Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Top Reasons Why You Should Do Video Marketing


Human minds have an unquenchable need for information. Videos have a powerful impact on people because they appeal to both the audio and visual components of the mind. Today, videos are so commonplace that they are a very part of a person’s subconscious mind. An amazing amount of information can be learned from watching commercials, news, television shows, and documentaries. There is no indication that learning and being entertained, by visual stimulus, will likely change. 

Here are the five reasons why video marketing for online business beginners, and pros, should be a major element in their marketing strategies.

#1. Videos provide information and can be fun to watch. It’s important that people actively engage with a brand. A company’s brand is its story, and telling the right story can powerful tool to increase leads and conversions. Videos allow marketers to show off their brand’s top features. Adding a little fun and humor can make the message stick.

#2. Videos keep audiences interested. When audiences are interested, they pay attention longer. The longer they pay attention, the more likely they’ll retain and act on the information provided. Text on a page is important because search algorithms use it to determine the relevancy of a page. Videos add an extra kick as they can explain subjects and information in far less time that it takes to read. When videos are engaging, there’s a better chance of visitors being pulled into and retained in a company’s marketing environment. 

#3. People are easier to persuade when videos are used. Writing down the reasons why someone should use a product or service is important. However, seeing a product in action can be the equivalent of seeing the product’s benefit. Videos can be a powerful method of showcasing everything a product or service can provide. People are concerned, primarily if a product or service, will make their life easier. 

#4. Videos have the power to reach anyone. Thanks to the power of search engines and the amazing availability of mobile devices, billions of people have access to videos anywhere and on, virtually, any device. The best strategy for video marketing is to show up across multiple platforms. 

#5. Today’s consumer is on the go. Never before in the history of the world have people been so busy and preoccupied. People are on the go, and there’s no sign of them slowing down. Craving more and more information, they simply don’t have time to read text as in the past. People of all walks of life and professions want information delivered that can be consumed in under two minutes. Video has the power to inform quickly and engage customers. These may be customers who wouldn’t normally have the time to look elsewhere for the information. 

Digital has changed marketing forever. It has empowered companies, with technologies that enable conversations between businesses and consumers, to have conversations in real-time. This allows marketers and companies spend valuable time talking to their customers as opposed to talking “at” them. Since customers have little time to pay attention, marketers constantly seek ways to break through the digital noise. A best strategy for video marketing is to plan what the content will accomplish, and for whom. 

The Science Surrounding Video Engagement

There are scientific reasons why video marketing for online business beginners creates impact. People’s brains are hardwired to focus on the facial area. The face is a centralized point where people will gather information and believe what they hear. When a human voice is heard, people are more inclined to regard that information as more meaningful. Seeing is believing! Emotional experiences are the result of seeing. There is a greater connection involved. Perhaps the greatest revelation is that people are drawn to things that move.

Monday, April 27, 2015

How To Master Video Marketing


If you are looking to create a name for yourself online, then you need a visual presence. However, it is not enough to simply create content. Like it or not, professional online video promotion must become a significant part of your online marketing program.

You can create more interest and pack more content into a video than in any other medium. Mastering video marketing gives you a higher ROI than virtually any other form of marketing. Here are some easy steps for effective video marketing.

- Professional Online Video Promotion

The first step in professional video marketing is to optimize your video so that it can be picked up by the search engines. Tags are incredibly important as well as the name of the video. First of all, the tags that are on the video will help the video sharing system to index the video. The number one rule that you should always go by is this regardless of platform: The easier that your video is to index, the higher ranking it will receive within the search rankings for that system. This is true for Google, Youtube, Dailymotion and any other video sharing service or search engine that you can name.

Pick tags that coincide with the actual content that is in your video. Do not give in to the temptation to pick tags just because they describe some hot button topic. If your customer base comes to the video and is disappointed by the content, then you can bet that they will not be back a second time. This will certainly affect your search rankings in a negative way on any major platform.

One aspect about video titles that many people do not understand is that a title is actually a tag as well is a matter of fact, the title tag is one of the most important tags that is used for indexing content. In most successful tags, there is a relevant longtail keyword, a brand name and a localized keyword. Do not be afraid to stretch your title out 12 or 15 words - this is par for the course and necessary for you to fit all of the information into the title tag that you will need to properly index your video.

