Sexton Enterprise Marketing

Sexton Enterprise Marketing started off as a place I could showcase some of my web development and marketing skills and services. In the past several years I have been very fortunate to work on some wonderful projects and gain a lot of experience. I have been tossing around the idea of creating a more formal internet marketing business for a while and I have taken the leap.

Announcing HyperLocal Edge. A small business digital communications company.

Combining my passion for the internet, business, and web design I ventured out and created a new online business that caters to small businesses looking for online marketing assistance. HyperLocal Edge has services ranging from web design, email marketing, social media marketing and more. You can sign up for the HyperLocal newsletter where you will get news and tips for small business marketing online and connect with me on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

Which blogging platform is better for inexperienced bloggers - Wordpress or Blogger?

From a newbie perspective, Blogger.com (especially the newer beta version) wins, hands down. Really, what’s not to love? You simply choose your blog name, click on a template and “wa-la” you are ready to start posting. Sounds almost perfect, doesn’t it?

Well, *almost* is the key word here.

If you are thinking about starting a blog (or switching to a new platform) here are a few points you’ll want to consider.

1). Design. I am a design-nazi. No matter how well a blog is written, I will click right past it if the design is unprofessional or tacky. While Blogger.com offers many attractive templates that aren’t necessarily unappealing, they are exceedingly overused.

Most of your blog traffic will be generated from fellow bloggers. Experienced bloggers can spot a blogger.com template from a mile away. My first thought when I see a classic (even color-tweaked) blogger.com blog….BO-RING. My second thought, “this blogger doesn’t take blogging seriously”. Probably offensive to some of you…but true. Sorry.

Wordpress, on the other hand has a plethora of fun, funky and fresh templates to choose from. In fact, they are so easily customizable that the same template can look vastly different with a couple of simple changes to a stylesheet. While Blogger.com templates can be quickly and easily customized using the control panel - the template options are extremely limited.

2). Ease of Use. This is where Blogspot wins again (well, sort of). If you are a blogger that simply wants to write posts and share basic information in a quick and easy way Blogspot is the perfect place for you. I have a family blog where I love to share photos, videos and stories about my children. Blogspot works wonderfully for this use. On the other hand, if you want a blog that allows for growth and flexibly - you’ll want to start with Wordpress.

Now this “ease of use” issue is where this newbie’s perspective will certainly be useful for blogger wannabes. There is a bit of a learning curve with a self-hosted Wordpress blog. You’ll need to know how to register a domain name, obtain hosting, transfer posts (if you already have a blog) upload files, configure nameservers, add widgets and manipulate the stylesheet if you want to customize the colors, fonts and other design aspects of your site.

I was literally clueless when I launched my very first Wordpress blog. Thankfully, I was not alone. There are literally dozens of websites that offer a step-by-step tutorials on launching your self-hosted Wordpress blog. It took me about three hours (or so) to launch my first Wordpress site vs. five-minutes with blogger. Trust me, t overcoming the learning curve vs. taking the easy route (blogspot.com) was well worth a skipped afternoon nap.

3). Your Five Year Plan. Before you launch your first blog, take a moment to think about what you want to accomplish with it. Don’t hesitate to dream big.

• Will you use your blog to make money?
• Do you want to become an authority on an issue you are passionate about?
• Do you want to promote a product or service?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions than I would strongly urge you consider Wordpress as a starting point, or switch now. I learned this lesson the hard way.

I jumped into blogging without a plan and immediately became hooked. Within a few months, I had six active blogs with hundreds of posts on them. When I was ready to step it up a notch…I couldn’t. There were so many blogs I envied - they all had their own domain names, navigation bars and comment forms. They all looked like full-functioning, professional websites. No matter how hard I tried to “tweak” my blogger.com blogs to make them look unique and exciting…they still looked like a cookie-cutter “blah”g”. I was neck-deep in blogger purgatory. When I made the inevitable switch, I lost page rank and had to spend hours updating every blog directory I’d subscribed to. Many of my favorite bloggers insisted I start with Wordpress. But I was stubborn. Had I known then what I know now I would have started with Wordpress for my professional sites.

I spent a couple of months experimenting on differences in advertising revenue where the ad, be it adsense or other advertisement was either above or below the fold of the site. The fold is where the content on the website requires you to scroll down.

