After all we are human beings and our target market is full of human beings. Why do we trust what our friends and relatives are doing and follow suit? Since all human beings have the tendency to act as those around them, why not use the same influence when it comes to internet marketing?  We are all vulnerable to this powerful influencing mechanism, termed ?Social Proof?.

Everybody’s doing it then I can do it too. This is the mentality that many of us have when it comes to making a choice in our life. Why do we do this? We do this because we all like to make the right decision when it comes to spending or making a life long commitment. If ten other people make the decision to purchase purple kittens then you believe it is socially acceptable for you to purchase a purple kitten as well. This is social proof and it is a powerful marketing tool. 

If you manage to convince a potential customer of yours that there are hundreds of people lined up to buy your product then it would be fairly easy for you to convince that potential customer to purchase your product. They believe you because they believe that many other people have either purchased your product or is about to purchase it. You just earned their trust by letting your potential customer know of what others think of your product. 

Here are few ways that you can utilize this: 

1. Have a traditional testimonial section for your product. In this section you may want to post few comments and feedbacks you have received for your product. This has been around for a long time but this does not really hit a home run when it comes to marketing. People are used to this so you will have to make that extra step. 


2. Have some other site do a case study on your product. Give free samples to some people and have them do a case study. Take the case study and post it with your product. This tells your potential customer what experience others had with your product and what the recommend. This is good if you get a case study done by a credible source. 


3. Create a sense of ?hype? or ?urgency? for your product before and after the launch. Limit the quantity of your product and work on influencing your audience that this product is so huge and it will be sold out within days of launch. Let them know how many people are waiting to take a peek at it and how many wants to buy it from you. This influences them to make a choice to purchase your product because everybody around them seems to like it too.  

The more people you engage to believe in your particular product then more acceptable your product becomes. There are many ways in which you can utilize the power of social proof.  

Have the right product and use social proof with the right motives, then this can be a powerful marketing tool for you. If you like to read further on social proof or human influences, I would recommend reading “Influence: The Psychology of Persuassion” by Robert Cialdini.  

How to gain free traffic through writing articles

After a few months of advertising my online business opportunities’ website, I have learned a valuable, but true advertising fact. The best way to advertise an affiliate program is through writing articles and submitting them to syndicated sites for others to use, thereby creating links to your own website.

If you are new to website promotion, you may need to know how this works. First, you need to read, and then you write about what you have learned. I have found that there is definitely no shortage of information on the web. Take the information and put into your own words, your thoughts and feelings regarding what you have learned through your reading, and experiences and knowledge of your own. Sit down and write from 350 to 700 words about what you think or have learned in this process. When submitting them to article publishing sites for approval, make sure to add your website links in the author’s note, to link your website to other websites. Then when other website owners need valuable content to post on their website, you have gained the opportunity to put your link on someone else’s website. They go to the article publishing sites to find good content, and if they like yours, you get a free link. Easy, and free. You can join a power linking forum and get a complete list of article syndication sites to submit your articles to, or do a search of your own. You then can either submit your articles manually, or pay an article submission site to submit them for you for approval. Since I want mine free, and have the time, I do my own submissions manually. Please take the time to correct grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure before submitting your articles, and be sure to read each sites rules for submission to insure your articles are considered for publishing. Some of them have some strict rules and guidelines, especially regarding where your links can be placed in the article. Most will only allow links in the author’s note box.

The next thing you need to do is set up a blog. This, too, is free and lots of fun! There, you can even post your very own personal journal. I have chosen to make mine about online business promotion, and post only articles about online businesses. Do a search for free blogs to find the one that is right for you. Post your articles on your blog. It’s easy and fun to do, with copying and pasting from a word document. You can also post your photos on your blog. To build your traffic, make sure you include a link to your main website near the top of your blog. The more content your blog has, the better the search engines love you. If you need more content than you can possibly write in the beginning, you can use articles others have written on the subject you are creating for your blog. Article publishing sites are full of good quality articles on just about any subject you may want to choose. But you must always include the author’s note at the bottom, to give the author credit and the opportunity to have his or her link displayed on your site. After you have given your blog valuable content, you need to “ping” your blogsite, so search engine spiders will find you. This helps to build your traffic to your blog. Then due to your link on your blog to your main webpage site, you increase your main website traffic. I use “Ping-O-Matic” for mine. It gets submitted to many different sites at once, and very simple to do.
Next, you can link your blog to other blogs by joining a bloglinking site. You get lots of free traffic, and other bloggers leave comments on your blogspot, leaving a link, and you can link on their blogs the same way. Free, Free, Free, Traffic!

E-courses educate your audience while marketing your knowledge.

E-courses are excellent sales tools and a great way to get your knowledge out there. It is very simple to create your course and either sell, or give it away as a give-before-you-get sales technique. If your course is designed to be a freebie, youll want to give a portion of good information; but dont tell them everything or theyll have no reason to make a purchase. If you are selling your course, make sure to jam pack it with everything you know, that way your customer will feel like they are getting a lot for their money (depending on how much you really know.)

E-courses are simple to create because there is no need for fancy formatting, heading tags or conversions. E-courses are made in the same fashion as e-zines; by using plain text.

For a sample of my 7-day mini course, send an e-mail to: minicourse@aweber.com. You will receive the first portion of the course in just a few minutes, and then for the next 7 days you will get an email with a new section attached.

AOL USERS BEWARE: The only complaints I have ever received about the course not being delivered were from AOL members.

Heres a quick check list for creating your course:

Pick your topic of expertise.

Divide your material into specific sections. These topics will be your lessons. I advise starting out with a day-by-day course rather than splitting your material into weeks.

Write an introduction to the course and a list describing upcoming lessons.

If this is a free course: make sure to weave subtle hints throughout about all of the information that they are not receiving to give them incentive to purchase something (anything!)

Once you have written your course, set up an account with a sequential auto-responder company. Every company will have different instructions for set up, but basically you will be cutting and pasting and they will deliver the e-mails/lessons at the appropriate time.

Promote and advertise your course on your website, and send out a notice to your distribution list: let people know about it any way you can.