Second on the list of easy steps for effective video marketing is picking the right thumbnail image. 

The first few customers that are on your website will set the tone for how the video search engines will react to your content. In order to set a good precedent, you must attract these customers with an an enticing and relevant thumbnail image. Many video marketers believe that this is not important: however, it is actually one of the most important aspects of your video marketing program. A good thumbnail image can mean all of the difference between a substantial number of people giving you a chance and your video remaining TechNet, lowering your overall ranking in video search engines.

Third, you must remember that can also be indexed in the major search engines will, Yahoo and Bing as well as in on websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion.

The major search engines may actually be more important than the internal video search engine over 85% of all new business comes in from the search engines of Google, Yahoo and Bing. Being indexed highly in these engines will assure that your video is consumed by the maximum number of people.

To rank highly in the major search engines means that you gain trust with your content. Trust is gained through the initial interaction your content being consistent and constantly rising. This means that you must employ your social media pages in order to mobilize the customers that you already have if you do not have any customers, you may have to take out some ads on some of the major social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.

Friday, April 24, 2015

Why Businesses Are Into Video Marketing


Though it took some time to go mainstream, video marketing is now widely recognized as the most effective way to promote a brand. In many ways, video marketing is the new blogging insofar as drawing eyeballs is concerned. When one looks at the results of an effective video marketing campaign, it's not surprising that the medium has taken off. Here are a couple of reasons why video marketing has taken center stage lately.

It Greatly Increases Engagement

Pound for pound, video marketing simply elicits a stronger response than other forms of marketing. For starters, interested parties will spend more time watching a video than they will reading an article on the same topic. Videos allow viewers to more easily visualize using a business's products and services while they're sucking up the knowledge contained within. Simply put, videos leave a more lasting impression on a target audience.

It Provides Key Consumer Insights

While the effectiveness of any content marketing effort can be tracked via analytics, video marketing in particular allows for deep insights into consumer behavior. All of the top video hosting platforms online boast a slew of tools to help marketers look closely at viewer interaction and content consumption statistics. Those insights empower marketers to improve their videos even further and boost ROI into the stratosphere.

It Gives the Audience More Options

The biggest problem with blogging is that it's a fairly limited way to deliver value and engage prospective customers. Videos allow marketers to deliver far more information in a variety of formats. Including transcripts along with videos allows watchers to soak up visual data while following along without sound. Likewise, those that can't pay attention to the video for whatever reason can listen to the audio.

It Promotes Further Exploration

The fact that videos allow marketers to pack a ton of information into a concise format means that they can encourage further content consumption. For instance, businesses can embed interactive links to related content within videos and nudge viewers to click on them. They can also combine that tactic with sophisticated analytics to fine-tune further content recommendations. That's how experts do video marketing in the real world.

It Promotes Social Media Sharing

Nowadays, viral promotion via social media portals is a key ingredient in the success equation for many businesses. If a brand's followers are doing all of their advertising for them by telling their friends, they'll save a boatload on marketing costs. A strong social media presence can also dramatically boost a site's placement in the organic search engine results pages, thereby raising a brand's profile even further.

It's More Affordable than Ever

One of the most attractive qualities of video marketing is the fact that the cost of producing topnotch videos has fallen dramatically. Once upon a time, creating rich videos with eye-catching graphics and special effects required the use of a full studio and a lot of pricey equipment. Nowadays, even the smallest businesses can put together professional marketing videos using nothing more than smartphones, laptops and free editing software.

It Boasts Superior Conversion Rates

Statistics show that videos convert viewers into customers at a far higher rate than written content. An effective video marketing campaign can create a compelling brand image for a business that quickly attracts new customers in droves. Brands that use video marketing can do more with less and reinvest those savings into improving their core competencies. As such, video marketing is a win-win for both consumers and businesses.

Hop Aboard the Video Marketing Train

In a nutshell, video isn't the future of marketing. It's the present and it can make or break a brand. Many business owners are now frantically trying to figure out how experts do video marketing. There's no real secret to success if one just understands why the tactic is so effective. Review the points above and commit them to memory if learning how to use video marketing in a productive manner is a priority. 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Getting Yourself on Stage the Expert Way


Speaking in public before a live audience can be nerve wracking for anybody. Some of the greatest public speakers in our history have overcome anxiety about speaking in public. Below are some of the best tips for public speaking and speaking on stage like an expert.

