Market Research Begins

FOURTH REPORT

Market Research Begins

What are the Trends for this Industry?

A learning business is a growing business, since I am a marketing student these are not new to me…talking of markets, customer satisfaction, profit and etc. the only challenge is on how we integrate the learning we had on actual marketing and the virtual marketing.

Trends keeps the business alive, marketers must be aware of the trends in the market whether it is on technology, economic, social, political and legal and environmental as long as there are consumers/customers who need satisfaction; for also the marketer to meet existing goals like large market share, marketer must build long term relationship with the customers by studying their needs and wants on the daily basis because customers’ needs and wants changes due to the prevalent trends.

Is there sufficient demand?

Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool will help web entrepreneurs-to-be to determine the potential of our topic, does the topics and the related keywords create traffic?

Identifying sufficient demand is somewhat like forecasting demand; organization of information will also guide the marketers to finding the right and the powerful keyword to input.

Extensive research is really needed in this process, one must work seriously because we know the power of the customers, it can turn any entrepreneurs down when entrepreneurs fail to consider and recognize important things regarding the topic.

Through using overture search term suggestion tool, we can search for related keywords and the number it was searched. By clicking certain topic in the report table another set of search report will come out; after evaluating the potential keywords, ideas now are forming in our mind but we still lack the connection.

Though overture doesn’t permit advertisers to place listings for keywords and phrases that receive fewer than 100 searches per month, we must not also fail to recognize the value of the other keyword because they may be helpful.

We key in the inputs in our spreadsheet and finally the connection is building up, we can now visualize the contents of our site.

Top 200 Searches in 60 Days

SECOND REPORT

Top 200 Searches in 60 Days

The first on the list is people search; I believe that these searches come from artists, singers, politicians, beauty queens, businessmen, and other prominent and influential people around the globe. These reports made by wordtracker will help every web entrepreneur to Identify market size, Define a specific target/niche market, Spot trends and surges of interest, Improve search engine positions through enhanced meta tags. The results/report will look likely this way:

Legend

Nos.: Position according to popularity

Count: Number of sightings of keyword in database.

Keyword : The keyword itself

Nos.	Count	Keyword
1	154156	People search
2	141388	Google
3	133130	Yahoo
4	124905	Travel
5	117132	Ebay
6	114093	Jokes
7	99715	Autos
8	98918	Hotels
9	98153	Red Cardinal
10	95624	Health

This is just the first ten most searched keywords according to wordtracker.

Overture’s Search Term Suggestion Tool

This is done through entering related term in our site the instrument proceeds related searches that include the term we affixed  in the search box. The results include the number of times that term was searched for during the previous month.

I cannot say that I cannot make my own discussion but this topic is very new to me and it is really very hard to formulate a phrase, a sentence, and a paragraph regarding my own understanding about the topic. The affiliate handbook/e book relates the same information that I want to discuss but I should focus more on the differences of our thoughts in order for me to continue in this activity and to be more explicitly understood by the future readers of this article.

WordTracker vs. Overture Search Tool

Overture is a free application and offer totally free service but wordtracker is also recommended because of its features that overture don’t have. The example given was when typing wine making in overture, some may go with hyphen the problem is that Overture, which lumps pluralized, hyphenated, misspellings and other terms together to give one result for the number of searches in a month, Wordtracker shows numbers for all the variables.

Overture’s method is much simpler and easier for advertisers, who need not research all the various variations and sources, but in order to cover all our bases, we’ll want the widest selection of keyword search terms used, and that’s what Wordtracker will give us.

Market Research Tools

FIRST REPORT

Market Research Tools

‘Do what you love and the money will follow’ – venturing business through the internet or the World Wide Web is a good and profitable business. According to Mr. Charlie Byrn in his article in www.earlytorise.com, there are three magical words that will make any internet entrepreneur richer than they have become. The article speaks of business in the internet and as relation to the topic research profitable ideas, the three words that Mr.  is talking of  are quick, cheap, & easy!. The introduction statement of the topic research profitable ideas encourages us to be part of the successful internet entrepreneurs, and in order to achieve the goals that we have there is a great need to evaluate ourselves first on what we really want and what we are     really interested to because that is doing what you love meant. It’s a question of, “What’s your passion?” and that is answered through making a list of all the topics or products that make you smile or cause your heart to beat quicker when you think about them. It never ends there, thinking that we are really interested into the topic but! Is it marketable, profitable and an item of interest to others? Once we have evaluated and screened the ideas that we listed, we are then to target market; we have to see to it if there is a market for our ideas. This topic is really getting interesting! A wise entrepreneur/business must not only look to the extent of the customers but up to the extent of the competition, market characteristics, industry trends, and potential profitability. This article will really get us to learning something really helpful in the future as well to our present undertakings as we follow certain trends in the market. These topics as I first thought to be overly boring and useless turn out for me to be important and fun. As continuation to my discussion on the important factors to be researched, there are tools that will help us along to make our work more efficient and effective.

