INTERESTING HORSE SHIT
Pop-Under Windows - The Latest Pop-Window Trend
By Shelley Lowery
Although there has been a great deal of controversy over the
use of pop-up windows, the fact remains; pop-up windows
are highly effective. The latest pop-window trend to hit the
Internet is the pop-under window. Pop-under windows are
less intrusive than the pop-up windows and are believed to
be even more effective.
If you spend any time surfing the Internet, then you've
probably encountered several examples of pop-under
windows. A prime example is X10.com's pop-under ads for
their wireless video cameras. X10's pop-under ads were
popping up on prime media sites like MSN, the N.Y. Times and
Alta Vista. Their main advertising objective was to increase
their website traffic. And, they have done so with a high rate
of success.
Unlike pop-up windows that load over your web page,
pop-under windows quietly load under your web page. Your
visitors probably won't even see the pop-under window until
they're finished at your site and close the window.
The effectiveness of pop-under windows most likely stems
from the timing. When your visitor first enters your site,
their mind is on what lead them to your site to begin with.
Pop-up windows will most likely cause a higher percentage
of your visitors to instantly close your window before
viewing its content. That's what makes pop-under windows
more effective -- your visitor is through visiting your site and
their mind is clearer. They will be much more likely to take
the time to look at your offer when they don't have another
objective on their mind.
Pop-windows provide Internet marketers with an effective
alternative to the declining effectiveness of banner ads.
However, studies have shown that most Internet users find
these windows very intrusive. How can you effectively use
these windows without losing your visitors? Below are a few
guidelines to assist you.
1) Make sure that you don't use more than one pop-window
per page. If you've ever visited a website that bombards you
with pop-windows, then you know how irritating that is.
Sometimes it seems like each window you close launches two
new windows. This is a prime example of how NOT to use
pop-windows. Nothing will cause your visitor to leave more
quickly.
2) Try to use a script that utilizes cookies. This will enable
you to decide how often your window should appear instead
of it continually launching each time the page is entered.
3) Make sure you always provide your visitors with an easy
way to close your window. Consider adding a button or link
to the bottom of your window to enable your visitors to
instantly close it when they're finished.
4) Make sure your window is large enough to view your
information. If your window is too small and you have
disabled the scrollbars, part of your message will not be
visible to your visitors.
Here are a few tips to help you increase your offer's
response rate:
- Use a powerful headline that demands attention
- Enlarge your headline's font size
- Include your offer's most important benefits within your
headline
- Use incentives to increase your offer's response rate
- Keep your message short and to the point
- Ask your visitors to take action
If you would be interested in adding a pop-under window to
your site, I highly recommend the "Pop-Window Generator" at
Willmaster.com. This powerful online utility will enable you to
fill out a simple form and instantly generate the pop-window
code for your pages. This generator will enable you to select
the type of pop-window, set the length of cookies, and
completely customize the look and feel of your window. The
only requirement to use this free utility is that you must be
a subscriber of WillMaster Possibilities. This is a great
publication and I highly recommend subscribing.
http://willmaster.com/possibilities/members/
You can also find a pop-under JavaScript here:
http://wsabstract.com/script/script2/popunder.shtml
If you're considering adding a pop-window to your site,
please do so with caution. The last thing you want to do is
drive your visitors away. If done correctly, pop-windows can
be a very effective marketing tool.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete
ebook design kit that takes you step by step through
designing, creating and marketing your own ebook. Give
your ebook a professional look in just a few simple steps
with over 100 ebook interface and cover templates.
http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm
Secret Formulas for Writing Headlines That Sell
By Shelley Lowery
We all know the importance of a powerful headline. However,
writing a great headline isn't as easy as it sounds.
An effective headline will literally force your potential
customers to learn more. It will instantly ignite a certain
emotion and intrigue them to read on.
In order to write an effective headline, you must learn how
to use specific words to achieve a specific reaction.
Before writing your headline, you must first learn a little
bit about the basic human motivators. According to
psychologist Abraham Maslow, human behavior is always
the result of one or more of five basic needs. He listed
these needs in a sequence that he refers to as "the
hierarchy of human needs."
He believes that until a less important need is met there
won't be any desire to pursue a more important need. Below
are the five human motivators, beginning with the basic
needs and continuing to the most important needs.
Physiological - Basic human needs include hunger, thirst,
shelter, clothing and sex.
Safety (Security) - Human need for physical, emotional and
financial security.
Social (Affiliation) - Human need for love, affection,
companionship and acceptance.
Esteem (Self Esteem) - Human need for achievement,
recognition, attention and respect.
Self-actualization - Human need to reach their full potential.
When you are aware of the basic human needs, you can
incorporate these needs into your writing. A great headline
will appeal to your potential customers' emotions. You must
feel their needs, wants and desires and write your headlines
with passion and emotion.
When writing your headlines, keep in mind, you only have a
few seconds to grab your potential customers' attention. If
your headline doesn't immediately catch their attention,
they'll simply move on and never return. Below are several
different formulas used by professional copywriters to write
compelling headlines.
How to
"How to Increase Your Sales Up to 500% by Using This One
Simple Strategy"
Headlines beginning with 'how to' are very successful, as
the Internet is all about information. Internet users have a
strong desire to learn. A headline beginning with 'how to'
immediately grabs your potential customers' attention and
forces them to read on.
Question
"Are You Sick and Tired of Working For Someone Else?"
Headlines written in the form of a question are very
effective, as they appeal to your potential customers'
emotions. When they read a headline written as a question,
they'll answer the question in their mind. If the question
identifies a specific need, want or desire, they'll read on.
Command
"Double Your Income Within the Next 12 months --
Guaranteed!"
A command headline focuses on the most important benefit
your product or service has to offer. It instantly demands
your potential customers' attention and intrigues them to
read on.
News
"Announcing a Brand New Breakthrough in E-Publishing"
News headlines are very effective and used to announce
new products and services. They are written in the form
of an announcement or introduction and create curiosity.
Testimonials
"Internet Marketing Exclusive is Pure Genius -- Our Sales
Have Increased by 40%!"
Headlines written in the form of a testimonial are very
effective, as they instantly begin building trust.
When writing your headlines, certain words, when combined
together, will literally draw your readers' attention to your
ad. Below are of few of these "Power Words" that
consistently work.
Breakthrough
Discover
Discovery
Easy
Free
Guaranteed
Hidden
Incredible
Love
Master
Money
New
Powerful
Profits
Proven
Results
Revealed
Scientific
Secret
Shocked
Shocking
Ultimate
Uncovered
You
Your
According to a Yale University study, the following words
are the most powerful words in the English language.
Money
Discovery
Save
Easy
New
Love
Health
Proven
You
Results
Guaranteed
Safety
Just as certain words ignite different emotions, certain
subjects have a broader interest than others do. Some of
the most popular subjects include wealth, love, health
and safety.
Take your time and try the different formulas according to
your needs. Use a combination of the power words and write
a headline that sells. By learning the art of writing headlines
that focus on the basic human needs and emotions, you can
increase your sales considerably.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
" The page cannot be displayed"
Selecting A Quality Web Host
By Shelley Lowery
"The page cannot be displayed." Have you ever encountered
this message while surfing the net? Of course you have. We
all have. Think it can't happen to you? Think again. If
you're hosting your business on one of the free hosting
services, you're literally placing your entire business
in the hands of a complete stranger.
Free hosting services don't need to have a reason to shut
your site down. You may get up one morning, try to access
your site and instead of your site loading, this message
will appear, "The page cannot be displayed." There goes
all of your hard work, your web site, your traffic, your
search engine positioning, your customers, all gone.
Free hosting services aren't interested in your business
or how hard you've worked to design your web site and
create a steady stream of traffic. Their main concern is
their business. That's why they're doing it. They display
banner ads on every site they host. Pop up ads are not
only irritating, but they make your site appear to be
unprofessional. In addition, many Search Engines will not
allow free host URLs to be listed.
If you're serious about your business and you have a
sincere desire to succeed, having your own domain name is
a must. It's not a luxury; it's a necessity. Businesses
using the free services are not taken seriously. Having
your own domain name is just as important if not more
important than a professional looking web site. They go
hand-in-hand.
The cost to register your Domain name is only $60 for the
first two years. Very reasonable and well worth every
penny. Domain names are going fast, so if you have one in
mind, you'd better register it now before someone else
does. You can register your domain through Virtualis right
online, with no monthly fees, even if you're not ready to
order a server.
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/slowery/
-> Selecting Your Web Page Host <-
When selecting a professional web host your first
consideration should be the company. Check out their
background. Talk to some of their customers and ask
them if they've been satisfied with their service.
- How many customers do they serve?
- What is their uptime percentage?
- Do they require you to make payments in advance?
- Do they charge set up fees?
- How is their customer support? Test them.
- Do they offer fast connections?
- Do they offer shopping cart software to process
your orders?
- Can you upgrade free of charge?
Web hosting prices vary greatly. When selecting your
host, make sure you're getting exactly what you're
paying for. Keep in mind, a lower monthly rate will
not benefit you if your site is down a lot, slow, or
customer service is poor.
-> Criteria for selecting a host <-
Selecting a professional web host is a very important
decision. Make sure you do your homework and insure
the host you select offers exactly what you need.
- Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
- Your own True POP email account -
name@yourdomain.com
- Fast, low overhead, Multi-T3 access
- Your own unrestricted cgi-bin
- Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
- Java, C, C++, Tcl support
- Autoresponders
- htaccess Password Protection for your files or
directories
- At least 1 GIGABYTE (1024 MB) of Daily Transfer
- Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or
other HTML editing software
- Microsoft Frontpage (98) Server Extensions for those
utilizing Frontpage
- Unlimited free access to your server via Telnet/FTP
- Online invoices, account tracking, and payment
history to enable you to check your account balance,
monthly invoices, past payments, etc.
- Complete daily server backup
- Easy access to your log files
- Statistics on visits to your site
Free web hosts are great for hosting a personal web site,
but not recommended for a business site. If you're really
serious about your business and want to establish your
Internet presence, I highly recommend Virtualis. Their
tech support is the best I've seen.
http://www.virtualis.com/vr/slowery
--------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Increase Internet Sales with Free Trials
By Shelley Lowery
If you're selling a product or service on the Internet, one
of the best ways to increase your sales is by offering a
free trial, also know as a teaser, demo or limited version.
By enabling your potential customers to review your
product and providing them with an easy ordering process,
you can increase your sales immensely.
Free trials are not exclusive to software programs. There
are many ways you can offer a free trial no matter what
product or service you're offering. For example, if you've
written a book, consider offering it in an electronic version;
better know as an eBook. You can include your entire book
within the eBook and choose to lock out certain chapters.
In order for your potential customer to gain access to
these chapters they will be required to purchase the full
version. You can include an order form and instantly take
orders, right through your free trial Ebook. When you receive
an order, you simply send your customer a predefined user
ID and password that you set up when you create it.
A good program to assist you in creating an Ebook is
WebCompiler. http://www.webcompiler.com/
This program will compress your HTML documents into a
self-contained "executable" file. This HTML may be a web
site you've created or HTML you've specifically prepared to
be compiled into a downloadable .exe file for distribution.
This .exe file is a completely freestanding program and
requires no installation. When clicked on, the program
instantly opens your book on your client's desktop. In
addition, WebCompiler will enable you to lock out certain
pages of your Ebook or an entire directory.
The key to using a free trial version is to offer your
product for download from your website and allow it to be
freely distributed. Provide some valuable free information,
but save your most important information for the unlocked
version. Make your locked chapters sound very intriguing
and create curiosity. Tell your potential customers what
they will receive by purchasing the full version, provide
a complete list of all the benefits, and provide them with
an easy ordering process.
To further increase your sales, provide your potential
customers with instant gratification. You can completely
automate your entire ordering process simply by using a
CGI script. There are scripts online that will allow you to
make your product available for download, take the
customers order, approve it right online, send your
customer a password and send you a confirmation of the
order, all completely automatic.
- SuperScripts - http://www.superscripts.com/
- CGI Resource Index -
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/
After you've created your product, consider setting up an
affiliate program for massive distribution. There are many
affiliate CGI scripts available to assist you in running your
own affiliate program.
- The Affiliate Program -
http://theaffiliateprogram.com/
- ProTrack - http://www.affiliatesoftware.net/
If you're selling a service on the Internet, you can offer
your potential customers a free trial as well. For example,
if you offer a search engine submission service, you can
provide your customers with a limited free submission to
the search engines.
To entice your customers to purchase your full service you
can, not only submit their site to your full list of search
engines, but you can create doorway pages, insure their
pages are optimized for the search engines and provide a
resubmission service every month for a year. In addition,
provide your clients with a free report of each submission
process.
Prior to doing your customers last submission, contact them
and inform them that their submission contract will soon be
expiring. Tell them how they can renew their submission
process and offer another enticing freebie such as, "If you
renew your submission contract before (date) we will also
submit your site to over 1000 Free For All Sites."
This type of free trial will not only increase your current
sales, but it will promote future sales as well.
The possibilities are endless. By offering your potential
customers something of value for free, providing instant
gratification, and an easy ordering process, you can
dramatically increase your sales.
--------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Write for Publicity
By Shelley Lowery
If you're looking for a powerful way to get free publicity
and build your credibility at the same time, then writing
articles may be your answer.
If you've been on the Internet for a while, you've probably
subscribed to a few ezines. Many ezine publishers will
include an article written by a guest author. At the end
of the article are a few lines of text about the author
referred to as bylines or resource box. These lines of text
are basically just an advertisement for the writer. They
usually contain a couple of lines about the author and a
web address.
The writer gives the publisher permission to publish their
article, free of charge, in exchange for the publisher
including the author's bylines.
By writing articles and allowing them to be freely
published, your articles will have the potential to be
viewed by millions of Internet users. They may be
published by several ezines with subscriber bases of a
few hundred to several thousand. In addition, they may
be displayed in ezine archives or on high traffic websites.
Most ezine publishers prefer short articles between 500
and 750 words. Short "tip" articles of just a couple of
paragraphs are also very popular. Articles should be
formatted to 65 characters per line or less, including
spaces, and written in short paragraph sections.
When you begin writing your article, avoid using your
standard word processing programs, as they do not allow
for proper formatting. Instead, use a text editor such
as NotePad. It should already be installed on your desktop.
When you begin typing your article, use a hard carriage
return (hit enter) when your text reaches 65 characters,
including spaces, and leave a space between your
paragraphs. This will enable publishers to easily copy and
paste your article into their publication. By taking the
time to properly format your article, you will increase your
chance of being published significantly.
Most publishers receive many article submissions each
week and only select a few to be published. Here are
some basic guidelines to assist you in getting published:
(1) Make sure you follow the publishers' submission
guidelines. Articles submitted to publishers that don't
follow the submission guidelines will most likely be deleted.
(2) Make sure your article is properly formatted.
Publishers won't take the time to format your article.
They'll simply delete it and move on to the next article
submission.
(3) Keep your bylines down to 6 lines or less.
Publishers will not publish articles that contain excessively
long bylines.
(4) Select a descriptive title to intrigue your readers.
Use a powerful headline that demands attention and try to
keep it all on one line.
(5) Use proper grammar and spelling.
Publishers will not take the time to edit your article. Make
sure you read your article several times and use spellcheck.
(6) Avoid articles that are nothing more than a sales letter.
Publishers want quality content and will simply delete an
article that is written like a sales letter.
(7) Avoid referring readers to an affiliate URL.
Articles containing affiliate links may make your article
appear to be biased and untrustworthy.
(8) Write your articles with a sincere desire to teach and
inform. Talk to your readers and share your expertise.
Once you've written your article, you'll need to develop a
list of publishers that may be interested in publishing it.
The best way to accomplish this is to display your articles
on your website. Place a subscription box on each of your
article pages to enable your visitors to subscribe. This list
should be used to send your new articles to your list of
publishers.
In addition, you can visit some ezine sites to locate
publishers who may be interested in your articles. A good
place to start is eZINESearch.
http://www.ezinesearch.com
Search through the database for publications that may
be interested in the type of article you've written.
Another great way to promote your articles is to submit
them to article announcement groups. These groups
enable writers to submit their articles to an entire group
of publishers, completely free.
Article Announcement Lists:
Article Announce
Subscribe:
mailto:article_announce-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
AABusiness
Subscribe:
mailto:aabusiness-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
AAInternet
Subscribe:
mailto:aainet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
PublishInYours
Subscribe:
mailto:PublishInYours-subscribe@egroups.com
Articles Archive
Subscribe:
mailto:articles_archives-subscribe@egroups.com
Free Content
Subscribe:
mailto:Free-Content-subscribe@egroups.com
Make sure you review the submission guidelines prior to
posting your article to an announcement group.
Here are some additional promotional resources to help
you get published:
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator_submit.htm
http://www.authorconnection.com/
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://www.ezinearticles.com/
http://www.marketing-seek.com/
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/
Writing and distributing free articles on the Internet
will be one of the best promotional decisions you'll
ever make. Not only will it provide you with free
publicity, but if your articles are good, you'll become
a trusted professional in your area of expertise.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Creating Your Professional Image on the Internet
By Shelley Lowery
There are many types of professionals on the Internet.
Business consultants, writers, web designers, software
developers, the list goes on and on. What does it take to be
considered a professional? Well, according to the definition
from Webster's dictionary, a professional is
"Engaged in, or worthy of the standards of, a profession."
Does this definition mean that if you are engaged in a
profession you are automatically considered a "professional?"
Of course not. Creating a professional image entails a great
deal of time and effort. Not only should you have a great
deal of knowledge and experience in your chosen field, but
you must conduct your business in a professional manner.
Developing a professional image on the Internet will
include all aspects of your business.
- Attitude
- Courtesy
- Honesty
- Product
- Customer Service
- Technical Support
- Refunds
- Web Site
- Fellow Business Owners
- Attitude -
Your attitude is one of the most important aspects of
developing your professional image. It can make or break
you. The way you deal with your peers, customers,
questions, complaints, requests or compliments will all
reflect upon your professionalism.
- Courtesy -
Let your customers know how much they're appreciated.
Be well mannered, respectful and warm. Always remember
to say please, thank you and you're welcome.
- Honesty -
Never be dishonest with or mislead your customers.
It will eventually catch up with you. Tell it like it is.
You have to earn your customer's trust to create long
term relationships.
- Product -
Always over-deliver in all aspects of your business. If
you over-inflate the perceived value of your product, your
customers will be disappointed and probably not buy from
you in the future.
- Customer Service -
When dealing with your customers, go above and beyond
the expected. Listen to your customers and validate their
feelings. Just because you know and understand something,
don't assume they do.
- Technical Support -
Poor technical support is probably one of the biggest
complaints from unsatisfied customers. Make yourself
completely available to assist your customers. Answer their
emails and return their phone calls as quickly as possible.
Work with them until you have a satisfactory solution.
- Refunds -
Always happily refund your customers money if they aren't
satisfied. Don't argue the issue or write nasty messages.
Be courteous, apologetic, and ask your customers why they
weren't satisfied. Remember... The customer is always right,
even if you feel they're wrong.
- Web Site -
Your web site is a direct reflection of you and your
business. It should look professional in design, contain
your complete contact information, including your phone
number, provide complete product information and an easy
ordering process.
- Fellow Business Owners -
Creating your professional image on the Internet not only
includes your business and customers, but it also includes
being respectful to fellow business owners. If someone
requests a link exchange or any kind of business promotional
exchange, answer their email. That's considered a
professional courtesy. Whether you're interested in their
proposal or not, you should at least acknowledge their
request. Failure to do so is not only considered rude,
but unprofessional.
Always strive to do-the-best-you-can-do and everything
else will fall into place.
---------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
35 Deadly Website Sins That will Kill Your Business!
By Shelley Lowery
After reviewing thousands of web sites over the past couple
of years for my Exceptional Sites Award, I have come to the
conclusion that many business web sites are missing the boat.
For example; I've been working on some offline promotions
and was searching for a simple targeted mailing list. I
searched through about twenty sites and not one of those
sites were, what I would consider, professional. Their
standard blue links were enlarged to about a size 16 font,
busy backgrounds, flashing images and very unorganized.