Some of the best qualities of a great speaker include confidence, clarity, adaptability to the audience and organization in delivery. 

Confidence

You can exert confidence while speaking by having a sense of authority when you speak. When listeners pay attention to a public speaker, they're waiting to hear someone with a sense of leadership. The best qualities of a great speaker include expert knowledge on the topic they're discussing and the strength of his/her opinion. When there's a sense of authority in speech, the listeners feel confidence, too. They also gain a peace of mind knowing that they're listening to someone who knows what he/she is talking about.

Clarity

In order to be a clear and effective communicator, clarity is very important. Be sure to enunciate your words and pronounce the words clearly. Speaking with a clear voice (no frogs in your throat!) and projecting so that the listeners can hear you will help you be a great speaker. 

Be an Adaptable Speaker

When speaking, be conscious of your voice level. If anyone in the audience lets you know that they can't understand what you're saying or that they can't hear you in the back, be sure to make adjustments. This will also help your audience members appreciate you better. They'll feel as though it's worth their time to hear what you have to say because you are conscious of them and their needs.

Be Organized In Your Delivery

All great speakers would say that the best tips for public speaking include efficiency and organized delivery. When people are listening to a speaker, they want to know what they're listening to and why they're listening to it. When delivering your thoughts, be prepared in advance and organize them. Make sure you have an opening, a middle and an end that wraps it all up nicely. More ways to improve your delivery is to memorize the ideas, not line by line what you need to say. If you memorize the ideas, then you can pad your speech with conversational and colloquial material that doesn't make you nervous, awkward or afraid of forgetting your lines. 

More ways you can feel better about public speaking is to speak to your audience at the beginning to warm yourself and the audience up together. You can loosen up in front of your audience and create a safe environment. It reinforces a sense of intimacy and establishes some basis for trust. Your audience might also be more susceptible to understanding your sense of humor. Also, don't be afraid of using helpful tools like sound and visual content. If you have a video or a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate your points, be sure to use it. But make sure that you do a test run beforehand. A lot of the times these things can be susceptible to technological difficulties. If your sound or video stops working midway during the presentation, your audience might grow restless, bored or confused. In order to prevent this, be sure to have a demo run. You can also try giving your speech a practice go. Another helpful tip is to time yourself during a practice run. This way you know exactly how long it takes for you to deliver your speech. If your speech is too short, it might not fit the event's schedule with other speakers who may or may not be lined up. If it's too long, it might make the audience grow bored or restless, otherwise not leave enough time for a Q&A session. Make sure you feel out your room so that you know how to engage with your listeners. All of the above are some of the best tips for public speaking.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Top Qualities of a Great Stage Speaker



The fear of public speaking is a prevalent one, but as a variety of inspiring speakers have proven, it is conquerable. Even if you have overcome the fear, learning how to get yourself on stage as an expert, while still appearing unique, can be difficult. People truly embrace a great stage speaker that has put the effort into making a full presentation instead of simply reading from cue cards; And this is the main goal: to have an audience full of people that leave with an influential and meaningful impact. Here are some public speaking tips and traits to focus on when preparing for your next attempt at inspiring an audience. 

Confidence
A sense of confidence and fearlessness goes a long way. Those who are timid do not engage the public, and during a speech, their engagement is essential for both parties to have a successful experience. Establishing that self-assurance and conviction in front of a group is the best way to command the attention in the room. Remember that internal anxiety is hide to hard on your face, so be prepared. A speaker who is prepared makes everyone feel more comfortable in the room. Also, being able to reach outside of your comfort zone shows the audience your power, boldness, and courageousness, and they will instantly become locked on not only your words, but your technique.

Authenticity
Following all the public speaking tips in the world means nothing if the audience feels like they cannot trust you. Be yourself and master the ability to tell personal anecdotes about yourself. Speakers who know themselves and are willing to share their REAL paths of struggle and triumph embolden the listeners. Vulnerabilities remind the audience that the speaker is coming from a good, authentic place that appeals to their humane side. This entails developing perspectives that give and receive empathy between the speaker and their audience. 

