http://www.articlesnatch.com/profile/John-Eberhard/10049 John Eberhard is an author at ArticleSnatch.com Article Directory. Below are the most recent articles from John Eberhard. For more of articles by John Eberhard please use the link above. http://www.articlesnatch.com/profile/John-Eberhard/10049 http://static.articlesnatch.com/i/logo.gif en-us http://www.articlesnatch.com/profile/John-Eberhard/10049 PHP/5.0.26 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--More-on-Google-Maps/3133619 by John Eberhard Google Maps, also called Google Places, has significantly changed the landscape for local oriented searches on Google. It used to be that you would search for something on Google, and you would get two kinds of results: one was called “organic” results, which appeared in the wider left hand column, and the other was called “sponsored search results,” which meant Google AdWords paid ads, which were located in the narrow right hand column and in the first three positions on the left hand side. Now with Google Maps/Places, when Google figures out that you are doing a search that is local in nature, they will add a map in the upper part of the right hand column, and a series of listings marked with an orange balloon in the left column. If you search for “pizza restaurant” from the Los Angeles area where I am, you will see an image of it. Note if you scroll down the page a bit you will see a total of 7 Google Maps listings, and for each it shows a star rating, the number of reviews on Google, the restaurant web address, the street address and phone. **End Summary** Topics: google maps]]> internet marketing]]> web 2.0]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an internet marketing company, offering web & blog design, SEO, pay-per-click advertising, social media and email marketing. He is author of “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:01:35 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--More-on-Google-Maps/3133619 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Auto-Tweets/3090945 by John Eberhard I’ve been using the Tweet Adder software for some time now to add more followers for my own Twitter account and those of a number of my clients. It has an “auto tweet” function that allows you to set up messages that you want to go out to your Twitter followers on an automated basis. Tweet Adder also allows you to set up an automated email message that goes out to people saying “Hey thanks for following me” when they follow you. I think that’s one of the worst cases of wasted bits and bytes in the history of computing so I’m not talking about that. The feature I’m talking about allows you to set up automated messages to go out to all your Twitter followers. You can set up as many as you want, and then determine how many of them will go out per day. I had never used this feature until a friend told me he was doing it and it was causing significant traffic to his web site. **End Summary** Topics: twitter]]> social media marketing]]> internet marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an internet marketing company, offering web & blog design, SEO, pay-per-click advertising, social media and email marketing. He is author of “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:21:07 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Auto-Tweets/3090945 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Growing-Your-Email-List/2982137 By John Eberhard I started doing email marketing about 10-11 years ago. Back then, we rented a lot of email lists and were very successful with it. But the heavy proliferation of spam a few years later ruined the rented email list market, and most of the time, rented lists do not work anymore. But what DOES work is to build up an in-house email list of customers and prospects, and send a variety of emails to them regularly. That clutter of email spam is still there, but if you build a relationship with people, you will break through that clutter and people will open and read your emails. Building the List Let’s start with how to build your list. Contact Form: the first thing you should definitely have on your site is a contact form. It should ask minimally for the person’s name, email, and phone number, and usually include a “comments/questions” field. This is mainly for people who are interested in your product or service, and of course this is one of the most valuable reaches you will get, when someone fills out this form. **End Summary** Topics: email marketing]]> email lists]]> internet marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an internet marketing company, offering web & blog design, SEO, pay-per-click advertising, social media and email marketing. He is author of “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:24:23 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Growing-Your-Email-List/2982137 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--The-Full-Social--How-to-Put-the-Pedal-to-the-Metal-with-Social-Media-Marketing/1653958 Most people these days are familiar with Facebook and Twitter, and maybe MySpace and LinkedIn. And certainly Facebook and Twitter are the two 800 pound gorillas in the room with social media marketing. But what if you’re not content with just using one or two sites for social media marketing? What if you want to really put the pedal to the metal? Go the distance? Be a world class social media marketer? The Full Social As a nod to “The Full Monty” movie I am outlining the Full Social, which is a program of all or nearly all of the social media marketing actions one can take. First Tier Sites The first tier social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace. The importance of these sites is roughly in that order. The goal is to start accounts, get lots of friends or followers, then put out regular updates on what you are doing with your business. The idea is that by putting out regular updates on what you are doing, you keep yourself high in people’s awareness as the provide of ____ (your product or service). **End Summary** Topics: social media marketing]]> internet marketing]]> web marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:13:12 