Internet marketing is something that is definitely not easy. When I first got started out with internet marketing, I was absolutely lost when I began. Even after reading and studying many courses… nothing seemed to “stick” with me. I was very young and didn’t know any better, so I just exited out of the online business world, and focus my attention on making money with direct mail.

Guess what? I loss more money with direct mail than I made in 2 months working at the $6.50/hour job that I had. Now this was something that I did understand. Immediately stopped doing direct mail and offline marketing, and came back to the world of online business.

I didn’t really start getting many sales on the internet until only about 4 years ago. I was selling this very hot product at the time, and admittedly, I was pouring a lot of money into advertising. I getting 50 to 60 opt-in leads per day, and I thought this was going to be my big break… that is until I lost my job.

Funny how things work huh? Most of my advertising money came from the job that I had, so when I lost that, I lost my business – because I wasn’t doing any backend marketing, nor did I implement any free marketing tactics to keep my business ahead of the crowd.

I was intimidated by free marketing strategies. The one technique that really scared me was search engine optimization. I didn’t know how to “optimize” a website. Back then it was kind of easy to rank high in the search engines, but I still didn’t take advantage of this unique opportunity to get tons of free traffic.

From there, I stopped promoting that product because I essentially had no business. I had no backend products, and all of my advertising dollars had dried up. I was forced with only 1 choice… start over, and use nothing except free marketing. And believe it or not, this actually worked out well for me.

This is when I finally gained the confidence to go full force with my internet marketing efforts. My current business is the ultimate lifestyle business to me, and the more I master it, the more fun that I have in it everyday. Selling your products and services doesn’t have to be hard. Stick with a proven marketing plan and you will be good to go.

These little nuggets of wisdom are things that should help to inspire you when sales are down, and when you’re not getting the productivity that you’d hoped for in your business. If you want to learn how to make money in your online business, stick to it and never give up. Think about the long term goals and envision yourself having that kind of success 2 years from now, and know that you will only reach this success if you choose to market your products each and everyday. Take it from me, it works.

Direct response copywriting is a skill that aims to convince people to buy a product or service being advertised on a website, email, television advert etc. There are a few guidelines that have to be followed in order to accomplish it successfully. They include:

1. Know the product
Successful direct response copywriting entails knowing everything about the product or service being marketed. You should then be able to translate these features and benefits in a way that the reader will be convinced to make the purchase. You can either take a soft sell or hard sell approach with the copy. Knowing unique things about a product and creatively incorporating this information into the copy will put you ahead of the competition and therefore guarantee success in our direct response copywriting activities.

2. Proper grammar
You have to make sure that your copy is devoid of spelling mistakes and punctuation errors. This is because incorrect grammar can cause end users to develop a negative attitude on the product being sold. This means that you should re-read your direct response copywriting article after it’s done to make necessary corrections. In that respect, make sure that the sentences are short and concise, devoid of vocabularies, semi colons and other things that that make the copy complicated. Concentrate on providing the reader with the required information with the lowest number of words.

3. Solve a problem
The most effective direct response copywriting entails using the product being sold as a solution to a problem that a reader might be experiencing. This is because most people are always out to make their lives as comfortable and as fulfilling as possible. Use your direct response copywriting skills to show people that the product can solve the problem within a given time frame in a way that they will not seriously consider the price being paid. In that respect, you have to add honest testimonials and reviews from past and current users showing that the product is indeed effective and therefore a worthwhile investment.

4. Offer good deals
You should convince readers to make a purchase as soon as possible by adding things that are worth their while. Successful direct response copywriting should include things like special offers, discounts, freebies and other incentives that make readers see that they will be getting a high quality product at a very low price. In that respect, you must make the purchase process very straightforward. For instance, have them call a toll free number, fill in a simple online contact form etc. to keep them from having second thoughts. This is one of the most effective direct response copywriting skills because people like saving money on all kinds of purchases.

