comments reflect the conflicting pressures on the communist government, which insists on controlling information but needs foreign companies like Google to help achieve its goal of making China a technology leader.
The operating system is the foundation of a mobile phone's features and changing it after products have been launched would require expensive basic redesigns, said Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China Ltd., a Beijing research firm.
"There's a pretty significant upfront investment in developing a phone on one operating system," Dean said. "So you don't want to change course on so basic a system as what opeating system it works on."
Google is in sensitive talks with the government, trying to keep an important Beijing development center, a lucrative advertising sales team and access to China's booming market for its fledgling mobile phone business.
A Google spokesman, Jessica Powell, declined Wednesday to comment on the status of talks or confirm whether top managers from the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters were in Beijing.
Zhu gave no indication of the possible fate of Google's own phone, planned with local carrier China Unicom Ltd.
China is the world's most populous mobile phone market and any restrictions on Google might hamper its effort to expand into mobile. The country has more than 700 million accounts and strong demand for advanced services.
State-owned China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest phone company by subscribers, is developing its own smart phone, the OPhone, which uses a system that has Android as its foundation.
The involvement of such a major state company, a key player in Beijing's technology development plans, could add to pressure on authorities to contain the commercial consequences of the Google dispute.
Dell Inc., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Corp. also plan to sell Android-based phones in China.
Google allows use of Android for free, which might boost costs for manufacturers and phone carriers if they switch systems, Dean said.
Microsoft Inc., Nokia Corp. and others charge royalties for their mobile operating systems.
"It's a significant enough share of the price of a phone that it changes the economies of the smart phone business if you're paying someone else for the operating system," Dean said.
___
On the Net:
Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (in Chinese): http://www.miit.gov.cn
Tags: GoogleDouban Raised $10M in Series B
Douban, a symbol of web 2.0 services in China, announced its $10 million series B financing today. The new round is led by Trustbridge Partners, and co-invested by its existing investor Ceyuan Ventures, who invested in $2 million in 2006.
Douban started from a social networking sites for book lovers, movie lovers and music lovers in 2005, when hype of web 2.0 just began. When people talked about web 2.0 in China, they will talk Douban. Since its inception, Douban is always one of my most favoriate Chinese websites, and I’m also an active user of Douban. Douban’s newest major product development is the release of Douban Radio, which is an personalized online music streaming service powered by a recommend engine to tailor the music just for you. (You can check our previous reports on Douban here)
Currently, Douban’s main revenue source is online advertising, some big brands are Douban’s advertisers already. For Douban Book, it also gain revenues from affiliation with Dangdang, Amazon Joyo and other book ecommerce sites.
Congratulations to Douban and Bo Yang. I strongly believe that Douban can lead to something bigger.
Tags: Douban, Web 2.0Search Engine Optimization Google
When looking into building a website, the number 1 concept in which you will need to have a grasp on to run a successful web business is search engine optimization. Many internet companies need to rely on the internet to expand and grow over one small local area to throughout the state, providence, nation, or even the world. There are many different concepts found in search engine optimization which help to increase your websites overall traffic, visits, customers, and search engine rankings.
So how does Search Engine Optimization work? What is it?
Search engine optimization is a concept which covers a wide variety of different tools in which a web developer would use to boost overall traffic and popularity to their own website. Some of the general concepts which are categorized into the Search Engine Optimization market are keyword densities, topic relevance, meta tags, script coding, domain names, back linking, search engine submissions, advertising, and much more.
Here are some things to consider when optimizing your website for the internet search engines;
Keyword Density – Keyword density is using a specific percentage of words which hold a significant relation to the overall main topic of your website. For example a key word for a website specifically about optimization would be "search engine optimization." This allows web crawlers also known as search engine spiders to crawl your website and identify the main search-able topic of the site by keyword densities used most commonly in all of your website content. But with keyword densities if the keyword is used too much you may be black listed as spam. But if you use the keyword to little you may be listed in an unrelated area of the search where your visitors will not have a common interest with your website.
