Internet Marketing Resources
We've assembled some of our favourite tools and products to assist you in your Internet Marketing efforts*. Have a suggestion for our list? Feel free to contact us. Don't forget to sign up for our Results Unlimited Internet Business and Marketing Newsletter and be registered to win a free Apple Video iPod, Blackberry 8700 or Sony PSP.
Business Blogging
Business Blogging is an excellent method for building brand and traffic. Practically all businesses can benefit from sharing their expertise through a blog and thereby building Net Equity, a strong brand and even stronger word-of-mouth.
- WordPress.org
- The easiest and most capable blogging software, free on your site.
- WordPress.com
- WordPress blogging software hosted on their site. (also free)
- Technorati
- Tracking 51 million blogs.
- Feedburner
- RSS Feed Management and Tools
Affiliate Marketing
Do you already have quality inbound traffic to your site? One potentially lucrative revenue generation method is affiliate marketing. By joining these programs and aligning yourself with quality advertisers, you can drive your site visitors towards mutually beneficial products and services, and in turn receive a commission for your efforts.
- Commission Junction
- Partner with advertisers great and small like eBay, Yahoo, Home Depot, citi Financial, Buy.com and thousands more.
- ClickBank
- Earn up to 75% Commission advertising over 10,000 digital products (ebooks, software, ...)
- LinkShare Referral Program
- Partner with advertisers like Dell, WalMart, Target and American Express.
- Amazon Associates
- Earn commissions on referred Amazon purchases.
- eBay!
- Earn commissions from new eBay users and their auctions.
CPM/PPC Advertising
If you have traffic and advertising space, these programs offer money for traffic/clicks instead of referred purchases like affiliate programs. CPM (Cost-Per-Mille) means that you are paid a set rate per 1000 ads you show. $1 CPM and 30,000 pageviews would mean $30 revenue. PPC (Pay-Per-Click) pays you a variable rate only when visitors actually click on the ad. Google and Yahoo PPC programs are content-relevant, meaning that they analyze the content on your page and show ads that are directly relevant to the page's keywords. Price is set by the advertiser and determines the ad's rank if in a competitive market. You will usually receive up to half of the per-click fee the advertiser pays, anything from 3 cents to over $100, but averaging in the under $2 range for most normal keywords.
- Content-Relevant Text Ad Service
- Yahoo Search Marketing
- Content-Relevant Text Ad Service
- ValueClick
- CPM Advertising Program
- Interclick
- CPM Advertising Program
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising / Search Marketing
If you want to bring targeted traffic to your site, advertising yourself based on the keywords you choose is highly effective and economical. In an auction-like environment, you bid for ad placement against your competitors. If noone else is bidding on a given keyword/phrase, your ad may cost only 5 cents or so per click. If there is competition, the ranking will be determined by your keyword relevance to the page and the amount of money you are willing to pay per click. Some highly competitive legal and financial keywords can cost hundreds of dollars per click, though you will probably see average fees of a few cents to a few dollars in normal circumstances.
- Market yourself on Google and all partner advertising sites for pennies per click.
- Yahoo Search Marketing
- Similar program to Google Adwords, but on the Yahoo/Overture network of sites.
Email Marketing
- Constant Contact
- The Premium Email Marketing Provider. Excellent services for those new to email marketing. Send unlimited emails to your list.
- AWeber
- Excellent Value Email Marketing Provider - Newsletters, Follow-Ups, Auto-Responders... Unlimited emails and very high list subscriber counts for the price. $19.95 for 10,000 email addresses, $9.95 for each additional 10,000.
- Campaign Monitor
- Another excellent Email Marketing Provider. Instead of a flat monthly fee based on list size, Campaign Monitor charges you $5 + 1 cent per subscriber.
- Get Response
- Similar to Constant Contact, they offer 10,000 email addresses at $17.95 per month with $4.50 extra for each 5,000. Unlimited emails and campaigns.
- Spark List
- This is the hosted service of Lyris, the makers of one of the more high profile email marketing software systems, ListManager. It is much more expensive than the others but carries the Lyris brand behind it and is much more suited to high volume emailers. It also offers a familiar interface if you are already using ListManager somewhere else.
eCommerce Enablement
- PayPal Premier Business Accounts
- The standard in online payment. Accept credit cards, debit cards and electronic checks with no monthly fees.
- Charge.com
- The credit card processing and merchant account provider praised by Apple, NBC, Yahoo and AOL. Free Setup and Free Application.
Search Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Watch
- This is the go-to site for the most current search engine news and information.
- Aaron Wall's SEO Book
- This is another excellent resource site and Aaron's book is the best available. Most of the ebooks and websites that offer SEO advice get it from Search Engine Watch and this SEO Book.
Keyword Research
- KeywordDiscovery
- Advanced keyword research tool and search term suggestion tool.
- WordTracker
- The standard in keyword research tools for Search Marketing and Search Engine Optimization.
- Yahoo/Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool
- A free keyword research tool pulling from Yahoo's search terms.
- SEO Extension for Firefox
- Integrates highly valuable ranking information into your Google/Yahoo search results.
- SearchStatus Firefox Extension
- Firefox toolbar with plenty of integrated search-related information.
- Digital Point Solutions Keyword Suggestion Tool
- Displays Wordtracker and Overture keyword data related to a specific market.
Product Merchandising
- CafePress
- Create and sell products (shirts, caps, mugs, etc...) with your designs - all with no upfront costs.
Social Networking / Marketing
- OpenBC
- Open Business Club is the leading International and European business networking website. A must if you are interested in expanding your business internationally.
- Over 6 million professionals use this networking resource.
- MeetUp
- The number one site for organizing real-world networking and events.
- Marqi
- An amazing VIP Networking Organization.
- MySpace
- 100 million accounts make this an excellent resource for targeted networking, especially useful for branding and viral marketing campaigns.
* Full Disclosure - Some product/service links on this page are affiliate links. We believe that they and the many non-affiliate resources listed here are the best resources available.
