I hope as a website / blog owner you are already using Firefox browser, if you are still using Internet Explorer, then its high time you switch to Firefox. Google’s Chrome browser is faster than Firefox but the sheer number of web marketing related add-ons gives Firefox the edge over any other competing browsers.

With the web getting increasingly interactive and social, many sites are coming up with their own toolbars. There are literally hundreds of them now and if you were to download them all, you will be left with no space on your monitor.

Online marketing is often fiercely competitive.  Wouldn’t it be a HUGE plus if you can have all the important data about any page you are visiting right in front of your eyes without you spending any extra time ?

Being a minimalist, I’ll tell you about only the most useful toolbar add-ons that would prove to be of immense value in making your online marketing campaign a successful one.

SEO Toolbar from SEO Book

Search Status Toolbar from Quirk

Here are some of the things you can see with these:

• Number of backlinks to entire site that you viewing thro’ Yahoo Explorer
• Number of backlinks to the page you are viewing
• Google Page Rank
• Age of the website / WhoIS data
• How many pages of your website are included in search engines (  aka “Index saturation” )
• Important directory links info ( Dmoz, Yahoo and BOTW directories )
• Compete Monthly unique visitors to the site
• SEMRush estimated traffic value if you were to buy the traffic via  Google Adwords.
• Search engine ranking checker ( you are going to love this feature ! )
• On page optimization for the page you are viewing
• Ability to view / manage your RSS feed subscriptions ( seo book toolbar only )
• Show the rel nofollowed links
• Compare up to 5 websites at a time! ( seobook toolbar only )
• SEOmoz linkscape tools mozrank ( quirk search status toolbar only )

Both of these are fantastic add-ons for your Firefox and will give you that competitive edge for succeeding with your website promotion. If you don’t have them yet, I highly recommend you install them without any further delay.

The third must have tool you should have in your marketing arsenal is the

RoboForm

which would save you hundreds of hours by securely remembering and automatically filling sign up forms, login info for you with a single click.

The best part? Just like above two excellent addons, Roboform is 100% free for personal user. ( They also offer a pro version for those who need it but 99% of times, the free version is sufficient. )

If you dabble in the web design / development side besides marketing your website, then you’d want to install the Firebug and/or Web Developers Toolbar too.

If you are new to internet marketing, start with one add-on at a time. Watch videos related to it on the authors site, youtube.com and rinse-repeat for the next add-on.

Last but not the least, if you don’t like the Quirk Search Status plug-in, you can try an equally excellent add-on called SEOQuake

Which are the toolbars you are using to manage your online marketing campaigns? Feel free to share in comments.

Have you ever wished you could learn it yourself and do it yourself? Well you are not alone AND you are in the right place too. This post is continuation of the earlier post that talk about the larger picture of Internet marketing.  So without much ado, lets get to the point:

What is online marketing:

• Understand that it’s a long term process and not a one time event
• The goal is to get your product / service in front of your target audience and get them to take the desired action
• It’s a broad term used to ‘collectively refer’ to various marketing channels

Popular online marketing channels include:

• Search engine optimization ( driving organic traffic )
• Pay Per Click aka PPC ( driving paid traffic )
• Affiliate marketing ( giving people affiliate aka referral commission ) for referring a lead / sale.)
• Email marketing ( getting leads / sales by leveraging the opt-in email list )
• Social media marketing ( leveraging the social sites like facebook, twitter, etc to engage with your target audience, monitoring your brand, online reputation and ultimately drive leads/sales )

Some of these channels have overlaps and are merging; like the search engine optimization and social media marketing. Additionally, there are several granular layers to the above marketing channels ( stay tuned for more on them later )

It’s important that you have a holistic online marketing strategy rather than diving into it in haphazard manner.

The basic concepts of online marketing are very simple to understand but mastering them is a lifelong learning process as it’s part science and art both.

There are plenty of professional  internet marketing tools, both free as well as paid, to make your job simpler and much more efficient.

Why is online marketing critical for success of the website

What do you do when you need to find information about something? You go to a search engine like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Bing, etc. You enter the search term in the search box & hit the search button. Bang! In a split second you are presented with thousands of results matching your search query.

By default, 10 results are shown per page. Whosoever is on the first page of Google, Bing, etc gets all the business ! Because most people never go to the second page of search results .

Research has shown that only @  15% or so care to go to the second page of search results, rest of the people simply change their search query and search with  a different key phrase.

So it’s obvious that if you are not ranking in google on the first page of search results for keywords important to your business you are basically nowhere.

Components of  online marketing campaign:

There are two basic components to it:

• Strategy – short term and long term planning
• Execution – tools and techniques to achieve strategic goals

Strategy / Planning stage in turn consists of following stages:

Define your target audience very clearly ( age, sex, location, income level, problem or the need that needs solution you have, sub segments of those demographics )

Define your USP / PODS clearly – if you don’t have one you should create one. It can be anything like a product feature, free shipping, free support, etc or it can be a combination of multiple factors that differentiate your offering. As far as possible, avoid competing on price as desperate competitors can always lowball you.

Determine how you are going to communicate your USP / PODS to your target audience.

Where do they hang out online? ( search engines, bulletin boards, answers sites, communities like ning, squidoo, etc, social media sites like facebook, twitter, etc )

If there is an offline component to your business, then where does your target audience hang out. Local bars, clubs, trade fairs, conferences, local chambers of commerce, etc and make sure you network there to drive your online marketing objectives.

Make a note of the short listed online properties where you are going to engage with the target audience. Do NOT spread yourself too thin and try to be all over the place. You will wear yourself out. Instead focus on max two properties at a time. ( Example: Facebook & Twitter, Myspace & Yahoo Answers, Youtube & Stumbleupon, etc. )

Execution – Tools & techniques to achieve the strategic goals.

This is phase of the operational side of things and things get much more “hands on”. Stay tuned as we go into nitty gritty of every aspect of internet marketing in great detail – one step at a time !

Start with the two most important venues for your offering and start engaging right away. Do NOT try to sell / pitch anything. Just focus on helping others, engaging in the conversation in helpful way.

To summarize and quote Sun Tzu - “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat”

Going forward, you will segment this to a greater detail as to what exactly is meant by engaging in constructive way and how to put a RoI ( Return On Investment ) value on it.

Focus on the actionable items and if you have any questions, feel free to ask away.

Well the question is as old as internet itself and unfortunately, most of the people think about it only after  spending few grand’s on site design.

What is most crucial for your online marketing campaign is to understand that the chances of succeeding are bright if and only if you build a product around a need and not vice versa.

And how do you achieve this ? Well it all boils down to basically three things:

In demand content creation to satisfy your target audience.

Make sure that the search engine spiders can easily and fully crawl it without any traps.

Content publicity through relevant distribution channels.

There are numerous granular considerations within these but ALL online marketing campaigns revolve around these 3 “structural” factors.

Capture the needs of your target market as accurately as possible. Develop solution around this need either yourself or connect them with the solution provider.

Social media is the order of the web today and you can find ways to leverage it provided you engage in it in productive, non-spammy manner.

Identify top social media sites in your vertical & the power users on each.

Identify the top bloggers in your vertical.

Identify the top digital media journalists in your vertical.

Identify other relevant distribution channels covering your niche

Seed your website; be in front of eyeballs of both solution seekers and solution providers

Remember that the tricks might work for sometime and get you somewhere but only consistent and honest value addition can create brand evangelists for you and that’s the key to success for online marketing in today’s fast moving social web.

Remember the golden rule: Strategy before tactics. Put pen on paper and write down your detailed marketing plan before venturing out.