When the scandals of Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom were first exposed the world was in shock. The stories of these three companies are not the only tales of woe from the business world that make us wonder if the average CEO of a publicly traded company has the best interests of his shareholders in mind.

The above mentioned scandals have caused some to loose faith in the stock market. Of course there are those talking heads on TV who would tell us that there is no reason to loose faith in the market and that the scandals which have been exposed are isolated incidents. Here is the issue, with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line; do you think that the temptation to steal will ever disappear?

Of course government regulatory agencies like the SEC that monitor publicly traded companies in this country have adapted since these scandals in an effort to make sure such antics are tougher to pull off for the future would be crooks. This sort of evolution is natural but the question is how much more comfortable should it make us feel? More…

The term “above the fold” originated in reference to the portion of the front page of a newspaper that was above the crease. An up and coming journalist might dream of the day that one of his headlines appears above the fold. The front page of any newspaper is prime time real estate, and the top half of that page is the “crème de la crème.”

In this case, what is true in newspapers is also true in web pages. It’s great when your stat-counting software tells you that a new visitor stayed on your site for 2 minutes and 38 seconds after first landing on your page. But far too often webmasters encounter the dreaded notice that the time on site was “0:01”.

The problem is that the web is just too big; there is too much information out there to ever hope to be able to digest it all. With so much information and so little time we are forced to make snap judgments about every web page that we land on. And if we happen to land on a new web page, what information are we going to make our split second judgment based on…?

Most likely, based on whatever is above the fold. The portion of a web page that is said to be above the fold is the portion that you see when you land on a page before you do any scrolling. If you look at the top of our webpage you will notice a header image, as well as opt-in form for our email newsletter. Nowhere above the fold on our site will you notice any Google AdSense ads.

This fact should act as a big hint that we are more interested in email opt-ins that we are in having people click on advertisements. Regardless of what you wish to emphasize on your site, pay special attention to the most valuable visual real estate you have, the area above the fold.

Sometimes just reading text can be a boring way to learn. But it’s not just text, boring webinars hosted in monotone voices can put us to sleep just as quickly. So the question becomes how can we keep our audience interested and transmit information at the same time.

Enter the Internet Marketing Rap Music Video. I recently came across the YouTube video of an artist that goes by the name “Poetic Prophet”, entitled “Paid Search 101 rap”. If you check this artist’s user page, you will find 2 more Internet Marketing inspired rap music videos.

This guy has defiantly created an interesting viral marketing campaign using viral video. So far it looks like this video has received about 15,000 views so far, it will be interesting to see how much this number grows.

There is an awesome way to learn the ropes when it comes to email marketing, and the best part is that it shouldn’t cost you a cent.
                                                                                                                                                                         Here is what I suggest, get yourself an extra free email account… Gmail, MSN, Yahoo, it doesn’t matter. Once you have done this, sign up for every email list from every email marketer you can find. That’s right, I want you to create an email account dedicated to SPAM!!! I am exaggerating when I say every list you can find, somewhere between 10 and 20 lists should do nicely.

As you study the more established names in internet marketing, it is important to be able to read between the lines. As you study their sales materials try not to get caught up in whatever “flavor of the month” cure-all is being pitched, but rather to be able see past the surface level sales pitch, and attempt to discern the techniques that the marketer is using to try to persuade his audience.

The upside of such a course of study, is that it should not take you long to familiarize yourself with email marketing technique. Many email marketers tend to borrow ideas from each other, and you should start to see patterns emerge very quickly.

I have often heard it said that great writers are great readers, so it stands to reason that great writers of email marketing are great readers of email marketing!

Here are some links to email marketing list opt-in pages. I won’t bother describing the type of product that each list promotes, when you get to their landing page that information should be self evident.

http://www.perrymarshall.com/google/index080111.htm
http://www.thesystemseminar.com/
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu
http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/newsletters
http://www.stompernet.com/
                                                                                                                                                                          P.S. I am not a fan of giving out my address or phone number, however some email lists are starting to ask for such information in the opt-in form for their email lists. You will have to develop your own policy regarding how you wish to deal with such opt-in forms.

Right around the time that I was finishing my undergraduate degree I had a friend who was finishing his MBA, as part of a joint degree program. The program allowed him to opt for an extra year of school in exchange for an extra degree.

I was curious to know what is taught in an MBA program, I burning desire to know if it was really the kind of life altering experience that people claimed it could be. So I asked my friend, degree fresh in hand, what he had learned.
                                                                                                                                                                           He told me that he had learned a lot of small lessons that he was thankful for, but that he only learned two things of great importance. More…

The nature of your relationship with your outsourcing company has the potential to change drastically from the beginning of the project life cycle towards the end. This Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde routine is best modeled by what I like to call the Landlord Effect.

When you first meet with a prospective landlord they are usually as sweet as pumpkin pie. If they like you as a tenant (a.k.a. they think you have money, and are not likely to total the place) then they will do everything in their power to charm you, and to assure you they are reasonable and easygoing people.

By the time that the brutal, no-holds-barred battle for the security deposit takes place however, there is a decent chance that the image that your landlord initially painted of himself is now burned in effigy.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that an overseas project manager with a Masters in Computer Science, or a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, is pleased as punch to be working for you, for 35 cents on the dollar. More…

I must begin with a warning! The subject of Broadcasts vs. Messages as it relates to email marketing, is not nearly as interesting as the subject of Godzilla vs. Mothra, as it relates to the fate of humanity. With this in mind let us continue… emails sent to an email list or newsletter come in two flavors, broadcasts and messages. Broadcasts are single emails that are sent at the same time either to your entire list, or to a portion of your list. Messages on the other hand usually form part of a series of emails which are sent out at preset intervals. These intervals usually start from the date of opt-in.

Broadcasts lend themselves more towards recently breaking news. For example something major has just happened in your industry or a related industry, and you would like add your own point of view to the events taking place and there relevance to your industry.

Messages lend themselves better toward those pieces of information in your email campaign that will not become outdated as quickly. A group of such emails might easily be formed into a Mini-Course. Such a course can act as the “freebie” offered to entice new subscribers to sign up for your list. Another give away item, which you may consider including in your list of initial messages is a free ebook. While an ebook probably won’t fit in a single email, a link to your ebook in one of your first few messages will work just as well.

As time goes on and you have written more and more broadcasts you may decide that some of your broadcasts would fit nicely inside your messages. So as your number of broadcasts grows your number of initial messages might grow as well, effectively “killing two birds with one stone”.

I would like to extend a special thanks to all those have already subscribed to our free RSS Feed. It’s a risk to try out a new product, service, or even web page, and all of you who have signed up are definitely risk takers. Please know that Feedback Secrets appreciates your patronage.

We have just posted an article on the subject of affilate marketing to check it out feel free to click here.

The CNN Money article, “eBay backlash: 5 sellers who ditched it” by Stacy Cowley, tells the story of 5 online business owners, whose businesses seem to have stopped selling their merchandise on eBay. Some of these sellers seem to basing there current business model on marketing there own webpages while others appear to have transitioned to eBay alternatives such as Amazon.com, eCrater.com, and others.

The recent changes that eBay has announced regarding its fee structure and feedback system for the U.S. version of their site seem to be creating quite a stir among eBay sellers; it should be interesting to see how these changes play out. One of the positive themes that seems to be consistent in most of the companies profiled in the above mentioned article, is that they appear to be taking an active role in marketing their online business.

Whether these business owners were taking an active role in their marketing while they were still selling on eBay is difficult to determine from the article. Whatever the case may be, having such a hands on approach to marketing should only help their online success.