Presented by Karen Porter UM School of Business Administration & ImpactOnlineMarketing.com Inbound Marketing & Ways to Earn

What is Inbound Marketing? Inbound marketing refers to marketing activities that bring visitors IN, rather than marketers having to go OUT to get prospects' attention (traditional marketing). Movement away from being intrusive (traditional marketing) to be sought (inbound). Movement away from talking TO (traditional marketing) to walking WITH (inbound) 2008 Presidential election campaign strategies One talks to many (traditional) evolves to many talking to many

First Generation Websites: Online Brochures First websites were essentially online brochures Basic company or product information presented online Primarily a stand-alone entity Used as a new way for companies to communicate one way – pushed messages OUT Birth of hideous online sites – do it yourself was not easy High cost to have a website built Banner ads ruled Search engines fairly unsophisticated – fairly easy to rank

Websites are Now Information Hubs

Website Development: The Three-Legged Stool Leg 1: Design Aesthetically pleasing to the eye User-friendly and easy to navigate Easy to achieve with today’s WYSIWYG software, themes, etc. Leg 2: Coding and functionality Site does what you need it to do Easy to achieve with open-source software, etc. No longer need to be a “coder” to build nice sites Leg 3: Marketing What does the site need to do? Need to know this FIRST! Sadly, most developers don’t have a clue on this part! What happens if you’re missing a leg?

Website Goals and Objective Important to know what it is you’re trying to accomplish before you simply start building What type of site are you building? Who is your intended audience? How will you make money (i.e. “monitize” the website) What types of things does your site need? Shopping cart to sell items through a check-out system? Forms to capture lead information? Etc. Must have direction – then plan – THEN execute!

Different Types of Sites / Monetization Share information only (today’s online brochure) Sell your own items From your own site with a shopping cart Via other site: Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. Buy at wholesale / sell at retail online (you stock, pack, ship) From your own site with a shopping cart Via other site: Ebay, Etsy, Amazon, etc. Earn commissions via “affiliate” commissions Physical products (low commissions – generally 4 – 8%) Drop-shipping (sell from your site but never take possession) Earn advertising income – banner ads, Adsense, etc) Lead generation sites – sell leads to others

Information Only Websites Often used by small businesses and professionals Provide basic information (location, hours, what business does, contact information, etc.) Typically a 5 – 10 page website Best practices: Link out to social networks you belong to) Include social sharing icons (make it easy for folks to share) Offer an FAQ section About page is important – people DO care! Use a contact form (via listing addresses) Find a way to capture leads – “build a list”

Sell Your Own Items Sell products, services, or information unique to you You create, stock, sell, pack and ship (except for information products which can be created once and auto-delivered over and over – good model!) Sell on your own website Skinny Dip Candles – limited shopping cart website TopNichePLR.com – selling private label rights articles Sell on another website Ebay – glory days have faded, but still a very viable marketplace Etsy – becoming a huge player for things made by hand Amazon – becoming a retail giant for everything! Other sites – sell directly from Facebook, etc.

Buy at Wholesale / Sell at Retail Buy at wholesale / sell at retail online (you stock, pack, and ship) Mark-up is usually 100% or more Find wholesale products: Online directories like WholesaleCentral.com Source overseas at Alibaba.com Trade shows (open to verified buyers only) Sell from your own website with shopping cart Sell from another website Ebay Amazon (HUGE growth here right now)

Drop-Shipping Selling someone else’s product without ever taking possession NO stocking product and NO packing / shipping! Pay more than wholesale (usually purchase at about 75% of retail price) You sell from your store – pass orders to seller who fulfills with your store name as seller Example:

Earn “Affiliate” Income You are paid a commission if someone buys from your link Must sign up and be accepted to be an affiliate Amazon started it all – Amazon partners make 4-6% when sales are made from referring link Physical products have lower commissions (4-8% is typical; higher is rare) Amazon, Commission Junction (CJ.com), LinkShare, etc. Info products have much higher payout (40-75% is common) Clickbank.com is the largest resource

Earn Advertising Revenue Sell banner ads on your site Site must get substantial traffic to warrant payment for ad space Example: Place Google Adsense on your site Google places relevant ads on your site Google splits the commission on these ads with you (60% to you; 40% to Google) Note: NEVER click on Adsense ads on your site Example: (You can monetize YouTube videos, too!)

Lead Generation Income Your site is basically set up to generate leads You sell those leads to someone else Example: how Hawaii Life (UM grad) was started OR you generate leads for your own business Great examples: exceptional-landing-page-examples-designed-for- lead-generationhttp:// exceptional-landing-page-examples-designed-for- lead-generation

Combination Approach Using a combination of approaches is fine! No reason NOT to enhance your revenue Example: gift shop in Austin with collectibles Don’t overdo it! Google will penalizes spammy sites with no valuable content Don’t go heavy on the revenue generation at the expense of good information your visitor is seeking Great story: