I have a friend who recently asked for help in marketing a booklet on how to varnish a boat.

Varnishing a boat is a difficult task that can be particularly frustrating for boat owners if it is not done properly. It is also a subject that would only be of interest to a small niche group of people.

Stop!

If you have the slightest thought of selling anything online, you must be able to answer one question before you do anything…

If you already solve a specific problem, then targeting your market as much as possible should be the obvious next step. However, this is where many marketers fail, for they are trying to be “all things to all people” and attempt to market their product to everyone. Instead, try to discover the demographics and psychographics of your niche — your specific (or greatest) market. Then market to that audience more than any other and as often as possible.

Does your business struggle with profitable online marketing? If so, you are not alone. Attracting the right customers to a site and keeping them coming back – while also turning a profit – can be a challenge. Consequently, I’m always on the lookout for ways to demonstrate profitable online strategies.

It still amazes me. When I write copy for a company, I always ask about their target audience. I have to know who I’m writing to in order to create a message that will bring a response. But about half the time, the client is absolutely stumped about who their target audience is and what they want.

Does your web site target a particular market? Is it geographic or demographic? Male or female, young or old? Business or consumer?

I had the opportunity to take a look at The Felt Source, and would like to offer the following comments.

Time is precious and you can’t get it back, so it needs to be used wisely. For those of you who have limited time or don’t have much of a desire to network, but you know you have to, try Target Networking. As you target your work market for clients, you can target or focus your networking market using the same skills.

What is Ant
Apache Ant is an open source Java based build tool under the Apache Software License. Essentially Ant is to Java like make is to C/C++. It helps you to proficiently organize your code from build, test, deploy and execute. As well assist in multiple levels in debugging or optimization, custom packaging and is easily configurable when interfacing with 3rd party tools such as obfuscators. More infomation on Ant can be found at the Ant website, http://ant.apache.org.

It still amazes me. When I write copy for a company, I always ask about their target audience. I have to know who I’m writing to in order to create a message that will bring a response. But about half the time, the client is absolutely stumped about who their target audience is and what they want.

Perhaps you’re planning to create a new web site and are not sure what the content should contain. Or possibly you’re thinking of creating a dynamic letter that expresses your business in the most specialized manner but you’re perplexed as to which approach is best. Perchance you are thinking of writing a business plan but not sure what important points to include. Written content covers a lot of territory so if you have a question that relates to business or marketing material, Charlene will make every effort to help you solve your dilemma.

Internet marketing, a lot of the time really is hit and miss. Always keep in mind that when you promote your site you are, in effect trying to get the word out to the whole world. Not an easy task! How can there NOT be variables when you are advertising to billions? It isn’t always where you advertise that makes the difference; it’s HOW.

Inktomi’s link analysis program policy is that sites that link to its relevant topic category page on Yahoo! receive improved hub factor rankings because of Yahoo!’s popularity. A reciprocal link with Yahoo! is even more beneficial. Get your site listed with Yahoo!; it is easier today than before with the Business Express option. (Detlev Johnson with The Ascendant Group)

Hacking incidents are on the rise – August 2002 was the most active month for hacking since the dawn of the Internet. The target? Primarily Windows systems. Formerly Linux systems were the hacker’s target of choice, but now they’re breaking their way in to the Windows OS.

One reason for the switch is that cracking a Linux server is a point of pride; Linux admins are typically security-conscious and pose a challenge to the intellectual hacker. With such ego-inflating attacks on the decline and criminal attacks on the rise however, Windows systems are more popular targets because they’re easier to break into. Microsoft releases warnings about security holes constantly, with patches following quickly. But how quickly are these patches located and applied? The lazy, criminal hacker hopes you’ll forget to patch and make his break in easy.

Does your web site target a particular market? Is it geographic or demographic? Male or female, young or old? Business or consumer?

Whether through a simple introduction to a potential client or as a detailed promotional letter, e-mail is one of the fastest and best ways of grabbing the attention of your target market, if it’s done responsibly. Sending unsolicited e-mail is not a good idea and usually brings with it unpleasant consequences. It is suggested that you do whatever you can to bring attention to your business by way of your web site, search engine placement, writing articles, publishing e-zines, sending out press releases and making offers at your site that encourage inquiries. The important point is to do whatever you can to build your own e-mail lists, which you can begin by promoting an e-zine, offering e-mail newsletters or writing an e-book.

If you’re in the search engine industry, or if you’re a Web designer or Webmaster, it’s an almost sure thing that you’ve heard of, and probably used, Wordtracker…(see below).

But, for those who may not know about Wordtracker, let’s back up for a minute.

When reading about advanced search engine placement, technical terminology along with the latest Internet developments, the new entrepreneur may be somewhat intimidated. The truth is, knowing and understanding all that Internet rhetoric is not as necessary as you may believe.

In any kind of sales or marketing campaign, you want to make sure you target the right people. The problem, however, is that who the right people are not always obvious. For example, I was consulting with a company that of my clients had education centers all over North America in which they taught various types of technical courses to high school graduates.

The economic climate of the past year killed businesses without sound tactics, which is why I decided to interview Scott Dorsey of ExactTarget, who has not only started up
successfully with 30 employees, but won venture capital and gained 600 customers in the past 12 months. Their flagship product “enables anyone with basic computer skills to easily create, deliver, and track email marketing campaigns.”

Lately you have been hearing a lot about targeted advertising. To convert a major percentage of your site visitors into buyers and maximize the return on your advertising dollar you need to target your advertising. But what is targeted advertising? To gain insight you first need to answer the following questions: