How To AnyThing: Internet Marketing

Showing posts with label Internet Marketing. Show all posts

How to Find The Right Internet Business

When you are looking to start an online business, or if you already have one, you know just how important information can be. If you cannot find any information on your business venture you may want to consider a different route; this is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can definitely slow down your development. When you are searching for internet business info there is a few different places that you can look.

1. A simple internet search will usually turn up hundreds of resources for any area of your business that you could possibly need information on. If you are searching for information on something like internet marketing, you will have plenty of resources to choose from. On a similar note, if you are searching for products to sell, you will again be in luck. Finding information on wholesalers, and companies of the like is very easy to do online. Overall, you can find internet business info in large quantities by simply using a search engine.

2. If you need more specific information than what you can find online, you should seek out the advice of a professional in your field. A lot of people overlook this option of obtaining internet business info because they are embarrassed. But by asking somebody that is already a success for help, you will be able to get top notch tips. When doing this, remember to be courteous and explain your situation. Believe it or not, most people are glad to help you out in any way that they can.

3. Finding internet business info in books has never been easier. Since the online industry is booming, there are many books available on this subject. More than likely you will be able to find a book that meets your needs. There are plenty of them out there ranging from how to sell on eBay to how to market your products online. When you are searching for a book to buy, you will want to make sure that it is written by a reputable author. In other words, if you want to learn how to sell products on eBay, you will want to buy a book that is authored by somebody who has been successful. This way you are ensured of getting top quality information that will be useful.

Overall, finding internet business info does not have to be difficult. There is information available all over the place that can be very useful when trying to take your business to the next level. The main thing to keep in mind is that you do not want to fall into the trap of thinking that you know everything. Knowledge is power, and nobody knows everything!

By: Carol Rivet
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Market on U-Tube

U-Tube is quickly becoming THE way to market your product or service. Videos on U-Tube are viewed by millions. It is the easy way to gain an instant audience. It's great because people would much rather watch a video with information than read a long webpage. Below is some great information on how to market using U-Tube.

You will need to keep your video under 3 minutes long. To do this, write down a sort of script first. Read your script out loud while timing yourself. This will help you keep the video under 3 minutes, and help you determine exactly what you want to say. While filming the video, it's recommended that you don't actually read the script. You want to sound natural.

Have fun relaying your message. Audiences will believe you and relate to you better if you are having a bit of fun, and if you're being yourself. This is an important reason for acting natural. Audiences can smell a ‘phony' a mile away, and if they think that you're acting, they will be less likely to believe you and trust you. Mention your website at the end of the video so that potential customers can reach you for follow ups.

U-Tube is an amazing way to gain an audience. It is easy, and you're more likely to get a lot of views on your U-Tube video than with a website. When you place yourself in front of the camera, people realize that you are a real person, not just the hands behind a bunch of convincing words. Have you ever read a website and wished that you could see the person who's writing you were reading? U-Tube is a great way to accomplish showing people that you really are a real person.

You will want to place your U-Tube video in the correct category. This is so that when people are searching for a particular thing, your matching video will come up for them to view. You will want to place it in the correct category for your niche. For example, if your video is about ‘the greatest hip hop songs of all time,' you will want to place it under music. The correct category maximizes your chances to gain customers. You will also develop a rapport with others who have videos in that category. This is great because it will increase your chances of marketing. Good luck and market like crazy!

By: Teresa Bell
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Start a Cusomer Loyalty Program

You can begin a customer loyalty program at any time. The most successful programs, although, come after you have established customers who begin to purchase more then once. To begin your program you must first decide what type of incentive to offer your customers and get the word out on your site and in your marketing efforts. Let each visitor to your site know about the program and tell them you will do everything in your power to keep them happy, satisfied and even throw in a little reward for staying with you.

Customers who shop on your site need to be given a little something extra in order to keep them coming back to increase your sales. If you have a successful business, adding a program like this will help increase sales and build your reputation. You don't have to offer a high reward, either. Sometimes a small token is enough to generate more business. Think about what you would like to offer and how it can be delivered to the customer.

Typical customer rewards include coupons that can be redeemed for free merchandise, discounted merchandise, or other type of promotion. Making people visit your site is the goal of offering free merchandise. Chances are customers who receive these offers will visit your site and purchase additional items. Other ideas include their name entered into a drawing, free shipping, extra items, or free information, tips, or advice.

When starting a customer loyalty program, you should decide what you want to offer and when you want to start offering these items. Advertising the program on your website or through exterior medium such as email, blogs, newsletters. These are all great ways to spread the word so customers will know that they are valued and are eligible to participate in the program.

Once you have started your program, you will have to find a way to track customer orders so they will be able to receive their free items. Placing numbers on coupons, keeping close records on customer orders, and putting a time limit on when coupons and other certificates can be redeemed are all ways for you to track the success of your program and to ensure that customers receive what they deserve.

After you launch your new program, start tracking it to see how many people are taking advantage of it. You may need to make adjustments as to what you are offering, how often, and to which customers. When outlining the rules of a customer loyalty program, you should not become too complex. Set a monetary amount, number of orders placed, and frequency of rewards so customers will know exactly what they need to do in order to qualify. Customer loyalty programs are effective when they are easy to understand by the customer.

By: Dr. Bradley T. Doolen
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 8)

RUN CONTESTS & SPECIAL OFFERS :- How do I do that you may ask? Consult your favouirite search engine - a goldmine of information - check out Contests & Special Offers run by other businesses & get a feel for as contest or a special offer you can use to promote your own business oe create the idea & then wirk on its production.

DEDICATE AT LEAST 30 Minutes EACH DAY TO YOUR BUSINESS :- This is self explanatory, of course,, but I did want to include it. If you're an online entrepreneur, even part time, your need to set aside at least 30 minutes each day. In order to grow your business, you have to invest in it. Although you may not have much cash to invest, you can always find time.... and that's more valuable than money. Plus, after all the topics discussed in this article, there's plenty of time needed to get your business on the right track. So take some time each day and use it wisely towards marketing and promotion. In the long run, it will pay you back 1000 fold!

SIGN UP 4 MARKETING & AUCTION NEWSLETTERS :- Many entrepreneurs don't take advantage of the WEALTH of information available online... FREE! There are so many knowledgeable and successful people online willing to share their trials and errors and discuss what they've learned with you. Take advantage of it ! There are literally thousands of newsletters available to you just related to auction sales and marketing online. Take some time to research a few and sign up for some of them. Read each one you subscribe to... keep those you like... and dump those you don't. You'll come away with a lot of tips and resources you never knew existed. Running an online business is a constant learning experience. (I know from experience that I learn something new each and every day.) You should never stop trying to learn new and clever ways to promote you business to ultimately make more profits. That's the bottom line... PROFIT!

