Thread: What makes the perfect IM plan?

This is an interesting question because I think everyone has their own ideas. I found a blog post that answers a good few questions, but at the same time was a bit of a rehash when you think about it all. But its great information for those still new to IM and not sure where to go and what to do.

Picture your offer on search pages for keywords that convert; picture your video series on sites like YouTube and available for download, picture you being invited to speak because of the informational articles you have posted to places like EzineArticles. Now you’re beginning to realize what a diversified plan looks like and how it will have amazing positive impacts on your business and your bottom line.

Read through the rest of the blog post here and let me know what you think

I think the most important thing is actually to put some thought into marketing before starting out. I see so many people who just dive in without thinking it through properly.

So I guess I'd say that you need to consider why you're posting on YouTube, or submitting articles. What are your real aims?

I would definitely say that it would be the better option to plan everything out beforehand. IM can be really tricky and if you don't know the basics or plan properly beforehand, you could crash and burn. Both of which you and your client could do without. Makes things a lot easier when you know where you're going I think.

A plan or business design would certainly be one of the first things to put together. You must know what kind of business you want and what it should look like. There's no best IM plan, because every market is different. You build your business design around the market or submarket you choose to participate in.

Andre

True, you do need to cater for the market you work in. But there are a few aspects that overlap don't you agree?

Of course. But it all depends on what you want to do for an online business. If you only want to build a list and do affiliate marketing you'll need a different approach than if you'd want to create your own product or service and market for that. If you want to create an adsense blog network you'd need another strategy. Aspects that overlap don't make "the best IM plan".

If you want the best IM plan (for what you want to do or sell) you'll need to outline your goals first. Then answering this question would be a lot easier...

Andre

By overlap I meant that some plans have the same aspects Like using the same techniques to market websites even if their niches are different. But I understand what you're saying. IM can be bewildering, and if you don't plan accordingly, things can get out of control leaving you without a clue on what to do if things go wrong.

I understand that even a lot of aspects overlap. The marketing techniques we all know by now. Article marketing, blog guest posing, rss feeds, the whole link building shabang. Unfortunately that's just a small part of your marketing IMO. Marketing your website, meaning trying to generate natural traffic through the SE's, is getting harder and harder. Ranking your site also lies in your content and content setup, theme writing, etc.. You can have thousands of backlinks, but if your content sucks google will slap you...

I think most marketers who just started out get the whole SEO thing wrong. Most of the information you find out there is outdated and it's usually just basic information. At least not enough to get the desired results.

Andre

I can agree with that. I think the fact that I had some sort of basic training in the beginning might have helped me a great deal or who knows what I would have done by now. I feel that new IM's need to know about the facts. The can do and cannot do. So that in a way it could limit the ones online that are teaching new impressionable IM's the wrong way.

Originally Posted by Phoenyx

... So that in a way it could limit the ones online that are teaching new impressionable IM's the wrong way.

Unfortunately the number of headless marketers spreading the wrong information is growing rapidly...
It's the typical, random marketers who have no clue of what they're doing and what they actually want.

Andre

Hmm, this is what makes forums like IMT so valuable. In its own right, it has a lot of information here that people and new IMers can use to really do well in their campaigns. But other forums aren't all worth their weight in gold like this one is

IM's need to be taught even the most basic techniques, what to steer clear of, and of course how to make the most out of an IM plan. But they first need to learn to create one before they follow it. If you were asked to create a general IM plan (as an example) What would be your most important aspects?

I'll try and give a very basic overview of steps to take...

Let's say I want to start a niche blog for adsense or reviews.

1. Find a market that's in need of a solution desprately. Don't stick with the main (mostly highly competative) market, but find a specific sub-niche. This will make it a lot easier to promote a wide range of products targeted on the main niche and several other sub-niches at a later stage. Research this market and take part in it, so you understand what their issues are and what "language" they speak.

2. Keyword research - find specific keywords for your sub-niche by searching for keywords for the main niche. Make a list of 5 keywords of your sub-niche and 3-5 of the main niche. Use your main keyword (phrase) twice in the website title and also in the desription. Don't bother too much with meta keywords...you can do that later. Also put your main keyword in most (not all) of your main page paragraphs and use related keywords spread accross your content, which is part of "theme writing" and will make a big difference.

3. Find the true purpose of your website...how exactly you want to help your targeted prospects (and a purpose is NOT a goal). Build your website content around your chosen sub-niche. Make sure it's quality content and use your keywords and related keywords wisely. Mind you...don't add tons of content right away. It's better to add content slower in the beginning...1-3 posts in the first 3 days, 2-5 posts in the next 3 days, then 1 post every day or 2 for a week or 2. Believe me...that's enough and you won't waste a lot of content you can use later on.

4. Use general methods to spread backlinks with your main keyword as anchor text. Tip: freetrafficsystem.com, the supercharged bookmarks here on IMTalk (have given me great results), build a blog network of related blogs on the free blog websites (blogger.com, wordpress.com, etc.), unique articles to the biggest article sites. Also install following WP plugins: Web Traffic Genius Pro, Onlywire Autoposter, All in One SEO, TF Social Share (contains Google +1 button). Whatever other method you use...

