Author Archives: Tom Antion

Driving Traffic to a Company Website – Options That You Control

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At IMTC, we teach a number of traffic driving techniques that you need to implement, whether you're working for yourself or a company. These are the daily tasks and techniques needed by any entity online, large or small, to get qualified visitors to your website: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Blogging, article marketing and SEO. Companies and businesses that aren't using these powerful (and often free) services are not doing all they can to promote their products and are at risk of losing their market share to their competitors.

These are options that you control: regular and dedicated Internet Marketing strategies that really work. But you have to have the proper training in these services to get the most out of them, or they can be a huge waste of time and money. In all of the above examples, writing and engagement are key factors. How you mine for prospects and how your visitors interact with your website and social media is important to your success. Are you asking for visitor input or are you just shoving marketing down their throats? Are you putting solid information on your webpage that they can use right now, or are you leading them around in circles? People will invest very little time on a website that's confusing or doesn't address the issue of why they ended up there in the first place.

With simple tweaks of your traffic driving techniques, you can get more visitors that are more interested, more often. These opportunities for website traffic cannot be ignored if you take your online success seriously. It's about conversions: signing up to newsletter, making a purchase, taking away important information, learning something. This what IMTC is all about.  Helping you help others.

Guide To Choosing A Career

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https://imtcva.org/

The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is an Internet marketing school designed to teach you everything you would need to know about selling your products online. No only can you sell your products and services, you can also get hired by companies looking for the same thing. Check out https://imtcva.org/ for more information.

Free Content Helps Eliminate “List Exhaustion”

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Do you ever get so many sales pitches from one or two companies in your email inbox that you can't stand to open them anymore?  Maybe that last “open” you did was to un-subscribe? That happens a lot lately with the email strategies businesses are trying to use. They have a hard time knowing exactly what the best kind of reaching out they should be doing. Most people who use their database list for email marketing fall into one of two categories:  those who send out too many emails (list exhaustion), and those who are scared to send out enough (neglected list). The way to get around this hump is free content.

For those marketers who send out too much email, it's important to find the rhythm of your list. How often do they really want to hear from you? You can go as far as to poll them to make sure you're not killing them with mail. A heavy amount of unsubscribes could also be an indicator. With free content however, a solid core of readers will love to hear from you if you are offering real solutions to real problems. Content builds trust and rapport, and will keep your brand at the ‘top of their mind.' The best email is one that has value. It's your job to figure out what is most valuable to your readers and how often they want to receive it. With those two problems solved, you're well on your way to successful email marketing campaigns.

For those marketers who don't send out enough email, free content can help you feel at ease. If you're nervous about ‘offending' or burning out your list, solving their issues with your message can build you into a solid, trustworthy brand. Everyone loves free stuff – they will open the email as long as it has value. Again, finding the right rhythm regarding how often to send email out is the key to a happy list.

Now about pitching. Obviously, after a number of emails have been opened that offer ideal and free solutions, your list will be receptive to offers of helping them further with their problems. Most free content can be disguised as ‘eye openers' or offering real solutions to problems that the readers didn't even know they had. Let your list figure out what's important to them, and they be receptive to products, training or advice to help fix it. A pitchy call-to-action is not necessary. A link to an important resource (your product) is all that's needed. Trust your prospects that they'll do the right thing, and more often or not, they will.

IMTC offers the latest training in Internet Marketing techniques to help start and grow your business.

Writing Business Sales Letters: Are You Focusing on Your Company Instead of Your Prospects?

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Most business sales letters, promo pages and lead generation pages love to focus on one main item: themselves. It stands to reason that a website promoting a business should talk about themselves as often as possible: how great they are, how easy their products are to use, how often they ‘beat' the competition and other self-aggrandizing features. However, it is becoming clearer to online advertisers and copywriters that concentrating on the visitors themselves has a wider range of interest. Anything that sounds too ‘pitchy' can easily raise walls of objection in the visitor, even if it is crafted to sound like useful features. Remember, it's all about them.

What resonates with most readers is what can benefit them right now. On the Internet, most people are searching for information as opposed to radio and television, where commercials are a break in entertainment. The Internet above most other media, is a vehicle for making decisions: where to find the best deals, how to locate the nearest dentist, how to save money on their taxes and other information. This ultimately means that the end result needs to look more like ‘immediately usable benefits and answers' rather than sales pitches. Good website copywriting can include both the elements of benefits and subtle pitch.

