Marketing & Forex

An Introduction to SEO for Beginners

2010-08-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

• The Importance of Links
The search engine ranking of any given website is heavily influenced by the number and
quality of other websites that link to it and the text used in the clickable part of each www
link (known as the “anchor text”).
Where a particular website has acquired links from trusted authority sites within the same
field, these links are considered to be “a vote” for that site and thus help to raise its search
engine ranking. Links from other www sites are often referred to as “backlinks” or
“inbound links”. Search engines use any keyword terms in the clickable part of such links
to determine what the target page is about. The effect of acquiring quality links can be
dramatic in terms of improving targeted traffic to a website. By way of an example, the
picture below shows the effect of links on traffic volumes for a new travel site over a one
year period.

- Link Anchor Text Variation Advice
It is reasonable to assume if links are naturally acquired from other www sites that they
will all be different and use a spread of keyword terms. Search engines like to see link
anchor text variation as it helps to show that a website’s links are natural and not added
artificially as part of a search engine optimisation (SEO) process. For this reason, when
building links to your website it’s important to vary the description and anchor text used.

- Choosing Keywords for Link Anchor Text
It also makes sense to use one or two relevant keyword terms in your backlinks along with
your company name to improve search engine visibility for keywords relevant to your
business. After all, nobody would search for “ZYX consultancy” when looking for an SEO
Consultant.
Critical to any website search engine marketing strategy is choosing the right keywords. It
makes sense to do detailed research when choosing keywords for your backlinks as the
most popular keywords will always be the hardest to rank for, particularly for new
websites. The best keyword research tools are Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com),
Digitalpoint’s keyword selection tool (http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion) and the
Google Adwords keyword sandbox (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).
When choosing the best keywords for your site, try to choose terms which are highly
relevant to your business – terms which people would specifically use when looking to
retain your services or buy your goods. Choose keywords which are not the most popular,
but nevertheless still offer worthwhile search volumes.
After selecting the best keywords for your backlinks, try to use a selection of them when
applying for listings in directories and on partner sites, not forgetting to vary the keywords
used to give natural weighting to your backlinks. Two examples of good and bad web
directory links are shown below:
Here’s an example of a badly formatted directory link with no keyword terms in the anchor
text (just “Horsey Jameson Bird Pty Ltd”). This link would little benefit the recipient site
other than improving their search engine ranking for their company name - which
inherently less people would search for:
Here’s an example of a well formatted directory link with the company name and a couple
of useful keywords (“remortgage lenders”) used in the anchor text. This directory link will
help raise the ranking of the recipient site for the lucrative keyword search term
“remortgage lenders”:
- Reciprocal Links
The benefits of acquired links are largely negated by reciprocation. In other words, if site A
links to site B and then site B links back to site A, search engines like Google view it as
just a “link trade”. “Reciprocal links” as these types of links are called have less value and
offer less search engine ranking improvement, particularly in Google.
That said, adding some reciprocal links as part of a wider SEO campaign is a good thing,
particularly where backlinks are obtained from authority sources. However, adding too
many reciprocal links at the expense of acquiring quality one way links can cause a sudden
reduction in Google ranking, especially if the link anchor text used is little varied.

source: http://www.ksl-consulting.co.uk

Marketing Compass

2010-08-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

What we now call "marketing" began long before the name was coined. In the mid-1800s, traveling salesmen dressed "snake oil" and other tonics in fancy
packaging and extolled their virtues to a gullible public. New marketing applications soon proliferated in the belief that marketing could make many new
things possible in virtually any business situation. For more than a century, implementation, experience and ultimately strategy have helped marketing evolve from crude beginnings into today's sophisticated practices.

Consumer product firms have been the pioneers in the marketing field and have taken the undisputed lead as the creators of marketing's best practices. While sophisticated marketing techniques have spawned consumer giants, most financial services firms had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the era of sophisticated marketing.

The Advancing State of Financial Services Marketing

Financial services marketing has, however, evolved rapidly over the last decade. As a result, the very nature of the marketing function in financial services firms is undergoing a dramatic modification as more attention is paid to marketing-driven processes that impact the entire firm. Our observations suggest that the more progressive financial services organizations are currently going through an intellectual and practical transition that is forcing the reexamination of the role of marketing within their firms. Many have begun to realize that financial marketing responsibilities include not only developing the firm's mission statement and key messages, but also defining its business focus, relevant differentiation, competitive advantages and value proposition.

At the same time, however, a number of financial services marketing directors must engage in long-term turf battles with other departments before they can implement worthy financial marketing initiatives that will help accelerate the achievement of corporate goals. In many financial organizations, the persistent problem of differentiating financial marketing from sales still remains largely unresolved. In addition, some financial services marketing directors must still enlist substantial management support just to maintain equilibrium and obtain the opportunity to accomplish even limited objectives.

Focusing on the Customer

Peter Drucker, a sage of the financial marketing discipline, discussed customer defined value almost 50 years ago. During the last decade his concept of a customer-centric focus has become part of popular marketing literature and is now the guiding principle of financial marketing. Drucker's fundamental mandate that 'the customer's interests must come first' can be summarized by the following statements paraphrased from his extensive writings:

* The only valid definition of business purpose is to create a customer.
* What the business thinks it is producing is not as important as what customers think they are buying; what customers consider to be value is decisive.
* Every business has only two basic functions: marketing and innovation.
* Marketing is your whole business as seen from the customer's point of view.

While easy to articulate, customer-centric practices are difficult to implement in most financial services organizations. Obstacles include a prevailing product-push mentality, a focus on short-term profitability, under-investment in financial marketing activities, and the lack of solid market intelligence about the needs and wants of target markets.

We believe, however, that in the future the most successful financial services marketing organizations will be those that make Drucker's principles their own through extrapolation, adaptation and creative application. As effective financial marketing evolves to a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary activity, successful firms will create a culture of customer orientation throughout the organization and incorporate advocacy for customer welfare in all corporate decision-making.

With the financial services industry currently going through a transformation, management's challenge is to provide the leadership to displace the status quo and create a culture of opportunity. Early adaptors who apply the concept of "integrated marketing" on an organization-wide basis will not only develop a customer-orientated culture, but also create opportunities for innovation, improved performance and incremental profitability.

Marketing Momentum For Small Business

2010-08-20T08:35:00.000-07:00

The success of your business depends on your ability to build marketing momentum. Without the ability to generate new sources of leads your capacity to sell will slump and the growth of your business will stagnate or shrink.
Unfortunately, many small business owners are at a loss when tasked with coming up
with new ways to market while others are frustrated into stagnation by seeing consistently ineffective results from their marketing efforts. It doesn't matter if your business is young or established. If your business is young you must market well simply to survive. On the other hand, if you have had marketing success with a method that does not increase your opportunity to generate new business your success will be stunted by your limited ability to find new sources of business.

Building marketing momentum is like kicking a ball down a hill that keeps getting steeper. Each time the hill becomes a little steeper the ball will roll faster and pick up momentum. In marketing, any tactic you add to attract attention to what you do is like making the hill a little steeper.

The other day I was talking to Ed who runs a successful metal shining business. I asked him how he went about generating new sales. He told me that 100% of his marketing effort is networking. I couldn't help but wonder why. I realize that he is doing well with it but if he simply placed an ad in the yellow pages that generated just one sale a year he would cover the cost of the ad and be profitable!

Even though Ed's networking efforts are successful he is limiting his ability to grow his business by only implementing one form of marketing. By simply trying something new in addition to networking Ed can benefit from developing a new way to generate leads and build his marketing momentum.

Is your marketing effort one dimensional or stagnant? Here are five tactics you can use to build marketing momentum.

Deliver a Great Marketing Message

A great marketing message will have the effect of generating interest in what you do. It never ceases to amaze me the number of small business owners that fail to use a compelling marketing message. How many times has someone described to you their business or what they do with a label like, "I'm an accountant" or "I'm in Communications"? Such answers are not likely to start interesting conversations and marketing opportunities are missed.