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--The-Full-Social--How-to-Put-the-Pedal-to-the-Metal-with-Social-Media-Marketing/1653958 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Google-AdWords-Quality-Score/1623481 Google AdWords has a sort of measuring stick they use called “quality score.” The quality score is applied to your campaign, and to your ad group within a campaign, and to your individual keywords within the campaign. Your quality score is important because the better your quality score, the less you will pay for whenever someone clicks on one of your ads. And conversely, with a low quality score your cost per click goes up significantly. Here’s what Google says about the quality score: “The AdWords system calculates a 'Quality Score' for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).” So we can see that your quality score is important because it affects how much you will pay for each click. **End Summary** Topics: ppc]]> adwords]]> search engine marketing]]> internet marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Wed, 06 Oct 2010 01:47:58 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Google-AdWords-Quality-Score/1623481 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Reaching-Out-to-Local-People-with-Social-Media/1586297 One of the liabilities of many website marketing activities is that they are national or international in scope. This is great if you are selling, or can sell, your products or services internationally. But not so great if you are a local business servicing only a certain metro area or a smaller section of a metro area. Pay per click advertising is great for hitting a specific local area. But SEO actions, link building, press releases, and blogging will all tend to draw people from all over. Social media can be used effectively to target a specific geographical area. The biggest social media sites right now are Facebook and Twitter. With Twitter, you can follow a strategy to build up a bunch of followers in one geographical area. I use a program called Tweet Adder to add followers. It gives you the option to follow people in a certain city or within a certain number of miles from a certain city. You can keep doing that, and a certain percentage of them will follow you back. By doing this you can build up a large number of followers, all in your local area. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> social media]]> web 2.0]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 24 Sep 2010 01:27:27 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Reaching-Out-to-Local-People-with-Social-Media/1586297 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Content-Management-Systems/1577877 A Content Management System (CMS) is a system that allows you to log in online, and through an online interface, make changes to your web site. Using a Content Management System you can add pages, make text changes or add pictures to existing pages, change your navigation structure, or make other changes as needed. Having a CMS is becoming more desirable for web site owners, so they don’t have to learn to use a web development tool like Dreamweaver, and also so they don’t have to depend on a web designer every time they want to make a minor change to the site, such as updating dates or other information. I’ll admit that earlier on I pooh-poohed Content Management Systems, as some of the early ones I had contact with were difficult to use and very limiting in terms of what you could do. But the field has evolved and the solutions out there today have gotten much better. There are three CMS’s that are considered the top ones: Joomla, Drupal, and Wordpress. Each system is good and very usable and which one you choose depends on which one you are familiar with. **End Summary** Topics: content management systems]]> internet marketing]]> website marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Tue, 21 Sep 2010 02:21:50 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Content-Management-Systems/1577877 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Time-to-Get-Your-Marketing-in-Gear/1570345 Labor Day is now past, marking the official end of the summer season (even though we will still have some hot weather in Los Angeles and in some other parts of the country). I have observed in past years that many business owners put their attention on other things over the summer – like vacations, fun, etc. Then right after Labor Day, their attention will sort of snap back to their business, and to marketing (including website marketing) and driving in new customers. This is a good and necessary thing. Not that I’m opposed to vacations and having fun, just having got back from a few days at Big Bear Lake with my family. But as the old song says, there is a season for everything. And now that we’re in September, we are now in the season for getting back to business, school starting and so on. I would say that this year, it is even more important than usual to get your marketing in gear and ramp up the promotion of your business. The so-called “summer of recovery” never really happened, and economic figures and indicators are not strong. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> online marketing]]> website marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is the author of "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing, Part 1." You can find out more about this exciting new eBook at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/. John is also President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ), an Internet marketing and web design firm in Los Angeles. He has been doing marketing in a wide variety of fields for 18 years. Sat, 18 Sep 2010 02:27:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Time-to-Get-Your-Marketing-in-Gear/1570345 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Handling-the-Local-Angle/1052569 by John Eberhard One of the issues that many companies have to deal with when they are laying out a website marketing strategy, is the issue of geography. Where is the business located? And where does it do business? Is it a local business servicing people in one metro area? Is it a business that does business in one entire state? Regional? National? International? Many