Using email for marketing is a common approach employed by many in Internet marketing. It is one of the oldest forms of marketing on the Internet, and it is still one of the most effective too. However, there are some legal requirements you need to be aware of and incorporate in an email marketing campaign, or you may find yourself accused of spam. This is unsolicited email where the person receiving it hasn’t agreed to accept the email. Besides being illegal, spam is not a good idea.

Building email lists

For this reason you should build a list, or several lists, if targeted email addresses who have all agreed to opt in to your list. This is the best anti spam measure you can adopt, and it’s easy to do too. In a nutshell, you could set up a squeeze page, a single page that offers something free, an ebook with good information on a certain subject, perhaps, and in exchange for the ebook people will have to give you their email address.

Opt-in and Autoresponders

That would be enough, but it’s safer to use a double opt in system. When the person submits their email address to get your free information they will receive an email immediately through an autoresponder asking them to confirm that they really want to be included on your list. When they confirm by clicking on the link, that is a double opt in. There can now be no doubt that they actually do want to receive your direct marketing emails you send, and you can not be charged with spam. This is also known as permission marketing.

Creating profit from your email marketing

Using email for marketing means you need to grow email lists to a point where you have enough subscribers to make the venture profitable. If the people on your list is highly targeted, meaning they really want to receive all the information you offer, a small list can be very profitable. It is normal though to need a few thousand on your list before it becomes profitable.

The best email newsletters are those that have formed strong relationships with the subscribers. You need to become their friend, someone who willingly gives them information they want freely; someone who helps and assists them, solving their many problems in a personalised manner wherever possible. Using email for marketing is an art when you do it right. Your open rates will be high because your reputation will soar and your subscribers will want to read your newsletters. This is promotional email at its best.

Writing for the search engines should always mean writing for people too. There was a time when keyword density was everything. Writing web content usually meant inserting your main keyword into the article five or six times for every 100 words. This is now known as keyword stuffing. It is not easy to write, and it certainly is not easy to read.

Keyword density still plays a part, but writing SEO articles doesn’t mean there must be a set density. Writing naturally on a particular subject will mean that the keyword is used naturally and the article will read well. This will usually result in a much lower density of the keyword than in the “old days,” but the search engines like it better, and people like it better too.

A lot is said about LSI, or latent semantic indexing, these days. It sounds very technical, but it only means that the piece should include keywords and phrases, synonyms and alternative meanings, that complement the content. The search engines reason that these words and phrases would naturally be used anyway by someone writing about a particular subject, so they look for them. When they find them they consider the article to be more worthy of a higher ranking.

The SEO writer should always write an in way that provides interest and information to the reader. The search engines have become much more sophisticated these days. They can tell the difference. Writing SEO articles and content that have synonyms and associated words to the main phrase gives them what they look. When they find such a structure they know that the article includes all the necessary words, which usually means that it has fulfilled its purpose.

Writing SEO articles should always mean writing useful material. The side benefits can also mean that you increase link popularity to your website, but the article marketing aspects should not interfere with the process. The same applies to press releases or content writing of any kind. Write for people, include synonyms and alternative meanings, but don’t overdo it. Include associated words and phrases, which will tell people and robots that the article is well structured, and use good grammar and proper spelling throughout. That’s a recipe for writing SEO articles that works.

