Monday, April 30, 2007

Search Engine Optimization Ideas that Work

THINGS TO DO

After selecting your keywords, tags, description, etc. what else can you do to optimize your web site?

(1) Do a search for sites similar to yours using some site related keywords. Select a few of the top results in the search. Analyze their keywords and tags by selecting "view" in the drop down menu of your browser and then click on "source". There you will see what they've done to get such good placement.

(2) Using a keyword tool to see how your products or services are searched for and use those terms to describe what you sell. If done correctly, matching popular search terms with your goods or services will get you great search engine placement.

(3) Check all your links to make sure they work. Dead links are bad news for both search engines and converting traffic into sales.

(4) Submit to directories like DMOZ, Yahoo Business Directory, etc. Some charge a fee but their inclusion is a key factor in getting search engines to list you.

(5) Create a sitemap and submit it to the search engines. This ensures that no pages of your site will be missed when they crawl your site. There are free programs that can create the sitemap for you.

(6) If you write articles, be sure to publish them on your own site. Their keyword rich content increases your chances of being in their search engine results.

(7) Educate yourself through trade specific newsletters that discuss proper and effective SEO. They are an invaluable source for new ideas.

THINGS TO AVOID

(8) Don't use words like "of", "the", etc. in your keywords. Those are called "stop" words and not considered search engine friendly.

(9) Avoid using tables within your site whenever possible. While pleasing to the eye, search engines can't read them and they won't follow the text links or recognize the content.

(10) Make your content keyword rich, but don't go too far. Keyword "stuffing" can easily be detected and you'll loose valuable search engine placement or even be excluded.

(11) Linking campaigns are important. One way links are best but reciprocal links are acceptable as long as they are with similar sites. Try to link to sites with a page rank of 3 or better. Avoid 3 way links, web rings and links to sites that have nothing in common with yours.

Proper search engine optimization techniques are a large part of any web site's success. There are many companies available to do this for you but if you are on a small budget, using these search engine optimization ideas will reap big benefits.

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Sunday, April 29, 2007

Affiliate Marketing-The Easiest Way to Make Money Online

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online. The sales page is the key that allows you to make the money. Driving visitors to your link which leads to the sales page can be done through article marketing. All of this can be done for free. Let's find out how easy affiliate marketing really is.

1 - Keyword or Keyphrase Research

Using your keyword research tool, search for low competition keywords. Those are keywords that have at least 300 searches a month. They also should have less than 5000 competing pages in Google (when entered between quotation marks like this "keyword"). Try to find 10 keywords related to the same topic.

Hint: If you have no idea of which market to target, start by checking popular phrases like: how to, purchase, get rid of, help, cure, tips, etc.

2 -Promote a product

Go to Clickbank.com and find a product related to your topic. Choose one that pays at least $20. Write down your affiliate link or save it in a text file on your computer.

3 - How good is your writing?

Write an informative article (400 words) focused on each of your keywords. Put your keyword in the title and in the first and last paragraph of your article. Also sprinkle it throughout your copy. Throw in a few other keywords related to your topic. This will help you rank well.

Most important, write a great bio box that will make people want to learn more and click on the link to your blog. Put your keyword in your bio box as an anchor text link to your blog.

4 – Do you want a blog.

More and more article directories will not let you put your affiliate link in your bio box. So your blog is going to be your landing page. The idea here is to put up a simple blog that will presell (not sell) your product and make people click on your Clickbank affiliate link to go to the sales page.

Hint: set up a blog for every product you promote and give it a keyword-focused name.

5 – Submit to article directories.

You will need to find article directories with a PR of 5 or more. These are the ones Google likes and it will help you get a first page ranking in the search engines and drive tons of free traffic to your blog.

Post one article a day on each article directory and do not post the exact same article to more than one directory.

Hint: Your best choice is http://www.EzineArticles.com. You will need good quality articles, but it is the most powerful directory online. Alternatively you can use http://www.Goarticles.com.

6 – Rinse and repeat!

The more articles you submit, the more you will make money online. But every product is not going to be a winner. Some will do well, some will not. Once you write a money making article, it will generate residual income for months and maybe even years without ever costing you a single dime.

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Saturday, April 28, 2007

Your Money Thermostat- Is It Stuck?

What's your "money thermostat" set to?

Interesting question, huh?

At last Thursday's MasterMind meeting, Dr. Joe Vitale passed out copies of "The Millionaire Mind" by T. Harv Eker.

It's really making me look at my beliefs about money.

Ol' T. Harv makes the case that everybody has a money thermostat that governs how much money we allow ourselves to make. It's something we learn from our parents, usually.

I haven't finished the book, yet, but I hope he also looks at the other thermostats we have- happiness thermostats, health and weight thermostats, relationship thermostats...

The bad news is that we're pretty much a bundle of conditioned responses. According to Napoleon Hill, and I've seen no data that refutes this, by the time we're fifteen, we're programmed.

Unless we make a conscious effort to intelligently reprogram ourselves, we're stuck with the beliefs, conditioning, and thermostats that we're given as children.

The good news is that we CAN reprogram ourselves.

This is something I've been working on for over a year. My money thermostat was set at about whatever my bills for each month happened to be. I used to be pretty smug about the fact the universe took such good care of me.

The problem was that I could never get ahead. If I needed a few hundred bucks to pay a bill, it would (apparently) appear out of nowhere- but not a penny more. I was stuck.

Looking back, I can reverse engineer this phenomenon. My dad was the same way. His dad was the same way. It's a learned behavior.

I decided to "unlearn" it.

I had some added baggage. I'm an old hippie. There. I admit it. There's a lot about the counter culture I still embrace- mostly ecological and social issues.

