Ad Tracking Increases Your Profits

How do you know whether your advertising is effective or not? The answer is to track advertising response for each ad you run.

Whether you operate a retail store, a service business, a mail order operation, or an Internet marketing business, you can measure the effectiveness of your advertising.

1. Which Publications Produce Profits?

When new customers phone or visit you, ask how they found out about you. They might say they found you through your yellow pages ad or your newspaper ad.

Record the responses and resulting sales from each ad. Then, analyze whether each particular advertisement is producing the desired results.

If an advertisement consistently produces profits for you, keep running it. On the other hand, if an ad consistently performs poorly or produces a loss, discontinue it.

In mail order, you can key each ad so that you can measure the resulting sales from each publication.

For example, you could add "Dept. A" to your name or address in the ad to indicate the July issue of a particular magazine. Key it as "Dept. B" for the August issue of the same magazine. "Dept. C" could indicate the July issue of a different magazine you advertise in.

Thus, as orders come in, you can track the response and sales made from each advertisement. From that information, you can easily determine the profitability of your ad in each publication.

2. Which Ads Produce Profits?

Not only can ad tracking show you which publications are profiitable to advertise in, but it will also help you measure the effectiveness of the ads themselves.

If you change your ad, and the results for the new ad are consistently better or worse, you can take the appropriate action; either continue or discontinue the advertisement.

Change only one element in an ad at a time.

For example, if you decide to change the price, don't change the headline. Otherwise, you won't know if the difference in results was due to the changed price or the changed headline. For greater certainty, change only one thing at a time when testing your ads.

On the Internet, you can use tracking software and services that will aid you to determine the source of your sales and the effectiveness of your advertising, article writing, and other activities.

So, whether you operate a retail store, a service business, a mail order operation, or an Internet marketing business, use ad tracking for increased profits.

About the Author:
Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc., has been helping clients to earn maximum business profits for over twenty-five years. For more information about ad tracking and other profitable Work at Home Small Business Ideas, visit www.yenommarketinginc.com/ad-tracking.html
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Ezine Advertising Strategy Exposed-16 Tips To Boost Your Profits

In my opinion, Electronic Magazine (Ezine) advertising is thegreatest, untapped source of online advertising available today.

The reason: Ezine Advertising (EA) matches your product or ideato people with similar interests.

Example: who better to sell your health product to than a largegroup of people subscribed to a health newsletter? Or, you couldpitch a business opportunity to a group already subscribed toanother ezine about MLM and Biz Ops!

The idea of EA is fairly simple - but to make yours a success,you have to first determine which ezines or newsletters produceresults, and which ones to avoid.

After a year and a half of EA, I've created a formula thatproduces increasing profit because I’ve learned how to avoid poorperforming ezines and rip offs, while revealing the gems.

Strategy for Profit

I used to get ripped off about once for every 2 or 3 ezines Iadvertised in. They either took my money without running my ad(and ignored my subsequent emails), or my proven ads did toopoorly for the money I paid.

The reasons ranged from abandoned ezines with working paymentlinks, unethical newsletter owners, to a lot of ignorance andimpatience on my part.

If you follow my proven strategy, you'll discover the bestsources of ezines to advertise in - no matter who your targetgroup is. And, you should see positive results every time.

This article outlines the steps to making your EA a successfulreturn on investment (ROI).

Writing Your Ad

I won't go into details about ad writing, but if your ad ispoorly written or untested, you should start with the cheapestezines first. If you’re really unsure of your writing abilities,I further suggest hiring a professional to write your ad for you.

Because you can run your ad as many times as you want, yourinvestment in a professional will more than pay for itself in theend.

Target your advertising

If you leap into EA without first researching your target group,you'll end up wasting a lot of time and money. Plus, you probablymiss some of the best ezines available.

To determine who your prospect is, take the time to list thepossible keywords that directly relate to your product and dokeyword searches for ezines, newsletters, and ezine directories.

For example, if you sell herbs, a good keyword search wouldinclude: herbs, health, nutrition, supplements, etc.

Avoid Co-ops

While doing your ezine research, you will probably stumble uponthe offer to use Co-op (bulk) advertising as the means for yourEA.

To be blunt, you should never pay to use Co-ops for your EAbecause they are too difficult to track and usually containuntargeted ezines. Worse still, you’d find that most neverrun your ad.

Subscribe

Now that you’ve found your ezine target group, you’ll want toknow whether the ezines you found are a good option (i.e.profitable) for your EA.

I’ve found the best strategy for making this determinationis to subscribe to the targeted ezines.

To keep the subscriptions readily available for further research,I recommend creating a separate folder to store your subscriptiondata.

And because you’ll need to subscribe to quite a few ezines, Ialso suggest creating separate email accounts dedicated to yourezine subscriptions.

Double Opt-In Subscriptions

In the process of subscribing, you’ll quickly determine possibleezines to avoid. When you subscribe and get a notice that youmust confirm your subscription, the ezine is referred to as“double opt-in”.

Double opt-in ezines indicates a better quality of subscriberswith a lower risk of bulk email addresses. For you and me, thismeans better ad responses (yeah!).

Solo Ads

Within the first week of your new ezine subscription, you shouldsee solo ads from other advertisers. If not, the ezine may be toonew, or worse, no one is advertising because of poor results.Worse yet, the ezine took the advertiser’s money and failed torun the ad.

On the other hand, if you see two or more solo ads a day, theirlist is probably burned out due to over advertising. You're lookingfor no more than one ad a day, or a minimum of one ad a week.Keep watching!

Subject Line

Does the ezine put the advertiser’s subject line in the subjectof the email or do they just say something like "Solo ad from xyzezine"?

Your subject line is the most important part of your ad anddefinitely should be in the subject of the email.No subject lineequals no response.

Advertiser Response

Repeat (or regular) advertisers in an ezine is a very good signthat the subscribers are responsive. To further testresponsiveness, I recommend looking through the ezine’s onlinearchives (if available).

Archives are previous email publications that the publisher hasposted to their website for visitors to view. The archive search isnot only quick and easy, but archives can also provide an extratrickle of visitors when your ad gets archived.

Testimonial Page

After passing the above steps, see if your prospective ezine hasa testimonial page. If the ezine has gotten this far, chances areit will.

Waiting Period

Another indicator of responsive subscribers is the waiting periodto run an ad in the chosen ezine. If the waiting period is amonth or more, this indicates a very popular ezine with responsivereaders. You've uncovered a real gem!

Web Forms

I've found that the better ezines have web forms that get your adto the publisher’s inbox and usually send auto confirmation ofreceipt. If there is no web form, try emailing the publisher aquestion first, like when the next ad run date is.

No response may indicate a poor choice in the ezine, or youremail was filtered or blocked as spam. Wait at least 2 days andtry emailing again using a different email account.

If your emails still don't get through, neither will your ad.(Ironically, your payment always go through). Trust me, ifthey fail to communicate, save your money and time and moveon.

