SEM and SEO Basics

June 24th, 2015
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Realistic vector magnifying glassWhen you launch your website, it doesn’t naturally sit at the top of the search engines. It takes time, creativity, due diligence & sometimes cash.

SEM, SEO, HOW?

Let’s start with SEM.
SEM = Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing is the process of purchasing ads to get your site to the top of the search engines. Ads always display first, so this is the quickest way to get your site noticed, but it can get VERY expensive! So instead of going straight to Google, which is the most popular search engine and the highest cost, start with smaller lower cost search engines. But do your research & check what the costs are for each one.

With ads you pay per click. So you need to stay on top of your ads and monitor them closely, because they can be quite the cash drainer. So think about how much you can afford to pay each month, and setup your ads to only pay that amount each month. Many ad services allow you to pay up to so much, and then once you reach that amount, the ad will automatically stop until funds are available for the next month.

Google Ads – Google ads and adsense. These are two separate things. But for what we are talking about here, Ads is what you want. Google is used by over a billion people every month!
Bing Ads – Bing and Yahoo are combined, so you get more bang for your buck. Bing & Yahoo are used by over 300,000,000 each a month, so that is around 600 million users per month!
AOL Ads – AOL is used by over 120 million people a month.

There’s more to check out, so do a search for most popular search engines and check out if they have available advertising space. Some search engines use Google’s ads or Bing’s ads, so you get even more coverage across those search engines if you advertise with one of those.

If paying for top spots doesn’t seem like something you are willing to watch over, maintain and work on, plus you don’t have the extra funds for it, then SEO would be the next option for you. I personally recommend both, or pay for ads and work on your SEO and then cancel your ads!

SEO = Search Engine Optimization, this is the process of optimizing your site with the right keywords so your site is relevant for what someone searched for.

Basic SEO is choosing popular keywords & phrases that describe what you are offering and placing them on your site in your content to engage readers. Always be careful with how you do this, because if you are spamming keywords, the search engines don’t like that and will penalize you for it! You can list out keywords in your meta tags, but don’t list keywords on your site in a big paragraph, they must be embedded in your content. So make a list of keywords and stick to those keywords in your meta tags and your content.

Meta Tags: Google’s Keyword Planner is perfect for finding a multitude of keywords, and the number of searches for those keywords. For example, do you sell soy candles? Then your keywords would be things like.. soy candles, scented soy candles, vanilla soy candles, home fragrances,  soy wax candles, pillar soy candles and etc. Look at keywords that have more than 1000 searches per month, and use those keywords in your meta tags.

Site Content: In your site content, you don’t want to have big paragraphs of keywords. So in your product descriptions, just make sure that those keywords are repeated in your content.

For example, if the product is a soy vanilla scented pillar candle, my description would be;
Ahh, the lovely scent of vanilla! Enjoy these scented soy candles in every room of your home for a refreshing & calming home fragrance. Our scented soy wax candles come in a variety of sizes; Pillar Soy Candles, Taper Soy Candles and Votive Soy Candles.

That’s just a basic example, if it were my site, I would probably have more to say about it! But this gives you a good idea. So you can see that I used 6 keywords, just in that very small 2 sentence paragraph! So writing your own product descriptions to match your site keywords and of course to add your own personality, is very important!

Have some SEM & SEO tips for our readers? Comment below!

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Posted in Marketing, Online Business | 10 Comments »

Cost Effective Marketing Ideas -Part 3

May 28th, 2015
by

NewspaperOften overlooked is local advertising. Yes, you are selling online, and you are trying to get online customers, but consider this.. how many of your friends and family like the types of products that you are offering for sale? If you have a large amount that do, then chances are that many people in your area would to!

So crunch some numbers! How many people live your city or town? How many people live in the surrounding areas? That’s a wealth of people to help support your online business.

Many forms of local advertising are very cost effective. From requesting shop owners selling complimentary products to display flyers for your business to radio advertising, there are some great ways to get your URL out there. 🙂

Print Advertising: In your area or town, they probably have some tighter circulation newspapers. These smaller newspapers are a great low cost entry into print ads. Check around for shoppers guides or coupon books that you could get into, as well as small town local newspapers.

Local Radio or Cable TV Advertising: It never hurts to call and get a quote! You might be surprised on how cost effective this form of marketing could be and is not really utilized by online store owners.

Flyers: Printing and distributing flyers is  a proven way to advertise on a budget. Create flyers that are colorful and eye-catching with clever phrases. Distribute them to local shops, pin them on community boards or pass them out at fairs and other community events.

A definite way to get people to at least look at your online store is to provide a discount for their first visit. So make sure to include that in your advertising!

Do you have any clever local marketing ideas to share? Please post it below!

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Posted in Marketing, Online Business Advice | 1 Comment »

Cost Effective Marketing Ideas -Part 2

May 19th, 2015
by

email-iconEmail marketing has to be the most cost effective form of marketing there is! If you can get a list built up, you have a fantastic group of people to market to often and at a low cost.

So you should create a newsletter that people that visit your site can sign up for, or for people that order from you.