It can be very conflicting.

There is a part of me that would be perfectly happy in a Buddhist monastery, with my personal material wealth consisting of a bowl, a saffron robe, and a library card.

There's another part of me that wants that Mercedes Benz and a villa in Northern Italy.

What finally turned me around was the discovery that we live in an infinite universe. The universe has unlimited wealth. I can reprogram my internal thermostats to allow any amount of money, happiness, and bliss I want.

That changes everything.

Just by changing my internal beliefs about money, I've managed to increase my income by an order of magnitude in less than a year.

Joe and I have been putting together the Milagro Manifestation Method to help you have, do and be anything you want. It's the most powerful mind reprogramming program that's ever been created.

It damn sure worked for me.

Take a look at your thermostats. How much money have you allowed yourself to make? How much happiness have you allowed yourself to have?

It's all up to you, you know.

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Friday, April 27, 2007

3 Steps for Generating Traffic Through Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is the way to go in this day and age of social networking and online communities. You must induce other people to tell their friends and social contacts about your business, products and services. Here are the steps for using viral marketing to generate traffic to your site.

People dread computer viruses. They are prolific, attach to anything and spread everywhere. Bad virus aside, this same characteristic (prolific) makes viral marketing effective.

The medium you would be using for this type of marketing would be prolific as well in generating leads and sales. There are many kinds of viral marketing that you could use to generate more traffic to your website. Generally, if used well, viral marketing is an extremely effective way to get more interest and produce more leads and sales. Here are some viral marketing methods using reports or ebooks that people can use to generate more traffic to their websites.

Step 1: Write a free report

This does not end there. You must also convert your report into a PDF file. Your report should be concise, inviting, interesting and informative. It must give information about your website or your products. It should be written in such a way that it would encourage people to buy your products or visit your website.

A free report once downloaded would be left behind for people to read later. Chances are, if these reports are written well, they would guarantee you that people downloading and reading them would once more check your website. People love a well written report with good content.

Avoid writing an ad and avoid marketing. Make sure that your report is informative. If you are selling supplements, write an article on how effective these supplements are. Your articles would be passed on from one person to another for years to come. Perhaps, you don't have to immediately write another report on the same subject matter.

Step 2: Write a teaser

This is most effective if you are marketing an ebook that people can buy from your website. Give people a free chapter that they can read. Generate interest by arousing their curiosity. Remember to give only a teaser of the whole book. Do not give out the whole thing. Make sure that people can only obtain your ebook by visiting your website and paying for it or by subscribing.

Usually, this type of marketing is effective because people would quickly exchange information with others or forward the same to others whom they know would be interested in the content of the ebook. Thus, this is called viral marketing. Your traffic will noticeably increase with little or no effort from you at all. You would also have a huge and increased level of generated leads and sales.

Step 3. Write an ebook which you can give away

Whenever people visit your website or join your newsletter, give them a free ebook. This is usually a very short informative report relating to your products or services. Make sure that the content is interesting and useful so that people would want to share it with others. This is a very good strategy if employed correctly.

It is also wise to not give the whole information. Make sure that people would want to visit your website to get the more complete report on the subject matter. This would be a great viral marketing campaign to generate more traffic to your website.

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Thursday, April 26, 2007

How To Redirect The Newsletter Opt-In Registration To Your Sales Page Part I

You can generally improve the conversion rate of visitors to your website if you know how to redirect the newsletter opt-in registration to your sales page, so that anybody signing up for your newsletter is also given the opportunity to purchase your product.

This is normally a dangerous thing to do, since it can prompt your visitor either to leave your site, or even to refuse to confirm the registration, so it is essential that you keep an eye on what the response tends to be. Testing is of extreme importance, and while this technique can work, it is important that you get the wording of your offer right. So what do you do to achieve this?

Somebody has just opted in for your newsletter, and all they have to do now before you have their email address added to your list is to confirm. Your autoresponder has sent them an email informing them that a confirmation email is in their inbox, and that they have to click on the link it contains to confirm their registration. Within that email, you might not only inform them that the email is in their inbox, but you may also make them a special offer.

This offer is made as a thank you for them providing you with their email address. They are already receiving the gifts you promised for filling in the opt-in form after they confirm their registration, but this is something in addition to that. It is a special unannounced offer, you say, as a special reward for accepting the first offer. This special offer is presented as something special at a special price just for them.

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Groupe Casino: First Quarter Organic Sales Growth of 3.7%

SAINT-ETIENNE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--


Regulatory News:


Groupe Casino (Paris:CO):




Consolidated net sales


Q1 2006


(€m)





Q1 2007


(€m)





% change 








Reported




Organic*




Continuing operations


5,360.1 




5,480.4 




+2.2%




+3.7%




France


4,177.1 




4,238.9 




+1.5%




+1.5%




International


1,183.1 




1,241.5 




+4.9%




+11.7%




*At constant scope of consolidation and exchange rates


Consolidated net sales for the first quarter of 2007 amounted to €5,480.4
million, an increase of 2.2% over the year-earlier period. Divestment of
operations in Taiwan reduced sales by 0.9% while the currency effect was
a negative 0.6%. Excluding these effects, organic growth came to 3.7%,
led by a strong 11.7% increase in international markets.


In France, sales were up 1.5%. All formats performed
satisfactorily during the quarter, with the exception of Franprix-Leader
Price where an action plan to revitalise sales growth will be
implemented in the next few weeks.


In a deflationary environment, the Group is reaping the benefits of its
differenciated marketing strategy. The strategy focuses on:



strengthening private label lines, which have been posting
double-digit sales growth for three years in a row.


targeted price cuts, for a list of products determined with the
assistance of dunnhumby and comprising some 600 national brand items
as well as 400 private label and value line items.


expanding and improving the fresh produce offering.