Free Classifieds

If the ezine offers free classifieds, this is another good placeto run your ad. Since classifieds usually don’t produceresponses, any activity from your ad here would furtherindicate an active readership.

Ad Tracking

Never advertise without using an ad tracker. You can purchaseone or better, use one of the many available online for free. Adtrackers give you a url that you use in place of your website address.

The new url gives you important information like how many visitorsyou had, where they came from, and some list the number of salesper visitor.

This tracking information is crucial to the direction of your adcampaign because you’ll learn of the need to change your adand/or the sales page. More importantly, you’ll know for certainwhether the ezine produced enough visitors for the advertisingprice you paid.

Run Your Ad Twice

If your ad produced a great response, wait a week or two and runthe ad again in the same ezine. I’ve found you'll probably get asgood if not better results the second time around.

I would advise against running the ad a third time in a rowbecause most of your prospects will be found in the first two runs.

Using a Capture Page or Auto-Responder

To maximize your efforts, you want to "capture" your visitors soyou can send them additional information about your product,related merchandise, and pertinent updates.

This is done with a capture page that provides a place for visitorsto put their name and email address. There are different methodsto accomplish this and you may want to hire someone to do it for youif you're not comfortable installing scripts on your website.

You might also want to send your visitor directly to yourautoresponder, where you have a series of messages set up to "warmand inform" your prospect about your product or service.

Rotating Ads

Once your ad has been tested and you have a base of 5-10 solid,performing ezines, start rotating your ad between your ezines.

For optimal results, make sure 2-3 months have passed beforerunning your ad in the same publication. Keep building your baseand watch your profits grow!

About the Author:
Greg Root has been using ezine advertising almost exclusively since 2003 and owns andmaintains 'The Ezine Ad Tester©' at http://www.maxprofitpro.com/. See the results of his ezine advertising campaigns to find the best ezine marketing resources on the internet.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Clutter - Mastering Effective Advertising

The average consumer is confronted with over 36,000 commercial messages per day.
Decision makers face even more options. All available space is being bought up and sold as advertising space. Advertising exposure is increasing exponentially, and this naturally affects your cost of sales and therefore your margins. It now costs three times more to get just half the results you used to get. What to do?

You have two choices. You can work harder, which is tactical, short-term and comprised of reactive, daily activities. Or you can work smarter, which is strategic, based on a long-range plan and objective. Your strategy should drive your tactics, not vice-versa. Strategists understand the big picture they're creating. They agree with Michael Gerber, who said, "If you're not working ON your business, you'll soon be OUT of business." So they create strategies that minimize cost and risk and maximize efficiency.

Statistically, motorists slow down when they see a police car to avoid a speeding ticket. Did you know they speed up again within only half a mile? That's how quickly you're forgotten by your clients and prospects if you don't have a strategy that will create ongoing, unique, varied exposure and value. Strategists set goals and consistently work towards them, which leverages the Reticular Activating Systems of all those involved in the process. Involving others in your planning and creating joint ventures and win/win partnerships is essential.

Large companies know this. 90% of corporate executives surveyed felt a Joint Venture with another company was "absolutely essential" to maintain their competitive edge. At least 20% of the revenues in the Fortune 500 and International 2,000 are now coming from Joint Ventures. This strategic approach works in any size business and cuts the clutter to shreds, resulting in increased margins and staff retention, reduced customer attrition, radically decreased cost of sales and risk and exponential growth.

Sales Tip
By creating and setting your Buying Criteria, then educating your customers, you become the natural, logical choice. That overcomes clutter. And remember, it's far better to spend $100 on each of ten good prospects than to haphazardly spend $1 on each of 100 suspects.

Management Tip
The second biggest problem in sales is that salespeople don't close. But the biggest problem is hiring the wrong people. There is a proven system for hiring sales superstars and when you get the right salespeople, closing is no longer an issue. Once you have superstars, train them consistently and the sky's the limit.

About the Author:
Get Joint Venture Expert Robin J. Elliott's FREE "How To Grow Serious Wealth Using Joint Ventures" Mini-Course and the Prophet of Profit e-Zine along with video blogs, world class articles, free video, and access to top Joint Venture Partners. Click here! http://www.jvwisdom.com
Posted: 10-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

How to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Brand-New Website within 24 Hours

You may have just built a sparkling cool website, with all the money-making affiliate links plugged in, or just a simple website promoting your own business services. Whether you are an internet newbie or experienced marketer, we all know that without traffic, even if your website is a knock-out, no one will ever get to see it and be wowed by it. But more importantly, no traffic equals no sales. Period.

When I first started out as an affiliate, I tried many means of advertising for my affiliate programs. I tried safelists, first submitting to them manually, then moved on to automated submission to zillions of them. I also bought leads for my MLM programs, supposedly good leads. Yes, I did make some sales and recruited some downlines, but the results are far from fantastic. And all these efforts are time-consuming and can be very expensive, and at times can be demoralizing. Imagine sending a powerful email advertisement to thousands of "so-called" quality leads and only hearing from a few of them. I forgot to mention about those cheap traffic offered on the internet. Many of them are just pop-over, pop-under ads which get "killed" by pop-killers.

If you had the same experience, there is a way out. With pay-per-click (PPC) search engines, you can now drive targeted traffic to your website. Never mind if it is indexed for ages or it is a brand new website created just minutes ago. Targeted traffic is worth a ton. You know that people who find your site are already interested in your product or affiliate program. This means higher conversions, and more sales. With a good product, good targeted keywords and a well-written ad, conversion can be in the range of 3 - 5 %.

Google and Overture are the biggest PPC search engines, with the largest network of engines. Setting up a campaign with Adwords will not take more than an hour if you have your keywords and ads ready. In fact, you will begin to see massive traffic streaming in as soon as 15 minutes after you set up your campaign. Yes, it will cost you more but you are only paying for relevant clicks, not for views/impressions. And the traffic is targeted and converts much better.

As a beginner in setting up PPC ad campaigns, it is good to start with smaller PPC search engines. The clicks there are cheaper, ie can be as low as 1 cent per click though traffic is generally lower. Examples of these search engines are Miva, GoClicks, 7Search.com, ExactSeek, etc. However, if your product is in a competitive industry, the amount of traffic offered by these search engines can add up pretty much.
Also, since they are relatively not as popular as the Big Two, there are some high traffic keywords that are still available for cheap clicks. These are gems to be discovered.

Here's my take on a few smaller PPC search engines:

1. 7search.com has been a leading ppc advertising network since 1999. It has been receiving mixed reviews from users. The one setback some users have feedback is its lack of Account Management Tools. However, it has also been reported that 7Search.com provides a rock solid customer support system with a guarantee that if their customer support does not respond to your email within 4 business hours, your account will be credited $1. Another unique feature is they will send you an email notification when a competitor outbids your top ranking keyword. The 7Search.com affiliate program also allows webmasters to share in the advertisement revenue. Recently, they have also added 37.com and MegaWeb.com to their stable of partner listings.
2. GoClick is an up and coming PPC that has received outstanding user reviews. The minimum bid price per click is only 1 cent. They are tied to over 60 distribution partners and generate over 300 million searches every month.Your advertisements will also be exposed to parts of the internet world that larger PPCs do not venture to.

