Many people with home business websites are looking for Internet marketing methods that are free or very low cost.

Bear in mind that as long as you own a website you will spend the bulk of your time marketing it, so it makes sense to keep your overheads low.

Before you start marketing your business on the Internet, the first and most important thing you need to do is choose the keywords for your website and optimize your site. Thid is known as on-site SEO.

Just a word of caution first, if you are new to Internet marketing, I do not advise you to use pay per click advertising unless you learn about it first, otherwise you will find yourself spending a great deal of money with no return.

Let’s move on and look at four highly effective and free Internet marketing methods you can use. Remember that consistency is the key.

Article Marketing – this is still a highly effective way to build backlinks to your website. If you write your own articles and submit them yourself to the article directories it will not cost you a cent. If you aim to write and submit eight articles a month, you will see your backlinks increase and your rankings in the search engines rise for the keyword phrases you are targeting.

Be sure to vary your anchor text to make it look natural to the search engines.

Forum Marketing – You just need to join a few forums that are related to the niche of your website. Set up your signature to include a link to your website and add your website to your profile. Get involved in the conversations and make a meaningful contribution to the forum. Try to post three or four times daily in the forums you join.

Social Media – It is also free to get involved with the social media networks. Facebook is a great way to get free exposure for your website. You can create a Facebook page for your website which will be totally separate from your personal page.

Blog Commenting – Find other blogs related to your niche and leave useful comments on the blogs. Many blogs will allow you to include a link to your website with your comment. Try to contribute to the blog post, rather than just saying “good post” or “great info” as this will give you a far greater chance of getting your comment approved.

If you apply the above four methods of marketing your business on the Internet on a consistent basis you will start seeing results. Once you have mastered these methods, you can then branch out and start learning and incorporating others into your marketing mix. There is also plenty of free Internet marketing training available online from which you can benefit greatly.

Starting a website is much cheaper than building and maintaining a brick-and-mortar store. There is no need to look for a good location, pay the lease, take into account overhead expenses, etc.

You can reach a much wider audience not limited by time or any borders, making market expansion much easier and opening up more room for growth. You also get to showcase your products, as well as important information about your business to customers, establishing your credibility while making it convenient for your target audience.

Social Media as a Conduit
Of course, there are still some truths in promoting an “offline” business that apply to the online world. Merely having a website does not guarantee profitability. You need to be able to show your expertise and uniqueness in the industry, and you need to establish a good relationship with your customers. The best way of pursuing these goals is through leveraging the power of social media.

Creating accounts for your business for social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter is good, but these are just channels to your main website. Social media is simply a way for people to connect to your website to consume your content and eventually make purchases. You just have to make sure that your website has good social media integration.

Here are five ways to seamlessly incorporate both assets:

Killer Content
“Content is king” is a phrase that will never get old because content is exactly what people are looking for online, especially in social media. People are constantly sharing with their huge networks of family and friends all sorts of content that they deem interesting, whether it’s a news article, an opinion piece, a funny picture, or an inspiring video. Their connections, in turn, share it with their own networks, and so on. The number of people you can reach with killer content is astounding.

Therefore, you need to create content that will make the rounds within these social media channels through shares, retweets, pins, etc., and you need to be able to do it in a regular fashion. There is no guaranteed way to achieve this, but the best way is to simply create great content.

Social Content
Social media platforms are built with connecting people in mind, but you can follow their template with your website by allowing for some level of interaction with your website’s visitors. This can be done through a blog with a comments section, a forum where they can discuss your products/services, or a customer review feature where you let people send in their critiques of your business’ offerings. You can even let visitors leave comments on your content using their Facebook accounts for fuller integration.

By giving your customers a way to express their opinions, you also give them a sense of belonging with your company. They will feel that you care about what your customers think, establishing a stronger relationship in the process.

Eye-Catching Titles and Images
Some truly great content doesn’t reach its full potential, because of poor titles that don’t immediately grab people’s attention when browsing through their feeds. Other great content that tackles technical and/or multiple subjects are not being read, because of the lack of compelling pictures that break up the monotony of text.

