New Orleans Internet Marketing » Marketing Resources

Why You Should Automate Your Marketing Efforts with Aweber’s Email Autoresponders

inlayout — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:37:52 +0000

I’ve long known about email marketing and Aweber’s Autoresponders, but until recently, I didn’t have any ideas on how I could integrate one into any of my own personal websites to make them more profitable for me.

Email newsletters are great for reminding customers and potential customers about your products and services. If the newsletters give something away – like high quality free information, discounts on products, or news about something the consumer cares about, they will generally stay subscribed. And when they keep getting that reminder from you, they’re a lot more likely to turn to you when it comes time for them to make another purchase. They also do great at generating conversions from potential customers who were reluctant to buy when they first found your website.

The bottom line is this: we all need to make the most of our advertising dollars, and email marketing is another way of delivering our content and bringing people back to the website. So whether it’s pay-per-click marketing that sends your traffic or television ads, if you have an email marketing campaign in place you will be more likely to convert the traffic you get from those sources.

The beauty of an email autoresponder is that it’s a set-it-and-forget-it solution to email marketing. The difference between this and a traditional email newsletter is that the more traditional email newsletter requires someone to manage it by coming up with new content on a regular basis and sending the newsletter out.

With an “autoresponder” like the one Aweber has created, the management of the list is automated, so that all of your content can be added at once and sent out through a set interval that you control through the backend. Another great advantage is that through Aweber, you still have the ability to send out a “Broadcast” message to all of your subscribers at once. So if your e-commerce store is trying to “clear out” some old inventory, you can send out the clearance sale newsletter with ease.

One important lesson I’ve learned in generating profit through internet marketing is that creating automated sources of income is key to long term financial success. When I used to make all of my money designing websites for people, I really enjoyed the work, and the money was great, but there was a limiting factor involved that I could never escape from in that line of business: you can only design so many websites, and as soon as the work runs out, the money runs out.

That’s where the true beauty of having an automated newsletter comes in – once the initial work is done, it’s more of a set-it-and-forget-it marketing tool that will generate income for you down the road. For more info, visit Aweber.com.

Websites for Therapists: TherapySites.com

inlayout — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:38:14 +0000

I’ve been seeing some ads around for therapysites.com for a little while now, and I thought it seemed like a great idea for therapists who want to have their own website built. They provide a lot of tools that make website creation easy, using their customizable themes and their pre-built content management system.

For a FREE Month, use coupon code “promoFMC”!

If you read my post entitled “How Much Should My Website Cost?” you already know that decent web design can start in the $2k range, and go up over time with different cost factors. The thing I like about TherapySites.com, is that while more expensive than just plain website hosting, you save all of the money that’s usually spent on the initial design process. Plus you get their content management system so you can easily make your own changes to the site.

The other thing I like is that the company seems focused on the business of therapists, which means they will likely be equipped to deal with common problems that therapists face when it comes to web design; usually companies like this improve over time also.

I haven’t tried their sites out yet, and I haven’t heard any feedback on them from my advertisers, but they offer a money-back guarantee, and a free month if you mention that you were referred by The FMC Directory (my other website), so it may be worthwhile to try if you’re in the market for a new site.

Chris’s List of Article Directories

inlayout — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:57:13 +0000

Add Google Maps to Your Website

inlayout — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:55:06 +0000

I used to do this using Google’s API, and it was very tricky. Now, it’s a cut and paste operation that takes less than 5 minutes:

1. Go to http://maps.google.com and paste in the address you want to map.

2. Select the zoom level you want.

3. Click the “Link to This Page��? link at the top right, and copy the code that pops up at the bottom.

4. Paste the code into the html of your web page.

Example:

View Larger Map

Chris’s List of Web Directories

inlayout — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 02:57:10 +0000

Not all Web Directories are Created Equal.
These are a few I know about, as well as some links to other lists. Getting your site listed in web directories is a small way to help your site’s relevance and link popularity in the search engines.