CREATE A SUGGESTION BOX FOR CUSTOMER FEEDBACK :- The more you know about what customers are saying about your business, the more you can improve on your overall performance. It's just you against the world... so find out what the world has to say. Put a questionnaire or feedback form on your website and find out what your customers like and dislike about your business. Offer a free gift to your customers (it could be as simple as a free report to download), for taking the time to fill out your survey. Their feedback could generate a lot more income for you. Take this example... Let's assume you consistently sell 20 products a day on your website. Great! - You're happy with that as a part time income. You're making an extra $100 a day from your site and there doesn't seem to be any issues you need to address. Heck, 20 orders a day.... you must be doing things perfectly...right? Then, one day, you decide to place a small feedback form on your website. You have someone design the form to pop up when someone exits your website (remember... you need to be creative with your pop ups and forms or their virtually useless). Over the next few weeks, you noticed that a lot of customers are filling out the feedback form (to get your free download about "How to create adorable stuffed animals out of old pillow cases") and many of them have mentioned that they were about to purchase something from you but couldn't figure out the shipping charges so they simply left your site.

Now remember... you're still getting 20 orders a day consistently. If you hadn't placed that form on your site, you'd never know this was an issue. You're still VERY happy getting your 20 consistent orders daily. But now that you've discovered there may be a problem with how customers find their shipping rates, you decide to address that problem and put a link to a shipping rate chart.

Chances are, once you take care of the issue, those 20 orders a day will soon increase to 50 in no time. And just think about it... You would've never known there was a concern if you didn't reach out and talk to your customers.

Without knowing what issues or concerns your customers have... you can't fix a problem! Therefore, you're leaving profits on the table for someone else (A SUPER SALESPERSON) to steal right out from under you. Offer Contests And Freebies - People browsing the Internet like to get involved. The Internet feels like a giant community to many. They are very willing to enter drawings and contests if they feel they're legitimately run and they realistically have a chance to win something. A great way to capture a visitor's email address (and we know how important that is) is to offer a contest where something FREE will be given away. Having said that, when it comes to contests, people won't enter a contest unless they are going to receive something substantial, something of VALUE! You can't run a contest and offer a free "How To Download". That just won't cut it. - You have to offer a REAL prize. I'm sure if you brainstorm a bit you'll come up with some great ideas. Again, use your own cleverness... And Do Things Ethically! Be sure to add a "PREVIOUS WINNERS" page on your site so that new entrants can view previous winners. This will also add legitimacy to your contest. Also, be sure to present the contest rules clearly on your site so everyone entering can read and agree to the terms. Stay Tuned.

By: David Newman
Credit:www.superfeature.com

Related Links:

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 1)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 2)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 3a)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 3b)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 4)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 5)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 6)

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 7)

How To Find A Good Internet Marketing Affiliate Program

You would think that finding a good internet marketing affiliate program wouldn't be that big of a deal, however, there are definitely good affiliate programs and bad affiliate programs online, so it's very important that you get a "heads up" so you don't get ripped off.

The first thing that you should be on the lookout for is if a company wants to charge you a fee for becoming a member. Most of these types of companies are Network Marketing or "pyramid schemes". I have nothing personal against "some" Network Marketing companies, as some of them do provide a good service or product. Actually, the Network Marketing business model is fantastic, if the rest of the world would just grasp it. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, but my point is that there are many companies that have given Network Marketing or "Multi-Level" Marketing a bad name so be very careful. That's not what you're looking for.

A legitimate affiliate program won't try to charge you a fee. They'll actually do pretty much everything they can to help you succeed because they realize that your success is their success too. This makes complete sense. Here are a couple reputable affiliate networks you can join that are excellent.

Commission Junction - www.cj.com

These guys are probably one of the most popular affiliate networks and are very reputable. They specialize in hard goods/physical products, but also offer service related merchants and business to business. The CJ interface can be challenging to navigate at first, but once you figure it out it's a breeze. Highly recommended.

Linkshare - www.linkshare.com

Also highly recommended. These guys have really taken off over the past few years and are giving CJ a run for their money. They sold out to a Japanese firm for over $400 million dollars several months ago and have since attracted many new major vendors.

There are several more like these two, but this should get you on the right track. Make certain to take advantage of CJU (Commission Junction University) as it's another great place to learn the basics of affiliate marketing. After studying a bit more, finding a good internet marketing affiliate program will be a breeze for you. I hope this helps you out.

By: Joe Stewart
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Get your Website Listed in the Search Engines Quickly

You will learn how to be listed in the search engines fast but we will use the safest method.

Lets start by asking the question; "What are the search engines looking for?" Well the obvious and correct answer is Unique Conent. That is the main thing the search engines are looking for. All the fancy algorithms are designed to make sure that they can offer there customers (the web browser) the most relevant content to there search.

Next your site must be a site that shows that it is an expert on the subject. You will get your site listed much higher this way.

You are about to learn exactly how to get listed and give the search engines the great content they want and prove that you are an authority on the subject.

To become an authority site you need lots of other sites linking to you and when other sites that are an autority on a subject link to your sites then your site will have even more relevance in the eyes of the search engines.

To review we need:

1. Good Content.
2. Be an expert on our topic.

Now all we have to do is put this on our site, How?

The answer is Article Marketing. With Article Marketing you will create great content for your site and then submit that same content to the hundreds of article submission sites.

With Article Marketing you can not put any links to your site within the body of the article. They do allow you to put a resource or bio for your articles. In this box you will put something about yourself let your audience know you are a authority on the subject and then link back to your site.

For example if you have a site that talks about horse training then you might put in your bio, "John Doe has been training horses for the last 20 years. His site horse training tips is loaded with training tips for your horse."

In the bio you will want to link horse training tips back to your site. With this you are now known as an authorty on the subject of horse training and you see how it draws the customer back to your site.

If you can't write articles there are many places you can sub-contract the work out to. These are FreeLance sites and you can get it done very resonably.

Submitting to hundreds of sites may seem to be a daunting task. There are great software programs to help us in this area.

So now that we have our articles submitted to the article sites the magic begins to happen. When you submit your article to the article submission sites you give them permission to allow others to use your article on their site. The caveat is that they must use your article as is and include your bio (resource box).

In just a few days the search engines will show your articles being linked for ohter sites some of them expert sites. These are the valuable links we are looking for.

When the search engines find your articles linking back you will get spidered and that is when you will get listed. After you get spread to many other sites your listing will climb.

So this is how to get listed quickly. If you use this method your site will hold its listing longer as it is being done the way the search engines would like to see it. With great content and your site becoming an authority site.

The most important thing is that you take this information and use it.

Sincerely,

By: Glen Barnhardt
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Compete In the Cut-Throat World Of Online Freelancing

If you are competing for work of freelance websites such as Scriptlance, Elance or Rent a Coder then you'll be bidding against many equally qualified freelancers. Please take this advice if you plan on staying competitive and justifying a higher price for your work.

Ask Questions. I get really upset when I put an advert out for a Freelancer and I get bids which begin with "I understand everything and can do this job". It's insincere and the people who write this usually haven't read what I want at all. I prefer people who bid with phrases such as "I have read your requirements and before bidding would like to ask you a few questions so that I can be certain to deliver what you need ...". Even if you don't have any questions you can ask them to assure the employer that you have understood what's required.

