Foundations

If you are running a website you know that content is king when it comes to SEO (search engine optimization). Writing hundreds of pages of content is not always ideal when you are running a one or two man show. There’s also a good chance that you may not trust your own spelling and grammar skills. So now you have to shell out a few hundred dollars to remedy this problem right?

It turns out that there are many great sources of free content available on the internet. Authors post content for free because it provides them with much needed backlinks. You can take advantage.

Visit these sites for more information. Be sure to read each site’s publishing rules to avoid any potential legal problems.

www.contentmart.com

www.goarticles.com

www.ezinearticles.com

www.freshcontent.net

www.isnare.com

www.ideamarketers.com

www.articlehub.com

This is just a very small list of free content providers I have personally worked with. There are many many more out there. Perform a simple search and you are sure to find something you like. Gathering content by this means can be quick and easy. Do make sure to proofread these articles. Sometimes grammatical errors can make these articles unreadable. Most of the free content providers will not let you alter the articles they provide. This means the articles need to be readable and informative as is.

Even if you own and operate a brick and mortar operation it is important to get online. More and more consumers are researching online to find out where they will make a purchase or seek services. If you have not already set up a website, now may be the time. Yahoo.com offers affordable hosting packages as well as a free website design tool. Even if you are not too handy with the design elements you can likely find a friend or family member who would gladly set the thing up for you. For around $10 a month you can be accessed online.

If you want to launch a serious online campaign research SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing) techniques. Luckily, however, for brick and mortar companies this can be much simpler. On Google.com (which hosts over 50% of all searches) when you search an industry and location together the first thing that pops up is a map and list of local stores. As long as you are listed in the yellowpages phonebook you will automatically show up in this listing. Once you get your website up and running go to yellowpages.com to make sure all your information is correct. Now your customers can easily access your new website. 

You may consider updating your website frequently with deals and specials you are running to help edge out the competition. You may even consider performing sales online. I find, however, that these websites work best with service industries. If I want to take my kids to a karate school I don’t want to have to call ten different schools to compare prices. Many people will now opt to search online for services like this. If your karate school is the only one who lists your prices and you really sell the services you offer I’m more likely to try you out as opposed to one of the places I really don’t want to waste my time calling.

More and more the internet is taking over our lives. Don’t let your brick and mortar get beat down by this beast fight back with your own website and just see where it takes you.

If any of your marketing budget goes to internet ads you undoubtedly know a little something about Pay-Per-Click or PPC advertising. From reading blog and forum posts it would appear that this is a very costly advertising technique with little pay off. Most people claim that the ROI is beyond insufficient. I have to question these people however. When used correctly PPC advertising can be a great way to spread the word about your business.

How PPC Works

Pay-Per-Click advertising allows business owners to appear in the top search results under the “Sponsored Listings” area of most search engines. Some companies now offer PPC ads that appear in websites relating to your site. Most PPC prices start at $.05 per click and you can choose the exact term that you would like your hand typed ad to appear under. Technically you “bid” for ad space however you can typically set all your own price barriers.

Why Effective PPC Works

Say you select five search terms  for your PPC ad to appear under. These terms relate well to the items you sell on your website and each of these terms expect to see 100 hits per day at the rate of $.05 per day. Now let’s say your website has a typical conversion rate of 2% and an average sale price of only $25. Now let’s do the math: you’ve paid a mere $25 in advertising costs and you reaped $250 in sales. I would say that that is a fairly decent ROI.

What’s the Trick

The reason many PPC campaigns fail is the fact that business owners neglect their research, choose poor search terms, and spend too much on these campaigns.

If you perform adequate research you should have no problem finding great keywords that will lead to conversion rates. The more relevant the terms the higher the likelihood of making a sale. To figure out a great list for your business visit SEOBook.com. Under the tools section they have a Keyword Locator powered by WorkTracker. This is a free program but it can really help get you started in the right direction.

TIP: Don’t lead every customer to your main page, occasionally use a search term that will lead them to specific item pages.

To keep costs low you have several options. Clearly, the less you pay per click the lower your overall costs will be. However, bidding the minimum amount may not always work. The more hits you want the more you will likely have to pay for them. As long as you keep your expected conversion rate and average sale amount in mind you should be able to deduce what you can pay. Google AdWords is a great way to test out the different possibilities here.

TIP: Run several test campaigns. Limit the amount you are willing to spend each day to test out which keywords really sell. Set a daily limit of a couple of dollars and see which words really pay off.

Where to Start

To start out you should try several different keywords, at several different price ranges, on several different websites. An effective PPC ad is developed over time. Most people expect to stumble on great results right away and give up easily. As long as you utilize the daily budget features and track your results carefully (Google Analytics is a free tool to help with this) you should be able to finesse your way to profit.

Remember that PPC advertising is very simple to set up and run yourself. If you are on a budget don’t waste your time on the websites that offer to run your PPC campaigns for you. It takes a couple of hours to set up several campaigns at once and there is very little to do after you have discovered a successful ad and keyword set. Take your time, be stingy and you will be a success.