Twitter

I had a chat recently with Graeme Sandwell (Director at Paid on results and the genius behind their technical innovations which are widely copied but seldom equalled) and he pointed out that Internet Marketing Blogs UK was no longer updating it’s twitter account and when I took a look I found it hadn’t been for a number of months, shows how off the ball I have been of late.

Well to cut a long story short Graeme kindly helped me to get the site tweeting again, more about that in a future post, but massive thanks to Graeme.

The Cull

I took the opportunity while sorting out Internet Marketing Blogs to cull the blogs that hadn’t been updated for quiet some time and in all removed around 40 the remaining channel list is here. If you are no longer on the list of bloggers and wish to be re-added once you become active again give me a shout (contact form) same goes for any active UK focused Internet Marketing / Affiliate bloggers who would like to be included.

Please note that in the main merchants and agency’s who predominantly blog product newsletters appear here and not in the main feed.

Digital agency Azam Marketing are hosting a fun networking & comedy evening in central London on Friday 17^th June, and the guest list is now open for any affiliates, marketers, web design, SEO and PPC specialists, agencies and network staff who would like to attend.

The event is being hosted at the Highlight Camden Comedy Club in central London, and along with their sponsors FreeCashback.co.uk, Ministry of Paintball and DiscountCodes.tv, Azam will be providing attendees with free entry, free drinks, exclusive goody bags and hopefully lots of laughs courtesy of stand up comedians Stuart Goldsmith, Sean Grant, Mick Ferry and Danielle Ward. Doors open at 17:30pm with dancing ‘til late.

The comedy event will be a great chance to network with some of the biggest players in the online industry, but tickets are limited so email invites@azamevents.com to secure your place today.

There’s also the chance to win an exclusive prize ahead of the Azam Marketing event by submitting your best gags on the Azam Facebook page or tweeting your jokes @azammarketing (keep it clean please!)

For more information and venue details see http://www.azamevents.com

Guest post by Christian Arno of Lingo24

It might be surprising to learn that English is not quite the top dog many people think it is when it comes to online search. Other languages, like Chinese, are catching up, and naturally most people will always search in their native language.

Research shows that consumers are much more likely to buy from sites written in their native language, which have a local top-level domain and which display their currency. That’s why you need your website to be translated into the native languages of your target markets, if you’re serious about attracting customers abroad.

But once you’ve had your web content translated for your target countries – preferably by a professional translator rather than a machine – then what? In order to attract customers from abroad you also need an effective SEO strategy, including correctly localised and researched keywords.

Brainstorming

A good place to start, when it comes to finding those important keywords that drive traffic and attract customers, is the keyword research that you did for your English site. If you haven’t done that yet, time to start! Translate your English keywords into the language of your target market. Next, come up with related terms and synonyms in English, if you haven’t already, and translate those too.

This is a good time to bring in a native speaker to make sure there are no embarrassing or incorrect translations. Using literal dictionary translations is risky due to the fact that keywords often involve idiom, colloquialisms and other language quirks. You could get a direct keyword translation from a dictionary, but a native speaker may inform you that no one actually says that in real life, and in fact they’re more likely to say (or search for) something entirely different – this is invaluable information.

Subtle differences are important to bear in mind – don’t forget that the language spoken in Spain is not exactly the same as that spoken in Mexico and Argentina, despite the fact they are all Spanish-speaking countries. This is why it’s always better to create country-specific sites for all your target markets, rather than language-based sites.

A native speaker will also be able to tell you whether the correct keyword to use is an adoption from English, as is often the case with technical terms – German in particular makes use of many adopted English terms.

Analyse

Now it’s time to apply some statistics to this keyword list and find out whether anyone is actually searching for these terms. Google’s free keyword tool is good for this. The golden combination for keywords is those keywords that lots of people search for, but which not many people are using. It’s quite a hard combination to find, especially in English, but the good news is that there is less keyword competition in languages other than English.

Using Google’s keyword tool, choose a combination of short-tail keywords and more specific long-tail ones. These will be used in your web content and any Pay Per Click advertising.

