In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration relaxed its restrictions on direct-to-consumer marketing of pharmaceuticals. Prior to this ruling, drug manufacturers were prohibited from mentioning both the name of the drug and its indications in consumer-directed advertisements without also including a large amount of technical information about the drug, including all known side effects, contraindications, and dosage recommendations (Stevens, 1998).
In addition to interfering with the appeal of the advertisements, such requirements
rendered broadcast ads infeasible due to time constraints, and hindered ads in print
media due to cost and space availability. These requirements were abolished in the
1997 FDA policy changes, and pharmaceutical companies were permitted to market
drugs by name as treatments for specific conditions, with the minimal requirement
that ads give mention to major risks identified in clinical trials (Melillo, 2001). As a
result, manufacturer expenditures on direct-to-consumer advertising, which totaled
$791 million in 1996, rose to $2.6 billion for the year 2000 (Mitchell, 2001).
Television, radio, and print media became saturated with ads promoting treatments
for conditions ranging from depression to high cholesterol.
Names such as Zoloft, Claritin, and Lipitor, which were previously known mostly to
health professionals, quickly became part of the national vocabulary. Consequently,
spending on prescription drugs has increased significantly over the past several
years as consumers are enticed to seek advertised medications (HealthBizNews.com,
2001). This new face of drug marketing has sparked a raging debate about the
accompanying effects on the health of the American public: does direct to consumer
marketing benefit the public by providing education about available treatments, or
does it diminish the quality of healthcare by raising costs and causing unnecessary
treatment? Proponents of direct-to-consumer, or DTC, pharmaceutical advertising,
most prominently the drug companies themselves, argue that DTC marketing
results in improved public health by increasing consumer awareness. According to
this view, direct marketing to the consumer alerts the public of the availability of
treatment for a given condition, a fact of which it may not otherwise be aware. This
knowledge may prompt people to seek medical help rather than unnecessarily
accepting their ailments (Miller, 1998). Furthermore, supporters claim that ads raise
awareness of undiagnosed conditions by providing information about symptoms.
Since countless Americans suffer from undiagnosed disorders-only half of the
estimated 16 million Americans with diabetes know they have the disease-the
motivation to seek treatment provided by these ads is a valuable public benefit
(Health Matters, 1998). Similarly, by prompting people to visit a doctor, ads may
help identify conditions unrelated to the specific area of concern. For example,
according to Mike Magee, a medical adviser for Pfizer, a large proportion of
consumers seeking Viagra would not otherwise see a doctor, so visits seeking help
for erectile dysfunction often uncover conditions warranting medical attention, such
as diabetes (Shapiro and Schultz, 2000). Some doctors support DTC ads as well,
claiming that they make their jobs easier by resulting in better informed patients.
Many ads, particularly for diabetes, stress the importance of self-management of
disease, which may increase compliance with doctors orders and result in reduced
need for more extensive medical care (New York Times, 2001).
Doctors appreciate having patients who are already briefed about current drug
therapies, which saves time in a medical system that often requires doctors to see
as many as thirty patients per day (New York Times, 2001). Critics of direct-to-
consumer drug ads, including the American Medical Association, insurance
providers, and many physicians cite increasing healthcare costs, improper
prescriptions, and corrupted doctor-patient relations as this type of marketing’s
major resultant evils. Substantial evidence exists that the escalation of DTC
advertising has increased expenditure on pharmaceutical purchases. Prescription
drug spending increased 84% between 1993 and 1998, and it is estimated that
consumer-directed advertising increased drug expenditure by $13 billion in 1998
alone (Cassels, 2001).
The twenty-five most advertised drugs of 2000 accounted for forty-one percent of
expenditure on new prescriptions (Sherrid, 2000). Escalating prescription cost is of
particular concern to healthcare providers such as HMOs and large corporations,
which face a choice between curbing costs and cutting benefits (Cassels, 2001).
Additionally, those without prescription drug coverage must pay the increased rates
out-of-pocket (Shapiro and Schwarz, 2000). DTC proponents counter arguments
centered on rising costs by claiming that increased outlays on prescriptions save
money in the long run by preventing the need for more extensive medical care
(Moore, 2000). Critics, however, cite the fact that the largest portion of the drug
industry’s advertising budget goes toward drugs for non-critical ailments such as
heartburn, allergies, and hair loss (Moore, 2000).
