With the Internet now such a mainstay of business communications it’s a concern that too many business people are not doing what they can to learn more about Internet Marketing.

Thankfully, two very smart Internet Marketers are now running a series of Internet Marketing seminars to share their knowledge and empower you to better manage your online promotion of your business and website.

Jeff Richardson and Lucio Ribeiro really know their stuff. I’ve worked with them on a number of occasions to enhance the value of websites I have built for clients. And I can tell you they are well worth a listen if you get the opportunity.

Now, through www.internetmarketingacademy.com.au you can come up to speed with topics such as:

• Search engine optimisation
• Online advertising; Google AdWords and other PPC campaigns
• Social Media for business; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more
• Underutilised strategies such as email marketing, online PR, and
• $200 free advertising you can use to advertise online.

Jeff and Lucio are working closely with Google and Yahoo and both these companies are providing $100 credits for their PPC (Pay per click) advertising for all Internet Marketing Academy attendees. And I’m thinking, if you ask nicely, Jeff and Lucio would even set the campaigns up for you free of charge.

I’ve organised a special deal.

I would really like for you to go along. I know you will learn some valuable tips.

So, I spoke with Jeff and have organised a special deal for my ‘family’. If you decide to attend simply click on the ‘Enter Discount Code’ link on the first registration page and enter the code ‘tosd’.

This will save you $100 off the $250 ticket. At $150, after you add back in the $200 from Google and Yahoo you come out in front even before the information you’ll garner.

Do yourself a favour – find a time and location that suits and invest in your businesses future with www.internetmarketingacademy.com.au

And after you’ve been and seen make sure you come back to the blog to thank share your comment with others.

As Neilson explains, when looking for information on the web we tend to behave like ‘Informavores‘ following a scent. If we think the article is of interest, and likely to get us closer to the information we are really looking for, we continue reading. If we seem to be loosing the scent we abandon the information hunt (on the existing article/site) and look elswhere.

How to help visitors scan your information efficiently.

If you want to keep a viewer interested enough to continue reading your information try the following:

• Use keyword highlighting to help people scan your article for relevancy to their needs. Just make sure that you don’t use the same sort of highlighting as you use to indicate hyperlinks. In fact never underline text that is not hyperlinked.
• Use sub-headings intelligently. Avoid ‘clever’ ones in favour of ones that convey clear meaning.
• Use bulleted lists for key points
• Write compact paragraphs that are limited to one clear idea.
• Keep the overall word count as short as possible.

But I can’t help but feel that there is a little bit of blind optimism at work here. In fact it rather reminds me of another catch-cry for “the paperless office” about a decade back. Great aspirations but short on substance.

Passive after all means “not participating readily or actively; inactive”.

Making money on the Internet usually involves selling products or services (either your own or others, as in affiliate arrangements). To do this it is necessary to attract a large number of visitors to your website. There are many ways to do this but they generally come down to:

• paid search engine traffic e.g Google Adwords
• or natural search engine traffic brought about by optimising web pages.

Both require very careful product and/or service research, precise keyword analysis, constant testing,  ongoing monitoring, feedback and continuous adjustment of all processes from marketing through to final product or service delivery.

It is not starting to sound too ‘passive’ is it?

So, is there to be money to be made on the Internet? Absolutely!

Is it likely that the money could be described as passive income? Well, no.

I am sorry if I have burst a bubble. No doubt many hopeful souls have already branded me as a heretic. It is just that I have a rather more down to earth appreciation what the Internet has to offer. In the end, from a business perspective, it is a fantastic marketing and sales channel. But like every other form of business it is highly competitive and success comes through intelligent application and hard work.

Sorry