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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Marketing with My Space: An Interview

Matthew Sherborne started marketing on the internet in 1998 with his first website devoted to his commercial diving business. Matthew accumulated real-life knowledge of using low-cost advertising techniques and continually searched for new and innovative marketing methods. Through all of his research looking for the perfect system of promotion, he's discovered the most successful method has always been word of mouth advertising. With that knowledge he's been an enthusiastic supporter of searching and utilizing viral marketing techniques.

Since selling his diving service business in 2002 he's traveled from San Diego to Hawaii and finally to the San Francisco Bay area. Working a variety of labor intensive jobs, above and below ground and water, he decided in early 2005 to put 100 percent of his effort into internet marketing.

Since that time he's focused exclusively on the most effective low-cost marketing techniques to boost his online business. He now offers the very same techniques that's made him successful and yielded incredible results. Matthew has a passion for marketing and it shows as he shares today's most radically effective promotional techniques.

Matthew will take you behind the scenes to show you exactly how he makes his lucrative income and how he markets his own business online. With his "nothing held back" philosophy you can expect to get all of the inside secrets and sales boosting tactics to use on your very own online business.

Question: I read your ebook, "MySpace Cash Machine", and it is excellent. How did you get started marketing on My Space, and how did you find all of the techniques for marketing on My Space?

Answer: I got started marketing on My Space quite by accident in late 2005, in fact if not for a musician friend of mine, I would have missed it entirely.

He sent me to his My Space profile and told me how he was receiving some great exposure to his website from linking there. I'd heard in the media that My Space was literally exploding in popularity and that was enough for me to take the opportunity seriously enough to learn more. I discovered not only was My Space fast becoming the most popular website online, it held the potential to reach millions of people for free.

After some research I found that the most commented on and popular profiles were the ones that focused entirely on one subject and did so enthusiastically. Then I carefully studied what others were doing on their My Space profiles in regards to sending bulletins, comments and setting up profiles. My ultimate goal was to uncover exactly how they were making money.

I then replicated the successful money-making techniques by fine tuning my profile and website offer. By targeting one specific high-paying niche, it maximized results and brought more income. I then looked for other high interest topics within My Space and started experimenting with a variety of niche topics with different themed profiles designed to funnel people to websites exactly suited to their wants.

Question: Why do you think My Space is such an effective place to market your business? Why would you recommend My Space?

Answer: For starters, My Space currently has more than an 80 percent market share over all social networking websites. This accounts for a total number of profiles in excess of 100 million and My Space is currently ranked the 5th most visited website on the planet. As you can imagine the sheer number of people on My Space makes it an extremely attractive place to find hungry customers.

Coupled with the fact that My Space allows you to customize your own webpage with HTML code and CSS to give it any kind of look you want and link to outside sources is irresistible. Imagine the potential of having a popular profile centered around a lucrative keyword and linking it to your own Adsense monetized website or sales page.

Once you've got a popular profile it becomes an incredible opportunity just waiting for you to plug in to it. Through the use of groups, forums, messages, events, comments, blogs, videos and classified advertising you have a multitude of ways to reach people interested in your products and turn them into your customers.

You can use My Space to get targeted customers for virtually any product you have to offer and you can grow your opt-in lists to continue the selling process. The best part is, you can use My Space to tap in to the most powerful kind of marketing ever known, word of mouth.

Question: What marketing technique do you find to be the most effective, and how do you use it? Would you tell us one or two of your best marketing tips?

Answer: As a marketer, the most important key to remember is that your My Space profile is created to attract viewers to your website. To do this, you must determine the most remarkable aspect of your product and turn that into your own persuasive story. Your whole profile must reflect your unique story and be structured so that it not only appeals to your target audience but compels them to find out more.

Your My Space picture is often the first thing that people see; make sure you have one that stands out. The best pictures stir up an emotion in its viewer. A good rule of thumb is to select pictures that are relevant to your product and audience. My favorite strategy is to use a movable gif that is a little larger than the average and captures the viewer's attention.

You'll want to spend time selecting a strong headline for your profile since it will appear next to your picture. It will also be visible from comments you leave on other profiles and on the My Space search function. It's important that you use proper search engine optimization techniques in your headline and throughout your profile's content. The headline should reflect your overall strategy with important keywords.

Leveraging the efforts of many is key to building a profitable My Space marketing business. One of the best ways to market your offer on My Space after you've established your profile is through the use of groups. You have the opportunity to start a group on virtually any topic you want. When you start a group you have control over who can join and its content. To get your group started send a bulletin to everyone on your friends list. Once you've got a loyal following to your group, people will gladly share the information with others.

If you want to send viewers to a specific offer, sending bulletins to your My Space profile's friends list will get you instant results. You can use bulletins to offer something of perceived value to gain the acceptance of friends and have them become outspoken advocates for your product.

Commenting on popular profiles will get people coming to check you out. People on My Space love to share things with each other. If you have a unique video, funny picture or contest, you can post it on popular profiles and really spread your message. Once the word is out, its potential to spread is limitless.

Question: What trends do you see in marketing on My Space? What do you see in the future of My Space?