NEVER start your bid with "I have read and fully understood your requirements". This is the most cliched line you will see on freelance sites. 99% of people who've written it have made far too many assumptions about the work to understand what's needed. I put a joke project online a while ago. I asked for a freelancer to relocate Australia for me a few kilometers to the west. A handful of people recognized that I was joking but I still received at least 5 bids from freelancers who had supposedly "read and understood my requirements".

If you plan on telling a potential customer something then there is no reason at all why they should believe you. You need to 'show' proof. To show that you have read and understood a project, re-phrase it in your own words and ask questions about it. Your bid will be much more credible if you are realistic and admit to not understanding something (and asking to clarify it) rather than being overly confident that you know what you need to do.

Don't just bid on every project in a category. You'll soon get overwhelmed with work and you'll probably end up doing projects that you cannot do efficiently. Pick projects that you believe you'll do a good job of and take the time to communicate with the employer rather than look for more projects.

Show enthusiasm for the project. I once received a bid which began "wow, your website idea is excellent and I'm certain you'll do well with it". It made me feel good and I hired him.

Offer a free sample before being asked. If you are bidding on a writing or a design project then you can give the person a sample design or the first paragraph of an article to help them decide. By getting the sample to the employer before other bidders get a chance you have a huge advantage over them.

Don't send people many different examples of your previous work unless it's truly relevant. Employers are not going to look at every work you've ever done so just provide them with a small sample that's the most relevant to what you are bidding for.

Use formal and professional language. Don't use slang or casual language until you've been accepted for a project. Understand that phrases such as "Cheers dude", "catch ya later" do not impress employers.

Suggest that you telephone them to discuss a few details. Some employers really prefer telephone contact but because freelance websites are online, Freelancers never consider the value of a telephone chat.

Offer some free research. I put a project up for an application that integrated with Amazon.com. One bidder replied to me that he'd telephoned Amazon that day and was being emailed some technical information that we'd both need. I was very impressed.

And Finally ' create a portfolio as your work develops. This doesn't have to be on a website, you could create a portfolio using PowerPoint, word or Photoshop and provide it to employers. I would try to avoid doing something with PowerPoint though as its possible that not everybody will have it. You need to make your portfolio as accessible as possible.

By: Martin Pavion
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Grow Your List and Make More Sales with Your Signature Teleseminar

I love being a guest on other people's teleseminars. What I love best is the fact that all I have to do is show up and talk when someone else is sponsoring them. I'm responsible for none of the marketing and promotion and registration involved with sponsoring a teleseminar. Best of all is that I don't have to schlep all over town to do these guest speaking gigs. I'm presenting my expertise to my target market from the comfort of my own home office.

How can you add a signature teleseminar to your marketing mix? Here's my 10-step process for creating and profiting from your own signature teleseminar:

1. Create 3 info-packed 50 minute teleseminars. Have at your disposal at least 3 information-packed signature teleseminars that you can present at a moment's notice. So many of the teleseminars and webinars that I have attended recently are nothing but thinly disguised sales pitches for a very expensive live event, product, or mentoring/coaching program. I don't object to being sold to -- after all, I'm a business owner and I realize that others can't simply give away their time at no charge solely for the joy of doing a presentation. However, what I do resent is wasting my time listening to 45 minutes of sales pitch and 5 minutes of questionably valuable information. Ensure your listeners great value each and every time that you present a teleclass, and provide information that they use today in their businesses.

2. Craft your description and learning bullet points. Write a one paragraph overview of your teleclass and include 3-7 bullet points outlining what the participants will learn as a result of participating in your teleseminar. Your host will love you, as you've just provided the bulk of the text she'll need to market your teleseminar.

3. Write your bio and have your headshot available. Teleseminar hosts like to begin with a short introduction of the guest and often post the guest bio to their websites or send it out as a part of the teleseminar promotion to their lists. In this version of your bio, craft a succinct description of who you are and what you do that includes any certifications you may hold, authorship of books, and your unique selling proposition. Then provide a very short overview of your background and your current company. The goal is to have a short, compelling bio (around 150 words) that takes the host about 20 seconds to read to introduce you. Include a small version of your headshot and logo to help your host add graphical interest to the teleseminar promotions.

4. Determine your call to action/sales pitch. Prior to the call, determine your most desired action from the participants. Is it to buy a particular product? Sign up for a complimentary consultation? Send for your free gift and be added to your newsletter list? Ideally, you should offer participants the ability to buy into your business at 3 levels: free, low-cost, more expensive. You'll then have a wider appeal to the audience to capture them at wherever they are in terms of price point. Include your call to action in the promotional emails as appropriate, in your handout, and within your PowerPoint slides. In order to create a sense of urgency, you should set a deadline that falls 24-48 hours after your presentation that serves as the cutoff point for your special pricing offer. If participants are encouraged to register even if they can't participate on the live call (i.e. all registrants can access a recording of the call), create a special offer available only to those on the live class to increase live participation numbers.

5. Create a landing page on your website for participants. If your call to action involves special pricing on your product or service, create a landing page on your website that greets the participants by name, i.e. Welcome XYZ Conference Participants. Customize your page several more times to refer to the participants by name, and be sure to include the deadline for the special pricing offer in the text of the page as well as in the PS of your sales page. I simply take my traditional sales page and customize it for the group for which I'll be speaking and update the deadlines for special pricing. In order to make this most effective, you have to remember to remove the sales page on your designated deadline and replace it with a page that indicates the visitor has returned after the deadline but can still purchase your product or service at its regular price.

6. Design a PPT and handouts. Even if I'm doing a teleseminar with no visual component, I still put together a PowerPoint file of my presentation. I provide that to the host if I'm doing a webinar or presenting in an audio conference room. For teleseminars, I turn my PowerPoint file into a PDF that serves as a handout for the participants. I add a first page that contains my contact information as well as resources mentioned during the call and my call to action. Talk to your host to determine if she will be distributing the handout via email or on her website prior to the call or if you need to have it available for download from your website.

7. Determine your guesting requirements. When I'm a guest presenter, at a minimum I request a recording of the teleseminar that I can use in whatever way I want in my business. I may place it on my site as a free download, send it out as a podcast, make it a members-only benefit, or sell it or include it as a part of another product available on my site. If the host is providing a transcript of the session, request a copy of that as well to use in your business. Lastly, inquire if the host is sending out a followup email to participants after the teleseminar. If so, ask to have your contact info and special offer sent to them again.

8. Research venues offering teleclasses and request to be a guest. Most of the invitations I've received to be a teleseminar guest have resulted from articles I've written in professional and trade publications, from someone visiting the speaking page of my website, or from having been heard speaking to another group. However, don't wait for people to contact you. Start to research companies sponsoring teleclasses or workshops for your target market and ask to be a guest. In your request, be sure and provide detailed info about the topic on which you'll be speaking, as well as a copy of your handout. You want to make it as easy as possible for the host to pick you as the next teleseminar guest.