For example, you see an advertisement on the top and one to the right.

I did this with a few of my sites to see what results were given. Granted, all of the ads got some attention, it was very clear to me which ones got the highest click-through. The advertisements all ranged from banner size to full block square ads. Unless you have an account with an affiliate site like Commission Junction, Google’s adsense will work fine. The pay out is much higher with affiliate sites than with click based advertisements so it depends on the type of site you have and what advertisements you want to show.

As you can probably suspect, ads above the fold of the website get a lot more exposure and therefore more click-through. The only benifit of having advertisements below the fold is to catch customers that may read through your site or if the advertisement is placed at the end of your content.

When people think of the internet, they think of predators and scams. It’s sad that the most powerful form of communication in the world gets abused by petty thugs. We surf our favorite entertainment websites but get hit with advertising that is inappropriate for children. In our searches for financial institutions or companies we are seduced into some system for making fast easy money. All we have to do is refer three more people and then our membership becomes free. The matrix will build itself below you and you’re guaranteed residual income.

All that hogwash continues to be propagated all over the world, and the vulnerable college student looking for a source of secondary income is caught. They get caught in the adult entertainment industry or get sucked into promoting some program with no real product or service. These poor kids slave away in their free time, failing miserably with the horribly outdated and overly saturated marketing methods used by the so-called “gurus” of e-commerce.

Photo credit Rob Boudon

There are legitimate ways to profit from online business, and you can make money without getting involved in gambling, adult entertainment, or scams of any kind.

When looking for a commission-based product to promote, one has to be careful that the company is legitimate. Online companies come and go on a monthly basis. What’s hot today is illegal tomorrow, that is, if you don’t do your homework. There are several safe, long established, and trustworthy sites to use in your quest for internet income.

Clickbank is the most common marketplace for information products because their payment processing is honest and they offer a sixty-day money back guarantee. Usually that’s with no questions asked. That reverses the risk of trying Clickbank’s products from the buyer to the seller. Sellers know that if their product doesn’t deliver that their buyers will all be requesting refunds and they will go broke. All Clickbank customers are sure that it’s ok to try a product that without the guarantee they might overlook. This trend boosts sales, and as long as the product you pick to promote is high caliber, your commissions are safe.

When you pick a product, Clickbank will create what it calls a “hoplink” which is a link to the product’s sales letter with your referral ID embedded. These links ensure that you as the promoter receive credit for all sales that come through your hoplink. You don’t even have to have your own website to make money online with Clickbank, all you have to do is drive traffic to your hoplink. The more targeted your visitors are to want what you offer, the higher likelihood that they will buy.

That is the nutshell version to getting started with affiliate marketing over the internet. There are many affiliate programs to choose from, and products for every niche on the market. Once you find one you can identify with, just find where they hunger and feed them your hoplinks. That’s when the checks start coming in!

This post brought to you by: http://www.youcanworkthenet.com

Perhaps the most poignant scene in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible happens at the end when the protagonist, John Proctor, refuses to sign his name on a false confession. When asked why he refuses to sign the document, even though it could save his life he cries out in anguish, “Because it is my name. It is the only name I will ever have.” It is a heartfelt and stunning reminder that our identity begins at birth when our parents name us. A web site also depends on its name, which is why choosing a domain name that best represents your site and its purpose is something to be done very carefully indeed.

by ntr23

Choose the right name

When you are ready to start a web site don’t just run to the first registry you can find and type in the first thing you think of. Sit down and do some research about your site and what you hope it will accomplish. What is the goal of your site? What kind of images do you want customers to associate with it? If you could sum up your site in one word, what would that word be? The best domain names tend to be names that are short and easy to remember and something to do with the topic or service your web site provides. If you are going to attempt humor with your domain name, make sure it’s a joke that not just you can understand. Overall, the name should add to the quality of your web site not distract from it.

Check availability

As you’re picking a name for your web site, one of the common things to happen is you find the absolutely most perfect name possible, go to the registry and type in the name in the lookup box and lo and behold - its already taken. Then you have a problem. You’re already sold on the idea, and now it’s not workable. Make sure to have a lookup box from the registry available as you are choosing the name for your domain site so you can check availability instantly. You should also check names that are similar to the domain name you are choosing to make sure there won’t be confusion later on in and your advertising doesn’t accidentally send your customer to someone else’s site.

