Twitter is an extremely popular social networking site offering many benefits to entrepreneurs. It is an excellent way to expand your network, share news, announce promotions and identify trends. Because its interface is quite rudimentary, Twitter allows individuals to create new tools, or “apps,” to improve functionality. The list of these supplemental Twitter tools is ridiculously long, but here is a quick introduction to seven of the most helpful tools, as chosen by the experts at PMI Education.

1. Twitter Grader: Twitter Grader uses a detailed algorithm to grade your users on a scale of 1-100. This allows you to see how engaged the people are that you’re following and decide if you want to continue to do so.
2. Friend or Follow: This helpful tool tracks your contacts so you can see who your friends, follows and fans are on Twitter. One main benefit is that it helps you see who is following you that you aren’t following and who you are following that isn’t following you.
3. HootSuite: HootSuite is an account manager with an extremely user-friendly interface. It offers a host of functions, such as tweet scheduling, link tracking and account overview. It also allows you to manage multiple Twitter accounts at the same time.
4. TweetCube: This free file sharing service allows you to tweet large files to your followers, such as audio, images or video.
5. TwInbox: Microsoft Outlook users will find TwInbox to be incredibly useful, because it allows you to manage your Twitter account directly from your Outlook interface.
6. TweeTake: TweeTake allows you to backup your Twitter account in a safe place. This includes tweets, followers and your own follows.
7. Twitt(url)y: This service tracks what topics people are tweeting and linking to. This is a great way to identify hot trends for blog entries and future tweets.

Update: TweetCube is no longer available

Digital products are goods or services that a customer receives directly on an electronic device such as an MP3 player or computer. Examples are software, e-books and games. In the last few years, digital products have grown from a tiny portion of the retail market into a major source of income for entrepreneurs. While physical products, such as fishing poles and iPods, can be an excellent source of income, digital products offer unique benefits. The experts from Professional Marketing International have compiled this list highlighting the advantages of digital products over physical products.

1. No shipping. Because digital products are downloaded directly to the customer’s computer, there’s no inventory and shipping to worry about. You can create one product and then sell it as many times as you like. This means that the warehouse and shipping issues related to many physical products will not be a concern for your business.
2. Minimal customer service. There will be occasional questions about downloading and file formats, but customer service for digital products is generally minimal. You won’t have to deal with product returns – if a customer is dissatisfied with your product, you just refund their money and you’re done with it.
3. The business runs itself. Unlike a brick and mortar store with closing hours, your online products will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This means that you can potentially make money while asleep or out of town on vacation.
4. Big profit margins. One of the biggest advantage of digital products is the profit margins are significantly higher than they are with physical products. With digital products it is much easier to reach profitability. And if your product doesn’t sell well, your losses are much smaller than with physical products, where you run the risk of being left with thousands of dollars of unsold inventory.

One reason for the sustained impact of offline marketing is the modern convergence of online and offline mediums. Did you know that more people listen to digital radio on their PCs and TVs than on an actual radio? In a similar trend, 20% of television viewers now watch their favorite shows on their PC. This synthesis of mediums suggests that marketing in the future will follow a corresponding model.

The Forrester data found that TV ads prompted more online company and product searches than any other offline mediums. This is not surprising – TV returns an average of over $4 sales for every $1 spent, a higher average ROI than any other offline medium. Even radio ads, the great-grandparent of modern advertising, were shown to be effective. One reason for this is that radio ads allow marketers to target local and national niche audiences.

According to the experts from PMI Education, the results from this study do nothing to diminish the impact of online advertising. Rather, it shows the importance of both online and offline mediums, suggesting that marketers should consider a synthesized advertising approach. As demonstrated by the growing amount of television viewed online, the convergence of the two will only spread in the future. To take advantage of this, marketers should consider strategies which utilize the strengths of both mediums.

Simply put, webmaster tools are a set of tools designed to assist site owners with the management and promotion of their site. These tools help you develop a sitemap, list external links, see what keyword searches lead to the site and track other site statistics. Two of the most common webmaster tool providers are Google and Bing. Both of these services are free and quite easy to use. Due to increasing competition, they have broadened their product selection and improved their performance.