Did I purchase a mailing list from any of those sites? Absolutely
not. Why? The way I see it, if those companies don't take
pride in their web sites, chances are, they won't take pride in
their products either. Large linked text and flashing graphics
won't make sales.
Your web site is a direct reflection of you and your business.
The appearance of your site is the most important factor in
determining your sites value. In other words, if your site
doesn't look professional or pleasing to the eyes at first
glance, its perceived value and the value of your products
and services will be low.
On the other hand, you may have a great web site, well
designed and a quality product or service, but if it takes too
long to load, the value will still be perceived as low. Why?
Because your potential customer won't wait. Ultimately
costing you business.
Another consideration of great importance is your content.
Not just links, but content with value. When someone is
surfing the net and they visit your web site, they're visiting
for a reason. Your site has something they want. Whether it
is your product, service or information, that's why they're
there. If they don't find what they're looking for, they move
on to the next site and so on. If you want your visitors to stay
at your site, provide the quality content they're looking for in
a nicely organized fashion. Give them a reason to want to
explore your site and to continue to visit your site in the future.
After receiving many questions, in regard to site design, from
my visitors who weren't selected to receive an award, I have
devised a list of what I refer to as "35 Deadly Web Site Sins".
- Poor load time
- Poor overall appearance
- Spelling/Grammar
- No contact information
- Poor content
- Poor navigation
- Broken links and graphics
- Poor browser compatibility
- Large slow loading graphics
- Too many graphics
- Pages scrolling to oblivion
- Multiple use of animated graphics
- Animated bullets
- Too many graphic and/or line dividers
- Busy, distracting backgrounds
- Multiple banners and buttons
- Poor use of frames
- Large fonts
- Pop up messages
- Over use of java
- Poor use of tables
- Poor organization
- Different backgrounds on each page
- Over powering music set to autoplay
- Confusing
- Too much advertising
- Large Welcome banners
- Multiple colored text
- Text difficult to read
- No Meta tags
- Multiple use of different fonts
- Under construction signs
- Scrolling text in the status bar
- Large scrolling text across the page
- Poor use of mouse over effects
Take some time to really look at your site. Compare it to sites
that you feel look professional. Time your sites load time.
Your customers won't wait. Their time is valuable.
The simple, well designed sites make the sales. If your sales
aren't what you had hoped , take some time to seriously
evaluate your site and make some changes before spending
your time and money on advertising and marketing. You may
be pleasantly surprised.
If you're serious about designing a successful website, I highly
recommend Ken Evoy's ebook, "Make Your Site Sell." No matter
what you want your Website to sell, MYSS shows you how,
like no other book or program ever has.
http://www.sitesell.com/websource.html
----------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
A Crash Course in Ezine
Publishing
By Shelley Lowery
An ezine, also know as an email magazine, online publication
or electronic newsletter is simply a newsletter available via
email and/or online. There are hundreds of thousands of
e-zines on various subjects available on the Internet free of
charge.
Having your own publication will not only enable you to keep
in touch with your visitors, but it will help you build a huge
database of targeted customers. If you've been marketing
on the Internet, then you know it may take several contacts
with a prospective customer before closing a sale. What
better way to make those contacts, without spamming...
In addition, you can eventually make a nice income selling
sponsor advertising and classified ads.
You can publish an ezine completely free. There are many list
servers such as; Egroups (http://www.egroups.com),
Onelist
(http://www.onelist.com)
& Listbot (http://www.listbot.com)
that will host your list (e-zine) free of charge. In addition,
they take care of all your subscription requests so you won't
have to. To use one of these list servers, simply sign up and
instantly create your list. They will provide you with a
subscribe and unsubscribe email address and even a list owner
email address, all completely free. The only disadvantage is
that each posting will contain an ad for their service. This
is really a small price to pay for such a great service. If
you're just starting out, utilizing one of these free
services can simplify the process.
- CONTENT -
A quality ezine should contain at least some original content.
Don't let the fear of writing intimidate you. If your ezine's
focus is on an area of your expertise you shouldn't have any
problems coming up with something to write about. If you've
been out of school for a while, you might want to freshen up
on your writing and grammar skills. Visit any of the sites
listed below for a crash course.
Garbl's Writing Resources Online -
http://pweb.netcom.com/~garbl1/writing.html
11 Rules of Writing -
http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/
Exploring English -
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/
Simpler Words And Phrases -
http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/tpl5.htm
Here are some additional resources for obtaining free content
for your publication. Before using any articles, make sure
you review the author's copyrights and make certain the article
may be published. If you're not sure, contact the author and
request permission to publish their article. Most articles for
publication can be used in your ezine free of charge as long
as the authors credits or resource box is included.
- FREE CONTENT -
Web-Source.net - Free Articles
http://www.web-source.net/free_articles.htm
Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Exchange
http://www.web-source.net/article-announce
Subscribe:
article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com
E-ZineZ.com -
http://www.e-zinez.com/
Marketing & Advertising Supersite -
http://drnunley.com/
BizWeb2000 -
http://bizweb2000.com/articles.htm
Success Doctor -
http://success-doctor.com/archive.htm
IdeaMarketers -
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
- FOCUS -
Your e-zine should focus on a subject in which you have a
great deal of knowledge. If you have a web site, you should
also take into consideration the focus of your web site; i.e.,
If your web site's focus is on Internet Marketing, you
wouldn't want to have your e-zines focus to be on "Animals
& Pets," you would want it to be on "Internet Marketing."
- TITLE -
The title of your e-zine is one of the most important decisions
you can make. Many e-zine listing sites list their e-zines in
alphabetical order. By selecting a title such as, "Advertising
Secrets" instead of "Working Online," your publication will be
listed towards the top instead of the bottom. This will give
your publication an advantage over the publications listed
below yours. Potential subscribers will see your e-zine first
and be more apt to subscribe.
Your title should sound intriguing and tell your potential
subscriber exactly what your publication is all about.
- PUBLISHING SCHEDULE -
You can publish your e-zine as often as you like. When you
first begin you may want to only publish once a month until
your subscriber base has grown. You can always increase
your publication to bi-weekly or weekly whenever you'd like.
- SIZE -
There has been a great deal of controversy over the size of
an e-zine. In my humble opinion, size really doesn't matter.
If you publish a quality e-zine with a great deal of content,
I don't feel that your subscribers will care what size it is
within reason. You should; however, take into consideration
that your subscribers may not want to download it. If it is
too large, America Online will automatically turn it into a
file attachment. Consider either condensing it or separating
it into "Part One" and "Part Two."
- WEB SITE -
It isn't imperative that your e-zine have its own web site,
however, it is HIGHLY recommended. Having your own site will
enable you to give your visitors an in depths look at exactly
what your publication is all about. You can include
highlights of upcoming editions, polls, archives and a
subscription box to allow your visitors to easily subscribe.
- ADVERTISING -
You should probably wait to begin selling advertising space
until you have at least 1000 subscribers. You can sell ad
space for $25 for every 1000 subscribers you have. There
is a lot of advertising competition to take into consideration
when selling ad space so, you may want to begin selling your
ad space at a lower rate or offer special incentives; i.e.,
Buy two weeks of advertising for $20 get the third week free.
Try to limit the number of ads per issue to ten and place them
in the center of your publication. This will not only ensure
adequate exposure for your advertisers, but your subscribers
won't be overwhelmed with advertising as well.
- STYLE & FORMAT -
The appearance of your e-zine is one of the most important
factors in determining your e-zine's success. Getting
subscribers is the easy part. Keeping them will entail a little
work. A professionally written, well designed, content rich
publication will ensure your e-zines success.
When formatting your e-zine, keep in mind there are many
different types of email programs and they are not all created
equal. As a general rule, to accommodate all of your
subscribers and their different email programs, it is probably
best to write your e-zine in plain text. As with email programs,
word processing programs are not all created equal as well.
Your regular word processing programs are great for writing
business letters, sales letters, etc., but not a good choice
for writing your newsletter due to formatting issues.
A good program to consider using is Notepad. This program
should already be on your desktop.
Another consideration of great importance is your line length.
If your text lines are too long, some email programs that aren't
capable of viewing long text lines will force the last few words
to the next line and your text will be viewed like this:
When formatting your publication your text
length is
one of the most important factors in
determining
how professional your publication will appear.
As a rule, a generally safe line-length is 65 characters
(including spaces).
As you begin typing your text, when you reach 65 characters,
use a hard carriage return. (Hit Enter)
If you'd rather not have to worry about hard carriage returns,
you might want to use a program called "TextPad".
http://www.textpad.com/.
This program can be set to
automatically insert a hard carriage return when your text
has reached 65 characters.
When you're ready to begin, make an outline for the contents
of your e-zine to enable you to create a template.
After you've written your publication and you're ready to
copy & paste it into your email program, make certain your
email preferences are set to allow at least 65 characters of
text per line. If your preferences are set for less, when you
paste your text to be mailed it will appear to be improperly
formatted.
It is highly recommended that you send a sample copy of your
publication to yourself prior to sending it to your subscribers.
By viewing your publication in this manner you will get an idea
of what your subscribers will see and it will enable you to
correct any formatting problems.
Publishing your own e-zine is one of the best marketing
decisions you'll ever make. Take your time, research your
subject and design a publication of quality, useful content.
For further information on publishing your own e-zine, you
may download the free e-book entitled, "Ezines: A Complete
Guide to Publishing." This free e-book received a 4-star
Editors Pick from ZDNet.
http://www.web-source.net/free_ebooks.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
The Secrets to Building a Successful Web Site
By Shelley Lowery
If you're doing business on the Internet, one of the most
important aspects of your success is your web site. If your
web site doesn't look professional, no matter what product
you're offering, your chances of success are minimal.
Before you begin, if you've never designed a web page, it
would be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext
Markup Language.) A great place to start is NCSA Beginner's
Guide to HTML:
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
15 Tips for designing a successful web site:
(1) The main page of your web site should load in 8 seconds or
less with a 56K modem.
According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester
Research and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1
to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customers click-
away caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long to
load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately costing
you business.
(2) Make sure you include proper META tags in the HTML of
each page of your web site. META tags are HTML code that
enable the search engines to determine what keywords are
relevant to a specific site. About 80 percent of all web site
traffic originates from the eight major search engines. It would
be a good idea to make sure you've done your homework and
fully understand how to optimize your web pages prior to
designing your site. This will save you a lot of headaches in
the long run. For further information on META tags read the
tutorial entitled, "Building Your Site."
- http://www.web-source.net/building.htm
(3) Be cautious when selecting your background and text colors.
Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the
attention away from the text. Always be consistent with your
background theme on each page of your site. Your site should
be nicely organized and uniform throughout. Keep in mind,
colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors
as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you
to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue
and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown
and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would
be to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to
achieve.
(4) Use minimal animated graphics. These can be very
distracting and can cause your page to look unprofessional. In
addition, animated graphics cause your page to load more
slowly. Fancy graphics won't make the sale.
(5) Your main page should specifically let your visitors know
exactly what you're offering. How many times have you visited
a site and never figured out exactly what they were selling? If
your potential customer can't find your product or service,
they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it.
They'll go on to the next site and probably never return.
They're visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want
something your site offers. Whether it is information, a
product or service.
(6) Try to avoid placing banner exchange banners at the top of
your page. These can instantly take your customers or even
be indexed by search engine robots. Limit the number of
banners on your site to no more than two per page. One is ideal.
(7) Always, include your contact information on each page of
your site and try to reply to all comments and suggestions
within 48 hours. This will help promote good business
relationships. Your business relationships are the key to your
success.
(8) ALWAYS check and double-check your site for spelling errors
and make sure your images and links are all working properly.
If you have several errors, this will make your site appear to
be unprofessional. If you are designing your site using an HTML
editor, use spell check. Proper grammar is also very important.
If you've been out of school for a while it's probably a good
idea to refresh your memory. Visit any of the following sites
for a crash course in writing and grammar.
- Guide to Grammar and Writing -
http://webster.commnet.edu/HP/pages/darling/original.htm
- A Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation -
http://www.grammarbook.com/
- Exploring English -
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/
- Simpler Words And Phrases -
http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/tpl5.htm
(9) Design your site to be easily navigated. Place your
navigation links together at the top, bottom, left or right
side of the page. Use tables to neatly align your links. If you
are planning on using graphic buttons to navigate your site,
keep in mind that with each graphic you add to your page, it
will take that much longer for your page to load. If you only
have a handful of navigational links, using graphic buttons
will be fine. If you have over six links, it would be wise to
simply use text links to keep your load time down.
(10) If you must use frames, use them sparingly. Frames, if
not properly used, can make your site look unprofessional.
Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to
view your content. This can be very irritating and cause your
visitors to leave. If you must use frames, offer your visitors
a choice. Frames verses No Frames.
(11) Try to keep the number of clicks required to get from your
main page to any other page on your site down to four. Keep in
mind, your visitors may enter your site from pages other than
your main. Always have good navigational links on every page
and place your company logo on each page.
(12) If you must use Java on your site, use it sparingly. Offer
your visitors a choice. Java verses No Java. Java can be slow
and has a tendency to crash browsers. Try to avoid using those
pop up boxes asking for your visitor's name, etc. Those pop
up messages are very unprofessional and can be very
frustrating to your visitors when they're trying to view your
site.
(13) Do not set sound to "autoplay" when someone visits your
site. This can be very distracting.
(14) All web browsers are not created equally. View your site
through different browsers and screen resolutions so you will
see how your visitors will view your site. Visit:
- Site Inspector - Check your web pages for HTML
validity and browser compatibility.
- http://www.siteinspector.com/
- NetMechanic - Provides a variety of free services for
your web site including; browser compatibility testing,
graphic file size reduction, link check, HTML check,
load time check, spell check and more.
- http://www.netmechanic.com/
(15) Continually add new content to your site. Give your
visitors a reason to keep coming back.
* Design a quality e-book to give to your visitors. It's not
as difficult as it sounds. If you can create a web page,
you can create an e-book. The focus of your e-book
should compliment your web site. Simply write about
your passion. If your passion is sales, then you could
share some of your knowledge and experience by
designing your e-book to provide a complete sales training
guide. If your passion is home based business, you could
write an e-book about how to start your own home based
business. If you're writing about your true passion then you
shouldn't have any trouble coming up with something to
write about. For further information on e-books, read the
article entitled, "How to Create an E-book and Drive
Massive Traffic to Your Site by Giving It Away."
- http://www.web-source.net/ebooks.htm
If you'd rather not write your own e-book, here's a list of
sites where you can pick up some free e-books to add to your
site.
- Web-Source.net
http://www.web-source.net
- Book Locker
http://www.booklocker.com/
- LD Publishing
http://www.ldpublishing.com
* Provide your visitors with quality, informative articles.
Everybody loves free information. It's the top-selling product
online, so use it to your advantage. Write your own articles
or you can pick some up at the following sites:
- AutoResponder Central
http://www.web-source.net/links/
- Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Connection
http://www.web-source.net/article-announce.htm
Subscribe:
mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com
- Marketing & Advertising Supersite
http://www.drnunley.com/
- BizWeb2000
http://www.bizweb2000.com/articles.htm
- Success Doctor
http://www.success-doctor.com/archive.htm
Before using any articles, make sure you view the author's
copyrights and make certain the article may be published.
If you're not sure, contact the author and request permission
to publish their article whether it be on your web site or in
your e-zine. Most articles for publication can be used free
of charge as long as the authors credits or resource box is
included.
The best advice I can offer is to Keep It Simple. The simple,
well-designed, professional looking web sites make the sales.
Always strive to learn. Knowledge is the key to success.
If you're serious about designing a successful website, I highly
recommend Ken Evoy's ebook, "Make Your Site Sell." No matter
what you want your website to sell, MYSS shows you how
like no other book or program ever has.
http://www.sitesell.com/websource.html
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
10 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN DIRECT MARKETING
By Shelley Lowery
If you're looking for a lucrative homebased business, direct
marketing may be just what you've been looking for; Offering
you the possibilities of making your dreams come true.
WHAT IS DIRECT MARKETING?
Direct marketing is offering a product or service directly to
the consumer via mail order, Internet sales, personal sales,
etc., with no middleman involved. Many direct marketing
companies are now being operated right out of the home.
Home based business is the waive of the future and can
offer you a wonderful opportunity to actually be able to
compete with the large, well established companies with
large bank accounts. That's what is so wonderful about
the Internet. You don't have to have a large bank account
to succeed. You just have to have a little "know how."
* 10 Steps to insure your success
1. SET YOUR GOALS
What do you want to accomplish? Do you want a new home?
Do you want to save for your children's college education? A
new car? You can have whatever you want, but you must
want it enough to do the things that have to be done in order
to get it. Set your goals, write them down and set a target
date for reaching them. Set short term reachable goals and
long term higher goals, yet don't set them too high. This will
cause you to become discouraged if you don't achieve them.
Work consistently towards accomplishing your goals each
day, each week and each month until you reach your short
term goals. When you have attained your short term goals,
set them a little higher each time. Ultimately you will achieve
your long term goals. Goal-setting is a must in every area of
life.
2. BE SELF DISCIPLINED
Get up early each day. Get ready for your job as if you were
working outside your home. Have a list of all the things you
want to accomplish during the day. This will give you an
organized approach to each day. It's amazing how much you
can get done using a "To Do" list.
3. BE SELF MOTIVATED
Set up a schedule and stick to it. Be Enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm generates its own energy. Energy and good
health are synonymous with motivated, happy people.
Achievers.
4. BE ENTHUSIASTIC
Positive thinking will literally be your key to success. You
have to convince yourself that you can succeed at whatever
you desire, because you can.
5. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME DISCOURAGED
Remember... The more "NO's" you get, the closer to a "YES"
you become.
6. SCHEDULE YOUR TIME WISELY
A schedule is your roadmap to success. If you have no
direction, you'll travel in circles and ultimately never reach
your goals. Plan your work then work your plan.
7. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Success is 90 percent attitude and 10 percent aptitude. Learn
the art of positive thinking. You can do whatever you put your
mind to. It's mind over matter. Your attitude will either
guarantee your success or guarantee your failure. You're only
a failure if you give up.
8. SET UP AN OFFICE AREA
Most direct marketers work from their own homes, but it is
still essential to set up a specified work area. Take pride in
your business to insure your success.
9. HANDLE YOUR MONEY WISELY
Set up a written budget. Set aside a percentage of your
business income to put back into your business. This is a
must. Failure to reinvest your money will result in the failure
of your business.
10. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Get plenty of sleep, eat right and take some time to stop and
smell the roses... Be Persistent... Persistence Pays Off...
Don't Give Up... Most Businesses fail Just At The Moment
They Are About To Succeed...
Sales is one of the highest paid of all professions.
"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish
and he'll eat for a lifetime."
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the Webmaster of Web-Source.net -
A complete resource portal for the Internet entrepreneur.
The site assists the entrepreneur in developing a serious
Web presence by providing a wealth of free information,
resources, tools and content.
http://www.web-source.net
10 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN DIRECT MARKETING
By Shelley Lowery
If you're looking for a lucrative homebased business, direct
marketing may be just what you've been looking for; Offering
you the possibilities of making your dreams come true.
WHAT IS DIRECT MARKETING?
Direct marketing is offering a product or service directly to
the consumer via mail order, Internet sales, personal sales,
etc., with no middleman involved. Many direct marketing
companies are now being operated right out of the home.
Home based business is the waive of the future and can
offer you a wonderful opportunity to actually be able to
compete with the large, well established companies with
large bank accounts. That's what is so wonderful about
the Internet. You don't have to have a large bank account
to succeed. You just have to have a little "know how."
* 10 Steps to insure your success
1. SET YOUR GOALS
What do you want to accomplish? Do you want a new home?
Do you want to save for your children's college education? A
new car? You can have whatever you want, but you must
want it enough to do the things that have to be done in order
to get it. Set your goals, write them down and set a target
date for reaching them. Set short term reachable goals and
long term higher goals, yet don't set them too high. This will
cause you to become discouraged if you don't achieve them.