9. Repackage your teleseminar for different markets. You don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you speak to a different target market. With a few changes in your materials, you can usually change the focus of your presentation and make it appear customized for the target market to whom you'll be speaking. Many times just changing the title and inserting the name of your target market is all you have to do to create a seemingly customized presentation.

10. Ask for a testimonial to add to your website. Once you've completed your presentation, don't forget to ask for a testimonial from your host that you can place on your website. In order to be valuable to you, the testimonial should include info about how much value you provided in the presentation, sample of positive feedback from participants, or how your presentation enabled some type of change or ability to take action from the participants.

Spend a few hours designing your signature teleseminar and begin to offer to present it to various groups. You'll see your both your list and sales numbers grow from this easy-to-implement marketing strategy.

By: Donna Gunter
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Use the Internet to Help You Purchase Custom Screen Printed T Shirts

The internet is a wonderful creation if it is used properly. When you as a buyer sit down to purchase T shirts you should be aware of some key points that will help point you towards a screen printer that you can trust. I hope to show you things that can point you in the direction of a screen printer that will leave you satisfied.
When you use the internet, it is important to realize three key points: unless you need the order tomorrow, and maybe even then, geography doesn’t matter, the website should be user friendly, and different search terms offer different results. If you know these thing, and I assure you they are true, then you should be well on your way to giving yourself and your business a much deserved leg-up on the competition and a more equal playing field with printer.
When I say geography doesn’t matter, I mean it. The internet allows digital images to be sent over hundreds of thousands of miles in seconds. Any image and proof can be exchanged without the two of you ever meeting in person. I am under no circumstances saying that good customer service doesn’t matter. Rather the opposite is true. If you as a buyer can use the internet, you now have access to many more printer than just those within a fifteen mile radius. Look for service. Hospitable printers will make it a much better process. An amiable disposition can make up for a small price difference (small being the key word), and you will be overall happier. The only thing to make sure you know when ordering over the internet s that you take into account shipping. Good printers will be able sell at competitive prices even with shipping, but make sure you know what you are dealing with when it comes to shipping.
Secondly, you should look for a website that is easy to use and navigate. While any self respecting printer will be more than happy to talk to you in person, a website that is easy to use will make you more independent and offer you more information into the business you are using. This is probably the least important of the three points, but it makes the whole process run more smoothly and will just help with the peace of mind factor. Also, a company with a website indicates that they are there to play ball. They want your business and that too should make you feel more secure.
The last key point to take into account is to use different search terms. I said that geography doesn’t matter, but it is often helpful to type what you are looking for as well as the nearest large city in any search engine. This will at least let you compare prices. In addition you can look up a few other terms and give you a greater variety.
The internet will only continue to improve the quality of business that goes on in the U.S. As a potential buyer it would be wise of you to know what to look for when you seek out a printer for your screen printing needs. Take this article and do with it as you please. I firmly believe that by giving buyers information about my industry they will be able to make more informed choices. I would love to help any buyers through the process with my own company. I want you to know these things if nothing else because it will help inspire trust, and in business, trust is what everything really boils down to in the end.

By: Mike Thompson
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Write Web Content That Sells Your Company

People read differently on the Internet, because they want and expect different things from websites than they do from newspapers or printed corporate literature. For a start, it's 25% harder to read on a screen than it is on paper, (1) and Web readers are also a notoriously fickle bunch, scan reading your pages at best, and ready to leave your site at the click of a mouse.

I'm not usually a fan of generalized ‘catch all' rules, but there is a handy way of structuring your Web copy to attract and retain fickle readers. The rule is encompassed in a simple acronym - ‘AIDA' - that is, ‘Attention, Interest, Desire and Action'. Although this rule is not foolproof, if you make use of the AIDA principle in your Web writing you'll instantly improve your chances of keeping those all important readers. Let's look at each stage a bit more closely.

Attention

Put simply, this is the punchy, emotive title that draws your reader into your body copy. You can use a sub-header too if needed. Both should talk directly to the target reader, and include a benefit that shows the value for them in continuing to read your content. Our headline above is a good example - ‘How to Write Web Content that Sells Your Company'. This shows you exactly what you'll get if you keep reading, and what precise benefit you'll get out of the content as a result. As a further example, a sub-header to this could be - ‘One simple rule to instantly improve your online copywriting'. Headlines are crucial, if people are scan reading your website and the information they want is not immediately evident, perhaps it will be on your competitor's site.

Interest

This is the section where you briefly outline the main selling points of exactly what you're offering, in order to stir the reader's interest. Details here should be punchy and to the point, using short sentences and paragraphs to outline the main features and benefits of your product or service. Let's look at a quick example, complete with title:

‘The Amazing Widget that Saves Water in Your Home'

Since 1995, ACME's ‘Water Widget' has been saving water in homes across the UK. Easily fitted to your water tank, our award-winning device cuts bills by 25%. Sold with a 10-year guarantee, the ‘Water Widget' is the country's leading water management system.

Desire

This is where you make the reader really want what you're selling, where you use emotive ‘benefits' based reasoning to create real ‘desire' for your product or service. This section is all about solving your reader's problems, giving them examples of how the features of your product or service can provide tangible benefits to them in their daily life. At this point it's a good idea to get into the mindset of your target reader, and imagine a situation where your product or service could help them. You can then write this as a ‘mini-story'. Let's consider an example, put together with the other text above:

‘The Amazing Widget that Saves Water in Your Home'

Since 1995, ACME's ‘Water Widget' has been saving water in homes across the UK. Easily fitted to your water tank, our award-winning device cuts bills by over 25%. Sold with a 10-year guarantee, the ‘Water Widget' is the country's leading water management system.

Despite leaking mains and hosepipe bans, water companies just keep raising bills. But your family still needs showers and baths. You have to water the garden and wash the car. It's easy to resent rising prices.

There is a solution. By simply fitting the ‘Water Widget' to your existing water tank, you can maintain your current level of water usage while saving money.

Our unique patented system means your water usage is constantly monitored, efficiently managing flow rates based on what you need. And with proven cost savings of over 25% a year, this is good news for your bills and bad news for the water company.

(Certainly not Shakespeare, but you get the idea).

Action

The final stage of this Web writing process is to get your reader to act on the information you've given them. The last thing you want after all your hard work is to lose them at the end. If you don't give people a strong direction on what to do next - a ‘call to action' - they will simply say to themselves ‘that's nice, what do they expect me to do about it?' - and leave your website. So create a sense of urgency for your reader, and tell them clearly what to do with the information you've presented to them. Here's an example:

‘For further details on the ‘Water Widget' phone ACME now on 0845 123456, or email waterwidget@acme.com. Alternatively, visit our online store to order your Water Widget now.' (The italic text would obviously be links on a real site).

Try using the ‘AIDA' rule on all your web pages, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Sources

1&2 - Gerry McGovern and Rob Norton, ‘Content Critical', Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2002

By: Laurence James
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Write Persuasive Copy for Company Brochures

When it comes to selling your products and services, many companies miss a trick when it comes to writing the copy for promotional brochures. This is because many businesses pack their glossy, well-produced brochure with just the key features of their latest offers and new solutions, without actually selling the benefits of what it is they're offering. Far from getting inside the client's mind and thinking about what they need, most company brochures make the fatal mistake of ‘focusing on information instead of persuasion' (1).

