Author Archives: Trevor Dumbleton

Internet Marketing: Keeping Up With the Constant Changes

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The world is changing but internet marketing seems to be changing even faster.

Some people give up when faced with the kind of change and upheaval we’re experiencing but that allows room for those who are persistent and still around.

You need to adapt to change otherwise you’ll get left behind – it’s as simple and as blunt as that – and if a week is a long time in politics then 6 months or a year is a very long time in internet marketing.

It’s long enough for Google to have had one or two major updates and hundreds of minor ones (there are one or two of these every day).

And, of course, it’s long enough for your competition to outwit you unless you’ve kept on top of things.

 

Transcript of slides used in video.

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Pros and Cons of Using Ready Made Websites

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Ready made websites can mean lots of different things.

I’ve chosen to ignore the kind of ready made website you can buy for pennies on sites like eBayor even the ones where you’re paying tens (or hundreds) for a limited edition ready made site, restricted to a handful of people who buy the same content and template.

In my experience, those tend to be not worth spending your time on:

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How to Create Content for Your Website – Even When Your Mind’s Gone Blank

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Creating content for your website is sometimes like being on a treadmill – it seems never ending.

The video and audio below go into more depth but here are the 5 ways I talk about:

  1. Compile a list: lists work for near enough everything. They’re quick and easy. Top 10’s work nicely but any other figure is OK as well.
  2. Add your twist to the news: news pundits are everywhere. Share your opinion with the world (everyone else does!) and invite comments back. Use those comments to get ideas for your next piece of content.
  3. Interview someone. Often interviews are available just for asking, especially if someone has just launched a new product or service and wants to get the word out to anyone who’ll listen. So be the one who asks them and get an interview. Record your call on Skype or a similar program and upload it. Maybe get it transcribed as well if you think there’s sufficient value in it. That gives you content in another format, which always helps.
  4. Invite a guest author. Google aren’t fans of networks that exist purely to boost search engine ranks via guest blogging. But they’re perfectly happy for guest authors to create content for sites naturally (Huffington Post does this all the time). Just reach out to friends on Facebook & LinkedIn, people you know on forums and Twitter followers.
  5. Find a trend: search Google Trends for hot trends across the world or in your niche. Then work out how you can create an “angle” on those trends. I’ve used Justin Bieber and the Rolling Stones in an article about WordPress – it’s not much of a stretch, you just need to do a bit of digging.

Transcript of video

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Where to Start Internet Marketing

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The question of where to start with your internet marketing usually applies to beginners but can also affect seasoned internet marketers when they want to branch out into a new area. Markets change over time and if you’ve been away from a market you used to make money from for even just a year or two it can seem as though the whole world has changed.

Do a litmus test

This concept is based on chemistry – you might remember it from school – where you dip a coated piece of paper into a liquid to find out whether it’s acidic or not.

The results are quick and simple.

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Video Creation: What Should You Include in Your Video?

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Video marketing can appear to be quite casual. Videos can “go viral” with no advance warning if they catch people’s mood in the right place at the right time. Or they can skulk in a backwater with almost no views. Or anywhere between those two extremes.

What you need to include in your video depends on what your desired end result is.

If your desired result is a viral video that breaks almost every viewing record on YouTube then I wish you good luck but you’re probably better off looking through the most popular videos on YouTube and hoping you can use those for inspiration.

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How to Find a Mentor for Your Internet Marketing Business

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Running an internet marketing business is much like running any other business except that it is usually less tangible – there are often no premises or other physical manifestation of the business beyond what appears on screen – and it can often involve very little in the way of real (face to face) human contact. This sense of isolation means that finding a mentor to help you progress is one of the vital ingredients to moving your business forward.

When you’re first starting out, you can use forums and Facebook groups as surrogate mentors and some people find that these work well throughout their internet marketing career.

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Internet Marketing: Are You Changing for Change’s Sake?

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It’s far too easy to decide to change things because we’ve got bored with them. Even if our customers are still fine and would actually prefer that we didn’t mess with something they’re used to.

This might be a bit of a rant at first but it’s relevant to your internet marketing, I promise!

I’ve just been forced to upgrade Firefox (the browser I’ve used for a number of years). At the time of writing it’s now on version 29. Still behind Chrome (version 35) but well ahead of Internet Explorer which is “only” on version 11. Mainly because Microsoft still believe that incremental updates in their software are just that – increments that don’t deserve a new version number.

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