5. Strong call to action
You have to factor in a very strong call to action in your copy. This will prompt people to make a purchase while stocks last or before the offer ends. Words like ‘Buy now’ ‘click here’ ‘call now’ etc. eliminate second thoughts and therefore increase the probability of making a sale.

In summary, direct response copywriting is a skill that takes time to perfect but the benefits of increased sales is usually well worth the work put in.

Online business and company owners continuously search for different marketing strategies to help increase their income. Most of them already tried Internet marketing, Email marketing and more but they are still not contented on the results. These marketing strategies are effective but a lot of business owners are already using them. It means that you have a lot of competition on this kind of marketing strategy. This is the main reason why they are looking for other ways to increase their income.

This is where Text Message Marketing comes in. Some people think that it is just the same as email marketing. It is different and it is better than email marketing. There are a couple of reasons why this kind of marketing strategy is the best choice today.

First, you can enter the personal space of the potential clients. Mobile phones are personal items by a user. It means that no matter where they go, they always have their phones with them. They read every text message that they receive and it is not like email messages. People already had enough of virus messages on their email so they tend to ignore messages that what they think is just a spam.

Second, you can target a more specific group of people. Basically, you will not force someone to give their numbers to you. It is just like how internet marketers obtain emails for their list. You can ask the users to input their mobile numbers on your website. The best thing about this is that only the users who are interested on your products and services will probably sign up their mobile numbers.

Third, a lot of people are using mobile phones. Actually, it is said that the number of people with mobile phones are higher compared to the people with laptops or desktop computers. Also, some people prefer using their phones in accessing the Internet. However, you need to make adjustments on your website and try to make some advertisements that will appear on mobile phones. This is also the place where people can place their mobile numbers.

Fourth, you can have direct contact with your customers through SMS Marketing Service. You can talk directly to your customer if they inquire about your products or services. Instead of providing information through emails, you can call them directly to provide information.

If you really want to consider a good marketing strategy, try to consider SMS services and try to take advantage of its benefits.

Smartphones are taking over from standard mobile phones and the ability to access the web so quickly and easily through these devices has resulted in a growing number of businesses investing in Smartphone marketing. There are a number of different ways that you can capitalize on this growing trend including SMS marketing, mobile website marketing and App marketing.

While SMS marketing is effective both on our old mobile devices as well as on the new smartphones, it is mobile website marketing and App marketing that are the big winners. Mobile website marketing makes use of an easy to read template of your website to be hosted alongside your normal website. Making use of re-directs, you can ensure that people visiting your site from a mobile device will automatically be directed to your easy to read mobile site. Although mobile websites do make use of some of the interactive features of your smartphone, they are not always as interactive as they can be.

Why Apps are So Popular for Smartphone Marketing?

Mobile Applications for small business take your mobile website that much further with interactive features which can be used to create content to use for your marketing as well as to reward your customers. Making use of the GPS feature to offer turn by turn directions to your business as well as offering GPS discount vouchers to anyone who visits your store at pre-designated times make use of the phones built in features to enhance your customers experience.

What makes Apps stand out from mobile websites the most is the convenience for the end user as well as for your business. Customers can achieve far more with the touch of a single button and as we are now becoming more prone to instant gratification and prefer to complete tasks that are easy to perform, Apps make functions like telling a friend about a special discount they have just received as easy as touching a button. This one touch word of mouth promotion tool makes App marketing so popular with many companies experiencing a massive growth in their downloads through this single tool.

Mobile marketing is here to stay and there are numerous companies that can offer you quality Apps for the same price as converting your website into a mobile site. The additional features that can be included such as shopping cart, loyalty programs, survey forms and free push notifications ensure that smartphone marketing can be both cost effective and will add huge value to your customers experience with your brand.

Jeanne Michelle and her team at Business Apps Marketing [http://www.businessappsmarketing.com/pricing] offer Apps for Apple (both iPhone and iPad), Android and Blackberry to help local businesses promote their products and services at extremely competitive prices. We run specials through out the year with huge discounts for those looking to have an App built or to make use of our App Building Platform to build their own.