Inbound Internet Marketing Funnel

This infographic below from Ebriks.com paints a great picture of how to route your inbound internet marketing map and shows how you should get clients through the funnel if executed properly.  Inbound Marketing is becoming much stronger sales and marketing strategy because it is more cost effective, valuable to consumers and the ROI can be more easily tracked and measured with each campaign.

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How to Apply the Principles of Engineering to Life

Just as tried and true principles of engineering are used in the process of designing new structures that make the world a better place, they can also be used to make one's life better. With a little out-of-the-box thinking, these can be applied to everything from weight loss to solving problems in business or a relationship. Here's an example of the principles applied to weight loss:

Define the end goal

Just like in an engineering project, a specific goal and an end date should be set. In this situation, a person wants to lose 100 pounds in a year so they need to lose a little more than 8 pounds a month.

Seek to find the causes and the solution

Here, the problem needs to be discovered and solved. This person needs to find out what is causing them to stay overweight. Poor eating habits, a lack of exercise, too little sleep and too much stress might all be part of the cause. Solutions might be: stop buying junk food (easier said than done) and drink only water as a way to improve their eating, add in a daily 30 minute walk to meet their physical activity needs, take a warm shower and go to bed before 10 pm to combat the stress and lack of sleep.

Optimize time and space

Optimization is necessary to make it easier to meet the stated goals. To save time, the person in this example might lace up their walking shoes, put on some upbeat tunes and walk to the supermarket to stock up on fresh fruits, veggies and meat for the week. This kills three birds with one stone: they are getting exercise, they are taking time out from the stresses of life and they are doing something to make it easier to stick to a healthier diet. Once home, they can spend an hour washing, chopping and portioning out food so that they'll need to spend less time on meal prep during the week and have the time to get in more exercise, relaxation and sleep.

Use real data, not assumptions

It's essential to record the person's weight and measurements in order to document the results. It's not enough for them to say that their sweatpants fit better; real, concrete evidence must be used in order to track and measure progress.

Analyze feedback

Just as a project gets tested along the way, and feedback used to make changes or additions, the results that come from making life changes need to be analyzed too. If after two weeks, the person is down six pounds and four inches, things are going well. But if they've only lost one pound and half an inch, changes must be made following an evaluation.

Anyone, engineer or not, can use these basic principles when they want to make changes in their life.

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What Makes a Good Digital Marketer

Traits Observed in Most of the Top Internet Marketing Consultants

• Sociable Nerd
• Sales Experience
• Ingenuity
• Hustle and Drive
• Technology Skills
• Analytical Skills
• Creative
• Part of Internet Culture and Digital Native

Any of they skills can vary from time to time and some marketers may possess weaknesses in some and strengths in others.  However, most successful digital marketers tend to have most of the skills mentioned below in this infographic provided by Distilled.

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Buying Premium Domain Names 101

Wether you are buying a domain name for your business or want to invest in a variety of domain names, understanding the difference, value and benefits of the domain can set you up for better success or failure right from the start.  Having the correct domain name can help you business tremendously with internet marketing and branding online.  Here is an exceptional infographic from DomainNameSales.com that provides a basic 4 step lesson on how to purchase a premium domain name.


Click to enlarge graphic. Premium Domain Names 101

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Predicting Factors That Can Affect Stock Prices

If investors want a stock and are willing to pay more, the price will go up. If investors are selling a stock and there are not many buyers, the price will go down. The stock market can often be demystified by the basic economic principle of supply and demand. Economists generally calculate the economic health of several sectors to determine whether the markets will go up or down.

When there is a fall of jobless claims and higher labor productivity many economists begin to speculate that a recession is slowly recovering. As more investors show optimism in a recovery there becomes an increase in the demand of stocks. This is because they believe the value of the stock price will increase in the future. If the jobless claims fall lower and lower the public feels more confident spending and investors begin to have faith in the markets which drives them higher. The fact is, stocks don't have a "fair value", and they never have.

A lot of the buying and selling is driven by supply and demand. So not only do economic factors play a role in the rise or fall of a stock price but they are also driven by psychological forces (fear of lost opportunity, good news, bad news). The market goes up and down dependent on what the public or investors think about the variety of economic factors and that can create demand or a lack of demand for stocks.

When purchasing stocks in a volatile market such as today, timing is key. Here are some basic principles to look at when deciding whether or not to purchase some shares of stock in a company.

• Look at the macro environment or the overall economic market and begin to decide what direction you think it will be going.

• Try to find different sectors or industries poised for future growth.

• Find companies within those sectors that are growing, and you believe in their product or service and would buy their products. It can also help a lot if you can find a company in a growing sector that has a strong sustainable competitive advantage.

Many other factors should be observed when deciding to purchase a share of stock. Make sure to do you research and understand how markets function before jumping into the stock market. Many times there is often elements that can affect the price of a share of stock which cannot be foreseen. A good idea is to paper trade some of your stock theories before investing any real money. This way you can begin to understand some of the different factors that drive prices up and down as the days pass by.