• For titles, you want something that addresses a concern while being straight to the point. It has to fix your target audience’s gaze when they’re quickly scanning on their Smartphones or computers.

• For images, you want something that explains your points in a clearer fashion while maintaining the tone of your content, and more importantly, your brand is known for. You can actually just focus on creating content that is purely image-based (e.g. infographics) to simplify complex concepts and highlight important facts.

Social Buttons
Due to the fast-paced nature of today’s Information Age, people now expect a good level of convenience when surfing the Web. They want to be able to share things they like through their multiple social media accounts without having to deal with the relative hassle of opening up new windows or tabs and copying and pasting URLs. Social buttons are the answer to that problem, making it much easier for people to show their interest in a piece of content to the rest of the world.

These social buttons can also work in your favor, because they usually show the number of people who have expressed positive sentiments about particular content. Once these numbers climb, it can be even easier for people to take notice, because they will think the content is worth checking out, attributing it to the number of people who already did.

RSS Feeds
Rich Site Summary or RSS is nothing new, but it is a tool that has found even more use now that there is so much more content being produced and shared throughout the Internet. Use it to syndicate relevant content you have on your main website to microsites targeting more concentrated niches. This way, you don’t have to be publishing the same content on multiple sites.

Conclusion
While an official website serves as a foundation for creating an online presence, social media allows for even wider coverage for your business, and gets you even closer to your target audience. By integrating it with your website, you realize the full potential of doing business online.

Here’s how Google explains its updated Author Rank system: “Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.”

What does that mean? It means that if the content on a page is tied to an author who has a strong Author Rank in Google, that page’s search position will be higher than if it was not tied to an author, or if it was tied to an author with a lower Author Rank.

Google+ Matters More than Ever

Although Google doesn’t share the details about how it determines Author Rank scores, most experts agree that Google+ is one of the ranking signals that is already important in building strong Author Rank. The Google plus-one button (G+1) is another signal used for Author Rank, meaning that if you use Google’s Authorship tools to link your Google+ profile to your content, when a user clicks the “plus-one” button on your content, your Author Rank will improve. (You do already have G+1 buttons on all of your content, right?)

Other Author Rank Indicators

In addition to Google+, other social sharing signals seem to be important to Author Rank as well, such as Facebook “Likes” and Twitter “tweets.” Other indicators include how often your content is shared and discussed with others across social networks, and how many comments the content produces. The speed with which readers share your links on social networks is also believed to be a signal in Google.

Three Steps to Author Rank

There are basically three steps to developing Author Rank:

1. Create and optimize your Google+ profile. Make sure you include full URLs to your blog and any other content that you produce.

2. Make sure you are using the rel=”author” attribute correctly in your content. Your web developer or IT staff can help with this, if necessary.

3. Publish high-quality content on a regular basis. If you don’t have the time or skills to do this yourself, hire someone who does!

Authors who are seen as authorities in their given niche will have higher Author Rank scores, resulting in higher search rankings. The higher your Author Rank in Google, the higher your content will rank in its search results. Although the concept seems simple, that does not mean that developing Author Rank is going to be easy.

To build your score, you must regularly create useful, high-quality content for users – articles, blog posts, how-to articles, press releases, whitepapers, etc. You must also have an optimized Google+ profile that is tied to your “identity” in Google, with the proper tags implemented correctly in the right places. Of course, you will also need a social media strategy (and Content Pipeline) in place to make sure you are interacting socially on a regular basis.

You will still need to pay attention to the existing, more traditional ranking signals (like properly optimized web code, inbound links, xml sitemaps, etc.), but at least for now it appears that Author Rank is becoming very important to your Google rankings.

Building Your Credit

If you already have a website, then you probably have content you can tag to get Author Rank credit in Google. Google+ is gaining in popularity (it recently surpassed Twitter as the second-most visited social site on the web), so if Google+ isn’t already part of your social media strategy, it’s time to add it. And for small businesses that care about not being lost in the Google abyss, Author Rank provides a new opportunity for you to get credit for content, gain credibility and authority, and ultimately improve your search engine rankings in Google.