Pick the right extension

Many registrars will also let you choose the extension along with your domain name. That means that you get to choose whether your domain name will be a.com. or .net .biz or any of the other approved for public use extension names. Be sure to pick one that does not mislead your customers or clientele. If you’re really selling something, choosing an .org which is largely for nonprofit organizations or a .net which is for social networking, may seem like a brilliant way to get people to your site. However, customers know when they’ve been conned and it tends to backfire on the business. Choose the proper extension for what you’re doing and let your site’s integrity sell itself.

I get asked many times as to what the most important ingredient for succeeding online are. I have to say that there is no single key and that in my opinion there are at least 4 keys for succeeding online. There may be other factors which contribute to online success but in my opinion these are the ones that matter and I have listed them below.

One of the secrets to being an online success is being organized and disciplined. Even if you are the smartest person on the planet but cannot sit down and do a single day’s work, then it really would not matter in the least. There are many people with high IQ who have not gotten anywhere with their lives and all because they lacked the necessary discipline and organizational skills to do anything much about it. Take my mother for example, she was a brilliant pianist and a great opera singer and as a result of her poor organizational skills, her career pretty much met a dead end. That really sucks for me but then again, that is the truth.

The key to online success is to start creating your own products or services .One can make money online as an affiliate marketer by promoting the products of others. But remember, you would be competing with hundreds of other affiliate marketers who will be selling the same product. By creating your own products you would not only eliminate the need to compete with other affiliate marketers but you can also use them to promote your product for you. Having done this, I ended up quadrupling my income within a year.

One of the key factors to any online success is advertising. Your site may well be the greatest one but if no one knows about it, then you will find it difficult to make even a dime off it. I am not going to give an explanation as how setting up an online site without any promotion is useless. I shall save that for a later article. But the point being that until and unless you utilize the proven methods for promotion, the chance of you succeeding is minimal, to say the least.

Finally there’s communication or rather, writing. This is one important tool, one that we all use at all levels of our business. From the sales pages to the page contents, from the auto responder emails to responding to customer inquiries, they all have to do with writing in one form or the other. If you cannot communicate effectively then the chances of you capturing the attention of your target market is slim. You can always outsource such ‘writing’ tasks, but they will prove to be expensive.

These are my 4 keys to success. There may be many others but these are the ones that really deliver as far as I’m concerned.

If you are using your autoresonder to only answer your email when your out of town or away, you are short changing yourself. These programs do more than just answer your email automatically. I will show you a few ideas that will help you turn your autoresponder into a profit machine.

Photo credit: larskflem

Distribute a mini-course. Have your autoresponder send out a lesson every other day. Make sure each lesson has good quality content. Do not sales pitch your reader. Let the content you provide do the selling for you. It is much more effective this way. Include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating the benefits of your product. Make sure to entice your reader in wanting to have your product with a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson.

Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

Distributing free reports gives your reader an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Try not to make these reports sales letters or you will most likely lose a potential customer than get a sale.

Create trivia quizzes and contests with your autoresponder. Have your visitors participate in a quiz or contest on your site. Then when they enter their information, have the autoresponder send them the answers to the quiz after you have collected their information or send a confirmation of their entry if it is a contest.

Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

You can gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates. Place a link to a hidden page on your autoresponder. This hidden page could contain graphics, promotional articles, and text links that may interest potential affilates.

Having an autoresonder on your order page is an excellent way to notify your customers of special offers or discounts. This helps you to build your mailing list of customers who are already purchasing your products and have the potential to be repeat customers.

You can place most of your links in your autoresponder to drive traffic back to those pages. These links should be of particular interest to your visitors.

If used creatively autoresponders can be used to generate substantial revenue. Now see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas to implement into your business or online venture!

Domain names aren’t immediate online identities these days. They are the most vital piece an online business owns.

Many businesses are eliminated simply because the owner came upon on a popular quality domain name. These people are mining currency like crazy and many reuse this money to erect superior businesses.

If you have invested in stocks you know that bad news can utterly change the value of any stock. Why not put your money into online domain names that are moderately trouble free and easy to get a hold of.