These initiatives fuelled a sharp rise in the proportion of hypermarket
and supermarket sales made by loyalty cardholders. This in turn led to
an increase in the average basket, as cardholder customers tend to spend
significantly more than other customers.


As a result, the hypermarkets and supermarkets reported same-store sales
up 0.8% and 3.8% respectively, excluding gasoline.


Monoprix leveraged its unique market position to achieve sustained 2.9%
same-store growth and to speed up its expansion.


The superettes maintained a sustained pace of openings with some 18,000
square meters added during the quarter and posted a satisfactory 1.6%
increase in sales.


Franprix-Leader Price sales contracted 3.8% over the quarter, mainly due
to an 11% decline in same-store sales at Leader Price.


Organic growth in International markets came to 11.7%. This
robust performance was attributable to strong gains in the Group’s
two priority host regions – Latin America (up
14.2%) and Asia (up 11.6%). All countries reported increased same-store
sales.


The Group confirms its objectives announced on 15 March 2007:



further growth in trading profit in 2007


continued improvement in the financial structure to reach a net debt
to EBITDA ratio of less than 2.5 by year-end.



FRANCE


In France, first quarter sales rose 1.5% over the year-earlier period.
The 0.5% favourable calendar effect was offset by the 0.4% negative
impact of lower gasoline sales.


During the quarter, the Group opened 43,000 square meters of retail
sales area, primarily reflecting sustained expansion of the supermarket
and superette formats.




€ millions


First quarter




2006 




2007 




Change




Net sales, France


4,177.1 




4,238.9 




+1.5%




Géant Casino hypermarkets


1,447.9 




1,447.7 




+0.0%




Convenience stores


1,470.8 




1,530.2 




+4.0%




Casino supermarkets


693.5 




730.0 




+5.3%




Monoprix


419.3 




436.7 




+4.1%




Superettes


357.9 




363.5 




+1.6%




Franprix-Leader Price


1,021.5 




982.3 




-3.8%




Other businesses


237.0 




278.7 




+17.6%






Same-store sales


First quarter 2007




 


Including gasoline




Excluding gasoline




Géant Casino hypermarkets


- 0.2%




+ 0.8%




Casino supermarkets


+ 2.5%




+ 3.8%




Franprix


- 1.2%




N/A 




Leader Price


- 11.0%




N/A 




Monoprix


+ 2.9%




+ 2.9%




Hypermarkets


Géant Casino hypermarket sales were stable in first-quarter 2007.
Excluding gasoline, same-store sales rose 0.8%. Growth was led by a 1.5%
increase in the average basket, attesting to the success of the banner’s
strategy to raise the number of loyalty cardholders, who spend on
average over 50% more than other customers. Over the last twelve months,
the percentage of sales realised with loyalty cardholders has gained
nearly five points.


Food sales rose 2%, reflecting higher volumes and an improved sales mix,
which was attributable to an assertive strategy of innovation in private
label products.


Non-food sales were down 1.6% due to the ongoing rationalisation of the
portfolio, which is sharpening the focus on the most promising and
highest -margin product families, as well as a reduction in promotional
offers thanks to improved inventory management. The sales trend improved
compared with 2006, thanks to the good results reported by the stores
that have implemented the new non-food concepts.


Géant Casino’s market share held firm during
the quarter (source: Secodip P3 – IRI P2).


Convenience stores


Supermarkets


Casino Supermarkets continued to enjoy sustained growth, with sales up
5.3% compared with first-quarter 2006. The Group benefited from the
assertive expansion strategy implemented in 2006 and pursued during the
quarter with the opening of some 12,000 square meters. Same-store growth
excluding gasoline stood at 3.8%, reflecting a 1.6% rise in customer
traffic and a 2.2% increase in the average basket. Growth in the average
basket was primarily attributable to a roughly four-point rise in the
percentage of sales realized with loyalty cardholders.


The increase in sales translated into a 0.1-point market share gain over
the quarter (source: Secodip P3 and IRI P2).


Monoprix


Monoprix delivered another solid performance, with same-store sales up
2.9%.The banner stepped up the pace of expansion, rolling out its new
concepts with the opening of three Monop’
outlets. In all, some 4,000 square meters were opened during the
quarter. Reported sales rose 4.1% over the period.


Superettes


Superette sales were up 1.6%. The format continued to expand rapidly,
with some 18,000 square meters opened during the quarter.


Discount stores


Franprix-Leader Price sales for the quarter were down 3.8% over the
year-earlier period.


Franprix’s same-store sales contracted
1.2%, while Leader Price showed no sign of improvement, reporting
an 11% decline in same-store sales. After appointing a new Franprix
management team in March 2007, the Group announced on 10 April that it
was taking over the executive and operational management of Leader
Price, with the priority objective of implementing an action plan to
rapidly reverse the decline in sales.


Other businesses


The contribution of other businesses (C’discount,
Mercialys, Casino Cafétéria and Banque Casino) for the quarter was up
17.6%, led by C’discount, which reported more
than a 25% gain in sales.


INTERNATIONAL


Sales in international markets rose 4.9% in the first quarter compared
with the same period of 2006. Changes in scope of consolidation had a
negative impact of 4.4%, primarily corresponding to the disposal of
operations in Taiwan. The currency effect was a negative 2.4%,
reflecting the euro’s appreciation against
Latin American currencies.


Organic growth remained high, at 11.7%, led by advances of 14.2% in
Latin America and 11.6% in Asia. These two regions accounted for 84% of
consolidated sales in international markets in the quarter.