The Internet plays a vital role in many people’s lives today. Through the decades, the Internet has evolved from a novelty to a tool that is used in almost every aspect of one’s life, from paying bills and ordering groceries to communicating with friends and family to earning an income. Because the Internet is so dynamic, webmasters must constantly deal with the challenge of simply keeping up with regular changes and the latest innovations and trends. That means that regular website maintenance is essential to ensure that visitors are getting the very best information possible.

Update frequently – it’s essential
Consistently updating a website’s content is the only way to maintain a competitive edge. Here is a look at the importance of updating certain aspects of a website to ensure that users are getting the best experience possible which will, in turn. result in improved sales and a better online presence.

Types of website content
There are two types of content on a website: that which is static and that which is dynamic. Static content would include the likes of the “About Us,” “FAQ,” and “Contact” pages, whereas dynamic pages might include the news section or blog. The dynamic content should be frequently updated and should be relevant at all times. Static content should also be updated, however, it does not need to be done as frequently.

When updating the content of a website, it is not only important to ensure the content is relevant and fresh, but also well crafted. New search engine algorithms require that content be well written for the human eye rather than for the search engine spiders. The focus should be on original, quality content that is not just limited to the written word but should also include infographics and videos.

If a webmaster fails to update a website for a significant period of time, that website will fail to keep up with the constantly changing market. This can mean certain doom for any online business because the website will almost certainly lose its ranking in the search engines, and every webmaster knows the lower the rank, the fewer the customers.

Hiring a competent copywriter to maintain a blog is not the only way to keep the content of a website updated and fresh, though it is an excellent way to attract regular visitors and engage the customer. Today, social media plays a vital role in the success of a content marketing strategy. Therefore, any business should have a presence on the leading social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where customers may obtain the latest information and engage with the business.

What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which largely scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ (SaaS) using the power of the Internet to deliver accessibility to multiple external customers in real-time. Rather than building a local infrastructure in-house, customers would use their Internet connection to visit a URL hosted by their cloud solution provider’s infrastructure.

Cloud Versus Local
Cloud based computing is often in the thoughts of a warehouse owner due to its overlying benefits such as: lower costs in IT maintenance, increased information accessibility and quicker deployment times for solutions. In reality, all of these benefits exist but can be explained further to acquire their true meaning and are no restriction for locally-based solutions.

Lower IT Maintenance Costs
Cloud solution providers explain that your cost of maintenance is far less in the cloud versus maintenance of a local-based solution. In retrospect, the majority of the SME space can run a solution off a single server (or desktop) specifically purchased for the solution and is meant to last for the lifetime of the solution implemented. This would leave the maintenance costs only on the client’s side and is unavoidable even to a cloud-based solution.

In addition, cloud-based solutions require its users to work around their schedule and rely on their ability to maintain uptime, which will conflict with your daily operations and set schedule – from unpredictable system maintenance downtime, to in-the-dark complications with the cloud-based solution (i.e. server down, Internet browser issues, connection speeds, etc.) to making an attempt to contact third-party support representatives for assistance.

When you own your infrastructure, however, you are now working on your own schedule based on your specific operational needs without sudden downtime or roadblocks that are out of your control. Maintenance and support in case of server failure can be corrected in a matter of hours with local representatives at your fingertips.

Increased Information Accessibility
Yes, cloud computing does make room for better accessibility anywhere with an Internet connection, but knowing the reputation of ISPs and the large volumes of users who are taking advantage of the Internet, Internet service providers are beginning to throttle bandwidth and continually limit your connection speed unless you’re a Tier 1 player with T1 capability (we know this is not practical for SME space).

Already knowing about the inevitable results of Internet reliability, solely relying on its connection probably isn’t the best of choices when operating your entire business with it.