One thing that stands out to visitors subconsciously is the overuse of the words “We” and “Our” in the copy. While it is a very small error by most copywriters, it has a negative effect on the reader. It has a sense of ‘inward' marketing, trying to draw the reader into the copy, rather than an ‘outward' or inclusive feel to the reader. Reaching out to your prospect and touching the points of why they ended up on your website in the first place (concerns, understanding, problem solving, empathy) can make them drop their defenses and open up to receive a subtle pitch.

Good copy has a 2 to 1 ratio of customer focus to company focused jargon. At IMTC, we teach you how to write better copy. This can make you very valuable to big business because you will understand what elements drive online sales more effectively than their in-house marketing people (who love to focus on company ‘benefits'), or any outsourced people could ever dream of being. And you can probably work from home as well. Check us out… 

 

Using Contests To Dominate Online Content Marketing

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If you can't seem to write enough blog posts, Tweets, Facebook updates, email blasts, Youtube comments and even produce online videos to promote your business, get other people to do it for you. By running a contest, you could have thousands of folks all over the web spreading the word of your products and services. This is a form of content marketing, and using the power of social networking, has never been easier.

This can be a powerful way to advertise a new product launch or to just get more people to your website. It creates a ton of links that can drive traffic to your site from all of the most popular places on the web. It can generate a ton of Google searches for your name or the name of your product. It's more content than you could ever post yourself, coming from hundreds of different accounts. Some links, like ones from blogs or Youtube videos, could work for you for years, as they stay archived in search results. Some links, from Facebook or Twitter, although short lived, could generate a lot of buzz and excitement in the short-term.

In today's world of interactive marketing and strong networking ties, it's time to use that strength to spread your advertising bucks across the web. If you want to know more, or start a new career as one who conducts and manages these contests for someone sales, IMTC is the place to get started.

Midlife Career Changes

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https://imtcva.org/

Is it time for a midlife career change? The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is an Internet marketing school designed to teach you everything you would need to know about selling your products online. No only can you sell your products and services, you can also get hired by companies looking for the same thing. Check out https://imtcva.org/ for more information.

Using the Power of Social Networking to Make Money

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I know you hear that all of the time. Use Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to make money. Most of the claims are just fancy scams that are trying to sell you something. But in this post, I want to give you some real tips on how people are using the reach of the vast social networks to start partnerships and help promote each other's products and services. 4 years ago, I was contacted by a young woman via Twitter who was interested in getting together for a number of projects. She found me through a keyword search of Twitter pertaining to “Relationship Advice” and wrote me a private message. After talking back and forth for a while, we started conducting paid teleclasses together, which in turn led to a radio show that we hosted together for over 2 years. We also collaborated on a book.

When you have a radio show for that long, it's important to have a steady roster of interesting guests so your listeners come back again and again. But where did we find them? My partner Gabriella would simply post on her Facebook account that we were in need of guests, and people would pass the post around (share) to their friends. As how the six pixels of separation go, we booked some pretty heavy players. They would advertise on their websites that they would be a guest, and in turn, we got tons of new listeners. Some shows had upwards of 1400 listeners a week. Because of the high listenership, when we would recommend that our audience go buy a certain author's book, that author would report back to us of huge sales that week. And of course, we promoted ourselves as well.

All this activity was due to social networking. We had no connections to the industry, had no experience up front on how to make money. We simply used Facebook, Twitter and BlogTalkRadio to build this model business, all for free. We never, ever paid a dime to make our money. I've since moved on to become the head instructor of IMTC. I'm glad to announce that my partner Gabriella is still doing the show every week and is nearing her 4th anniversary show. She has become a very successful author and very well-known in her field. Finding people to work out business partnerships with has become easier than ever due to the access of social networking. Sending a simple email could start a whole new career for yourself, and networking with the big players could be, as we say, only just a click away.

Choosing a Niche Market Wisely

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Choosing a Niche Market

Choosing a Niche Market

Choosing a niche market can be rather challenging for new Internet marketers. One of the biggest and worst mistakes anyone can possibly make is picking a niche without data to support potential profitability, then spending weeks or months building up their websites content hoping the traffic will follow. Sorry, but it doesn't work that way.