1. Write naturally. Yes, you still need a main keyword phrase to wrap your article around, but don’t get obsessed about it. Forget about keyword density completely and you’ll write better copy. OK, use the keyword near the beginning of the first paragraph, and then three or four times more, but that’s it. Search engine optimisation is better served with a density of less than 1% these days, but don’t go checking it every sentence.
2. Perhaps you have heard of something called latent semantic indexing, also known as LSI. It sounds formidable, but it simply means theming your article so that the search engines know exactly what your page is about. You can use synonyms, or words that mean the same thing as your main keyword. You can use words and phrases that are closely associated with the main keyword. Doing copywriting SEO this way, you build a theme that cannot be mistaken. In this way your web page can only be about a specific topic, and the search engines will know it too.
3. Find theme words and phrases from your competitors. This is perhaps your best copywriting SEO tip. Look up the top 10 search results for the search terms you are trying to rank for. Examine the text of the pages. Note down any and all keywords that are related to the topic. Think laterally and make the list as big as possible. Make two lists in fact, one for single words, and one for phrases of two words or more. This will be your targeted search terms to use.
4. Think of it this way; Google Bing and Yahoo already think these pages are important for your main search phrase, so the words on the pages must be important to the topic. If you use the words in your own creative way, your page will be considered important too!
5. Copywriting actually flows more naturally and reads better when you prepare in this way. With a list of words and phrases to use in a natural and unforced way, you can quickly see where to add them and when. It becomes a writing aid that makes the article flow easily and smoothly.
6. Copywriting SEO is all about writing naturally, informatively and interestingly. When you use search terms in your web copy that are in the same general theme of your main keyword phrase, it’s difficult to go wrong, for you will have themed content. Do this and your SEO copywriting will improve – and the search engines will like it better too!

Before you commit to anything, look for a professional design company. While a fancy website does not guarantee anything, any company that cannot produce a decent web design solution for themselves is obviously not worth bothering with. Look also for their degree of experience. If they set up shop last week, they may be really great, but are they? An experienced professional company will have testimonials from past satisfied customers. Read them. They can say a lot between the lines.

Web design companies

When you have decided on a suitable web design company, you will need to discuss your particular requirements with them. This should not be a rushed affair. Take your time and be sure they really understand exactly what it is you require – every last detail. However, always remember that they are the experts in this matter. Be guided by the web designers you talk to if they suggest something. Ask why of course, but they are the ones who develop bespoke design all the time and they should know best.

Ask to see their design portfolio. This is where they can show you each past project created for other clients. Here you can see the kind of solutions that others have used, and the success or otherwise of any design can be easier to appreciate in its complete state. Bear in mind that your chosen bespoke web design company will be showing off the best designed and most effective examples they have. However, they will also appreciate that their design portfolio needs to be representative of what they can deliver, so expect it to demonstrate a realistic expectation of the company’s expertise.

It is common with a good web design business to include a content management system. This allows you to easily perform your own updates and revisions. You may also be offered server hosting. This can be useful, but do some comparison checking on their quotation before agreeing. The domain name for your new web site should be the exact match of the main keyword phrase if possible; this helps with basic search engine optimisation. There are other web design solutions to look out for, but these should be enough to at least get started with.

For this reason it is important to keep in mind that any web 2.0 marketing strategies are just that – ways and means to promote websites so that they perform better, and result in yielding a better profit margin. Some work better than others and most people do them all wrong anyway. Not understanding what bookmarking or blogging means, or how to make use of social networking and social news sites, the hapless marketer ends up outsourcing it all to social bookmarking services. This costs a lot and usually doesn’t have the desired effect anyway.

Social bookmarking and Web 2.0 properties

There are better ways, lots of better web 2.0 marketing ways. Take blogging for example. A blog is a type of web 2.0 property. It can be used to promote a main website, or it can be the main website. When you make a new post you can take a small part of it and submit the snippet to several of the top social news sites, such as Digg, Propeller and Reddit. Next you can bookmark the blog post snippets you just submitted using social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Faves, Mixx, Google Bookmarks or Simpy.

Each of the bookmarks you just made has an RSS feed. If you ping each of the feeds, that will tell the search engine spiders that there is something worth looking at, and they will come running to see what it is. There are several pinging services available for free that you can use, but be careful not to overdo it. Once is enough. Marketing online is not rocket science, so don’t make it so. Using web 2.0 properties is just a way of using suitable marketing tools at your disposal. Don’t ignore the more traditional strategies. Getting good solid backlinks from reliable sources is still an extremely important strategy of promotion that will build dependable website traffic.

Using web 2.0 marketing for businesses is really just modern Internet marketing tactics. Social media with its viral marketing potential offers a greater scope for achieving the desired end result: websites that perform really well and stay successful.