Awareness
Sometimes speeches have to be adjusted to the demographics of the audience and any great stage speaker can readily become aware of this and consciously make the adjustments. Awareness allows the speaker to pick up on hints, cues, and behaviors that influence the audience or, otherwise, might distract the audience. An effective speaker understands and capitalizes on their strengths, but what they feel is a strength may be considered a weakness to others. Tapping into your own self-awareness using introspection will help you highlight and incorporate what you find important and your style, but be willing to accommodate the audience if they appear to feel uninterested or worse, insulted.

Creativity
While this does play into being authentic, being creative also means that the speaker adds a degree of freshness to each speech. If a member of the audience becomes a fan of your work or presentation, you will want them to come back again. However, it is not very enjoyable for that fan to sit through the same speech in a different room. Spontaneous and interactive moments with the audience are a quick, creative way of helping your speeches to keep from getting stale. Use your personality; If you are funny, make them laugh, if you are passionate, make bold gestures. Even the most boring sections of your speech should have some aspect that makes it interesting. Use an expressive voice that easily transitions in pitch, volume, tone, and speed. This will animate the speech while providing a natural highlighter on key points that you want the audience to take away from their time with you. 

These are just a few of the qualities that people admire in a great stage speaker. With these and practice, you now know how to get yourself on stage as an expert - just remember to make the material, and the presentation of that material, your own.

Friday, April 17, 2015

The Advantage of Speaking On Stage


One of the reasons why experts love speaking on stage is that even if they are beyond establishing authority as an expert, they are often rewarded immediately afterwards by chatting with audience participants that have an interest in the topic that they are speaking on.

It may be a large or small venue that you speak at, but many professional organizations in the technology field actually listen and then respond with opportunity once a talk is over and has been well received.

Determining your public speaking strategies in advance:

Because of the tendency to create goodwill for the business that you run, your venue choices should factor into the public speaking strategies that you adopt for your firm. Are you speaking in order to build consulting chops around a concept or are you speaking about technologies or processes that make your company or your product a better choice than your competitor? If you decide that you want to speak at a trade show for your product, the talk normally features a demonstration of the product or technology that you represent, somewhat muting the need for you to focus on your own capabilities. In fact, most presenters that are on stage for new product demonstrations will tend to be low key and emphasize only how well their product fits potential clients needs as well as their mastery of the features and technology that underpin that product. 

On the other hand, if you are building your firm's reputation for consulting or establishing authority as an expert, playing up your own speaking capabilities and personality are very much a part of any public speaking strategy. The more dynamic your are, the better your reception if your material is solid.

Why content is king regardless:

Delivery is important in many ways, but the common denominator in any type of public speaking engagement is the content that you are providing the audience with. If you are giving a sales presentation, you should be adept at focusing on your strengths to overcome any potential deficiencies. Otherwise, preparing your material so that it resonates with the audience can easily be the most important task that you face ahead of time. Content is so important, that executives often informally use others as sounding boards for key messages that they want to deliver well in advance of any public speaking engagement. The biggest advantage that preparing your content brings, of course, is to provide your audience with new concepts that they can factor into the goings on of their own organizations. If you are in a smaller venue, allowing this percolation to become evident by making room for questions during the presentation can be a good strategy.

Practice before you go on stage:

As with any new idea or concept, there are always going to be ways for people to create uncomfortable questions around its introduction. Preparing in advance for awkward questions and mastering the material so that you have solid responses to questions that are actually anticipated can make a lot of difference in how much advantage you gain by going on stage in the first place. It doesn't have to be as rigorous as if you were preparing for a presidential debate, but among Fortune 500 companies, many are very careful about scheduling presentations from experts that have not presented the same speech at least a couple of times. So take your cues from that type of experience and arrange, if possible to preview material within your company or with a group of people that can provide solid feedback so that you can polish a 'hit' presentation instead of showing up with something unproven. The audience will reward your efforts.