Market Research Tools – Spreadsheet, Word Tracker, Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool, Google Search Engine, Google Toolbar, Alexa Toolbar and Pay Per Click Search Engines. Aside from the practical research to do, organization of files is very important. It is only done if convenience and ease is desired. Since we have the idea, next thing to do is to make a list on the keywords related to the topic. These keywords are used to compose the meta tags and text within your pages, and will therefore act as ‘magnets’ to attract the search engines. There are several keyword research tools in the internet and one of them is the WordTracker (wordtacker.com). WordTracker builds lists of similar search terms from keywords entered by Internet users. Through exploring wordtracker, we can view the lists of the most searched keywords in the internet whether you like to see the Top 200/300 report.

Does the outcome of our search related to the ones we had listed? This time we will compare and contrast the topics from our own listing and from the listing in the wordtracker.

Develop a Site Plan

Develop a Site Plan

I like the statement, ‘Success truly is ’90% planning and 10% execution’. Just like in managing, the foundation truly of the activity is on planning because the succeeding activities will rely greatly on what planned and the performance and/or the  outcome thereof also can be traced from how the particular activity is planned. So it is important to develop a site plan.

So everything has to have a plan so the planning process is planned to follow the following guidelines:

• Theme: Be very clear about your site’s theme.

• Brainstorm: List all the ideas that you want to include in your site.

• Organize: Group related ideas together.

• Order: Arrange material in subsections from general to specific or from abstract to

concrete.

• Label: Create main and sub headings.

Brainstorm

Think of topics that is related to your main topic and is likely to be included in your website. You may link all topics together so that the customer cannot go out from your website…hmm..just a thought!

Organize

Well, in my case I really don’t like messy places and disarranged lifestyle (Its how I express my dislike to disorganization) well, in application to this topic.. it is very essential to organize the topics in your site so that the customer will be very eager to come back again to your site, you have a nice theme and organized topics, so next would be…

Label

In labeling, the list starts to ‘take shape’ with main and sub headings. When you begin to ‘see’ the site plan

taking form, other topics will naturally come to you that may have been overlooked during the

brainstorming process.

Design Rules-of-Thumb

Design Rules-of-Thumb

Of  course it is always a must to consider some things in order to make the website worth visiting with just the look of it.

Font Face, Color & Size

The font face or the font style is very important, although some say that it really does not matter we still have to give it some considerations. The font face, color and size really comes along since we are talking of the legibility of the texts it is very important to coordinate this 3 elements, for font face, Tahoma, Arial, and Verdana are most appropriate style to be used. Let us say you have a check on font face but your background color is white and your font color is yellow, does logic exists here? So, suggestions: light colored background +  dark colored font = perfect! Okay, so let us say you have a check on font face and color but your font size is 10pt..

This is what I mean about coordination, make sure that you consider not only one because they come together and not one is meant to be left behind. But hey! There is this last option, you may not consider one element but still think about  the sales…you may want to left it behind too.

Links Should Look Like Links

Standard link colors are:

• Underlined Blue - unvisited

• Red - active or hover

• Purple – visited

Change the colors of your links and Rosalind said that your sale will soar up high, specially when you set it to red.

Color Scheme

Different colors have different meanings and connotations…

Yes I strongly agree and I believe that the color of your site should conform maybe to the company’s logo or trademark color or maybe to the product’s color. It is quite a requirement though, you have to make sure that all things will go along well.

White Space

I described white space as the breathing area of the elements in the website. And in the book, white space, or negative space, describes open space between design elements. Don’t let the design look like its in the market – I mean overcrowded, it might turn out to be cluttered. Agree?