Same-store sales growth was strong in Latin America and satisfactory in
Asia and the Indian Ocean.




Consolidated net sales – Q1 2007




Reported




Organic




Same-store




Latin America




+ 7.8%




+ 14.2%




+ 13.5%




Asia




+ 1.0%




+ 11.6%




+ 3.3%




Indian Ocean




+ 2.9%




+ 4.0%




+ 2.8%






Net sales of associates – Q1 2007




Reported




Organic




Same-store




Colombia




+ 17.8%




+ 25.9%




+ 14.4%




Netherlands (Super de Boer)




N/A 




+ 3.3%




+ 3.1%




In Latin America, organic growth stood at 14.2%, with same-store
sales up 13.5%. All countries in the region reported very satisfactory
same-store growth.


The marketing strategy implemented by CBD in Brazil to improve its price
competitiveness helped to deliver a 5.5% increase in same-store sales,
sustained by rising customer traffic since September 2006. CBD also
continued to expand its Extra Perto convenience format, opening four
stores during the quarter.


Exito, which is accounted for by the equity method, enjoyed another
period of double-digit growth, with same-store sales up 14.4%. The
assertive expansion strategy implemented in recent months lifted organic
growth to 25.9%.


Organic growth in Asia stood at 11.6%, including same-store
growth of 3.3%. Thailand’s Big C reported
satisfactory organic and same-store growth. In Vietnam, a new
hypermarket was opened during the quarter, raising the total number of
stores to six. In a very buoyant market, same-store sales rose sharply.


In the Indian Ocean region, organic growth came to 4%, led by a
2.8% increase in same-store sales.


In the Netherlands, Super de Boer reported a further improvement
in performance, with same-store sales up 3.1% over the quarter.


Main changes in the scope of consolidation



Disco (Uruguay) was proportionately consolidated on a 55% basis from 1
April 2006 (compared with 50% previously), and a 58% basis from 1
October 2006.


In accordance with IFRS 5 relating to proportionately consolidated
companies, sales from operations in Taiwan (FEG) are no longer
included in consolidated net sales since 14 September 2006 when the
FEG joint venture was classified under “Assets
held for sale”


In accordance with IFRS 5:




Sales of the Polish stores that have been sold or are in the process
of being sold have been reclassified under “Discontinued
operations”, while sales of the retained
stores are included in International sales under “Other”.


Sales of the US stores (Smart & Final) in the process of being sold
have also been reclassified under “Discontinued
operations”.





 


First quarter




Change




2006


(€m)





2007


(€m)





Reported




At constant exchange rates




FRANCE


4,177.1 




4,238.9 




+ 1.5%








Of which:


Géant Casino hypermarkets




1,447.9 






1,447.,7 






+ 0.0%









Convenience stores


1,470.8 




1,530.2 




+ 4.0%








Casino supermarkets


693.5 




730.0 




+ 5.3%








Monoprix


419.3 




436.7 




+ 4.1%









Superettes and Franchiseoutlets



357.9 




363.5 




+ 1.6%








Franprix–Leader Price


1,021.5 




982.3 




- 3.8%








Other businesses


237.0 




278.7 




+ 17.6%






















 




INTERNATIONAL


1,183.1 




1,241.5 




+ 4.9%




+ 7.3%




Of which:


















Latin America


629.7 




678.8 





+7.8%





+ 14.5%




Asia


357.4 




361.0 





+ 1.0%





- 3.8%




Of which Asia excluding Taiwan


308.0 




361.0 





+ 17.2%









Indian Ocean


195.7 




201.4 





+ 2.9%






4.0%





Other


0.3 




0.3 





 






 






NET SALES – CONTINUINGOPERATIONS



5,360.1 




5,480.4 




+ 2.2%




+ 2.8%




NET SALES - DISCONTINUEDOPERATIONS


579.6 




363.7 


























 




CONSOLIDATED NET SALES


5,939.7 




5,844.1 




 




 




NET SALES OF ASSOCIATES


















(accounted for by the equity











 









method)











 









Of which: Colombia (100%-basis)


319.2 




376.0 





17.8%






+25.9%





Netherlands (100%-basis)


808.0 




472.2 





N/A 






 







Average exchange rates


Q1 2006




Q1 2007




Change




United States (USD/EUR)


0.8319 




0.7631 




- 8.3%




Poland (PLN/EUR)


0.2609 




0.2573 




- 1.4%




Argentina (ARS/EUR)


0.2715 




0.2465 




- 9.2%




Uruguay (UYP/EUR)


0.0344 




0.0314 




- 8.6%




Venezuela (VEB/EUR) (x1.000)


0.3867 




0.3555 




- 8.1%




Thailand (THB/EUR)


0.0212 




0.0225 




6.1%




Taiwan (NTS/EUR)


Vietnam (VND/EUR) (x1.000)



0.0257


0.0516 





0.0232


0.0462 





- 9.9%


- 10.5%





Colombia (COP/EUR) (x1.000)


0.3673 




0.3437 




- 6.4%




Brazil (BRL/EUR)


0.3788 




0.3622 




- 4.4%






France





March 31,2006






Dec 31,2006






March 31,2007





Géant Casino hypermarkets


Of which French affiliates


International affiliates


Service stations





127


5


10


99 





128


6


10


99 





127


6


9


99 





Casino supermarkets


Of which French franchise affiliates


International franchise affiliates


Service stations





364


73


12


132 





367


73


12


136 





375


81


16


131 





Franprix supermarkets


Of which Franchise outlets





629


294 





637


299 





634


293 





Monoprix supermarkets


Of which Franchise outlets/Affiliates





303


64 





310


56 





316


55 





Leader Price discount stores


Of which Franchise outlets





429


171 





471


209 





476


212 






Total supermarkets and discount stores


Of which Franchise outlets/storesoperated under
business leases





1,725


614 





1,785


649 





1,801


657 





Petit Casino superettes


Of which Franchise outlets





2,095


26 





2,017


31 





2,025


28 





Eco Services superettes


Of which Franchise outlets





78


57 





42


35 





30


28 





Spar superettes


Of which Franchise outlets





817


667 





862


684 





876


699 





Vival superettes


Of which Franchise outlets





1,440


1440 





1,553


1553 





1,624


1624 





Casitalia and C’Asia superettes




14 




17 




20 





Other franchise stores


(Casino Supermarket corners, Relay,Shell, Elf,
Carmag, etc.)





