Philippine Beauties Recognized -- Gwendoline Ruais and Dianne Recio

Miss World Philippines Gwendoline Ruais finished runner-up in the Miss World 2011 pageant held at Earls Court in London on Sunday night (Monday morning in Manila).

Well, we were on vacation and I didn't find out about this news until the day after the win. It's good to know that our representatives to international beauty pageants are somehow being given the attention they deserve.

Miss Universe International Dianne Necio finished in the semifinals of the Miss International pageant held in Chengdu, China. She also won the Miss Web Popularity award for garnering the most number of online votes.

Taking A Long Weekend Break

I'm so guilty of slacking this past week and the past few days. That's mainly 'coz it was halloween week and the semestral break as well for most schools. My daily routine has somehow been disrupted and over the week I have somewhat formed some new patterns. Two weeks in a row of a long weekend is sure enough to send anyone down the lazy joint.

I don't want to add too much drama but daughter got stomach flu so a trip to a gastroenterologist was inevitable. Plus, I now feel a bit old as I do have this lower back pain to contend with that I don't feel like sitting in front of my pc for too long.

A birthday celebration is in order so we had a little family bonding away from home. It would have been more fun had it not been for a bit too much rain on Sunday afternoon. Nonetheless, I watched the kids swim away in the rain.

I didn't bring a camera -- not that I have a working one -- but still managed to find a nice picture of where we spent the weekend. It was cool except for the rather heavy rains in  the afternoon so we didn't trek anywhere else except the pool. LOL! A lovely view from the room.

I'm not too fond of swimming, esp. not in the rain. But the kids -- a teen and a kid really -- enjoyed it. I was just their "babysitter" and contented myself in sitting in a covered area while I watched the pool. 

The night was pretty quiet, except for a trip to a nearby food joint for dinner, a round of monopoly game with the teen and the kid while watching reruns of Supernatural on DVD. But I'm glad we didn't miss this...

Khalil Ramos on Gandang Gabi Vice

Yup! Khalil Ramos guested on night comedy show "Gandang Gabi Vice." It was such a short segment but nonetheless fun and hilarious. And here I was just wondering where and when his next TV appearance would be. 

Bummer the weekend had to end. LOL! ^_^ Taking a break was much needed, but it's a bit tough trying to get back on track.

Promoting via Mailers

Two mailer programs launched recently. Although I don't usually promote programs until I've tried them out for quite some time, I'm just excited to start using them so I'm sharing them here.

First one is from Marty Petrizza, owner of Website Traffic Hog and Hot Website Traffic.. it's called Email Hog.

GET YOUR $100 IN FREE ADS:
You'll Receive...
5000 Mailing Credits $50 Value
1 Login Ad w/1000 impressions $15 value
2 Solo Ads $20 Value
2 Text Links w/ 1K Ikmpressions $10 Value
2 Banner Ads w/ 1K Impressions $10 Value

Click the "Advertising" button and redeem Promo Code: newmail

The other one is from John Bell, owner of Traffic Swirl and Fast Cash and Traffic.. it's called Viral List Builder Plus.

--Schedule your mailings at any time, but have them sent only at the time YOU specify.
--Competitive credit and upgrade pricing
--Tracking comes standard! View the results of your last 25 emails.

Redeem Promo Code: openemail

Using mailers is one way of promoting your site or program. I do get good results from sending out mails. However, not all mailers are created equal. Whereas there are some that really work, there are others that aren't quite as effective. Track your ads so you'll know which ad campaign works best. Plus, head over to my main blog to read my latest series on 101 List-Building Tips.

 

 

Did You S.M.I.L.E. Today?

I wrote this post about a month ago at HubPages. That time, it got published and ran for around a month. Unfortunately, there are sites and directories that apparently prohibit commercial use. Thus, just recently, said post got "unpublished" due to "links to prohibited sites." Oh well, I just might as well publish it here. ^_^ My site is now four months old. 

**********

On a daily basis, I attend a small community group at a webinar called Branding the World Daily (daily 11am EST). It has become part of my daily activities for over three months now. In fact, it helped me a lot in starting out with my own self-hosted site. Yup, my site is also three months old today! Yey! ^_^

One of the lessons we learned at TE-Therapy was S.M.I.L.E. (Simply Maintain Integrity, Limit Excuses). That's pretty cool really. It helped me a lot in starting out my own email series. You see, I've had it in mind for awhile, but haven't really taken action. I'm glad I did too. In case you want to find out more about it, it's called "Keeping Up with Rain." Check it out for details --> It's Raining Gifts...Don't Miss Out!

Moving on, I've learned not only to come up with my own email series, but I've also come up with my own meaning for S.M.I.L.E. That is exactly what I'm sharing here today.

• S-hare a smile

Why not brighten someone else's day today? Smile and make someone feel better.

• M-ake a difference

We are but ordinary folks, but we can make a difference in our own little way. Support a worthy cause, join a campaign to help protect Planet Earth, and many more. Every little act can be huge when you put them together.

• I-nspire others

"People may forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel." - Carl W. Buechner. Wouldn't it be great to be a person everyone wants to hang out with because you uplift their spirits?It's more fun to have a positive attitude. It's healthy too.

• L-ove love love

This does not pertain only to romantic love. Love yourself, love what you do, love the person that you've become. On top of that, love your family, friends, co-workers. Love the environment and everything else around you. They say love makes the world go round. Perhaps we just need to share more love to make this planet a better place.