If you answer the "what do you do?" question with a savvy marketing message you will find that more people associate what you do with a need of their own or that of a friend, colleague or relative and you will win more referral business. Develop and use an outstanding, compelling marketing message and you will find that more people show interest in what you do. The result will be more better sales.

Make Cold Calling a Hot Source of Sales

Many small business owners hate to make cold calls. Their derision is understandable. By making cold calls they are setting themselves up for rejection. No one likes being rejected. However, rejection is part of the game when making phone calls. Once you realize that it's not your fault when someone says no during a cold call you can move passed your barrier and add cold calling to your marketing arsenal.

The fact is that by regularly picking up the phone and reaching out to potential clients small business owners increase their chance of finding new business. A percentage of the people you speak with will become clients when you make cold calls, especially if you are targeting your market well and are offering something they need. What's more you can work to improve your phone skills to increase your ability to make sales. Add cold calling to your marketing strategy and you will increase your opportunity to generate new business.

Use Your Web Site as An Effective Marketing Tool

Many companies have web sites that fail as effective marketing tools. Does your web site consistently generate leads and sales? It should. And it can. The World Wide Web is a continuously open marketplace that reaches hundreds of millions of consumers every moment of every day and allows you to easily and accurately target those who buy your products or services. A company without a web site as part of its marketing team is missing a fantastic opportunity to increase its revenue stream. Deliver a web site that functions as an effective marketing tool and you will consistently add to your marketing momentum.

Develop Your Network

Another great tool to use to build marketing momentum is networking. Networking is a highly effective means of generating referral business (which is some of the easiest business to get, once you get a referral). A person who is willing to take someone else's advice to contact you about your product or service will transfer the trust he has in his friend or colleague making the referral to you. Making it easier for clients to trust you removes one of the barriers to making a sale. By developing a robust network you will increase your ability to find new prospects and do more business.

So then, just how should you go about building your network?

Ed, from our previous example, is able to successfully operate his business with networking alone. That's because Ed networks the right way. Many small business owners and executives don't realize what networking truly is. Unfortunately, all too often people think they are networking by reaching out only to the people they know when what they should be doing is taking steps to continually expand their network. Ed regularly attends networking events and is involved with multiple networking groups. He ads new people to his network all the time and has a successful business to show for it (though he could be even more successful if he added another tool to his marketing toolbox).

Measure Your Results

No matter what tactics you adapt to market yourself or your business be sure to measure your results. By measuring your marketing results you will be able to move away from or correct what does not work and stick with and reinforce what does. By diligently measuring your results you will improve your ability to ad to your marketing momentum and grow your business and success.

By measuring my results and trying new things I have been able to develop an ad that enjoys a 20% response rate. The ad is so successful I only need to run it occasionally to generate enough calls to keep me very busy. Not only does this great ad do a fantastic job of generating interest in my marketing services it saves me money on my advertising costs because I can meet my goals by running fewer ads.

You too can develop highly effective ads by measuring your results.

Move Your Marketing Forward

If your marketing efforts aren't helping you reach your goals you can improve your results by implementing any one of the tactics outlined above. Choose the one you feel most comfortable with and take small measured steps toward realistic goals and you will see a beneficial transformation in your marketing results.

Boost Forex Market Trading

2010-08-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

The greatest benefit to using a forex managed account gives the ability for everyday people to invest.
One of the advantages of forex market trading is it is not a nine till five market.
The fx market continually changes and this enables people from all over the world to trade. A foreign exchange managed account will give you exposure to the fx
market particularly if you are short on time. This lack of time has led to the creation of these types of trading instruments..

If you plan on forex market trading then you will need 5 or 10 thousand dollars. This has the potential to stop the home investor from profiting in the foreign exchange market. A forex managed account can not guarantee profits. Just like every market in the world you can make and lose cash. However, do you think you could use the advice of the professionals?.

