How to Drive Massive Traffic Immediately?

picture taken from: http://www.allempires.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=22790

by: Robin Dale

There are many effective techniques through which you can drive massive traffic to a website and Link bait is one of them. It’s a technical buzz phrases which can help you to get tons of immediate traffic. In simple words, link bait is any piece of content that other people want to link to. It’s not just something they find personally useful or entertaining; it has to go beyond that to something that makes people feel a need to share it.

The first task in preparing content that fits the description is to know your target audience. Social bookmarking sites are a great place to generate an initial buzz for your work, so it’s a good idea to join up at Digg, Reddit, Propeller, Mixx, and the other high traffic link-sharing websites. Now, don’t go overboard linking and sharing every web page you’ve ever written! Too much self-promotion right off the bat can get your account - or worse, your entire domain - blacklisted or at least psychologically associated with something people don’t want to see.

Instead, find people and popular stories that are in subjects related to the topics you’re trying to promote. If you can’t find the subject you’re interested in among the already popular stories, there’s a good chance that this won’t be the right bookmarking community for your project. For example, internet marketing is almost certain to get down voted at Reddit - but Mixx has many groups and mini-communities that would be interested. Sphinn is a site dedicated just to SEO and marketing issues, so if you’re having a hard time getting any traction for your links you may be talking to the wrong community.

When you know your communities from one another, you’ll have a bit of an insight into what makes the front page and generates link bait. Digg and Reddit are great places to promote: Science, technology, humor, and politics.

Controversy sells and people want “news.” What might have been top-rate link-bait yesterday is probably considered “old news” today. Timing is essential so if you’re just piggy-backing your post on a story that’s already broke and circulated the net, there’s not a very good chance that your version will make any progress unless there’s something genuinely unique that you can add to the discussion.

While controversy and shock value is great - don’t take it too far. Avoid insults and condescension, surprise people but try not to disgust them. Remember, the key to link-bait is mass appeal. Ideally, you want your link to end up on peoples’ email lists and homepages, so keep it friendly for work and families.

So what happens when you pull this off? Tons and tons of immediate traffic. In fact, the traffic itself can be a problem if your hosting servers aren’t ready for a huge flood of hits.

While bookmarking traffic rarely converts, the benefits extend long after that initial rush of traffic fades. Remember, we’re talking about link-bait here so if everything worked right you will get a highly weighted backlink from the bookmarking domain and you’ll also pick up various backlinks from the websites owned and operated by the people who visit these websites.

For examples, I’ve seen deep URLs on my political website shoot up to PR4 and PR5 when the homepage of that domain wasn’t even that high. Practically overnight, these URLs can rank for extremely competitive keyword phrases because they pick up truly editorial links in a rapid fashion.

Really, I’m just saying that you have to write quality content and promote this content to the correct target audience. This isn’t fundamentally different than any media that has ever existed! The big change is the technology that promotes the content, and the way that online social communities can leverage your reach without the typical barriers to entry that exist in print and broadcast media.

So, next time use link bait technique if your online marketers and social media experts put forward an idea. Know that the use of this buzzword/phrase isn’t a genius idea in its own right. The real talent is coming up with the actual articles, pictures, or video that makes something worthy of being linked to - and putting it where the right eyes can see it.

Robin Dale is the publisher for Teeky.org, we offer useful & quality articles and news about Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Dedicated Server Hosting, Windows VPS Hosting UK, Linux VPS Hosting UK, e-commerce hosting, cPanel Hosting, hosting tips & UK Web Hosting. For More Articles, Visit Us @ UK Web Hosting

Key Tools for Social Media Marketing

by: Heather Jewell

picture courtesy of : Sociale Media Marketing

If you are intimidated by the term "social networking" this article will help you see the light behind the hype. Sites like Linked In, Plaxo, Twitter, and Facebook are your friends and can help you reach your target market while building meaningful connections. The following tips will guide you through the maze and help you create a winning strategy.

Social networks are useful tools for connecting to people that you already know and people that may help you obtain your business goals. Social networks allow you to invite others to connect to you and in turn you may request connections from people already in their network. For business owners, this is a must. Having a presence on at least one social networking site will help build your connections and increase your bottom line.

