Graphic Sources for Online Marketers

Graphic Sources for Online Marketers
Copyright © 2008 Paul Smithson
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Finding good stock photos and graphics for use in your marketing can be a real chore and expensive if you don't know where to look. There are hundreds of stock photo agencies, and each one has a different selection, pricing model and rules about the use of their photos.

You need to be very careful when reading the license for any photos you intend to purchase. Some photos may have very strict usage requirements that might prohibit the use you have in mind.

There are actually very few stock photo agencies that are friendly for Internet marketers. Of the major photo agencies, there are really only about three that are practical for use by Internet marketers.

The others are all either too restrictive, don't have enough of a selection, or are far too expensive. Corbis, for example, is far too expensive for the average Internet marketer. Corbis sometimes charges several hundred dollars just for ONE image that can be used only once! This might be fine if you're putting together a print brochure that has a long print-run, but it's just not practical when an image is for general purpose use on a web site.

Here are a few options that might be more appropriate.

IStockPhoto is a very well-known stock photo agency. They have thousands of photographers that contribute to their catalog of images, and their prices are very reasonable.

The quality of the images can vary, but there are plenty of very good quality photos available. Their license can be fairly restrictive, but it will allow most of the uses that Internet marketers would typically have.

BigStockPhoto is another popular agency. Not only do they have a large catalog of photos at very competitive prices, but they also have the most liberal license of any major stock photo agency. They are the only major photo supplier that will allow their images to be used in templates made for distribution. Other agencies don't allow their photos to be used in templates, but BigStockPhotos's liberal license that allows template use, has allowed them to capture a fairly large market share.

Another very useful stock photo resource is PhotoObjects. This site actually provides images that are already removed from their backgrounds for use in designs. This is a big time saver for designers. Cutting images out of their background is very time-consuming, and having it already done is an unbelievable help. PhotoObjects offers memberships at fairly reasonable prices. They claim to be unlimited, but they actually do limit the number of pictures you can download each day. The number is large, so you would probably never go over the limit, but it's worth noting.

If you want more than just photos then clipart.com might be worth looking at. Don't let the name put you off as clipart.com has a lot more than just clipart. You'll find literally hundreds of thousands of photos, illustrations, icons, backgrounds, and plenty more besides. Subscriptions are available lasting from as little as a week up to a whole year. If you need a lot of images a subscription can prove excellent value for money, but if you are just after a handful of images then some of the other options mentioned here might be a better alternative.

If you'd prefer to have your images locally, rather than having to access the Internet every time you need something, then you might want to consider purchasing a CD of images. Hemera has a line of CDs that can be purchased at places like Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, and other similar stores. They have thousands of photos on them, and they can work out extremely inexpensive if your image needs are extensive. However, the quality of the images is generally quite mediocre and many of the photos look about a decade out of date. Still, if you need a very large number of lower resolution pictures of things like flowers and dogs, it can be a good deal.

Whether it's an amazing one off photograph you want for your web site or a huge collection of images for multiple sites, you are sure to find something that will suit your needs at the sites mentioned above, but remember to read the terms and conditions carefully to make sure that it is okay to use the images for the purpose you require

Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool (http://www.xsitepro.com). Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

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Take your conversion rates to a whole new level with split testing

Take your conversion rates to a whole new level with split testing
Copyright © 2008 Paul Smithson
Download Free Copy Of 14 Point Web Copy Analysis
Split testing is critical to almost any business. If you're not doing it - you really should be - and if you are doing it, the chances are that you should be doing it even more.

Without split testing, you are leaving massive amounts of money on the table every single day. I say this with absolute certainty. You're not 'possibly' leaving money on the table, you are 'definitely' leaving money on the table. It sounds like a bold claim, but it's absolutely true.

Whether it's a single page sales-letter site, a mini site, an AdSense site, a blog, or a mammoth content site, there are always ways to tweak things and increase the percentage conversion rate if it's a product that is being sold, the sign-up rate if it's a membership site, or the number of click-throughs if it's a site that earns revenues from advertising.

So, what exactly is split testing?

Split testing is simply the process of testing out different versions of something to see which one performs best. It could be a direct mailing piece, a billboard advertisement, a TV commercial, a web page, an e-mail, or anything else where you want to find out the differing results based on one or more changes to the original.