A brochure is a sales document. It must present the reader with a compelling solution to their specific needs in a clear and consistent voice, using language they will find appealing. The tone of the copy shouldn't be focused on your own company, but on the customer and their requirements. You should also be clear on where the brochure sits within your marketing mix, and adjust the tone accordingly. For example, is it designed to close the deal or sell a meeting? It's important to think about who will be reading it and what you want them to do next.

Once you've established your market, key benefits and required tone of voice, you need to consider the structure of your brochure. It's useful to work with the designer on this part of the process, so you can coordinate the length of copy needed and what sections it will be divided into. You can ‘bolt on' copy into a design, but it's better to work on the two in tandem as the results will appear more cohesive. At this stage, it's also crucial to consider how your copy fits with the images and graphics you're using. If chosen carefully, your images will speak for themselves in conveying your key messages, and you can write the words to complement them.

The captions you use to accompany pictures and graphics are also very important. Most people remember these over and above anything else in your brochure, so use them as a chance to sell your services in a positive way. One last point on graphics, confine technical information such as charts, graphs etc to their own section - don't break up flowing and persuasive copy with badly placed graphics. Such detailed charts and graphs are important for creating credibility, but only if used in the right way.

Throughout your brochure copy, remember to keep referring back to the needs of your customer, highlighting the benefits of every feature you mention. Make your section titles emotive and attention grabbing too. If you also establish possible objections that might exist in the reader's mind - and deal with these questions - your copy will be even more persuasive. If you speak to the target audience in the right tone of voice, establish credibility (using relevant testimonials if they complement your message), and create enticing, page turning reasons for buying your products and services, then your readers will feel compelled to act.

The final part of the process, therefore, is prompting your customers to actually ‘do' something with the persuasive copy you've put before them. A point also frequently missed in many company brochures. A strong ‘call to action' is essential if you don't want all your hard work to go to waste. If you want the client to meet you, then ask them. Equally, if you want the customer to place an order, tell them to order now and give them several options on how to do it.

If you take some time to understand your customer's requirements, and structure your copywriting to meet these needs in a coherent and persuasive way, (always selling benefits not features), then your next company brochure will achieve the really positive results you are hoping for.

Sources

1. John Kuraoka, How to write a brochure: advice from an advertising copywriter, 2006.

By: Laurence James
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Top The Search Engines Using Linking The Easy Way

The purpose of this article is to explain what linking is, the importance of linking, and how to use it to catapult your search engine rankings.

So, just what is linking? Well, put simply, it's the online equivalent of getting "votes" for your website, and getting those links is a lot easier than you might think.

Right, if I seem to digress a little here, trust me, it is relevant. To understand linking you need to know a little bit about "spiders" and their purpose. Spiders are programs that "crawl" sites and report back to their search engine what their findings are. Their purpose is to make it easy for sites to get listed in their search engine.

Spiders work by finding links (see, I told you it was relevant) to websites, visiting those websites, going through the content, and then reporting the findings back to the site for which they are working. I.E. Google spiders crawl sites and report back to the main database. From there the information is added to the search engine, and the site shows up in Google search results. The same happens with pretty much any search engine.

OK, that's the basic nuts and bolts. So what does it mean to you and how can you use it to increase your rankings? Well, essentally, by having good quality and relevant content on your website (your optimised articles) you'll be pleasing the spiders. Now if you have links from other sites related to your content as well then, you're way ahead of the game. Spiders love links.

Now here's the good bit. All you need to do in order to get links back to your website is submit articles to article directories, or write a press release related to your niche market. You link back to your site from the resource box at the bottom of your article or press release.

Other website owners in your niche will be on the lookout for content to add to their own site, and will visit article directories to do so. They'll pick up on your article, add it to their site ( they legally have to keep the resource box with your link intact) so now you have other sites linking to yours all over the place. This will really impress the spiders and your rankings will start to shoot up.

To find article directories simply go to your favourite search engine and type in "article directories" you will find loads. They are the life blood of the net.

As I mentioned before, press releases are another great way to get links back to your site. Not only that, they are a brilliant way to get free publicity for your ebook or site. It's easy, just go to prweb.com and submit your press release to them. It will cost a small amount to have them blast it all over the internet, but it will mean that you get dozens, hundreds, or even thousands, of one way links back to you site. What do you think that will do to your rankings?

OK, there you have it, all that remains is for you to go out and do it. Trust me, it's not only easy, it's fun, and it does work. Enjoy.

By: Chris Haycock
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Use Video Marketing To Increase Your Sales

Using text and blogs for your affiliate marketing can surely get you good dividends- but they're very yesterday. Almost every affiliate marketer uses these modes for promoting his or her product. Don't you wish to stand out? You can, if you happen to use video clips. These are a nice, fun way to get attention to your product.

The edge video has over text

Let's face it. Text is only good so long as it's short and sweet. But if you want to convey more, what do you do then? Use video, of course!

• A ‘human' interaction: Video helps put a human face forward while also communicating something. For example, if you're selling an aerobic workout DVD, wouldn't you want to show the person doing aerobics, rather than have a screenshot of her? This helps customers ‘see' the product being used before they actually purchase it.

• Build credibility: The very fact that customers can ‘preview' products in a way not possible with ordinary text makes it great at building brand reputation.

• Improves SEO: Believe it or not but videos are absolutely loved by search engines robots. They crawl sites in search of such videos. Putting videos into your affiliate marketing program will help place your site better in search results.

• Easy to view: Most people use broadband these days and viewing videos has become fast and hassle-free. If you even look at the most popular websites today, all of them employ heavy usage of videos.

• The 5 minute comparison: Try getting across to a customer through a piece of text in 5 minutes – it's very difficult. Instead try making a video with the same time span. It's so much easier to get the message across through video. That's because you get to use such a vast array of media – voice, pictures, music, motion pictures, screenshots etc.

How to go about it?

It's very easy to start incorporating video into your affiliate marketing campaign. There are plenty of vendors nowadays who have brought out innovative ways of using video. One such vendor has provided a mechanism for consumers to create product reviews via videos. This can be used by affiliate marketers for great benefit as they happen to not only get paid for creating the video, they also get additional income every time there's a sale on that product. There are other companies who offer theme based videos that have already been created. Affiliate marketers can choose from the range of these videos and place these on their site. They can even choose to customize these videos.

A whole new way to get attention

Using video in your affiliate marketing program can really divert customers to your products. Using powerful imagery, good content and interesting footage – you can create a winning affiliate marketing campaign. There's so much range that video has to offer – right from commercials, to demos of products to even testimonials from customers! Imagine what all this could do for your affiliate marketing business!

Convert even the passive ones: The test-before-you-buy theory

I have always been a sucker for testing everything I buy – be it a new car, bike, video game, even a simple torch! I like to know I'm getting value for my money. In affiliate marketing, there are 2 kinds of visitors who come to your site:

1. Passive ones: The ones who don't want to buy anything – they're just having a look around 2. Shoppers: These are the types who are genuinely looking to buy something and they've come to your site obviously because the keywords matched.