These accounts are not to be taken lightly. Just like any type of marketing, social networking requires time and effort. The best way to start is to create time within your schedule every week to explore connections, groups, and articles on how to maximize your success. Some of the most successful social networking sites are:

• Linked In
• Facebook
• Plaxo

Common traits of social networking sites:

• Events
• RSS feed
• Messaging yools
• Discussion forms/tools
• Profile information
• Groups

Other social sites that becoming popular are:

• Twitter- This is a social networking site that allows people to have a constant feed about what they are doing. Others can connect to you and see what you are doing all the time.
• Digg- A social news site that enables people to share interesting news articles, links, and stories from all over the Internet.
• Little Engine- It is a community of small businesses that share information and news about each other to boost business and encourage people to buy local.
• Flickr- This site allows for the sharing and management of images.
• Ning- This site helps you create your own social network.

There are a many ways to get connected online. The best strategy is to try out a couple different social networking tools, explore them, understand them, and make time to make them work. Don't try to use all the sites out there because no one has time to keep up with all of them. Explore, plan, proceed.

For more information, please visit www.NuRelm.com.

No Free Gifts! And Other Negotiation Advice Designed to Keep Your Value High and Your Customers Happy

picture courtesy of : http://www.businessaccelerationcenter.com/ufg/

Despite your best attempts to sell value and remain firm on your rate, some clients will press ahead with their request for a discount. After a solid attempt from you to reassure them that your rate is fair, if your prospect is still pushing for a discount, you have a choice. Walk away from the business because you want to maintain your rate or slowly start to give concessions in an attempt to win (or save) the business.

If you want to give concessions, following a simple system will ensure a profitable negotiation.

Your First Step

The first step, always, is to find something else to give up that doesn't reduce your rate. A free day, no-charge reporting, a client profile on your Web site. What you choose will be specific to your agency, your markets and your client base. The key is to have the list of things you're willing to offer prepared in advance, so you can draw on it during the negotiation.

It's hard to think creatively in the heat of a negotiation, so planning ahead can give you a ready-made solution that leaves both you and the client feeling satisfied with the transaction. Your goal is to maintain the rate integrity of your resources while delivering extra value to the customer with a service that does not cost you anything (or very little). For example, if the customer asks you for a discount consider offering them following instead:

1. An unconditional money back guarantee or perhaps extend the guarantee period by 30 days
2. Free day
3. Payment terms
4. Payment with credit card
5. Free staff training CD’s or in house training by you on hiring and retention practices
6. Access to a public seminar or trade show your company is sponsoring
7. Future discounts based on volume: the company will pay full rate today and receive a discount on a future order. You can also do this as a gift certificate for them to use later.
8. A loyalty rewards program. “Hire 10 get the 11th one free!”
9. Participation on your client advisory board or panel

About half the time, your customer will take you up on the offer to provide a “non monetary concession.” The other half will continue pressing for a rate discount because in today’s marketplace it has become all too common for one supplier to attempt to trump all others by lowering their rate and cutting their margin. In many cases, your clients are being trained by the competition and other vendors to demand lower pricing from you. It’s a short term strategy, and it does little to benefit buyers but that doesn’t make it any easier to assure prospects they’ll get equal or better ROI by paying more. Sometimes, a prospect just wants you to lower your rate, and you (with your agency’s support) will need to consider doing it.

Your Second Step

If you feel you have to give up a discount in order to close the sale, do yourself a huge favor and always ask them one of the two following questions first:

"What is important to you about an x% discount?" or
"Why is an x% discount important to you?"

These questions will flush out any last details that could help you find a different way to structure the terms and pricing. This allows you to keep your rate while letting the customer walk away with their needs met as well. If, however, you ultimately do have to reduce your rate, make sure to follow these two rules:

1. Never reduce your rate without getting something in return. Getting something in exchange for a pricing concession is key to managing customer expectations that future discounts will not be easily dished out. As with the "no money" concessions above, what you get in return for a rate reduction will be unique to your business and markets. It could include references or case studies, a bigger order, introductions to senior level executives or cash up front, etc… Again, whatever you ask for, prepare the list in advance so you can respond quickly and smoothly.
2. Nothing is worse than coming to an agreement on rate (especially a reduced rate!) only to find out that your prospect is still looking for other concessions. Be sure to get a firm verbal agreement from the customer that this discount is all they will need to get the deal done. Try asking them something like "I'm not sure if I can get you this rate, but if I can, is it fair to say that we can go ahead?" or "I'm not sure I can get this discount for you. If I can, though, are you willing to ….?”

By asking them this last question, you can ensure you get all the issues on the table first, giving you the chance to deal with them fairly once and for all. So what goes after the “willing to”…. in that question? I believe that if you must, absolutely must reduce your rate to win the business NEVER let that rate drop without getting something in return. “No Free Gifts” my friend Steve Kraner taught me. Try some of these best practice ideas submitted from Engage recruiting clients for finishing the question…

"I'm not sure I can get this discount for you. If I can, though, are you willing to ….?