1,149


23


1126 





1,161


13


1148 





1,190


12


1178 






TOTAL CONVENIENCE STORES


Of which Franchise outlets/storesoperated under
business leases





5,593


3339 





5,652


3464 





5,765


3569 





Other affiliate stores


Of which French Affiliates


International Affiliates





117


115


2 





105


103


2 





102


100


2 





Other businesses


Imagica


Cafeterias





281


33


248 





292


31


261 





295


31


264 





TOTAL France




7,843 




7,962 




8,090 




Hypermarkets


Supermarkets


Discount stores


Superettes and other stores


Other





127


1,296


429


5,710


281 





128


1,314


471


5,757


292 





127


1,325


476


5,867


295 





HM : hypermarkets SM : supermarkets DIS :
discount SUP : superettes MAG : stores DIV :
other LGA : stores operated under business leases




International





March 31,2006






Dec 31,2006






March 31,2007





ARGENTINA


Libertad hypermarkets


Leader Price discount stores


Other businesses





61


13


25


23 





62


13


25


24 





61


13


25


23 





URUGUAY


Géant hypermarkets


Disco supermarkets


Devoto supermarkets





48


1


25


22 





48


1


25


22 





49


1


25


23 





VENEZUELA


Exito hypermarkets


Cada supermarkets


Q Precios discount stores





66


6


41


19 





65


6


40


19 





64


6


39


19 





BRAZIL


Extra hypermarkets


Päo de Açucar supermarkets


Sendas supermarkets


Barateiro discount stores


Extra Perto supermarkets


Eletro (other businesses)





554


80


183


66


175


 


50 





551


84


165


62


186


4


50 





550


83


164


62


183


8


50 





TAIWAN


Géant hypermarkets





14


14 






 





 




THAILAND


Big C hypermarkets


Leader Price discount stores





50


45


5 





55


49


6 





55


49


6 





VIETNAM


Big C hypermarkets





3


3 





5


5 





6


6 





INDIAN OCEAN


Jumbo hypermarkets


Score/Jumbo supermarkets


Cash and Carry supermarkets


Spar supermarkets


Other businesses





44


10


20


5


5


4 





45


11


19


5


6


4 





45


11


19


5


6


4 





COLOMBIA


Exito hypermarkets


Ley, Pomona and other supermarkets


Q Precios discount stores





98


29


66


3 





111


47


58


6 





111


47


58


6 





NETHERLANDS


Konmar supermarkets


Super de Boer supermarkets


Edah discount stores





685


44


365


276 





380


2


357


21 





360


1


358


1 





TOTAL INTERNATIONAL




2,170 




1,575 




1,555 




Hypermarkets


Supermarkets


Discount stores


Other businesses





219


1,092


782


77 





216


1,014


263


82 





216


1,014


240


85 

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Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Mistake 4 - Failing To Progress

Affiliate marketing is just like any kind of business. If you are not willing to continue to learn new skills and improve yourself, you will be left behind. The affiliate mistake that I am going to refer in this article is the failure of not doing consistent learning.

Affiliate marketing is an ever evolving field. If you are not able to catch up with the latest trends and consider using the latest strategies, your competitor will overtake you. You will be so far away from them that you will just be eating their dust.

So the solutions to this problem is that you will have to be committed enough to learn all the new techniques and developments that is currently happening in the internet now. You must also be flexible enough to give this new technique a try.

You will definitely face problems when you are trying to use the new techniques for the first. This is when the real learning begins. You will only be able to learn new things when you have made a mistake. Making mistake and learning from it is part of the progression stage.

So no matter what level of marketing level that people are, all of them will need to continuously learn new stuff and improve themselves. The moment when you feel that you have learned all the stuff already, that will also be the time when you will start to decline. So make sure that you will not make this mistake in your affiliate marketing venture and other aspects of your life.

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Friday, April 20, 2007

How to Have Extremely Powerful Affiliate Success Results in Days

Often times it seems like people are searching for quick fix, fast solutions to becoming successful; and the truth is that most of the time they will be disappointed. It can seem challenging to discover the truth that it in fact takes 'work' to become successful on the internet as in anywhere else. But the good news is that the work need not be unduly arduous, and that it really is possible to experience extremely powerful affiliate success results within days. But those will be busy days ;)

Ok. So what do you need to get cracking? There are several stages to the process of affiliate success. The first of these is market research. Now, often you will hear to choose niche markets. Forget that. It is generally bad advice. If you wanted a drink of water, would you go to a desert? Or would you go to a Lake? Well the same is true in affiliate marketing. Don't go to the desert of low amounts of people and low demand. Go to whopping, huge, lake like markets, where you and thousands of others can swim around together quite happily, and all get rich. So choose markets like real estate, dieting and making money. Where there is huge potential. Don't get me wrong, niche markets can work. But why bother trying? Why sell 100 products, when you can sell 10,000?