Another argument presented by DTC opponents holds that these ads result in
incorrect prescriptions by creating consumer demand for products regardless of
actual need. Critics believe that consumers are sold the idea that a pill can instantly
provide them with good health (Health Matters, 1998). Often, however, the drugs to
which consumers are exposed are not even the most effective, but simply the ones
with the largest advertising budgets (Headden and Melton, 1998). According to
Shapiro and Schultz, patients, if refused specific prescriptions, will frequently visit
another physician, who may comply with the request (2000). In addition to
unnecessarily adding to healthcare costs, patient demand pressures doctors to give
patients the drugs they request for fear of losing business (Shapiro and Schultz,
2000). Specific drug requests, according to Dr. Angelo Agro, often cause physicians
to lose credibility in the eyes of the patient, who has been convinced by
advertisements that the drug a physician refuses to prescribe is nonetheless the
best option (Tanner, 2001).
Responding to such concerns, the AMA, at its July 2001 meeting, debated a
proposal for the organization to encourage the federal government to ban all DTC
prescription drug advertising (Tanner, 2001). While I agree that public exposure
through advertising of the latest treatments for common conditions raises public
awareness and prompts people to visit physicians, I nonetheless believe that direct-
to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising does not adequately justify its social costs.
In the case of overt maladies, such as allergies or depression, for which a large
share of advertised drugs are indicated, a condition affecting a person’s life to the
point of warranting medication would certainly cause him or her to notice it and
presumably to seek treatment. While many other products, such as cholesterol
lowering drugs, are used to treat conditions of which an individual may not be
aware and that may eventually adversely impact health, these conditions would, in
nearly all cases, be uncovered during a routine examination. In both cases, the
central benefit accomplished by these ads is getting people through the doors of
doctors’ offices, an end that can easily be achieved more cheaply without the use of
DTC advertising. For example, less expensive public service campaigns encouraging
people to have routine checkups and informing the public of warning signs of
common conditions would achieve the same results without affecting the cost of
healthcare. As the situation now stands, the benefits that do result from DTC
advertising are purchased at the price of reduced healthcare quality for some.
As drug advertising drives up the cost of treatment, healthcare providers will be
forced to cut costs in other areas and may find it necessary to compromise coverage
by denying certain procedures or raising premiums. Increased premiums may drive
people who fund their own health insurance out of the system by making personal
insurance unaffordable. Additionally higher premiums may discourage large
employers, which often independently provide their employees with health
coverage, from continuing this practice. General Motors spent $900 million covering
prescription drugs in 2000, a 19% increase over the previous year (Cassels, 2001).
Escalating costs may render those without prescription coverage unable to afford
necessary medications. Furthermore, the production of a drug is only possible when
the disease it treats becomes understood through years of basic research, most of
which is conducted by publicly funded academic investigators. Since public money
lays the groundwork for pharmaceutical production, drug companies have a
responsibility to the taxpayers not to engage in practices that will result in a
reduction in the quality of healthcare.
The major problems underlying this situation is that, under our current insurance
structure, the costs of increasing drug prices do not accrue to the consumer and
thus do not decrease demand as they should in a free market system. As a result,
the pharmaceutical companies are not given proper incentive to control prices.
Insurance providers, rather than transferring rising costs to consumers through
reduced care, need to restore the incentive to curb drug prices and hold the
pharmaceutical companies responsible for their exorbitant budgets.
http://www.lonelycanuck.com
Traffic is the common denominator for all marketers. It does not matter how great the product or opportunity we offer, if no one visits us, then our marketing life will be short lived. Take a restaraunt for example. What good will it do to have the best food, the best service, but no customers? I hope you like to eat your own cooking.
Traffic will be the key to your success. Folks get started in the Internet world with high hopes and expectations. With no knowledge of a plan to market their business, most will drop out due to disappointment and failure. It really does not have to be that way.
Allow me to offer some advice that may help you stay in this thing long enough to decide if this is for you or not. Will all succeed? Will all get rich and retire early? Let me be blunt an to the point. No! But you know what? You can at least have a chance, and the more you know before hand, can save you lots of money and time. Here are a few pointers to get you started on the Marketing journey.
Know the WHY. Why are you marketing. What are your goals?
Once you answer the why, you are ready to begin building your model to help achieve your dream. Learn before you get burned. Do you have a product or service? If so, do you believe in them? In other words don’t try to offer up something that you know does not work. It can ruin your reputation and your reputation means a lot. That may the one thing you carry with you to your grave. So do the best you can to keep it clean. Educate yourself on web hosting, site building, where and how to draw folks to your site. Whether it be on the Internet or the corner lot, you gotta have customers. Find out for sure what is working the best.
Some ways to educate yourself is by joining forums. There are tons of knowledge in forums and it gives you a perspective of what you will face. You can get great advice from seasoned veterans, and you will learn how to utilize forums to build your traffic. Study ezine articles. You will find ideas by reading what others are posting in directories. You will have to spend some money for advertising. You can waste a lot of time by trying to join free list or surfing traffic sites. Regardless of what the sites promise, be leary. Feel free to use the free sites, just don’t expect lots of results.
Remember you are looking for targeted traffic. You will see ads that will offer you thousands of leads that will build your business. One of the pitfalls of ordering leads is that you may be getting someone who filled out something for free, and have no concern for your offer. So you pay for them and then get jolted into reality. They did not even know what they were signing up for. Some lead places are better than others, so if you do use leads, study the company first.
This marketing concept, especially Internet marketing offers each one of us a great opportunity that otherwise we may not have. Don’t wait until you think you know everything there is to know about marketing before you take off. Just know the basics, you will learn more along the way. If you stay patient, be honest, educate yourself, and work to reach your goals, then you may have a very rewarding marketing experience. Remember you very well can be the one to control your destiny.
My name is Wayne Clark and I feel blessed to have the opportunity
to make it in the marketing world. The Internet offers each one of us the means to succeed. Don’t pass it by. See if we can help in your journey. Come see us at http://www.youropportunitycenter.com
We have a running joke in our office that one day we’ll load a page and it will say “You have reached the end of the World Wide Web” and it will be the truth. I’ve visited so many web sites in my time, it’s unreal. There are a few web site features and practices that keep popping up, in spite of their highly detrimental nature. I find myself, day in and day out, advising clients to remove something or other from their web site, as it is stunting their online business potential. But cleaning up the World Wide Web one client at a time isn’t very efficient, so I’ll share with you the Top 10 most ludicrous things you can do on your web site, and hopefully we’ll get this mess cleaned up.
1. Frames - Most of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, saying “I know, I know” but there not only still is a large amount of sites that use frames, there’s actually a very dangerous counter-argument to this going on.
Frames section off your web site, making multiple smaller windows within one page. It sounds harmless enough, but the code behind a page with frames is very short, only referring to the pages that fill in the smaller windows. This hides any text you have on the page, any headings, any links, image names and alt text, comment tags, and a lot more from search engines. In short, frames hide 99% of your site’s content from the view of search engines, fooling them into thinking your site is virtually bare.
Now, recently Google has announced that their search algorithm is newly able to see past frames and find all of your site’s content. Problems remain, though, in that the algorithm does not yet index pages with frames well. This also doesn’t fix the problem with other search engines.
There’s some kind of Rebel Frames Force or something that use Google’s new indexing ability as an argument for frames, among other even less valid points. “But what about this and what about that?” they argue. I say to you, rebel framers, why bother? I really don’t understand why this inane argument continues. You can easily avoid any potentially harmful side-effects of frames by using tables. It looks exactly the same, if not better, and we know for sure that all search engine robots can decipher the uncomplicated table code. A smart site owner would simply not take the risk.
2. Keyword-rich Text Embedded in Images - Another fabulous way to shoot yourself in the proverbial foot. Search engines can’t read text in an image, so if most of your web site’s textual content is within images, you’re pretty much done for. Come on people, keywords are what make the Web go ’round! The idea is to have as many applicable keywords as possible within your site visible by search engines, right? So it really doesn’t make much sense to take some of those keywords and hide them. There is no counter-argument to this. It’s simple, if you want traffic, get your keywords out of images.
3. Entrance Pages/Flash Intros - This practice will not just have a negative impact on search engine optimization, it also subtracts from your site’s user-friendliness.
Search engine robots want to find out what your site is about as soon as they can. In other words, they want to find content on the front page. This means that there absolutely must be keyword-rich text on your opening page. It is fairly easy to comply with this while having an intro page, but it doesn’t solve the user-friendliness issue.
