One of the most important aspects to your Internet marketing business should be - getting targeted traffic and list building. Little or no traffic to your website will result in a low opt-in list. There a various methods to generating traffic to your sites, like PPC, article marketing, Ad exchanges as well as joint ventures. Although these are excellent methods to building your opt-in list, many overlook the effectiveness of blogging.

Blogging is the Key

Generating traffic and building an opt-in list all rely on advertising in one form or another. Some may not call it advertising, and regardless of what label you give it, people HATE advertising. Nevertheless, it is the life source of Internet marketing and without it, your business won’t survive. The key is to disguise it so it doesn’t look like advertising, and that’s where blogging comes in.

For some reason, Internet surfers are attracted to blogs! The need for every human to feel validated, provides the Internet surfer with a way to give their opinion or their two cents worth on any topic they choose to discuss. People are naturally curious, and they love to post to blogs but they also like to read posts made by others as well. This is where you use blogging for the sole purpose of driving traffic and building your opt-in list.

Join Other Bloggers

Go join blogging communities like My Blog Log and Blog Catalog, and get to know other regular bloggers by visiting their sites. Take you time and post relevant and helpful information that pertains to the topic. Don’t forget to include your website URL, as well as your signature tag at the bottom of every post. If you make educated comments, other bloggers will click on your sig tag and visit your website where they then become part of the “traffic”. If you repeat this process enough times, this will provide your visitors with an opportunity to join your newsletter or RSS feed - thus building your opt-in list.

Conclusion

Starting a blog is not as difficult and technical as it once was. Today’s cPanel provide a simple push-button system to creating your blog through Fantastico. If you haven’t started your blog, your missing out on a grand opportunity to building your opt-in list through blogging.

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Building a profitable opt-in list is essential to the success of your Internet business. Opt-in lists will fall under two categories; a responsive opt-in list that brings in profits and a unresponsive opt-in list, which brings in little or no profits. Anybody who has been in Internet marketing game for any significant amount of time knows that. What many don’t know is that JUST an opt-in list can be nothing but a lot of work. What you really need is a profitable opt-in list. One that will produce sales and even better, repeated sales.

Basic Principles

Building a profitable opt-in list is based on several basic principles of selling in any medium. Long before the Internet was even a twinkle in Bill Gate’s eye, people were selling things to other people. This selling often took place, as it does today, in brick and mortar stores. There were (and maybe still are) door-to-door salesmen as well that sold everything from pots and pans and hair brushes to encyclopedias and burial insurance. These door-to-door salesmen went from city to city and house to house selling their wares.

Internet Marketing Like Door-to-Door Salesmen?

Internet marketing is very much like the door-to-door salesmen of old. We build our good and faithful customer base one customer at a time by collecting names and email addresses of those who are our best prospects. The door-to-door salesmen of old knew that they could waste a lot of time (not to mention shoe leather) trying to sell to those that would never be interested in their products so they concentrated on those that were their most likely customers. Encyclopedia salesmen concentrated on households that had school age children. Door-to-door salesmen who sold pots and pans concentrated on housewives.

Conclusion

Internet marketers need to take note of that bit of wisdom and make sure that they aren’t just collecting a long list of email addresses that will never produce any sales. Opt-in lists are built from your traffic – PROFITABLE opt-in lists are built from your TARGETED traffic. Never waste time trying to build your traffic – and your list – by any and all means. Stick to the proven methods of driving targeted traffic, like article marketing, blogging, etc. After all, it’s the only way to get the maximum return for all the hard work you’re putting into your online business – and the profits you so richly deserve!

Just like the cold virus spreads from person to person, so does a marketing campaign when done correctly. Viral marketing uses techniques that exploit existing social networks to increase awareness of a business or product. Viral marketing is a technique that has been used in the offline advertising word for a long time and has recently made its way to the Internet.

How Viral Marketing Works

Viral marketing is accomplished when a website or program facilitates and encourages people to spread marketing information along voluntarily. Viral marketing tactics include:

• ebooks
• branded software
• flash games
• the use of video clips
• images and even text messages

Viral marketing is very different from network marketing and multi-level marketing schemes. Viral marketing is essentially a separate activity all by itself and has little in common with either of these things. It does not involve participants signing-up or paying for anything during the marketing process.

Early Examples

A classic example of early viral marketing techniques was when companies placed links at the bottom of users free e-mail accounts so the recipients of the e-mail could follow the link to sign-up for a free account. Many people use this technique within their own e-mails now to advertise links to their business website. Additionally, many of the web based free e-mails services allow companies to place their link at the bottom of their users e-mails.

Word of mouth and other tactics have been used to spread information since the beginning of time. Using new technologies like the internet has made this method of exchanging information much faster. Increasingly people are spending more time online and they are creating online identities and communities. Viral marketing takes advantage of the power of having these communities easily accessible by connecting with people in the online communities, so they can connect to other people.

Spreading The Word

If a company creates a marketing material through a blog, video or article they can begin the viral marketing campaign by starting the spread of that marketing material using an RSS feed. They would place the item on a website other than their own using the RSS feed and other people will see it and spread it elsewhere. Thus, the marketing material takes on the characteristics of a virus.

When people see the blog, video or article they may become interested in its origins and use the information they obtained from it to seek out information about the company that created it. That is why it is important to discreetly brand you viral marketing promotions with your companies information. You don’t want to be overt about branding your content, but it is important to slip it in there.

Conclusion

There are many reasons people choose to participate in viral marketing. A successful viral marketing campaign will spread like wildfire all over the internet and generate a great deal of interest in what your business has to offer. It is the Internet equivalent of creating product buzz on the streets. Viral marketing is also relatively inexpensive as well because you are not paying for the message to be spread. The idea is that your potential customers are spreading the message for you.

If you’ve been at the internet marketing game for a while, then chances are you’ve heard of the term “niche marketing”. By definition, a niche market is a focused portion of a large market, which you target with products and services. For example, a niche market in the dog industry might focus on dog obedience training for bloodhounds.

However, before you enter the niche marketing arena, there are few steps you should take in order to maximize your success. It is imperative that you define your target market and do the proper research. In this weeks audio tip, you will learn 4 quick niche marketing tips that you can put into action today. Turn up your speakers…