So go ahead and try out some of these PPC search engines and start driving traffic within the next 24 hours.

The article does not seek to associate with and does not represent any of the above merchants or programs. Any mention of merchants or programs is for the purpose of illustration only.

This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

About the Author:
Davion Wong
The author is a prolific writer who has varied interest in different topics in life. Find out more about PPC advertising and how you can profit from pay-per-click affiliate programs such as 7Search.com affiliate program, Adsense, etc at http://www.affiliatestrategist.com.
Added: 04 Sep 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/35669.html

Fly High With A Custom Imprinted Promotional Advertising Balloon

The market is like a maze where a man gets lost in the web of infinite products. So some 'well thought out' and brilliant advertisement strategy has to be chalked out. This approach should be simple yet captivating. The best device to recapture consumer attention lies with advertising on balloon. Custom imprinted promotional will buoy up your brand image more effectively.

You can employ small balloons for your ad or can mount giant blimps to garner larger populace. But whatever size, shape or color you prefer your message should dazzle boldly. Customize your advertising balloon. Imprinted promotional messages or company names or logos will bring rapid success to your business.

You can put on view your message by silkscreen method. This method will shine up your balloon surface without damaging it when inflated. Pearl and metallic colors will add dazzle to your ad balloon screen and will turn out to be big head turners.

Always buy or rent ad balloons from a reputed manufacturer and opt for experts to imprint your message. Thus you will be sure about the quality and your target accomplishment. If you order more balloons individual cost per balloon will be reduced. Your cost will vary according to the space you want your message to occupy. If you want to print one side you have to spend less than if you print on both sides.

Always make your catchphrase printing is proportional with the balloon size. Like, you cannot print a whole jingle on a tiny punch-advertising balloon. Custom imprinted promotional of small proportion will be lost in the vast surface of a jumbo size blimp on the other hand.

The color palette you want to explore also decides your expense. If your blimp is a single color advertisement balloon with custom imprinted promotional in a single color you have to pay less than if you go for mixed colors and multicolor prints. But if you order a bunch the rise in price will be nominal.

To print your logo a camera ready image is necessary. This image should be in two colors black or white. Otherwise if you don't have the camera ready image an extra charge will be imposed on you.

The printing on balloon needs time. You have to pay in advance to get your message and logo done properly. Pay with your credit cards, money orders or checks but check payments will need time to clear up.

Your brand name is displayed through advertising balloon. Custom imprinted promotional message should be in accordance with the laws regarding patent, trademark, right to privacy, service mark, copyright and other such laws. You should be careful about the image of your company.

Advertising balloons are giant flying ads with which you can delight the mind of your customers and gain prominence. These visuals offer an array of advantages, like:

- Your relationship with your buyers will gain a great boost.

- With the gorgeous ads on balloons you will touch upon the heart of the masses emphasizing a thrilling yet simple lifestyle image.

- For you it is cost effective, as balloon ads are relatively less expensive than billboard rents or other advertisement cost.

- Ad wrappings are very costly; your custom imprint on balloon is more budget friendly.

- It will gear up your sale and thus will increase profit.

- You will get better media attention with your novel approach.

Revive your company image with a fresh ad form and watch your business prosper with a grand speed on the shoulders of custom imprinted advertising balloons.

About the Author:
Jess Trent is a successful writer and publisher of advertisement related issues, for more informative articles go to http://www.advertisingballoon4u.com
Article Submitted On: November 11, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Boost Website Visits using Google Adwords

The Google Adwords program is a very popular new program. If you want to sell products, you can easily use the Google Adwords program to give your web site more exposure. It is not hard to learn and it can mean big profits for your business.

So how does Google Adwords work?

The Google Adwords program is a PPC, a pay per click program. It combines the use of an ad with a title and text for a product or your website. You can write your own ad or have Google write it for you. Many people prefer to write their own ad, as it is simple to do and you can display exactly what you want. You will need your ads to consist of top keywords that are important to your website. The ranking in a Google Adwords program is based on how many times a person clicks on your ad. The CTR, click through rate, is the life or death of your ad on Google Adwords.

Does it cost to place an ad with Google Adwords?

Yes, the cost depends on what you are willing to pay for a CPC, a cost per click. If you have done a good keyword search before you write your ad then it is possible to use those keywords that will help your site and the ad will cost you less. Overall, it will cost you less because you have targeted your keywords to create an ad that draws in customers that will buy your products. Remember the less you are willing to pay for good keywords, the lower your ads will appear on the computer screen.

What else can you do to remain in the top rankings besides having good relevant keywords?

It is a good idea to maintain your listing often. You need to consider that you will be in competition with other websites that use PPC and there might be times that you will have to adjust what you pay for your ad. Finding relative keywords does take some work on your part. So, others that have found the relative keywords first, in order to bump out competition, are willing to pay a higher click through premium. Be sure you know what you are willing to pay for this ad text service from Google Adwords before you get started.

The use of solid attention grabbing copy is another key to keeping your site prominent in a Google Adwords ranking. Learn more by reading on..

About the Author:
Phil M.
To read other articles, discover more on creating websites, internet promotion and making money with your website please visit the following sites: Make Money Online | Google Adsense Info - You can use this article on your website as long as you include this resource box and links. Thanks.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Small Business Marketing And Advertising: Branding vs. Direct Response

Too often, small business advertising and marketing campaigns prioritize branding at the expense of direct response--i.e., actually getting leads and/or sales right now. That is almost always a foolish and even dangerous proposition.

Small Business Branding Advertising and Marketing an Oxymoron?

Unless you're a ubiquitous consumer products company, the value of branding is far, far less than the value of direct response. What good is impressing someone with your brand if he or she never comes into contact with your business again? Why would they come into contact with your business again if you haven’t gotten a direct response?

Branding is essential for Coca Cola and Microsoft and all the other consumer giants because they don't need direct response. Their offering is available every time you drive down the street, so burning their logos into your eyeballs will actually make you more likely to buy. But if you have to search out the business, having a logo floating in your consciousness won't be enough to motivate you.

Even if branding alone could drive business, how long will it be before that logo or slogan or jingle has left your memory forever? A few hours? A day?

One of the basic requirements for branding is repetition. Numerous repetitions. Like seeing the little Microsoft flag every single day, in the lower left corner of your screen, on your computer's case, in magazine advertisements and on television commercials.

One visit to your website or one glimpse of your advertisement won't accomplish this—and remember, unless you have Microsoft’s budget, one exposure is all you’ll likely get if you don't get a direct response.

In reality, even numerous exposures to your brand might not be enough. There's only so much room for logos in people's minds, and you've got an awful lot of deep-pocketed competition for that space.