Google webmaster tools have a solid reputation among website owners. They make is easy to track your site’s performance and searchability. By offering Google search-related information, these tools provide many benefits to entrepreneurs. Most importantly, you can find out what keywords are relevant to your site, which assists you in optimizing it for greater traffic. Check out the Google webmaster center here.

Bing launched its webmaster tools a little late in the game, but they offer a fine selection of functions. Like Google, the Bing tools allow you to add a site map. New features also include geographic targeting and top search queries. Bing’s tools make it possible to monitor multiple sites and can be an excellent choice for many site owners. Check out the Bing webmaster center here.

Webmaster tools are essential to efficiently running your site. The tool kits offered by Google and Bing are both provide excellent options. Professional Marketing International recommends you take the time to research these tool providers before you decide which is best for your site.

Facebook is a social media giant with over 400 million active users around the world, providing entrepreneurs with an unparalleled marketing platform. One of the most remarkable Facebook statistics is that more than 200 million users log on to the site on any given day. And each user clicks about ten pieces of content each month, meaning Facebook is generating millions of ad clicks every week. With this in mind, the internet gurus at Professional Marketing International have compiled these suggestions for tapping into the Facebook phenomenon.

 Accessing the Facebook Community

One of the quickest ways to access the Facebook community is to create a group or fan page for your business. Whether you offer products or services, you can customize your own page and begin gathering fans. This is an excellent way to spread the word about promotions, announce major events and maintain a relationship with your network. Because Facebook doesn’t allow entrepreneurs to market to groups and fan pages they didn’t create, this is by far the most effective way to get a direct link to a loyal community of fans. Creating a group or fan page is easy and Facebook provides instructions every step of the way.

Facebook group and fan pages provide entrepreneurs with amazing marketing opportunities that aren’t just limited to fans in a regional area. Consider this – each day more than 20 million Facebook users become fans of various pages. All told, Facebook pages have created more than 5 billion fans. This is an incredible opportunity to grow your network and introduce new contacts to your business!

Targeting Your Ads

In addition to your group and fan pages, you should consider Facebook’s PPC ad options. Despite its immense collection of users, Facebook offers incredibly accurate targeting tools to help you maximize your marketing success. A keyword box is provided where you can enter the words you’d like to target. Facebook will also suggest related keywords for you to use. These keyword suggestions often provide ideas you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

 The most important part of ad targeting comes with the ten elements Facebook provides you with to help you target your marketing: location, age, birthday, sex, education, workplace, relationship, interested in, languages and connections. A successfully targeted ad uses a combination of these elements, which is called “layering,” and utilizes maybe five or six of the targeting elements to narrow your ad to an accurate profile of who your customer is. Facebook’s easy-to-use interface allows you to experiment with these components until you find the most effective combination. For example, you could target your ad to men in California, between the ages of 18-24, who speak German, have a college degree and are interested in surfing. This flexibility helps you maximize your success and get the most out of Facebook’s marketing platform.

 As you go through the targeting process, Facebook provides you with an estimate of how many users would be reached. As your category selection narrows, the number of users goes down. A good number to shoot for with your first campaign is 65,000. In subsequent campaigns you can always expand or tighten that number. Facebook also provides you with data on those who clicked your advertisement, including what other kinds of advertisement they also clicked on. This information is extremely helpful as you optimize your ad in the future.

Landing Pages

Facebook allows your ads to direct users to any legitimate landing page you choose. Many entrepreneurs use a squeeze page that enables them to collect the user’s name and email address from the get-go. Just make sure that any promise made in your ad is delivered on your landing page. Facebook will check this and cancel any ad that they deem misleading.

 Another strategy that PMI Education consultants suggest is to link to a Facebook group or fan page for your business. This can be beneficial because some users are leery of leaving the Facebook site when they click on an ad. The disadvantage to this is that your group or fan page will still be a Facebook page with a lot of other ads and distractions. The user may even be intrigued by a competitor’s ad that they see on your own page. In this regard, using a landing page outside of Facebook may make some users a little uneasy, but it gives you more control and removes these distractions.