It's much easier to convert the 2nd category, don't you think? Now what if you could go a step further and convert even the 1st category of passive visitors? Videos can be great to convert passive shoppers. Since such people are just ‘looking around' in your site, using a video, you might be able to get them interested in the product.

Imagine a guy who just happens to visit your site by chance. You have a video on an ab exerciser. That doesn't impress him much. He's probably seen enough of that on the television. Another video shows the steady progress of one man over a 30 day span. It ends with a final before and after picture. This might surely get the visitor interested. Who knows he may even buy the product!

By: Himanshu Joshi
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Top The Search Engines Using Keywords

This article is going to cover what is sometimes referred to as an "online science". OK, stay with me and don't panic. Those of you who know me by now are aware that I like to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible. So hang on in there, take the next few minutes to read this, and I'm pretty sure you'll be glad you did.

Now, as we all know, one of the main reasons people use the internet is to search for information. By providing people with this information we can make money. We simply find out what it is that people are searching for, and then provide them with it. Simple, yes?

OK, now here's the thing. If you can "optimise" your website to show up whenever people in your niche market search for information on that subject, the potential is there to make a huge amount of money online. For example, if someone typed in "acne cure" and you are the top website (or even in the top ten) in google for that search term, you can pick up loads of free visitors to your site and explode your online income.

You are probably thinking, as so many do, that topping the search engines is the preserve of large companies, or those with massive budgets. So you will be pleasantly surprised when I tell you that the truth of the matter is that it's actually free when you know how. I'm going to show you how to top the results for your keywords related to the service or products you sell. We are going to be able to do it quickly, relatively easily, and most importantly, without spending a single penny.

Right, so where do we start? The first thing you need to do is create a large list of keywords directly related to your niche or service. We do this by using http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com So let's say you were selling a product on "How to grow the perfect rose garden". You would go to that link and type in "rose garden". Now make a huge list of all the keywords that show up that are directly related to rose gardening.

Once you have a list of around 50 or so keywords you are ready to start optimising your site for the search engines. Please don't let the name "search engine optimisation" (often abbreviated to SEO) put you off. It's not as technical as it sounds, and you certainly don't need to be a techie whizzkid to be able to do it. Do it correctly and it doesn't have to be technical at all.

OK, you have your list of keywords. What do you do with them? By writing an article focusing around one of the keywords you found, then adding it to your site, you have an optimised web page, that's it in a nutshell. So let's say you wrote an article on "rose gardening design" that was optimised correctly and then added to your site, you can rank well and get free traffic from one 500 – 700 word article. At the bottom of the article you can link to your sales page selling your product or service.

By writing an article that is optimised for search engines, and adding it on a web page on your site you immediately have a web page that can rank very well. The key to writing good SEO articles is to be true to the subject at hand. Make sure that your article contains relevant information, and a substantial proportion of keyword scattered throughout your article. Include a keyword or phrase in the title of your article. Also include a minimum of two keywords or phrases in the beginning and ending paragraphs of your article.

Finally, scatter keywords in the body of your article. If you have a 500 word article, aim for a minimum of one keyword or phrase per paragraph. Write your article for your product, don't just put keywords in for the sake of it. Do not force the keyword issue. Your articles must be forthright, literate, easy and entertaining to read. Some writers sacrifice grammar and content for the sake of a keyword placement. Don't do that. When searchers are directed to an article of yours that happens to contain sloppy grammar, bad spelling, and an untidy look, they may just decide to look elsewhere.

Article writing is not difficult. However, if you feel that you don't want to do it yourself for whatever reason then it is very easy using one of the many freelance wesites available such as www.elance.com to find a writer prepared to do it for you, the finished article will be yours, with your copyright, and should not have cost a fortune. Articles of between 500 – 750 words ranging between $1.00 and $15.00. Just be sure to communicate fully with the writer you choose so they are totally aware of your requirements. Don't be afraid to ask for previous work samples, and don't necessarily choose the cheapest. It may be a good deal, but do your homework. One way is to ask him (or her) to provide one article for you, in exchange for which you pay them for that one article and use it as criteria for judging their qualifications.

Well that's one way to optimise your site using keywords. Simply write an optimised article, turn it into a webpage dedicated to that keyword and add it to your site. Try it, the worst can happen is you lose a little time ( but surely learn a lot in the process) but you could well be pleasantly surprised at the results.

By: Chris Haycock
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to improve search engine rankings

Search engine ranking: Why is it so important?

Search engine ranking refers to the placement or position of a website in search engine results. Most companies aim to fall within the first 10 of the search engine results because typical visitor behavior indicates that most people do not go beyond the first 10 results page when searching for something. Essentially it is the first page of the search engine results that offers companies the most visibility and the most traffic potential. Therefore most companies scramble to get a ranking within the top 10 listings. It is what will differentiate between success and failure.

How to improve search engine ranking? With the immense competition and millions of websites, all wanting to get listed in the top 10 search engine results, how does one go about it? Here in this section we provide some tips and ideas on how to improve visibility among search engines:

- Position of keywords: Keywords are very essential for visitors to find what they're looking for on your website. The best place to have these keywords is the title of the article of webpage and the top of the page in the title bar.

- Zero downtime: Visitors are impatient and there are loads of websites that can give them the information you're giving. Added to that if your website is going to have downtime and slow pages, it is sure to make visitors disappear. 24x7 uptime is an absolute must on your website.

- Easy navigation: Nothing gives a website as much negative publicity as its navigation. If users are not able to find what they're looking for quickly, they will make an exit from your website. Website design is critical in determining search engine popularity. If users are happy with your website design, search engines will automatically favor your website.

- The right keywords: Having the right keywords can mean the difference between an "also ran" website and one that is top of the list. Using overly common keywords risks the chance of being lost in the crowd while using less popular keywords means losing traffic altogether. It is best to use strategic, powerful keywords that stand out, add value to your website and describe what your website offers in as concise a manner as possible.

- Meta Tags: These are machine friendly descriptions of what your website is about. They are embedded in the backend HTML coding of a webpage and are used by robots that crawl websites to gauge the popularity of your website.

- Avoid overusing graphics: Graphics cannot be read by the search engine robots and hence by overusing these graphics you miss the potential to increase the search engine ranking of your website. It is best to use HTML code as much as possible.

- Regularly monitor website listing: It is important to frequently monitor the performance of your website in terms of search engine ranking. In this age of tough competition and websites scrambling to get listed on search engines, it is essential to know where you stand.

- Article marketing: Article marketing represents a great way to enhance one's search engine ranking. For this it is essential to write articles on current topics of interest. Also it is essential to use the right strategic keywords for better search engine visibility. While posting articles on article directories, it is essential to post all mandatory information required by the website, as well as ensure strict adherence to website rules and regulations.