In most cases, the reasons why experts love speaking on stage boils down to the notion that the benefits that they receive from giving a good presentation will accrue to their company's standing or their own personal power. By exercising the proper preparation and speaking strategies, you can maximize the return.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Boost Your Authority As An Expert By Speaking On Stage


If you’re hoping to set yourself apart from the other people in your industry, being recognized as an expert is one way to stand apart from the crowd. Establishing your authority as a subject matter expert may seem complicated, but it truly does not have to be. One of the best and easiest ways to establish your authority in any industry is to speak in public. Once you deliver a professional business stage presentation in public, you will find there are many benefits to speaking in public, each of which helps you establish your authority in a different and significant way.

Why Try Speaking in Public to Establish Your Authority?

Part of establishing authority as an expert is being recognized by external organizations and influential people. The perception that other people have of you can be very powerful in business and have a direct impact on your bottom line. Speaking on stage is a great way to do this because it legitimizes you, not only to those who are at your talk, but even to those who don’t get to see you speak. Simply having spoken at a conference, event or workshop is a great credit to have on your resume, which can lead to more and more speaking engagements. Knowing that you speak at events helps people to understand that you are not simply another attendee, but rather an active part of the event. This helps to establish your authority and set you apart from the other attendees as someone who has a more influential position.

Public Speaking can Give You a Social Media Boost 

The benefits of speaking on stage can be far reaching, especially in the age of social media and internet marketing. Recent research has shown that people are likely to be swayed or influenced by the opinions of others on social media channels. If your speech hits home with people in the audience, they are more likely to follow you on their favorite form of social media and mention you to the followers they have. This can expose you to a whole new audience in addition to those who saw you speak. They may also upload video clips and pictures of your presentation to the web so that other people can enjoy them. You can also try this strategy yourself, by uploading the PowerPoint of your presentation to Slide Share or putting a video of yourself speaking on YouTube. Post a blog that highlights the most important points of your talk. By doing these things you can ensure that one speaking engagement turns into more content and promotion for you, without having to spend any of your own advertising budget. 

One Presentation Can Easily Lead to Another...and Another

Once you have used your speaking engagement to establish your authority as an expert, you will likely find that the process of seeking out new business leads and more speaking engagements gets much easier. Once people know who you are and that you are capable of putting together a professional business stage presentation, they will seek you out to speak at other events, do business with them or simply to hear more of what you have to say. This can lead to a lucrative stream of revenue as a speaker and expert.

Although you may never have tried establishing authority as an expert by presenting a business presentation, it can be well worth your while to try it and see how it goes.Chances are that you will find the benefits of speaking on stage are numerous and give your business a bump in attention and profit.

Monday, April 13, 2015

Professional Tips When Starting An Internet Marketing Business


More people than ever are trying to break into the Internet marketing business to make a name for themselves or to create a second stream of income. Internet marketing (IM) is the art of selling, buying, and marketing various products and/or services online. Internet marketing today has become one of the biggest, fastest growing businesses across the globe because of its ease of availability along with the ability to engage literally millions of people worldwide. Although starting an IM business takes time and dedication and isn’t always easy, it’s very doable with just a bit of persistence. Overall, there are many pro's of having an online business for a number of reasons. Here are some of the best tips for internet marketer protocol to ensure your success.

1. Research, Research, Research

If you’re just starting an IM business, it takes a great deal of research to be adequately prepared. What kinds of things are you most interested in? Is there a certain niche you’re quite familiar with? First, decide whether you want to promote your own products or simply become an affiliate marketer instead, which means promoting products or services for other people for a commission. 

2. Set Up Your Website

No matter if you’re just starting out as an affiliate marketer or promoting your own products, it’s crucial to have your own website along with a good domain name and reasonably priced web hosting. By owning your domain name, you’ll add credibility to your IM business and let people know you’re serious. Register a unique name that refers to what your business actually does, like “XYZWebDesigns.com”. It will benefit you to have a name that closely resembles what your business is all about. Also, finding a good, inexpensive hosting site shouldn’t be a problem since there are many reputable ones to choose from. 

3. Develop a Good Marketing Strategy. 

No business will grow and prosper without implementing a good marketing strategy first. This is especially true with an online business since you need to be seen on various platforms in order to keep growing your business, such as social media channels, online directories, etc. Choose good internet marketing strategies and incorporate them into your daily online activities. 