Quicker Deployment
Cloud solutions are simple and easy to deploy and warehouse owners are told that it is as simple as opening up the Web browser on your desktop or mobile device and you’re ready to go. These facts are true (you may encounter browser related issues and security impairments), although not a limitation when using a local based infrastructure. Installation of a locally based .NET solution is as simple as receiving an e-mail and completing a copy/paste onto your server. They will also include the ability to auto-deploy to all devices (i.e. desktops, scanners, etc.) without manually attending all devices for installation. Updates thereafter are automatically pushed to your site and all devices.

A lot faster to implement a cloud-based solution than a locally based solution, right? Wrong.

Something that the SaaS industry fails to describe is what most impacts deployment time in terms of installation and updates; operator training durations and solution tailoring based on the specific needs of the client.

Information Security and Integrity
Often forgotten, but particularly important is the integrity and security of your information stored in the cloud. A survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers showed that more than three-quarters of respondents across a range of different businesses believed that cloud computing did not increase their security risk – a hope that held no regard after a report published by security firm Imperva which highlighted the simplicity of hacking even one of the world’s largest online companies which could access their customer’s private information. (Ref. Imperva Attack Report)

Considering vulnerability and the growth in popularity of cloud-based solutions; breaches of the software have been proven to occur more often than not, resulting in the reduction of infrastructure integrity and appeal to potential threats. Customers interested in cloud-based solutions must ensure they are reviewing and validating the reputation of their provider, making sure their data is in good hands. The reason to why cloud computing security companies exist is because of the size and scope of potential issues and compromised cloud solutions.

The top security breaches due to threats towards cloud solutions are as follows:
(This survey was completed by cloud users including consumers, service providers and consultants around the world.)

• 91 percent data loss/leakage;
• 90 percent insecure APIs;
• 87 percent account/service and traffic hijacking;
• 88 percent malicious insiders;
• 84 percent abuse of cloud computing;
• 82 percent unknown risk profile;
• 81 percent shared technology vulnerabilities;
• 81 percent distributed denial of service (DDoS).
(ref. Top Threats to Cloud Computing PDF – Cloud Security Alliance)

In comparison to a local-based solution, having to deal with major security requirements is non-existent. Your data is completely secure within your localized server making the ability of outside attacks irrelevant. Encryption over your wired and wireless connections are an obstacle that is regularly encountered no matter what type of solution is put in place.

If you would like to learn more about the security of Cloud computing, please read: Seven Technical Security Myths of the Cloud, Ref. – Infosecisland.com

What you see is what you get
The cost of cloud versus local solutions can be compared to buying versus renting a home. Local solutions appear to be more expensive, but these are the upfront costs that aren’t divided into endless payments over the course of your contract, otherwise known as cloud billing. Staying local allows you to retain your assets after completing the purchase giving you complete ownership over your solution, system and data. On the cloud side, you are purchasing a temporary rental location for your business to park at while making data transactions, you will not own the infrastructure and your money sort of floats into the sky; No pun intended.

If circumstances came to be that a business wished to move from one cloud provider to another, or to a local solution, it would then be faced with mountains of excel sheet data which would need to be transferred over.

I struggle with time management although I’m a very detailed person and I’m a “list maker.” In a coaching group I belong to, one of the first assignments was on time management. It included writing down what you do daily and planning your days including routines and systems used.

I struggled for a couple of weeks over this. I tried many different ways, based on suggestions from those within the group and articles I researched, to complete this project.

What I finally realized was, even though time management is an excellent way to be more productive, everyone has to come up with their own way to manage their time. It’s not a one size fits all.

Here are three things I found while researching along the way:

Juggling Projects:

There are basically three areas that we are juggling and dealing with on a continuous basis throughout our day.

• Current projects: Work, home, children, volunteer, hobbies, etc.
• Your roles: Spouse, parent, grandparent, caretaker, caregiver, business owner, employee, manager.
• Things in the back of your mind that you haven’t finished: Existing projects, new project ideas, household items, business related projects and the list goes on.