Many of the forex managed accounts can make more then twenty per cent per month. There are many factors to consider like the conditions of the market as well as the system you are using. There are countless accounts of how a fx managed account has been able to have returns of up to 20 times the initial investment per year. However, even if your return on investment (ROI) is 5% per month then you will be receiving an excellent return of 60% per year.

A forex managed account is an excellent way to introduce yourself to forex market trading. You can profit whilst you are learning the important aspects of the foreign exchange market. It is integral you learn how forex prices are impacted by specific news. At the end of the day a good trader is able to develop their own trading strategy and style to suit their individual personality.

Searching for a good forex managed account can be quite difficult. There are many forex market trading strategies which will have you stopped out to quick or the signals are not clear. It is important research is conducted into any potential companies you are considering investing your money with. The trading system should be able to show back data of real results. If possible find an account with real life trades shown everyday.

Trading the Forex Market

2010-08-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

Trading The Forex Market can be a lucrative way to make money if you have a firm understanding of what you are doing. The Foreign Exchange Currency Market also known as FOREX, is one of the largest financial markets in the
World, and the great thing about it is that it is not heavily regulated or controlled by any major institution, in turn allowing the ordinary person to make money off the market if they are properly educated. The market operates 24 hours, 6 days a week and is extremely liquid so it is well suited to intraday and swing traders who are looking to make quick profits in a short timeframe.

If you are new to the world of Forex Trading, then it is absolutely mandatory that you go through the process of learning the basic concepts and ins and outs of the market before you dive in and risk your own money. The best way to do this would be to educate yourself on some simple concepts by visiting a site like Baby Pips and to practice the strategies you have learnt on a demo account (which most brokers offer) without risking your own money. This will help you build confidence and also give you a taste of how the actual market functions. Once you have educated yourself and are fairly comfortable trading on a demo account then you should be ready to trade on a Real Live account, however make sure you are absolutely ready and don't jump in too soon or you will be literally setting yourself up for disaster.

However the truth of the matter is that even after most new traders have educated themselves on how the Forex Market works, they still struggle to make money and eventually become part of the 90% of traders who lose money in the world of Forex. You see trading the Forex Market is not that simple, and to become profitable you must gain a competitive edge over the competition, and in order to do so you must be an expert or become one fast if you wish to succeed. Now becoming an expert in Forex is no easy task, you would have to create your own trading system and make sure it can bring in consistent profits; this can only be achieved with years of experience trading actual live markets, and in the mean time it can cost you a lot of money if you are not careful.

A smarter and more efficient way to make some money off the Forex Market would be to follow in the footsteps of the experts who have already figured out how the market works and developed their own profitable systems to trade the markets. These experts through their years of testing and experience in trading the markets have come with systems that are proven to generate consistent profits off the Forex Market in the long run, and the best part about them is that once they have been created they can be completely automated. The reason why Many new traders fail to make money in Forex is because they are overwhelmed by all the information available on the internet and don't know how to get started and which system to use. Therefore if someone has found a formula for success and all you have to do is replicate that formula in order to make money, I think it seems pretty logical to follow the formula and reap the benefits.

These Formulas or recipes for profitably trading the Forex market are commonly known as Expert Advisors and they are designed to completely automate your Forex Trading decisions. Most new traders suffer from natural human emotions such as Fear, greed, and inconsistency when trading the markets and do not make decisions based on strict analysis or stick to their trading plan (that is if they have one). Now with an Expert Advisor, it has a programmed strategy and trading plan, and it will stick to that plan no matter what the market conditions are like, the system will not get greedy when you have to take profits nor will it go out and place a trade simply to chase losses. The top commercially available expert advisors are regularly tested on live accounts and are traded with by the creators of the system, hence it is fairly easy for you to check out their results and actually see first hand if the systems are consistently profitable and make money in the Forex Market.

What you must understand is that to make big profits In Forex, all you need to do is have a simple robust trading system; have confidence in it and the discipline to follow it. You could come up with your own trading system, or to speed things up, you could get your hands on a decent Forex Expert Advisor. The choice is yours but either way you must remain consistent and disciplined in order to succeed, so put your head down begin learning the basics, keep your eyes on the prize and you will eventually be on your way to making some easy money off the Forex Market.