Other considerations to make is on:

• Page Width – Standard screen resolutions are 1024 X 768 pixels
• Page Backgrounds
• Consistent Navigation
• Bandwidth Hogs – Bandwidth is an electronic resource that gets used up every time characters of information are downloaded from, or uploaded to, your Web site.
• Use of Pop-Ups
• Music/Noise
• Frames
• Keep it Fresh

11 Ways to Market Your Site Offline

11 Ways to Market Your Site Offline

One of the major activities in marketing is Promotional Activities, and when we talk about promotional activities, these may come in advertising, public relations, personal selling and etc…the activities aims to get customers’ awareness that the particular product/service occurs and through promotions,we will uncover customers’ needs and wants…but since we are going to market the product through our website the best ways to promote/market the website are through the following:

CAR DECALS

You might want to paint your car with your URL and run across streets enable for people to at least wonder and get curious.

BUSINESS CARDS

I agree that business cards are highly effective tool to market your site offline since the customer can keep it up somewhere in his bag or wallet.

PERSONALIZED STATIONERY

The information to be included might be,

My Company Name

68 Someplace Avenue

Anywhere, State

USA 12345

(555) 444-2222

http://myURL.com

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Seize the opportunity to speak and share what is to be shared, you can insert it in one of your speeches in a seminar or maybe on a chit chat with friends. Anything may possible you just have to say it.

CLASSIFIED ADS

It will be also useful to advertise site through print medium like newspaper, we just have to put it in the classified ads section of the newspaper and see afterward if its worth advertising.

PRESS RELEASES

Enhance the image of your product through press releases, you may submit a news about a topic relevant to what you are selling online and spread to the world through press release.

TRADE PUBLICATIONS

I have no words for this one –the cost to advertise in a trade publication or journal can be prohibitive if you are starting a home-based affiliate marketing business on a budget. But it might still be worth your

consideration.

WEAR YOUR URL

You can do it by printing your URL, maybe in your t-shirts, hats, and/or bags whatever the means it just that the aim is to let the customers see what is in store for them.

PROMOTIONAL ITEMS

It can be done through sponsoring an event and spend for some goodies that contains the name of your site, like ball pens and the like.

Its not like promotional activity but can also be indirectly stated as advertising.. it is the word of mouth! It is so much powerful, you just have to prove something in your site to make the news spread like wildfire.

(How Much Does it Cost to Advertise?)

(How Much Does it Cost to Advertise?)

How Much Does it Cost to Advertise?

Advertising play a vital role in the business industry because advertising is where you place an image of your product to your target market. It is how you position your product on the market; it is where we can identify whether we have the customers’ share of mind or share of heart.

There is really a great need to advertise specially when you are still in the introduction stage in the product life cycle, but how much does it cost to advertise?

It is human nature to have goals like to be the best, the number one, excellent and so on, which is why we have to strive hard in this particular undertaking to achieve our precious goals.

For this activity Overture and Findwhat are most likely the effective sites to visit and confide. We have to search for the strongest competition we have and how much they spend on advertising their sites so that we can have a picture of our future activities. So the relevant information that we need is the bidding value of competitors, by looking at the figures, the cost for being on top is really high. From the lists, we can now see the sites we are going to post our advertisement since the traffic is high there is a bigger probability that our sites will be visited more often by customers.

You could learn something that may save you time, effort and money in the long run. So, don’t give up too soon. – Rosalind Garner

How to Choose Products and Programs

the ninth question would be…..

9. HOW MUCH IS THE COMMISION?

“This is a VERY important question! It’s not the MOST important, but its close! ☺” – Rosalind Gardner

Sometimes I think of the author as a humorous person, her comments sometimes cause me to grimace despite of my back ache right now. Gosh!

Mmm… Really, when money talks everybody listens! That’s weird, but that’s reality. When you are not concern about money, well it is all just gabble.

You must study commission structure and payout amounts of programs you plan to join, compare and contrast; of course you have to research again the companies. Look first for companies that pay the highest per sale and per lead commissions in your category of interest.

10. DO I GET CREDIT FOR RECURRING SALES?

Follow up question: what would happen if you stopped promoting your affiliate links?

Recurring – defined as returning by shift+f7

The answer for the follow up question would be as simple as you will stop earning. So, you have to market your product to bring customers in and earn money. However, there are affiliate programs that pay commissions on all recurring charges, such as monthly newsletter subscriptions and web hosting packages. As long as your customer keeps ordering the product, you get residual commissions that keep coming in month after month, after you made the initial sale.

11. DOES THE PROGRAM PAY LIFETIME COMMISSION?

Residual Commission – there is a payment every time customers renew their subscription to a particular product.