Conclusion

Facebook is a powerful marketing tool with incredible staying power. The current lack of advertiser competition provides entrepreneurs with amazing opportunities. By applying these strategies, you can effectively reach your target audience and drive major traffic to your website.

Take a moment to think about the last five websites you visited. Did you immediately exit from the page or did you take the time to explore the site? What elements effectively enticed you to remain or make a hasty exit? What elements make you more likely to make a hasty exit from a site? Creating a compelling and relevant website is essential to keeping visitors on your site, and keeping visitors on your site is essential to success.

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who leave your site directly from the first page they visit. A low bounce rate is desirable, indicating that visitors are moving past that page and exploring your website in greater detail. A higher bounce rate means that too many of your visitors are quickly “bouncing away” after arriving on a landing page. These visitors aren’t viewing the other pages on your site, making it impossible for them to take the desired course of action.

You can analyze your site’s bounce rate using a robust stat tool, such as Google Analytics. This data helps you understand what is working and what isn’t. You can minimize your bounce rate by making your landing page more compelling and relevant. Your landing page should offer clear navigation points, because visitors will exit your site if it isn’t easily accessible. Another way to prompt visitor interaction is to offer visitors a free gift, such as an ebook. Contests can also be an excellent way to get visitors excited about your site. You could do a weekly trivia contest or a sweepstakes.

Professional Marketing International also recommends that you consider using multiple landing pages. This allows you to present visitors with a landing page containing the keywords and content unique to each individual ad you run. If you use this strategy, just make sure that you back up any promises made in the ad and present accurate information in the content. Whatever strategies you use, keep your visitors in mind. What will keep them on your site? What will encourage them to interact with the content? Answering these questions will help you get the most from your website.

A hosted platform houses your blog on their server. Blogger.com is an example of this type of platform. Hosted platforms offer several benefits to users. They are generally user-friendly and free, making them a particularly good choice for beginners. After a quick registration process, you are given a URL (web address) with the name of your blog. A hosted platform URL also includes the name of the platform. For example, scubadiverpro.blogger.com. Platforms such as Blogger.com already have good page ranks with search engines, giving your blog the opportunity to rank quickly.

One disadvantage to hosted platforms is they can be generic. With their general lack of customization control and limited design options, hosted blogs often look very much like the other blogs on the platform. A big contributor to this sameness is the generic URL. The requirement of including the platform’s name makes it hard to create a distinct name. And like it or not, your blog URL will be forever tied to any hosted platform you sign up with. If you decide to change to a different platform, you’ll have to create a new URL, because you obviously can’t take a name like scubadiverpro.blogger.com with you to a non-hosted platform like WordPress.org. Creating a new name means you will have to start over again in the search engines and you may also lose some of your readers.

Many experienced bloggers opt for the freedom and dynamic control of a non-hosted platform. If you have web design skills these platforms can be especially beneficial. By creating and purchasing your own domain name, such as scubadiverpro.com, you have full control. If you were to move to a different hosting service, you could take the name with you. Also, original domain names are more professional-looking. For those wanting to monetize their blog, this is a great way to give it a distinct and recognizable brand.

With a non-hosted platform, you must find hosting elsewhere. Because most ordinary bloggers don’t have access to their own server, they use a third-party server. Non-hosted platforms like WordPress.org and Textpattern.com provide affiliate companies that will host your blog for a price, such as BlueHost.com. Setting up a non-hosted platform can be complex, so beginners should be wary. Options such as BlueHost.com, however, make it simple. Also, you will have to pay annual fees for hosting and your domain name. If your purpose is just to share some news and photos, a hosted platform is a great option because they’re free and user-friendly. But for those who have bigger plans for their blog, such as operating an affiliate business, a non-hosted platform provides the versatility to adapt to changing needs.

A domain name is a convenient way to identify a web address. Rather than a collection of meaningless numbers like http://349857345897.com, you can choose a word or combination of words. So if you wanted to create an online store called Bob’s Bargain Basement Birdhouses, you would have the option of using one or all of these words to name and describe your website. You could use all the words (BobsBargainBasementBirdhouses.com) or a select few (BobsBirdhouses.com). Wouldn’t you agree that both of these names are easier to remember than a numerical series like http://432507328901.com?

