Page names get bandied around a lot in internet marketing.
But what’s the difference between squeeze pages, opt-in pages and landing pages?
Or are they just terms used to keep new marketers and sometimes even older marketers on their toes?
Content, especially written content, is the backbone of the web.
It drives traffic to your website or videos.
But how can you create good content for your website? Without slaving over a keyboard for hours on end only to write a handful of words.
Riding a trend or a craze can be profitable if you get it right.
As a general rule, trends last a reasonable amount of time whereas crazes are often forgotten almost as soon as they happen.
Sometimes there’s a crossover – the song Macarena was popular for a lot longer than a normal song but you knew deep down that it was only a craze when seemingly every politician felt the need to show they could act out the movements.
If Teespring had been around you’d have made a lot of money selling T-shirts with pictures of people making a fool of themselves.
Some internet marketing strategies are evergreen, others ebb and flow.
For instance, written content has been around much longer than the internet and it’s unlikely to fade. Sure, the medium it’s delivered in might change – we’re no longer painting hieroglyphics onto walls – but we still like to read things.
Other internet marketing strategies that are now available would have been written off as a science fiction dream only a few years ago – personalised adverts spring to mind here.
So which internet marketing strategies are currently the most successful?
If you haven’t got an internet marketing plan you’re stacking the odds against you.
It’s a bit like going on a long journey without a sat nav or a map. Sure, you’ll probably get to your destination but you may well encounter detours and delays along the way.
Ready made internet marketing plans can work OK but they’re best treated as a starting point rather than the final item.
The reason for this is that we all work slightly differently and one person’s internet marketing plan won’t necessarily work brilliantly for you.
Which means it makes sense to create your own internet marketing plan. Either on your own or with the help of a trusted friend.
Free traffic is great.
I’m a big fan of it – articles, videos, forum posts, Facebook posts, Tweets, podcasts, document shares, photo shares, LinkedIn groups, guest posts.
The list isn’t endless but it’s certainly not short either.
The problem is that it’s getting expensive.
The main expense is time.
A forum post may get an immediate “hit” of traffic. Or it may not, depending on how big the forum is and how popular the topic is.
Tweets are like wisps of cloud – difficult to grasp and gone before you know it.
Facebook posts scroll off your timeline like they’re on a conveyor belt on a game show.
With email marketing, the money really is in the list.
But only if you do it right.
If you relate to your list well and come across as helpful and human then people will be more likely to buy.
If you relate to them badly then they won’t.
Of course, not everyone reacts the same – the phrase “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” springs to mind – so you won’t please everyone.
But the more people you do please, the better.
I used to like Squidoo.
I used to admire Seth Godin.
But the way Squidoo has been killed off by him leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.
Internet prices seem to be getting ever lower.
That’s good news if you’re a buyer – digital products that would have been upwards of $67 (and often upwards of $1,000) a few years ago are now available for a pittance. Often below $10.
But it’s bad news if you’re a vendor or an affiliate. You need to make more sales to get the same income, people don’t value the information as much and it seems like you’re trying to walk up a down escalator.
What – if anything – can you do about it?
In theory, internet marketing is easy: attract traffic, make sales.
In practice, making sense of it and finding out what works and what doesn’t is nowhere as easy.
There are so many conflicting reports and things change over time – sometimes gradually, often crazily fast.
So how can you make sense of it all?