Secondly. Product selection. The whole essence of affiliate marketing is that you are promoting someone elses product. So you are immediately faced with a challenge. Namely, that on the negative side of the equation you do not have quality control over it, so any product you choose could get better or worse in the future, but that either way it is not directly under your control. Sounds bad right? Well, consider the flip side to that. YOU CAN CHOOSE ANY PRODUCT TO PROMOTE THAT YOU LIKE!!! Read that again please. Because it's a biggy. The product that you promote might not be directly under your control, but you have a whole world of products to choose from. So who cares that you don't control it. Pick a great product to begin with and you won't have an issue. And how will you know what that it? Well, you could buy it. Or you can ask people. Or you can read books or magazines. Or you can read reviews. Its not that tough. Great products stand out. Its quite easy to pick them out.

Thirdly, sign up for the affiliate program and start promoting. You can build sites. Build optin in email lists. Drive traffic via pay per click traffic. There are all manner of methods to have extremely powerful affiliate success results in days. And if you visit the links below I go into more detail about them.

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Internet Marketing Tips - 3 Easy Steps to Help You Find Your Profitable Keywords

The biggest mistake many people make when starting online business is they will create a products that usually based on something they just enjoyed doing. They spend months creating this product before starting to make money selling it… This is the pitfall where many people run into major problems when they begin to do online business. They end up spinning their wheels and finally realize that nobody wants to buy their latest and greatest product that they have spent months of their life creating.
Not only can this be extremely frustrating, but it also ends up completely wasting time and money.

What people should do is finding the "market" first and then creating the product based on what the market wants. That is so much easier than creating the product and then finding the market, which might not exist in the first place.
In this article, I will give you the easy way to find profitable markets. Once you find these markets you could create Adsense websites based on the topics OR you could create entire products around the topic... OR better yet, you could do both!

We will start off by doing Keyword Research. We need to find out profitable keywords so that we can use them to determine our own profitable markets.

Finding profitable keywords is not a difficult task to do. Anyone can use online tools to find valuable and profitable keywords with a few minutes of work, Quick and Easy. You just have to know how to find the answers to these three questions:

1. How many SEARCHES are made each month for your keywords? (DEMAND)

You need to find out how many SEARCHES are made each month for your keyword or keyword phrase.
The more number of searches, the more potential to receive traffic, which means more people come in to your business to either looking for and/or purchase. Thus you can make money.

If your keyword has high number of searches, it will likely be profitable because it is something people are searching for. So you will have more possibility to make money with a high demand keyword. Keep in mind, even a keyword with low number of searches (just 10 to 100 searches each month) may be profitable if you use it to adding into the right market place. However, a keyword which has no any searches is definitely useless to take it of your own. To discover the number of keyword searches, you can use this site like Overture (Yahoo Marketing) or WordTracker for your keyword researching tool. It gives you the number of searches received each month for each keyword you typed in. To quickly find out how many searches made each month for your keyword, go to http://www.inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

This is one of popular free keyword suggestion tool you can use to find the number of searches for the keyword or keyword phrase you are looking for.

2. How much COMPETITION do your keywords have? (SUPPLY)

Here is another important task for you to find out how much COMPETITION your keywords have before you begin to market your chosen products or services. You will hardly get traffics from the keywords with high level of competition. Thus, keep in mind that the most popular keywords will also have much competition, and you won't to get traffic from them unless you use a PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising system like Google Adwords or Yahoo Marketing.

However, you may begin getting traffics from those high competitive keywords after spending months or even years of content building. The best way is to choose the keywords with little or no competition.

One of the best sites you can find out how much competition of your keywords is Google. Google will give you the number of pages related to the keyword you type in to searching. In order to get more accurate number of pages of your keyword phrase, you should type your keyword phrase within quotation marks such as "special valentine gifts". And Google will show you the search results featuring your exact keyword phrase you typed in. So you can determine how much competition your keywords have from Google search results.

3. How to KNOW if your keyword is really PROFITABLE?

If people are making money from promoting and optimizing your chosen keywords or keyword phrases, it will be noticed that those keywords are profitable. Make sense?

You can choose your keywords and type it into Google, Yahoo and MSN. And just count the number of Sponsored Links at the top and the right side of the page. If the keyword phrase you typed in is profitable, you will see a lot of sponsored links where there are sites or businesses are advertising, which means there is profit people are making.

In conclusion, you just follow these three simple steps for finding profitable keywords and you can add or determine valuable keywords to your online marketing. This article will be useful for you if you are starting your business because it is very important for you to firstly find out your profitable niches/markets from your keyword research. Once you have found your niches/markets you think it would be profitable, you can then select the products related to your niches or markets you chose to promote. Finally I believe your online business will be successful if you put them into your effort.

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Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Meta Tags in Search Engine Optimization

Meta tags are still a very important part of search engine optimization. Search Engine spiders see meta tags as instructions on how to categories your web site content, what pages to index and not index, and what your web site content is all about.

Your title tag is the most important tag. It tells the spiders the nature of your site. Don't waste time putting your company name in this tag. Use the tag to specify the main keywords in the page you are trying to position well with. For example, instead of Big Guys Inc describe your business in keyword phrases. Try New York Printing Services. Make sure to limit the title tag to 100 characters or less, so you don't get flagged for keyword stuffing.

Your description tag reflects the keywords in your title tag but you have more space to describe your business. Remember, the title and description tags both show up in the free listings so remember to make sense while still utilizing the keywords. If you get great listings but your listing doesn't make any sense then no one will want to click on the ad and visit your site. Limit this tag between 200 and 250 characters.

