Marketing online is a significant part of most marketing campaigns.  It is critical to ensure your campaign is successful, but just as important is making sure no laws are broken.  Here are some tips to get you started.  We do not offer legal advice and recommend an attorney is hired to help in this matter.

• If you are thinking of trade marking or copywriting your brand, stay away from generic terms.  Generic terms usually cannot be registered.  It is recommended that marks and terms that are distinctive can be registered quicker as long as they are not in conflict with another registration.
• If somebody else’s name, image, bio, or identity is going to be used, make sure to get a release from the owner.
• If photographs are going to be used, the owner of the copy write must be addressed.  Surprisingly, in many cases the people in the photo also need to be considered.
• Did you know copying a television program for home use is legal?  The buck stops there though.  It doesn’t apply to commercial use of these copies.
• When using music, the song writer and the record company both have to approve its use.  There are performance rights and royalty issues with both parties..
• If the use of audio visual material is included in the campaign, and it is not created by an employee, it is usually considered work for hire.  Otherwise, an assignment or license of the material must be required.
• If there are product comparisons, it is required to be truthful and the content cannot be false or misleading
• Make sure another company’s trademarks are not infringed upon.  This includes using their trademarks in the domain name.

All of this requires written documentation.  Make sure each license is clear to the rights you have obtained.  Licensees should give representations and warranties as to the rights granted.  Make sure that all this is taken care of before the launch of the campaign.  Use common sense.  If there is any question as to your rights and the rights you have obtained, hire a lawyer!  It is also a good idea to purchase errors and omissions insurance.  It is easy to get and rather inexpensive.

Online marketing is an adventure.  There are many pitfalls, but great rewards.  Do it honestly and ethically, and you are sure to enjoy the benefits it provides.

Article marketing, if done well, offers proven benefits.  A well written published article can market your products, services, and you as an export.  Article marketing has been around for more than 100 years, and submitting and publishing your articles is most often free and can expose you to a huge audience.

Marketing yourself this way is not limited to print media.  Articles can be published to your BLOG, industry BLOGs, and article distribution (AD) websites, which can be a great way to get your article into circulation.  AD websites have many benefits, including positioning your brand, increasing visitors to your website, and is free advertising.  Don’t forget about social media websites, like Facebook and Twitter.

No matter how many people see your articles, the time and effort to produce them is wasted if the quality of them is poor.  To make your articles suitable for being published, the following guidelines are suggested.

Provide helpful information rather than sell yourself.  Writing self promotional articles is the biggest mistake you can make.

• Have a narrow focus when selecting topics and provide value (how-to or new information).
• Value time spent selecting a great headline.  It should be enticing.
• Fill your article with keyword-rich text and links.
• Make sure your article doesn’t have any grammatical mistakes.  Sites like www.dailywritingtips.com, www.editorialservice.com/11ways.html, and grammar.quickanddirtytips.com are great resources.

All articles should have a link to your bio, or include a brief bio at the end of the article.  It should include your name, your professional title, and a short plug.  If a link to your website is included, your bio can include more information.

Marketing yourself by circulating articles is a simple process.  It consists of well written articles that add value, deciding on your distribution method, and posting your work.  Give it a try and let me know how it benefits you!

Keeping viewers involved in your website is very important to most businesses.  The last thing you want your potential business to do is forget about you.  Having a calendar of events is a key component to increasing the number of contact points with this group of people.  Actually, this post doesn’t limit itself to just a calendar of events.  It encompasses any reoccurring communication that you plan to have on your website.  It can be tips and tricks, a newsletter, or just informative literature. 

There are two things to consider if you want to have a calendar of events on your website.  One, will it be possible to keep the events current and correct?  Two, will it be costly to maintain and will there be a positive ROI?

If the design and maintenance of a calendar of events is built correctly, it can greatly reduce the effort of keeping the events current.  However, if there is a place for upcoming events, and no events exist, viewers think the website is not current and question the validity of anything on it.  If you plan to have a calendar of events on your website, plan to make the investment in maintaining them.  If you don’t plan to commit the time to maintain it, don’t include it on your site to begin with.

Having a calendar of events on your website assumes that your viewers have the time and will remember to visit regularly for updates.  Although you will have people that do this, by and large, the bulk of viewers will return very infrequently, if ever.  To maximize the return on the time spent maintaining this content, have the option for your viewers to sign up to be notified by email.  By doing this, you will inform those visiting your website as well as those that have visited it before. 

Although email is a far more effective tool for disseminating reoccurring information at this time, RSS will be the next big thing to accomplish this.  RSS is a common format to deliver regularly changing information from a website.  RSS Readers come in all forms (websites, cell phones, iPhones, etc.).  RSS Readers can include any number of RSS feeds and display summary information with the option to open the detail.  It is used heavily on news sites and BLOGs.   For example,  I am a Columbus Blue Jackets fan.  I have the CBJ news feed in my RSS reader.  At my convenience, I can open the reader and see recent headlines related to the Jackets.  I also have RSS feeds for weather, local news, sports, and even the hockey schedule for my 9 year old son!  As feature rich as RSS is, it is still growing.  The number of non technology people using RSS is still way to low for me to recommend this as the only method of updating people about changing content.  It should definitely be integrated for those who do use it.