From an Internet Marketer's perspective it could be two different web pages you are testing to see which design works best. It could be testing one headline on a sales letter against another, or finding out which of two or more banner adverts brings in the most orders.

Ideally, split testing is done with a fairly large number of visitors. If you get very low traffic, your split testing numbers may be inaccurate, but split testing even with low traffic is usually better than not doing it at all, it can just often take longer to get a statistically valid result.

You can perform split testing in several different ways.

If you're running pay-per-click adverts through Google AdWords, you'll find there's a split testing system built in! If you're split testing things like sales page copy, a form on a squeeze page, or the CTR (click through rate) of various placements of ads on your pages, then you'll need to develop your own methods.

There are many scripts and online services available that can help you deliver different versions of a web page to visitors, and then measure conversions from each version. If you don't want to use a script or online service (some of which can be quite expensive), you can do the same thing yourself by rotating pages on your own.

You'll probably want to leave a page up for about a week or longer and record conversions. Then put up a different page and record the conversions from that version. Just keep in mind the fact that conversions may be different, simply because of the day of the week or the time of day, so if you take a page down in the middle of the day, or the middle of the week, your results may be skewed inaccurately.

The importance of split testing can't be over-emphasized. Something as simple as changing a single word in your headline, or changing the color of your order button might change conversions by several percent.

There have been stories of a single word doubling the conversion rate of a product. Sometimes changing something seemingly very trivial, such as the color of the words 'Buy Now' on an order button can drastically increase conversions and sometimes more fundamental changes, such as using a different font for the body copy on your web site, can make an amazing difference.

It's worth testing almost all the elements on a website from page backgrounds through to different header graphics and different navigation menus. Some of your changes might consist of just minor tweaks whereas others might mean a major change in the overall style of your site. Pretty much anything and everything is worth testing to see if has an impact on conversions.

And don't kid yourself that you know best, because even the experts get it wrong sometimes.

A famous offline advertising agency was working on a major ad campaign for a product. They developed several different versions of the ad, and then asked each of their ad executives to give their guess as to which one would perform better, and why.

After each executive had picked which they thought would be the winner they ran the complete series and gauged the results. The results proved a huge surprise. Of the dozen or so executives they asked, not a single one guessed the ad that actually performed best!

Even these high-paid ad executives with years of experience were unable to judge which ad would perform best. This is why split testing is so crucial. No matter how well you think you know your market, there will always be things you can't judge on your own.

Over time split testing will ensure that you are using the highest converting version of your site possible. It can be a long and drawn out process, but it is one that can reap massive rewards.

Imagine you had a web site that was converting at the rate of 1%. If you ran a series of ten tests consecutively that managed to increase the response by just 20% each time, what do you think the final response rate would be.

It would be a staggering 6.2%.

This demonstrates the incredible power of split testing. Just by running a series of small tests that each had a minor impact, the response was multiplied by over 600%.

So, get testing, then test some more, and continue testing until you can't think of anything else that could possibly improve the response rate.

Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development tool (http://www.xsitepro.com). Paul has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software development, and maximizing the potential of on-line businesses.

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Online Marketing is a Portion of a Sound Marketing Plan For Business Success

Online Marketing is a Portion of a Sound Marketing Plan For Business Success
Download Free Copy Of The Butterfly Marketing Manuscript-The Leaked Chapter
When you consider your marketing plan for your business you are forced to look at marketing areas of all aspects such as newsprint, billboards, television and Internet. As many people work from home or their office, they often spend excessive quantities of time on the Internet. This is a positive for you and your business. By allowing yourself to apply Internet marketing as part of your marketing plan you are ensuring yourself business success. This is so for two main reasons. Number one you are able to advertise for a much more cost efficient rate. Number two you are able to reach a global audience of customers instead of perhaps the local community of the low thousands.

Within Internet marketing you have several more advertising choices, which will allow you to make the most suitable choice for your business image and budget. Your options include the following methods:

* Search Engine Marketing- Keyword density using search engine optimization will assist you in bringing customer traffic directly to your site.

* Display Advertising- Advertising in a still or scrolling banner can be eye catching enough to draw a customer away from their original search.

* Email Marketing- with a customers permission sales updates or new product information can be sent to customers via email or subscription such as a monthly newsletter.