Work consistently towards accomplishing your goals each
day, each week and each month until you reach your short
term goals. When you have attained your short term goals,
set them a little higher each time. Ultimately you will achieve
your long term goals. Goal-setting is a must in every area of
life.
2. BE SELF DISCIPLINED
Get up early each day. Get ready for your job as if you were
working outside your home. Have a list of all the things you
want to accomplish during the day. This will give you an
organized approach to each day. It's amazing how much you
can get done using a "To Do" list.
3. BE SELF MOTIVATED
Set up a schedule and stick to it. Be Enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm generates its own energy. Energy and good
health are synonymous with motivated, happy people.
Achievers.
4. BE ENTHUSIASTIC
Positive thinking will literally be your key to success. You
have to convince yourself that you can succeed at whatever
you desire, because you can.
5. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO BECOME DISCOURAGED
Remember... The more "NO's" you get, the closer to a "YES"
you become.
6. SCHEDULE YOUR TIME WISELY
A schedule is your roadmap to success. If you have no
direction, you'll travel in circles and ultimately never reach
your goals. Plan your work then work your plan.
7. HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
Success is 90 percent attitude and 10 percent aptitude. Learn
the art of positive thinking. You can do whatever you put your
mind to. It's mind over matter. Your attitude will either
guarantee your success or guarantee your failure. You're only
a failure if you give up.
8. SET UP AN OFFICE AREA
Most direct marketers work from their own homes, but it is
still essential to set up a specified work area. Take pride in
your business to insure your success.
9. HANDLE YOUR MONEY WISELY
Set up a written budget. Set aside a percentage of your
business income to put back into your business. This is a
must. Failure to reinvest your money will result in the failure
of your business.
10. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Get plenty of sleep, eat right and take some time to stop and
smell the roses... Be Persistent... Persistence Pays Off...
Don't Give Up... Most Businesses fail Just At The Moment
They Are About To Succeed...
Sales is one of the highest paid of all professions.
"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish
and he'll eat for a lifetime."
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the Webmaster of Web-Source.net -
A complete resource portal for the Internet entrepreneur.
The site assists the entrepreneur in developing a serious
Web presence by providing a wealth of free information,
resources, tools and content.
http://www.web-source.net
Steps to Optimizing Your HTML Code
By Shelley Lowery
Your key to success in online marketing and promotion is
your web site. From your title, keywords, meta tags, and
text, to your over all site design, each plays a very
important role when optimizing your site. If your site
doesn't rank in the top 10 or 20 when doing a keyword
search at the top search engines, your target audience
won't be able to find you.
About 80 percent of all web site traffic originates from the
eight major search engines. Most people will go to a search
engine, type in a keyword or keyword phrase and look through
the top 10 - 20 results. Most of the time they'll find what
they're looking for in the first 10 results. The percentage
of click throughs are even smaller. Listing near the top and
grabbing the attention of your target audience is the top
priority. There are many components of your web page that
you should pay close attention to when preparing it for
listing in a search engine.
The first step towards improving your listing is selecting
the best keywords and keyword phrases that best reflect
your web page. Keywords are the foundation of your web
presence in the search engines.
* Keywords
To help you choose effective keywords and keyword phrases,
there are two important steps. First of all, get a Thesaurus
and investigate synonyms for your original keywords. Write
these words down on a sheet of paper. Next, perform your
keyword and keyword phrases search at the major engines.
Pay close attention to the web sites that rank 1 through 10.
View the source code of these pages. Pay close attention to
their placement of keywords in the <TITLE>, <META> and
<ALT> tags. Next, do a search for your competitor's web
sites and view their HTML source code. Noticing patterns is
your key to ranking above them.
* <IMG ALT> Tags
An image alt tag follows your graphic address or url in your
html code. These words will be displayed in place of your
graphics through an older browser or when your visitors have
their graphics turned off. To fully optimize your graphics,
insert several of your keywords in the alt tags of the
graphics located at the top of your pages.
Example:
<IMG SRC="wsmain.gif" WIDTH="318" HEIGHT="62" ALT="Webmaster
Resources - Free resources for the webmaster" BORDER="0">
* <TITLE> Tags
The <TITLE> tag is the first thing that a user sees when
your site is returned by a search query. You only have a
split second to grab your targets attention. Place keywords
that are most pertinent to your business in the title tag.
Effective title tags include only relevant keyword or
keyword phrases. Avoid non-indexing filler words, such as
a, an, the, welcome and home page.
Example: <TITLE>Web-Source.net Webmasters Resource Directory -
Free resources for the webmaster - marketing, advertising,
promotion, classified ads & more.</TITLE>.
* <META> tags
<META> tags are HTML code that enable the search engines to
determine what keywords are relevant to this specific site.
The META "description" tag will contain a description of
your site. Make sure your description contains some of
your relevant keywords.
The META "keywords" tag will contain a listing of your
keywords and keyword phrases that are relevant to your
site and enable a search engine to find you.
Example:
<META name="description" content="A webmasters resource
directory for 1000's of quality resources to assist the
small business owner in successfully designing, marketing
& promoting their products & services.">
<META name="KEYWORDS" content="webmaster
resources, free ebooks, e-books, ezines, e-zines,
publications, media, press release, content, articles, classified
advertising, ads, internet marketing, Internet promotion, home
based business, entrepreneurs">
* Text
Not only are the html tags an important part of optimization,
but it is almost just as important to add plenty of text to
your pages. Your text should contain each of your keywords
used in different variations. I.E. If your keywords are free,
promotion, marketing, advertising, Your text might say
something like this; Promotion, Marketing and Advertising
are the key to your success. We offer many promotional
resources, including; Free marketing articles, classified
advertising and free promotion.
Optimization will be your solution to winning the search
engine wars.
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Autoresponders
- Put Your Business On Autopilot
By Shelley Lowery
Autoresponders are one of the top promotional tools available
online today. They are also known as mailbots, automatic
email and email on demand. They were derived from the very
popular fax on demand and designed to automatically
respond to any email message sent to it with an automatic
response. Their popularity most likely stems from its vast
variety of uses as it eliminates the need to manually answer
every response. Subsequently saving hours of valuable time.
Your information can be available to your prospective
customer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Get your best ad
copy ready, load it to your autoresponder and your business
is set to autopilot. When your prospective customer sends a
message to your autoresponder address, your information
will be instantly delivered to their email address.
There are many ways of utilizing the power of
autoresponders:
* Sample E-zine Copy for potential subscribers
* Articles For Publication - A great way for writers to distribute
their articles
* Offer Free Powerful Reports on various subjects and use
your signature file at the end to promote your site or
business
* Offer Free Resources with information about your site,
product or business
* Information about your Business Opportunity
* Product listings
* Price list
* Welcome letters
* Thank you letters
* Order Confirmations
* Advertising Rates
Advantages:
There are many advantages associated with the use of
autoresponders. Not only do they automate the daily task
of manually replying to requests for information, but they
provide instant gratification for the recipient. They also enable
you to track your ad responses and gather the email
addresses of potential customers. A good autoresponder
service will automatically send you an email notification
informing you each time someone requests your information.
Selecting a quality autoresponder service:
When selecting a autoresponder service, there are many
factors that need to be taken into consideration to ensure
maximum performance.
* Personalized responses - This makes the recipient feel that
the letter was sent specifically to them.
* Automatic follow ups - Studies have shown it may take up
to seven contacts before closing a sale.
* Unlimited text length - If you are inhibited by the amount of
text your autoresponder may contain, you may be forced to
revise a successful sales letter, ultimately costing you
business.
* Free Unlimited updating - It is imperative to provide your
customers with accurate, up to date information on your
products and services.
* Automatic Notification - You must have the ability to track
your ads performance. You should be instantly informed
each time someone requests your information.
Advertising Tips:
* Include your autoresponder address in your signature file.
* When placing classified ads, instead of supplying your
regular email address, use your autoresponder address.
* Appropriate News Groups
* Opt in email discussion lists
* Guestbooks
* Business Cards
* Letter Head
* Your web site
Key Coding Your Ads:
Tracking your ads response rate will be the key to your
marketing success. Once you test your ads and determine
which ad is pulling the most responses, you can easily test
which classified ad sites are producing results as well. This
will save you a lot of valuable time
by only placing your ads at classified ad sites that produce
results.
1. Make a list of the classified ad sites you intend to post
your ad.
2. Number the list of ad sites.
3. You can key your ad using the subject of your email.
Many times, if you ask for a certain "subject" description,
it may not be provided. To avoid this problem you can add
a simple code to your email tag.
mailto:freeinfo@yourautoadd.com?subject=cl1
This code should contain your autoresponder address and
will automatically fill in the subject with your ad key when
clicked on. The "cl1" stands for the classified ad site number
one. The second ad site you have listed should be coded as
cl2 or classified ad site number two and so on. By coding
your ads you will know exactly where your leads are coming
from.
4. Begin submitting your ad and replace your normal email
address with your key coded autoresponder address.
You can obtain free autoresponders with all the amenities I
mentioned above from any of the following sites:
http://www.getresponse.com/
http://www.fastfacts.net/
http://www.myreply.com/
http://www.smartbot.net/
Autoresponders can completely change the way you do business
and enable you to put your business on autopilot.
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the Webmaster of Web-Source.net -
A complete resource portal for the Internet entrepreneur.
The site assists the entrepreneur in developing a serious
Web presence by providing a wealth of free information,
resources, tools and content.
http://www.web-source.net
How To Create An E-book & Drive Massive Traffic To Your
Site By Giving It Away...
By Shelley Lowery
E-books or Electronic books are self-contained "executable"
files of HTML. This HTML may be a web site you've created
or HTML you've specifically prepared to be compiled into a
downloadable .exe file for distribution. When downloaded,
this file will self install on your clients desktop.
E-books are completely interactive with the Internet and can
contain live links, graphics, forms, JavaScript, embedded
video, can be protected via password/userid, search
capabilities and more. This self-contained executable file can
be distributed in a number of ways; CD, floppy disk,
download, etc.
All e-book compilation software is not created equal. Make
sure you review its capabilities before your purchase.
E-books can provide the Internet marketer one of the best
promotional tools online. With its vast variety of uses, just
one quality e-book development and distribution can produce
an on going promotional tool that will work 24 hours a day,
seven days a week and multiply itself by leaps and bounds.
Your e-book can literally be viewed by millions simply by
giving it away...
Suggested Uses:
- Marketing - Provide your sales network with your complete
sales presentation to freely distribute with their ID to track
sales.
- Promotion - Provide valuable information on a specific
subject to bring traffic to your site.
- E-zine Archives - E-zine publishers can provide their
publication archives to enable subscribers to read back issues
on their desktop, visit your web site, subscribe, submit ads, etc.
- Catalogs - Provide a desktop catalog for you customers to view
on their desktop. You can even provide a form to accept orders
right through your e-book.
- How To Manuals - Provide your affiliates with a complete
"how to" manual for marketing, advertising and promoting your
products.
- Electronic Books - Writers can offer their books in an electronic
version.
- Web Site - Create an electronic version of your web site to place
on disk and be viewed on your clients desktop.
- Instructional - Provide an electronic training manual.
Creating an e-book is just like creating a web site. Simply
create your HTML pages just like you would for your web site.
Make sure you select a good software package that allows you
to include hyperlinks, graphics, search, forms, etc. Keep in mind,
the more professional, content rich your e-book, the more exposure
it will receive.
There are several software packages available online to assist
you in compiling your e-book. Prices range from $149 -- $189.
Hyper Maker HTML http://www.bersoft.com/
NeoBook http://www.neosoftware.com/
InfoCourier http://www.smartcode.com/
WebCompiler http://www.webcompiler.com/
For massive exposure, select a subject with a broad appeal.
If your sites focus is on web site traffic, consider creating an
e-book on generating traffic. I.E. "A complete "how to" guide
to generating massive traffic to your site". Include several
references to your site throughout your e-book such as; "For
even more great traffic generating tips, visit "Traffic Tips" Your
complete source for generating massive traffic to your web
site. http://www.yoursite.com" or
"Winning awards can
dramatically increase traffic to your site. For a complete
listing of award sites, visit "Traffic Tips Award Sites"
http://www.yoursite.com/awardsites.
Tips for creating your e-book:
-Create a directory on your computer to include ALL the
files for your E-book. These files will include HTML, graphics,
backgrounds, etc.
-E-books should contain mainly text. Try to limit your banners
to one per page. To keep your file size down, you may want to
use only non-animated banners.
-E-books are generally formatted at a small screen resolution
so make sure your pages are viewable through any screen
size.
-Include good navigational links throughout your pages.
-Use spell check to search for any possible spelling errors.
For massive distribution, make sure you include a short
paragraph on your main page in regard to your copyrights
and distribution. I.E., This E-book may be freely distributed.
Sample Example of Distribution:
10 of your visitors download your e-book.
Your 10 visitors each give away 10 e-books - 100
Those 100 each give away 10 e-books - 1000
Those 1000 each give away 10 e-books - 10,000
Those 10,000 each give away 10 e-books - 100,000
Those 100,000 each give away 10 e-books - 1,000,000
This is just a small example of how powerful your free
e-book can be...
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete
ebook design kit that takes you step by step through
designing, creating and marketing your own ebook. Give
your ebook a professional look in just a few simple steps
with over 100 ebook interface and cover templates.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl2
10 Marketing Tips For Success
By Shelley Lowery
1. FREE... I got your attention, didn't I. Offer a free report,
e-book or "how to" course. Information is the top selling
product online. You can use this to your benefit by offering
free information.
- As a sample of your information product (teaser)
- To identify a problem and promote your products or services
by providing a solution
- To bring traffic to your site
Providing free information is a great way to build a targeted
list of contacts. Pick up free autoresponders at the following
sites:
- SendFree - http://www.sendfree.com/
- GetResponse -
http://www.getresponse.com/
- Fast Facts - http://www.fastfacts.net/
- MyReply - http://www.myreply.com/
- Smartbot - http://www.smartbot.net
For more information about creating an e-book read the article
entitled, "How To Create An E-book & Drive Massive Traffic To
Your Site By Giving It Away..."
http://www.web-source.net/ebooks.htm
2. Newsletter (e-zine) - Start your own newsletter and begin
creating your online community of contacts. Visit any of
these sites to create your list, free.
- Onelist - http://www.onelist.com
- Egroups - http://www.egroups.com
- Listbot - http://www.listbot.com
3. Write Articles - There are thousands of online
publications looking for quality content. Writing and
distributing your articles will provide you with free massive
exposure. After you've written your article, subscribe to
these publications to assist you in getting published.
- Article Announce - Designed to get writers published and
assist publishers in finding the articles they need. Announce
your new article.
Subscribe -
article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com
- Writers and Publishers Connection Newsletter Where
publishers announce their article needs.
Subscribe - Writers98@aol.com with
subscribe Writers and
Publishers in the subject.
4. E-zine Advertising - The best form of advertising
available online. Reach thousands of targeted potential
customers very inexpensively. Ruth Townsend of Lifestyle
Publishing offers a complete listing of publications, ad
costs, circulation and more in "The Directory of Ezines."
-
http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-bin/ezines.cgi?11914
5. Classified Ads - Continuously place classified ads.
People DO read the classifieds. This is very time consuming
and you may want to purchase an auto posting software.
- BeCanada - http://www.becanada.com/
- Classify 98 -
http://www.trellian.net/classify/index.html
For a listing of some of the top classified ad sites, visit:
http://www.web-source.net/web/Classified_Ad_Sites/
Free For All Link sites - Continuously submit your link to
free for all sites. This can also be very time consuming so
may want to use a software program.
You can download FFA Blaster free of charge. This software
will instantly submit your link to 100 Free For All sites.
An upgrade is available which will post your link to over
8,000 sites.
- FFA Blaster - http://www.submitad.com/
6. Press Release - Write a quality press release about your
product or service and tell the world! For more information
on press releases, visit any of these sites:
- IdeaMarketers.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
- Press Promoter
http://www.presspromoter.com/
- PRweb http://www.prweb.com/
For a complete listing of media resources visit:
http://www.web-source.net/presrls
7. Networking - Create a network of like-minded marketers
to help promote one another, provide recommendations,
exchange prominent links, etc., Note: Be cautious when
selecting your networking partners and making recommendations
as your reputation is on the line. Only network with
individuals you truly believe in.
8. Newsgroups - Post to appropriate newsgroups. For a
complete listing, visit: http://www.deja.com/
9. Discussion Lists & Boards - Subscribe to appropriate email
lists and visit discussion boards to participate in online
discussions. Although blatant advertising is not permitted,
signatures are acceptable. Visit Web-Source.net for a listing
of some of the top discussion boards.
-
http://www.web-source.net/web/Discussion-Forums/
Visit List Universe for a complete listing of email discussion
lists.
- http://list-universe.com/
10. Offline Promotions - Advertise in newspapers, magazines,
on the radio, TV, etc., Visit these sites for complete listings.
Gebbie Press -
http://www.gebbieinc.com/
NewsDirectory Newspapers -
http://www.ecola.com/news/press/
Newspapers Online -
http://www.newspapers.com/
Commercial Magazine Publishers -
http://www.writelinks.com/resources/pub/Pubs-mags.htm
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Is Your Domain Name A Trademark Infringement?
By Shelley Lowery
I recently received an email from a concerned, fellow Internet
business owner, asking for my opinion on an issue that could
literally destroy his Internet business and the business of
several other domains involved.
He had received legal notice from a prominent company, stating
that he needed to relinquish his use and rights to his web
site domain name because it contained three letters that
infringed upon their trademark and their domain name. This
same company also contacted several other Internet business
owners and made similar demands.
Should a company that registers a specific trademark have the
ability to destroy numerous businesses that legitimately
registered domain names? Should a company that registers a
trademark have the responsibility of ensuring that a domain
name registration agency doesn't issue domain names that may
be a trademark infringement? Or should an Internet business
have the responsibility of making sure a potential name
doesn't Infringe upon a registered trademark? Where does
the responsibility lie?
Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the domain name
registrant, as the trademark laws that apply in the hard
copy world also apply on the Internet.
Any company that registers a trademark has the right to
protect their trademark and has the right to notify you that
your domain name is infringing upon their trademark. Why? If
your domain name has the potential of confusing the public
into thinking the trademark holder is somehow affiliated with
your web site, they may bring infringement claims against you.
The courts would have to make the decision based upon the
trademark laws and if your domain name, in fact, has the
potential of confusing the public.
Domain name registrants can protect themselves as well. If
you have a registered domain name that doesn't infringe upon
any trademarks, you too may be able to register a trademark.
Registering a domain name as a trademark isn't easy, but it
can be done. Although you can't register the
http://www.or
the .com, if the use of your name fits the laws criteria,
it can be registered. You should consult with an attorney
familiar with the Internet, trademarks and the laws prior
to registering your domain name as a trademark.
For a complete explanation, visit:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/tac/notices/guide299.htm
As stated by the United States Patent and Trademark Office,
http://www.uspto.gov/ "A mark composed of a
domain name is
registerable as a trademark or service mark only if it
functions as a source identifier. The mark as depicted on
the specimens must be presented in a manner that will be
perceived by potential purchasers as indicating source and
not as merely an informational indication of the domain
name address used to access a web site." In other words,
the use of a domain name must not be used simply as an
address to direct customers to your web site, but must be
used to identify the products or services of the business
claiming the trademark, which provides products or services
via the Internet.
If you're in the market for a domain name, you may want to
consider searching the Trademark Electronic Search System,
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&p_lang=english&p_d=trmk
prior to registering a domain name. By researching the
trademark regulations and knowing your rights, whether you
hold a trademark or a domain name, you may be able to avoid
the possibility of litigation.
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Creating Your Website's Promotional Strategy
By Shelley Lowery
Creating a successful Internet presence involves much more than
designing a great web site or having the "perfect" product. Listing
your website with the Search Engines is your first step; however,
you must not solely depend upon the Search Engines to bring
you traffic. You must design a complete promotional strategy and
work it every day.
A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a webpage,
for your personal use, that will contain your complete strategy.