Forex Market on AutoPilot

2010-08-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

If you've never heard of the Foreign Currency Exchange market, a.k.a The Forex Market, then either you've been living under a rock for the past decade or maybe the dream of earning
an income from home just doesn't interest you. Well whatever the reason may be, let me fill you in quickly on what the Forex Market is all about; It is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, where certain currencies are traded relative to others, it operates 24/7 all year round, and on average around 4 trillion dollars are traded daily within the market. There are no commissions and middle men involved in the trading process and this allows you to pocket almost all your profits, so naturally you can see why the Forex market is so appealing to all investors.

When I was first introduced to the Forex Markets I had no prior knowledge whatsoever, and I was very eager to get started so I started to mess around by trading on a demo account. What I realized next is that the Forex Market is very complicated and in order to make money consistently you need to get hold of a trading system that can help you put a plan into perspective. Now I could've developed my own system, however that requires you to have a firm grasp of mathematics, statistics, analytics, and posses strong money management techniques in order to construct a system that can generate consistent profits. All those skills, which can take years to master, are an essential part of becoming a successful trader, and if you are lucky enough to possess them, I assure you will be able to make a killing off the Forex Market.

However for the rest of us, it is a fairly daunting task to learn how to accurately analyze the Forex Market, let alone trying to figure out how to create a system that can continually profit from the Forex Market. This is where an automated Forex trading system can come to your rescue; these systems have been developed by professionals to constantly analyze the market to figure out when to enter profitable trades, and they do it all on complete autopilot. You should be able to trade with one of these systems with minimum knowledge of the market and still be able to make decent money. When you are trading in the Forex Market a lot factors can affect how you make your decisions, such as fear, lack of confidence, wanting to chase your losses etc. Now what an automated trading system can do is take all the emotions out of trading and offer you a stress free journey into the world of Forex by enabling a Robot to make all your decisions to generate long term profits without much risk.

There are plenty of automated Forex trading systems available on the market today, but one that stands out from the crowd, is the Forex Funnel System. The Forex Funnel software is an expert advisor, what that means is that once you install it into your MetaTrader trading platform it will automatically conduct trades for you on complete autopilot without any human intervention. Now the system posses a few unique features, firstly the system is very profitable because it is able to minimize risk and maximize profits, a principle that is dearly missed in many of its competitors. Secondly the system only trades one currency pair, The USD/JPY, enabling it to specialize in that specific pair and in turn mastering how to generate consistent profits from it; most other systems trade with all major currency pairs and in turn aren't able to master none of them. Specialization is the key to success, as it enables you to perfect your skills and use them accordingly to your benefit, and I believe the makers of Forex Funnel were clearly aware of this fact when creating their system.

So to put it in a nutshell, in order to become a beneficial Forex Trader you must posses certain attributes, such as being proficient in mathematics and statistics, and having a very analytical mind. If you are gifted with these talents, then it will take some time but eventually you will be able to create your own Forex Trading System that should be able to make you riches in the World Of Forex. On the other hand if you're still learning how the market works and trying to get a firm grasp on the Technical and Fundamental analyses of the market, then you may want to consider obtaining an automated trading robot to help get your started.

Learning Forex Market

2010-08-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

To learn Forex market one must understand that forex is a risky affair and there are bound to be losses. There is no system or software which is 100% safe, hence, this is not meant
for everyone. One thing should be kept in mind, never to trade forex with borrowed money or money that one cannot afford to lose. Forex training must not be treated as a hobby, as in a hobby losing money does not matter.

To learn forex market, one has to educate himself by finding a system. If one does not find time for himself, he should find a system or software to trade for him. Keeping software might be an expensive deal and might not fetch you a good profit. To answer your woes, there are something called forex robots, better known as EAs. These Bots do all the necessary jobs for you and trade on your behalf taking all the risk and doing the trading on Autopilot. The biggest advantage with them is that they never bring "human emotions" in between their work as all forex traders do. They do not invest when the market is low and invest only when the market situation is apt and trade to make profit.