Most Important:

Yahoo! Directory
ODP – Open Directory Project
Best of the Web Directory These are others I’ve used:
Aviva Directory – World
Resource Stop
800 Internet Directories to Submit Your Site To
800 Web Directories – Alphabetical Web Directory List
AardvarkBusiness.net Business Search Engine
Adison University Web Resources EDU Website Directory
AllInOrder.org
V7n Directory
Business.com – The Business Search Engine® and Business Directory for Business Information
CANLink Directories – Canadian and Worldwide Links
Crosswalk Directory
DataSpear.com Directory & Search
Directory and Search Engine JoeAnt.com
Directory Portal IT
Directory Rex -
DivingIndex.com – Worldwide Scuba diving web directory
Free Links Find, Review & Discuss Free Advertising & Marketing To Promote Your Website
Galaxy Search Engine & Directory Serious Searches Relevant Results
Gimpsy – Active Sites for Active People
GoGuides.Org Directory & Search
Google Directory – Computers Internet Searching Directories
Home-Add URL Free Guaranteed Inclusion Web Resource Directory
Internet Search Engine Guide to Search Engine Marketing and News
Isins web directory and search engine
Jayde.com – The B2B Search Engine
lifedirectorys.com Search Engine-index
Link Centre Internet Directory and Search Engine
Listings United States
MaxLinks – Web directory
Microsoft bCentral Small Business Directory
NationalDirectory Add URL
NetInsert web directory – free web url submission
New Orleans Website Directory – Over 6000 New Orleans Websites – New Orleans Shopping Guide
PsychLinks Dr. David J. Baxter – Ottawa Psychologists – Psychologists in Ottawa Counselling,
Refdesk Reference, facts, news, free and family friendly
RubberStamped.org – Human Reviewed Directory and Citation Data
SCM’s American Business Directory – Web Directory
Search Engine and Web Directory – KingBloom – Search Engine and Web Directory
Search Engine and Web Directory by Clush.com
Search Engine Friendly Links With Direct URLs
SevenSeek Web Directory
Skaffe.com International Directory and Search Engine
Umdum Web Directory ~ Humanity at work!
Uncover the Net Web Directory
Web 10 – U.S.A. – Directory
Web Directories
Web Directory – Online Games – Free Ecards
Web Directory Index – AroundTheWeb.com
Web Directory Submission Services v1.56
Web World Directory and Search Engine
WebAtlas Web Directory
WoW Search Engine and Directory Service – World Directory – WoW Search Engine and Directory Ser
www.adison.edu – Adison University, Student Knowledgebase
XEIT – Internet Directory -
Yahoo! Canada

Free Websites for Mental Health Professionals

inlayout — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:37:02 +0000

There’s a new service available to mental health professionals called @ Counseling.

http://atcounseling.com

@ Counseling is a place where counseling professionals can sign up and create their own web site, choosing from a variety of different templates. It all takes place through your browser window, and is a very simple and straightforward process. Best of all, it is completely free for any licensed member of the helping professions.

The service is provided by The Family & Marriage Counseling Directory, but therapists do not need to advertise in the directory to be eligible. I hope people will take advantage of it.

Top Social Bookmarking Sites

inlayout — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 13:37:28 +0000

This list isn’t entirely ordered. It shows the number of backlinks using “link:” in Yahoo!

Delicious del.icio.us 5,579,588
Digg digg.com 2,283,589
Technorati www.technorati.com 3,213,234
Yahoo! MyWeb myweb2.search.yahoo.com 114,464
OnlyWire www.onlywire.com 5,990
Reddit reddit.com 638,239
Furl www.furl.net 1,207,958
NewsVine www.newsvine.com 14,200,000
Slashdot Slashdot.org 2,829,533
Spurl www.spurl.net 431,483
StumbleUpon www.stumbleupon.com 1,012,186
BlinkList www.blinklist.com 1,037,723
Magnolia ma.gnolia.com 397,948
Netscape www.netscape.com 2,397,215
Rojo www.rojo.com 118,189
Simpy www.simpy.com 492,336
RawSugar www.rawsugar.com 3,220,000
Shadows www.shadows.com 8,862
Twitter twitter.com 1,211,217
TailRank tailrank.com 174,043
Linkarena linkarena.com 1,651,575
Squidoo www.squidoo.com 36,354
Netvouz www.netvouz.com 543,097
Feed Me Links feedmelinks.com 122,461
BlinkBits www.blinkbits.com 942,937
Delirious de.lirio.us 5,021
Scuttle scuttle.org 48,523
Connotea www.connotea.org 17,540
Kinja kinja.com 87,776
DZone www.dzone.com 161,684
CiteULike www.citeulike.org 483,291
Blue Dot bluedot.us 349,000
Wink wink.com 30,005
Diigo www.diigo.com 407,128
LibraryThing www.librarything.com 541,094
Wists www.wists.com 121,024
BlogMemes www.blogmemes.net 3,438
Hugg www.hugg.com 81,045
Rollyo www.rollyo.com 122,714
Searchles www.searchles.com 25,212
Backflip www.backflip.com 9,5010
Unalog unalog.com 54,805