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Creating and Designing the Right Media Pack For Your Website Advertising Offers

Your media pack is a fundamental part of your business and says a lot about what your online objectives are. It tells your potential advertisers who you are and why they should advertise with you. Creating the right impression is everything and your media pack should reflect a positive attitude and a great appetite for business.

Your media pack tells a story and takes advertisers on a brief journey.

These days it seems that our attention span for absorbing online information is generally limited to just a few seconds. When it comes to your media pack, the trick is to create a document which is visually appealing and answers one or two key points or questions in a very short space of time–once you grab their attention, they are more likely to read on.

So, what is it that would make your potential advertisers read and absorb the information in your media pack?

Well, first of all it does need to have a visual appeal, but more importantly, it should cover and highlight the real selling points very early on. Think of this document as something much shorter–a press release or sales letter for example. This will then focus your mind on delivering key messages at the beginning of the document, as well as running a consistent theme or branding message throughout.

Just imagine for a moment what your advertisers want to see. If there was an ideal website they could advertise on what would it contain and cover and how would it enable them to reach their target audience.

The best way to structure a media pack is to first break it into four key areas:

1. Intro and USP’s (unique selling points)

2. Facts, figures and demographics of audience

3. Revisit USP’s and add testimonials

4. Rate card information and production requirements

If you can do all this in a four page document, then great.

One thing you shouldn’t do is try to cram in loads of images and make the text fit too tightly around them. This just makes the whole page look too busy and this mass of information will not be that easy to read. What you want is a well formatted and structured document that can be scanned, but also studied in detail if the reader feels in the mood to do so.

Some media packs are also just way too long. It is true that a meaty and weighty document can sometimes give you a certain amount of credibility if your potential advertisers are going to print out your document. However, as this particular story relates to media information for your website, we’ll assume that the key points mentioned here will be more relevant to people who view your online version first.

A main point to mention is that your media pack must clearly highlight your strengths and should almost certainly mention points about visitor levels, target audience, demographics, profiles, testimonials and any surveys or statistical data you might have. Just make it interesting, concise and easy to follow and your incoming ad enquiries should improve.

This article May be used on other sites but this resource box and all live links MUST be left intact. Andrew Long runs a subscription service for webmasters and website owners called ARC, which includes topics about Advertising For Your Website and Advertising Space On My Website

Internet Marketing is Not a Form of Lottery!

There are literally millions of people online who say they want their own “Internet business”. But the truth is most of these individuals are lazy daydreamers who want to win the lottery.

Business and the lottery are two very different things. The Web seems full of people who don’t realize this.

Many people seem hung up on the idea that if they just keep going through the motions, they’ll eventually get the break they’re waiting for. In fact sentiments of “it’s going to happen if I keep trying” are common among wannabe Internet entrepreneurs.

Here’s the thing: Nothing happens for us unless we actively create it.

Another really bizarre phenomenon in the pretend Internet business sector is the huge number of people who have been “working online” for years without ever making their first sale. It’s incredible that such circumstances are accepted as normal.

Consider this:

Have you ever come across a plumber, accountant, dog trainer, landscaper, florist, or restaurant owner who says things like…

“Yeah I’ve been at this for five years and still haven’t made my first sale.”

or…

“I really need this to work out soon before I run out of money.”

Or have you ever heard someone who is about to start a new venture as a commercial cleaner, dentist, real estate investor, or hair stylist say things like…

“There isn’t a lot of work involved is there?”

or…

“Can I do this for two hours a week and still make six figures each year?”

or…

“Will I get my investment back in less than two weeks?”

Statements and questions like these would be considered absurd by any traditional businessperson. And yet such ridiculous sentiments are totally common when talking to people who want their own “Internet business”.

I submit that this kind of mentality (term used loosely) is ludicrous, and closer to the attitude of a lotto card gambling junkie than a real entrepreneur. Anyone who says such things and means them should seriously reconsider this whole “online business” thing.