Domain names are unique, so if you wanted to call your website ToyBarn.com and someone else already owned that name, you would be out of luck. It is sometimes possible to get a domain owner to sell you a domain name, but this can be an expensive option.

You may have noticed that some domain names have an ending different than .com. Examples of this would be .gov and .org. As you could probably guess, .gov is a domain specifically for government websites. And .org is for non-profit entities. There are even country specific domains, such as .fr for France. If you are starting a basic website that isn’t related to the government, a non-profit organization or based in a country other than the United States, you would most likely register your domain name in the .com domain.

A URL is a unique address that allows you to find a file on the internet. A URL is different from a domain name because a domain name will merely direct you to a website, but a URL can take you to any given page within that website. For example, if you typed ToyBarn.com into your browser, you would be taken to whatever page the website owner chose to route the domain to…most likely the homepage. But if you typed the URL ToyBarn.com/clearance, you would be taken to the Clearance page of the website. Or if you were to type ToyBarn.com/FAQ, you would be directed to the FAQ page. In this way, a URL can serve as an internal address to a website, making any page accessible.

Understanding the basics of domain names and URLs will help you effectively run your website and get the most out of your web experience. Professional Marketing International is proud to offer world-class consulting and their consultants are available by phone to help answer clients’ questions and take full advantage of their extensive program.

An SSL certificate is an essential asset for any Professional Marketing International client wanting to conduct business through a website. PMI education representatives always utilize SSL certificates for their own personal websites., Why? Because SSL certificates make visitors feel safe and secure on your site.  Your customers will not want to submit their credit card numbers and financial data unless they are absolutely sure that this private information is protected from spurious interception. An SSL certificate is the best way to do this.

Registering your SSL certificate with an established authority, such as GoDaddy.com, ensures that your certificate is recognized and trusted by web browsers. Your customers’ browsers will verify your website identity and security each time it is accessed, allowing them to safely send encrypted information. In short, your certificate is the way your website proves to a browser that it is legitimate and safe. If you have ever made an online purchase with your credit card, you certainly understand how important this is. With the increasing sophistication of modern criminals, you don’t want to take a chance that your financial information might be compromised.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how the process works:

1. A customer contacts your site and accesses the secure URL.
2. Your server responds and sends your website’s SSL certificate to the customer’s browser.
3. The customer’s browser accepts the SSL certificate and creates an encrypted code – or session key – to protect all information shared in the session.
4. Your website syncs with the session key and is the only website that can read the unique code.
5. The secure session is established and all communications are encrypted and can only be viewed by your website and the customer.

This process only takes a matter of seconds. You have probably made online purchases in the past and had no idea this process was taking place. That is the beauty of an SSL certificate – it is quick, easy and requires no work from the customer.

The experts at Professional Marketing International know that you must have a merchant account to run a successful e-commerce business today. Customers want the convenience of credit card and debit card payments and if you don’t have those capabilities, you’ll miss out on their business. With a merchant account, you will be able to meet the needs of today’s consumer by making your payment process as painless as possible.

A merchant account is an account provided by a bank or other financial institution that enables e-commerce transactions. Setting up a merchant account enables you to accept online payments via credit card, debit card or e-check. Merchant accounts require you to set up a contractual agreement with the bank or financial institution. Your rights and responsibilities under this agreement will be clearly outlined before you need to sign anything. Common prerequisites for the business include proof of address in the U.S., current business checking account, business website and a valid SSN and Federal tax ID for the account holder.

Once your account has been set up, online transactions will be safe and easy for your customers. When a customer makes a purchase, their credit card information will be received either through a web form or over the phone. The information will then be passed to the credit card processor, who will verify the credit card holder’s billing address to prevent fraud. Whether it is approved or denied, the information is delivered to the merchant account provider as well as the customer. Upon validation of the credit card transaction, the amount is held in the merchant account before being transferred to the business account. This can take anywhere from a matter of seconds to 48 hours.

It is important to research your merchant account options and find a financial institution that works for you. Your merchant account will make your business more accessible to your customers, while providing transaction security through reputable providers.

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