This page should be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded
to your server. Your page should contain four sections.
- Daily Promotions
- Weekly Promotions
- Monthly Promotions
- Miscellaneous Promotions
Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate
information for each of your promotional resources such as,
website name, user ID, password (if applicable) and hyperlinked
web addresses for each website you plan to use for your
promotions. This will enable you to open your webpage each
day and visit each daily promotional link you have listed.
Your daily promotions should include posting your ads to a list
of free classified ad and free for all sites. In addition, visit some
popular discussion boards. Although you may not advertise on
discussion boards, you can post your signature file. There are
several networked classified ad sites that will enable you to
submit your ads to a network of thousands of free ad sites with
just one form. In addition, there are also sites that offer free for
all submissions to thousands of "free for all" sites with just one
form. Here is a list of resources to get you started:
Yahoo Classifieds
http://classifieds.yahoo.com/
AdlandPro Networked Classifieds 5000+
http://www.web-source.net/adlandpro.htm
Web Sitings Networked Classifieds 40,000+
http://www.websitings.com/classads/sites/source.htm
Epage Networked Classifieds 14,000+
http://www.web-source.net/classifieds.htm
SmallBizFFA 35,000+
http://www.smallbizffa.net/ffa.pl?35984
FFA Network 10,000+
http://www.ffanet.com/submit.htm
FFAbc.com 1,500+
http://www.ffabc.com/
Noan FFA 1,700+
http://ffa.noan.net/?id=websourc
Free Submission 9,500+
http://hbb.nu/freesubmit/
FFA-USA 500+
http://www.ffa-usa.net/post_your_link.html
MGA web 5,000+
http://www.mgaweb.com/submit/mgacat.asp
Link Place 3,000+
http://www.linkplace.com/
Link Station 8,000+
http://global.gr/mtools/linkstation/
USubmit 9,500+
http://www.usubmit.com/
Wizard 8,000+
http://wizardsoftheweb.com/partners/wizard/links.shtml
URL Submitter 183,500+
http://urlsubmitter.com/url.shtml
For a complete listing of some of the top discussion boards, visit:
http://www.web-source.net/web/Discussion_Forums/
Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine
advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers.
Visit the Free Directory of Ezines for all the information you'll
need to place and/or swap ads with over 700 ezines.
http://www.netmastersolutions.com/
To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the
publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked
web addresses within your weekly promotions list.
Your monthly promotions should include writing an article in the
area of your expertise, Search Engine submissions, promotional
exchanges with similar websites and offline promotions.
Writing Articles:
Writing articles that may be freely published with your bylines
is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may
be published in hundreds of ezines, on websites or even in
magazines. To learn more about writing articles for publication,
read the article entitled, "Write For Publicity."
http://www.web-source.net/art13.htm
To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and
hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional
resources within your monthly promotions section.
Article Announcement Lists:
Article Announce
Subscribe:
mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com
http://www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm
PublishInYours
Subscribe:
mailto:PublishInYours-subscribe@egroups.com
http://www.egroups.com/group/PublishInYours
Articles Archive
Subscribe:
mailto:articles_archives-subscribe@egroups.com
http://www.egroups.com/group/articles_archives
Free Content
Subscribe:
mailto:Free-Content-subscribe@egroups.com
http://www.egroups.com/group/Free-Content
Article Submission Sites:
ideaMarketers -
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
Free Content -
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
Ezine Articles -
http://www.ezinearticles.com/add_url.htm
Search Engines:
Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com/
AltaVista -
http://www.altavista.com/av/content/addurl.htm/
Hotbot -
http://www.hotbot.com/addurl.asp/
Lycos -
http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html/
Excite -
http://www.excite.com/info/add_url/
InfoSeek -
http://infoseek.go.com/AddUrl?pg=SubmitUrl.html/
WebCrawler -
http://www.webcrawler.com/info/add_url/
NorthernLight -
http://www.northernlight.com/docs/regurl_help.html/
Promotional Exchanges:
To set up some promotional exchanges with similar websites,
visit a Search Engine and type in a keyword that best describes
your website. Visit some websites that are similar to yours, but
not in competition. Contact the webmaster to discuss your
promotional exchange. This may be a link exchange, joint
venture, or whatever you both decide.
Your miscellaneous promotions will include; running a press
release, joining traffic generating programs, buying promotional
products and advertising in newspapers, magazines, etc.
Press Release:
CanadaOne provides a free interactive press release builder.
http://www.canadaone.com/promote/pressrelease.html
Gebbie Press provides over 10,000 links to print and electronic
media on the Internet.
http://www.gebbieinc.com/
Dr. Kevin Nunley will write your press release and send it to
5,000 media.
http://coldfusion.affiliateshop.com/Link3.cfm?AID=004436
Gap Enterprises will enable you to send your press release to
over 7,600 media. You write your press release or they'll write
it for you.
http://www.gapent.com/pr/
Traffic Generating Programs:
Join some traffic generating programs to build a network of
websites all linking to your website.
http://www.web-source.net/web/Mega_Traffic_Generators/
Promotional Products:
IDit Plates - Put your web address on your vehicle. IDit Plates
are a great way to continuously promote your web site. They
look like chrome and blend in well with your vehicle.
http://www.iditplates.net/new/2711/index.html
Magnetic Signs - Full size magnetic signs for your vehicle. Get
a customized sign that magnetically adheres to each side of
your vehicle, advertising your website.
http://www.magneticsigns.com/
iPrint - Professional printing over the Internet.
http://www.iprint.com/cgi-shl/index.cgi?shop=5072
PromoCity - Add your logo to any of over 500 promotional items.
http://www.promocity.com/
Offline Promotions:
Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the radio, TV, etc.,
Visit these links for complete listings:
NewsDirectory Newspapers
http://www.ecola.com/news/press/
Newspapers Online
http://www.newspapers.com/
Commercial Magazine Publishers
http://www.writelinks.com/resources/pub/Pubs-mags.htm
Once you've created your promotional webpage, open it up in
your browser and add it to your favorite places or bookmark it
for easy daily access. Set up a specific day for your weekly
and monthly promotions and perform your miscellaneous
promotions as needed.
Once you've implemented your promotional strategy and
continuously work it each day, you'll be amazed with the results
of your efforts. Consistency will be the key to driving massive
traffic to your site.
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Autoresponder Etiquette
By Shelley Lowery
Autoresponders are one of the most widely used promotional
tools on the Internet. They're also known as mailbots, automatic
email and email on demand. They were derived from the very
popular fax on demand and designed to automatically respond
to any email message sent to it with an automatic response.
Autoresponder programs vary from autoresponse messages
set-up within an email program to a script that runs on a server.
This script may run a web-based autoresponder system that
utilizes a web page form or it may run with a pop email account
on a server. It's programmed to automatically send out a pre-
determined message when a message is received to a
specified script address or email address.
Not only are autoresponders one of the most widely used
promotional tools, but are becoming one of the most widely
abused. While using autoresponders will enable you to put
a lot of your daily tasks on autopilot, autoresponders can also
wreak havoc on innocent individuals who may cross their path.
Autoresponder addresses should NEVER be used when
submitting your website to Search Engines, Directories, Free
For All sites, or in Classified Ad contact forms. Many of these
types of websites use autoresponders to send thank you or
welcome messages to their users. When their autoresponder
sends a message to your autoresponder, this creates what is
known as a loop. Each autoresponder will continue to respond
to the other.
When subscribing to an ezine or email discussion group,
always use a real email address and NEVER subscribe with
an autoresponder address. Subscribing to these types of
publications with an autoresponder address will get you
immediately unsubscribed. Why? For example; If you're a
member of a discussion group and receive many messages
each day, your autoresponder will respond to every message
it receives. Not only will the list owner receive a mailbox full of
complaints, but they will also receive all of your autoresponse
messages.
Another problem ezine publishers encounter with autoresponder
subscribers is locating the perpetrator. Many times, the
"reply to" and "from" address of an autoresponse message aren't
the same as the address they subscribed under. It takes a
great deal of time and effort to track the address, which is
time that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Another unethical use of autoresponders is autoresponders.
Let me explain... There are many Internet Marketers now
using unethical techniques to subscribe innocent individuals to
their junk mailing lists. They will send a message to an
autoresponder address using their subscription address. When
the autoresponder answers the message, the "from" address
on the autoresponder will be instantly subscribed. This
technique is not only unethical, but also unprofessional.
Autoresponders can be a wonderful tool for Internet Marketers
and can save you hours of valuable time. However, if not used
in a professional manner, can wreak havoc on the Internet
community. Don't be tempted to tarnish your professional
reputation by indulging in the abuse of our autoresponder
system. It's just not worth the price.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the Webmaster of Web-Source.net -
A complete resource portal for the Internet entrepreneur.
Subscribe to Article Announce: An announcement list
providing free content to hundreds of ezines, newsletters,
magazines and web sites. Announce your articles free.
http://www.web-source.net
Write Reviews to Increase Sales
By Shelley Lowery
To increase sales, instead of displaying banners or
ads on your website, write a review. On your main page,
display a short intriguing paragraph with a link to your
full review. For example, this is the text that was displayed
on the main page of Web-Source.net which was a lead in
to the main review of "Make Your Site Sell."
Make Your Site Sell
By Ken Evoy, MD
Ken Evoy has discovered what it takes to succeed online. With
his newly released electronic book, Ken shares all of his
secrets to bringing in over $1,000 a day with a product that
is almost impossible to sell. He has definitely done his
homework. Read our review and find out how you can get a free
trial version (over 100 pages) of Make Your Site Sell.
The paragraph also includes a picture of Ken and a link that
says, "Read our Review."
Here's the review:
Review: Make Your Site Sell
By Ken Evoy, MD
PDF Electronic Book,
GoodBytes Information Products, Inc.
There are many marketing books available online but none,
that I know of, that takes you step by step and goes into
such explicit detail as Ken Evoy's, "Make Your Site Sell."
Evoy, a marketing guru, has done his homework. After
developing a computer software program designed to generate
more high-potential stock candidates, Evoy realized the
Internet was the ultimate high-density marketplace.
Although he had originally created the software to help
himself, he decided that if his software was of interest
to him, it would be of interest to others as well. So he
decided to market it.
He knew that his PennyGold software wasn't going to be easy
to sell. So before he began designing his web site, he spent
countless hours reading books on copywriting, writing direct
response letters and web marketing. He surfed through
countless commercial web sites looking for the strongest
common elements that worked. He tried just about everything
that looked or sounded reasonable. He kept what worked and
ditched the rest.
After two years of trial and error, he developed a tight
battlefield-system that works. He increased his PennyGold
sales by tenfold. The current price is $587 (Canadian) with
no trial download. He's done all his testing on a very
difficult product to sell.
Evoy begins by explaining what he refers to as "The big
three to succeed on the web."
1) Develop a great product
2) Write a web site that sells with deadly effectiveness
3) Attract targeted customers to the site
He goes on to say that if you succeed at all three, your
web business has to succeed. Period.
He recommends that you begin by determining your "Most
Wanted Response." (MWR) Decide what response are you
trying to achieve, whether it be to make a sale, get a
lead or whatever response you're looking for. Once you
have determined your MWR for a product, you can design
that part of your site to achieve it.
A good MWR is:
1. Reasonable
2. Measurable
3. Must be a good fit for your customer
4. It must qualify your visitor
Evoy goes into great detail for designing your products
"opening page," "creating a pathway" and the "closer
page" all specifically designed to reach your MWR.
He then explains the power of written word. It will make
or break your effort to persuade your visitor. The right
words will turn your visitor into your customer. He advises
to use strong, active, emotion-charged words to captivate
your visitors.
He goes into great detail on writing powerful ad copy,
headlines that hit by identifying your products benefits
and using strong active verbs to create powerful headlines
with emotional impact. He stresses the importance of using
verifiable testimonials and providing generous guarantees
to build customer trust.
This book is jammed packed with valuable information. It's
captivating, enlightening and even a bit surprising at
times. Evoy definitely over delivers.
He explains his entire marketing plan in explicit, easy to
read detail, and has a very unique system designed to make
the sale. When you purchase his book (800+ pages), you'll
also receive two free valuable smaller books, as well.
"Building Targeted Traffic" and "It All Starts with the
Product." He stresses the importance of selecting the
"ideal" Internet product with tips for selecting the best
sales price.
As a direct result of reading, "Make Your Site Sell," I
have been reevaluating my own marketing techniques and
site design. This is definitely a "Must Read." The price
is very reasonable. You can download this ebook formatted
in PDF with both of the free gifts for only $17 USD or
$24 Canadian. It comes with a complete money back
guarantee. If you follow his techniques, it will quickly
pay for itself.
Download a Free Chapter and Register to WIN A FREE SITE
REVIEW from Ken!
http://www.sitesell.com/websource.html
------------------
The last line of the review leads the customer to the
sales page. It entices them to click by offering a free
download and a chance to win a free site review.
Write your review like an outline of the product. Pack
it with all the benefits the product has to offer and
provide your personal endorsement. Keep in mind, you
don't want it to sound like a sales letter.
Once you've gained your potential customers trust, your
personal recommendation will carry a lot of weight. Make
sure you only recommend a product that you have actually
reviewed and truly believe in.
If you don't have a website, but publish a newsletter or
ezine, you can compact your review into an article and
achieve the same results.
By writing a professional sounding review with your personal
recommendation and ditching your banners and ads, you will
increase your sales immensely.
-----------------------------
About the Author
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
10 Website Essentials to Increase Your Sales
By Shelley Lowery
If you are a serious Internet Entrepreneur, your top priority
must be your website. Your website is a direct reflection of
you and your business. Creating a professional website designed
to sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is
much more to take into consideration than design. You must look
at a much broader picture and specifically design your website
to sell.
1) You must have a professional looking website. Your website
is the most important sales tool you have. Your visitor's
first impression will almost instantly determine whether or not
you're going to make a sale. A professional website should be
pleasing to the eyes, well organized, easy to navigate and load
quickly.
2) You must specifically design your website to rank high in
the Search Engines. This involves much more than just
including META tags. Your KEYWORDS, TITLE, IMAGE ALT tags,
Text and overall design, all play an important roll in
determining how your website will rank. You can learn more by
reading the Optimization tutorial at Web Source.
http://www.web-source.net/webpage_optimizing.htm
3) You must use effective sales copy. Your words are the
entire foundation of your business. Most business failures are
the result of ineffective copy. Whether it is your website,
sales letters or advertisements, your words play a major role
in determining your success. When writing your website copy,
use the following formula:
A -Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention
I -Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosity
D -Detail - Provide details about your product or service
A -Action - Call for action
4) Drive traffic to your site. In order to create a steady
stream of traffic to your website, give your visitors a
reason to visit and continue to visit in the future. You must
provide your visitors with fresh content on a continual basis.
Content comes in various forms, such as news, articles, tips,
horoscopes, weather, etc. and is freely available on the
Internet. Your content should blend in well with the focus of
your website and be updated on a regular basis.
The following websites provide free articles for publication:
http://www.web-source.net/articles/
http://www.mega-success.com/
http://www.marketing-seek.com/
http://www.ideamarketers.com/
http://www.infobot.net/
Syndication services provide free content from a wide variety
of sources. You simply place a small line of code within the
HTML of your web page and each of the following services
provide fresh content for you. The great thing about
syndication services is that once you've placed the code,
you don't have to worry about updating the content, as it is
automatically updated.
Syndicator - Provides free syndicated articles and columns
with photographs
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator.htm
isyndicate - Provides free headlines for news, articles,
comics, weather and more.
http://www.isyndicate.com/
Moreover - Provides news headlines from over 1500 sources.
http://www.moreover.com/
ScreamingMedia - Provides free headlines from various
resources
http://www.screamingmedia.com/
5) Provide free instruction. Your website is the storefront
for your product or service. You must convince your visitors
that they need the product or service you're offering. This
can be accomplished by providing your visitors with free
helpful advice and instruction in the form of an article,
tutorial, free ebook or free autoresponder course.
6) Display your testimonials. You must gain your visitors
trust. By displaying customer testimonials, you are boosting
your potential customers confidence in you and your product
or service. You can either create a web page to display all
of your testimonials or use a script to rotate them on your
main page. You can find a great random text script here:
http://willmaster.com/master/merrygoround/
7) Let your visitors know who you are. Provide complete
information in regard to your company including, address,
phone number and email addresses to request information
and support.
8) Tell your visitors about their privacy. Create a page on
your website called, "Privacy Statement," and let your
visitors know exactly what you do with the personal
information you collect.
9) Provide a sample or trial of your product or service.
For example, if you're offering a Search Engine
optimization service, provide a free META tag analysis at
your website. Not only will this increase your sales, but
it will drive more traffic to your site as well.
10) Remove the risk. To further increase your sales, you
must remove the risk by providing a guarantee. A guarantee
will boost your potential customer's confidence in
purchasing your products or services.
A professional website specifically designed to sell is
one the most important factors in determining your success.
Take your time and make sure you're looking at the complete
picture before you begin. If you're not secure in your
abilities to create your own website, rather than risk the
potential success of your business, consider hiring a
professional web designer. Your success depends on it.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Dynamically Update Your Ebooks with JavaScript
Part 2 of 2
By Shelley Lowery
This article is a two part
series. To request part 1
send a blank email to:
dynamically1@web-source.net
In the last article, "Use JavaScript to Dynamically
Update Your Website," we talked about how you can use
JavaScript to replace your existing navigational
set up on your website for easy updating. For those
who may have missed it, you can find it here:
http://www.web-source.net/dynamically_update.htm
Well, you can also use JavaScript to dynamically
update your ebooks.
The type of ebook I am referring to is a self-contained
"executable" file of HTML. This HTML may be a website
you've created or HTML you've specifically prepared to
be compiled into a downloadable .exe file for distribution.
Ebooks are completely interactive with the Internet
and can contain live links, graphics, forms, JavaScript,
embedded video, and just about anything that HTML 4.0
supports. In addition, they can even be protected via
password/userid and have search capabilities.
Needless to say, they are one of the most powerful
marketing tools available on the Internet. They combine
two of the most sought after forms of content online.
The need for information and the desire to get something
of quality, free.
By creating a quality, informative ebook and allowing it
to be freely distributed, you are literally creating
a massive marketing machine. This marketing machine
will spread like wildfire and continue to work for you
eternally.
You can even take that one step further and create a
free ebook that will become a Viral Marketing Tool. You
can create a free ebook that you will have complete control
over forever. No matter how many copies you give away, you
can have the ability to update each and every one of
them with just one file.
Instead of coding your regular HTML pages for your
ebooks, you simply place two small lines of JavaScript
within your HTML page where you'd like your content to
display. This code will pull the content from a file on
your server to display within your ebook. This is the
same JavaScript code discussed in the last article.
Before we begin, if you'd like to see an example of a
free ebook with dynamically updated content, visit:
http://www.web-source.net/free_ebooks.htm and download
Syndicator eMagazine. This free ebook is the Net's first
dynamically delivered emagazine. There are two versions
available; the Internet Business version and the Home and
Family version.
For those of you who read the previous article, much
of the following will be a repeat however, there is
some additional information. In addition, some email
programs may not display the following code properly.
You can view this article at the following address:
http://www.web-source.net/dynamically_update2.htm
The first step in setting up your content feed is to
create the file that will contain your content. To do this,
you must first create your HTML page exactly as you'd like
it to display within your ebook. Once you've created your
page, open a text editor such as NotePad and simply cut
and paste your HTML into a new page. Not all of your HTML,
just the contents that you would like to be dynamically
displayed. There is no need to begin your new file with
<HTML><HEAD>, etc. as you are only creating the file for
the contents of your existing HTML page.
Once you've created your new page containing your HTML,
you'll now need to add some additional JavaScript coding
to each line of your HTML.
The first line of your new file will look like this:
!--
The next line will begin with "document.writeIn('" and end
with "');" (without the beginning and ending quotes). Your
first line of HTML will be placed between the beginning and
ending coding. For every line of your original coding,
you'll need to add the above-mentioned codes before and after.