• E-xtend help

Extend help if and when you can. It would be great to be able to share one's blessings with others. Just as you've received help, it would be nice to pay it forward. Besides, you have to admit it feels good to know you've helped someone.

So now, I ask again... Did you S.M.I.L.E. today? It's not too late. ^_^

4 Crucial Things You Need To Do To Build your List

Online marketing may have developed a sudden surge these past few years, but many in the know-how have felt its rise even from way back then. As more internet based businesses are put up, the need to develop new marketing skills and knowledge based on this new medium has arisen. More and more marketing strategies are being discovered and developed to cope with the changing face of business in the business world.

The demand for online marketing tips and strategies has drastically grown and a new form of business has been born, Internet marketing strategies. While there are companies that are all too eager to help your site and business build a clientele for a fee, there also many ways that can spread the word about your site in a more cost-free way. One of this is Opt-in email marketing, also known as permission marketing.

Opt-in marketing requires the permission of a willing customer to subscribe to your marketing materials. Materials take the  form of newsletters, catalogs and promotional mailings via e-mail. The more opt-in marketing mail is sent, the more chances there is to bag sales and more sales. To do this, you must build a list of all those who want to subscribe to your opt-in marketing list.

From your list, you will get your targeted customer. This is a good list since they already have shown interest in what you have to show and sell since they have willingly signed in for your list. These are the people who have liked what they have seen in your site and have decided they want to see more and maybe even purchase whatever product or service your company and site has to offer.

Many people would think that building their lists would take hard work and a lot of time. It takes time to build and collect names and addresses. It requires a bit of patience and some strategies indeed, but in doing this, you open your site and your business to a whole new world of target market. If increased traffic and good profits are what you want, an opt-in list will do wonders for your business venture.

There are many sources and articles on the internet available for everyone to read and follow in building a list. Sometimes they may be confusing because there are so many different ways. Different groups of people would have different approaches in building an opt-in list, but no matter how many diverse methods there are, there are always some crucial things to do to build your list. Here are four of them.

1) Put up a good web form on your site. Try to remember that your homepage should provide a quick good impression. If somehow a website visitor finds something that he or she likes, he/she needs a form to opt in so there's less likely for him/her to forget about your website.

You need an autoresponder service for the opt in form. You can create your campaign in your autoresponder. Customize the opt in form, which usually includes name and email address of potential subscribers. Adding some giveaway reports or e-books is a plus factor to encourage sign-ups.

2) As mentioned in the first tip, make your homepage very impressive. You need to have well written articles and descriptions of your site. Depending on what your site is all about, you need to capture your website visitor’s fancy. Make your site useful and very easy to use. Do not expect everyone to be tech savvy.

3) Provide good service and products. A repeat customer is more likely to bring in more business. Every now and then, a satisfied customer will recommend a business. Word of mouth advertising and recommendations alone can rake in more business than an expensive ad. As your clientele roster grows so shall your list. With more members on the list, the more people will get to know about what you have to offer.

4) Keep a clean and private list. Don't spam your list. Never lose your customers' trust. Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

SEO Copywriting

Within this article today on SEO copy writing, we will look at the specifics of a search engine optimization world and how copywriting pertains to that.

A brief introduction toward search engine optimization is that its goal is to position your website well within the search engine page ranks so that you can gain a great deal of natural traffic to your website.  One important part of the high page rank work is developing good web content.  The importance of copywriting within this field is that you must be creative in developing web content so that it can meet the demands of both the consumer looking for information on the Internet as well as the demands placed on your website by search engine bots.

There is a great deal of writing on the Internet today which is very boring and does not interest people.  The key behind SEO copywriting is that you are looking to impress both the search bots as well as the people who are surfing the Internet and stumble upon your page.  You do not get a great deal of time to impress your site upon these people so what you have to say and how you say it is going to be the difference between a sale and another lost lead.

If you are interested in SEO copywriting, look into some of the following sources for more information. Here is the website of one particular company where you can learn more about SEO copywriting in a tutorial forum: http://www.seo-gold.com/seo-tutorial/.  To find many more resources, search the Internet using the following term: "SEO tutorials." You will have great success in learning more about this particular field.

Good SEO copywriting focuses on many different factors such as the good web content as well as keyword optimization.  Keyword optimization is making sure that your website has full use of a particular set of keywords so that when people search the Internet for these phrases, your site will be on the first page of results.  This is how you generate good organic search engine traffic.  This deal does go beyond just keyword optimization when looking into making a website work.  Take your time to learn more from the resources that were listed above.  This can give you a good idea of what you will need to become an SEO copywriter or give you some criteria on when to hire one.

Just as some general information, a good SEO copywriter should help you develop a high page rank within the different search engines as well as help build the sales at your website.  It is important to get traffic to your website but is also important that you have a good lead conversion ratio.  What this means is that you want more people to visit your sites and that gradually more of these visitors convert to quality sales for you.  By providing good content that sells, you are setting yourself up as a person who excels at SEO copywriting. Hopefully this article on SEO copywriting has benefited you. This can be a very lucrative field if you learn to market on the Internet.

Tips to Get Repeat Web Traffic

Here are some tips on driving repeat traffic to your website. Take note and follow as many as possible. Web traffic as you know is crucial to all online businesses. 

1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.

2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.

3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.

4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’.

5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.

6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.

7. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.

8. Create a FAQ page that addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers’ doubts in their first visit to your site. 

8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.

9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.