5. Offer free reports with valuable content...information they want to know about. Write REAL forum posts and reply to others who ask questions, etc.. Everything you communicate to your market in any way will build credibility. Make sure your content sounds from the haert, because people with specific desires know a phoney when they see one... Marketing is mainly showing who you are and what you stand for... a main concept you need to apply in all your communication to your market. Sort of a thin red line people will recognize after reading your stuff a few times.

It'll take some effort and time, but if you want to achieve something you have to act...simple truth in any business.

Never....NEVER build your website or online business around a product you want to promote. It's be a waste of your efforts. It's still one of the biggest mistakes most internet marketers make. Research the market thoroughly and then find the appropriate products your could promote or review, that resonates with your market's desires.

I'm getting out of hand...I don't want to write another ebook on this here... :-)
It's quite temting to go into further detail, but that would take too much of my time.

Does this answer your question ?

Andre

I will say that, thankfully I am following a method similar to yours. As are many members here I am sure, in some way or another. Kinda feels good to know I am more or less on the right track. Time is definitely another important factor. Many want things to happen yesterday so they can settle in and make a profit. Do you think that adding time into the mix is important? "I mean saying this week I start with this, next week I will start with that..."

Time is definitely important. Even more important is how you use your time. Urgent tasks first, then important tasks. Be careful though, because not all urgent tasks are important, depending on the stage your website or business is in.
Schedule a timeplan per day and per week. The more you take control of your time needed to achieve set goals, the faster you'll get results. Finish one task before you start on the next or you'll lose track.

Don't expect results overnight...i can take time before you see it (even up to a few months, considering there are 100s millions websites to crawl by the SE's). In this time you can prepare more content or reports and do your regular postings. But be consistant.

Andre

Just stick with one plan and it would help a lot, for example if you are targeting Adsense then try to do much with it, try to enhance your knowledge about earning from Adsense only.......

Originally Posted by MaryP

Just stick with one plan and it would help a lot, for example if you are targeting Adsense then try to do much with it, try to enhance your knowledge about earning from Adsense only.......

How would sticking with one area like adsense help you, when there is an entire marketing world out there you could conquer. Many say that yes, stick to one, learn to use it perfectly, and move on. Problem is, I don't really think there is an IM here that markets a product or service using only one platform. Wouldn't you agree?

I agree with Phoenyx.

From my experience as previous owner of two offline businesses and now with a profitable online business, you decide what you want to learn on the type of business you want to run. Every market requires its own marketing strategies. It's uselss to start learning about some IM method if you don't know what exactly you want to accomplish. You base your marketing strategies on "business design" or purpose of your website.

First comes the WHAT and then theHOW.

Most online entrepreneurs want to learn every trick in the book and start "marketing". Result >> confusion and disappointment after disappointment.
Those are the ones who quit after a few months wasting time and money.

Just my 2 cents...

Andre

hmmmm. I agree. I see so many walk away from IM all the time. They feel depressed because they couldn't do anything, couldn't make the masses of money "everyone" promised them they would, or they go "IM overboard", and try learn everything at once. When the time comes to implement what they have learnt, they still don't know what needs to be done first, the order things are done in, or how to do it all properly. I firmly believe that there are rogue IM's out there that promise everyone that its so super easy to make a fortune overnight (My junk mail is full of proof), they jump in headlong, follow these IM's religiously and when it doesn't work out, they get frustrated and leave to do something else.

I wish there was a way you could funnel newcomers to one specific site that explains everything to them so that they can see that, yes, its a lot of hard work, yes, you need to dedicate yourself to it, yes, there are going to be times when you are going to be so frustrated with yourself and the net that you would want to walk away, but if you stick with it, learn to adapt, learn how to implement all you learn, things won't be half as bad as you think it will.

Actually, there is this site

The Challenge

It takes noobs by the hand and guides them with all the steps from research to building a site to getting traffic and monetization. It's very interactive and motivational, with small tasks to do each day, so the student stays focused and interested. People can also organize themselves in teams.

It even ranks for the word "challenge" on G, so I bet many newbies find it this way and end up being successful marketers.

Thanks for the info. I will check it out. I seriously think that there are some rather silly ideas about marketing going around these days. It's shocked me more than once to be honest. Above and beyond newcomers buying ebooks that teach them the wrong things there are actually emerging SEO/IM companies out there that employ the wrong tactics without even telling their clients what they are doing. No doubt if they did the client would probably disagree, but what shocked me more was the fact that there are actually people that agree with their marketing tactics. I think I have mentioned it before, and I have even blogged about it, but I was reading a forum post the other day and a member was complaining about an SEO company they had used for their new site. The company was to optimize the site and create optimized content fort he site as well.

In the end, the company did as they were asked, but went about it the wrong way. They created content, but it was so stuffed with keywords, the content was unreadable. The response to the members thread was even more shocking. Some people actually believe that you need to optimize for search engines first, which means turning your content into search engine "food/fodder" first, and then once you have reached your page 1 rank, you can then rewrite the content so that you target visitors and potential clients.
This is why I think that is wrong. Your content always needs to be written for visitors and potential clients. This goes a long way to help you build a reputation with people that read your content. If you write content that is stuffed with keywords and no one can read what you are trying to say, they are not going to take you seriously and they are not going to buy your products, because they will not trust you. Unfortunately for the member on the other forum, the damage had already been done, and they had to start all over.

When you create a marketing plan, and it involves using other companies or services, be careful. Your campaign, your site and your reputation is affected by it.