Video Killed the Content King

The headline is my clever attempt at spoofing the classic 1979 hit song “Video Killed the Radio Star” by a British band called The Buggles. The song celebrates the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The song topped the music chart in several countries.

It was the first music video shown on MTV at 00:01 on August 1, 1981, the day the cable station was launched in the U.S. I found the video on YouTube, so here it is for those not old enough to remember and/or for those who just want a trip down memory lane. Enjoy! Read more

Changes at Article Directories will Have a Major Impact on Article Marketing

Article directories and article marketing have been staples of Internet marketing for a long time. Changes made at any article directory tend to have a ripple effect throughout the industry.

Ezine Articles (EZA, www.ezinearticles.com) is perhaps the “Google” of article marketing and most widely used by Internet Marketers. Once upon a time, they would accept articles on any topic but those days are gone.

EZA has been evolving over the years and has made some significant changes in the recent past that will affect how you use article marketing. Some of these changes may seem like an inconvenience but in the end, all online marketers will stand to benefit in my opinion.

For example, they stopped accepting articles on the topic of PLR (See PLR = Article Vomit). Obviously, this had a big impact on PLR authors and those who submit PLR articles without changing anything before submitting to article directories. However, from the readers’ point of view it is a good change because it will cut down on reading the regurgitated content from an article directory. Read more

Is “Moving The Free Line” Helping or Hurting Your Online Business?

Anyone who is involved with Internet marketing or is in the “make money niche” is well aware of the fact that you need to give away lots of free stuff to attract traffic, build your list and establish yourself if you are a virtual unknown. I agree with that business philosophy to a certain degree.

However, I am beginning to get an uncomfortable feeling when I read or hear expressions like “moving the free line” and “giving your best stuff away.” Where do you draw the line? Eventually you reach a point of “diminishing returns” (economists like to call it diminishing marginal returns).

I understand that the web is built on a foundation of free – free information, free videos, free “how-to” tutorials and so on and so forth. It’s not that I don’t believe in giving away free reports and multi-part eCourses. I do want to help people who are just starting out or are struggling. I have plenty of free resources on this site that I use to draw interested visitors and acquire new subscribers who I hope will become paying customers someday. But I believe there has to be a limit to freebies and there comes a time when you need to make a business decision. After all, it is basic human nature not to pay money for something that one can get for free. Read more

Which Internet Marketing Strategy is Right for You?

The beginning of a new year is a good time to take stock of your online business and decide what marketing strategy you want to follow in 2010. I’m assuming you are just as fed up as I am with over-hyped get rich quick schemes and are only interested in sustainable business strategies.

As online marketers, we can learn a lot from our counterparts in the traditional brick-and-mortar businesses. An offline entrepreneur also wears many different hats but s/he quickly learns to focus on her/his main strength and delegates the rest to capable assistants.

In the same way, you have to make some tough decisions as to what parts of your online business you want to handle yourself and outsource the rest.

To determine which Internet marketing strategy is right for your online business, ask yourself these questions (be honest with yourself): Read more

Why Most People Don’t Make Any Money From a Business Blog

If you believe all the hype that’s out there about blogging, every blogger should be rolling in the dough. The truth is most business blogs don’t make any money for their owners. See “Growing Rich by Blogging Is a High-Tech Fairy Tale, by Daniel Lyons, Newsweek.”

Affiliate marketing is probably one of the most popular uses of a business blog. However, the current business model of posting product reviews with your affiliate link may have to change thanks to the new FTC ruling.

I don’t think the new ruling will kill affiliate marketing as we know it but neither is it going to be business as usual. There is a lively debate going on online about the FTC ruling since it seems to have added to the confusion instead of clearing up things. One of the best posts I’ve read is titled, “Is This The End of Affiliate Marketing?” by Michel Fortin.

Using your blog to generate AdSense revenue is another popular business model. You are not going to get rich or make a comfortable living doing this either. Probably one of the best examples of this blogging model is “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.”
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Content + Social Marketing = High Quality Sales Leads

Two valuable currencies that you can use in your online business are content and social marketing or networking. If you combine them, you get a powerful one-two punch for generating high quality sales leads. Let’s take a closer at each part of this Internet marketing strategy.

Content: Article marketing is probably the most popular mode of content marketing. However, this strategy is so overused and saturated that it has lost some of its effectiveness. I’m not suggesting that you ignore article marketing, just don’t count on it being your primary source of traffic.

Too often, marketers will use Google’s Keyword Tool to find “hot” keywords or phrases, slap together an article using these keywords and post it on hundreds of article directories. Sure, you may get a temporary surge of traffic using this method but it makes it very hard for you to stand out if all you do is follow the herd.

What can you do differently? Uncover your inner brilliance instead. I read a great article by Vickie Sullivan who is internationally recognized as the top market strategist for experts and a popular speaker. In her article, “Uncover Your Brilliance: How to Write So That People Take Notice,” she discusses two techniques to get you out of your mental rut.

I suggest that you add your own take on popular issues to differentiate yourself. Here are a few ways to do that.
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Repurpose Content to Maximize Profits

If you listen to any Internet marketing guru, you’ll hear them say that you must create a sales funnel to gain maximum profits. What is a sales funnel?

A sales funnel is the process by which you acquire pre-qualified subscribers, lead them through a series of sales options with increasing value at each step in order to gain a lifetime customer with repeat sales.

I digress, sales funnel is the topic of an upcoming eBook that I’m working on right now. Stay tuned for more details.

In this post, I want to introduce the concept of repurposing your content to create high value information products. I use the acronym T.E.R.M. to keep me focused on repackaging my existing content.

Here’s what T.E.R.M. stands for:

T – Tangible or physical products

E – eBooks

R – Reports or small reports

M – Membership sites

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