These are things that need your attention throughout the day that maybe aren’t “planned” into your time management system.

For me, it’s the unplanned interruptions that seem to cause me the most problems.

My husband is a dialysis patient with treatments three times a week and, due to vision problems, is unable to drive himself to treatments. Even though he has been able to return to driving around the neighborhood, he still has difficulty driving in the dark. Since his treatment is a 6:30 a.m., during the winter it’s still dark and I have to drive.

I’m taking him in and picking him up 4 hours later, three times a week. On these three days, it’s difficult to get a train of thought going or any long time required projects completed because just about the time I “get going,” it’s time to stop.

I’ve found it works best if on these days I schedule short projects to do a – that type that interruptions won’t affect, then I can just pick right up where I left off.

This means that projects that require longer periods of time to work with, need to be scheduled either in the afternoons (and I’m a morning person) or on the days hubby doesn’t have treatments.

So these “unplanned” interruptions have now become scheduled “planned” interruptions.

Two types of time – Clock time and Real time

• Clock time – by definition this is an actual clock: 60 minutes, one hour, 24 hours in a day, 365 days in a year. Never changing, it is what it is. Time doesn’t change.

• Real time – definition is: “The actual time during which a process or event occurs: ex. ‘information updated in real time’”
In clock time, if something is 25 years old (a person or thing), then it’s 25 years old.

In real time, time is relative. Think about how you sometimes say at 10 in the morning “This day is dragging by,” yet if you were doing something you really liked doing, at 10 a.m. you could find yourself saying “Boy, this day is flying by.”

It is the same 10 in the morning, but there are different ways of viewing it depending on your “real time” situations.

“Clock time” comes into play because there are always specific times of the day we are dealing with. Time to get up, to start work, to take the kids to school, kids out of school, leaving work, to cook dinner, appointments to keep, etc.

But we actually live in “real time” because when something comes up -good, bad, planned, unplanned – that’s what we deal with, that’s where we react.

With “real time” it’s created and since we created it, it is also something we can manage. We may not be able to eliminate interruptions, but we can learn to manage how we deal more positively with them.

Three ways to spend time: Thoughts, Conversations and Actions

No matter how we manage our time, there are only three ways to spend it:

• Our thoughts
• Our conversations
• Our actions

These are also the three areas where time management will come into play.

Thoughts:

• Do you spend your days day dreaming?
• Are you thinking about what you need to do or you should or should not have done?

Conversations:

• Maybe you talk too much on the phone, or even online conversations at your social sites
• Are you drawn into an online conversation and before you know it, a couple of hours have passed away

Actions:

• Are you watching too much TV?
• Are you running errands off and on all day?
• Are you spending too much time on our social networks?
• Are you checking and answering e-mails too often?

No matter how diligently you plan and schedule with time management, it’s going to be impossible to get it all done.
The 80/20 rules even applies here. Twenty percent of your thoughts, conversations and actions will produce 80 percent of your results.

When you look at it in those percentages, what can you do better in your 20 percent to get more positive results within your 80 percent.
I’d love to hear your comments about time management and you.

A blogger could relax and count on the website to perform all the work for him, which is a bad strategy when running a blog. A productive blogger knows blogging demands a particular degree of perseverance and hard work to be successful.

You must put hard work into a blog to maintain it, specifically following the first 30 days or so of finishing the look. Many of us work really hard throughout the early design and development period then become idle after it’s finished. To prevent this happening on your website, take a look at these five typical blunders that could bury your site.

Sporadic Posts
One of the greatest blunders an author can make is “forgetting” to publish. Essentially, the most effective sites are refreshed with unique content at least one time per day. Many bigger sites are consistently kept up-to-date. You must generate new articles as frequently as possible. Should you skip a day occasionally, it won’t be a problem. Nonetheless, should you overlook one week or even more, you may as well consider the website lifeless. You need to have a few times every day to develop helpful articles or material. If you’re composing brief and to-the-point posts, this will not be that difficult. You can easily keep your site up-to-date, once you make it a habit.