Too many people seem to be looking for a cookie-cutter system that instantly puts them on track to be wildly successful. Even when offered legitimate coaching services, it’s quite common for people who claim to be Internet marketers to ask things like:

“How fast will I start making money after the coaching is complete?”

and…

“Will I get a refund if I don’t make any money?”

It’s an embarrassment to the whole industry of online commerce that people who claim to be Internet entrepreneurs have this kind of childish attitude about their so-called business. No other business niche breeds so many clueless, lazy, something-for-nothing crackpots.

It may be true that infomercials and manipulative copywriters help perpetuate this kind of get-rich-quick mentality. But the truth is the individual must take responsibility for his or her own expectations and actions.

Any form of business requires creativity, effort, risk, commitment, and time to become profitable. Online ventures are no exception.

Choosing to ignore these words and pursue an Internet marketing business with the something-for-nothing mentality is the fast track to frustration and failure. If you don’t love this business, it will crush you. The world of Internet marketing is no place for the wishy-washy, weak-kneed, or undecided entrepreneur.

Success as an entrepreneur is about being passionate, giving wholly of yourself, busting your ass, falling flat on your face and getting right back up, having a good crying jag from time to time, and reveling in the thrill of complete and total victory at the end of it all. Making real money online doesn’t come with the “I’ll scratch off the blocks and maybe match the icons for the prize” approach.

Tim Whiston is a professional entrepreneur who enjoys helping people learn ways to make money from home. He has created hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for his clients and owns many great Websites and products. Check out his

The Basic Elements Found in Every Successful Affiliate Marketing Campaign

If you are looking for several pointers to give you a boost in the profitable business of affiliate marketing, you will want to perk up for this article. Specifically, we’ll discuss identifying which markets will be worth your time, how to capture your markets contact information to enable you to further market to them, and how to drive traffic to your website.

After reading this article, you will be able to easily break into, and dominate nearly any market.

First off, you must identify and become familiar with your market. If you aren’t an expert in the field you are marketing in, then why would your audience buy from you? You must also identify the problems that your market faces, and you must come up with solutions to these problems that your audience wants.

Next, you must capture your customers contact information through an opt-in list. When a customer comes to your website for the first time, he is, in effect, meeting you for the first time. One or two customers may buy from you from time to time, but you won’t see and ground-breaking results until you build a relationship with your visitors. Write several e-mails and send them to your visitors to establish yourself as an expert in your field. After you have done this, your audience will be much more likely to pull cash out of their wallet when you recommend a product to them.

Finally, you must drive traffic to your website. Even if you have an award-winning website/sales page, it won’t do you a bit of good if you don’t have any visitors. Traffic generation is where most people fall short because it is an action-oriented process. You need to either work for it, or pay for advertising. Write articles and post them on article directories. Make videos and post them on video websites such as YouTube.

Using Internet “hubs” such as Blogger, Squidoo, Hubpages and LiveJournal, create blogs on your topic. Update these blogs frequently with relevant content. When posting to these blogs, make sure to your content is worthwhile to your visitors. Creating spammy blogs with worthless posts isn’t going to help drive traffic to your website. Rather, it may hurt your websites credibility. From these blogs, link back to your main web-page. Not only will this help drive traffic to your website, it will increase your websites ranking in search engines and your websites PageRank.

Affiliate marketing is responsible for thousands of Internet millionaires, but these Internet millionaires met with nothing but failure until they began applying what we just discussed. They identified their target audience, they identified a problem their target audience faced, and they discovered and sold a solution to this problem. They than captured their audiences contact information to allow them to further market to them, and they drove massive amounts of traffic to their website.

Thousands have already done this, now it’s your turn to give this a try. There is no reason for you to wait, so apply these methods today, and enjoy the benefits tomorrow!

Affiliate Payload Review has more tips on bringing your Internet marketing business to the top of the game. These three keys are just a minuscule portion of the Internet marketing world. More can be found at http://www.theaffiliatepayload.org/ Paul Ciara - SEO expert and Internet marketer.