In contrast, if someone requested a whitepaper from you, or called in for more information, you would have their attention for much longer, even if you never followed up--which you could do, since you had their contact information.

The Two Cases when Branding Makes Small Business Marketing Sense

1. When branding enhances direct response rather than detracting from it.

Good branding enhances trust in your business. A good tagline, graphic design, and logo can also make it instantly clear what your business does, allowing users to go directly to your message without having to decide if you’re worth listening to.

Simply put: if you’re a watchmaker, put a watch in your logo, and the word “watch” in your name and your tagline or slogan. When you’re selling services picking a logo can be trickier, but it can be done. UpMarket Content’s logo is a scroll and pen. Just make sure your logo communicates what you do, rather than something foolish like a black rocket for an advertising agency.

Yet while branding usually enhances direct response, you should not hesitate to sacrifice branding if it hurts your response. If you find that a different tagline or font does significantly better in getting responses, run with them.

2. When you actually do have the opportunity to impress your brand on the same person dozens of times over the course of an average month.

For branding to work, you don’t just have to maximize total exposures, but exposures to unique individuals. Let’s be absolutely clear: in terms of branding, exposing 1,000,000 people to your brand once each is infinitely less valuable than exposing 1,000 people to your brand 1,000 times each. You have to maximize exposures to the same individuals. Aim for a hundred exposures per individual if you want to really enter people’s consciousnesses.

Of course, it may take far fewer than a thousand individual exposures. If someone is sitting in front of your branding advertisement for more than a few minutes, they may in fact be exposed to it dozens of times, each time their line of sight crosses it. But this kind of long-term exposure is likely going to cost you more.

How can you ensure that your brand advertising will maximize your brand exposure per unique individual? Place your brand advertising where users will come back often to see it. For instance, a banner on a website that has a strong following of returning users, or an advertisement on the local diner's placemat.

Even when branding does make sense, direct response will often also make sense, so you should combine the two if possible. For instance, at the bottom of a banner advertisement with your logo and tagline looming large, put a button labeled “get more information.” Or, underneath your businesses sign, put a telephone number with an offer to get more information.

Because if they never visit or call, who cares if they have your logo burnt onto their retinas?

About the Author:
Joel Walsh is a professional content writer and founder of UpMarket Content, whose site has information on promoting your business with great website content: http://upmarketcontent.com [When posting on the web, please hyperlink this text as the visible anchor text: "website content"]
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

The Secrets of Getting Free Advertising

The opportunities for getting free advertising for your product or services are limited only by your own imagination and energies. There are so many proven ways of promoting your objectives without cost that it literally boggles the mind just to think of listing them.

One way is to write an article relative to your particular expertise and submit it to all the publications and media dealing in the dissemination of related information. In other words, become your own publicity and sales promotions writer. Get the word out; establish yourself as an expert in your field, and "tag-along" everything you write with a quick note listing your address for a catalog, dealership opportunity, or more information.

Another really good way is by becoming a guest on as many of the radio and television talk shows or interview type programs as possible. Actually, this is much easier to bring about than most people realize. Write a letter to the producer of these programs, then follow up an in-person visit or telephone call. Your initial contact should emphasize that your product or service would be of interest to the listeners or viewers of the program—perhaps even saving them time and money.

Other ways of getting free or very inexpensive exposure include the posting of advertising circulars on all free bulletin boards in your area, especially the coin-operated laundries, grocery stores, and beauty and barber shops. Don't discount the idea of handing out circulars to all the shoppers in busy shopping centers and malls, especially on weekend. You can also enlist the aid of the middle school students in your area to had out circulars door-to-door.

Some of the more routine methods include having a promotional ad relative to your product or service printed on the front or back of your envelopes at the time you have them printed with your return address.

Be sure to check all the publications that carry the kind of advertising you need. Many mail order publications just getting started offer unusually low rates to first-time advertisers; a free-of-charge insertion of your ad when you pay for an order to run three issues or more; or special seasonal ad space at greatly reduced rates. And there are a number of publications that will give you Per Inquiry (PI) space—arrangement where all orders come in to the publication, they take a commission from each order, and then forward the orders on to you for fulfillment.

Many publications will give you a contract for "" space. In this arrangement you send them your ad, and they hold it until they have unsold space, and then at a price that's always one third or less the regular price for the space need, insert your ad. Along these lines, be sure to check in with the suburban neighborhood newspapers.

If you send out or publish any kind of catalog or ad sheet, get in touch will all the other publishers and inquire about the possibilities of exchange advertising. They run your ad in their publication in exchange for your running an ad for them of comparable size in yours.

Finally, there's nothing in the world that beats the low cost and tremendous exposure you get when you advertise a free offer. Simply run an ad offering a free report of interest to most people—- a simple one page report with a "tag-line" inviting the readers to send money for more information, with a full page advertisement for your book or other product on the backside. Ask for a self-addressed stamped envelope, and depending on the appeal for your report and circulation of the publication in which your ad appears, you could easily be inundated with responses!

The trick here, of course, is to convert all these responses, or a large percentage of them, into sales. This is done via the "tag-line," which issues an invitation to the reader to send for more information, and the full page ad on the back of the report, and other offers you include with the complete package you send back to them. As mentioned at the beginning of this report, it's just a matter of unleashing your imagination. Do that, and you have a powerful force working for you that can help you reach your goals.

About the Author:
Carl Hoffman is a retired Army Sergeant Major who has over 20 years of sales and marketing experience. He has many online ventures and author of many articles on sales, leadership and marketing. Start your own on line business in 3 easy steps. http://www.CEHoffman.com/pips.html
Posted: 06-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Revealing Postcard Printing Secrets

For every business confidentiality is always a top most concern that businesses cling on to. The best secrets are not revealed nor even shared. But having my knowledge with the printing services I can share you some secrets to make your marketing campaign a success.

The postcard as a valuable tool for marketing carries a powerful message that helps you to easily promote and deliberate your message to the market. Portable and handy enough to be packaged and delivered via mail, these postcards can make your business globally known.

Now here are some tips for you to remember in doing your postcard prints.

1. Know your market
To avoid wastage of time and effort you should have an idea as to who your target audiences are and what are your purposes. Familiarizing your market will make it easier for you to produce a material that will interest your audience. See to it that the material you are about to distribute matches with the purpose of your marketing plan and as well as really reaches the right audience. With today's viable competition it is indeed a must to come up with a material that is worth keeping not trashing.

2. Designing and printing
Designing and printing your business card doesn't call for extravagant and costly printing. You can make them simple and attractive. As long as you are able to add the significant information that you want to impart then you are able to come up with a valuable marketing tool. For the designs you can use photographic designs, artworks, illustration and images. A good design that will match with your marketing plan will end up with compelling postcard prints. Additionally the designs should compel an image that communicate.

3. Inks and colors
In relation with the inks and color application you can choose to have RGB, CMYK and spot colors. The RGB simply pertains to the standard basic colors of red, green and blue. The CMYK is used to create variation of shades of color seen in a brilliant full color post card print. On the other hand the spot colors are often used for one and two color jobs when an exact colors needs to be produced.