Note: Make sure you don't add any extra spaces, including
at the end of each line, as JavaScript is very sensitive.
Your new file will end with file://-- on the last line.
Here's how your code might look:
Please note: The following code should be enclosed with <
at the beginning of the first line and > at the end of the
last line. These brackets have been removed to enable you
to view the code properly.
!--
document.writeln('<TABLE BORDER="0" ALIGN="Center">');
document.writeln('<TR>');
document.writeln('<TD>');
document.writeln('Your table content');
document.writeln('</TD>');
document.writeln('</TR>');
document.writeln('</TABLE>');
file://--
Each backslash (\) should be preceded with another backslash.
Example: \\
Each apostrophe (') should be preceded with a backslash.
Example: \'
You can include most HTML and JavaScript coding however,
you cannot include JavaScript that must access another
file.
After you've completed your content file you'll need to save
it and upload it to your server. Try to select a name that
reflects your file such as ebook.js and make sure your filename
is no longer than eight letters.
Next, you'll need to create a new directory on your server
where you store all of your HTML files. Name this directory
"content" (without the quotes) and upload your new .js file
in ASCII.
Finally, place the following code into your original HTML
page (the page you cut the HTML code from) where you'd like
the content to display. Make sure you change the URL and
point it to your new .js file.
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yourdomain.com/content/yourfile.js">
</SCRIPT>
Note: This script has only been tested using the following
ebook compilers and may not work with all compilers:
E-ditor Pro -
http://www.e-ditorial.com/ebook.cgi?id=websource
WebCompiler - http://www.webcompiler.com/
I highly recommend both of these compilers, but E-ditor Pro
is much easier to use.
If you are receiving a script error message, most of the
time, it's due to an extra space at the end of a line or an
extra or missing character. Make sure you go over your code
very carefully.
If you'd rather not have to code the JavaScript yourself, I
highly recommend a great script called, Master Syndicator
which will code your content for you.
http://willmaster.com/master/
Creating a free ebook will be one of the BEST marketing
decisions you'll ever make. Creating a free ebook you can
dynamically update will give you the power to control your
free ebooks forever. Now that's Viral Marketing!
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web-Source.net. Your
Guide to Professional Web Site Design & Development. Display
complete, professionally written articles & photographs on your
website that automatically update each week, free. Join The
Syndicator. http://www.web-source.net
Use JavaScript to Dynamically Update Your Website
Part 1 of 2
By Shelley Lowery
This article is a two part series. To request part 2
send a blank email to:
mailto:dynamically2@web-source.net
If you've been on the Internet for a while, you've probably
seen numerous examples of JavaScript use. JavaScript is a
powerful scripting language used to create special effects
on your website, but did you know it can also be used as
a very powerful web design tool?
Have you ever joined a new affiliate program or created a
new publication that you wanted to add to your existing
navigational set up, but dreaded having to manually add the
links to every page on your site?
You can use JavaScript to enable you to dynamically update
every page on your website with just one file. This technique
is the same technology used by numerous syndication services
on the Internet. It enables them to deliver dynamically
updated content to every website in their program.
Before we begin, if you'd like to see an example of a
navigational system that is dynamically displayed, visit
http://www.web-source.net/. This
website has over one
thousand pages and each and every one of them displays its
navigational system using JavaScript. If I want to add an
additional link, I simply update one file and every page on
the site is automatically updated.
The first step in setting up your JavaScript feed is to
create the file that will contain your content. To do this,
open a text editor such as NotePad and simply copy and paste
your existing navigational setup into a new page. There is
no need to begin the page with <HTML><HEAD>, etc. as you are
only creating the feed for one section of your existing web
page which already has those tags.
Once you've created your new page containing your
navigational HTML, you'll now need to add some additional
JavaScript coding to each line of your HTML.
The first line of your new file will look like this:
!--
The next line will begin with "document.writeIn('" and end
with "');" (without the beginning and ending quotes). Your
first line of HTML will be placed between the beginning and
ending coding. For every line of your original coding,
you'll need to add the above-mentioned codes before and after.
Note: Make sure you don't add any extra spaces, including
at the end of each line, as JavaScript is very sensitive.
Your new file will end with file://-- on the last line.
Here's how your code might look:
Please note: The following code should be enclosed with <
at the beginning of the first line and > at the end of the
last line. These brackets have been removed to enable you
to view the code properly.
!--
document.writeln('<TABLE BORDER="0" ALIGN="Center">');
document.writeln('<TR>');
document.writeln('<TD>');
document.writeln('Your table content');
document.writeln('</TD>');
document.writeln('</TR>');
document.writeln('</TABLE>');
file://--
Each backslash (\) should be preceded with another backslash.
Example: \\
Each apostrophe (') should be preceded with a backslash.
Example: \'
You can include most HTML and JavaScript coding however,
you cannot include JavaScript that must access another
file.
After you've created your content and added the special
JavaScript coding, you'll need to save your new file. Try to
select a name that reflects your file such as navigate.js and
make sure your filename is no longer than eight letters.
Next, you'll need to create a new directory on your server
where you store your HTML files. Name this directory
"content" (without the quotes) and upload your new .js file
in ASCII.
Here's where the magic occurs... Place the following code in
your HTML page where you would like your navigate.js content
to be displayed. Make sure you change the URL and direct it
to your new .js file. The following code must be displayed
exactly as it appears. Make sure there are no spaces after
the first line of code.
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yourdomain.com/content/yourfile.js">
</SCRIPT>
Note: The above code should only take two lines. The first
line will contain <SCRIPT language="JavaScript" src="http://www.yourdomain.com/content/yourfile.js">.
The
second line will contain </SCRIPT>. The above example may
not display correctly through your email program.
If you've followed the above steps correctly, your
navigational system should now be displaying on your web
page. If you are receiving a script error message, most of
the time, it's due to an extra space at the end of a line
or an extra or missing character. Make sure you go over
your code very carefully. Once you've created your content
feed and it is displaying your content, updating your file
will be simple.
If you'd rather not have to code the JavaScript yourself, I
use a great script called, Master Syndicator which will
code your content for you.
http://willmaster.com/master/
Using JavaScript to display your navigational set up can
not only enable you to instantly update the content on
every page of your website, but can also save you hours of
valuable time.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web-Source.net. Your
Guide to Professional Web Site Design & Development. Display
complete, professionally written articles & photographs on your
website that automatically update each week, free. Join The
Syndicator. http://www.web-source.net
New Search Engine Ranking System -- Is Your Web Site Ready?
By Shelley Lowery
Over the last month some major changes have been taking
place in regard to how a web site is ranked in the Search
Engines. There is a new ranking system that is now being used
by Alta Vista, Excite, Google, Lycos and the search portion of
Yahoo. This new system will track and rank sites according to
the number of links pointing to a particular web site. Not only
is the number of links considered, but the quality of links is
considered as well.
With these new changes now in effect, not only are web sites
ranked by keyword relevancy, meta tags, title and text, but
the overall popularity of the web site as well. These new
changes may have a great impact on the effectiveness of
some of the current techniques used to achieve high rankings.
Establishing quality links to a web site has always been an
effective way to build traffic, but now has become a necessity.
By obtaining just a few links from high-traffic web
sites your traffic will increase considerably. The more
high-traffic links you receive, the more traffic you will
receive and the higher your web site will be ranked in the
Search Engines.
If you have a quality web site, chances are you're already
being linked to and don't even realize it. That's a great
starting point however, you must build on that by finding
targeted web sites that may be interested in exchanging links
with you. A targeted web site will have similar content to
yours, but will not be in competition. A good way to find
these web sites is to visit a Search Engine and type in one
of your keywords. Visit some of the top ranking sites and
gather information such as, the owner's name, email address
and a little bit about the web site. Contact the owner
personally and discuss a link exchange with them. Mention the
owner's name, web site and what you liked about his site. In
addition, tell him why you think a link exchange will benefit
both of you and a little bit about your web site.
Requesting a link exchange is not the only way you can obtain
links to your web site. Here are some additional ways:
Ask Your Visitors to Link to You
Make linking to you as easy as possible. Create a page on
your web site that includes your banners and text link
descriptions. Put a link to this page on your main page that
says "Link to Us."
Provide a Valuable Service
Give your visitors a reason to link to your web site. If you
provide a valuable service, you can be sure your visitors
will tell their visitors, their visitors will tell their
visitors and so on. Word of mouth is one of the best forms
of free advertising.
Give Away Free Ebooks
Everyone loves getting something of value for nothing. Create
a free ebook and allow it to be freely distributed. Provide
complete instructions in regard to linking to your web site,
including a description of your ebook.
Write Articles
Write an article and allow it to be freely published. With
each article you write you are entitled to include your
author bylines. These bylines are nothing more than an
advertisement for you, your products or services and your web
site. Many web site owners will publish articles on their web
site and include live links to the author's web site.
About 80% of all web site traffic originates from the Search
Engines. It is well worth your time and effort to spend some
time developing as many links to your web site as possible.
Not only will these links bring you additional traffic, but
you'll increase your ranking at the Search Engines as well.
Web sites come and go each day on the Internet. If you visit
a web site and find it to be a great resource, show your
support for that web site by giving them a link. In addition,
tell your ezine subscribers about them. By supporting your
favorite web sites, you can show your appreciation for all of
the hours and hours of hard work that goes into developing
the web site and help ensure it will be there the next time
you visit. Without your support, many of your favorite web
sites may not be there in the future.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web-Source.net.
Your Guide to Professional Web Site Design & Development.
Display complete, professionally written articles & photographs
on your website that automatically update each week, free.
Join The Syndicator.
http://www.web-source.net
The Art of Writing Effective
Web Site Sales Copy
By Shelley Lowery
If you're selling a product or service on the Internet, your
words are the most important factor in determining your
success. High-tech web sites with fancy images won't make
sales however, many Internet entrepreneurs spend much
more time designing a professional looking web site than
writing effective sales copy. A professional looking web site
is a very important part of making sales, but without effective
sales copy your web site will be useless.
The art of writing effective sales copy is simply learning how to
write persuasive words specifically written for your targeted
customer. You must feel your customers needs and write your
copy with passion, excitement and benefit.
If you've ever developed a new product then you know that
there is a certain time when your emotions are riding high and
you're full of excitement and anticipation. This is the best time
to your sales copy. Your excitement will flow through your
words. Take this time to sit down and write an outline for your
sales message.
Creating A Headline
The first part of your outline will be your headline. This is the
most important part of your entire sales copy. You must write
a headline that demands attention and forces your visitor to
read on. Most of your visitors will only read your headline. If
it doesn't instantly grab their attention, they'll move on and
never return.
Writing an Introduction
Once you've captured your visitor's attention, you'll now need
to direct their attention to your introduction. Keep your
introduction brief and to the point. Let them know exactly what
you have to offer them.
Use Plenty of Subheadings
Your next step in creating your outline is to add subheadings.
Subheadings are basically just smaller headlines used to
break up your text blocks. They also provide your readers
with important highlights of your paragraphs. Use plenty of
subheadings throughout your copy, as not all of your visitors
will read your copy word for word. They'll simply scan it and
only read what catches their attention.
Remove the Risk
You must provide a solid, no risk, money back guarantee.
Provide a limited time free trial or download that will
completely remove the risk. This will build your potential
customers confidence and put their mind at ease. Display
your guarantee in bold text and even mention it in your sales
message and on your order page.
Call for Action
Ask for the order and provide an easy ordering process.
Continue to reassure your potential customer and lead them
to your order page.
Use a P.S.
When your visitor scans your sales message, chances are
they'll read your headline, subheadlines and your PostScript
message. Place your most important benefits within your P.S.
message. It will get read.
Writing Your Copy
Now, you're ready to begin filling in the spaces. When you
begin writing your paragraphs, get straight to the point, avoid
negativity and hype, and write in small sections. Vary the
paragraph sizes and limit each paragraph to four or five lines
max. If you feel that your paragraph will be longer than four or
five lines, try to use bullets to display important points. Write
in an everyday language that everyone can understand.
Make sure you use plenty of white space. White space is the
empty space between your paragraphs and around your text.
You don't want to overwhelm your visitors with a solid page of
black text. Nothing will make them click away any faster.
Pack your sales copy with benefits from your headline straight
through to your order form. Make sure you don't confuse
features with benefits. Features don't sell... Benefits sell. Your
visitor wants to know exactly what your product or service can
do for them.
Provide Testimonials
Testimonials provide another great way to reassure your
visitors. Blend your testimonials in with your sales message.
Avoid making your visitors have to click to another page to
view your testimonials; chances are, they won't. By blending
your testimonials in with your sales message you can ensure
they will be read.
Selecting Fonts
Avoid using fancy fonts. Fancy fonts make text difficult to read.
In addition, your visitor may not have that font on their computer.
Select a font that is easy to read and use black text on a light
background.
Long Copy Vs. Short Copy
It is a proven fact that long sales copy out-sells short sales
copy, but some visitors do prefer a short sales letter. You can
give your visitors both. For those who prefer a short sales
letter you can provide opportunities to click through to your
order page prior to ending your sales letter.
Try to keep your sales letter all on one page. Your visitor
would much rather have to scroll through your letter than click
through and load another page. With each additional click,
you'll lose a percentage of your potential customers.
Your words should seamlessly flow together from your
headline through to your order page. Keep it simple, to the
point and pack it with all of the benefits your product has to
offer. The simple, well-designed web sites with killer sales
copy make the sales.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the webmistress of Web-Source.net
http://www.web-source.net - Your Guide
to Professional
Web Site Design and Development. For further information
on writing effective sales copy read her review of Make
Your Words Sell.
http://www.web-source.net/review4.htm
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Developing Your Product
Part Two
By Shelley Lowery
Developing your own product to market on the Internet isn't
as difficult as you may think. Today's technology has opened
a whole New World of opportunity for even the smallest
homebased business owner. The knowledge you have within
your own mind is all you'll need to develop a successful product.
Everybody is good at something. You don't have to be a
Rocket Scientist in order to create your own product. If that
were the case, most of us would fail. Maybe you have a
special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this
knowledge to create a product.
Researching
Before you begin developing your product, make sure you've
done your homework. Research the market to determine
exactly what people want and develop your product
accordingly. If your product doesn't have a market, it
won't be successful.
Your product should not only fill a void, but should also be
unique. The less competition you have, the better. If you
enter a market in which you're competing against hundreds
of other products similar to yours, your chance of success
will be minimal. Develop a high-quality product that fills a
void and provides people with exactly what they want.
Another consideration of great importance is your product's
delivery method. The best form of product delivery on the
Internet is automated. Internet users want the product
they order as soon as their purchase is complete. This can
be accomplished in a number of ways depending upon the
type of product. For example, if your product is software or
information, it can reside on your server and be instantly
downloaded via a link. If your product is a private site, you
can provide instant access as soon as your customer's
payment has been processed.
Not only does instant product delivery benefit your
customer, but it will also benefit you. By completely
automating your product's ordering and delivery process,
you can spend your time performing more important tasks,
such as making more sales.
Brain Storming
The most difficult part of creating your own product is
deciding upon the product itself. First of all, you'll need to
decide what type of product you would like to develop.
Some of the top Internet sellers include:
- Software
- Information
- Private sites
- Internet services
Once you have determined the type, then you can focus your
attention on the subject matter.
If you would like to develop a software program, but aren't
capable of writing it yourself, consider hiring a professional.
If you would be interested in developing a desktop software
program, simply visit a Search Engine and search for "software
developers." If you would like to develop a software that
resides on a server, search for "scripting services." Although
this type of product will be the most expensive to develop, it
can be very profitable.
Information is a big seller on the Internet and is also the
most inexpensive to develop. Your information can be in the
form of a report, an ebook or even a private site.
Internet users are starving for information, as that is what the
Internet is all about. They have a sincere desire to learn and
will search for the information they desire. The best form of
information is "how-to" information that teaches or informs in
regard to a specific subject. Even if the subject is very unique,
the Internet is a great market for even the most niche products.
If you'd like to develop a product that is very inexpensive to
create and has a great profit margin, then an informational
product is your best bet. Most informational products are
compiled into a downloadable file better known as an ebook.
In order to compile your files into an ebook, you'll need to
purchase a compiler. Prices start at around $25. You can
find a complete list of compilers here:
http://www.web-source.net/web/Ebooks/Compilers/
For further information on creating an informational product,
you may read the article entitled, "How to Create, Sell and
Distribute Your Own Informational Product."
http://www.web-source.net/info_products.htm
Here are a few subjects to give you some ideas:
Recipes
Cooking
Sewing Tips
Gardening
Canning
Makeup and Skin Care
Weight Loss
Self Improvement
Health and Fitness
Child Development
Teenagers
Romance
Dating
Relationships
Divorce
Single Mothers
Single Fathers
Teenage Mothers
Teenage Fathers
Home Decorating
Home Remodeling
Home Maintenance
Plumbing
Carpentry
Small Appliance Repair
Home Buying
Auto Mechanics
Auto Buying
Home Finances
Home Business
Computers
Internet
Internet services are also very profitable. However, this type
of product requires more of your time. In addition, you must be
an expert in a given field in order to provide a quality service.
Here are a few popular Internet services:
Web/Graphics Design
Copywriting
Software Development
Marketing Consultant
Publicist
Search Engine Optimization/Submissions
Alternative Products
If you'd rather not develop your own product, you may want
to consider selling someone else's product. You can find
hundreds of great affiliate programs here:
http://www.associateprograms.com/
If you would be interested in selling some of the top name
brand items, the following website will provide you with
hundreds of legitimate drop shippers. These companies will
allow you to sell their products on your website and even
ship them to your customers. (There is a $39.95 per year fee
for this service)
http://www.electronicdartshop.com/dropshipsource.html
Summary
Developing your own product is an essential part of your
online success. Take your time and make sure you do your
homework before you begin. No matter what product you
develop, quality is of the utmost importance. Provide your
customers with exactly what you promise and more --
over-deliver.
If you develop a quality product that fills a void and provides
Internet users with exactly what they want, your product
will be a success.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Autoresponder Courses: The
Automated Marketing Tool
By Shelley Lowery
Autoresponders, also known as mailbots, automatic email and
email on demand were derived from the very popular fax on
demand and designed to automatically respond to any email
message it receives with an automatic response.
Autoresponder programs vary from software set up to run with
your desktop email program and automatically answer your
incoming email to a script that runs on your server. The script
may run a Web-based autoresponder system that utilizes a web
page form, or it may run with your pop email account on your
server. It is programmed to automatically send out a
predetermined message when a message is received to a
specified script address or email address.
In addition to the standard autoresponder systems, there are
also autoresponders that can send an unlimited amount of
follow-up messages. These follow up messages can be set
up to automatically be sent out at predetermined intervals. In
other words, you can set up your autoresponder to
automatically send out a new message each day for as many
days as you would like.
This powerful technology is currently being used by some of
the top online marketers to reach thousands of potential
customers. As you may know, it may take up to seven contacts
with a potential customer before closing a sale. By setting up an
autoresponder and offering a free autoresponder course, you
can completely automate a portion of your marketing efforts.
Creating A Course
The first step in creating an autoresponder course is to decide
upon a subject. Your course should focus on a subject in which
you have a great deal of knowledge and target your potential
customers.
Once you have selected your subject, you'll need to make a list
of topics. Each topic will represent one lesson. If you have five
topics, then you can offer your visitors a free 5-day course. If
you have ten topics, then you can offer your visitors a free
10-day course and so on.
Separate each of your topics into course lessons. Your first
lesson should welcome your subscriber to your course and
explain a little bit about what they are going to learn, followed
by the first lesson.
The key to creating a successful autoresponder course is to
provide quality information that will be of interest to your
target audience. Each daily topic must contain valuable
information or your reader may decide to unsubscribe. In
addition, make sure you include information in regard to your
course such as the lesson number, lesson title, information
about your products or services and highlights of the next lesson.
Your course should identify a problem, provide advice in
regard to solving the problem and provide the solution with
your products or services. Keep in mind, your course should
not be written like a sales letter. It must provide quality
information written to teach and inform.