Modern Advertising Methods For Buyers and Sellers

Just because there are masses of new and almost fashionable advertising formats out there, it doesn’t mean that all of them will work in the type of industry you are in, or meet your requirements as a buyer or seller. We take a look at some of the options in the ever changing world of advertising.

Even though there are many modern advertising methods to choose from these days, it doesn’t automatically mean that the most up to date and technologically driven formats are the best and most cost effective to use.

There is no doubt that advertising is all around us and our acts and behaviour can sometimes be influenced by advertising on the TV, radio, traditional media formats and the internet.

Of course, they push our buttons in many different ways and the human mind can react to different designs and messages in a very focused, direct or an almost subliminal fashion. It is this diversity that makes advertising so exciting.

Some of the most modern advertising methods involve technology and it seems the next big response generator will be the format that has a certain WOW factor attached to it.

The three big players leading the way are in the areas of outdoor, mobile communications and the internet.

If you take a trip outdoors, you’ll see that a lot has changed since the introduction of standard billboards on the side of the road, motorway or highway.

It is now more about positioning and impact than ever before and if you can add a highly desirable and interactive value to this, it becomes an accepted and targeted proposition for advertisers and consumers respectively.

One of the striking new formats to emerge in this area is in underground and subway stations. This digital screen format allows advertisers to show short, high quality video ads to commuters on a high definition moving canvas. What is also very exciting is the fact that advertisers can target consumers by changing campaign messages to match things like in-store promotions and other special announcements at the touch of a button. This now becomes a very powerful promotional tool for the advertiser and one that is difficult to avoid for consumers.

Not only are these ads situated on the platforms facing the passengers, but they are also located on the entire length of the adjoining wall on moving escalators. They are making an appearance in locations all over the world and can be a highly effective tool in attracting a busy, affluent, reactive and highly social audience.

With mobile communications, the concept is simple, but the impact has already been huge.

A lot of major players in the marketing and advertising game are convinced that mobile phone advertising will be the next big thing and as phones get even better online browsers, more and more people will be using them to buy, sell, communicate and generally spend enough time online to receive targeted offers from regional and national advertisers. The fact is that mobile communications equipped with GPS technology will allow advertisers to focus in on their specific targets by sending offers and messages to consumers within a very short distance of their establishment. New technology certainly plays a big hand in the main development issues here and although there are certainly opt-in rules in place, it won’t be long before the ads will become part of the functionality and overall user experience.

Finally, we take a brief look at how web advertising has evolved and what we can now expect as we move into a more sophisticated and interactive marketplace.

Although the days of traditional banner advertising bringing in massive reponses seems to have gone, the standard size formats for leaderboard and skyscraper banner ads still seem to play a role in developing brand and producing a decent number of click throughs.

What seems odd is that we now refer to older online style adverts as branding or awareness ads, much in the same way as we term larger ads in magazines as corporate style advertisements.

The truth is that no ad format is producing the high click through rates we used to see when it all started in the mid to late 1990’s. Back then it was a new and exciting concept and people were clicking on ads and exploring the internet at much higher ‘per page to per user’ levels than we are currently seeing.

It is now more about getting the targeting right on specific pages and sections rather than seeing general page impression rates on run of the mill pages. Now that more people are advertising online, they have to justify their spend by constantly providing evidence that it is not only good value but also providing a good return on investment. Most online advertising (and their providers) should now offer some form of tracking and if they can’t provide buyers with stats, it is a sure sign that they are hiding something.

One of potential big players in this online marketplace is video. This format can not just capture our attention quickly, but it can also communicate messages in a way that we can understand and relate to. Although we are used to seeing graphics and animation, it is real-life footage of situations that we can relate to that will really hit the spot.

Video does this so well and with the introduction of Google video via You tube, it is now possible to closely match the video with the content of the pages we are looking at. This is just a developing strategy of a hugely successful contextual text and image ad set up that is now part of the largest ad coverage in the world.

There is no doubt that online advertising is evolving as our appetite for quick and interesting content becomes more of an issue and a main requirement. Watch this space for the next big update.