An Excessive Amount Of Advertisements
Many bloggers these days want to generate a profit through their website. This, however, can swiftly get out of hand. If you are considering putting advertisements on your website, do this with care.

There’s nothing bad with some correctly set advertisements that provide visitors with links to places that correlate with your site’s material. On the other hand, placing a considerable number of promotions on your website is a bad idea. When you’ve got a lot of gaudy banners and ads on your website, the material can get lost within the mix.

Subsequently, it is recommended to reduce your advertisements to three or less for every page. Be sure to stick them in ideal spots that allow any articles to stand out. Never enable huge advertisements to occupy your site as well. They will only aggravate visitors.

Less Than Professional Appearance
Appearances are important. The more impressive and sharp your website seems, the more your audience will take you seriously. If you’re serious about improving site visitors, you need a more serious structure or display for your website. If you have the money to employ a expert, the do so. If you want to build it yourself, you have to ensure the end result is right.

Should you have a sloppy site that seems “self-made” it is unlikely you will have good results. Test a variety of styles and techniques to discover just what gets you the most page views.

Images Overload
Photos will add plenty of visual interest to your website and bring in way more visitors. Then again, when implemented too often, just like advertisements, photos could push visitors away. Consider using only a couple of photographs for every post.

Unsuitable Articles
If you want your site to thrive, take into account what you say and how you say it. Even though you should express what you believe, this can be done properly. It is possible to state anything in your thoughts, without the need for profanity or any kind of unpleasant language. If you would like your website to achieve success, you can’t be improper in your articles.

Before you do anything else, you need a database of customers. Be sure to you are given permission to text them.

To get started, think of everywhere you interact with potential customers:

· Internet
· Advertising
· Your store or office
· Networking
· Events
· Direct Mail
· Phone

Now that you have your list of places where you engage with your customers, compare it to the following six ways of marketing on mobile:

Events
If you have a big sales event, you can remind customers on their mobiles. This will ensure they don’t forget and miss your important event.

QR Codes
QR codes are free and easy to obtain and can be scanned into any Smartphone to access your website. QR codes could be included on your flyers, business cards or advertisements.

Mobile Coupons
A mobile coupon that has an excellent offer and an expiry date will usually win you a sale. If they know the deal expires and they will never again get it at that price, it will usually be enough to prompt them into action. If there is a convenient way to pay, even better.

Most Smartphones have payment processors built into them.

Text Offers
This is different from mobile coupons in that it is just text – no codes, no graphics. Just a spur-of-the-moment offer if you need more sales for the day.

Price Comparisons
It is easy to compare prices from different places on the mobile to make sure you’re getting the best deal. To stop your customers from doing that, give it to them yourself. Send them a text comparing your price to two or three other competitors, and win the sale.

Snap and Share
Encourage your customers to take pictures of your products and share with others. Most smartphones can also share on social media like Twitter and Facebook. This way you can get extra sales from referrals. Make it into a contest if you want.

Anything you want your customers to fill out on the mobile device needs to be superfast and user-friendly. Long and drawn out is difficult on the mobile. Make it easy for them.

More and more, people are using mobile marketing because it works. You have direct contact with your customer 24/7 which he or she will welcome if you aren’t sending messages too often.

It has become possible for any company to have an individualized web page on which to advertise, directly interact with customers and provide details about their services and products. Frequent updates, offers and discounts can be copied and pasted on site to snare visitor interest.

Because it is simple to reach any kind of audience with any kind of products or services, the possibility of neglect is always there. Based on this, online promotion is categorized into two kinds of marketing: lawful Internet marketing and unlawful Internet marketing.

Legal Internet marketing includes online advertising directories, e-mail promotion, and desktop promotion. Illegal promotion is more commonly known as bombarding. This is usually done by changing program configurations with the help of exterior programs causing pop-ups windows to be sent to a particular network or computer. The exterior programs are known as spyware or malware. Some of these are really harmful, the most famous being Trojan viruses, which are hard to uninstall or remove from your PC.