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Progression of Ipad has Depressed the Market for Netbook Computers

Analysts expect used apple iPads to continue to compete very well against existing low-end notebooks and netbooks, particularly in the segment of the market where surfing, reading, game playing and emailing dominate the usage model. The iPad will continue to depress the market for netbooks and cheap notebooks that were the fastest growing segment of the computer market. The iPad Apple machine combines the best features of smart phones and laptops and is presented as the perfect combination smart phone and a laptop.

The economic model here can be looked at using the substitution effect and income effect. In the technology sector of industry a company must be very innovative to stay on top of their market niche. Netbooks and Notebooks saw a surge in demand in 2008 and 2009 due to the economic recession. Price was a key element in all consumers’ behavior and it basically served the purpose of a low end PC. Notebooks filled a gap in the market to users that needed more than a smart phone but did not have the income to invest in a very advanced personal computer. Notebooks are still looked at as a secondary machine for surfing, reading, game playing and emailing. They are not utilized in companies as a basic tool for a job.

The iPad is quickly stealing market share in this niche because there is a strong demand for personal tablet computing devices. It falls perfectly in the niche between a smart phone and a personal computer. The main reason the iPad is successful is because it is a portable device all about consuming media rather than creating it. We will also continue to see many more advancements with mobile technology. Companies need to position their internet marketing strategies appropriately to not only compete on the search levels, but the social, local and mobile levels that will also continue to grow even larger in the coming years.

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Internet Marketing SEO Strategy

As a small business or personal website owner there is such a rush of joy and excitement once you have your first website up and running. However, that excitement starts to wear off a little after you realize that you, your friends and maybe your parents are the only ones viewing it. The internet is the number one place everyone now goes for any type of information or even leisure time. If website viewers want to be entertained or educated, everything is being accomplished online. With that many eyeballs online comes increased competition and also businesses with large marketing budgets. This article provides some intitial key steps on how to start forming your initial Internet Marketing SEO Strategy for more traffic and website hits.

Here are a few important steps and internet marketing strategies to review before you begin optimizing your website for internet traffic:

Know your Business and Website Goals

Before anything else, you need to understand your business goals, website goals and advertising/marketing goals. If you are a business, how will more traffic to your website really convert to more profits or clients? If you are considering doing PPC or Google Adwords, what do you want to achieve with your ads and how are you set up to measure success or ROI? For example, is your PPC or Ad campaign designed to generate sales, increase traffic to your website, or bring about more brand awareness about your company's products? If your focus is on ROI and profits, than you will want to understand how valuable a click is rather than just how many clicks your website is receiving. By understanding your internet market or advertising goals, you can then choose website optimization strategies that will best help you achieve that specific goal. If you have an ecommerce website that sells tulip bulbs and you only make $1.00 profit margin on each tulip bulb, it would not be too wise to pay $2.00 per click to get people to your website. You should then look for other ways to drive traffic to your website or a different internet marketing strategy.

Track and Measure your conversions and results

After completing an initial internet marketing campaign or website optimization, measure what effect your changes have had and how does that relate to your ROI(Return on Investment). In a PPC or Google Adwords campaign your conversion rates, CTR, first page bid estimates, and other statistics can be good indicators of how well your ads are performing. For most advertisers, the key measure of success is the return on investment (ROI). Use conversion tracking tools and Google Analytics to see which of your ads and keywords are most profitable to your business.

If you do not have the marketing budget to do a PPC campaign then another option could be to do article marketing. Writing insightful articles on topics viewers are interested in learning about can also drive traffic to your website.;) By establishing yourself as a legitimate resource or providing new knowledge to viewers interested in the subject can funnel traffic to your website for free. The key to article marketing is being passionate and knowledgeable about your topic. When writing articles they need to be written for the benefit of your viewers not just a sales pitch or marketing scheme.

Begin to Experiment, Test your Market and Adapt as often as Necessary

Let your different Internet Marketing Strategies begin to educate you about what is most effective for your business or niche and what will be most effective in achieving your goals. You will begin to see over time, that some strategies are working especially well and some are not working so well. For example, if you find users aren't responding to a particular ad campaign, delete that ad and try something new. Another example is social media. With all the hype around social media a lot of business owners believe their whole internet marketing strategy needs to be focuses around facebook and twitter. While these are two very powerful tools they may not be the most effective for your business. A restaurant or a spa may have a lot more of the public looking to interact with their social media pages for updates or to voice their opinion than your local watch repair company. The watch repair company should have a different internet marketing strategy, such as providing educational items about watches or getting listed in local business directories online.

Finding the correct Internet Marketing SEO Strategy for your company takes time and perseverance. It is typical to try a strategy for at least 30 days before turning in any different directions. Changes made on the internet in search engines are not instant and they could take a week or several weeks before they crawl your website for new additions.

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