This article May be used on other sites but this resource box and all live links MUST be left intact. Andrew Long runs a subscription service for webmasters and website owners called ARC, which includes topics about Advertising For Your Website and Advertising Space On My Website

Money Laundering

Money laundering was intended to catch large scale drug dealers, operators of crime syndicates and persons associated with these enterprises. Conveniently for the authorities it also has relevance to the area of tax crime including identity theft. Fraud or tax evasion has never had the reach the authorities want. Under the Crimes Act 1914 fraud was punishable for up to 20 years but under the Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995 it was dropped to 10 years as in the case of the deception offences.

Money laundering offences will catch promoters, professionals/intermediaries and participants. Its full force and effect is not only a maximum penalty of up to 25 years but the aggregation of money sums for independent dealings making it easier to reach the statutory thresholds eg. five transactions i.e. five dealings of $100,000 each means that as the aggregate amount involved exceeds $100,000 then it is much easier to reach the 20 year maximum for offences under $1.5M. In other words it is both the number of and amount of dealings involved which is used to such a devastating and telling effect as they go to the gravity of the offence.

Money laundering offences have been around since 1/1/2003. They have strengthened the arsenal available to the authorities to stem tax evasion and the use of tax havens. Although this area of the law is still developing it is obvious that the courts record large scale money laundering as a serious criminal activity which warrants severe punishment to reinforce general deterrence of a very significant degree. After all the courts need to send a message about what constitutes a significant degree of criminality and the Commonwealth Code 1995 underscores this.

The money laundering offences are broad and designed to catch a wide range of behaviours including fraud and a tax evasion. Herein lies the threat for Operation Wickenby participants as we have seen over the last four years. It has concentrated on offshore tax avoidance leading to some very highly publicised arrests in the area of tax fraud and money laundering. In essence money laundering is committed by a person if they:

Deal with money or other property which is a proceed or an instrument of crime; and are in a state of awareness that it is a proceed or instrument of crime.

Dealing with money includes concealing or disposing of money or receipt of money without the need to prove a banking transaction or engaging in a banking transaction. Under proceeds of crime which is an element of the offence property includes money or funds mixed with legitimate money or funds as well as the result of a sale or an exchange of money. Interestingly, it does not have to be proved that the money is the proceeds or instrument of crime. The courts are far more interested in what the offender did rather than proving the source of funds. They both look to:

- the amount of money involved;

- the number of transactions involved in committing the offence; and

- the period over which the transactions occurred.

Although the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing Act 2006 contains criminal sanctions it is the Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995 which criminalises money laundering and imposes the harshest criminal penalties. Fault is part of the package the consequences of which vary depending on whether it is intentional, reckless or negligent. Where the scheme or arrangement is a sham or mere contrivance this poses the greatest threat to the taxpayers as it is considered intentional since it lacks an underlying tax rationale and therefore attracts the heaviest penalties.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions may prosecute for a range of charges and/or for proceeds of crime and/or money laundering. Obviously it makes more sense to go for the lot as this really carries the message about general deterrence and a significant degree of criminality. That said, money and property can be forfeited where there is no conviction for money laundering. Clients often think that where they are facing this situation evidence of prior good character will assist them to avoid prosecution for these offences. This couldn’t be further from the truth as its relevance only becomes important during the final stages of proceedings when properly introduced

Should you be tax non-compliant and involved in any overseas tax minimisation schemes contact Frank Egan of LAC Lawyers for assistance as he has been retained by clients the subject of Operation Wickenby. As a leader in his field he has advised and represented a number of high profile taxpayers as well as those at great risk. Most tax advisers do not understand that there is a new paradigm operating in this space and unless advisers are currently engaged in the full spectrum of this work including the criminal consequences flowing from it they lack the necessary skills and experience to effectively represent clients. If you are at risk whether or not you are or may be a person of interest to the authorities then contact Frank Egan immediately. To delay is to adopt a position pregnant with risk.

Frank Egan is the Chief Executive Officer of LAC Lawyers and has over 27 years of experience as a solicitor and specialises in complex business taxation matters & complex personal tax cases.