Topic Relevance – The relevance of your topics to your website, which also goes for the keywords will create a higher ranking in the search engine along with site search ability. For example if a website had many topics which were about ducks, but the site was about frogs, than you are going to be listed possibly in an unrelated part of the search engine. While a website about ducks, with many different articles and content with ducks in it, will have many different search engine listed pages which the searcher can see when looking up ducks. This makes it more likely that the person looking for information will visit your site.
Meta Tags and Scripting – These two concepts are in too much relation to each other to explain separately. Meta tags are specific words submitted into the sites overall header through professional scripting which pose as the main keywords which you want to be creating densities for in your content.
There are many different script alterations which can also be used which automatically detect meta tags and put them into the script for you based on densities, but is not as advisable unless you are very sure of what you are doing.
Domain Names – Your domain name is the key, the start of everything. Unfortunately the success of your entire website could be faltered simply by selecting an non ideal domain name. First domain names should be topic relevant, meaning that the domain name should be an overall description of what is in the website, or a business name. For example a news website should have a domain name with short clear general words in relation to news, and not a domain name which describes something like dating. Otherwise your visitors could be people looking for a dating website, and then leaving. Domain names should also be kept either dot com or dot net. These two domains rank in the top numbers for the Google search engine.
Why do I need Google?
Google is one of the most complicated search engines to stay on top of, and yet one of the most popular search engines on the internet. This makes Google one of the most important concepts in search engine optimization being more than 50% of the entire worlds population uses Google when searching the internet.
Should I do Search Engine Optimization on my own or through a paid service?
Although search engine optimization is complicated if you are a very experienced web developer it would save you a few bucks. The only problem is doing optimization yourself is time consuming, back-linking to thousands of websites legitimately, editing your scripts and fixing errors, this could all cost you a lot of time as to where your website could have already been receiving traffic and making income.
A paid service which offers search engine optimizations are often companies with many different people who work all at one time to get many angles of your website mastered all at once. A professional company can do for you in just a few days to a week what could take you several months. If your website is sponsored by advertising or your own products using a professional service to optimize your website would pay off its own costs in profits from the time you would not have had your website up and running without the service. So really the decision is up to you and your own specific preference.
Tags: Google, Search Engine Optimization, SEOSuper stars are “lip-synching” in the Spring Festival Gala, Would you support it?
"With consideration of stage effects for the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, editors plan to adapt some conservative methods and allow some super stars to make a lip-synching". The news as mentioned above caused the great uproar at the first minute of updated online.
Some netizens considered it as a "disrespect for the audience", while some felt disappointing for the "depressing retrogress of the Gala caused by forgeries". "Spring Festival Gala is not a carnival for celebrities but a festival show for common people, as an audience but not a groupie or a star-maker, what we want is to get a happy together and to enjoy a series of attractive performances. We don't need any showing-off guys. If lip-synching is acceptable, why not change the live show to be a video program and forge everything, even the Countdown for the New Year?" criticized some netizens.
Allegedly, because of the lip-synch-proof demand from organizers of SF Gala in recent years, some actors decided to quit the Gala due to their singing-off-key during the rehearsal. In order to attract the popular actors loved by audience to join in the Gala, editors proposed to solve the intonation problem with some "conservative method" in which lip-synching is allowed. Think about it, how can a popular star, who is not a professional singer, sing beautifully while dancing hotly if without the lip-synching?
Super stars are "lip-synching" in the Spring Festival Gala? What's your opinion on it? Would you support it?
Tags: lip-synching2012, Who should be saved?
Copenhagen World Climate Conference ended in Copenhagen, capital of Denmark on Dec. 18th, 2009. This conference is known as the "last chance for human beings to be saved". Those, who have ever seen the movie 2012, may still in a state of shock because, no matter whether the doomsday in 2012 would be realized or not, the environmental and climatic issue has become the principal problem that all human beings need to confront with together.
Hereon, following is the appeal from moderator: Please protect our environment by using the recyclable shopping bags and water-saving.Every little effort from everyone may become a great contribution to the earth.
