Gas, Air, and Spark - How Internet Marketing is
Like a Car's Engine
Copyright 2005 Mike Adams
I've never been much of an automobile mechanic, but about
25 years ago an old friend instructed me in the mysteries
of how to find out why my old car wouldn't run.
"You see," he said, "when an engine won't run, it's got to
be one of three things. It's not getting enough gas, air,
or spark, because that's all an engine really needs."
He taught me to check simple things, like pull a spark plug
and see if it sparks when the starter turns over. Or pull
off the air filter and see if I could smell gas in the
carburetor. (That was before most cars were fuel injected!)
I can't count the number of times over the last 25 years
that those simple words helped me during times of car
trouble, especially in younger days with cars that were old
"beaters."
If you think about it, Internet marketing is just as
simple. All you really need is gas, air, and spark:
1. Targeted traffic - the fuel that powers an Internet
business.
2. A product that people really need or want - something
you can present as being as necessary as the air they
breathe.
3. Sales copy that will sell - the spark that makes the
targeted traffic want that product as badly as the air they
breathe.
Okay, so maybe that still sounds a little tough, but hey -
it's only three things! Even though I'll probably never be
a skilled auto mechanic, I can comprehend and check three
things. And you can catch on to just three things too.
Number 2 and 3 are probably the easiest to master.
There's no shortage of great products and great ideas for
things that people really want. It's easy to find out what
people really want with tools like:
- Wordtracker - find out the most-searched keywords
- Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool
- Ad Word Analyzer
- Keyword Equalizer
Once you decide what keywords to focus on, you can check
out what other people are selling successfully for those
terms, and look at what affiliate programs pop up when you
search for those terms. If you want to focus on affiliate
sales, chances are there's some great sales copy already
written or that you can modify to fit it to you more
individually.
Overture's Maximum Bid tool will give you an idea what's
working successfully for other people, or Adword Analyzer
can really speed that up by showing how many Overture and
Google AdWords campaigns there are for various keywords.
Now you just need targeted traffic to send to read that
awesome sales copy. If you don't mind paying today's
gasoline prices for some high-octane gas, and you used
Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool or Adword Analyzer, you
already have a good idea what keywords would be good to bid
on at Overture or Google AdWords. That will get you out of
the driveway initially, then you can start building
keyword-rich pages around the theme of your website and
getting links from web sites that fit your theme.
Now you know the secret of how Internet marketing is like a
car engine. So when that Internet marketing campaign won't
run, you know you only need to find out what it isn't
getting enough of:
- Not enough targeted traffic?
- Not enough of a market that really needs what you're
trying to sell?
- No spark to ignite the traffic and demand into a sale?
Because just like a car, that's all an Internet marketing
campaign really needs to run.
Mike Adams has been building web sites and playing with
Internet marketing since 1996. Visit his site for Internet
marketing tips, tools, news, articles, and resources:
http://www.timberway.com/
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