Think, for a moment, about how you surf the web. If you’re like the majority of surfers, you’re looking for information and you want to find it fast. Simply put, an intro page is one more step that has to be taken before getting to the good stuff. Speaking from personal experience, if a site has a flash intro or an entrance page and I’m in a rush (which defines my life), I’ll leave and find another source of the info I’m looking for. Essentially, I feel that sites with such opening pages, have little respect for my time and I don’t want to venture into the site any further to find out how many other ways the site owner has found to elongate the simple act of supplying information. It’s simply easier to find another site. Really, what exactly is the purpose of an entrance page? Try as I might, I just can’t think of one.
4. Music - O.K., This is my biggest pet peeve. There is nothing more annoying than sitting down on Sunday morning, steaming cup of coffee in hand, opening iTunes to listen to the latest R.E.M., starting to surf the web and suddenly hearing a midi version of Greensleeves turn Losing My Religion into something that sounds more like a cat dying.
With the growing popularity of mp3s, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t listen to their own music while they’re on the web. It is absolutely guaranteed that you’ll turn some visitors away from your site if you insist on having music load with it.
“But, what if I offer a button that will turn the music off?” some people ask. Most web site visitors who are listening to music won’t stick around long enough to find your off button. In my case, as soon as I hear one note, I hit the back button. There is always another site to find the information I’m looking for.
5. Large Media - Java applets, video media and images can be a real pain in the you-know-what when they haven’t been optimized. There are so many poorly written java apps out there that will actually crash browsers. Large videos and images will cause your site to load slowly and visitors to leave before they even see the fully-loaded page.
Make sure you test any java apps across several browsers. If there’s any delay in loading, trash it or fix it.
Optimizing large images is also necessary. Adobe ImageReady will significantly cut down the loading time of your image while saving it’s quality and dimensions.
Video should be an option. Never have it load with your site. Most people don’t have the time to sit around watching videos on web sites, let alone wait for videos to load. Pictures and text will tell your story just as easily.
Internet users still use dial-up accounts and with the rise of people accessing the internet from their mobile devices, shaving every second possible off the loading time of your site will ensure that visitors do not get impatient and leave.
6. Limited ways to contact - Believe it or not, I’ve actually come across commercial web sites that have absolutely no way to contact anyone associated with the site. Unless you hope your web site visitor’s reaction to the online representation of your business to be a string of profanity, I wouldn’t suggest taking this route. In fact, I’ve always urged clients to offer as many ways as possible to contact them on their web sites. Phone, fax, e-mail, contact form, mailing address, etc.
Everyone has their own preferred method of contact. A lot of my clients prefer talking on the phone and probably wouldn’t be my clients if all I offered as a contact method was e-mail. Me, I hate talking on the phone and filling out forms. If you don’t offer a link to your e-mail address on your site, you probably won’t hear from me. But what about spam, you say? Well, you’ll just have to decide for yourself what’s worse, losing potential paying customers or getting more spam.
7. Long Pages/Entire Site in One Page - When loading a site, finding a page that seems to go on forever can seem daunting. The same amount of information, organized into several pages will seem a lot less scary to your visitors. Labeled pages and sections will lead your visitor to exactly the information they’re looking for as opposed to making them search lines and lines of text to find it. Well organized content on several pages is also something that pleases the search engines.
8. No Link Exchange Policy - A lot of web sites out there don’t exchange links as a rule. This will not only stunt the growth of your link popularity, but potential traffic that could come directly from those links would be lost. You don’t have to exchange links with every interested site, but turning them all away is a dangerous practice.
9. Cross-Browser Compatibility Check - Always, always, always check what your web site looks like and how well it functions on other browsers. Do this whenever you update, make new pages, or new versions of browsers come out. I’ve seen some pretty funky stuff around the web that’s been caused by non-compatibility. Title images on the bottom of the page, invisible links, missing images, even some sites that cause browsers to crash.
Here are some of the more popular browsers:
Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)
Netscape
Opera
Mozilla
Apple Safari
Download a copy of each of these and check your site! I realize most of you use Windows and can’t check your site on Safari, so find a friend who has a Mac. Mac users are growing in numbers and can be some of your web site’s visitors. Make sure what they see is what you want them to.