4. Fonts
The font used should be readable enough to convey your message. Having a readable font for your postcard prints can help your prospects easily get the message you want to impart.

5. Coating
In order to protect the postcard prints, inks and stock, coatings are applied to it. Since the postcards are handed and distributed by mail they must be durable enough to stand against wear and tear. You can apply aqueous coating, UV coating and matte coating.

Having well said the above mentioned top secret you are now about to print postcards that are compelling and suits with your marketing plan. With this you are yet to come up with postcard prints that will sell your business and as well postcards that is worth keeping.

For comments and inquiries about the article, visit:
Postcard Printing

About the Author:
Carla San Gaspar is a graduate of Communication Arts with a major of Audio Visual communication. With the line of study she had taken she may not be a good writer but is trying to be a good one. Loving what she is doing prompted her to do her best to create articles that might feed edifying information to her readers.
Added: 22 Sep 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/37454.html

Socially Responsible Advertising

Several advertisements lately are pushing social responsibility more than sales. Is it financially feasible for these companies to ask users to reduce usage of their products or just a slight aberration in their advertising game plan? Are companies using these prominently displayed advertisements on billboards merely as a way to increase their “brand” or do they want results that are directly proportionate to their spending?

In the modern world, advertising has become a mode of communication rather than just a sales medium. The most effective way to communicate with consumers, present and potential, is to connect with them while not necessarily pushing their products. This connection with the consumers is the essence of successful advertising.

These new advertisements for Hutch and DNA are prominently displayed on billboards across Bombay. Hutch is telling us to behave responsibly and politely and to not to take pictures without first taking permission and also to switch off our phones in movie theatres. They have a series of ads like: Hum Aapke Hain Tring Tring and Ali Baba and Tring Tring. The ads are innovative and sure to make an impact. DNA (i.e., the newspaper Daily News and Analysis) states: “There’s no difference between our rich and poor. They both spit generously on the roads.” Superb. Simply Suberb.

One has to wait and see if this trend is just another marketing gimmick or the growth of a social conscious by advertising agencies and companies using them. In the advertising world, everything is for the sole purpose of making money, increasing sales and building the brand and by displaying a good image of the company, the purpose of the ad is to increase sales, just like any other regular advertisement.

About the Author:
Gano Bristol
Article Submitted On: November 13, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Illustration in Marketing Materials

Not so many years ago businesses used to grunt at using illustrations in their marketing materials. But today, the use and influence of illustrations is growing right along.

An illustration, image or picture that does not express a distinct idea is a poor illustration. It should be clearly drawn with an abundance of ideas to be conveyed in the fewest line possible. Originality cannot help flowing from the pencil of the good artist—he will naturally give an original touch to every picture he makes. All the while he is not straining for this effect, but rather following the natural bent of his artistic nature in reproducing the material and hinting a thought as to its performances.

Same way with the advertising writer. In telling his tale he need go over board in a wild desire to be original, because originality will naturally follow in the wake of clearness and conciseness, which are the first considerations he aims at. His mind, like the artist's, is trained in the direction of bringing out the best in the article being advertised. Both the artist and the writer have the creative faculty and the application of this creative faculty gives the illustrations and the ads all the originality necessary.

So say for instance you wanted to create postcards to send out to your customers to let them know of your new products. When you are able to present your products in the simplest and most sincere way possible you are creating an impression that your prospective customer can rely and trust. Post cards are a great way to advertise your products while also giving your customers a way to remembering your business afterward.

In all aspects of creating marketing materials for your business, an original and distinct material with the right illustrations can help boost your products. The first great point in advertising is to understand the art of drawing attention, then retaining it long enough to tell your story. The right images and illustrations will help you in this regard. It is like retailing. First you encourage the customer to come to your store then win him by the excellence of your values. Induce the reader to glance at your ad by your bright images and snappy catch line, then retain his attention by the brightness and good sense of your talk—keep him fastened to your ad until his head is filled with the tale you would impart.

Keep in mind that the visual impression of your ad is very important. Being able to send a catchy, brilliant and crisp visual impression to your prospects can entice them to stop and take a closer look at your ad. So, forget about what others say that illustrations are not as important as the content. Understand that when images are created with a winsome, harmonious effect, originality and thought in an easy, artistic and natural manner an ordinary reader can in a second grasp its points and uses.

About the Author:
Viojieley
For comments and suggestions kindly visit Poster Printing
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Five Unique Ways To Get Free Advertising

Here's 5 POWERFUL ways to get some free advertising

1. Give Testimonials
When you purchase a product or service and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Tell them in the testimonial the benefits you got from the product or service. Give them permission to publish the testimonial on the web site if they include your sig file at the end.

2. Leave A Message
When you visit a web site with a discussion board leave a message. You could post a question, interesting content or a compliment about their web site. Include your signature file at the end of the message. Some discussion boards let you post your banner ad or text link.

3. Sign Guest Books
When you visit a well designed web site leave a compliment on their guest book. You could give them a compliment on their content, ease of navigation, graphics etc. When you post your compliment include your sig file so other people will see it when they sign the guest book.

4. Write A Review
When you visit a web site you enjoyed a lot write a review for the web site Write about the benefits you gain from the site, the web site design, interesting online services it offers etc. E-mail the review to the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they include your resource box at the end.

5. Send An E-mail To The Editor When you read a good article or enjoy a certain e-zine, e-mail a compliment to the editor. Give the editor permission to publish the compliment in their e-zine if they include your signature file at the end. The editor may post it on his or her web site.

About the Author:
Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program, which is due out July,2005. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Ppc Advertising

PPC stands for Pay Per Click - a popular advertising technique on the Internet. Found on websites, advertising networks, and especially on search engines, PPC advertising involves sponsored links that are typically in the form of text ads. These are usually placed close to search results, where an advertiser pays a particular amount to visitors who click on these links or banners and land on the advertiser's web page.

In essence, PPC advertising is all about bidding for the top or leading position on search engine results and listings. Advertisers do this by buying or bidding on keyword phrases that are relevant to their products or services - the higher the bid, the higher the spot on the search results, the more the people will find the ad (and click on it) to go to their websites (this is why some people call it "keyword auctioning"). Advertisers would then pay the bidding price every time a visitor clicks through the website.

PPC advertising is also known under the following names/variations:

·Pay per placement
·Pay per performance
·Pay per ranking
·Pay per position
·Cost per click (CPC)

PPC advertising is usually done with the following standard procedures:

1. Setting up an account and/or deposit funds.

2. Creating a keyword list.

3. Choosing (and setting up) an account with a PPC search engine.

4. Bidding on the ad placement, including the search result words or phrases.

5. Writing out an ad copy.

6. Setting up the 'landing pages' for your ads.

7. Placing the advertisement in the search engine.

There are many benefits to Pay Per Click advertising, making it an effective way of promoting a business 'online'. Some of them are listed below:

·Get launched immediately. PPC advertisements are implemented very quickly - they can go 'online' within an hour after winning the bid and paying for it.