As technology improves, so to do the effects used to make marketing more interesting. Stunning colors, good web page structure and lots of creativity combined with Adobe Flash is the usual formula to style ads these days. Depending on the technological innovation being used, ads can be categorized into various groups:

• Banner ads are animated graphics shown on the web page usually created in HTML or Eudora. There is a wide range of ad types and sizes.
• Trick banner ad campaigns are banner ad campaigns that have extra discussion boxes and control buttons and are shown as an alert or error message.
• A pop-up is an ad shown in a new screen that covers up the web page Internet users were perusing. Pop-under marketing rises in another screen under the effective web page and can be seen after the present screen is either closed or reduced.
• Interstitial ads are those that are shown before being guided over to the desired web page.
• Wallpaper ads form the background of the web page.
• The ads that flow on the screen are known as sailing ads.
• Polite ads download on a low pace without disturbing the normal performing of the web page.
• An ad that grows larger and changes the material of the site being shown is known as growing ad.
• Advertisements that are shown in videos clip on a web page are known as videos clip ads.
There are many ways by which promotion spots can be purchased online such as CPM, CPV, CPC, CPA, CPL and CPO.
• CPM or price per mil indicates that the marketer is intended to pay for a particular variety of individuals to whom the marketing will be exposed.
• CPV or cost per view indicates that the marketer is intended to pay for the individuals to whom the marketing was delivered.
• CPC or cost per cost indicates paying for the variety of clicks on the ad by the visitor. Although the ad is on the web page, the amount is compensated only after the visitor clicks the ad URL.
• CPA or cost per action indicates the marketing creator bares all the charges of marketing, but is only compensated if the visitor clicks the ad and purchases an item or signs-up for an offer.
• CPL or cost per lead is similar to CPA, only the visitor doesn’t have to buy anything; he or she can apply to get regular updates and unique deals.
• CPO or cost per order is where the marketer pays every time the transaction is placed.

You have the option of promoting your Facebook posts for a set cost if you want to reach more of your fans and their friends. Another tactic that is often overlooked is to amplify your content to a relevant audience outside of your social network.

Content Amplification Versus Promoted Posts
Amplifying your content on Facebook lets you reach any person based on his or her interests. With promoted posts, you will only be able to reach your fans and their friends using demographic filters.

Amplified content can benefit any brand. For example, if a salon offers $15 off any service on a daily deals site and posts it on Facebook, it will be seen by about six to 15 percent of its audience. If the salon amplifies the content, it can be seen by an even larger number of relevant users who are not currently page fans.

When you amplify your content, your target audience will see the post in their news feed rather than the sidebar ads on the right. This placement is much more effective, especially on mobile devices where the news feed items are more prominent.

Why Didn’t You Know About This?
Marketers have overlooked this feature because there have been so many other changes since the IPO. The more radical features have been getting the most attention. Facebook also hasn’t done much to promote content amplification, its functionality is hidden within Power Editor or the API.

Optimizing Content Amplification
Just like any other form of advertising, you do not want to limit your content to just a single target audience. It is important to test multiple variants to get the most valuable targeting. Try filtering by location, demographic, interests, etc. Test each target set to learn what works the best.

Who Should You Target?
To know who you should be targeting, you need to look at your campaign objectives. Use a data-led approach to identify which users will be the most likely to find your content valuable based on their interest profiles. Using insight tools and social data can help you focus in on the right targets and decrease your cost per engagement while making your content more effective.

How Much Should You Spend on Testing?
The great thing about content amplification is you can keep your budget flexible. Plan to spend about $20 per variation of each campaign so that you can get a good idea of what is working best.

When to Start
There is no reason to wait to start amplifying content. With such great benefits, it is easy to get an offer or promotion out to your target audience quickly. There will be more engagement with amplified content, so it is one of the best options.

Have you used amplified content on Facebook? What were your results? How do you target fans to increase engagement?