One of the best tips for internet marketer practices is to be persistent and keep promoting your website everyday by leveraging the power of social media and incorporating good SEO (search engine optimization). 

4. Use Good SEO Tactics

The success of your website primarily depends on where it ranks online. Web traffic and visibility are both major factors when it comes to effective online marketing. A good SEO ranking will be an important promotion tool concerning your overall business. 

5. Persistence is the Door to Success

In order to keep growing your online marketing business, you need to do something to support it everyday if you ever want to make real money. Whether it’s writing articles on guest blogs, sending direct emails to your audience, or sending out tweets about the details of your business, you must be proactive. 

6. Know Your Audience

This is the most important aspect about Internet marketing. If you don’t know who you’re marketing to and where they ‘hang out’ at online (which social media sites), then you’ll likely have a very difficult time succeeding. What are you selling? Who can benefit from what you have to offer? It’s a simple concept of supply and demand. If you want to sell ice water, head for the desert – people will literally pay you anything for it if they want it bad enough. 

As you can see, there are many pro's of having an online business. Once you get the basics down, everything will fall into place and eventually you’ll succeed. 

Friday, April 10, 2015

How To Choose The Best Location For Live Events


When hosting a live event, one should go out of their way to find a solid location. When finding a great location, it is easy to save money and time. Furthermore, when having a great place to host the event, it is easy to make sure that guests are happy, arrive on time and don´t experience issues. With that being said, many people don't know how to choose a location, and here are four tips to consider when choosing the best location for live events.

Location matters: Above all else, a host will want to choose the best location possible. Now, many people don't know how to choose a solid location as they are not sure what metrics to look at and understand. For starters, when finding a place, it should be next to a major freeway. If possible, it should also be next to public transportation and near the airport. Then, when hosting in a location that is easily accessible to all, one will see the attendees come in droves. They will also enjoy their time more, and they wont get lost on the way to the site.

A lot of parking: Now, when choosing a site, one will want to think about parking. Yes, most people, when coming to an event, are going to drive. When driving to the site, one will want to make sure that the attendees can easily park their cars, get out and head to the event. This is, without a doubt, one of the most important things to consider when one wants to know how to choose the best location. Otherwise, if there is not enough parking, people will struggle to get in and out of the site, and they will have a hard time carrying their items into the event.

Everything on site: Think about it, when on the site, one will want to choose one that has a lot of items to use. For starters, the live event location must have chairs, tables and plenty of other places for people to sit and congregate. Furthermore, the place should have multiple bathrooms for both men and women. Nothing can ruin an event more than having only one or two bathrooms. Not only that, if a person wants to find a live event location, he or she must try to find one offering other things they may need such as projectors and extra computers.

Staff: Finally, when choosing a site, one must choose one with a lot of staff. Simply put, when hosting an event, it´s wise to find one that has a lot of people who can help. Ideally, one should already know this, but most people are not aware of how important workers are to the situation. When working an event, one will have to deal with security, IT and food. Luckily, when choosing a place with great staff, one will not have to worry. Sadly, this is often overlooked, and a lot of people would enjoy their events more if they chose a place where there are plenty of hardworking people helping.

When knowing how to choose the best location, one can have an easier time with their event. Luckily, with these tips, a person can throw the best event and make sure that everyone has a good time.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Top Things to Consider in Choosing the Venue for Live Events


When planning, orchestrating, or managing live events there are countless things that can go right but there are also many things that can go horribly wrong. While life is always filled with pleasant and not-so-pleasant surprises, unexpected mishaps can be avoided in the event planning industry by simply having a bit of experience and know how in event preparation. So, if you’re looking for a few tips to get you started or improve upon your existing projects, take a look at the list that I have compiled below.

Finding a Location
First and foremost, it is quite obviously imperative that a location needs to be selected to even begin. However, there are numerous things to consider when making this decision. What is the target market? Is the event space to big or too small? Are the participants of this event going to have to travel? Choosing a good venue to attract more audience is where it all begins. These are all things that must be assessed as they can heavily influence the success or failure of any live event. For instance, a congested parking lot due to overpopulation or a lack of parking spaces may cause decreased morale amongst attendees or even deter people from showing up.