·Obtain specific, pre-qualified, and quality traffic. PPC provides you with a quality or a well-targeted traffic. Visitors are narrowed down into 'qualified' people who are actually looking for specific products and/or services that you offer - those who are more likely to become a 'lead' (a convert) and complete a transaction (either by buying your product or subscribing to the service that you are offering.

·Widen your reach. PPC advertising provides additional traffic to your site, aside from the natural or "organic" search engines.

·Track your investment. PPC advertising makes use of a tracking system that will determine exactly who comes to the website and what they do once they arrive - the length of their stay on the site and the number of pages (including the actual pages) that they view. These are valuable tools in determining statistics such as return on investment (ROI), acquisition cost-per-visitor, and conversion rates (the percentage of visitors who are converted into customers or leads).

Below are some important things to consider when planning on a pay per click campaign:

1. Know your product. Take an inventory of the product and/or services that you have to offer (before anything else).

2. Stay within the budget. Determine your daily or monthly budget; and stay with it. This means keeping your budget in mind, avoiding bidding wars if possible.

3. Bid just right. Know how to bid right - a bid that is too high can exhaust all of your money, while a bid that is too low can make you lose that spot.

4. Watch the bottom line. Measure your profit margin against your spending or expenses. Know when to stop and terminate your PPC program - if you spend more on advertising but have little or no sales at all.

5. Find the right keywords. Decide which keyword phrases to opt and bid for. Do some keyword research, either by actually looking at existing search terms or with the use of online keyword suggestion tools, to know which terms are mostly used when searching for items that are related to your business. Focus on specific keywords, not on general ones.

6. Write effective ads. A good PPC ad is that which can persuade and move a searcher. There are several approaches to this:

·Discount offers
·Testimonials
·Celebrity/famous endorsers
·Money-back guarantees
·Free trials or sample offers
·Freebies
·Reverse psychology
·Major benefits ("Lose weight")
·Direct instructions ("Click here")

7. Maintain a professional-looking site. Your web content should be regularly updated and checked for spelling and grammatical errors. There should be no broken links or images. The website should be simple - designed in such a way that it will be easy for visitors to navigate and load. Include contact details to create a good impression among potential customers.

Done properly, PPC advertising can be an effective marketing tool that will maximize the return on your investment.

About the Author:
John Ugoshowa. For more information about pay per click advertising see the pay per click advertising section of The Free Ad Forum at: http://www.thefreeadforum.com/infowizards/CAT/RSS-Feeds_77_1.html
Posted: 18-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Search Engine Submission + Optimization

You have created a website after weeks of hard work and are ready to show it to the world. Good idea, but how do you start? You need traffic, lots of traffic. How will you sell anything without having a steady stream of customers day in and day out?

When you are starting your website promotion campaign, you must start with the search engines. A top ranking position in the major search engines is a very effective way to generate a lot of traffic without spending any money.

Statistics show that anywhere from 20% to 80% of people find websites by doing a search in a major search engine. However, most people never look beyond the top 30 search results they receive! Therefore, the only way you will generate traffic from search engines is if you can achieve a top position.

Competition for top ranking in the search engines is unbelievably intense. Using free submission services is not going to do the job. You need to learn the correct techniques and apply them if you are going to succeed.

Search engines use different sets of ranking systems. However, there are some common-ground factors that are considered essential by the search engines.

KEYWORDS: The most crucial point in search engine optimization is selecting the right keywords. Do not select keywords with a high number of searches unless you already have a website that is well established within the search engines. Keywords with a high number of searches have a very large number of competing pages which makes it extremely difficult to achieve high ranks.

You should focus on selecting a small list of keywords (25) that have a realistic amount of searches and a small amount of competing pages. A good place to start is by using keyword research tools such as Wordtracker and Overture Keyword Assistant to find out what people are typing into search engines.

Once you have found those terms, the next step is to work out the level of competition and effort it will take to get a reasonable rank for each term. To determine the number of competing pages for a keyword phrase, enter that phrase into a search engine and look at the number of pages indexed. Select keyword phrases that have less than a million pages indexed in Google or Yahoo.

Please do not select keywords that have no searches related to them. You are wasting your time optimizing for them. There is no point in being ranked number one for a keyword when no one is searching for that term.

If you target the right keywords and properly optimize your website, you should be able to achieve very strong rankings in the search engines over a period of time. Remember, keyword optimization very simply means choosing the correct keywords for your website.

KEYWORD DENSITY: This refers to the number of times your keyword appears throughout your site. Your keyword density is a factor that is heavily weighted by search engines. Therefore, it's very important to make strategic use of your keywords.

If you optimize your site correctly with keywords, you will start receiving traffic. Scatter your keywords throughout your pages. Your content should read smoothly and not sound like you have deliberately shoved a bunch of keywords into your pages. Otherwise, the search engines will see it as keyword spamming and not list your site.

INCOMING LINKS: Attaining incoming links to your website has become a crucial factor in search engine optimization. Search engines see each incoming link as a recommendation from another site. The more relevant links you have, the more trustworthy and credible your website becomes by search engines, and the more targeted traffic you will generate.

This does not mean you can simply acquire a bunch of links from any site. Links need to be relevant in the sense that the website linking to you has some sort of affiliation with your theme, otherwise the links will not benefit you. For instance, if someone visits a favorite website and sees that they have posted a link to your website, they will be more inclined to click on your link to see what you offer.

Developing a linking strategy is not an overnight process and requires work. However, once you have done the initial work, the links that you establish will remain on the websites for years to come. This means you will receive a continuous flow of targeted traffic as long as your links are present.

About the Author:
Chris Chenoweth writes articles pertaining to health, nutrition, and online business. If you would like information on additional methods of effectively promoting your website, learn how to deliver an unstoppable flood of traffic and sales with BUTTERFLY MARKETING! http://www.ezniche.com/data/article.php?l=283
Added: 03 Oct 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/38167.html

Why Is Your Advertising is Costing You More Than It’s Making You? What Business Owners Don't Know

Rick is a good friend and a client of mine. He owns a plumbing and air conditioning, as he has for the past 20 years. Rick expressed to me that every year he spends more and more money on his ads and every year they generate less response: when he called me he was frustrated and uncertain what to do about it. This guy’s at his wit’s end, and if you’re reading this article perhaps you feel the same way.

Here Is What’s Been Happening:

The advertising publication (AP), which could be a newspaper, magazine, trade journal or other publication), attempts to get as many businesses to advertise with them. That’s THEIR objective. The more they bring in, the more they make. Now if you were placing an ad, you’d want low competition (so you’re ad stands out), but the AP wants MORE competition so they make more money – this is a huge conflict of interest. The AP does not have your best interests at heart.

In response to all of this competition, the sales reps at the AP advise you that if you want to get the most out of your ad you need to make it bigger and you need to ad colors.