10. Free Web Space/No Domain Name - This one is all about professionalism. To avoid having your business seem about as serious as little Sally’s lemonade stand down the street, don’t host it on free web space like Geocities, Angelfire, etc. Get your own domain name. It costs an average of $30/year and you can find good hosting for $10/month, sometimes less. If you can’t afford that, I suggest you turn off your computer and sell it for food. Free hosting is straight cheese, and your visitors will get the feeling you’re not taking your business seriously.
So, there you have it. The top 10 most ludicrous things you can do with your web site. I’ve heard some web site owners argue that their site visitors have complimented their videos, java apps, music, etc. Just keep in mind, the visitors who don’t like this stuff leave and you probably won’t hear from them.
The goal of your commercial web site should be to soak up every last potential paying customer from the web. Any of these 10 points can turn paying customers away. Respect your visitors’ time, try to make their experience on your site as quick and full of information as possible. Be organized and professional and let your audience see that you know what you’re doing.
About The Author
Courtney Heard is the founder of Abalone Designs, http://www.abalone.ca, an Internet Marketing and SEO company in Vancouver, Canada. She has been involved in web development and marketing since 1995 and has helped start several businesses since then in the Vancouver area. More of Courtney’s articles are available at www.abalone.ca/resources/
courtney@abalone.ca
A few weeks ago I have discovered a whole new breed of marketing mindsets and superior techniques. The power that this form of marketing has is amazing. People can go from ‘zero to hero’ in just a few days. Thousands of dollars, pure profits, aren’t rare when you start using this new marketing technique.
Before I explain to you how this works, let me tell you a background story…
Do you have friends or parents who don’t believe in making money on the internet? Most likely you have, because every internet marketer stumbles on resistance. The block they form for you is about to be transformed into a new motivating source of energy.
A lot of people tend to give up on internet marketing, when they have to keep telling their friends and parents that they didn’t succeed yet. Some of you will be laughed at, others will have their spouse or parents yelling at them to get a ‘real job’. Those people from a mental block for you because you’re getting tired of them.
But it’s negative force can easily be utilized as a positive force to begin experiencing success as an internet marketer. It can give the final push in the back that you needed so hard. A wonderful key to profits is laying there all the time. Why don’t you use it?
Through all the negativity they send to you, you can really succeed, and I’m about to tell you how.
We’ve now identified the problem, the one bump in the road that stops you from earning an income on the internet. And to transform the problem into a driving force behind everything you do, you have to change your mindset. When you change your mindset, everything changes.
Learn how to think like a successful person. Always keep those irritating parents or friends in mind, and work to prove them the opposite. You have the ability to prove them once and for all that you’re better then they think.
You are better then they think!
It may sound awkward, but it’s true. Everyone can earn a nice income at the internet, even you! Anyone with a passion or hobby, motivation and free time can start an online business. You just have to put in the energy, only your efforts will bring in money.
Now that you’ve learned that, choose any person in your life who thinks you’re nothing, and that you can’t earn an income from the internet. Picture that person as vividly as you can, and write down everything she accuses you of.
Then comes the final step… Put in all your efforts in proving him or her the opposite of what they said to you. Let them know, through your work, that you’re not a loser and that you can earn a nice income.
Do whatever you can, do it fast and smart.
Aggressive marketing is based on this mindset. When you’ve a goal to work to, people to prove to they’re wrong - you got an enormous motivating force in you. That same force will work with you. With it you will write much stronger salescopy, put in more time and effort into promoting your products.
Overall, you can’t lose when you use aggressive marketing. It’s the number one force that got me my first online profits. If you want to learn more about aggressive marketing and other marketing techniques, subscribe to my free newsletter at the link below.
Dave Origano is author of “Motivation & Inspiration” and “Momentum Based Marketing”. Visit his website for more articles, reviews, blog and his newsletter at http://www.MrOrigano.com.
Having a high ranking in Yahoo, Google and MSN is definitely going to get you more traffic to your web site.
One of the best free ways to get higher rankings in the search engines is to write articles and submit them to article directories.
Webmasters looking for content for their websites and e-zine publishers looking for content for their e-zines can now go to these article directories to find articles they can use for free.
When they use your article they must keep the resource box in the article. The resource box contains a little information about you, including a link to your web site. If 100 people pick-up your article and use it on their website or e-zine, you now have 100 links back to your web site.
