Charles Kirkland – Life After Facebook

Archive : Charles Kirkland – Life After Facebook

Inadequate market research

It’s easy for entrepreneurs to fall in love with a notion about how well their items would sell.

Simply make a better mousetrap, and they will come. In the internet world, that’s akin to staying up all night to catch the tooth fairy. It is simply not going to happen.

Most entrepreneurs start an internet business with the expectation that their invention would be worth millions right away. However, if you conduct market research and examine the facts, you may learn that your concept will not work. In this scenario, it may be wiser to abandon the idea during the planning stage rather than wasting time and money attempting to make it work.

When conducting market research, make sure to discover many people offering products that are comparable to yours. That demonstrates that others have succeeded and that you can as well.

Then, go to their website to join up for their email list and purchase their goods. Take note of the many things for sale in their funnel.

Once you’ve completed this study, you’ll have a greater understanding of the market dynamics and what you’ll need to put in place to compete successfully with them.

Not concentrating on a single task until it is completed

Now that you’ve completed your market research and have proof of concept showing there is a strong demand for your product, you should concentrate on developing it until it’s finished. That is, 100% completed, not 99% completed. As online businesses, it’s easy to get distracted by bright dazzling goods meant to get you to part with your money. You can’t sell something until you finish it. Attempting to work on numerous tasks at the same time will only slow you down. Furthermore, in order to establish your firm, you just need to create one front-end product.

You are not using your own domain.

A book cannot be judged by its cover, but an internet business may be judged by its domain name. Many entrepreneurs will be wasting their money by using a free hosting account or a shared domain name. That’s a definite symptom of a rogue. Your domain serves as your shop. Make sure you have a self-hosted domain that accurately represents your company. Furthermore, the correct domain name will instill trust in your consumers.

Not starting to create your email list from the beginning

Your email list will be the lifeblood of your company. Consider them your own tribe, with you as their brave leader. It is up to you to direct them to the outcomes you or your goods provide. You should never be hesitant to email your list since you know you’re adding value.

As soon as your site is online, make developing your email list your first goal. I recommend that you utilize Aweber for your email marketing. They have an incredible promotion where you may receive 30 days for free. Even if your items aren’t yet available for sale, obtain an email form to gather emails on your site.

Not constructing your funnel

Now that you’ve got your email collection system up and running, go over your market research to discover what and how your rivals are marketing their items. You should take a close look at how they present their items in the market. Are they the Cadillacs of their sector, or do they think like Walmart? Before you can design a product, you must first determine your positioning.

You should also look at the funnels that your rivals are implementing. Are they spending money to attract a consumer merely to offer high-ticket products to them the following week? Do they earn enough money from front-end sales to justify without having a back-end funnel? These are critical factors to bear in mind.

ignoring recurring revenue

Even if you just sell one item, consider how you can transform that one-time transaction into a series of recurrent sales. Better still, provide some sort of continuity scheme to generate recurrent money. This is frequently accomplished through the use of a product of the month, membership sites, newsletters, or product refills. This will provide the majority of your long-term revenue. Furthermore, if you decide to sell the firm, the regular revenue and email list will be the most valuable assets to bidders.

Reluctance to invest money on advertising

This is where the majority of entrepreneurs fail. You must be prepared to spend money in order to get your offer in front of your target audience. It’s the same as in real estate: location, location, location. You can’t sell if consumers never view your website. Paid traffic should be considered a cost of doing business. The whole internet is predicated on the sponsored traffic paradigm.

Attempting to tackle the technical things yourself

I, too, am a victim of this. I can’t tell you how many times I should have spent my time expanding the business rather than tinkering with some code on the site or in the shopping cart. Don’t waste your attention on technical matters. Technology is difficult to master and is typically only used once or twice. However, technology may be easily and cheaply outsourced.

The Sources of Traffic

PPC/Contextual

1. Google Adwords: Adwords is Google’s flagship advertising product.

Google Adwords is a PPC (pay-per-click) engine, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. CPM advertising is the inverse (and more typical) of this, in which you pay a fixed amount regardless of how many clicks you receive.
Google Adwords has TWO sides to it. The Search Network and The Content Network are two networks.

2. Bing/Yahoo: Microsoft’s primary search advertising tool, MSN Adcenter, is identical to Google Adwords. It, too, is a PPC engine in which you are only charged for real clicks rather than a flat amount for your advertising.
MSN Adcenter likewise features a search network and a content network, albeit MSN’s content network is far smaller than Google’s.

3. Miva Merchant: Miva Merchant provides a full e-commerce solution that includes PA-DSS verified ecommerce software, PCI compliant ecommerce hosting, credit card processing services, and bespoke website design and development.

4. 7Search: If you’re having trouble making money from your PPC traffic source, consider a smaller network like 7Search.

5.LookSmart: LookSmart is an online advertising and technology firm that provides advertisers and publishers with premium and performance advertising solutions.

LookSmart provides an unrivaled customer experience to marketers of all sizes, providing them with enormous reach into audiences via a managed distribution network while increasing ROI. LookSmart provides publishers with white label, hosted ad serving technology that allows them to govern and control their advertising income.

6. AdKnowledge: a one-stop shop for a variety of ad kinds. interesting. Adknowledge combines intelligent targeting with a vast consumer database to increase leads and brand recognition via social media, audience distribution, and email. Unlocking your digital audience is more than a catchphrase for Adknowledge; it defines our aim. Adknowledge connects marketers with the right audience, in the right location, at the right time. We can forecast online interests and behavior using a database of 400 million users.

7. Affinity: strong 2nd tier inventory in search, parked pages, and text advertising.

Affinity is a contextual advertising firm that serves approximately 30 billion ad impressions every month from North America, Western Europe, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

8. Marchex: IndustryBrains is a premier performance advertising media firm that achieves superior advertising outcomes for marketers by utilizing keyword search and appropriate editorial targeting.

9. AdMarketplace: Outside of Google and Yahoo, AdMarketplace is the largest search advertising marketplace. adMarketplace, named one of New York’s fastest growing startups over the past two years, provides performance traffic to major, data-savvy marketers and their agencies. Advertiser 3D is the first pay-per-click platform that allows advertisers to bid based on specific traffic source and device type.

10. FindItQuick: By utilizing our enormous traffic network, you may increase the exposure of your organization. We will search every part of the internet to find the results you want.

Social Self-Service

1. Facebook Ads: Facebook Self Serve Ads

2. PlentyOfFish Ads: Self Serve Ads on PlentyOfFish.

Promote your company on Plentyoffish! The top customers of our ad system have raised their monthly income by more than $500,000 by utilizing our targeting capabilities. Many company owners target local customers based on zip code, age, gender, education, and occupation, among other factors.

3. Reddit Ads: Get your message in front of millions of people, target visitors based on what THEY are interested in rather than their demographic,

Incorporate text, graphics, and video into your advertisements.

4.LinkedIn Ads: Reach out to the world’s greatest audience of engaged, important professionals using LinkedIn ads. In minutes, you can launch your campaign.
Our most cost-effective web marketing channel is LinkedIn.
Business to business

PPC/CPV

1.Traffic Vance is the premier Contextual Textlink and Display Advertising Platform. It provides advertisers with high-quality traffic with a winning combination of high-performing ad units, detailed targeting, competitive pricing, and many optimization tools.

2. AdOnNetwork: AdOn Network is a top online Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising firm that offers advertisers and publishers unique contextual and audience-based advertising solutions and delivers high-quality traffic from both domestic and international sources.

3. MediaTraffic: Contextual CPV Advertising.

With MediaTraffic CPV Contextual Advertising, you may acquire targeted domestic and international traffic.

MediaTraffic provides three options for purchasing focused traffic and driving quality visitors to your website: Highly Targeted, Broad Targeted, and RON (run of network).

4. Direct CPV: Try something new with DirectCPV, the top online CPV and PPV advertising network that produces the greatest converting results and maximizes ROI for all advertisers. Extend your reach by focusing on relevant keywords, URLs, locations, and channels to boost your income and conversions.

5. Clicksor: Clicksor allows webmasters to earn extra money by displaying a variety of clickable text or targeted contextual banners on their websites or blogs.

Our contextual advertising guarantees that the most relevant advertisements are delivered to the appropriate audience at the right time, allowing advertisers to greatly boost their return on investment.

Self-Serve Media Buys & Ad Network

1. AdBlade: Put an end to disappointing campaign results with Adblade, the worldís only ultra-premium ad network. With premium inventory from over 1,000 branded content sites, reaching over 200 million unique users in the US each month, you can target best prospects at scale.