This isn’t always true; in fact if you keep reading you’ll find out it’s often not true.

Of course, the more colors you have and the bigger the ad, the more they charge you. If you hear, “You see, the bigger the ad, the more business you’ll bring in”, your B.S. monitor should go off. Remember, the more the sales rep charges you the more she/he makes, and the more the AP makes. At this point it’s probably sinking in that the sales reps don’t necessarily have your best interests at heart, does it?

This is like a price war, and the casualties are the small business owners: every year businesses are told they need to spend more on their bigger, more colorful ads in order to generate the same number of calls and sales as they did last year. The business owners, who are confused and frustrated, end up paying more and raising the bar, so every year the price goes up. This is the vicious cycle my client Rick has been trapped in, again, you might feel this way too.

What About the “Free” Graphic Design That AP’s Offer – This Is a Great Benefit, Right?

Goodness no. In fact, Rick told me that the process was a nightmare, and he’s just one of thousands. Remember that one of the main objectives of marketing and advertising is to help you stand out from the crowd. Keep in mind the AP doesn’t care if you stand out or if you get a great return on your investment – only that you buy a bigger and more colorful ad.

To offset the bigger ad they are charging you for, AP’s offer you a token “gift” in return so the cost doesn’t seem so unreasonable. What they do is pay inexpensive production graphic artists to turn out your ad as fast as possible – like an assembly line. In the end the AP will pay about $25-$125 to have your ad designed, compare that to the hike he/she charged you for the ad. Doesn’t sound like such a good deal does it?

Over the years, several business owners who initially thought this was a first-rate deal claimed, “I had to spend several frustrating hours telling their artist every little thing…it was almost like I was designing the ad myself and he was just pushing buttons”. In the end the business owners didn’t get the ad that they wanted, they didn’t get the results they wanted, and many of them are still steamed at the whole situation.

What’s the Solution? Well, our business owner, Rick has been around the block before and he’s a smart guy. He got tired of dumping money into a bigger ad he got clever and started to focus on quality and not quantity.

Instead of looking like every other advertisement in the phonebook, Rick decides to invest his money in having a better, more effective ad designed – smart move

Hmm, better over bigger, can that work? Absolutely.

Make sure you understand this, it’s important: what you say in your ad and how you say it is significantly more important than the size of the ad. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your ad can only bring in more calls and customers if you make it bigger and more colorful.

In developing any sort of advertising for your business, start by working with someone who has YOUR best interests at heart. As we’ve already discovered, this probably isn’t the AP or the sales rep that’s working for them. Instead, hire a designer who has a track record of designing effective ads that always make her/his clients money.

Make sure you only work with designers that have a proven track record of success, have written and audio testimonials as well as a guarantee on all of the work they do. Now you’ll have someone working for you that’s not only an established expert, but they should have the same goals you do – to get the most value out of your advertisement.

About the Author:
Jeremy Tuber
Most small business owners are either dissatisfied with their ad or unsure if it’s bringing in more customers and money. If you find yourself in either situation and you’re concerned that you might be wasting money on advertising that isn’t working – I can help you.
My mission is to design advertising that is guaranteed to grow your businesses. That means ads that help to increase sales; resulting in more money for your business.
If you want to stop wasting money and increase your sales with advertising, guaranteed, here’s what to do next:
Visit http://www.advertisingthatmakesmoney.com and fill in the convenient form to request my eye-opening insiders report, you will also receive my 5-day audio eCourse, "The REAL Secrets of Successful Advertising", AND our weekly boost to your advertising success, the Can-Do Confidence Builder, All for FREE!
Jeremy Tuber Business Savvy Graphic Designer http://www.advertisingthatmakesmoney.com http://www.candographics.com
Article Submitted On: December 01, 2006
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Smart Advertising In Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is all about the promotion of products of an online company. The affiliate sign-ups with the advertiser or marketing arm of the online company and the affiliate becomes an active searcher of potential clients. Such set-up of affiliate marketing can become easily successful if the affiliate is aware of the importance of advertising.

Advertising is the means to make a great portion of the consuming public become aware of a certain product or service. Thus, advertising should be attractive and should be appealing to the consumers. If the advertising is not appealing enough, it will not be effective. If the advertising has pulled the attention of the consumers, then such advertising is powerful.

To make one’s advertising effective and powerful, an affiliate must use the smart methods of advertising. One such method of advertising is the re-use of one key concept of affiliate marketing. This key concept is the harnessing of human resources. That is, an affiliate may tap on the capacities of other people to bring in more visitors to the website. In essence, he is creating his own affiliate marketing program.

Why is having one’s own affiliate marketing program beneficial to the affiliate? The economics involved is simple yet unquestionable. For example, when a visitor will up a form in the affiliate’s website, the affiliate may be earning about $0.50 from the online company that he is promoting. In a day, he may refer around ten visitors and that will be equivalent to $5.00

However, this affiliate may increase his income by utilizing other people. That is, the affiliate may pass on half of his earnings to other people if these people can refer more visitors to him. The affiliate will be earning less ($0.25) from each visitor that fills up a form. But if one of his people will be referring ten visitors, and he has five of such people, he will be easily earning around $12.50 in a day. Such amount is more than 200% of his initial earnings.

To have such a significant increase of income in affiliate marketing, an affiliate can do three things. First, he must search for a profitable and feasible destination site. Second, he will link with companies that are generous with co-registration leads. Such companies must also allow three to four offers bundled together in one subscription form. And third, the affiliate must locate a progressive and rising online company and then recruit affiliates for such a company.

With smart advertising, the affiliate will be reducing expenses for advertising that don’t work. Then, he will be spending less for procedures that easily generate more leads.

About the Author:
Peter Garant's affiliate marketing site offers unique website articles to webmasters who wants to maximize their income on their affiliate sites.
Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Advertising That Annoys: The Real Story.

Critics conclude that entertaining or “creative” commercials sell better than those that are bland. But liking the commercial may not really be that important in the scheme of things. It all depends on the needs and preferences, motivation and financial reservations of the customer. The question isn't whether people like the advertisement or not, it’s whether the advertisement is effective in selling.

Often, people who are irritated by certain campaigns don't fall within the intended target market. In 2000 Budweiser ran its ''Whassup?!'' campaign. Ad Track reported these commercials scored best with 18- to 24-year-olds; 52% of the survey participants said they liked them ''a lot'', while participants 65 years old and over didn't understand them, or didn't want to; 61% disliked the commercials. Yet, it's highly unlikely that Budweiser was trying to reach the 65+ market.

When Toys R Us launched their campaign featuring Geoffrey the giraffe to promote the revamping of all Toys R Us stores, 38% of women rated the advertisements highly compared to 16% of men. Since the advertiser's goal was to get moms back into the stores, that low rating from men was meaningless to Toys R Us.