Back links to your web site will naturally increase your ranking in the search engines. A high ranking in the search engine will increase traffic to your web site.
The problem most people have with this technique is the actual writing of the article. This should not stop you. Below are some tips.
An article contains three parts: Title, Body and Resource Box. It should contain useful content and be between 400-800 words.
The title must be attention grabbing and let the reader know what the article’s about. 10% of effort is put into writing the story and 90% is put into the title.
Assume the reader knows nothing about the topic. The body of the article must answer questions a reader would have about the topic.
The resource box is at the end of the article. It should be short, 3-5 lines max. It should contain some information about you — name, what you do, and a link to your website. You can separate the resource box from the article by a single row of a character such as the asterisk (*********).
If you still don’t want to write the articles yourself, you can hire someone to write them for you. You can get writers to bid on your job at www.Elance.com or www.RentACoder.com. It will cost you around $8-$12 for professionally written articles that you can publish as your own.
Before you submit your articles to any directories you must do some basic formatting. Different directories will have preferences on formatting so check with them individually for that. You can download a free text formatter from www.TextPad.com.
You should submit at least two articles a week and submit to many directories. Some article directories to submit to are:
www.GoArticles.com
www.ArticleCity.com
www.EzineArticles.com
www.ArticleCentral.com
www.IdeaMarketers.com
www.Articlez.com
You can do a search on www.google.com for “article directories” to find more.
Submitting articles to article directories is one of the best ways to get back links to your website. Back links will increase your search engine rankings and bring more traffic to your web site. The best part, it’s FREE.
Start writing!
Laura Hite helps you increase your search engine rankings and flood your website with traffic. She works with Safety Technology, a wholesaler of self defense and security products. Get more success tips by visiting http://www.safetytechnology.com
If you are a salesperson doing a PowerPoint presentation or you simply have to talk in front of a large group of people, then you know how hard it is to get your ideas across. Here is one trick I’ve learned the hard way that will help you and will make your job a whole lot easier!
Use humor! Use humor!! Use humor!!! (…as you see, I like repeating)
Humor will put your clients/listeners/readers at ease and will help break the ice as well as set a tone with the audience that helps to loosen everyone up a little. Everybody (from Donald Trump and Bill Gates to John Doe) loves to laugh and disconnect for a little from this, otherwise, overly serious world.
If you have a natural talent for humor, then go for it — make your own routine, but keep it relatively simple and try not to overdo it. If you feel uncertain what to do, use the services of professional humorists who can help you! Humor will make a presentation much easier to listen to and much more fun for you to create and present it.
All different types of humor work best in different situations. Some speakers always start with a joke, or tell a funny story in the beginning of their speech to break the ice.
But not everyone has a talent for telling a joke or a funny story right. There are too many examples of bad stand up comics…Relax! There is an easier way!
Use cartoons! They are perfect to communicate your thoughts and your message, and have proven to be one of the best marketing tools. A recent New Yorker survey shows that newspaper readers typically check the cartoons out first before reading the actual articles.
Cartoons are great, because they will deliver your message at a first glance. A good cartoon can attract your clients’ attention and make it easier for you to do the rest!
Where do you get cartoons? Probably one of the best online sources is eToon.com (http://www.etoon.com), a cartoon licensing company created by Vlad Kolarov (http://www.evlad.com), a professional cartoonist with over 27 years experience. At eToon.com you can select from tens of thousands of cartoons and get licenses for multiple purposes.
Doing it is extremely easy. You can search for a cartoon by topic, keyword or author. After choosing the best cartoon for you, you can find out how much it will cost to license it, pay for it with a credit card and then you can download it.
The licensing fees are quite reasonable for most businesses and individuals. For example, you can download and use a cartoon in a PowerPoint presentation for only $35!
There are, of course, occasions when you can not find a suitable cartoon…No problem! Just email a cartoonist for a custom made one. Vlad Kolarov can make a custom cartoon for you in usually 24 hours. The cost, of course, is a bit higher, but it is definitely worth it! (You can email Vlad here: http://www.evlad.com/contact-info )
Cartoons work great not only for presentations, but in other ways too, such as:
– Advertising: Many Fortune 1000 companies (from Coca Cola to Volkswagen) use cartoons in their ads. There is a reason why!