Setting Up Your Course
After you've written your course, you'll need to transfer your
text into an autoresponder. You can find free follow-up
autoresponders here:
http://www.getresponse.com/
http://www.fastfacts.net/
Sign up for a follow-up autoresponder and follow their
instructions in regard to setting it up.
Once you've gotten your autoresponder set up, your final step
will be to place your course information on your web site. This
will include a description of your course and a mailto link to
your autoresponder.
By offering your visitors a free autoresponder course, you are
not only providing them with a great service, but you are also
automating a portion of your marketing efforts. This form of
free advertising can increase your sales considerably.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Creating, Managing and
Building Your Opt-In Lists
By Shelley Lowery
An opt-in list is a list or database containing email addresses
of individuals who have chosen to receive your email messages.
Your messages may be web site updates, product updates or
an ezine. They provide you with a direct line of communication
with potential customers and enable you to promote your
products or services.
In order for you to start collecting email addresses, you'll first
need to set up a system that will enable your visitors to submit
their information, automatically subscribe them to your list and
enable you to send out messages.
Before we go any further, I want to make sure that you
understand that this article pertains to "Opt-In" lists. Not Spam.
Under no circumstance should you ever add anyone to
your list without their knowledge.
Collecting Email Addresses
There are many free list services on the Internet that will enable
you to set up a mailing list however, they won't allow you to
personalize your messages, they require that your subscriber
reply to a confirmation message and they can choose to shut
your list down at any time.
Your first step in setting up your system will be to get a good
form processing script. This script will be used to enable your
subscriber to submit their information via a form and send the
information to a specified address.
The best form I have found is called, Master Form. This form
will enable you to have the results emailed to you or to a
specified address, can write your information to a database
file and even have a personalized thank you page. In addition,
you can even have multi-page forms with no limit on the
number of pages. This script costs $35 and can be found here:
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?wsnet/willmaster
You can find a free script with similar features here:
http://cgi.tj/scripts/alienform/
Whatever form you select, make sure that it will allow you to
use email templates, as you will need each subscription
request to contain certain words in the subject for processing.
Email form templates will enable the email messages sent to your
subscription address to contain any information you'd like.
After you've gotten your form set up, you'll need to set up a
pop email account on your server just for your list(s). You can
name it "lists" or whatever you'd like. In addition, you will need
to create two email aliases for subscription requests. Example,
yourlist-subscribe@yourdomain.com and
yourlist-unsubscribe@yourdomain.com.
Setting up a database
Your next step will be to set up a database to enable you to
store your subscriber's information, process subscription
requests and email your subscribers. I use a great program
called Group Mail by Aureate. This program will process the
information from your form, process your subscription
requests, store your subscribers information in a database
and enable you to send personalized email messages. Best
of all, it's free. You can find it here:
http://www.group-mail.com/
Note: Make sure you download all of the extra, free plug-ins.
Once you've gotten Group Mail and the plug-ins installed, your
next step will be to create your mailing list. Simply follow the
instructions provided. After you've set up your new list, click
on "Plug Ins" then on "Subscribers." You'll now have to set up
your subscription filters to enable the program to process
your subscription requests.
Now that you have your system set up and ready to collect
email addresses, you'll need to place a form on your web site.
Create two input fields for your form; one for your subscribers
name and another one for their email address.
Your new system will take some time to set up, but it will work
for you continuously. It will take care of all of your subscription
requests and undeliverables and will store your subscriber's
information in a database for easy access. In addition, you'll
be able to send personalized messages with any of the following:
first name
last name
user name
email address
address
company
contact
four additional customizable fields
Now, you're ready to begin collecting your visitors email
addresses and start building your targeted list of potential
customers.
Building Your Subscriber Base
There are many powerful ways to build your subscriber base
however, we'll only focus on a few of the best ways.
- Place your subscription information in your signature
- Place a sign-up box on every page of your web site
- Offer a free gift just for subscribing
- Write articles and include your subscription information
within your bylines
- Create and distribute free ebooks with your subscription
form on each page
- Provide a free service and require those using your service
to agree to receive your publication
- Create a member's only site with special resources, content
or downloads for subscribers only
- Create a contest and submit your contest to all of the free
giveaway sites. Place your subscription information on your
contest page
If you're not collecting your visitor's email addresses, don't
wait another day to start. Opt-in lists are one of the most
powerful marketing tools on the Internet.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Give Your Graphics A
Professional Look without the Price
By Shelley Lowery
Copyright 2000
Graphic design is an intimidating subject for many Internet
entrepreneurs. However, most of us must learn some basic
design techniques to avoid the high costs of hiring a
professional graphics designer.
You can create your own graphics that can look just as nice
as some of the professionally created graphics for a fraction
of the cost.
In order to create your graphics, you will need to invest in a
good graphics program. You don't have to spend hundreds
of dollars on a fancy graphics design software. Paint Shop
Pro is a wonderful graphics program and is the only program
you'll need to design professional looking graphics. You can
download a free 30-day trial and register the software for
only $99.
http://www.jasc.com/download_4.asp
The first and probably most important graphic technique we're
going to discuss is text. This is probably what you will use the
most. Not just any text, but text to be used with your logo,
banners or page titles.
When you're ready to begin, open Paint Shop Pro and click on
"File" then "New" and type in a width and height for your image.
Make sure your "Image Type" is set to 24-bit and select your
background color. You can leave the other settings at their
defaults. Make sure you give yourself a large enough space to
work with, as you can reduce it later.
Your first step will be to select a good font. Depending upon
the effect I want to achieve, I use one of three different fonts;
Impact, Verdana, or Arial Black. If you don't have these fonts
installed on your computer, you can find them here:
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fontpack/default.htm
The first text effect we will be creating will display your text in
a large font size with a drop shadow effect. This drop shadow
effect can also be used with any other images you create.
Your first step will be to select your text color. To change the
foreground and background colors, double click on the top
and bottom color squares on the right. Your text will be
displayed in the color within the top box, which is the
foreground color. For this example, I will be using a light
color as my foreground color.
Once you've selected your text color, click on the text tool on
the left side (It looks like a capital "A"). This will launch your
text window. Select your font and text size from the drop
down menu and type in your text. I will be using "Impact"
bold, size 24. Make sure you select "Antialias" and "Floating"
then click "OK."
Antialias will smooth out all of the rough edges of your text
and blend it in with your background color. You will use the
Antialias setting with various graphic tools when designing
your graphics, so it is important to remember its function.
You will now see your text with, what looks like, marching ants
around it. If you'd like to move your text, click and hold your
left mouse button to drag your text to your desired position.
With your text still selected (with marching ants), at the top of
the screen, go to "Image" then "Effects" then "Drop Shadow."
This will launch the "Drop Shadow" window. Your image will be
viewable with the drop shadow in the little window at the right.
You can try different settings until you achieve the shadow
effect you desire.
Another text effect that is popular will display your text in a
graduated color effect. Your text can be displayed with a dark
color at the top and gradually get lighter or just the opposite.
To achieve this effect, the foreground (top box) color must first
be set to white. Next, click on the text tool and follow the same
procedure for displaying your text. You should now see your
text displayed as "marching ants," only with no color. Now
you'll need to select a dark color for your foreground color and
a light color for your background color.
Once you've selected your colors, click on the "Flood Fill" icon
on the left. To change the effects of the Flood Fill tool, locate
the little box on your screen that says, "Controls" then click on
"Tool Controls." Under "Fill Style" select "Linear Gradient"
and then click on "Options" at the bottom. The "Blend Mode"
should be set to normal. In order to select which color will be
at the top of your text, where it says, "Degrees" type in either
0 or 180 depending on your desired effect, then click OK.
Now place your mouse over each letter and fill it by clicking
on your mouse.
After you've filled your text, you can either create the shadow
effect or "right click" on your mouse to deselect your text.
If you'd like to decrease your graphics window size, click on
the "Selection tool" on the left (dotted rectangle) and select
the portion of your graphic that you'd like to display within
your new sized image. Click on "Edit" then "Copy" then
"Edit" - "Paste as a new image."
After you've completed your graphic, go to "File" then
"Save As" and select a folder. Type in a name for your graphic
and save your new file in the .GIF format. The program will
prompt you and ask you if it's all right to reduce your file to
256 colors. Click on yes. Your new graphic is now saved.
Now that you've mastered these new techniques, try them with
some of your other images. The drop shadow effect can be
used with photographs or just about any image you'd like. Try
the graduated color effect with your banners or image
backgrounds and give your graphics a professional look.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Cross Promoting With
Recommendations
By Shelley Lowery
Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many
Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products,
services or publications. You simply decide what type of
promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact
fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.
The most effective technique used in cross promotions is
recommendations. By providing each other with a personal
recommendation you can increase your response rates
tremendously.
Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can
use to boost your business:
Link Exchanges
Exchange links with web sites similar to yours, but not in
competition. Many Search Engines are now utilizing a new
system that tracks and ranks sites according to the number
of links pointing to a particular web site. By exchanging links
with similar web sites, you will not only increase your Search
Engine ranking, but you will also increase your web site traffic.
Ezine Ad Swaps
Exchange subscription ads with other ezine publishers.
Ezine advertising is one of the best forms of advertising on
the Internet. By swapping ads with fellow ezine publishers,
you can run your ad in other publications free of charge.
Subscription Exchanges
Exchange subscription information with fellow ezine
publishers. Provide recommendations within your ezine's
welcome message, thank you page and even on your
multiple subscription ezine form.
Ezine Column Swaps
Partner with a similar publication and provide content for
each other. This may be a weekly tips column, question
and answer column or whatever you'd like.
Byline Exchanges
Write articles and allow them to be freely published.
Exchange byline information with fellow writers and provide
recommendations.
With each article you write you are entitled to include
your author bylines. Bylines are nothing more than an
advertisement for you, your web site, products or services.
Instead of including your standard bylines, use half of the
space for yourself and the other half to promote the writer
you've partnered with.
Signature Exchanges
A signature or SIG file is a few lines of information about your
business at the bottom of any form of Internet communication.
Exchange SIG file information with other marketers and
provide recommendations.
Ebook Exchanges
Partner with fellow Internet marketers and create free ebooks
to freely distribute. The ebook should mutually benefit and
promote both of you while providing valuable information for
your visitors.
Private Web Rings
Set up a private web ring and partner with web sites that are
similar to yours, but not in competition. Provide
recommendations for each site within your ring.
Ride Alongs
A ride along is any extra information (advertisements) sent
along with a direct mailing. You can use this same technique
with any ezine solo mailings you may run by including an
exchange recommendation within your mailing. In addition,
you can include recommendations within your thank you
letters you send out when you deliver your products.
Upsells
An upsell is used when your customer is in the process of
ordering your product. Another product is introduced for a
small additional cost just as you're closing the sale. This
technique is used with many infomercials when the
customer calls in their order. The operator will introduce
an additional product for a minimal extra charge. You
can use this same technique on your order page. Trade
product recommendations with fellow marketers.
Free Bonus
Free bonuses are used as an incentive to increase sales.
Provide and exchange bonuses with other marketers. This
technique will not only increase your sales, but will also
promote your products and services.
Forum and List Moderation
Trade forum or list moderation duties. Partner with similar
web sites or lists and share in the moderation duties. Place
short BIOS with links at the top of the forum or within each
list post.
A quality recommendation will pull a much higher response
rate than just a link or banner. Cross promote with individuals
you truly respect and believe in, as your professional
reputation is on the line.
Cross promotions provide Internet marketers with a powerful
way to reach new potential customers. There is power in
number, so get out there and start cross promoting!
Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Syndicate Your Headlines
Using RSS
By Shelley Lowery
RSS is quickly becoming the standard choice for delivering
syndicated web content. Have you ever wondered how some
of the large content sites deliver their headlines? Or, have you
ever wanted to display news headlines, but didn't want to
display the standard "Content Provided By..." info? Or, have
you ever wanted to syndicate your own content? RSS may be
the answer you've been looking for.
RSS stands for Rich Site Summary. It is an XML format
specifically designed to share content. Netscape originally
developed RSS to drive channels for their Netscape Netcenter.
Formerly known as RDF, RSS was developed in 1999 and has
quickly evolved into the dominant format for syndicating
content. Well-known sites such as, CNET, ZDNet, CNN,
Wired and many more utilize this powerful means of dynamic
content delivery.
Distributing your content using RSS will involve creating one
file that contains your content. This file will reside on your
server to enable other web sites to display your channel. You
can update your channel simply by updating your file.
Once you've created your file you can submit it to web sites
like Netscape to enable other web sites to subscribe.
Creating an RSS File
Your first step will be to identify your file. To do this, place the
following code at the top of your text file.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE rss PUBLIC "-//Netscape Communications//DTD
RSS 0.91//EN"
"http://my.netscape.com/publish/formats/rss-0.91.dtd">
<rss version="0.91">
Your next step will be to create your channel header. The
"channel" tag indicates that you are beginning a new channel.
<channel>
<title>Web-Source.net Syndication</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/</link>
<description>Web Development article syndication feeds!
</description>
<language>en-us</language>
The "title" tag indicates the name of your channel. The "link"
tag will contain a link to your web site. The "description" tag
describes your channel and the "language" tag indicates that
you're writing in US English.
If you'd like to include a small logo, include the following tags.
The image should be 88 pixels wide and 31 pixels high.
Displaying an image is optional. If you're not going to include
an image, skip this step.
<image>
<title>Web-Source</title>
<url>http://www.web-source.net/image.gif</url>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/</link>
<width>88</width>
<height>31</height>
<description>Web Design and Development</description>
</image>
Now, you're ready to create your headlines. Each new "item"
tag represents a new topic. The rule of thumb is to include
between five and fifteen items. You can include a description,
but it isn't required.
<item>
<title>Moving Up From Classified Ads to Display Ad</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/biz_tips_feed.htm</link>
<description>Display ads are the standard advertising tool of
print media. You can impress your carefully targeted audience
with a colorful display ad that spreads across the page of your
favorite magazine, trade bulletin, or newspaper.</description>
</item>
<item>
<title>Creating A Customized Marquee</title>
<link>http://www.web-source.net/web_tips_feed.htm</link>
<description>Learn how to create a customized marquee for
your web site</description>
</item>
Your final step will be to close your channel by adding the
following tags:
</channel>
</rss>
Save your new file with a .rss file extension and upload it to
your server.
If you'd rather not create your own RSS file, RSS Channel Editor
is a free Web based tool that makes it easy to create and
maintain RSS files. You can find the script here:
http://www.webreference.com/perl/tools/
Once you've created your new RSS file, you'll need to validate
it to make sure it is properly formatted. Visit the following web
address to validate your file:
http://my.netscape.com/publish/help/validate.tmpl
Now, you're ready to share your content. Visit the following
web sites to submit your new channel and enable other web
sites to display your content:
http://my.netscape.com/publish/
http://my.userland.com/
http://www.xmltree.com/
If you'd like to display RSS content on your web site, you'll
need a script to fetch the content. News Fetcher
(http://scripts.plebius.org/article/rss_fetcher)
is a free
script that will fetch content, format it as HTML and store it
in a file on your server. The content can then be displayed
on your web site using SSI or JavaScript.
Visit the following web address to see an example of RSS
displayed content:
http://www.web-source.net/channels.shtml
You can locate RSS files to display on your web site at the
following web addresses:
http://my.userland.com/
http://www.xmltree.com/
http://my.netscape.com/
http://w.moreover.com/
For further information about RSS, read Jonathan Eisenzopf's
tutorial entitled, "Using RSS News Feeds."
http://www.webreference.com/perl/tutorial/8/
If you have content that you regularly update, give RSS a try.
Providing free content is an extremely powerful method of
increasing your web site traffic.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Use CGI to Automate Your Web Site
By Shelley Lowery
Are you taking advantage of the powerful
automation technology available on the
Internet? Common Gateway Interface, better
known as CGI, is one of the most widely
used server applications on the Internet.
This software resides on your server and
automatically performs specified functions
on your web site.
If you've been on the Internet for a while,
you've probably seen many examples of CGI
use and didn't even realize it. Search
Engines, Directories and Forums all use
CGI scripts. Scripts can run everything
from a form on your web site to an affiliate
program. They can give you the power to
completely automate your web site.
There are scripts online that can automate
all of the following:
* Make your product available for download
* Take the customers order
* Approve it right online
* Send your customer a password
* Send you a confirmation of the order
You can sell your products around the clock
and never lift a finger.
SuperScripts -
http://www.superscripts.com/
If you have a subscription box on your web
site, then you're already using a program to
process the information. That's a good start
however, there are many additional ways you
can use this powerful technology.
Here are some great scripts to get you started.
The Master Series:
Master Form
This form will enable you to have the results
emailed to you or to a specified address. It
can write your information to a database file
and even enable you to have a personalized
thank you page. In addition, you can even
have multi-page forms with no limit on the
number of pages.
Master Feedback
Allow your visitors to provide you with
feedback. Master Feedback enables you to
add your own information fields with radio
buttons, checkboxes, dropdown lists and
text fields. The great thing about using
Master Feedback is that it helps you spam-
proof your site by not requiring your
email address anywhere on your page.
Master Recommend
Word of mouth is one of the best forms of
advertising. Master Recommend will enable
your visitors to recommend your web site to
a friend. This great script is multi-lingual,
which means that the emails sent can be
written in any language.
Master Subscriber Pro
Enable your visitors to subscribe to multiple
ezines by checking the boxes beside the
publication they wish to subscribe. They'll
only need to enter their email address one
time and won't be forced to leave your web site.
The great thing about this script is that it
is compatible with ezines hosted with Egroups,
Topica, etc., or any ezine that uses an email
address for subscriptions.
Master Syndicator
If you write articles, Master Syndicator will
enable you to syndicate your content. You
simply copy and paste your article into a
form and click on submit. Your article will
instantly be ready for syndication. To
display your content, webmasters will need
to place two small lines of JavaScript
within their web page where they'd like the
article to display. Each time you update
your article, every web site using your code
will automatically be updated.
The Master Series scripts can be found here:
http://hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?wsnet/willmaster
WebBBS
This great script will enable you to set up
your own forum. Unlike most bulletin board
scripts, WebBBS stores messages as simple
text files and creates HTML pages as needed.
This great script supports automatic quoting
of message text and email notification of
those who want to be informed of new posts.
http://awsd.com/scripts/webbbs/index.shtml
WebAdverts
Set up a rotating banner system on your web
site and track response rates. WebAdverts
will enable you to not only set up a rotating
banner system, but if you'd like, you can set
up your own banner exchange. Banners can be
displayed on your pages using SSI tags, IFRAME
tags, or standard IMG tags.
The great thing about this script is that you
can include banners on CGI-generated pages.
In addition, you can filter the banners by
allowing certain banners to appear only on
certain pages. This script is a little
complicated, but well worth it.
http://awsd.com/scripts/webadverts/index.shtml
Links
If you've ever wanted to set up a directory,
this great script will make it simple. It is
modeled after Yahoo and inspired by The CGI
Resource Index. It can be completely
customized to match the look and feel of your
web site.
http://www.gossamer-threads.com/scripts/links/
POD
The Personal Open Directory script will enable
you to pull the contents of the Open Directory
Project into your own web pages. It is
completely customizable and will enable your
visitors to have access to this great
directory without leaving your web site.
http://grohol.com/downloads/pod/dmoz/
Learn more about CGI:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/cgi.htm
Locate CGI Scripts:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
If you're not utilizing the full benefits that
CGI has to offer, you're missing the boat. Not
only will it save you a great deal of time,
but it will also process your information
around the clock. Scripts can assist you in
making your web site an interactive community
and bring your site to life.
Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Spice Up Your Web Site with JavaScript
By Shelley Lowery
JavaScript is a scripting language designed for use
within a web page and/or on a web server. It is used
to create special effects within a web page. Elements
such as links, images and forms can be manipulated
using this powerful technology.
Unlike CGI scripts, JavaScript can be placed directly
into your HTML code. It can also reside on your server
and be called from a small code within your web page.
This powerful scripting language can be used to create
special effects on your web page such as link effects,
mouseovers, image roll overs, navigational systems
and much more.