An Employee Failing to Provide Notice of Resignation - Leiminer’s Case

Griffith University v Leiminer [2008]FMCA 1045 (28 July 2008)

In Late July 2008 the Federal Magistrate’s Court for the first time ever fined an employee for failing to provide notice of resignation, although the magistrate questioned the employer’s actions in bringing the matter to Court.

Griffith University had sued lecturer Michelle Leiminer for breaching Section 719(1) of the Workplace Relations Act by her having given seven weeks and one day’s notice- less than the six months required under the collective agreement with the university. In addition to financial loss the university argued it had suffered non-pecuniary loss including damage to reputation, disruption of other staff, disadvantage to students, and loss of profile from contributions which Leiminer was expected to have made to journals.

While finding Leiminer had deliberately breached the collective agreement the Court found that her conduct was based on erroneous advice from the union, was not malicious and was mitigated by her efforts in making transitional arrangements. She had also attempted a compromise with the university and offered a $500 settlement.

The Federal Magistrate rejected the submissions of the university that it was necessary to enforce the minimum standards of the Act (particularly under Section 3(f) on the basis that the breach must be viewed in context and was one more appropriately dealt with under a claim for damages stating “…the employee breached the bargain but beyond that it can’t be said that the breach has had broader ramifications.”

The Court added: “The concept of penalties applying to breaches of industrial instruments is more appropriately directed to those breaches that have a broader economic impact. ”

The magistrate also rejected the university’s submissions on the need for deterrence, saying that the case did not involve an element of morality extending beyond the two parties in the case.

The university had argued that it had lost $22,700.00 in extra teaching costs but the Court found that was offset by the $38,000 including superannuation and $1,800 in incurred entitlements it would have had to pay to Leiminer had she worked out the full notice period. So far from incurring financial loss the university had actually saved money.

The case although not earth shattering in terms of its actual result, through of penalty and legal costs adds a potential argument to dissuade employees from terminating their employment contracts short of the requisite notice period.

- Employment Law & Unfair Dismissal-

Employment Law and Unfair Dismissal needs to be looked at from two points of view. The first – employers and the second – employees. Issues such as remuneration, termination payment, employment policies and human resources management impact everybody in the employment sphere. It is important, whether you are employer or employee, that you make the right decisions throughout your employment whether it be at interview, in contract negotiations to managing performance or termination. In order to achieve the right balance in an employment context it is important that your adviser not only understands employment law but has the necessary skills to cover these issues which are important to you whether they be commercial, industrial or individual.

Robert is a legal practitioner of many years experience. He was formerly a barrister. He has practiced in many areas of the law including employment law & unfair dismissal & appeared as an advocate in most jurisdictions in NSW as well as the Federal and High Courts.

Business Records and Substantiation

Generally taxes are all about income, deductions and substantiation. One of the areas where taxpayers are substantially at risk is record keeping and substantiation for claims made for deductions. Under section 262A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the Act) a person carrying on a business is required to keep records that record and explain all transactions and other acts engaged in by the person that are relevant for any purpose of the Act. The records to be kept include any documents relevant for the purpose of ascertaining the person’s income and expenditure and any documents which contain particulars of any election, choice, estimate, determination or calculation made by the person under this Act and in the case of an estimate, determination or calculation, particulars showing the basis on which and method by which the estimate, determination or calculation was made.

A taxpayer who is required to maintain or keep records must; maintain records written in English; keep records so as to enable that person’s liability to be readily ascertained; and meet other requirements under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997. As we are constantly reminded by the Tax Office the taxpayer must keep records for a minimum of five years after the person prepared or obtained them or five years after completion of a transaction or the acts to which they relate whichever is the latter. It is important to note that a defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to some matters under this Act and which are also dealt with in the Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995.

Essentially the content of what is recorded will depend upon individual circumstances but it needs to be adequate to ensure that any ATO officer with the necessary accounting skills who is examining it will understand it. The record-keeping obligations in this area means the taxpayer must record every transaction that relates to a person’s income and expenditure but that does not mean that person has to make a record of each individual transaction. There are specific requirements covering cash registers, receipt books, credit cards and other source documentation such as tax invoices.