- Keyword research: Keyword research plays a crucial role in ascertaining the popularity of keywords, which ones are most used by visitors etc. Most organizations spend top dollar in getting access to this information and to enhance their website popularity in search engines.

- Incoming links: Incoming links refer to exchanging or purchasing links of other websites to direct traffic to your website. The more the incoming links the better the chances at enhancing search engine ranking.

- Press releases: Press releases, although they sound clichéd, are a great way to boost search engine ranking. They provide the latest updates on your website, the latest news and events and other important information which could be of interest to readers. Having frequently changing press releases helps to keep the buzz alive around your website and generates curiosity for website visitors.

By: Pawel Reszka
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Increase the Ranking of Your Page

Increasing the page rank of your web site has a lot of advantages. But doing so is a tough job and the competition you are dealing with is extremely huge and growing by the hour. However, there are ways and means to increase page ranks and help is at hand with a vast number of resources that you can use to increase the ranking of your page. All search engines keep updating their search rankings regularly. There are a number of things that a search engine considers when deciding on the rankings of your page. So the best thing you can do is to fortify the components that these search engines consider and keep improving on them. Some tips that will help you increase your search engine page ranking are as follows:

The first step you should take to increase page rank is to submit to search engine directories. You can do this for free on most search engines and thus increase your web presence by being listed on a number of search engines. You also get to create a free link when you do so and increase your chances of getting higher rankings as a result.

Create as many back links as possible. This is the main criteria that Google uses for ranking web pages. The larger the number of back links that you have, the higher your page ranking goes. You can create a number of links by joining forums and giving a link to your web site along with your signature. You get higher rankings if your links are on web sites that are relevant to your own web page. You can get a higher distribution of links by writing and posting articles on other web sites. Articles generally generate a lot of traffic too, thus increasing the value of your link. Starting ezines is also a great method of increasing page rankings by increasing the number of links to your website.

There are a number of resources that will help you know about the kind of keywords that search engines look for. Keep altering the phrases and the language of your web site in order to incorporate these words. Try to put in a good percentage of key words and key phrases when making up content for your web site in order to increase page rank.

Improve the quality of your web site. Search engines rate sites based on their relevance to a particular subject. Make sure that your web site gets regularly updated with new things. Keep it current and try to become a leader in your particular area. Turn your web site into a key resource and you will automatically generate more traffic and better page ranks. This is the long road to increasing page rank, but it makes sure that you get there in the end.

By: Darren Dunner
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to increase opt-in rates

What are opt-in rates? Opt-in rates refer to visitors to a website who opt for their email ID to be added to your database. This may be achieved via providing them freebies or newsletters or even free crash e-courses that arrive at their Inbox every week on a particular day.

Why opt-in rates are so great Opt-in rates can dramatically increase a website's customer base. By adding more and more email IDs to one's existing database, a website can utilize this database of contacts for future promotional events or for any future marketing campaigns. A customer base is a highly useful and effective tool that can significantly increase profits of a company over time.

Tips to improve opt-in rates With rising fraud and insecurity becoming an issue on the Internet, most subscribers are wary of giving out their email IDs. To enable a website to enhance their opt-in rates, we provide some tips and ideas here:

- Privacy policy: Before a subscriber signs up for any newsletter of e-course or any such material, they would want to be sure their email ID is protected and is not going to be used negatively or sold to other websites. Having a privacy policy helps assure website visitors. Try and place this privacy policy near the place where visitors sign up.

- Double confirmation: After a visitor has signed up for any material from yourn website, it helps to send an email to their Inbox asking them to confirm their registration on your website. This prevents fraud and also assures visitors that your website takes extra precautions to ensure legitimate transactions on your website.

- Unsubscribe: It is always necessary to have the option of letting your visitors unsubscribe to any content from your website. If you do not have this option, it gives the impression of a trap and as if they are forced into receiving updates from your website. Unsubscribing gives them an option of opting out if they do not want any more updates.

- Informative: The Internet is all about information and people want facts and substance in the articles they read. Even a newsletter needs to be information based rather than being promotional in the tone. Try and provide regular updates on particular products and services of interest, freebies, conduct regular contests to keep the interest alive. Most of all be sure to provide in-depth useful information in the newsletter else people will start unsubscribing.

- Attractive content: The layout and display of the newsletter also makes a huge impact on the readability and hence the opt-in rate. If the newsletter is drab looking or doesn't have enough color or an attractive layout, chances are readers will initially may be skim through the content but with time they'll get bored with your newsletter.

- Sharing: Often many newsletters have a link that says ‘send this page to a friend' or ‘email this page'. These are all techniques to encourage people to rotate and hare your newsletter. This will get more opt-ins and more email IDs to your database.

- Subscribe at other websites: This is another great way to encourage visitors to get to have access to your newsletter even if they're on another website.

- Catchy content: If your newsletter is to be read and subscribed to, you need to ensure the headline and the content is catchy and interesting. Else no one will be even interested to give your newsletter a first look.

- Ezines: Ezines usually have an opt-in box provided that gives readers an opportunity to opt-in for content written from your website. Therefore since this opt-in box is your gateway to increased opt-in rates, it is but essential that you make this box obvious and attractive to the reader.

- Engaging content: Include graphics or photographs that are relevant to your website and content. That helps to attract visitors and get them to stay longer, giving them a chance to browse your website and hence even opt-in for content.

- Placement: It is essential to place the opt-in box at a strategic place where visitors get to see it more often. Often the top right handed corner is the best place because of maximum eye movement towards this place.

By: Pawel Reszka
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to improve your website conversions

What is it and why is it important?

Website conversion is quite simply the conversion of the incoming traffic to sales. It is the crucial indicator of the success of your business. Your website might be receiving tons of traffic but if you're not able to convert them into sales, it's all effort gone to waste. You'd be surprised at how many businesses spends tons of money to divert traffic but do not invest the time and money to convert them into sales.

How to increase conversions? There are many ways you can turn that visitor into not just a customer but a repeat customer. That means he or she will not just love your site but tell others and they tell others about your site. Get the picture? And that's just one customer we're talking about. Imagine if you could do that with all the traffic that comes into your site? We're talking exponential sales!

So now before you scratch your head and start day dreaming about your booming business, let's get down to the basics. Here are a few simple tips to jumpstart your website conversion rate:

Shopping cart. As obvious as this seems, most people do have a shopping cart. But the thing they overlook is the ‘add' button next to it. You need to mention something like ‘Ad to shopping cart' or ‘Add to the shopping basket' etc. This is also known as the call to action and plays a crucial role in getting your visitor to do what you want them to do - shop!

Be honest. Let's face it - if you don't have stock of some product, mention it upfront. Customers will respect you for it for having not wasted their time. That'll also save them the hassle of digging through the online catalogue and adding it to the shopping cart - only to find it's not in stock. What a waste!

Easy accessibility. It is essential to get your site visibility on the Internet. I mean, there are hordes of e-commerce sites out there literally waiting to get their customers' business. What makes you think your website is so special?

- Therefore use appropriate keywords to get traffic to your site.

- Optimize your website to ensure better search ranking.

- Use persuasive articles that get the reader's attention.