Here are a few great scripts to get you started:
Navigation Bar
This script is actually a combination of JavaScript and
HTML better known as DHTML. It will enable you to
have a mouseover navigational menu at the top of
your web page. When you place your mouse over the
main menu, a drop down menu will appear. As you
move your mouse over the drop down menu, each
selection is highlighted. This navigation menu is very
similar to the menu used at Microsoft.com.
http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/navbar/index.html
Dynamic Splash Screen
If you've ever wanted to set up a splash screen for
your web page, Dynamic Splash Screen will do just
that. Splash pages can be used to tell your visitors a
little bit about your site or whatever you'd like. The
great thing about this script is that it is constructed
using a single page. Once the splash messages have
been completed, the script will navigate to the URL
of your choice. It also includes a link on the splash
page that says, "Skip Intro." Nice effect.
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex3/dynamicsplash.htm
Pausing Up and Down Menu Scroller
This nice little script will enable you to have linked
text that scrolls upwards and will pause between
each message. You can choose to include a
background image and customize the background
color and box size. This script provides a nice way
to announce new additions to your site or whatever
you'd like.
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex2/crosstick.htm
overLIB
Create mouseover popup boxes for your text links.
This great script can be used to include information
about the links, tips or whatever you'd like. It can
create simple mouseover popup boxes or can even
create a popup box that will stay open until the user
wants to close it. The boxes can also be displayed
with or without a caption and colors can be
customized. This is a great little script.
http://www.bosrup.com/web/overlib/
Source Protector
Although this script won't completely protect your
page content, it will deter those wanting to steal
your code. When you right click on your mouse, an
alert box will appear. You can include a message of
your choice.
http://www.javascript-page.com/noclk.html
Right Click Menu
This nifty little script not only helps prevent your code
from being stolen, but it also creates a pop up
navigation menu. When you right click on your mouse,
instead of the browser menu appearing, your menu
will appear. This little menu can contain live links to
other pages on your web site.
http://www.geocities.com/html_4u/rc_menu.html
Banner Rotator
This simple little script will enable you to rotate
banners on your web page. You simply add your
banner information to the code and place this script
within your web page where you'd like your banners
to display. Each time your page loads, a new banner
will be displayed. Great little script.
http://www.javascript-page.com/banrot.html
Daily Tip
This script will enable you to display a daily tip on your
web site. You can program it with tips for the entire
month and they will automatically display each day.
http://www.geocities.com/html_4u/dailytip.html
FairWell Window Launcher
Although popup windows can be irritating, this script
is a little different. It will launch a new window when
your visitor leaves your site. What's great about this
script is that it will only appear the first time someone
visits your web site. If you offer your visitors a free
publication, try placing your subscription information
within this new window. This provides a great way to
increase subscriptions to your publication.
http://wsabstract.com/script/cut65.shtml
Locating JavaScripts:
http://javascript.internet.com/
Locating DHTML Scripts:
http://www.dynamicdrive.com/
Learn more about JavaScript:
JavaScript Learning Center
http://www.javascriptmall.com/learn/contents.htm
Although JavaScript can certainly help you spice up
your web site, there are many scripts that your
visitors may find irritating. Try to avoid scripts such
as mouse trailers, mouseover sounds, mouseover pop
up windows and mouseover redirects. Carefully select
scripts that will enhance your visitors experience and
encourage them to return in the future.
Copyright © 2000 All rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Maximizing Your Internet
Marketing Strategies
By Shelley Lowery
Developing a successful Internet marketing strategy is the key
to your online success. Your strategy not only involves your
marketing and promotional efforts, but your web site will also
play an important role.
You must develop and implement both short-term and long-term
marketing strategies to bring a continuous flow of targeted
traffic to your web site.
Developing a powerful strategy is a very important part of your
success. However, unless your web site is specifically designed
to sell, your efforts will be useless. You must look at the entire
picture before you begin.
Short term marketing strategies are those that bring you a
temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very
important to your over-all plan, they are only a temporary traffic
source and must not be solely relied upon.
Short-term marketing strategies include:
Purchasing Advertising
This form of short-term marketing includes ezine advertising,
banner advertising and classified ads. Although it is important
to occasionally purchase advertising, it is short-term and will
produce short-term results.
Bulletin Boards
Although sharing your expertise at popular bulletin boards can
provide you with a boost in traffic, it is a temporary boost. It will
not continue to produce results. Most boards only display a
certain number of posts and the rest are archived.
Search Engines
Obtaining a high ranking in the Search Engines is a never-ending
battle. You may have a top ten ranking one day and the next day
your site may disappear. It is very important to submit your web
site to the Search Engines, but trying to keep a top ten ranking is
very time consuming -- your efforts may be better spent on more
effective marketing techniques.
In order to create a steady stream of targeted traffic to your web
site, you must also market for the future. Long-term marketing
techniques are those that will continue to produce results even
years down the road.
So what are some of these long-term powerful techniques?
Here's a few to get you started:
Opt-in lists
Ask for your visitor's name and email address. In return,
provide them with a valuable publication, a free course or
some other valuable information. By continuously building
your opt-in lists, you're creating a long-term database of
potential customers.
Freebies
Give away something of value engraved with your name,
business, product or service. Your freebie might be software
you've created, a free ebook, or even a free course. The key to
creating a long-term marketing freebie is to allow it to be freely
distributed. If your freebie is good, it will quickly saturate the
Internet and continue to circulate eternally.
Content
Provide the Internet community with free content. Content
comes in a variety of forms such as articles, tutorials, tips,
reports or whatever you'd like. Allow your content to be freely
published in ezines and web sites. Content is a highly sought
after commodity and can provide you with a great deal of free
exposure for years to come.
A solid Internet marketing plan will include everything from your
ad to your thank you and follow-up letters. Each process in
your plan must perform a specific task.
1. Your short-term marketing strategies will drive traffic to your
web site in intervals. Each time you place an ad, your traffic will
increase. After a few days, your traffic will drop off.
2. Your long-term marketing strategies will drive a steady stream
of traffic to your web site. Your traffic will continue to increase
over time.
3. Your ad must draw your potential customer's attention and
create curiosity. It must lead them to click through to your web
site.
4. Your web site will then take over and provide further
information, while leading your potential customer to your
order page.
5. Your order page will be packed with all of the benefits your
product has to offer and call for action.
6. Your marketing plan will continue to be implemented by
closing the sale with a thank you letter.
7. Your final step will be to send follow-up messages in the
future to provide good customer service and introduce new
products.
A marketing plan is an absolute must. If you have no direction,
you'll travel in circles and ultimately never reach your goals.
Plan your work then work your plan. You may be pleasantly
surprised with the outcome.
Copyright © 2000, All rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Mini-Sites -- Highly Targeted
Sales Generators
By Shelley Lowery
If you're looking for a highly effective method of increasing
your Internet sales, then mini-sites may be your answer.
Mini-sites are one of the most effective marketing tools
online. Not only are they effective, but they're also very
inexpensive and easy to create.
The concept is simple. Create a one or two page website
that completely focuses on one specific topic. Everything
within that page should have one purpose -- getting the
visitor to take action.
This page should be neatly designed in standard HTML
with no Flash or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics.
There should be no banners or outside links of any kind
and nothing that will distract your visitor's attention.
The sole purpose of a mini-site is to attract highly
targeted traffic. The more targeted the better. For
example, if you have a website that sells a number of
products, a good mini-site would focus on one specific
product instead of all of the products. You could create
a mini-site for each product you offer.
Designing Your Mini-Site
Each mini-site you create should be optimized for that one
specific product. Concentrate on just a few keyword
phrases, as this will help you to tighten your targeting.
Remember ... the tighter the targeting the better.
* Title - Your "Title" should contain your most important
keywords. You've probably heard that before, but I've
found a slightly different method for optimizing the title.
Since mini-sites focus on just one product, place the
"most" important "keyword phrase" first. Not just your most
important phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think
people will use when they do a search. Instead of
capitalizing the first letter, type it in lowercase, as most
people type in all lowercase letters when searching. This
will assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engine for
your targeted audience.
* Description - Your description should focus on one
specific product and not generalize. Make sure you include
your most important keywords towards the beginning of
your description. In addition, make sure your description
describes your site in detail. You want your potential
visitors to know exactly what you're offering. Your
description should be less than 200 characters.
* Keywords - Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases.
* Heading tags - Search Engines pay close attention to the
text displayed within the "Heading" tags. Place your most
important keyword phrase within a "Heading" tag.
* Graphic Alt tags - Place a readable keyword phrase
within your graphic "Alt" tags.
* Text - All of your text should focus on your product.
There should be no filler text whatsoever. It should have
one specific purpose -- getting your visitor to take action.
Make sure you include your keyword phrases throughout
your text.
If you'd like to set up your mini-site using tables, try to
place your "Heading" text above your "Table" code. If this
isn't possible, make sure you include your keyword phrases
within your top left "Table cell" to assist you in ranking
higher in the Search Engines.
Mini-sites are not limited to just your products. They can
also be used with any affiliate programs you may be
promoting. You can include extra incentives such as a free
bonus for purchasing the product or even your personal
recommendation. This is a great way to presell the product.
Hosting Your Mini-Site
Although it is much better to have your own domain name,
these sites can be hosted on a free server and still rank
high in the Search Engines. Keep in mind, free sites do not
build trust and credibility. No matter which option you
choose, make sure you place your most important keyword
phrase (the keyword phrase that you think people will use
when searching) within your web address.
Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site
Once you have tested the effectiveness of your site and
have a good conversion rate, (the number of visitors
compared to the number of sales) you can buy targeted
traffic. Goto.com is the number one pay-per-click Search
Engine and will most likely produce the best results.
For additional options, visit:
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/
They provide information and reviews on a number of
pay-per-click Search Engines.
The key to using this technique effectively is to bid on "very"
targeted keywords. This will weed out the casual visitors and
only attract your target audience. There's no sense in paying
for visitors who really weren't interested to begin with.
In addition to bidding on keywords, you can also advertise in
targeted ezines and even purchase some targeted banner
advertising. Be creative and take the time to test all of your
promotions prior to spending a lot of money.
If you really want to increase your sales, create some
mini-sites. They are one of the cheapest and easiest to
create profit generators online.
Copyright © 2000, All rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Three Step Formula
Part One
By Shelley Lowery
Developing a successful marketing strategy is an essential
part of your online success. In order to succeed, you must
develop and implement a strategic plan that includes all of
the following:
- A great product
- A website specifically designed to sell
- A killer marketing strategy
Each step plays an important role in your overall strategy and
must be developed to its fullest potential. If even one step
fails, your chances of success will be minimal.
Developing Your Product
Your first step will be to develop a great product. You're
probably thinking that's easier said than done, but it's really
not. The absolute best product is one that you can develop
yourself and deliver over the Internet. With today's technology,
there is absolutely no reason why you can't create your own
product. The knowledge you have within your own mind is
extremely valuable. Everybody is good at something, has a
special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this
knowledge to create a product.
The key to developing a great product is exclusiveness. Your
product should be unique and not be in competition with
hundreds of other similar products. You must give your
potential customers exactly what they want. Develop a
high-quality product that fills a void to increase your chance
of success.
Another consideration of great importance is your target
market. Keep in mind, the Internet is a global marketplace.
Develop a product with a large geographic target and a
wide appeal. A great product will fulfill a need or desire and
provide instant gratification.
Here are a few of the top sellers:
- Software
- Information
- Private sites
- Internet services
Before you develop your product, do some research -- find
out exactly what people want and develop your product
accordingly.
The most important consideration when developing your
product is quality. Your product should not only deliver what
you promise, but should go above and beyond the expected
and overdeliver. Your customers satisfaction is of the utmost
importance.
Developing Your Website
Once you've developed a great product, your next step will be
to develop a great website. Your website must be specifically
designed to sell your product.
Everything within your website should have one purpose --
getting your visitor to take action. Words are the most
powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn
your visitors into customers. The wrong words will cause
them to click away and never return.
Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your
product, your website and your marketing strategies all
depend upon your words. Fancy graphics don't make sales --
words do.
Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific
purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page.
Write your website copy as if you are talking to just one person.
Identify a problem and validate that one visitor's need for a
solution. Continue to write and explain why your product is the
solution to their problem. Tell them exactly what your product
will do for them -- why it will solve their problems and how.
Pack your copy with benefits and more benefits. Write to
persuade -- that's the bottom line.
Developing Your Marketing strategies
Your marketing strategy is the final process of your plan. Your
plan must include both short-term and long-term strategies in
order to succeed.
Short term marketing strategies are those that bring you a
temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very
important to your over-all plan, they are only a temporary
traffic source and must not be solely relied upon.
Short term marketing strategies include:
Purchasing advertising
Bulletin Boards
Search Engines
Long term marketing strategies are those that bring you a
steady stream of targeted traffic over time. These strategies
will continue to produce results even years down the road.
Long term marketing strategies include:
Opt-in Lists
Freebies
Content
By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy,
using both short-term and long-term strategies, you will drive
a steady stream of targeted traffic to your website.
If you use this simple formula when creating your Internet
marketing strategy and excel at all three, you can literally
guarantee your success.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete ebook
design kit including over fifty predesigned ebook templates and ebook covers.
http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm
Shelley invites you to partner with her in her Ebook Starter
affiliate program. Visit:
http://www.web-source.net
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Developing Your Product
Part Two
By Shelley Lowery
Developing your own product to market on the Internet isn't
as difficult as you may think. Today's technology has opened
a whole New World of opportunity for even the smallest
homebased business owner. The knowledge you have within
your own mind is all you'll need to develop a successful product.
Everybody is good at something. You don't have to be a
Rocket Scientist in order to create your own product. If that
were the case, most of us would fail. Maybe you have a
special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this
knowledge to create a product.
Researching
Before you begin developing your product, make sure you've
done your homework. Research the market to determine
exactly what people want and develop your product
accordingly. If your product doesn't have a market, it
won't be successful.
Your product should not only fill a void, but should also be
unique. The less competition you have, the better. If you
enter a market in which you're competing against hundreds
of other products similar to yours, your chance of success
will be minimal. Develop a high-quality product that fills a
void and provides people with exactly what they want.
Another consideration of great importance is your product's
delivery method. The best form of product delivery on the
Internet is automated. Internet users want the product
they order as soon as their purchase is complete. This can
be accomplished in a number of ways depending upon the
type of product. For example, if your product is software or
information, it can reside on your server and be instantly
downloaded via a link. If your product is a private site, you
can provide instant access as soon as your customer's
payment has been processed.
Not only does instant product delivery benefit your
customer, but it will also benefit you. By completely
automating your product's ordering and delivery process,
you can spend your time performing more important tasks,
such as making more sales.
Brain Storming
The most difficult part of creating your own product is
deciding upon the product itself. First of all, you'll need to
decide what type of product you would like to develop.
Some of the top Internet sellers include:
- Software
- Information
- Private sites
- Internet services
Once you have determined the type, then you can focus your
attention on the subject matter.
If you would like to develop a software program, but aren't
capable of writing it yourself, consider hiring a professional.
If you would be interested in developing a desktop software
program, simply visit a Search Engine and search for "software
developers." If you would like to develop a software that
resides on a server, search for "scripting services." Although
this type of product will be the most expensive to develop, it
can be very profitable.
Information is a big seller on the Internet and is also the
most inexpensive to develop. Your information can be in the
form of a report, an ebook or even a private site.
Internet users are starving for information, as that is what the
Internet is all about. They have a sincere desire to learn and
will search for the information they desire. The best form of
information is "how-to" information that teaches or informs in
regard to a specific subject. Even if the subject is very unique,
the Internet is a great market for even the most niche products.
If you'd like to develop a product that is very inexpensive to
create and has a great profit margin, then an informational
product is your best bet. Most informational products are
compiled into a downloadable file better known as an ebook.
In order to compile your files into an ebook, you'll need to
purchase a compiler. Prices start at around $25. You can
find a complete list of compilers here:
http://www.web-source.net/web/Ebooks/Compilers/
For further information on creating an informational product,
you may read the article entitled, "How to Create, Sell and
Distribute Your Own Informational Product."
http://www.web-source.net/info_products.htm
Here are a few subjects to give you some ideas:
Recipes
Cooking
Sewing Tips
Gardening
Canning
Makeup and Skin Care
Weight Loss
Self Improvement
Health and Fitness
Child Development
Teenagers
Romance
Dating
Relationships
Divorce
Single Mothers
Single Fathers
Teenage Mothers
Teenage Fathers
Home Decorating
Home Remodeling
Home Maintenance
Plumbing
Carpentry
Small Appliance Repair
Home Buying
Auto Mechanics
Auto Buying
Home Finances
Home Business
Computers
Internet
Internet services are also very profitable. However, this type
of product requires more of your time. In addition, you must be
an expert in a given field in order to provide a quality service.
Here are a few popular Internet services:
Web/Graphics Design
Copywriting
Software Development
Marketing Consultant
Publicist
Search Engine Optimization/Submissions
Alternative Products
If you'd rather not develop your own product, you may want
to consider selling someone else's product. You can find
hundreds of great affiliate programs here:
http://www.associateprograms.com/
If you would be interested in selling some of the top name
brand items, the following website will provide you with
hundreds of legitimate drop shippers. These companies will
allow you to sell their products on your website and even
ship them to your customers. (There is a $39.95 per year fee
for this service)
http://www.electronicdartshop.com/dropshipsource.html
Summary
Developing your own product is an essential part of your
online success. Take your time and make sure you do your
homework before you begin. No matter what product you
develop, quality is of the utmost importance. Provide your
customers with exactly what you promise and more --
over-deliver.
If you develop a quality product that fills a void and provides
Internet users with exactly what they want, your product
will be a success.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Designing Your Product's
Website -- Part Three
By Shelley Lowery
Designing a website specifically designed to sell your
product is an essential part of your success. Everything
within your website should have one specific purpose --
getting your visitor to take action.
Creating a professional website specifically designed to
sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is
much more to take into consideration than just the design.
You must look a much broader picture and plan each step
very carefully.
Every part of your website must be strategically designed,
from your overall design to your sales copy; each will play
a very important role. Your visitor's first impression will
almost instantly determine whether or not you're going to
make a sale.
Your website should be simple in design with the
navigational links placed at the top, left or right side of the
page. It should be designed in standard HTML with no Flash
or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. Unless your
graphics specifically pertain to your product or enhance
your site, you probably shouldn't include them. Your site
should load very quickly and each additional graphic will add
additional load time. In addition, there should be no banners
or outside links of any kind -- nothing that will distract your
visitor's attention.
You must specifically design your website to rank high in the
Search Engines. This involves much more than just including
META tags. Your design, text, title and image alt tags all
play a very important role in determining how your website
will rank.
Title - Your "Title" should contain your most important
keyword or keyword phrase that you think potential visitors
will use when performing a search. Instead of capitalizing the
first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all
lowercase letters when searching.
Description - Your description should contain your most
important keywords and describe your product in detail. You
want your potential visitors to know exactly what you're
offering. Your description should be less than 200 characters.
Keywords - Select the most appropriate keyword and
keyword phrases, in different variations, that you feel your
potential visitors will use when performing a search. The
more targeted the better.
You can find a variety of tools to assist you in creating an
effective list of keywords here:
http://www.jimtools.com/
You can also download a great little freeware program called,
GoodKeywords http://www.goodkeywords.com/.
This program
will assist you in developing a list of targeted keywords for
your website. In addition, it also includes a site popularity
tool that enables you to check your site's popularity.
Heading tags - Search Engines pay close attention to the
text displayed within the "Heading" tags. Place your most
important keyword phrase within a "Heading" tag.
Graphic Alt tags - Place a readable sentence containing
your keyword phrases within your graphic "Alt" tags.
Text - All of your keywords and keyword phrases should
appear throughout your text. If any of the keywords you
placed within your META tags do not appear within your
text, the Search Engines will ignore them. Your keyword
phrases should appear at least three times within your text,
but no more than seven.
Another consideration of great importance is the use of
"Tables." If you'd like to set up your website using tables,
try to place your "Heading" text above your "Table" code.