Pier 1 started running its commercials featuring Kirstie Alley this year. Twenty-seven percent of the people familiar with the commercials didn’t like them, and only 6% thought that they were effective. That comes as a surprise to Pier 1 because same-store sales rose 17% in February and foot traffic is up 12% since October! The goal of most advertising is to increase sales. So, if people buy, the advertising is effective—no matter what critics may say.

Let's look at some other factors that contribute to the effectiveness of "irritating" or "disliked" advertising. Media weighting has a lot to do with response to advertising. It's important the media plan is developed to accurately reach its target. Just the right amount of frequency has been proven to increase recall, recognition and even persuasion. So a focused and targeted media schedule with effective frequency is a major influence in selling a product.

Familiarity with the product plays a role in increased sales of a brand with an "irritating" advertising campaign, too. According to the Journal of Advertising Research, customers’ knowledge of, experience with, or loyalty to a brand are components of familiarity—and familiarity is the most important factor in the effectiveness of advertising. Since customers tend to give greater attention to advertisements of a familiar brand, and may attach their experience with the brand to the advertisement, customers are likely to accept the message and respond to the "irritating" advertisement with a purchase.

International Brand & Advertising Research conducted a test to determine if "feelings of liking or disliking commercials are the motors that drive brand attitudes and sales." In the study, 251 30-second commercials were aired, representing six major product categories: food, confectionery & desserts, beverages, household products, personal care products and automotive. An analysis of the 251 commercials showed that there was no "robust, empirical evidence to suggest that either liking or disliking are reliable predictors of a commercial's performance in relation to sales-validated, evaluative measures." In fact, liking or disliking accounted for "no more that 11% of the variation on any of the major evaluative measures."

A "well-liked" advertising campaign does not always mean an increase in sales. Just like an "irritating" advertising campaign does not always suppress sales. The fact of the matter is that effectiveness depends on factors other than "likeability", and what may be "irritating" to some may not be "irritating" to the intended target. At the same time, what may be "well-liked" by one group may not be received as well by another. It’s up to the advertiser to determine the most likely target and the best way to reach that market to make a campaign effective.

About the Author:
Mark Levit is managing partner of Partners & Levit Advertising and a professor of marketing at New York University. Partners & Levit's clients include Procter & Gamble, UnitedHealth Group, and GE Commercial Finance. For more information call 212-696-1200 or visit http://www.partnerslevit.com.
Article Source: www.iSnare.com

Is An Advertising Degree Right for You?

As more and more manufacturing and service jobs move overseas, many displaced workers are taking advantage of the growth in the advertising, marketing and communication fields. U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics show that in 2004 advertising and public relations non-manager level workers made on average $633 a week. Though many jobs here in the U.S. can be outsourced to foreign nationals, it takes home grown individuals with knowledge of local customs, norms, idioms and culture to be able to market products and services to other Americans. With the Internet providing yet another outlet for advertisers and marketers, this is a job-producing industry that will continue to grow in the future.

Unlike all those disappearing jobs that require little education and with training mostly provided by the employer, jobs in advertising, marketing and communications, do require you to have a college degree. If you are willing to study and learn new skills it can be worth every penny spent. According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics over 57,000 Americans were employed as advertising and communications professionals, averaging annual incomes from $46,000 for a designer to $96,000 for marketing management positions.

These jobs require a wide range of skill sets and disciplines with plenty of variety to satisfy the interests of most everyone. If you do decide to work for an advertising agency, public relations firm, or other marketing-related business, you would help provide clients with numerous services. Services include, but are in no way limited to creating print, TV and radio ads; handling direct mail pieces; establishing billboards, display ads, press materials, promotional items, plus, finding new and exciting ways to help market products and services to consumers and businesses. Specific jobs in advertising and communications range from art directors, copywriters, graphic designers, and media researchers to account representatives, computer specialists, and digital photographers. These jobs can be high energy and intense but also a lot of fun while providing a comfortable salary.

Getting on the road to a better job is a lot more simple and convenient these days. With the Internet and its interactive capabilities, opportunities are abound online that can provide you with the perfect education from the comfort of your own home. Advertising and communications are industries uniquely suited for learning over the Internet: allowing you to gather all the tools and know-how you will need to be successful in this extremely competitive industry.

If the advertising, marketing, and communications fields are where you would like to start your new quest for success, check out the many online advertising degree opportunities that Ellis College and Cardean College offer. Such institutions will enable you to receive the education you need to take advantage of the many opportunities awaiting you in advertising, public relations, marketing and communications.

About the Author:
Kristin Royce created My Design Degree as a guide to career success in the arts through continuing education online. The site provides free information about Online Advertising Degree Programs. Find and compare programs from top art schools.
Posted: 13-11-2006
Article Source: ArticlesBase.com

Search Engine Marketing Firm Develops Business Reputation

Every online business has a craving to be on the top of search engine rankings. After all, we all enter the market to earn profits and recognition. The important thing in the business is growth and a search engine marketing firm helps online business in this to a great extent. Are you planning to launch your website? Looking for the best search engine marketing firm may be a slightly difficult task. It is because the search engine marketing firm works towards enhancing your presence on the search engines. They handle each and every aspect of the online business to create a special place for your website on the World Wide Web.

A variety of people surf the net to gain information related to various things and if your site has that information then it becomes necessary for you to make your site easily accessible to visitors. A Search Engine Marketing Firm sees to it that you are able to announce the presence of your site to everyone in the best possible way. Well, announcing is not the end point of your success. Creating page links, forum posting, blog posting, article writing and many other aspects of the online business are necessary to be done for successful marketing of your site by the search engine marketing firm. If you are willing to launch your website and want to do search engine marketing, then search engine marketing firm is the best option for you.

From designing the website to providing valuable content for it or from creating links for the site and marketing it on the net, search engine marketing firm does it all for your website. If you see the content aspect, it is considered as the most important. The content has to be highly informative. It has to provide the necessary and relative information on the topic searched by the visitor. Suppose, the visitor is looking for information on internet marketing and your website is not able to provide, then you will not be able to get regular visitors to your site. The work of a search engine marketing firm is to develop informative content that is convincing enough to attract them to your website.

The search engine marketing firm has special parameters and strategies that are applied to keep your website on the top of search engine rankings. These strategies include chalking out the plans such as creating a soothing design for your website, uploading informative content on it and doing everything to increase the traffic to your site. The main issue is that your site needs to earn appreciation, so that you can sell the products and services. The visitors will change into clients, only if you cater to their needs. While designing and making a website, the search engine marketing firm will take care of the general interest of their clients.

There is a variety of search engine marketing firm that provide reasonable services. They charge very less amount to help you in creating a top position for your site in the search engines. Everything has to be just perfect for announcing your presence on the web. After all, you are spending dollars to get your site on the top. The search engine marketing firm knows exactly what the visitors demand and that's why they work hard to develop your business reputation and maintaining it.

About the Author:
Steve Waganer is expert in Search engine optimization, Affiliated Marketing and Organic search engine optimization.To get services of Search Engine Marketing Firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com
Added: 18 Oct 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/39811.html