Finally your keywords tags still hold some importance and reflect what should be in your website content. Add the keyword phrases from your title and description tags into the keyword tag. Add other keywords that are of importance to this tag but you weren't able to add to the other tags because of limited space. Limit the keyword tag to 1024 characters.

Remember meta tags work great when optimized but you also need optimized content on all pages that you want great placement with.

Until next time....

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Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Guerilla Marketing In 2007

You may have heard of Guerilla Marketing...

But does it work in 2007?

The answer is absolutely!

How does a new business owner get their new customers
talking? After all, that is the crux of successfully
marketing a business. When customers or clients like a
business for whatever reason, you can bet they'll
recommend it to others. That's why word of mouth
advertising is so important to a good marketing
system.

Guerilla Marketing can show you how to do just
that. It will help you find the market niche and the
uniqueness of your particular product. When people are
excited about a product and they're telling their
friends and relatives, they will save you lots of
dollars and many hours of time in marketing. When they
do the advertising, you can better invest your
energies into working IN your business instead of FOR
it.

Get your product into the hands of the right people at
the right time. Use those folks who are upstanding and
reputable in your community and encourage them to try,
use, and let others know about your product or
service.

Become involved with community and charitable events
to get your business name on the mouths of the people.
It can definitely promote a healthy and optimistic
attitude in the minds of those who attend. In many
cases, they will frequent your business or buy your
products initially because of a single like-minded
event you were a part of.

This is a great way to appeal to the side of people
who wants to help a person who helps others.

You've seen it, we all have. A person volunteers
to help the homeless for years and then suddenly,
their house burns down.

You usually then see a news story on it locally and
see that tons of friends and businesses rally together
to help the person rebuild.

Create new catch phrases and promotions to bring
attention to the name, nature, and product of your
business. The goal of word of mouth advertising is
obviously to get them talking. For more original and
exciting tips and information concerning this and
other tools for your own guerilla marketing campaign,
just click here.

As you can clearly see, this short communication is
only the tip of the iceberg. Get the entire step by
step course with a quick click and an immediate
download. You have absolutely nothing to lose since
it's 100% Guaranteed! Take the first step to your
business success. Just click here.

Don't dismiss these strategies, they work like
gangbusters and for good reason, they aren't what
is taught in college. Their unconventional.

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Monday, April 16, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

Affiliate marketing is probably the hugest subject on the internet today. Pretty much every search you make we steer you in the direction of one or more affiliate programs. Some are great and stood the test of time while others fall of the map before there even warm. So let's look at a few mistakes made by affiliate marketers today.

It's of vital importance to understand the sort of program you are getting into. So many of the programs brag about the hug commissions they pay but in all honesty that may be irrelevant I you don't have a clue what you're selling. Everyone has an expertise of some sort and that's the sort of program you should get into. You might not make all the money overnight but in the long run if you're selling something you know and enjoy then the money will eventually come in.

Lots of sites have the option for people to sign up for emails. If this is the case you have to make sure the emails are fun and not spammish. If the emails are too spammish then people will opt out and not accept emails from you any longer. You might have to go that extra mile to make this work but it's the people that are going the extra miles that are succeeding in this business.

This is hugely important. You want, if possible to write some of your own content. Its not unusual for people surfing for affiliate programs to come to the same site 4 or 5 times and the only thing different is the name in the top corner. You will get a lot more traffic that stays if you can put some originality into your site.

People are always going to make mistakes in the affiliate marketing game. It doesn't matter if you're new or old to this business. As long as you learn from your mistakes. As long as you are willing to put in an effort I can guarantee you will always make some nice cash doing this. There are many people across the world becoming wealthy from affiliate marketing so why not let this be you.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

Affiliate Marketing - Writing Successful Ad Campaigns

Are you using pay-per-click ad campaigns to get potential customers to your website? If so, then you need to know how to write a successful ad campaign because bad ad campaigns will cost you money. In my own affiliate marketing endeavors, I've discovered a couple of techniques that have helped increase my click-thru rate and lower my cost per click resulting in more traffic and more sales. One of the main techniques is using keywords in your ads.

Using the keyword in your ad grabs the consumer's attention because it tells the consumer that they might find what they're looking for at your site. Your ad becomes relevant to what they are searching for. Additionally, all keywords in your ad are in bold in the major search engines, so your ad stands out more.

One of the best places to put the keyword in your ad is in the headline because it is the first line potential customers are going to read and having the keyword they are searching for will attract their attention first. You should also include the keyword somewhere in the ad copy.

In Google, there is an easy way to make sure the keyword is displayed in the headline and description every single time your ad is displayed. The code is quite simple and involves putting the following in your ad copy:

{KeyWord: }

In the code, the capitalized K means the first word is capitalized and capitalizing the W means that all the words are capitalized. You also want to make sure there is a space after the colon.
One issue with this technique is that there is a limit on the headline of 25 characters. You will need an alternative just in case your keyword or keyword phrase has more than 25 characters. You can ad the alternative headline like this:

{KeyWord: Alternative Headline}

Again, try to use some version of your keywords in the alternative heading.

Now, if your website is not relevant for your keywords, you will be penalized and have your cost per click raised because landing pages are also being looked at in determining the quality score. So your best bet in addition to using keywords in your headline and description is to make sure the keywords are appropriate for what you are selling.

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Saturday, April 14, 2007

What Does Chewing Your Food Have to do With Internet Marketing?

Making your living on the internet has many benefits; your time is yours to do what you want with, no annoying bosses to deal with, and the general sense of accomplishment you get from earning your living on your own - to name a few.

When working online though, you must strike a balance. You don't have a boss enforcing deadlines, and nor do you have any set working hours - this is all up to you. You must also find your own source of motivation each day to sit down and work.