If this isn't possible, make sure you include your keyword
phrases within your top left "Table cell" to assist you in
ranking higher in the Search Engines.
One final note, always place your most important information
above the fold of your web page. This is the top portion of
your web page that is visible when your page is first loaded,
without scrolling. This is the most important part of your
entire page -- use it wisely.
Your website is your product's storefront and will play a
very important roll in determining your success. Take your
time and do your homework before you begin. You may be
pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Designing Your Product's
Website -- Part Three
By Shelley Lowery
Designing a website specifically designed to sell your
product is an essential part of your success. Everything
within your website should have one specific purpose --
getting your visitor to take action.
Creating a professional website specifically designed to
sell will take a great deal of time and effort, as there is
much more to take into consideration than just the design.
You must look a much broader picture and plan each step
very carefully.
Every part of your website must be strategically designed,
from your overall design to your sales copy; each will play
a very important role. Your visitor's first impression will
almost instantly determine whether or not you're going to
make a sale.
Your website should be simple in design with the
navigational links placed at the top, left or right side of the
page. It should be designed in standard HTML with no Flash
or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. Unless your
graphics specifically pertain to your product or enhance
your site, you probably shouldn't include them. Your site
should load very quickly and each additional graphic will add
additional load time. In addition, there should be no banners
or outside links of any kind -- nothing that will distract your
visitor's attention.
You must specifically design your website to rank high in the
Search Engines. This involves much more than just including
META tags. Your design, text, title and image alt tags all
play a very important role in determining how your website
will rank.
Title - Your "Title" should contain your most important
keyword or keyword phrase that you think potential visitors
will use when performing a search. Instead of capitalizing the
first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all
lowercase letters when searching.
Description - Your description should contain your most
important keywords and describe your product in detail. You
want your potential visitors to know exactly what you're
offering. Your description should be less than 200 characters.
Keywords - Select the most appropriate keyword and
keyword phrases, in different variations, that you feel your
potential visitors will use when performing a search. The
more targeted the better.
You can find a variety of tools to assist you in creating an
effective list of keywords here:
http://www.jimtools.com/
You can also download a great little freeware program called,
GoodKeywords http://www.goodkeywords.com/.
This program
will assist you in developing a list of targeted keywords for
your website. In addition, it also includes a site popularity
tool that enables you to check your site's popularity.
Heading tags - Search Engines pay close attention to the
text displayed within the "Heading" tags. Place your most
important keyword phrase within a "Heading" tag.
Graphic Alt tags - Place a readable sentence containing
your keyword phrases within your graphic "Alt" tags.
Text - All of your keywords and keyword phrases should
appear throughout your text. If any of the keywords you
placed within your META tags do not appear within your
text, the Search Engines will ignore them. Your keyword
phrases should appear at least three times within your text,
but no more than seven.
Another consideration of great importance is the use of
"Tables." If you'd like to set up your website using tables,
try to place your "Heading" text above your "Table" code.
If this isn't possible, make sure you include your keyword
phrases within your top left "Table cell" to assist you in
ranking higher in the Search Engines.
One final note, always place your most important information
above the fold of your web page. This is the top portion of
your web page that is visible when your page is first loaded,
without scrolling. This is the most important part of your
entire page -- use it wisely.
Your website is your product's storefront and will play a
very important roll in determining your success. Take your
time and do your homework before you begin. You may be
pleasantly surprised with the outcome.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Writing Effective Website Sales
Copy -- Part Four
A professional looking website is a very important part of making
sales. However, without effective sales copy your website will be
useless. Words make sales, not fancy websites.
Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your
product, your website and your marketing strategies all depend
upon your words. You must learn how to write
persuasive words specifically written for your targeted customer.
You must feel your customers needs and write your copy with
passion, excitement and benefit.
Your text should be written in a black, legible font with a light
background. Avoid using fancy fonts or backgrounds that will
make your text difficult to read. When you begin writing, write in
small blocks of text with a space between each block. There is
nothing that will make your visitor click away faster than a sea
of black text, so make sure you use plenty of white space.
Begin your sales letter with a powerful headline that demands
attention. This headline is the most important part of your entire
sales letter. If it doesn't grab your potential customer's attention,
they won't bother to read the rest of your letter. Your headline
should be displayed in a larger bold font and demand your
potential customer's attention to intrigue them to read on.
Use subheadings (headlines) throughout your letter to capture
the attention of those who just scan your text. Your subheadings
should provide highlights of each section of your sales letter and
be displayed in a larger, bold font.
Once you've captured your potential customer's attention with
your powerful headline, you should now direct their attention to
your introduction. Write a brief paragraph about your product to
let them know exactly what you have to offer them. Keep your
introduction brief and to the point with no filler content.
Once you've written your introduction, continue to write and tell
your potential customer why your product is the solution to their
problem. Tell them exactly how your product will benefit them.
Identify a specific problem and promote your product as the
solution. This can be accomplished with the use of questions
that identify a specific problem that your product will solve. Ask
your potential customer questions that you know they can
identify with -- feel their needs.
Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific
purpose -- to lead your potential customer to your order page.
When writing your sales copy, direct your words towards one
specific person. Use words like "you" and "your" rather than
"them" or "their." Write as if you are speaking with just one
person -- one on one. Write to persuade, that's the bottom line.
Use the following formula when writing your website sales letter:
A - Attention - Use a powerful headline that demands attention
I - Interest - Intrigue interest and create curiosity
D - Detail - Provide details about your product or service
A - Action - Call for action
Many Internet users are apprehensive when it comes to making
a purchase on the Internet. You must put their mind at ease by
displaying your full name, company name and contact
information. In addition, you must completely remove their risk.
Provide your potential customers with a solid, no risk, money
back guarantee. This will put their mind at ease by building their
confidence in you and your product. In addition, include some of
your testimonials within your sales letter. Make sure you don't
create a separate page for your testimonials, as they most likely
won't be read. Place your testimonials throughout your sales
letter to ensure their visibility.
Studies have shown that long sales copy out-sells short sales
copy. However, some visitors do prefer a short sales letter. To
accomodate both types of preferences, you can provide both.
For those visitors who prefer a short sales letter, provide them
with an opportunity to click through to your sales page
throughout your sales letter.
When writing a long sales letter, keep in mind that with each
additional click, you will lose a percentage of your potential
customers. Have you ever read a sales letter page that forced
you to click through several pages to continue reading the sales
letter? Many Internet users find this very frustrating and just click
away. Try to keep your sales letter all on one page for the best
results. Your visitors would probably much rather scroll through
a long sales letter than click through and load another page.
Their time is very valuable -- accomodate them.
Once you've written your sales letter and packed it with all of the
benefits your product has to offer, your next step will be to "call
for action." Ask for the order and provide an easy ordering
process. Continue to reassure your potential customer by
reminding them of your personal guarantee and lead them to
your order page.
For potential customers that still aren't convinced, provide them
with free bonuses just for purchasing your product. Many times,
you will find that your customers purchase your product just for
the free bonuses.
Your final step will be to close your sales letter with a
PostScript. When your visitor scans your sales message,
chances are, they'll read your headline, subheadings and your
PostScript message. Place your most important benefits within
your P.S. message. It will get read.
Write your words so that they seamlessly flow together from
your beginning headline through to your order page. Pack your
copy with all of the benefits your product has to offer and keep
it simple. The simple, well designed sites with great copy make
the sales.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies
-- Accepting Payment Through
Your Website -- Part Five
By Shelley Lowery
If you're doing business on the Internet, accepting payment
through your website is an absolute must. If you're not
processing orders online, you're losing a great deal of money in
lost sales. Studies have shown, you can increase your online
sales by up to 400% simply by accepting credit cards. With
today's technology, processing your customer orders online
can be as simple as pasting a code within your web page HTML.
Preparing your website to process orders online isn't as
difficult as you may think. There are basically two options.
The first option is to set up a merchant account. This entails
either making arrangements with your bank or using an online
company. The second option is to use a third party credit
card processor. This option requires no merchant account and
usually entails setting up a form or placing a link on your
order page.
Merchant Accounts
If you'd like to set up a merchant account, keep in mind, you will
also need a shopping cart system and access to a secure server.
Many web hosts will provide you with both. If yours doesn't, this
professional web host does:
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=805
The following websites can provide you with a merchant account:
Total Merchant Services (TMS)
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2332
This outstanding company comes highly recommended by Corey
Rudl -- author of the #1 selling online marketing course, "Insider
Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet."
The TMS Merchant account, for Internet transactions, will enable
you to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover.
They offer two merchant processing software packages to choose
from. The first package is the TotalPay powered by Authorize.NetT
Virtual Terminal. This package will enable you to authorize,
process, and manage credit card transactions from any computer
with an Internet connection and a Web browser. This package
ordinarily runs $995, but for a limited time is being offered for only
$287. The second package is the TotalPay powered by
Authorize.NetT Virtual Terminal that includes the Total Merchant
Manager Shopping Cart. This package includes everything the
first package includes, plus all of the following:
- Customizable Shopping Cart System
- UPS Shipping Module
- Links to Virtual Terminal
- Free Initial Installation
Their discount rate is 2.4% and $0.35 per transaction fee.
Monthly fees include a $10 monthly statement fee and a $10
gateway fee that includes secure, online, real-time credit card
and e-cheque processing and only applies to merchants
processing transactions through their Internet payment gateway.
NRWW Commerce
http://nrww.com/merchant_account.shtml
This powerful Internet-based software provides secure, real-time
transaction credit card processing. The Virtual Terminal feature
enables merchants to authorize, process, and manage credit
card transactions from any computer with an Internet connection
and a Web browser. This software package runs $179.95.
Their discount rate is 2.25% and $0.30 per transaction fee.
Monthly fees include a $5 monthly statement fee and a $15
secure gateway fee.
Third Party Credit Card Processors
If you'd rather not have your own merchant account, third party
credit card processors will process your credit card orders for
you. There are usually no monthly fees. They charge a "per
transaction" fee and send you payment for all of your orders
processed, minus their fee and a reserve fee. A reserve fee
is withheld to cover and charge backs you may have. If
you have no charge backs within a period of time, your
reserve will be refunded to you. Each company has their
own guidelines in regard to reserves.
The following websites will process credit card orders for you:
CCNow
http://www.ccnow.com
This outstanding company will enable you to accept all major
credit cards online without a merchant account. There are no
set up or monthly fees of any kind. They charge a 9% per
transaction fee. In addition, their services are available for
non-US merchants. CCNow is intended to be used for tangible
merchandise only. This means that you must have a physical
product that is shipped to the customer's physical address. If
your product is electronic, you may want to consider using
one of the following companies to process your orders.
ClickBank
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=196
ClickBank is another outstanding company that will enable you
to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover,
Eurocard, Visa-Debit, MasterCard-Debit and Novus cards.
No merchant account is required.
They charge a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5%
fee per sale. There are no monthly fees. The great thing about
this company is that over 60,000 affiliates can choose to sell
your products for you. ClickBank enables any web seller to
automatically pay sales commissions to affiliates. Clickbank will
bill your customers, pay you, and pay your affiliates a
commission. In other words, they'll run your entire affiliate
program for you. In addition, their services are available for
non-US merchants.
ClickBank is intended to be used for electronic merchandise
only. If you ship a physical product, you may want to consider
using CCNow to process your orders.
iBill
http://www.ibill.com
iBill will enable you to accept Visa, Mastercard, American
Express, JCB, online checks or telephone billing (900 number).
There are no setup fees. However, you must maintain a minimum
sales volume of $25 per month or the difference will be charged to
your credit card. They charge 12% - 15% per transaction fee for
credit card and check purchases and 20% - 30% per transaction
fee for phone purchases. Non-US merchants are welcome.
If you're just starting out, you may want to use one of the third
party credit card processors, as this is the easiest route for
new Internet businesses. Each company provides you with step
by step instructions to assist you in getting your website set up
to accept credit cards. The great thing about third party credit
card processors is that they handle everything for you. You don't
have to hassle with processing your credit card payments or
charge backs, as all of this is taken care of for you.
If you're serious about your online success, you must have the
ability to process your orders online. With today's technology,
even the smallest homebased business can now accept credit
credits almost instantly. Visit one of the websites mentioned
above and get your website set up today. Your success
depends upon it.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
information to assist you in Web Design, Internet Marketing
& Ecommerce. All new subscribers receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies."
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Internet Marketing Strategies -- Setting Up Your Affiliate Program
Part six
By Shelley Lowery
If you're marketing your own product on the Internet, you
can dramatically increase your sales with an affiliate program.
An Affiliate program will enable you to recruit an unlimited
number of individuals to sell your products. The key to
obtaining affiliates is to offer a nice commission for each sale.
The higher the commissions, the more affiliates you'll recruit.
There are thousands of affiliate programs on the Internet. In
order to be successful you must sell your affiliate program
just like your product. In other words, your affiliate letter
should be written like a sales letter. You must persuade your
visitors to join your affiliate program by packing your affiliate
sales letter with benefits. Tell them exactly what your affiliate
program will do for them, how much commission they will
receive and make the sign-up process simple.
One Tier Verses Two Tier
One tier affiliate programs pay commissions on one level. For
each sale an affiliate makes, they will receive a commission.
For example, if you offer your affiliates 30% commission and
your product sells for $39.99, for every sale your affiliate
makes, they will receive a $12 commission.
Two tier affiliate programs pay commissions on two levels.
Affiliates will receive a commission for each sale they make
and for each sale their recruits make. Two tier affiliate
programs usually divide the commissions over the two levels.
For example, if you want to give your affiliates a total of 30%
commission for each sale, you would offer 20% commission on
their first level sales and an extra 10% commission for second
level sales. If your affiliate makes a $39.99 sale, they would
receive a $8 commission. If one of their recruits makes a sale,
they would receive an additional $4 commission.
Increasing Affiliate Sales
Nobody knows more about your product than you do. Provide
your affiliates with banners, sample ads, articles or anything
that will assist them in making sales.
To further increase sales, create an ebook that is directed
towards your target audience and allow it to be freely
distributed. This ebook should be packed with valuable
information and, at the same time, used as a sales tool for
your product. Customize a copy of your ebook for each of
your affiliates and allow them to freely distribute it. You can
customize the ebooks yourself or purchase an ebook compiler
that enables your affiliates to customize your ebook
themselves. Not all compilers will allow customizations. I
highly recommend Ebook Edit Pro. You can find it here:
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2894
To keep your affiliates motivated, set up an opt-in list to
enable them to subscribe and receive new promotional
methods, sales letters and articles to assist them in making
more sales. This will not only increase their sales, but it will
also enable you to keep in contact with your affiliates and
introduce new products.
Setting Up Your Affiliate Program
When you're ready to set up your affiliate program, there are
basically two options. The first option is to purchase an
affiliate software program. Affiliate software will track your
affiliate sales and enable your affiliates to view their stats.
This option requires that you run your affiliate program and
you are responsible for accepting payment and sending out
commission checks.
The second option is to use a third party affiliate tracking
company to run your affiliate program for you. These
companies will track your affiliate sales, enable your affiliates
to check their stats and send out commission checks for you.
Affiliate Tracking Software
AssocTRAC- A great affiliate tracking software that features
real time tracking of stats. It tracks both visitors and sales
for each associate to determine not only the quality of
visitors, but also if your sales copy is turning visitors into
buyers. It includes an easy sign up process that instantly
creates accounts for associates so they can be up and
running within five minutes. An autoresponse email message
is instantly sent out with linking instructions and other detailed
information. This powerful software tracks through the use of
cookies and CGI scripts.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=2333
Pro-TRACK - A great affiliate tracking software that will enable
you to keep track of sales and which affiliate the sale
originated. Although the standard version won't compute any
sales data (owners manually keep track of sales), it is an
excellent way to track and compensate your affiliate sales.
The Pro version will not only track where your sales originate,
but also provide you with the statistics you'll need to track
how well your affiliate program is doing.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=61
Affiliate Tracking Companies
ClickBank - This Company will not only enable you to accept
credit cards, but they will also run your affiliate program. Over
60,000 affiliates can choose to sell your products for you.
ClickBank enables any web seller to automatically pay sales
commissions to affiliates. They will bill your customers, pay
you, and pay your affiliates a commission. They charge a
one-time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5% fee per sale.
There are no monthly fees.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=196
Click Trade - Lets you create your own affiliate program to
allow others to send paying customers to you. Your business
can reach new customers by being featured on thousands of
affiliate sites. They have over 120,000 affiliates already
interested in participating with your affiliate program.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/web/jump.cgi?ID=194
Take your time and select the best affiliate option for your
business. If you're just starting out, you may want to use one
of the third party affiliate companies, as this is the easiest
route. You won't have to worry about anything, as everything
is taken care of for you. This will enable you to concentrate
on making more sales and developing new products.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete
ebook design kit including over fifty predesigned ebook
templates and ebook covers.
http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm
Shelley invites you to partner with her in her Ebook Starter
Affiliate program. Visit:
http://www.web-source.net
Internet Marketing Strategies -- Paying For Traffic --
Part seven
By Shelley Lowery
If you've been struggling with your website traffic and your
sales aren't what you had hoped for, then maybe it's time to
start paying for traffic.
Pay-per-click Search Engines provide an extremely effective
means of obtaining highly targeted traffic to your website. The
concept is simple. You bid on targeted keywords for as little as
.001 per click and receive targeted traffic to your website.
Goto.com
The most popular and probably most effective pay-per-click
Search Engine is Goto.com. Although the minimum bid at
Goto.com is now 5 cents per click, if you have strategically
designed your website to sell, then paying only a nickel per
visitor will be well worth the investment.
The key to using this technique effectively is to focus on one
specific product and select highly targeted keywords. This will
help you to weed out all of the window shoppers and attract
your specific target audience.
Viewing Search Terms
Most pay-per-click Search Engines will enable you to view
exact "search terms" that have been used to perform
searches. Use this to your advantage. You can find out
exactly what "search terms" are being used for your target
market and place your bids accordingly. Try to create a list
of as many relevant keywords as possible. The more keywords
you bid on, the more traffic you'll receive.
When bidding on keywords, keep in mind that in order to be
successful, you don't have to be listed at the top. Although
receiving a listing in the top three positions will produce major
traffic through Goto.com, most of the time, you must have a
large advertising budget to compete.
Before placing your bid, perform a search to find out how
much your competitors are paying per click. Try to place your
bid so that your listing will appear on the first page to increase
your chance of success. By selecting highly targeted, less
popular keywords, you'll not only attract a more targeted
audience, but you'll also obtain a higher listing for less money.
Your Ad Copy
Your headline and copy are the most important part of your
entire strategy. Your headline must grab your potential
customer's attention and force them to read on. Your copy
should tell them exactly what you have to offer and convince
them to visit your site. Try to avoid attracting freebie hunters
by mentioning free stuff within your ads. By weeding out
those potential visitors expecting to get something free, you
will attract a more targeted audience of potential buyers.
There is no need to pay for visitors that weren't interested
in buying anything in the first place.
Your listing should lead your potential customer directly to
your product with no other distractions. In other words, if
your product isn't on your main page, then don't direct your
potential customers to your main page and make them search
for your product. Direct them to your product's page.
Reveiwing Your Reports
Once your campaign begins, make sure you take the time to
review the reports provided by the pay-per-click services.
These reports will provide you with information in regard to
how well each of your keywords are performing and enable
you to adjust your keywords or change your bids accordingly.
To increase your traffic even further, don't just stop with one
pay-per-click Search Engine -- try several at time. The more
streams of traffic flowing to your site, the better.
Here is a list of some of the top pay-per-click Search Engines:
http://www.Goto.com
http://www.Bay9.com
http://www.Win4win.com
http://www.Findwhat.com
http://www.7search.com
Visit
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com for a
complete list of over sixty pay-per-click Search Engines and
reviews.
If you're serious about your business and you're ready to drive
a stampede of targeted traffic to your website, then give the
pay-per-click Search Engines a try. They're well worth the
small investment.
Copyright © 2001, all rights reserved
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter - A complete
ebook design kit. Subscribe to Etips, for a wealth of quality
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