If you are the type who puts in less than 20 hours a week on your work, aim at becoming a millionaire by using forex as a tool to work at home and feel that the forex robots will not earn millions for you, you cannot afford to be rich in no time. For this, you need to learn forex market. In case, that does not appeal to you and you do not find it interesting, forex robots can trade for you but it would not be possible to earn millions overnight.

Forex does not mean gambling, to learn forex market; one must possess basic skills and knowledge, which will help in your chance of succeeding. Forex is a vast market and is well known. For those with a good knowledge and good money management skills it promises big profits. Forex offers a huge potential and the only way to get the best out of it and make good money is to have a good and proper knowledge about the forex market or by buying the software.

How do forex robots work and what are their shortcomings?

Forex automated robots and forex EAs, as they are better known, are the computer designed software which trade on your behalf. They trade on whatever foreign exchange trading platform you are running. Metatrader platform is the most common trading platform as it is broker free. The software helps in placing all your trades from beginning to end. They also never bring along "human emotions" in their business, like taking too many risks or any downturns. They never take risks and do exactly what they have been programmed to do and trade only when it seems to be the right time in the market to make a good profit. Hence, one has to either learn forex market or buy such software to make life easy.

With forex robots, there might be days when you have losses but the overall intention is to show a profit in your account. Before you buy a robot or start trading, you can have a free demo, you need to trade "pretend money" in your robot and make sure it works up to your expectations.

Forex robots are supposedly automated, money making machines that help you in searching for profitable trades, as well as automate the buying and selling process. You should be smart trader so as to handle longer trades with higher profits that attract a lot of drawdown. Forex robots trade on a daily basis looking at short run opportunities.

Forex Market Work

2010-08-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

The forex market is a huge international exchange where different currencies are traded, i.e. both bought and sold. It is estimated to be the largest financial market in the world, and is
not governed by the rules of any one country. In addition to this, while it is open from Sunday to Friday, it is a 24 hour market and does not experience a daily closing like a traditional stock market. It is, thus, not regulated and there are no international panels to settle disputes nor are there any clearing houses to stand as guarantors of trades on the exchange. There is nothing more binding than a credit agreement between the buyer and seller in the forex market, and it works.

While this seems very nebulous to most stock market investors, forex traders are forced by competition and the need for cooperation to remain honest. There is no way for a trader to survive in the forex market unless he or she keeps up their end of the deal. Most countries will have their own body or association that serve to regulate the forex traders or brokers in that country and ensure that clients' rights are protected. This association will insist on its members accepting the decisions of their arbitration panel in case of disputes. In the United States, this organization is generally considered to be the National Futures Association or the NFA.

Another important aspect of the forex market to keep in mind is that on the market itself, there are no commissions, and thus it works on principal amount only. The so called forex brokers make money not by taking a commission from the trading parties, but by facilitating the trade itself and making their bit on the bid ask spread, i.e. the difference between the selling and buying prices. The implication is that they are not brokers in the traditional sense of the word, but more like forex traders themselves.

The single most attractive aspect of the forex market is that it is practically impossible for any investor, group of investors or financial institutions to misuse it. It is such a large market, with money flowing through it daily in estimated trillions of dollars, that no single entity, however large, can gain a statistically significant control over the forex market. This means that it is completely free of any influences, beyond the true fundamental driving forces that move it. The implication here is that this market offers every investor the same opportunity, regardless of size or influence, making it a free and fair market place, possibly the only one in the world. This aspect is very attractive to small investors in particular, since they are often the ones to suffer the most from stock market scams and fraudulent activity.

While these factors make the forex market more appealing to invest money on, it is also hard to make money on this market due to the fact that the forex trader has to always do better than the bid ask spread, which makes the opportunities for arbitrage profit limited. However, with no extra commissions and charges, the forex trader is left to enjoy every last bit of profit that he or she does make, once they are past the bid ask spread mark. Overall, the forex market is the place for a smart, vigilant and well trained investor.