Many people find that their energy levels are much lower when working from home, simply because there isn't as much arrousal, and your working at your own pace. It can also be a little isolated working from home if your spouse or children are not at home with you. The isolation is good for getting work done - but only if you have the energy and motivation to do the work in the first place.

So what does all this have to do with chewing your food?

Well, approximately 15-20% of your bodies energy is used to digest your food. Even more energy is used if you eat meals that combine starches and hard-to-digest meats, or if you drink a lot of water with your meals (water dilutes digestive juices).

When you chew your food thoroughly you can cut this energy leak from 15-20% down to around 5% in most cases. It's recommended that you chew each bite of food 30 times. However this is just a general rule of thumb, some foods of course will take a lot less chewing. All things considered, you should at least try to chew your food thoroughly - avoiding swallowing any large chunks.

Working and making your living online is all about attention, focus and making good use of your energy and time. If you focus your attention, energy and time on the right strategy, your bound to have success. The more energy and time you have to focus, the better.

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Friday, April 13, 2007

Is Ewen Chia's Affiliate of the Month a Scam?

There has been a lot of noise on the internet lately about the new Ewen Chia Affiliate of the Month Program. It seems that this person, Ewen Chia, has been making outrageous claims of making millions of dollars on the internet with little or no effort. He says that you can make money online with an affiliate program. He claims that you don't have to invest any money to get started with his method of earning on the internet. He claims that you do not even need your own computer to get started! According to him, you can start earning while you are still learning. Now he wants to share his knowledge with others and help them achieve a seven figure income, too. Can this be possible? Is this guy for real? You bet he is!

Ewen Chia is an internet entrepreneur and specialist. He claims to have made millions of dollars over the course of the past eight years, strictly online. Additionally, he claims to have made this money without requiring his own inventory of products, investment money or a website. Now he wants to reveal the secrets that he used to create this fantastic opportunity. With a minimal investment into the program, you will be exposed to every secret and strategy that Ewen Chia has created and honed to perfection. You too can become the affiliate of the month.

Let's look at the basic component of this Affiliate of the Month product. In this component, Ewen introduces to you the affiliate marketing concept. You will learn what it is, how it works and just how easy it is to do. Additionally, though, you will learn many other things that are contained within 36 DVDs. Some of the things that you will receive are secrets that tell you how to get your affiliate web pages placed on CNN, Google, yahoo and other websites that have high traffic without paying a dime. You will also learn sales techniques that are tried and true and used by power sellers like Ewen Chia. You will learn how to drive traffic to your site and how to convert visitors into customers.

This program will teach you about getting your own website that is fully operational and search engine friendly without having to know HTML or web design and do it in under an hour. You will also learn where and how to advertise your affiliate products, how to write ads and create advertisements.

In conclusion, you get everything that you need to know to have an effective, lucrative, fast and easy affiliate program and become affiliate of the month. You will learn how to make money online with an affiliate program. If you look at sales page, you will notice that there are testimonials from Andrew Fox, John Reese, Mike Filsaime, Michael Cheney and Mark Joyner. These are some of the highest earning internet marketers in the world. That is a good indication that Affiliate Of the Month is the real deal, that Ewen's affiliate marketing concepts do work.

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Thursday, April 12, 2007

Do You Ever Feel Like You Know Just Enough About Viral to Be Dangerous?

Creativity

This is one method a site must use to be in the forefront in the sometimes
ruthless competition in an Internet based business. With so much competition
and rivalry going on, every technique of marketing must be employed and utilized.

Contrary to what people think, it does not matter if you have a killer product or
fantastically designed website, if no one knows of your existence, it just doesn't
matter and you will not make, Worst of all, your business could just get killed.

While there are so many methods and schemes used today, there are still some that
can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is Viral
Marketing.

While the term Viral easily depicts something bad, virus, is a word much dreaded
by all computer users. It is not what it seems. You do not use a computer virus
to spread your business.

Viral Marketing An Overview

Viral Marketing is also known as Viral Advertising. It is a marketing technique
that is used to build the public awareness of one's product or company. Many forms
of media are used to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product.

Once you move beyond basic background information, you will realize that there is
more to viral than you may have first thought.

Basically, companies or individuals believe the idea that if people like the content
of some type of media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They may pass
on to someone else with the company's brand or logo or a description of the products,
to help promote the company or its product.

Viral marketing has become a very popular means of advertising and marketing because
there is almost no cost. To avoid being tagged as junk or spam mail, viral marketing
relies on the eagerness of one person to pass on the product. If a person recognizes
he name of the sender, they normally won't block it, but will open it.

Many companies offer some type of incentive, such as discounts or rebates to help in
spreading their viral marketing. They rely on the volume of recipients a viral
marketing campaign gets.

Using Viral Marketing to your best advantage

The main advantage of viral marketing is to get a lot of publicity and public awareness
bout your site and your company. You try to generate a flow of traffic that will become
potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or
prizes, you can reach out to a large number of people and announce your existence.

Almost every site and many companies are catching on to the effectiveness of Viral
Marketing and Advertising. Not using it might kill your business, along with the other
schemes and methods used to promote your business or your site, in addition to Search
Engine Optimization.

Viral Marketing can be a way to get people to know about you and your company. You try
to get them to pass on your advertisement. Since they have very little cost, not utilizing
it could be downright business suicide. All it takes is a great idea.

Many of the bigger companies have tried viral marketing and there are many success stories.
The best known is probably Microsoft's Hotmail. Viral Marketing has worked wonders for them.

Now it's your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the
benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you. Is there really any information about viral
that is nonessential? We all see things from different angles, so something relatively
insignificant to one may be crucial to another.

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