– Email Campaigns: Cartoons are fun and they will grab your clients’ attention
– Company Newsletters: If you want your employees to really read your newsletters, give them something fun!
– Training Manuals: a fun way to break up the often boring training sessions. Cartoons provide grait visual aid and reinforce important information by making it easy to remember.
– Fax Cover Sheets: fax cover sheets beg for a good cartoon!
– Websites & Intranets: give your clients/employees a great reason to check in on all your company information too.
All in all, cartoons are an original, extremely effective way of marketing and delivering across important messages to your clients and prospects. They make you stand out from the crowd and your business a success.
About The Author: Dessy Oundian is a Publisher and Online Marketer.
www.2articles.com
Forum marketing or Social Marketing can truly be another great hidden source to add to you’re over all Internet marketing. It is a place were people with similar interest gather to discuss all types of topics for that subject.
How affective is it for your Internet Marketing and generating website traffic?
Forum Marketing can help in many different ways when it comes to marketing your website, here is how:
First you want to find a discussion board or forum that is targeted to your website theme. Think of it like this would you market your website about jewelry to a forum about cooking? The answer is no.
Participating in forums can help you and your website build an expert status online by posting answers to questions others have in a specific topic.
Never posted in forums before?
First thing you should do before just jumping in and posting wildly, take a look around and see what other are posting about, view the set up and feel the mood of the forum.
Once you have a good understanding of the forum then you can start participating in this targeted marketing platform.
Note: There is a sign up process for most good forums. Process is simple and only takes a few minutes. Forums normally use sign in to help better monitor the forum and protect it from spamming.
Keep in mind that most forums do not allow advertising in their post and the regular participants of these forums can smell an ad from a mile away. This way of using the forums will not make you any friends so keep your content exactly that content. Add value to the forum by providing your own unique quality copy.
Forums allow a signature line were you can place a small description about your business along with a link to your website. Here is where your link popularity can climb and climb steadily as new post creates new fresh content that the search engines love.
Search engines pick up and index forum posts high so be sure to include important keyword rich topics and content in every forum posts so they will attract targeted traffic for your website through your popular keywords.
Consider Forum Marketing as part of you Internet marketing strategies, it can have many benefits for your website and business that you may not have thought about.
This article was written by Wayne Hagerty certified Search Engine Internet Marketing professional with years of SEO experience. Discover how to increase traffic to your website. FREE internet marketing news, and more. Succeed online, visit us today at: www.pixseo.com
Please Officer, don’t arrest me!
I realize it might have looked like I was being a bit overly friendly with the guy, but honestly … I was just checking out his t shirt!
Everything was fine until I asked him if I could feel the fabric. Holy cow, when I slipped my arm underneath
his t shirt I thought his wife was going to have a stroke!
She turned as red as a fire engine and smoke began billowing out of her ears and that’s when her siren went off. Never heard a woman scream so loud in all my life!
I was just trying to feel the underside of her husband’s printed t-shirt to see if the fabric was soft or hard from the printing process, but it was a little difficult to do with his wife making such a spectacle of herself!
The nice gentleman didn’t mind at all! He just kept grinning at me and cracked an even bigger smile when I asked him if he wore boxer shorts.
Well … before I got the chance to ask the nice gentleman, he just up and dropped his drawers right there in the Piggly Wiggly fruit and vegetable aisle. I thought that was mighty nice of him … but his wife sure didn’t
agree! Her eyes began rolling in their sockets, she turned a funny shade of purple and she began spinning in place while she screamed some ungodly awful words at us!
Officer, just between you and me … I think the poor soul must have a serious mental problem.
Then all of a sudden, just about the time I slipped my hand underneath his boxer shorts to feel the quality of the material, his crazy wife started throwing fruit and vegetables at me. She sure made an awful mess! I guess that must have been when the store manager called you.
I tried to explain to the gentlemen’s wife that I was an online apparel shopkeeper and was doing research on competitive product quality, but she just wouldn’t listen to reason! Some folks can be so unreasonable!
I sure never thought that the three “P’s” to successfully marketing my online shop would be Product, Promotion, and Police Protection! By the way officer, would you happen to be wearing boxer shorts?
Sheryl Graham currently operates two online shops: SagArt T-Shirt Designs at http://www.sagart.net; and Children’s T-Shirt Teacher at http://www.t-shirtteacher.com