There are also “list selling” services that will email on your behalf to a list of clients that you can choose how many, demographics and interests. So determining who your main client would be; male or female, age range, location and other demographic information is useful so you are marketing to the best list possible. List selling services or marketing services like this cost per email. So shop around to find the best one for you.

If you decide to use a service like that, definitely setup a newsletter or something that people can sign up for as your destination link in your mass email. Get those people on YOUR own direct mailing list to help build your marketing list up, so you don’t have to keep spending more and more money on a service, when you can market to them yourself.

Direct marketing campaigns, like articles and press releases, should be informative, and not overly pushing your business. Give useful content, and they will read your email, and look forward to your next one. Marketing emails that give discounts and notifications of a sale are also good to send out.

Always consider spam words when writing your content. If your email is riddled with spam trigger words, for some examples; As Seen On, Buy, Clearance, Order, shopper and many others (do an online search for spam trigger words to see more) , your email will immediately get dumped into spam or junk mail and never read.

So be careful with your content, and that includes the subject line!

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Posted in Marketing, Online Business Advice | 1 Comment »

Cost Effective Marketing Ideas -Part 1

May 14th, 2015
by

typewriterWhen you are a small business, you may have trouble thinking about ways that you can effectively promote your business on a limited budget. After all, you don’t have the marketing budget like large scale corporations, so you can most definitely rule out a Super Bowl TV ad!

However, every small business can engage in successful cost effective marketing opportunities.

So for part one, let’s explore PR Basics…

PR = Public Relations

Public Relations helps consumers understand your company & products and creates an image of your company to the outside world. This is a very popular marketing tool for small businesses, because it’s generally a lot cheaper than other marketing opportunities.

Typical PR includes:

–Press Releases: These are news stories that you write (or hire someone to write for you), that you send to industry publications, local newspapers and other media outlets to publish on your behalf. It’s essentially free marketing or VERY LOW cost marketing. Many small businesses utilize sites like http://www.PRweb.com to help distribute their Press Releases. Always remember, that Press Releases need to be 1. Educational and 2. Do not blatantly advertise your business. They need to be news-worthy!

–Event Sponsorships: Participating in, or sponsoring a charity event in your area will help you gain exposure to a large audience. This will also help provide image-boosting by helping your community or a cause. You can also help sponsor industry related events for your niche area and depending on the level of your sponsorship, will determine the level of advertisement your company gets. Do you have kid’s that are in school? School fundraisers and events are always reaching out to local businesses to help sponsor their events, so this is a great opportunity to get your URL out there in the public eye.

–Articles: Article writing and distribution is like Press Releases in a way. They need to be informative and educational in manner with a side mention of your business. Again, many article sites that pick up articles for distribution, aren’t looking for blatant advertisements. They want educational material for their readers. So for example, do you have an online store that sells scented soy candles? Write an article about the differences between wax candles and soy candles and mention your company URL. You could also write about how scented candles can effect your mood, or overall home atmosphere. Do you have a site that sells Bird Houses? Write articles about how different shaped bird houses effect the type of bird that will use that bird house.. or write articles on how to attract different birds to your bird house and the list can go on…

Do you have some other PR tips for our readers? Post them below!

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When & what do I pay myself for my online business?

May 5th, 2015
by

Linking Depositing MoneyWhen you are first starting an online business, it may not be enough to start paying yourself a salary. When your are a start-up, you have to keep costs in mind, that your business needs to pay for first so you aren’t constantly digging a hole & keeping your business in debt. Other services that help boost your ecommerce business, are helpful down the line as well that have costs associated with it. So, when you first start-up, you may be saving up for these services instead of paying yourself.

It is important to keep overhead expenses down in the early stages of your business and ask yourself, how much compensation can your business really afford? You may have to make sacrifices and you don’t want to pay out of pocket. So your business needs to be self-sustainable before you can even begin to consider paying yourself.

What do I pay myself if my business is self-sustaining?
If your business is making enough money to pay for the services to make it run, and you have considered the costs of services that you would like in the future, then you have some choices for compensation.

Pay yourself when you can…
Be reasonable and flexible and only take a small percentage of what your company can afford.  Otherwise you may put your company in an unrealistic or unsustainable situation.

Pay yourself the industry standard…
Your company is operating in the real world, so you should only pay salaries that are realistic. That means at or near industry standards. You can talk to other start up CEO’s and get a gauge to what they pay themselves or what they paid themselves when they first started their online business. You can also check sites like http://www.salary.com for compensation information for your industry, location and job description.

Postpone Payment…
Once you have decided what fair compensation is, you can postpone payment on your books, so when your company starts reaching a good financial level, you can start the payback. This is important for accounting. It gives you fair credit for the time you have spent, but it does postpone money that you can spend on your own needs.

Pay yourself more later…
This is a sensible, reasonable, common-sense solution. It shows smart management & dedication to your company for the long run. I have met many a new start up CEO’s, and they would pay themselves one dollar a month as their salary during the initial start up phase. So it shows that they were taking a salary for the books, but would put the remainder as a “loan” or payback for accounting.

