13 June 2009

Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

This is based on experience. Even while knowing better, it is easy to get tired and then get lazy when it comes to Internet Marketing. When you get lazy you start taking short cuts, thinking that you can, because you had great traffic and a really good reputation for a long time. Well I'm here to tell you that you can't take short cuts and it's best not to get lazy. After years of doing extremely well by being very cognizant of providing high value, excellent content in all that I do online, recently I thought I could slide bit.

I started spending less time creating the insight and information that I am known for, and instead writing more about specific affiliate products and posing links to affiliate lead capture pages. I had a lot of time pressure due to obligations in my personal life and thought I could do it the easy way for a bit. The result was that every measurement that I keep track of went down. Site traffic went down. Lead capture page conversions went down. Clicks on links in my articles went down. Overall the experiment was a dismal failure and I learned my lesson.

I am thankful that when I began marketing online a few years ago, I learned the right way to do it. I know what works and what makes sense, and I know how to do it. My past results are a tribute to this. Writing great content about useful topics with a dollop of wit and humor has served me well. So I am going home...back to my roots as a very consciencious attraction marketer who writes about topics that serve the needs of the online network marketing community. In doing so I will regain my traffic, my CTR and my conversions and be back to feeling really proud of the material that I put out on the web.

Learn from my mistakes. Here they are:

1. Posting direct links to affiliate pages
2. Not creating my own page for pre-selling prior to linking
3. Thinking that past results allow you to rest on your laurels
4. Getting lazy and duplicating content
5. Writing more sales posts than value posts
6. Getting lazy on twitter and pre-loading sales tweets
7. Forgetting to write posts and articles around a specific keyword or words
8. Getting side tracked by new projects rather than focusing on what I know works well
9. Not spending enough time on new web page construction, and putting them online anyway
10. Giving great advice to others but then not listening to myself and making the mistakes that I often coach others to avoid.

This list is very different than those I've researched on this same "Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes" topic. If you were looking for something different, here are links to some of those other lists.

Top 10 Marketing Mistakes

Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes

Twitter is Changing: How You Can Benefit

You may have noticed that Twitter is changing. I certainly have. Eight months ago when I became really active on Twitter a large portion of the tweets were valuable in terms of content. There were great quotes, business tips, sharing of thoughts and in between, some links for useful systems, trainings and products. The tweeple on Twitter spent the majority of time with a focus on connection, relationship building and communicating worthwhile information. Through this many high quality business relationships were formed. Links to blogs, articles, etc...were often viewed because they were being tweeted by people who we saw and heard from every day...people sharing valuable information in the majority of their tweets.

Fast forward to now. Twitter has been "discovered", in case you hadn't noticed. And with the discovery it is now most common to see tweet after tweet pitching and selling products, services and opportunities. You have to consciously search for a few pages to find a good quote or a great piece of business advice. In addition, the newer people on Twitter seem (in my perspective of following almost 5000 people) to have missed learning about Twitter Manners.

Good Twitter Manners include: thanking every single person who retweets one of your tweets; Writing DM's to new followers that DO NOT include a link to you lead capture page; Making sure that the majority of your tweets are NOT sales pitches but instead offer useful thoughts and ideas in 140 characters. This is just a started list, but you get the point. Be polite. Act as if Twitter were a room full of people who you were just getting to know, some of whom might become good friends or business partners over time.

So how can you benefit from the changes in Twitter. You now have even more of an opportunity to stand out from the crowd. If 90% of the tweeple are pitching and linking with every tweet, be part of the 10% that is sharing great ideas with high enthusiasm. Be the person on Twitter who is dynamic, personable and caring by writing tweets that communicatethis and that people find not only interesting but compelling to read. When you include links in your tweets, link to an awesome article or a blog post that will improve someone's knowledge in an area that you are involved. Also, be not only a conversation starter, but a conversation continuer. Look at who is tweeting when you arrive on Twitter and see if you can't add benefit to the conversation. Offer answers to questions or links to a solution you've read about. Share your own experiences if you think it will help someone else. When you get involved in a Twitter conversation, keep it going. Switch to DM's to exchange emails and make a stronger connection. Set up a phone call if it appears you've met a kindred spirit.

Can you do this and still use Twitter to send people to your affiliate product page, or your sales or capture page? The answer is yes, as long as those tweets are only 30% or less of what you tweet about. The beauty of this is that people are more likely to read those kinds of tweets from you, if they have gotten in the habit of reading your tweets whenever they seem them, because your tweets are always witty, thought provoking and informative.

This is how Twitter has helped create a large amount of business for many people over the time it has been in existence. It is not about pitching and selling. Nor is it about how many followers you can collect in a given time period. It is about quality and true connection. By being a good Tweeple you will find that Twitter will be a wonderful tool, connnecting you to leaders, friends, partners and business associates all over the world

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