Please share your opinions with us.
Show up in public places with pajama? A city style or a bad habit?
It seems usual for Shanghai residents to show up with pajamas in pulic places from lanes, stores, super markets to Nanjing Rd, the most famous shopping street. But now with the approaching of EXPO, local authorities began to manifest the persuasion to people from showing up in pulic places with pajamas.
Some people consider that going out with pajamas, though is a habit for Shanghai residents, does not correspond with international etiquette. Now, the EXPO is decided to be held in Shanghai, and therefore, the image of its citizens will be recognized as a part of Chinese clutures for other nations. So, showing up in public places with pajama is apparently an improper habit.
On the contrary, some people think that going out with pajamas never relates to denounces in quality or civilization. Instead of an improper habit, it is just a living custom, and the local authorities have no rights to intervene.
Dear friends, what's your opinions?
foobar2000 1.0 Download
foobar2000 v1.0 has been released.
foobar2000 v1.0 Download: Foobar2000.org
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player for the Windows platform. Some of the basic features include full unicode support, ReplayGain support and native support for several popular audio formats.
foobar2000 1.0 change log
- New context menu structure - better out-of-the-box layout but less customizable.
- Built-in support for Windows Media and RTSP streaming.
- “Edit” menu operates on the currently selected object rather than always on the active playlist.
- Improved compatibility with multimedia keyboards.
- Improved, more customizable album art support.
- Portable installs now remember Media Library paths relatively to the install folder.
- Reworked Preferences: OK/Cancel/Apply buttons, new layout of standard pages.
- New options regarding selection viewer behavior.
- Default User Interface: new pseudo color code system for status bar and playlist view.
- CD ripping improvements:
- Results can be now checked against the AccurateRip database on-the-fly.
- CD-TEXT reading support.
- Ability to choose individual tracks to rip in the “Rip Audio CD” dialog.
A trip to Larnaca
Many people found that their funds were insufficient to allow the usual summer holiday to take place in 2009, because of the continuing financial crisis. If you had to make this grievous sacrifice this year, then you might like to consider taking a wintertime break instead, and why not choose Larnaca as the perfect place to unwind?
There are a whole host of reasons to visit Larnaca in winter. First of all, you will find that many holidays are cut price during this off peak season, and flights to such sunny southern climbs are available very cheaply from websites belonging to holiday making companies such as Fly Monarch.
Also, one of Larnaca''s most prized sites of extraordinary natural beauty, the Larnaca Salt Lake, is simply not available to see during the tourist heavy summer months. The Lake dries up in early May, and doesn''t reappear until the end of October. Furthermore, if you visit the Lake between November and March you will find its shores inhabited by the migrated Flamingos - an unforgettable sight.
Larnaca''s diverse cultural history also provides it with a whole range of historical sites of interest. First of all, you might like to take a look at the Ottoman built mosque, known as Hala Sultan Tekke. This mosque, famous throughout the Islamic world, houses the tomb of Umm Haram, who was foster mother to the prophet Mohammed. The mosque is dedicated to her.
For an alternative theological destination, and further evidence of Larnaca''s cultural diversity, The Church of St Lazarus in the medieval area of Finikoudes is also worth a look.
For further details about Larnaca''s colourful cultural heritage you should check out the two main history museums, which provide plenty of detail about the area.
Cyprus is world famous for its jewellery, and one unmissable spot in Larnaca is the Oro Fino Jewellery store. Here you will find a range of designer and handmade jewels, suitable for all tastes and budgets. A great place to find presents and souvenirs alike.
Larnaca is also a great place just to relax. Its streets are charming and just spending a day or two wandering around will allow you to soak up the atmosphere as well as sampling some of the finest local produce available in small family-owned restaurants and from market stalls scattered throughout the area. For relaxation purposes, and to experience the best of Larnaca''s heady historical atmosphere, avoid the hustle and bustle of summer and visit Larnaca over the festive winter period.