You can’t rely on Google alone, though, especially in markets abroad. Whilst it’s the main go-to search engine for most English speakers, in some countries other search engines are dominant, so you’ll need to repeat the keyword process using tools in engines like Baidu (China) and Yandex (Russia).

It’s best not to guess about search marketing strategies for foreign search engines. If you’re not from the country you’re researching, and are not familiar with search marketing for that country, why not ask someone who is? It’s the fastest and most reliable way to find out.

Search engine tools won’t do everything for you, though. There is still a strong element of trial and error and refinement required to target the most effective keywords.

Reflect and refine

Choosing your keywords is not the end of the story. Once your list is ready, it’s time to let your keywords loose online and see how they perform. Use analytics tools to see which keywords are driving traffic and attracting conversions, and which ones are simply not working. This will tell you which ones to get rid of and which to keep. Check what your competitors are up to keyword-wise as well. Keyword research is an ongoing process that needs to be constantly monitored, revised and refined. You need to be checking the performance of your keywords on at least a monthly basis.

Overall strategy

Of course, keywords are not the be-all and end-all, and they work in tandem with other strands of overall SEO strategy. When you’re localising your website for markets abroad you’ll also need to think about issues such as design, images, colour, hosting and accessibility, as well as link-building and Pay Per Click – but those are topics for another article.

About the author

Christian Arno is the founder of professional translation agency Lingo24, experts in the foreign language internet. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 150 employees spanning three continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over sixty million words for businesses in every industry sector. Follow Lingo24 on Twitter: @Lingo24.

404

Page not found

The page you requested cannot be found on the server

Basically its an invite to the user to hit the back button and disappear from the website, also its a potential sale lost.

On the high street if a product is sold out its place on the shelf is soon filled by something else, so why not on the web.

Simply revamp the 404 page to say something like:

We are sorry but the product you are looking for is currently not available,

however here are some similar items.

Then list a few items from the same category, this will make your site more sticky and improve the chances of converting the visitor to being a customer.

The potential of 404 pages is limitless, you could add a search box, a full list of departments, brands, ranges etc etc.

Take a look at your site statistics how many 404′s are you generating?

What if just 1% of them was converted to a sale?

Guest article by Oliver Ackers of www.SimplyFreeGadgets.com

As you may already know, getting into affiliate marketing can be quite daunting, and is hard to get going in the correct direction, and then most people will usually give up anyway. Well here’s something that may help you get your foot in the door with a little more ease. Often referred to as, “Freebie Sites”, “Referral Sites” and so on, these sites are very easy to use and to understand, that anyone can use them.

So usually, to get a sale through an affiliate, you need to make a website and promote it, and hope people will click through and buy things for you to get your commission, but with this there’s an extra incentive. The main thing that will hooks people to these sites is the opportunity of getting a free gift, which can be one of the latest gadgets on the market. This instantly gives you an easy audience to target, as there are new gadgets being released all of the time, the Kinect has just been released, and there’s always new Apple gear coming out. So you could even get a Free iPhone

So to complete one of these sites the first thing that you need to do is sign up to the website, and then complete an offer that the freebie site is advertising. These offers are the affiliate part of the website, as when you sign up, the freebie site will get paid a certain amount, which is about (£/$)20 on average. Then you need to refer some friends to the website to do the same thing. So say you’re going for a Nintendo Wii, which costs around £180, this would mean 9x£20 = £180, which will pay for your gift. Then the gift is usually ordered from Amazon, straight to your house.

You don’t just have to get free gifts though, you can of course request for a bank transfer, so you’ll get the money instead!
So as you can see, this is a much more attractive version of affiliate marketing, because instead of just advertising a company alone, you can advertise getting a free gift instead, and in the long run, you are pretty much getting all the affiliate money that you have earned through them. The way they make their profit is usually on people signing up, completing an offer, maybe referring a few friends, and then giving up. Don’t be one of those people! Make something of it! Make sure you get your Free Xbox or anything else that you want!

To get going, just go to www.SimplyFreeGadgets.com