Environment
Another one of the more important parts of planning a live event is creating an ambiance that correlates with the theme at hand. Because individuals attend events hoping for a certain atmosphere, this element is just as important as choosing a good venue to attract more audience. What will be the layout of the event space? Will the lighting be dim or vibrant? Once again, these are more questions that must be answered as they will regulate the quality of the gathering. 

Entertainment
Without some form of entertainment, guests are bound to get bored. First, it is important to understand the audience that will be being accommodating. For example, hiring a 50’s rock band to perform at a 1999 class reunion may be a huge mistake the surely won’t go unnoticed.

Choosing a Date Wisely
Unfortunately, this is one of the factors of event planning that is commonly overlooked by those new to event preparation. Individuals often choose a date that sounds good or may work with their schedule without thinking about how this may affect the outcome of their event. For example, planning events around the holiday season can be very competitive because of the volume of happenings. On the other hand, planning something during the summer months broadens the variety of available venues and people willing to show up. Furthermore, once a date is in mind, it may be wise to see if there are any other popular events on the same day that may affect attendance.

Live event planning can be a tricky business for people who aren’t sure where to begin or how to avoid costly mistakes. However, the mastery of these skills, as well as a few others, can ensure than anyone has success planning live events. 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Strategies in Writing Artices in Your Target Niche


When building an online presence, don't underestimate the importance of articles as a means to becoming a master of your target niche. Investing in articles that are well-written and provide useful information is key to attracting and holding on to readers.

Information Is the Key

Everyone searching the web is either looking for information or to be entertained, and while videos are good for some topics, articles have a strong role as well. For topics that are complex and provide structured information, the importance of articles that readers will want to share and bookmark for future reference is the bread and butter of niche content.

Reading Is Vital

You must write unique articles that provide new information. To avoid repetition, subscribe to and read other bloggers in your niche. Research and read what others have to say on the topic. An excellent way to find micro-niche topics is to focus on one part of a general article and write in depth about it. For example, instead of writing about making money online, write about a particular affiliate and the best ways to utilize them.

Ask Your Readers What They Want

When you share on social sites, ask your readers if they would like to know more about the topic and if so, what specific information they are interested in. Don't just post and run, because the comments often contain great topic ideas. Providing your readers with exactly what they want increases their incentive to share and promote your content.

Be Consistent

Nothing will kill your internet karma faster than taking weeks off from contributing content to your site. The more you write, the more your readers will share. It's always a numbers game, and those who keep their names and faces in the social eye are the ones who succeed.

Write Directly to Your Target Audience

You cannot become the master of your target niche if you do not write articles that are completely relevant to that niche. If you are not an expert in your niche topic, investing in articles written by those who are will pay for itself many fold. This is especially important for micro-niches, because readers expect expert knowledge as opposed to surface-level information they can find anywhere.

Create a Mind-Map

Creating a mind-map of topics and subtopics gives you a boost when trying to ideate new article topics. Each topic keyword should be able to spawn several articles. Using your main niche keyword, map out at least five to 10 subtopics with another five subtopics for each of them. Once you have written those, go even deeper into micro-topics. Mind mapping expands the possibilities for article ideas exponentially.

Keyword Research Is Essential

While you don't want to write to the most popular keywords due to excessive competition, you also don't want to write only to keywords that no one searches for. A good mix of keywords in different levels will draw in traffic from many segments of those interested in your niche. Reading the daily news and using sites like Google Alerts will help you find trending searh terms for keywords that draw immediate traffic.

Becoming the master of your target niche is much more complicated than just flooding the internet with volumes of meaningless content. Readers are tired of stale, overdone, poorly written articles that say nothing new. Well written, well researched, unique and up-to-date articles will keep your readers coming back for more and inviting their friends.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Boost Your Authority as An Expert By Writing Articles


Success with marketing no longer involves those outdated strategies of the past. Instead, it involves a proactive approach that’s predicated on reaching a mobile and connected customer base, one that is online and always searching for new information. Ultimately, when someone looks to answer “why I should write an article,” the answer comes down to mastering your target niche by becoming that all-important market expert. Here are some direct benefits of using articles to become an expert in your field.