Answer: My Space has grown so fast due in large part to its success facilitating direct person to person interaction. Whether it's sharing pictures, videos or content, people are moving away from disruptive media sources and embracing those that involve user generated content. You can expect to see more consumer created media begin to appear on profiles and anticipate more people willing to share it.

In the near future people will not only research a particular product, but go to My Space to learn about the product's creator. Building relationships and connecting with others of like mind is what My Space is all about . For savvy marketers, this means allowing the consumer to feel like they have a direct connection with you.

Marketers who expose others to non interruptive sources of information will have the greatest success, as quality content becomes the accepted norm. Competition will intensify among traditional advertisers as the ad dollars spent on social networks approaches the billions. With its massive success My Space will branch out to being viewed via cell phones and expand to other countries like China and Japan.

Most importantly, successful online marketing will transform to become continually viral. Instead of buying a product based on brand alone, consumers will seek out and follow the recommendations of others. Marketers who have framed their message to be extraordinary will benefit from having it shared and heard worldwide.

Question: What projects are you currently working on, and where do you plan to take your business from here?

Answer: My future is focused primarily on helping other small business owners strategically place themselves in their market to stand out among the corporations without spending a fortune. The objective is to build resources that bridge the gap between consumers and marketers and generate customers who become outspoken supporters.

I plan on taking my business forward by concentrating on the most effective new forms of media. You'll hear a whole lot more of me as I venture into online video, audio products and viral promotions. My business plan incorporates a series of interconnected products all pursuing the goal of pushing the marketing boundaries to new limits.

Jinger Jarrett is the author of the book, "Internet Marketing for Free: The GUIDE (on Amazon). Get your free ebook download at http://www.askjingernow.com Matthew Sherborne is the author of the ebook, My Space Cash Machine: http://www.cashmachinebook.com/ Get your free ecourse now.

Internet Marketing Online: The Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing has its many benefits. This internet marketing strategy is not really emphasized on as many internet marketers are more focused on traffic generation and website optimization. What they do not realise is how powerful emails are. This particular brand of power online can give you miracles in ways you won't imagine.

Auto-responder

To give out emails, you will first need an auto-responder. An auto-responder is a service that you can use to build up on your list and send out emails to them in a specific time. For example, when someone subscribes to your list, he/she will automatically receive a thank you email from you and receives the first newsletter. This service is useful because it allows you to type in all your emails and send them out in sequence, e.g. You have eight emails you'd like to give your customers and you can organize them into being sent out as one per week. There are good auto-responder services out there that businesses use such as Aweber and GetResponse.

Opt-In List

When you want visitors to part with their name and email addresses to you, you have to prove that you are worthy to receive them. Prove to them that you are qualified in giving them what they are looking for. Let's say there's a fisherman who comes into your fishing website in order to learn the techniques of how to fish better. You can provide him wih an e-book on how to fish better if he opts into your list.

Managing Great Content

Make your customers look forward to your emails. Give them free gifts, techniques and advice that makes them inspired to learn more from you and trust you with their money. Referring back to the previous example of giving a free fishing book to your customer, you can wait for about a week, and after he has liked your book and trusted your judgement, you can advertise to him a certain product that can help him fish better. Do focus on customer behaviour. Customers very seldom buy products when they first get to know about it. They need a certain amount of time to think it through. All the more, you can emphasize on the product in your next email if they haven't bought it.

Email Format

The title or subject of the email should be something that catches the reader's attention. It is proven that names work very well in making people read the emails sent to them. For example, "Ben! Look what I've got for Christmas!"

As for the body copy, the research team at www.MarketingExperiments.com did an email campaign that increased sales by 49%. Some of the key points they featured in the body copy was:
-making sure the valuable product benefits the customer
-avoid a sales hype by using a "personal tone" in your emails
-provide customer service by catering to their needs
-providing incentives

Ezine Publishing

Another thing you can do is an ezine. An ezine is an electronic magazine or an electronic newsletter. It is given to visitors or customers through emails. Ezine publishing can come useful in advertising and promoting new products or to give out information or advice as to what customers are looking for. The awesome research team of www.MarketingExperiments.com also did an experiment on Ezine advertisement testing have proven that ezine advertising has the potential to produce strong returns on investment. Companies do not really emphasized on them because of the lack of time or expertise to optimize these campaigns. These companies are making a big mistake because they do not realize the full extent of how much more money they could make online.

In every ezine you'd like to distribute out to your list, simply generate content in it and place the same advertisement. To know how many click throughs your ad is getting you can use a script called ProLinkz which is available at www.prolinkz.com. It would be great if your ad was a strong one with a good headline, preferably done with copywriting skills. Format the ad with good dimensions and make sure it stands out. Test out the various positions of where you put your ad and decide on a position which is proven to get more click throughs.

In Internet marketing online, in order to really understand the email marketing strategy you have to implement them. Understanding them and knowing how to do it is just the first step. Once you have practised and tried them, you'll see greater results in sales.

Copyright (c) 2007 Jo Han Mok

Jo Han Mok is a #1 bestselling author and a masterful planner in developing powerful strategies on internet marketing online. Find out how he can make you discover the internet millionaire within! Visit his website at http://www.internetmillionairecode.com.