Deciding what to pay yourself also sets the standard for your company. If you decide in the future to take on investors or hire employees, what you pay yourself will reflect how you run your business, and effect your employees salaries as well. Especially for employees that are there with you at the start, and continue to help or completely run your business for you after a time. Compensating fairly, shows good business sense. So keep your hand out of the cookie jar, and count calories instead!

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Posted in Online Business Advice | 3 Comments »

What does Drew Barrymore and WBI have in common?

April 6th, 2015
by

homebusinessmag32015Home Business Magazine’s March 2015 issue! That’s right! WorldwideBrands.com was featured in the Home Business Magazine’s March 2015 issue along with Drew Barrymore! The lovely Drew Barrymore has an article talking about motherhood, business, marriage and gives life advice, and we were featured as one of the Top 50 Home Business Opportunities!

Home Business Magazine is published every other month and is loaded with content to help you start-up and succeed in a home-based business.

We have subscribed to them for years, and we were honored to be chosen as one of the Top 50 business opportunities!

Check out Home Business Magazine today! You can read the online version of this issue on their website now or click to subscribe to get  print versions.

Find out why we are considered a top business opportunity by visiting our main site now!

 

 

 

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New and improved Directory! It is SIMPLER…

January 22nd, 2015
by

Have you seen a preview of our new Directory? No? Check it out HERE!

The newly released Directory is FASTER, SIMPLER & SMARTER to use than before! I explained how it is faster in a previous blog post, now I’m explaining SIMPLER.

We now have a UNIVERSAL search bar! Type what you want into the search bar! So, not only can you search for product or brand names, but now you can also search by supplier location (street address, city, state, country), supplier name, contact rep name and more!

Want to see suppliers that ship worldwide? Type worldwide into the search bar! Yep! That’s available too!

Find suppliers in many different ways and all under one main search bar!

We have had the request for browsing by category, so we have included that as well. Just click on a category of interest, and you can browse the results alphabetically or by newest added if you have already visited that area and just want to see the new suppliers in that category.

The category browse is always on the left side of the Directory. So you can access these sections at any time while browsing.

Are you a member and love the new Directory? Tell us about it! Login to the Member Center, and on the bottom of the main page, click to leave a testimonial. We would LOVE to hear from you!

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New and Improved Directory! It is Faster….

January 15th, 2015
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laptop_researchBy now you have heard about our newly redesigned Directory of Certified Wholesalers! If you haven’t, check out the Preview Video!

The new design of the Directory has made it even FASTER than before! What does that mean?

Well, as you know, this isn’t just a static list of wholesalers like others provide. Our research team adds new suppliers to the Worldwide Brands Directory every business day of the year.

As you also know, we provide Instant Market Research analysis to our Members.  Well the Market Research section and the entire backend of the Directory of has been revamped.  What does this mean?  It means that Members will get results literally in a flash!

We separated the Directory search and the Market Research search. Why? Well, for two reasons..

1. You get supplier results quicker!
Since the market research has been separated, you now get to the supplier results quicker! For those that have already performed their Market Research and already KNOW what they want to sell, they will be able to bypass this section and get to the suppliers faster than ever!

2. You can perform proper Market Research!
When you search in the Directory for products & suppliers, you are using very general terms. Like; Coffee Cups, Desk Lamps, Toys and etc. These aren’t proper terms to use for Market Research!

When conducting market research, you need to use terms such as if someone was going to BUY the product. For example, if someone was looking to buy coffee cups, they typically have a certain style, color or theme in mind. So they will search for things like; I hate Monday Coffee Cups or Red Coffee Cups or China Coffee Cups and etc. They want to get search engine results that bring them closer to what they are looking for. Just like you do!

So not only is everything faster, but the Market Research has been separated to allow members to get a better understanding of how Market Research should be performed. We also have a great new user guide in that section! Just click any of the “need help click here” links on that page in the Directory!

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Posted in Online Business, What's New | 2 Comments »

The New Way to Find Dropshippers & Wholesalers!

January 13th, 2015
by

newdirectory_monitorSince 1999, we here at WorldwideBrands.com has remained the gold standard in delivering to online sellers simply the LARGEST Directory of Real, Trustworthy, Certified Dropshippers and Wholesalers that the marketplace has to offer.

Well here in 2015 the standard raised.

We have spent over a year creating a fully redesigned Directory, so now Worldwide Brands is better than ever!  Now access to the millions of products from Certified Suppliers is delivered in a platform that is:

FASTER – new technology provides results on products and suppliers in a flash.

SIMPLER – a new search bar feature allows full access to all areas of the Directory from a single location.

SMARTER – new research and notification functionality that does the work for you.

We are excited about the New Directory and have already received great feedback about it! We hope that all of our members enjoy the new platform and new tools that can be found inside!

Want to see a video about the New Directory and get a peek at what’s inside? Go HERE!

 

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Posted in What's New | 18 Comments »

Happy Holidays 2014!

December 17th, 2014
by

happy holidays 2014 worldwidebrands.com

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