Good Content Engages its Audience

Providing an engaging and thought-provoking article not only showcases your company’s core competencies, but it forever demonstrates your own knowledge and expertise, while helping to position you and your company as an important market influencer. Customers want more than just a product or service. They want to better understand who they’re buying from and what they bring to the table. A personal connection is ultimately what selling and marketing is all about. Our online world affords you the opportunity to reach out to your customers at the click of a mouse.

Identifying Your Target Audience

Mastering your target niche ultimately means identifying your target audience and incentivizing them to take action. Article writing is an ideal approach because it allows you to tap into a global marketplace, one where your customers could be half way around the world, or right around the corner. Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't merely a buzzword. It’s the road-map you need to reach out to global customers, ones who at this very moment are searching for what you and your company have to offer. Organic content reaches that audience in a way few mediums can. If that article is optimized for search engines, then it will reach those individuals most interested in its message.

A More Accurate Type of Marketing

At one time, marketing was seen as one half black magic the other half luck. The companies of the past relied upon a haphazard approach of randomly searching for customers. However, they were never certain whether their advertisements were reaching their intended targets. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. When you look to answer “why I should write an article,” think first about how today’s online marketing allows you to track results in real-time. It’s a marketing platform with an accuracy no other outbound marketing strategy can duplicate. 

An Inexpensive Continuous Resource

Perhaps the most important reason you should use articles to master your target niche is because it’s an inexpensive form of marketing. You alone write the article based on your own knowledge, your own expertise and with your own focus. This allows you to appeal directly to those targeted customers you know will appreciate your company’s value proposition. 

It’s not something you need to rely upon others for. All you need to do is write the article, track its performance in terms of views and customer engagement, and if needed, make necessary changes to improve that article and make it more relevant. Online article writing is something you can do today that you couldn't do before. After all, once that article was printed, there was no going back.

It doesn't matter if you’re posting that article on your company’s website, your own personal blog, on an online forum, on social media or even on an online industry trade publication, reaching out to your audience has never been simpler. What it takes is your willingness to start writing.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Writing Articles: The Best Way to Improve Website Traffic


Technology is all around us. Thanks to advancements in smartphone technology, consumers have access to the Internet no matter where they are. Regardless if it's on their home computer or smartphone, you want potential consumers to be able to locate your website. How do you go about improving website traffic, though? What's the best way to drive in traffic?

The answers to these questions can differ depending on who you ask. Some say that building traffic is as easy as placing ads. Others swear by social media websites. However, another form of lead generation is writing articles for your website. When it comes right down to it, writing quality articles might be the best way to build traffic.

Why Write Articles

When people get on the Internet, nine times out of 10 they are looking for something. This means that they go to a search engine like Google to type in certain keywords related to whatever they are searching. Then, the engine searches websites for those keywords. When search engines first came about, websites could just stuff their pages full of keywords to be pulled up in searches. Now, however, Google, and the like, look for quality over quantity. A good way to get these keywords on your site is to write articles.

Let's say that you have a video game website, and Nintendo just launched a new gaming system. If you want people to visit your site to buy the product, you need to get your site to pop up on search engines. One way to do this is to write articles about the new gaming system. Maybe you could do a review or overview of the system. Maybe you could talk about new games for that system. Either way, you want to work the name of that system, which is the keyword, into the article.

What is a Good Article?

So now you have a better understanding on how lead generation works in terms of writing articles, but you can't simply write any article and expect to use it as a means of building traffic. When asking yourself, “What is a good article?” you first have to think about what your site is about. You want all of your articles to relate to the website. You also want them to be offering real information. Good articles don't just bring in traffic, they cause the reader to hang around the site a bit. The longer you have consumers on your site the better. Here are a few things a good article should have:

• Real Information – The article should have real information that consumers are interested in. The better the information, the better chance you have at being ranked in search engines.
• No Keyword Stuffing – While it's true you want your article to have keywords in it, you don't want to over stuff the article. Articles that are too full of keywords are penalized.
• Unique Information – Don't just restate the same thing that all the other websites are saying. Come up with your own unique content that consumers can't find anywhere else.

Keep in mind that writing articles for your website is not the only way to generate traffic. Consider writing blog posts for websites that allow guest bloggers. By writing high-quality articles for these other websites, you can include links back to your website. Search engines take these links into consideration when ranking websites.