Before you put any eggs into your online marketing basket you need to make sure you have all your ducks in a row first; before proceeding with your website building phase. Here's a few things to keep in mind whenever selecting a niche market for your Internet marketing business.

Niche Potential Profitability

You should always choose a niche that has a large enough audience that are ready and willing to purchase products or services in that specific niche. Yet, you also want to make certain that the competition level isn't overly saturated, which makes it extremely difficult to make money. Having some competition in your niche is a good indicator of profitability, and by performing the proper keyword research can help you match those profitable keywords and phrases to highly sort after products or services.

Finding Niches of Interest

Although there's nothing wrong with finding profitable niches in markets that don't really interest you, you should consider markets that you enjoy, or have an extreme interest in. The reason for this is simple; people tend to have more longevity when doing something they really enjoy versus something they have little interest in. So to stay focused and motivated you should choose a niche that you absolutely enjoy.

You should try to come up with at least five things you really enjoy, and begin researching these niches. More than likely you will find one that's not only interesting to you, but profitable as well.

Niche Lifespan and Scalability

You should select a niche market that has an indefinite lifespan and the potential to grow. For instance, I would stay away from niches such as Halloween costumes simply because it's a seasonal niche. Once Halloween ends your paychecks disappears until next season!

Whenever searching for a niche market to dive into, make certain that it has the potential to grow on a long term basis. Many niches have the potential to sustain long term growth, and have related products and services to add to your niche market.

These are a just few key things to remember when choosing profitable niche markets. To learn more about choosing niche markets come on over to The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virgina, and don’t forget to download your FREE brochure.

Your Own Home Business: The Tools For Success

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When people decide to start their own home business, there's a lot more that goes into running it than most realize. You're bombarded with ads just about every hour touting how you can be successful online, from home. But they neglect to explain the details about what knowledge is needed, what software you'll need and how much time is involved. These companies don't want to scare you away with the finer points, they just want to sell you something that makes it look easy.

This isn't realistic. That's why people fail at making money online. They fall for the get rich quick / no experience necessary model and it rarely works if ever. Making money online is just like any business endeavor: it takes time, investment, patience and knowledge. It has its risks just like any other business. I know you wouldn't open up a clothing store in the mall without learning how to sell, studying retail management and investing in a consultant to help you. Yet, there are no ads flooding your inbox promising that you can have your own clothing store in “days” and making money by next week. Most people would never believe that. How is the Internet any different? Sure, building a website and getting traffic to it may be somewhat easier than filling a store with the latest fashions, but the ‘knowing how to sell' is very similar.

IMTC is one of the few educational entities on the web that tells it like it is. You'll get no ‘get rich quick' promises here, just the real knowledge and facts that arms you with the tools for success. We teach every aspect of running an online business: shopping carts, email campaigns, video promotions, website design, writing effective copy, customer service, product creation and delivery and more. You'll be a professional online business owner, not just another victim of scams. It's like a ‘virtual marketing degree' that is 100% online. You need not attend classes to get the education you seek, and it won't cost you the farm. IMTC is an investment in yourself and your future. From here, you can take your online business as far as you want it to go.

Online Video Marketing Campaigns For Business

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Many businesses are turning to online video to promote their products and services. A great example is the Stihl Corp. and their Timbersports Series. They started this series for outdoor promotions, especially for television. This series was a popular draw for the company for the last few years, but with the advent of online video and Youtube, the size of the audience tripled. Youtube has the ability to reach farther than traditional television programming, especially considering the costs. For all of this exposure to take place, an online video manager needs to take control and produce the campaign for the company.

Tasks for this include: proper uploading of video files, optimizing the keywords in the title and descriptions for search engines, building a subscriber list to the Youtube channel, sharing and promoting the videos to other sites such as Facebook and Twitter and more. Whether in-house or hired from a firm, Stihl needed someone with the skills to help with their video campaign. Online promotions can differ greatly from traditional media and it takes a special understanding of how search engines find the appropriate sources of information.

This is where IMTC comes in. As more and more businesses turn towards online video and the Internet to promote their products, people who have the skills to tackle these unique opportunities will become more in demand. How would working in this kind of industry enrich your life? It's not the same old career. You may already be working with video and the Internet and love it. For companies such as Stihl, it's serious business. The job market for skilled Internet marketers is going everyday. Find out how you can get on this exploding career field!