Lifetime Commission – payment for each and every product that the customer buys from that merchant, including residual commissions.

As the number of your sales grows, residual commission will increase and value of both residual or lifetime commission will increase overtime.

12. IS THE PROGRAM 2-TIER?

Double your income through 2-tier programs through marketing your products and recruiting affiliates.

How to Choose Products and Programs

continuation………..

4. MAY I TERMINATE THE AGREEMENT? HOW?

Yes we can terminate agreement, how? Well, the author said that you just have to turn down your links. That is all… well of course you have to be reasonable.

5. IS MY SITE ELLIGIBLE FOR THIS PROGRAM?

Pay attention to the criteria. Your site will be eligible by making sure that you website met the criteria. Examples of criteria are the following:

- Quality and appropriateness of site(s)

- Volume of traffic

- At least a one-dollar sign ranking in the Commission Junction network

- Own domain name

- Compliant with the Commission Junction publisher service agreement

- Directly related to performance marketing

6. IS THERE A FEE TO JOIN THE PROGRAM?

Huh…99.9% of merchants don’t charge a fee to join their program. Like other social networks, it’s for free! Good to know.

MLM (Multi-level Marketing scheme) – it’s still an affiliate program but it charges fee, an example of this is Six Figure Income – help and inspirational materials for home-based entrepreneurs.

7. DOES THE PROGRAM REQUIRE EXCLUSIVITY?

Exclusivity means that the relationship is one to one; you have to swear and guarantee your merchant that you will not affiliate to other merchant that sells similar products. This also have disadvantage, when you are committed to that exclusive agreement and a better option comes, that’s when the drawback enter; you cannot just walk away to that agreement, so it’s better to keep our options open.

8. WHAT IS THE PROGRAM TYPE?

Affiliate program can be Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Lead, and Pay-Per-Click.

Pay-Per-Sale – (there’s no other definition for this); Partnership and Percentage Partners programs. These programs pay either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of sales generated by your links.

Pay-Per-Lead programs, you earn a set amount whenever your customer fills out a survey or requests a quote or some information.

Pay-Per-Click affiliate programs are similar to Pay-Per-Lead. Essentially you are paid each time one of your visitors clicks on the link through to that program’s site.

The author suggests Pay-Per-Sale because it is performance based but it is still up to what type of program you like.

How to Choose Products and Programs

continuation……

4. MAY I TERMINATE THE AGREEMENT? HOW?

Yes we can terminate agreement, how? Well, the author said that you just have to turn down your links. That is all… well of course you have to be reasonable.

5. IS MY SITE ELLIGIBLE FOR THIS PROGRAM?

Pay attention to the criteria. Your site will be eligible by making sure that you website met the criteria. Examples of criteria are the following:

- Quality and appropriateness of site(s)

- Volume of traffic

- At least a one-dollar sign ranking in the Commission Junction network

- Own domain name

- Compliant with the Commission Junction publisher service agreement

- Directly related to performance marketing

6. IS THERE A FEE TO JOIN THE PROGRAM?

Huh…99.9% of merchants don’t charge a fee to join their program. Like other social networks, it’s for free! Good to know.

MLM (Multi-level Marketing scheme) – it’s still an affiliate program but it charges fee, an example of this is Six Figure Income – help and inspirational materials for home-based entrepreneurs.

7. DOES THE PROGRAM REQUIRE EXCLUSIVITY?

Exclusivity means that the relationship is one to one; you have to swear and guarantee your merchant that you will not affiliate to other merchant that sells similar products. This also have disadvantage, when you are committed to that exclusive agreement and a better option comes, that’s when the drawback enter; you cannot just walk away to that agreement, so it’s better to keep our options open.

8. WHAT IS THE PROGRAM TYPE?

Affiliate program can be Pay-Per-Sale, Pay-Per-Lead, and Pay-Per-Click.

Pay-Per-Sale – (there’s no other definition for this); Partnership and Percentage Partners programs. These programs pay either a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of sales generated by your links.

Pay-Per-Lead programs, you earn a set amount whenever your customer fills out a survey or requests a quote or some information.

Pay-Per-Click affiliate programs are similar to Pay-Per-Lead. Essentially you are paid each time one of your visitors clicks on the link through to that program’s site.

The author suggests Pay-Per-Sale because it is performance based but it is still up to what type of program you like.