Obviously there are situations where there are no source records and it would be clearly impracticable for a person to record every individual transaction as this would seriously impair the normal conduct of business particularly where it involves high volume low value cash transactions. Where this occurs the ATO will accept summary records which satisfies the taxpayer’s obligations provided they are reconciled with daily bankings which reflect cash takings used for other purposes, e.g. drawings, expenses and matters of that sort.

This whole area is about record keeping and the word “keep” means to make and retain. Records are generally created in the normal course of business and business operators are expected to retain them. Sometimes due to the nature of business records they are not produced immediately but a contemporaneous record is required to satisfy business operators’ substantiation requirements. Where fraud or evasion is involved the Tax Office will want to go back to the source records which means that they can go back to the date of the non-complying conduct whenever that was. Obviously in a self assessment environment records are required to be retained by the taxpayer so that they can be examined by the Commissioner if required. To put it simply, how do you explain how a transaction occurred and what it involved unless you retain the appropriate records?

Where an entity fails to keep and retain records in the manner required by taxation law an administrative penalty may apply, usually in the form of a hefty fine. Where the penalty is not paid by the due date the entity will be liable to pay GIC on the outstanding amount. Fairness is central to the system and each case must be treated on its merits. Record keeping penalties may be remitted and each entity will be treated according to its circumstances. Ongoing delays and an inability to do the right thing often leads the Commissioner to refer matters to the Commonwealth DPP for prosecution.

There are also other record keeping obligations not covered here. To keep and maintain business records is essential if you wish to rely upon transactions and seek deductions. The absence of records is problematical and so is the destruction of them, particularly where fraud or deception is involved.

There are three separate offences for incorrectly keeping records:

- incorrectly keeping records;

- recklessly incorrectly keeping records; and

- incorrectly keeping records with the intention of deceiving or misleading.

Referral to the CDPP only occurs where the matter involves serious non-compliance including falsifying records, fraud or evasion or where other penalties have failed to improve the entity’s record keeping behaviour. Record keeping offences often accompany serious tax evasion where the practice adopted by non-complying taxpayers is to destroy, destroy, destroy. Whether you are an individual or entity and records are central to the issues confounding you do not hesitate to contact LAC Lawyers for competent professional advice and assistance.

Frank Egan is the Chief Executive Officer of LAC Sydney Business Lawyers and has over 27 years of experience as a solicitor and specialises in complex taxation matters.

Going Local With Your Pay Per Click Advertising

Sure the Internet and search engine advertising is a fantastic way to reach thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people with your product or service. From your home town to the far reaches of the world people could be searching for what you do or sell and finding your website through Google, Yahoo or MSN. But if you have a local dental practice, landscaping service or real estate office you probably don’t need to reach that many people or people so far away.

In fact, if you are using some form of pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing you could waste a high percentage of your budget by advertising to people who would be extremely unlikely to come in to your office or use your local service.

Examples of types of businesses who would need to localize their pay per click campaigns would be:

Medical Imaging Centers

Dental Practices

Real Estate Offices

A Local Shoe Store

Local Paving Company or Landscaping Service

Chimney Sweep

Piano Turner

All these types of businesses can do well with Internet Pay Per Click advertising if they make sure to use geographical targeting

With Google and Yahoo Pay Per Click services you can take advantage of geographical targeting in two distinct ways.

One way is to simply put the names of the cities or areas you serve as part of your search terms. When you do this be sure to put these terms in quotes. You’ll also want to make sure you or your search engine promotion company makes a very complete list of the cities and areas you serve including zip codes. When you limit the area you advertise in you also obviously limit your potential clicks. The good news is that you will be getting very targeted visitors. There is no down side to this as long as you use enough terms and location to make sure you get enough visitors to make the advertising worth doing.

Here is an example of how such a campaign could be organized:

We do promotion for a small computer repair service that wants to operate only in a limited portion of the Los Angeles area. (This is only a sample and is not a replication of the entire campaign.) First we list the areas.