* Affiliate Marketing- carrying an affiliate ad or link can help to draw traffic to your site as well as increase sales and profit.

* Interactive Marketing- this feature allows customers to respond to your advertisement through email. They can request further product or service details.

* Blog Marketing- customers can provide feedback on product satisfaction through a web log that is updated weekly or biweekly, etc.

* Viral Marketing- this form of marketing uses humorous video clips, flash games and interactive flash games to advertise services or products. This form of advertisement is becoming increasingly popular with the current generation.

Each area of marketing carries its own distinctive flare and attraction for customers. You can keep it simple with text only or mix it up with a combination of text and images. Its advised to try numerous methods to find which area provides your business with the most satisfactory results. In order to create satisfactory results you have to create a solid marketing plan. A solid marketing plan ensures a business gets its name, product or service out to, as many would be customers as possible. Adding Internet marketing to your marketing plan will allow you to reach a broader range of customers in a small amount of time and with a very minimum budget.

If you are interested in finding further information about Internet Marketing you can find books as well as magazines with helpful tips on how to information in marketing. You can also check out a lot of small business and entrepreneurial sites for help in understanding online marketing. Most advertising success is found through trial and error. What works for your competitor may in fact be much less effective for your business. Over time you will see which area of Internet marketing work best and can be used in a regular advertising campaign.

James Lillard is an online entrepreneur and uses Web 2.0 technologies and personal branding to help others build successful home business' and offers guidance and training for them to meet their financial goals. Find out more about James and his opportunity at: http://foreverglobal.net.

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Free and Easy Online Marketing Tips

Free and Easy Online Marketing Tips
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Here are a few free and easy marketing tips you can use to direct traffic to your website.

One very popular strategy is YouTube. With a video camera or web camera and a little creativity you can drive a lot of traffic to your website. One of the newer features on YouTube is the ability to show who's watching a video at any given time. It's called "Active Sharing" It's a good idea to turn this option on in your account- so when your browsing around the site your name will pop up next to the videos your watching. People can then click your name, visit your profile page, watch your videos, and become a fan. The more fans you have visiting your page the more people you get clicking on your link.

Another free tool is MySpace. MySpace is one of the largest social network online with over 180 million users! It is also known as viral marketing, or "buzz" marketing. Do not fill your profile with sales tactics, it turns people off, especially if they think they are being spammed and no one loves a spammer. Remember, you want to build a huge friends list in a short amount of time and you want to be interesting enough so that people will want to become your friend. As you fill out your profile you will want to create links to your website and companies. You will also want to add some video clips because it tends to hold peoples interest in your page. Use the MySpace search function to locate your target audience and send friend requests.

Squidoo is a place you can write articles or "lenses" about anything that interests you. Anything at all. You can find groups of people who write about things you are interested in and so on and so forth; it's really quite fun once you get the hang of it. Once again, you want to have a variety of lenses on several topics that interest you not just lenses for your opportunity. And you want to check out lenses other people have written, like any other web 2.0 sites it is about building relationships and a network of friends and giving them something they will want to read and add as their favorites, and give you high rankings. By gaining friends through a vareity of topics and interests, you will start to be able to link up with others and they will actually present your opportunity for you.

Stumble Upon is another great advertising forum, you write articles like in squiddoo and people give it a thumbs up or down, the stumble upon software actually knows what kind of content its readers like, so it will present random content to a reader and the reader will give it a thumbs up or down and the software will know what kind of content to present its reader. First thing you will want to do is Craft or Modify your article content, create a catchy title, add a picture, add graphics, and texturize your blog using Italics, Bold etc. Then you want to build a list of friends or invite friends from other sites. Next you will want to coordinate your submission to the right person, have that person send it along to other people and have people vote on it. You can also spend a few bucks submitting the article yourself and seeing what kind of feed back you get, I would spend maybe $20 to see if people really do like the content. The best thing to do though is to have others actually submit it for you and pass it along, that way it doesn't look like you are trying to promote yourself, rather other people are doing it for you.

That rounds out some of the more popular sites and free marketing tips that can help direct traffic to your website. I hope it has been useful and informative, and you enjoyed the tips. Stay tuned for more free advertising tips next week!

For free marketing videos by one of the leaders in home based businesses please visit:

http://www.cashleveragingexperts.com/

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