andrew_writes's blog

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 3/21/2007

The positioning of your product or service in your chosen market/niche is of paramount importance if you want to succeed. Your product/service positioning depends on the niche and market you have chosen as well as the research you have done in order to take advantage of market trends. Mostly, once you have figured this all out, your product/service positioning will depend greatly on how your product/service is viewed by its target market. This is solely up to you. You can create the image that you want to project for your product or service merely by creating a motto or tag line and backing it up. For instance, ‘Strong and Secure’ would be a bad choice of a tag line for a donut company but with work would be great for a software security product.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 3/17/2007

Should you allow people to use your website and promotional freebies to promote traffic for themselves? Let’s get straight to the point. The answer is yes, unequivocally, yes. Why? Simple, the answer is traffic which can equal money. I don’t understand why anyone would want to keep a free brand all to themselves, especially if it is actually branded. By this I mean the product shows an undeniable reference to you, your site and other products you are promoting. If you don’t understand viral marketing then you probably won’t make it in any industry, Internet or not.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 3/8/2007

Internet Marketers who are looking to capitalize on a niche market will generally focus on one sub category of that particular market and run with it. While niche marketing is good, this does not mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to the broad market as a whole. Understanding what drives the market and what direction the trends are leading to will make it that more possible for you to succeed.

What Is The Big Picture?

Understanding the current status of your chosen markets means you have to first identify the current economic variables. There can be many factors that you should look for but I suggest focusing on:

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 3/5/2007

One of the most powerful tools for marketing on the internet today is Google. Many startup internet businesses are aware of Google monetizers such as adsense for content, search, and referral but aren’t aware of the flip side of this coin. The flip side being those that actively advertise to promote traffic and revenue.

If you plan to advertise with this popular method then you should be aware of what you are getting into.

Advertising

You can advertise to people searching on Google and their advertising network, reach people who are actively looking for information about your products and services online. You can easily control costs because you pay only when people click on your ad. Shop around before you commit, there are many other ways out there to advertise and many other advertisers that will gladly take your money. Take a look at JumpFly.Com or Snap.Com.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 3/2/2007

In experiencing the Internet and trying to do business there, I have learned a lot of things. I have learned terminology, HTML, coding (just a bit) and my favorite, Internet Marketing. By no means am I finished learning, I have just begun.

Even though I have been using the net and learning on the net for over a decade I am still a newbie. I have recently begun and slashed business ideas and formats because of what I call the ’Internet Blues’.

The Internet Blues comes from working hard, learning hard and basically having a hard time dealing with a lack of immediate results. Like a lot of people in my sphere of influence, I am impatient. I am used to dealing with the real world per se and can do business there just fine. The Internet however is a completely different animal even if it shares similar dynamics. What I have learned here could fill several books on what and what not to do and yet I often feel as if I know nothing.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
2/14/2007

Have you ever wondered why it is that you and view the same article over and over again on the web in so many different places, forums, and venues? So did I. This was before I became inured to the Internet. The reasons I found were already and are already known to veteran surfers but I had to find the reasons for myself, as you may be doing now. Maybe you know some of the reasons and are just looking for more. The number one reason (at least for me) that you see articles reprinted over and over again is because they are well written, informative and usually free. In this article I will list and briefly explain other reasons for this and why you as an article writer should allow your articles to be reprinted too.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
2/23/2007

If you are in business you need a marketing plan. General reasons for this conclusion are that.

A marketing plan can help you to achieve a unified and practical approach to your business goals.
A marketing plan will help you to identify the key business points you need to develop in order to influence your customers.
A marketing plan should be able to assist you in focusing on what your real marketing budget will look like.
A marketing plan can help you to apply reality based learning to achieve profit.

Ten of the most common and more specific reasons for why you need a marketing plan are as follows.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
2/13/2007

Viral marketing has been around since people have been selling and talking. It was just a matter of time that someone came up with a catchy term for the internet counterpart of word of mouth and rumors. Now we call them things like email and testimonials. The so called “Buzz” of viral marketing is that it spreads like a real contagion and results in increased sales for the product or service in question. By being a part of, or better yet, starting a buzz, you can turn your product or business into the next hot trend. But make no mistake, it will only be a trend, until something buzzier comes along.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 2/28/2007

Many Internet business owners know that marketing is the key factor in determining the success or failure of their online business but choose to ignore this area or minimize the importance of it. One could assume that they just don’t really care, which begs the question: Why are they in business? The alternative and more reasonable assumption would be that they just lack the knowledge of how to use what they already know. This article will give show you different ways to incorporate the knowledge you probably didn’t even know you had into your marketing strategy.

by Andrew L. Witherspoon
Date 2/22/2007

The art of Networking is a key ability for any type of entrepreneur. Networking can bring you important information as well as give others important information about you. As an aspiring or current business owner, networking should be an area of interest of prime importance to you and the future of you business. For those of us working via the internet only, the concept of networking becomes at the same time daunting and almost hilariously easy. Just point and click. You can even get software to help you contact people you want to network with. Personally I like to do most things manually, to get a feel for the project at hand.