2. Sitescout.com: SiteScout is the leading self-serve ad platform for marketing professionals and agencies.

3. AdReady: Display ads/self serve banners on yahoo sites.

4. Yabuka Solutions: Yabuka provides advertisers with the perfect medium to engage audiences via Sponsored Listing placements on premium publishers and Display advertising utilizing custom RTB technology in connection with the best traffic partners. Yabukaís self-service platform gives advertisers innovative tools to promote success for their campaignís unique goals

5. AdToll.com: Now owned by Click booth banners/display/text ads.

6.CBS Interactive: Media buys on very high traffic CBS site inventory Enticing brands. An engaged audience. Advertising programs that make the connection.

7. Advertise.com: Highly Targeted Display Marketing. Reach and Engage Millions with Your Display Ads

8.Traffiq.com: You face countless options in digital media planning and buying, and TRAFFIQ strives to simplify them by providing optimal media solutions and strategies to accomplish your business goals. As a leader in the constantly evolving space, we are determined to demystify digital media by staying abreast of these ever-changing dynamics. Because we were born from technology, we are uniquely positioned to keep our finger on the pulse of the digital universe. With creative thinking, a strategic approach, and a focus on in-depth analytics, we achieve your desired results.

9. XA.net: Display/retargeting/facebook ad exchange

10. OpenX Ad Marketplace: OpenX Ad Exchange Maximizes Revenue through Real-time Auctions
OpenX Ad Exchange helps ad buyers reach their ideal audiences so you can maximize their campaign performance across all screens.

11. AdEngage: AdEngage is an online advertising network that allows advertisers to buy ads. Advertisers benefit by being able to target consumers with relevant text, PhoText, banner and rich media ads at scale. In addition, with detailed, real time reporting, you know where your ads are shown and how much each segment costs you, so you can maximize your profits.

12. ZedoAdNetwork.com: ZEDO Ad Network solely focuses on Behaviorally Targeted advertising. Behavioral targeting is a way to identify users that would be interested in your product. ZEDO Ad Network is the only network that sells only this type of targeting.

13. AdPerium: With Adperium Direct Ads you can start your campaign within a minute. Upload your banner, select the countries you want to target, enter a budget and you’re ready to go!

14. BuyAds.com: Self-serve banners on many quality sites

15. BuySellAds: Self serve banners on a range of design blogs.BuySellAds help advertisers buy quality, guaranteed inventory directly from publishers. No middle man. Fully Transparent. Self-serve.

16. BlogAds: banners/text ads on high traffic blog network. We can help you make a splash on premier blogs like PerezHilton, Dailykos, Wonkette, Dlisted, and CuteOverload. Or blanket specific blog communities from liberals to parents with the broadest range of ad types– from tweetable video ads to IAB units to native advertising to skins.

17. RealTechNetwork: RealTechNetwork offers advertisers the ability to target a wide range of demographics through its network of active publishers.

18. Chitika: At Chitika, we only show ads to users when and where they want to see them. Access to top tier advertising partners like Yahoo!, SuperMedia and HomeAdvisor. Proprietary targeting and optimization technology that leverages the power of programmatic buying to serve precisely the right ad, at the right time.

19. Adroll: AdRoll is the most widely used retargeting platform in the world.

The landing page of your website is crucial. It is often the first contact people have with your company. Therefore, it’s essential you capture their attention and their interest. If your landing page is not attractive and does not contain meaningful information, potential customers will simple move on. Your landing page must contain images and information that will grab the reader’s attention and motivate them to continue to investigate what your website has to offer.

No matter how good the product or service you are offering is, if your landing page cannot capture the customer’s attention, they won’t stick around long enough to find out.

Make Your Landing Page Match Your Ads

Your ad was effective enough to encourage potential customers to visit your website. Use that to your advantage. Your landing page should match your ads in several key areas if you want to continue to hold the interest of the visitors to your site. Many businesses lose clients because of the dramatic difference between the information on the flyer or other types of marketing materials that draw them to the site and the landing page.

However, the most effective landing pages are the ones which mirror the marketing themes, language, and feel of the previously distributed marketing materials.

Two important ways in which you should make sure your landing pages matches your other marketing material is with the headlines and the images that are used. The same headline that drew the potential client to your website will probably hold their attention and make them take the time to explore the site and stay long enough to hear your entire message.

The images you use on your landing page play a similar role. Some people are attracted to and moved by particular images. By continuing to use the images from your previous marketing materials on your landing page you increase the chances of keeping the interest of your visitors and making a sale.

Keep Your Landing Page Simple

Some people try to do so much with their landing page that it ends up driving away their visitors. Many people today are either very busy or have short attention spans. If they find they have to work too hard to access or understand the information being presented on your landing page, chances are higher they will simply navigate away from your website. People of a variety of educational and interest levels will visit your website landing page.