Selling the ‘right' products. When it comes to selling you want your website to do well, right? Well that's only going to happen if you sell products that customers want. Also important is ensuring you're selling to the right audience. Imagine selling mascara to a baby! Unthinkable, right?

Easy payment. Customers today have little patience. And we don't mean it in a bad sense. It's only natural they are impatient - there's loads to do and the Internet is just a speck in their lives. If they wish to purchase something they want it done fast, smooth and hassle free. If you want your website to convert more sales, you'll need to ensure the payment gateway on your website is fast, secure and reliable. Most importantly there should be no slow pages. This can literally kill any sale. If the customer can't shop fast and secure on your site he or she will go to some other site.

Search functionality. Our customers are patient too. Contradictory? Not really. Not if you consider that if they do not find what they're looking for, they'll try searching for it on your website. But you don't have search functionality in your website? All hell breaks loose and the customer has vanished from your site in no time! Sounds familiar? It's time to get a search box included in your website This is basic but still many businesses think they can get away without one. Big mistake!

Customer behavior. Analyzing backend search logs to analyze customer behavior can really pay rich dividends. Do customers visit a particular product only during holiday season or during sales? Make sure to keep enough stock handy during these times. Or do customers try downloading an e-book only to leave it midway? An analysis will tell you if the cause is a broken link or slow internet speeds.

By: Pawel Reszka
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How to Triple Your Subscriber Rate Using Co-Registration

If you're currently using an ezine as a way to build your list, and you're frustrated with the trickle of new subscribers you get each month, then you'll want to seriously consider using co-registration as a way bump those numbers up significantly. My own co-registration partnerships have TRIPLED my subscriber numbers in a matter of weeks, so I know first-hand that this process works.

I want to make an important distinction here - there's pay-per-subscriber and then there's co-registration. What I'm NOT talking about is buying email subscribers, nor do I recommend you do so.

What I am talking about is a collaboration between you and one or more colleagues whose offerings complement yours and where you share subscribers with (usually) no financial cost to either side.

The easiest way to implement this is to trade 'thank you' page space with your colleague. A simple referral from you with a brief description of their ezine with a link to your colleague's sign-up page (and vice versa) is really all you need to start sharing traffic and subscribers.

You can probably think of at least two or three of your colleagues who might be interested in doing this. I'd like to encourage you to make a list of ten, compose a short email with your request, and send them out. You'll get some 'no's' but you'll also get some 'yes's'. Follow up with those who agreed, add their info to your 'thanks for subscribing' page, and you'll start adding more subscribers to your list right away.

The power of using co-registration to build your list is that you're increasing your exposure by the number of people who are subscribing to your partner's ezine. So, the more people you bring on as co-registration partners, the more people who will see your offer and who will sign up for your ezine.

Research shows that you can have an average of 10 partners before registrations begin to fall off. Think about the exposure you'll get if you partner with just 5 others in your market - you get all their traffic and they get yours - it's a great win-win.

For that reason, and because this is a 'set it and forget it' tactic, this has quickly become one of my favorite marketing strategies. Go ahead and try it - I'm sure you'll find the same to be true.

By: Alicia Forest
Credit:www.superfeature.com

How To Make Sale After Sale After Sale After Sale - For Ever ! (Part 7)

Adding Signature Files To Your Email

I'm sure many of you have already setup a signature file for your email program, but have you set it up effectively to pre-sell your customers? Are you getting the kind of response from your signature file that you should? Do you even know what kind of traffic your signature file brings you? For most... NOT MUCH! These are legitimate questions that you need to answer.

First, for those that aren't familiar with a signature file, I'd like to explain what a "Sig File" is and how to set one up. Then, I'd like to go into a bit more detail about what you should and SHOULD NOT have in your signature file if you want to generate sales.

Setting Up A Signature File :-

A "Sig File" is that small block of text you see at the bottom of an email you receive. We've all seen this many times and you probably didn't even realize that this was prewritten text that goes out with every email sent from a particular email address. If you do not have a "Sig File" setup in your email... DO IT NOW! This is yet another form of advertising you can capitalize on very easily (remember - advertise on every page! Your sent emails are pages too! Each email program has specific instructions for setting up a signature file, but it's very easy to do. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, simply go to the "Tools" menu and you'll see a link for a signature file setting. It may be under another sub heading such as "preferences" or "options", but I assure you it's there.

You can also choose the "Help" link in your email and this will have instructions for setting up your signature file as well. No matter what program you use for your email, there is a way to add a signature file to your outgoing messages. Find out how to do this and JUST DO IT!

CREATE An Effective "SUPER" Salesperson Signature File So many times I see it.... A signature file that reads: If you have any questions, please let me know. Thank You, Tom Smith Phone: 888-888-8888 Fax: 888-777-777 Email: "mailto:tom@mydomain.com" AND THAT'S IT! Granted, it saves "Tom" time on writing his closing in each and every email, but that's all it does. Is "Tom" a SUPER Salesman? I say NOT! Or, you receive his email and at the bottom it reads:-

**** SAVE $$$$$ ON OVER 20,000 PRODUCTS ONLINE. SHOP SAFELY AND SECURELY 24/7! FROM TOOLS AND APPLIANCES... TO LAWNMOWERS AND OUTDOOR LIGHTING... WE'VE GOT IT ALL ON SALE! CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR WEBSITE! ***** so on & so on - ?

Well guess what?... I'm not looking for a tool or lawnmower right now! Am I going to visit that website? NOPE! Am I going to remember that website the next time I do need a tool or lawnmower? NOPE! Well then, what could this amateur salesperson have done differently?

But, let's maximise our opportunity to get the sales massage accross ! How about something like this? ---------- If you have any additional questions or concerns, please be sure to let us know! Thankyou, Tom Smith Customer Care Representative ABC Products Phone: 888-888-8888 Fax: 888-777-777 Email: mailto:tom@mydomain.com

Your feedback is very important to us! If you have a comment or suggestion you feel would help us to better serve you, please send an email to:- mailto:support@mydomain.com

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Is there a chance one of these subtle ads in this "Signature Files" will grab my interest? ABSOLUTELY! Will I sign up for Toms newsletter? Mmm, Maybe - I'm very tempted - Yes!.

Do I want a yard that's the envy of the neighborhood? YES I DO!!! Do it now!

My point here is this... With a signature file created by a "SUPER SALESPERSON" in comparison to an amateur, the odds of obtaining a new prospect are 1000 times higher than just trying to sell something right out of the gate.

Any of the "freebies" (including the feedback email) offered in this signature file will get my name in their email list and as you already know, their autoresponder software will then kick into full gear, emailing me automatically without anyone lifting a finger. It's like having 1000's of salespeople out on the net daily, and all you did was setup your system once... And used your "SUPER" sales abilities to get a prospect to SIGN UP FOR YOUR LIST!

So, be sure to setup a signature file (or change your current signature file) to something more subtle but effective, and you'll notice a huge surge in sales once your autoresponder system goes to work.

By: David Newman
Credit:www.superfeature.com

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