1. place your order today?
2. provide full payment for he work term up front?
3. hire more employees with your agency?
4. provide me 3 qualified referrals / introductions?
5. give us a testimonial or case study?
6. allow us to sponsor the event you are organizing?
7. invite me to the event you are having for their clients?
8. provide me space in your newsletter for a monthly column?
9. provide my company an exclusive hiring arrangement?
10. introduce me to additional departments or internal decision makers?

This step is easy to do if you have conviction. The first step to finding better clients – ones that focus on value and not rate – is making sure you are 100% confident that you are delivering such a high value to the marketplace. Confident that all buyers will want to own it at full cost. When you do believe this, you will not have any trouble asking for something valuable in return for your rate discount.

Remember that what you ask for does not have too be of equal monetary value. In fact it can be free for the customer to provide as long as it has value for you. The goal is to employ reciprocity – you will gladly scratch the customers back as long as they are willing to scratch yours! Creating equality in your client relationships ensures that you will have a long lasting trust based relationship which reduces the amount of “shopping” the customer does each time they need to order. This increases your profits, decreases your sales cycle and encourages referrals.

**Copyright 2009, Engage Selling. You have permission to use the above article in your newsletter, publication or email as long as you do not edit the content and you leave the links and resource box intact.

Colleen Francis, Sales Expert, is Founder and President of Engage Selling Solutions (www.EngageSelling.com). Armed with proven sales strategies that work in this tough economy, Colleen helps clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line. Start improving your results today with Colleen’s online newsletter Engaging Ideas and her FREE 7 day intensive sales secrets eCourse: www.EngageNewsletter.com.

Expanding Business with Proper Payment Processing

Author: John L. Carlson

The credit card processing revolution is here; you are now able to purchase just about anything you want online, and the new age of ecommerce is open for business in the retail markets. A merchant now has access to funds immediately from a purchase and will receive their money through a full range of services provided by the bank or payment service chosen. A merchant will chose a network that gives the best rate for all the services provided to be part of the payment processing and easy accessibility for the clients.

First, the merchant will setup a credit card merchant account. Some of these set-up accounts are free for the merchant, and others do charge a fee. When choosing a service provider to have your credit card merchant account, what the services provide the merchant should be the first order of business. Some services give 24/7 customer service and special discounted pricing.

The merchant must chose the best service for what the merchant is selling and which cards will be accepted. There are credit card processing services that only allow for one type of credit card to be processed through them. Most of the services process the credit cards within a network that is reliable and in real-time or batch credit card processing services.

Reliability of any payment processing is essential in finding the merchant account that fits. Now there is even wireless payment processing so you have access to receiving payments through most wireless equipment. The payment processing services selected will even usually accept checks that process just like credit cards.

Once your credit card merchant account is up and running there is a host of ways to process payments into your credit card merchant account. A great many doctors, lawyers, CPAs and online retail stores have a credit card merchant account with a reliable service provider.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/banking-articles/expanding-business-with-proper-payment-processing-889594.html

About the Author:
John L. Carlson is showing companies that the chance to have growth in a business will be accomplished through opening a credit card merchant account . Many consumers are now accustomed to being able to pay for services and goods through convenient payment processing. The reason to choose a product or service may happen because the merchant has credit card processing capabilities, and Mr. Carlson is bringing this truth to business owners across the nation.

Don't you always lower the price

As competition goes, in selling goods or services, people were trying to gain markets with any marketing plans they had...

and sometimes (if I can't say often), lowered the price was the only strategy to win markets.

what if, your business already lowered the price until it was even with your costs, and somebody, still selling the same goods or services, with a lower price than yours? are you brave enough to lose money just to match the lowered price? is that a business?

business were made to generate profits...not for losing money. (if that is so, then it would be great for just staying at home and do nothing)

why we do not trying to get markets with some other creative way, while maybe we had a higher price, but our customers felt that it worthed. How could? Yes, I'm telling you about how to sell your plain bread for $ 30,000 ... ??? How could that be? Yes it could be, if I added a diamond jewelry as a bonus for buying my plain bread...can we do that? it isn't against the law? it's about VALUE that increased, instead of lowering the price...

then why not increasing values instead of lowering the price, in order to win markets. Why don't we create some creative way, to increase values that customers would get for buying goods or services from us.

then be creative, create some more values than others, customers will go your way even if you do not have the lowest price.