Burbank

Pasadena

La Canada

La Crescenta

Tujunga

Altadena

Eagle Rock

Mount Washington

Highland Park

90041

91501

91502

91504

91011

91012

(There will be many more zip codes.) We will also add “CA” and “California” to the cities in the list.

Then we list the terms. Are partial list could as follows:

Computer repair

Computer virus removal

Speed up your computer

Fix computer

Computer technician

Computer networking

Computer network installation

Then we merge these. Don’t forget the quotes.

“burbank computer repair”

“computer repair Burbank”

“burbank ca computer repair”

“computer repair Burbank ca”

“Burbank California computer repair”

“computer repair Burbank California”

You get the idea. The more complete the list the more visitors your site will get. And with such targeted traffic, if you have a decent website, you are sure to get a good conversion rate.

The second way you can determine your geographical area, also called geo-targeting, is to set up how many miles around your location you want your ad to run. You can do this in Google by listing zip codes or cities or by drawing a circle on a map. Both Google and Yahoo give pretty clear instructions on how to set up Geo-Targeting. If you have a local business just make sure you take advantage of this feature. It will keep you from wasting your advertising budget while keeping you ad in front of your real potential customers or clients.

Meridith Berk is one of the founders of UltimateSitePromotion.com one of the oldest and most respected Search Engine Optimizing and Pay Per Click Management firms on the Internet. To find out more about Local Pay Per Click Management you can visit her site at http://ultimatesitepromotion.com

Email Marketing Success Tips

3 Keys To Effective Email Marketing

Email marketing is becoming a popular tool for many small and home based businesses around the world.

Email marketing allows businesses to eliminate expenses for things like paper, ink/toner, envelopes, postage, etc., and these savings make it a very attractive method of promotion.

Done properly, email marketing can be very effective. Unfortunately, too many businesses let the excitement of a low-cost marketing campaign overshadow their business sense.

Done improperly, your email marketing campaign becomes nothing more than a mess of sending the wrong message to the wrong market.

There are just a few key elements to launching and managing a successful email marketing campaign. They are:

- The list (your database).

- The offer.

- The follow-up.

Start With the Right Email Marketing List

The temptation is to rush out and purchase a list from brokers or leads suppliers. The harsh reality is that most of these lists are simply harvested email addresses from search engines. The so-called “savings” of purchasing a list of email addresses can be effectively wiped out when email addresses begin bouncing and recipients begin complaining to your Email Service Provider for sending Unsolicited Commercial Email (or “spam”).

The best (and only truly safe) way to build your database is to market effectively. This can be done both online and offline. Traditional methods such as collecting business cards in a drawing and offering free information in exchange for contact information still work very well.

Additionally, Search Engine Optimization strategies can be very effective. The key is to get prospects to visit a “capture page” that is designed to entice them to give their contact information in exchange for something you are offering, such as a free report or free download.

As your list begins to grow, if you have targeted your market effectively, you will find yourself with a considerable database of motivated and targeted prospects.

The Offer

Email marketing is about getting your offer out in front of your database. Yes, they have joined your list voluntarily but keep in mind that you are competing with hundreds of other email messages they may be receiving that day.

Your job is to make sure your email marketing message is opened and read by your prospects.

The key is to create a compelling subject line. Where possible, use the prospect’s name in the subject line. Most recipients are much more likely to open an email addressed to them by name.

Once your message is opened, the copy must create a compelling interest so that the reader will want to learn more.

The key here is to think like your prospects. They all have the same question on their mind when they open their email:

What’s in it for me?”

Answer that question in your copy and your email marketing campaign could be a huge success. Focus on telling prospects about the benefits of your offer. What will it do for them? What can they expect if they order from you? How will it help them save time, increase revenues, lose weight, feel more attractive, etc.?

The Follow-up

The next step is to follow up with your prospects. Studies have proven that prospects need to see your message over and over again before they make a decision to purchase. Using an AutoResponder to follow up with prospects can dramatically increase the response rate of any email marketing campaign.