of the online marketing actions you can take are NOT limited in their geography. In other words, they get the word out nationally or internationally. So if your business is a local restaurant or home improvement company, servicing people only in a small area, those strategies aren’t necessarily the best for you. For example, I was recently approached by a firm that wanted to target prospects in southern California. But they wanted to do search engine optimization and link building to get their site ranking high in the search engines. This is all well and good. **End Summary** Topics: PPC]]> optimized press release]]> internet marketing]]> blogging]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Sun, 28 Mar 2010 02:42:07 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Handling-the-Local-Angle/1052569 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Blogs--Use-Them-or-Lose-Them/805329 by John Eberhard I have written a number of articles about the benefits of blogs: You write something and post to your blog regularly. You have your blog set up so there are numerous links back to your main site in the sidebars. Plus you write your blog posts so that you link back to your main site within each post. Every time you post something new on the blog, you go to a site called www.pingomatic.com, and use it to send out a notification (called a “ping”) to all the blog search engines like Technorati.com. This causes them to include your new blog post in their search engines right away. The combination of posting regularly, i.e. once a week, plus pinging the blog search engines, drives significant traffic to your blog, which in turn drives traffic to your web site. I have two blogs for my marketing business and month to month the blogs routinely are the #1 or #2 driver of traffic to my web site, running neck and neck with Google. So this is all nice and wonderful. **End Summary** Topics: blogging]]> internet marketing]]> seo]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled “The Internet Marketing Super Book” available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:43:30 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Blogs--Use-Them-or-Lose-Them/805329 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--The-Fall-Online-Promotion-Roadmap/738477 Well, we’ve finally passed Labor Day which means the summer season is officially over. That means I hope you had a nice summer, but that now it’s time to end off on the summer mentality and get down to business with your business. Now I know everyone has been vacationing and spending all that extra money everyone seems to have these days. So all that spending has probably caused people to kind of forget about promoting their businesses. Yeah, that must be it. Well, whatever the reason, many businesses have decreased their advertising and promotional spending, with some dropping their promotion altogether. And from my observation this has gotten more noticeable over the summer. If the above describes you, meaning you have cut back on promotion or dropped out promotion entirely for your business over the summer, or earlier due to concerns over the economy, then I suggest you might want to reconsider that decision now. After all, in September, vacations are over, kids are going back to school, football season is starting, and in general everyone is getting back to business. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> social media marketing]]> blog marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:05:46 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--The-Fall-Online-Promotion-Roadmap/738477 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/How-to-Play-the-Drums-Now--To-Read-or-Not-to-Read-/713099 One of the first questions that will come up for everyone who sets out to learn how to play the drums, is whether or not they should learn to read music. There was a time when this was not even a question because everybody learned to read music. It could be that this question started with the Beatles, because the most talented songwriters of the last century never learned to read or write music. Yet they created some of the best and most enduring music of that century. And of course as we move forward in time many of the Gods of the succeeding generations have never learned to read music. There’s no question that one can learn how to play the drums without ever learning how to read music. And there are video courses available that will help with this approach, showing video of someone demonstrating various beats and so on. And of course one can just listen to CDs and imitate the drummers that you want to emulate. But I recommend that you DO learn how to read music. Why? **End Summary** Topics: how to play the drums]]> how to play drum]]> learning drums]]> learning drum]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of HowtoPlaytheDrumsNow.com ( http://www.howtoplaythedrumsnow.com ), a web site devoted to help people learn how to play the drums, with articles, books, instructional DVDs, links and other helpful information. Mr. Eberhard is also President of http://www.RealWebMarketing.net. Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:02:04 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/How-to-Play-the-Drums-Now--To-Read-or-Not-to-Read-/713099 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Email-Marketing-2009/706336 I started email marketing about 10 years ago when it was a pretty new activity, especially doing HTML emails, where it looks like a web site with graphics and so on. Back then, you could rent email lists of various types of publics who had opted in to receive email on a certain topic. I sent emails out to literally millions of people on opt in lists back then. You can still rent email lists of various types of publics today, but in my experience this is not very successful any more. I have not seen good results from rented lists in at least 5 years. Why? A huge outpouring of commercial email several years ago, promoting Viagra or stocks or enlargement of certain body parts or whatever, killed the market. Everyone got too much email. So in my opinion, for the most part, sending email to rented lists is dead. Your Own House Email List But there is still a very effective way to use email in marketing today. That is to build up your own opt in email list, also called a house list, and send your newsletters and other offerings to that list. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> email marketing]]> database marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:08:10 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Email-Marketing-2009/706336 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Pay-Per-Click-Advertising-and-Geo-Targeting/677205 One very useful aspect of pay per click advertising on Google AdWords is the ability to do geo-targeting, or having your ads only appear in certain geographical areas that you select. In other words, you can select to have your ads appear to viewers in the entire United States. Or you can have them appear only in one state, or in a bunch of select states. Or you can select a specific metro area, such as the Los Angeles metro area, or Chicago, Boston or Dallas. You can even select smaller cities or towns, certain zip codes, or you can even draw your selected area on a map. This is vital if you are a local business such as a brick and mortar store and can only service people in a certain area. You don’t want to be paying for people to click through to your site in Keokuk if you own a local store in Pasadena. Many businesses will want to target only a certain portion of the U.S. But here’s another aspect of geo-targeting that is useful and requires a bit of explanation. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> ppc]]> pay-per-click]]> search engine marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Pay-Per-Click-Advertising-and-Geo-Targeting/677205 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Social-Media--What-Works--Not-Just-the-Latest-Shiny-Object/659351 Eric Qualman, in a recent article on Search Engine Watch, talks about how many companies will jump on the social media bandwagon just because everyone is talking about a certain site. He likens it to following the latest shiny object.” I try to keep up on the latest social media trends and websites. But I also temper this with the fact that I don’t really care about the latest shiny object or seeming cool. I want to use techniques, media, and websites that will actually get results for clients. And the bottom line is driving actual traffic to a website, and getting leads and sales. Last week I talked about a bigger, more expansive social media marketing program. In this article I want to talk a little bit more about how to get results with some of these various media. Regular Engagement With Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn, the key is not just to start an account on these sites, but to be engaged with your account and with others there on a regular basis. This means, first of all, to develop a decent number of friends” on Facebook and MySpace, followers” on Twitter, and connections” on LinkedIn. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> web 2.0]]> social media]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Social-Media--What-Works--Not-Just-the-Latest-Shiny-Object/659351 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Google-s-6-Tips-for-Tough-Times--and-a-Couple-from-Me/646645 Google AdWords recently published an article entitled Top Tactics for Tough Times.” Aside from giving them high marks for alliteration in their title with all those T”s, the article has some good advice. Here’s what they say: We know you're probably keeping a close eye on your bottom line, and in this challenging economic climate, we're committed to helping you maximize your AdWords investment. To that end, we asked experts on the AdWords team to share their top recommendations for getting the most out of AdWords during an economic downturn." 1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings. Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases. When someone searches on a particular product, you know they're interested; by using your ad to tell them that you've got the highest quality and the best price, you're more likely to earn their click. Update your ad text to focus on low prices, good values, and timely promotions. 2. Use value-related keywords. It's open season for bargain hunters. To reach these deal-conscious consumers, add appropriate price- and discount-related keywords. **End Summary** Topics: ppc]]> google]]> internet marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Google-s-6-Tips-for-Tough-Times--and-a-Couple-from-Me/646645 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Online-Email-Services/639233 This is an article about email marketing, and I’m writing this article even though I know I’m going to catch grief from someone saying I’m wrong and their service is better. There are three main online email services, where you can do these things: Sign up and put a form on your site offering an email newsletter People sign up and they are dumped into a database that is stored online An email goes out to anyone who signs up asking them to confirm that they wanted to subscribe. This is called double opt in.” You can now send an HTML email out to your subscribers any time, with the service providing nice looking templates for you to use. You can also create a template yourself using Dreamweaver or some similar program. People can then opt in and opt out without you having to manually add them or subtract them from a list As you build up your list, you don’t have any daily limits on sending out to your list, which you often do with sending out from your own desktop computer The three major services are Constant Contact, iContact, and Aweber. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> email marketing]]> email services]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Online-Email-Services/639233 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Getting-the-Most-Out-of-Your-Blog/620336 by John Eberhard I’ve been designing and setting up blogs for quite a few clients lately, and thought I would list out the things you need to do to get the most benefit from blogging. First of all the benefits of a blog are that because of the way search engines give greater weight or importance to blogs, it is relatively easy to drive traffic to a blog, and the blog overall and each blog post potentially counts as links back to your main web site. Here’s what you need to do with the blog: -Links back to your main site: Make sure when setting up the blog that it contains multiple links, in the sidebars, back to your main site. You can link to your home page, your services page, to pages offering things for sale, to pages offering free things. Also make sure to put your contact information prominently on the blog. See my blog http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com/ for examples of how to do this. -Post to it regularly: Once set up, THE most important thing to do to get the most benefit from the blog is to post things to it regularly. **End Summary** Topics: blogging]]> blog]]> designing a blog]]> blog content]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Getting-the-Most-Out-of-Your-Blog/620336 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--White-Paper-101/609806 Offering a white paper is a great way to improve your website marketing and increase the number of people inquiring on your site. It’s also a great way to increase the number of conversions, or people filling out the form and becoming a lead on a pay per click advertising campaign. This is most useful for lead generation campaigns, meaning you are getting people to respond to you so you can have a salesman sell them your product or service, usually a high ticket item. So what is a white paper” anyway? When white papers first started appearing in the late 90s and early 2000s, I thought they would all be white. They’re not, they come in all colors. In fact I’ve never seen one that is all white. So what is a white paper? It is simply a report that a company will write and give out, usually for free, on some topic related to that company’s expertise. The trick is to come up with a topic for a white paper that is exactly related to your business, so that everyone requesting it will be a prospect for your business. **End Summary** Topics: website marketing]]> pay per click advertising]]> search engine marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--White-Paper-101/609806 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-Net--Don-t-Stop-Promoting-About-Tomorrow/599437 I wrote a couple of articles several months ago about the need for businesses to keep promoting during touch economic times. Despite this I have seen a number of businesses cut down on their promotion in the past six months, some drastically. This is unfortunate because I think those businesses will be harder hit by the current economic climate than others who manage to keep promoting during this period. Of course I understand that the economic situation has a ripple effect throughout the economy and may be impacting your business in multiple ways. Many small businesses are strapped for cash. So here are some things you can do online to keep promoting your business that don’t cost a lot of money: 1. Email Newsletter: If you have built up an email list of customers and people who have inquired about your services, you need to be emailing to these people on a regular basis. Any list of 1,000 names or more can be a significant resource and you shouldn’t ignore it. I recommend emailing to your in-house email list at least twice a month. I send to mine once a week. 2. **End Summary** Topics: email marketing]]> blogging]]> search engine marketing]]> social media]]> link building]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net, ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ) an online marketing and web and blog design business specializing in working with small to medium-sized businesses, organizations and government agencies, located in Los Angeles. He is author of an ebook entitled "The Internet Marketing Super Book" available at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/superebook/ Fri, 08 May 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-Net--Don-t-Stop-Promoting-About-Tomorrow/599437 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Why-You-Should-Start-a-Blog/589653 For several months I have been pushing the idea that people should start blogging. Some have taken my advice and put up blogs, but I think blogging is something that many, many people could benefit from. Here are some of the ways you could use a blog. 1. Promoting your business: This is the most common reason to start a blog. You can post articles (300-1,200 words), shorter posts of 100-150 words, link to other articles or items of interest in your industry or topic, or embed videos related to your business or topic. Or you can do all of these things. When you have a blog for the purpose of promoting a business, it should include sidebars with items that link to your main web site. For instance, on my blogs I have a sidebar item that says Our Web Sites” that includes links to my main web site and my other blogs. I have a services” item that has links to all my main services. I also have a picture of and link to my book for sale, and a picture of and link to a free eBook I am offering. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> social media]]> blog service]]> weblog services]]> website marketing]]> search engine marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ). You can read his Real Web Marketing Blog at http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com. He is also the author of the eBook "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing Part 1," which you can see at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/ Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Why-You-Should-Start-a-Blog/589653 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--The-Silver-Bullet-in-Website-Marketing/578858 Recently I was talking to a business owner who was asking me what he should do to improve his website marketing. I started talking about various promotional actions he could do with his site, and he kept saying Oh yes, I already know about that,” Oh yes, I already know about that,” Oh yes, I already know about that.” Finally I concluded that this guy wanted me to tell him about a silver bullet, some magical new Internet marketing action that would dramatically improve the activity of his websites. I occasionally see such things promised in emails or websites, and invariably it boils down to one of the actions I am already doing for clients. Unfortunately for this business owner, there is no silver bullet, or at least not in the way he was thinking or hoping. Actually it might surprise you to know that there is a silver bullet in website marketing. But it is not some newfangled action that all by itself will bring magic to your website. It is a series of actions, a whole program, done very consistently and over a period of time. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> paid search engine advertising]]> content hubs]]> search engine optimization]]> website marketing]]> search engine marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ). You can read his Real Web Marketing Blog at http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com. He is also the author of the eBook "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing Part 1," which you can see at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/ Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--The-Silver-Bullet-in-Website-Marketing/578858 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Designing-Your-Web-Site-to-Maximize-Conversions/560458 For a commercial business, a web site is a marketing tool, not a technical item. Yet a lot of people seem to think that a web site should be designed by IT guys. Not so, as IT guys and programmers rarely have any feel for marketing, and rarely do things that will maximize conversions. When I say conversions” I mean the percentage of visitors to your site who do one of the desired actions for your site. And by desired actions” I mean either buying something (if you sell items on the site), or filling out a form and becoming a lead or adding themselves to your email list. Maximizing conversions should not be an afterthought with the web site. It should be central to your planning as you map out the site. You need to include things in the site, prominently displayed, to get your web visitor to convert. Sales If you’re selling things on the web site, you need to include prominent buy here” type buttons on every single page of the web site. Consider that your visitor could decide at any moment that he wants to buy your product. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> website marketing]]> web design]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ). You can read his Real Web Marketing Blog at http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com. He is also the author of the eBook "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing Part 1," which you can see at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/ Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Designing-Your-Web-Site-to-Maximize-Conversions/560458 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Marketing-Do-s-and-Don-t-s-with-Facebook/510583 I recently saw someone open up an account on Facebook with not their own name but the name of the company they worked for, with a really sexy picture of a girl as the profile picture. And Facebook allows you to type in what you’re doing right now, as in John is working on a new web design project,” or whatever. In that line this person had typed in something about offering complete satisfaction. All in all, I thought it was really tacky and not the way you’re supposed to use Facebook. As of today that account is gone so Facebook actually took it down. The reason they took it down is not because it was so tacky but that they have a rule against opening accounts under a company name. You’re supposed to open an account under your own personal name and from there you can do various things to market your company. I recommend a book called Facebook for Dummies” which gives all the ins and outs of what you can and can’t do on Facebook. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> facebook marketing]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ). You can read his Real Web Marketing Blog at http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com. He is also the author of the eBook "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing Part 1," which you can see at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Realwebmarketing-net--Marketing-Do-s-and-Don-t-s-with-Facebook/510583 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Doubling-Your-Promotion-is-the-Answer/481199 I have written a couple articles recently about how to deal with the current economic situation. I have said basically that you shouldn’t cut your promotion right now, otherwise your business will shrink. It’s tempting to do so, especially if gross income is hurting. But having been in the marketing field for 20 years, I have seen the painful process too many times of being in a tough financial situation, and the financial committee deciding to cut promotion (always against my advice). Invariably what happens is that the company struggles along for a while, with their gross income falling further and further. If they change their mind quick enough they can recover. In one case at a company my wife worked for, the company got smaller and smaller and six months later went out of business. My point is not to alarm one and all. You can turn to the newspapers for that. My point is to tell you the right things to do now to disagree with the doom and gloom and continue flourishing despite the recession or whatever you want to call it. The way to flourish despite current economic conditions is to double your promotion. **End Summary** Topics: internet marketing]]> pay-per-click advertising]]>]]> About the Author: ]]> John Eberhard is President of RealWebMarketing.net ( http://www.realwebmarketing.net ). You can read his Real Web Marketing Blog at http://www.realwebmarketingblog.com. He is also the author of the eBook "Making Money with a Web Site, The Basics of Internet Marketing Part 1," which you can see at http://www.realwebmarketing.net/ebook1/ Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/RealWebMarketing-net--Doubling-Your-Promotion-is-the-Answer/481199