For the every day web junkier, the phrase “domain name” really doesn’t mean that much, but without that, everyone would have an extremely hard time browsing the net. The Domain Name System or DNS is used in much the same way that a phone system is used. The only differnce is that Domain Names are based electronically.

When your crowding the net, you’re using the DNS and not even apprehending it. Most likely not knowing whats technically going on.

Today citizens are starting to use mass domain names for a wide selection of money making oppurtunities that are rising as we speak. At the center stage of trouble-free no employment profit is affiliate programs.

Domain name holders or webmasters can come up with a straightforward domain name that can sell nothing and yet still make an amazing profit from the way the website is created and the way yahoo domain names are used.

By the power of affiliate programs, any person that holds a yahoo domain name or many yahoo domain names, may certainly use that site to make trouble-free money. It really works, if you hold many yahoo domain names and have easy web sites with affiliate programs prepared on every site you may very well earn yet a larger profit.

Go one step further. Build one site and have it hosted on many yahoo domain names. Have all the affiliate programs in position ready to earn you a killing!

When you finally own your yahoo domain names and you have your site being hosted all you have to do is just supply links to other web sites that are wanting to pay you for the traffic that your giving them. Buy one or ten yahoo domain names.

Make some sites that are a component of affiliate programs, link exchanges or whichever of the countless cash for traffic programs. Then cash in!Mass yahoo domain names are very simple to get your hands on!

Lets take a few steps forward since I am sure most of the previous information is old news. How can you take advantage of the next generation of the web to promote your products and services to better brand yourself in the industry.

You have to see the internet as a big community. People are getting more involved and becoming more interactive than ever with the products, services and industries they are in. Being a marketer you should be looking for ways to harness that community and let them help you focus your energy and draw in more people.

By: b_d_solis

Forums are great for this. There has got to be an online forum for just about everything. If your company does not have one put together, start getting involved in someone else’s. These are not for standing on a soap box and preaching about your particular product, but you can have links to your company website in your post signature and even have a login name that reflects your company. Instead of talking about your product, start getting involved in discussions that you know about. Build some credibility for yourself and answer peoples questions about the industry as you see it. They are going to check out your company site, they may even ask questions, but instead of spending 20 minutes typing out a response, write something short that gets the point across and send them a message to contact you off the board to go into detail. Eventually you can start your own forum and do nothing but promote your product and build a special community around your company.

Linkedin is an online social networking site. I call it the professionals MySpace. Get an account and get others in your company to join. Other than the obvious ability to get your company name into another round of search engine hits, you can work on building your network of professionals in your industry as well as find some new leads for the sales group.

Get links added to partner websites. Your business probably works with other companies in some fashion or another. Ask to have a banner or a link added to their site if do the same. Cross marketing online is free and helps spread your name to people that you may not have been able to reach otherwise and shows that you work with other leaders in the market.

Get the brains of your company to start writing some content. Not just anything, start writing about why your company is special and unique. Talk about your product to the general audience and then start using free services to start spreading the word.

Start a company blog. Get a couple people in your business to start putting together posts about what your company is doing. Hit a couple different departments. Get an executive to write something. Get posts from different departments to give your company a well rounded look. Give a personal feel to each post, try not to censor the posts too much unless confidential information or over the top language is used. You want the readers of the company blog to relate to the posts on some level. Start building on the content and spread the word to your current customers as well as prospects that this information is available to them. Encourage them to leave [moderated] comments and become involved in the future posts. The idea is again to start building your community. It takes time, but if you keep building content and are smart about how the posts are created and published, readers will find you and their opinions will be made. Listen to them. Understand your customers and the people that are interested in your product/services.

Get viral. Put together some creative videos and other media on your product. Something as basic as a kitchen appliance can become viral. For example the blender. Everyone owns one, but when you put together a set of videos and ask the question “will it blend?” throwing some of the most random and expensive items into it and showing the superiority of your product, your name will spread like wild fire like it did for BlendTec. As of today the video that was uploaded to YouTube that shows this blender disintegrating an iPod has been viewed 4,098,741 times in 7 months. What advertising are you doing that gets that much attention? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

The overall theme is this. You may think you have the greatest product or service since sliced bread, but unless you can build a community of like minded people around it, then your external support will fail. These community members are the hive that will bear the greatest fruit.