The ability to follow up with prospects over time is critical to your success.

Your follow-up letters should essentially repeat your original message. Maybe each follow-up message can stress a particular feature and continue to reinforce the benefits to your prospects.

The idea behind an effective email marketing campaign is to …

… Tell them.

… Tell them again.

… Tell them what you just told them.

Attention spans are short. Competition is high.

Keep your messages to the point and focus on benefits, benefits, benefits.

Make your prospects WANT to buy from you by consistently keeping your email marketing message in front of them.

The reward for a job well done will be increased revenues and customer loyalty.

Brian Rooney is Co-Founder and Managing Member of TrafficWave.net LLC. TrafficWave.ne provides AutoResponders and Email Marketing technology to thousands of businesses worldwide. Visit Brian online at http://www.trafficwave.net/

Crash Course on Trademark License Agreements

Properly thought out and managed trademark license arrangements can be win-win opportunities for all parties, including the public. The document that goes a long way toward realizing this opportunity is the trademark license agreement. This agreement is a written contract in which the holder of a trademark (licensor) grants the revocable right to a second party (licensee) to use the holder’s trademark in exchange for royalty fees. Without the license, the licensee could not legally use the trademark.

Trademarks are a type of intellectual property. Trademarks are distinctive signs or indicators-usually phrases, logos, slogans, designs, images, or combinations thereof-that identify a specific company or organization to the public. Protected marks are accompanied by the superscript “TM” for trademark, “SM” for service mark, or the encircled “R.” They are similar to copyrights and patents but also have distinct differences. One of them is the protection they receive. Copyright protection spans the length of the author’s lifetime plus another 70 years; however, trademark protection is usually only five years, and it must be attentively guarded.

Similarly, trademark license agreements are also of limited duration. While a trademark owner may license the mark, knowing full well that the ownership does not pass to the licensee, the owner may also go one step further and sell the mark to a buyer. A sale, however, must include the underlying goodwill or assets that make the mark what it is. Without such goodwill or assets, courts have determined that such a sale is a fraud on the public, similar to selling a brand new car that lacks an engine.

Trademark license agreements should contain a handful of essential clauses for everyone’s protection, including the public. First, the trademark must remain somewhat exclusive. A licensor would be foolish to dilute the mark by licensing it to every maker of ball caps in the market. Such a scenario might seem like a bonanza for the licensor, but it would soon become absurd as trademarked caps flooded the market. Second, the licensor must make certain that the licensee adheres to the licensor’s preexisting quality control standards. To license the mark and then to discover that it is to be placed on substandard licensee products would be disastrous for all parties. Next, it is up to the licensor to provide examples of the mark, in various media forms if need be. If the licensor leaves it to the licensee to try to copy the mark as best it can, then surely trouble will result. Instead, the licensor should provide exemplars and hold the licensee to them-no slight modifications of font or color or spacing; no additions of phrases or images; nothing to alter the mark in public’s eye.

Fourth, the licensor must have veto power over the use-not merely the design-of the trademark. The licensee should not be permitted to use the mark in connection with the licensee’s political or philanthropic causes (even if they are good causes), if the agreement was for use of the mark only on the licensee’s ball caps. If the licensor does not want the mark used with political or religious organizations, or hawked to promote alcohol, the agreement must give the licensor this veto power. Lastly, the license agreement must tie these protections together under a monitoring and inspection provision. Here, the licensor can pre-approve licensee samples, so that problems do not arise later. Monitoring may seem like a luxury, but it is a necessity, for a licensor that does not monitor the quality of its products and does not safeguard its mark can be deemed to have abandoned the mark-akin to commercial suicide for many companies.

While these provisions might seem to protect only the licensor, in reality, they protect everyone. For a diluted or abandoned trademark hurts the licensor, the licensee, and even consumers.

Mark Warner is a Trademark License Analyst for RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs gives you insider access to millions of legal documents drafted by the top law firms in the US. Search over 10 million Documents, Clauses, and Legal Agreements for Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com

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