Did you make the switch from corporate slave to independent consultant If so, you may be part of the subculture known as The Internet Marketers Club. Out here on the Web, things are done a little differently. Nine to Five is a forgotten phrase. Corporate casual means tossing on a pair of lounge pants before booting up your laptop. Business meetings are held in the upper right-hand corner of your computer screen!
So, how do you know youre a club member Whats the big clue-in that youve crossed the Point of No Return and youre officially relegated to Internet Marketer Status for the rest of your days
For me, it was when one of my internet pals just bought me a web domain out of nowhere. A web domain as a gift, wow! What a perfect way to show a fellow entrepreneur how much you care. Yes, the day I received a web domain as a present was the day I realized I was a Bona Fide Internet Marketer.
Recently I asked some other professionals when their moment of internet marketing clarity happened. Here are some funny answers I got in reply.
You Know Youre an Internet Marketer When...
...you spend one day offline and return to 202 e-mails (mostly not spam).
...you dream in HTML.
...you dream in keywords.
- Ann Zuccardy, Vermont Shortbread Company, http://annzuccardy.typepad.com/vermont_shortbread_mmm/
You Know Youre an Internet Marketer When...
...you brag about your high web ranking.
...you obsess about your page rank.
...you constantly check your page rank.
...you get depressed about your page rank.
- DeAnna Spencer, http://realestateinvestorsfriend.blogspot.com/
You Know Youre an Internet Marketer When...
...You see a new product, add it to your marketing list, and begin thinking of ways to incorporate it into articles you will post online.
...You see an article online and think I should write about that and scroll to the bottom and your name is on it!
- Jan Verhoeff, http://wahmco.tripod.com/
You Know Youre an Internet Marketer When...
...you get up in the middle of night--which is more like 3 a.m. since you just went to bed at 1 a.m.-- because you HAD to find something online or wanted to check your stats.
...you know theres a hurricane coming but you keep on trucking til the power goes out. Then you resort to battery back up on regular PC with about 30 minutes of work time left!
...you use a cheat sheet to keep track of all the URLs that you own and run.
- Tara Burner, http://completehouseservices.com
You Know Youre an Internet Marketer When...
...you dream in webstats, click through rates, effective CPM, cost per clicks, open rates, page views, unique user sessions, server response times, and the general flow of your web life.
...you can take off at a moments notice to go anywhere, do anything, and be with whomever you want... as long as there is wireless broadband of course...
...you obsess about your reputation by not engaging in what those other guys do that gives Internet Marketing a bad name.
And lastly...
You begin to think life is one huge A/B split testing planet.
- Christopher Knight, http://EzineArticles.com
Special thanks goes out to the members of Article Marketing Mania on Ryze.com, who contributed the material for this article.
Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.
Dina Giolitto is a freelance copywriting consultant, ghostwriter, article marketing enthusiast and self-proclaimed internet marketer. Trust her with your next e-book, article series, web copy or sales letter. Visit for more information.
You dont have to spend thousands of dollars on advertising to build an effective campaign. In fact, you can get great publicity that will drive customers to do your door absolutely free of charge!
One of the best ways to do this is to attract press coverage. You dont have to pay for advertising space to get written about in a newspaper or magazine, or on a website. All you have to do is interest the editor or webmaster in your story. Todays media is huge - and its hungry for news. If you present a publication with a ready-made story that will interest their target audience they will snap it up.
The way to do this is to write a press release, sometimes called a news release. Release writing isnt rocket science, but there are a few important tips and tricks to remember:
Make sure the release is dated, and has a contact name, address, phone number and email address. The contact should be a single, named individual.
Start off with an attention-grabbing headline that announces a piece of specific news. Atlanta Motorbike Store Launches New Line of Helmets is a good headline; Atlanta Motorbike Store Has Another Good Year is not. Your release should announce something specific and out of the ordinary.
Always include a quote. Store owner Mike Smith, 44, says, were really pleased to be stocking X-Brand Helmets. Quotes bring news stories to life and give them a human touch - youll look a long time before you find a professional media story without one.
Make sure your spelling, grammar and punctuation are one hundred percent accurate. If theyre not, the professionals in your target media will lose respect for you and trash your release. If you didnt get top grades in English, get a friend to check it over.
Once youve written your release you need to distribute it. There are plenty of free newswires that will do this for you - www.internetnewsbureau.com
Its quite acceptable to email press releases. Just make sure that the text is included in the body of the mail - most sensible internet users are a little suspicious of mail attachments received from strangers.
So your release is out, and its getting you some coverage. Why other cost-free means can you use to build your businesss profile Well, the obvious place is the internet. Here are some suggestions:
Build web links. Its a tactic as old as the internet and it takes time - but its still worth it. Make sure your businesss name is on every relevant free directory on the web. This can be pretty backbreaking work, but it will pull in the customers. Crucially, it will also improve your websites rank on Google and other search engines.
Post to message boards. If you can find a web discussion forum related to your business topic, join in and post regularly. Dont simply push your product - get involved in the online community. This is a great way to establish contacts. Make sure that your username is the same as your business name and that your forum profile contains a link to your site.
One rule of advertising hasnt changed since prehistoric times: nothing beats word-of-mouth. Ultimately the secret of getting free publicity is having a great product that people will talk about. If you can get folks talking about you and your business, youve beaten every single Fortune 1000 company - theyve spent millions on advertising and branding campaigns. If youre smart, and if youre persistent, you can achieve the same results without spending a single cent!
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