Archive for March, 2007

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Differentiate and Grow Rich: The Importance of a Strong USP

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

"With 50 other companies selling the same products and services, why should I do business with you rather than one of your competitors?"

The number of competitors you face as an online merchant grows daily. If you can’t answer that one question, it’s only a matter of time before you go out of business.

If you can answer that question and answer it clearly, communicating it to your prospective customers in everything you do, your road to eCommerce success is paved with gold!

Your USP or Unique Selling Proposition answers that most critical question. If you have studied business for very long you’ve probably read or heard about the importance of having a strong, clear USP. However, it doesn’t take much surfing online to see that few companies listen. Most know that they need a USP, they just don’t know how to develop one.

The process of developing your Unique Selling Proposition is fairly simple (note that I didn’t say easy.) I conduct intensive on-site USP development workshops for my clients around the world. By doing these workshops I’ve discovered 4 critical steps to developing your USP.

First, study your competition. Search online for potential competitors. Pick the top 5 to 10 and try to determine their USP. Most will lack a clear USP, for these look for some of the features or services that they stress.

Now look for the gap in their products or services. What area of the market could we better service?

Second, examine you own business. Sit down and brainstorm with your staff possible USP concepts. Don’t judge the ideas, just write them down. To stimulate thought and ideas ask the following questions:

  • What do we do the best?
  • What do we do better than our competition?
  • What awards have we won?
  • What do our customers say about us?
  • What praise do we often get from our customers?
  • What celebrities or well know organizations endorse us? What endorsements could we get?
  • What does our product or service do better than anyone else?
  • What makes our business model different from our competition? How could we make it different?
  • What market category or niche could our industry better service?

It also helps at this stage to interview and survey your current and past customers. Ask them why they bought from you rather than your competition? What do they want from a provider of your product or service? What’s important to them when making a buying decision? What feature or benefits do they value most or would like to see added to your product or service?

Third, begin to write down and crystallize your ideas. Don’t worry about length at first, just write down the key points of your USP concept. Focus on the benefits to your customer of each concept. Develop a list of 5 to 10 possible USPs.

Show this list to your staff, friends, family and current customers. Get their input and suggestions and use these suggestions and comments to narrow your USP concept down to a single main differentiating concept.

Once you’ve settled on the most unique and compelling feature of your product or business, begin to distill it down to one paragraph that clearly communicates and sums up why your customers should buy from you. Use this paragraph on your website or in your print marketing materials where you have more room to explain the unique benefits that you bring to your customers. However, it’s still too long to for an effective tag line or slogan.

You still need to distill your USP down to one or two focused sentences that clearly and concisely communicate the benefits of your USP to your customers. This statement should leave no question in your customers mind about what you do and what makes you different than your competition.

This USP statement will become your tagline or slogan. This process will take some time and your USP statement may require several revisions before you’re comfortable with the final draft.

Fourth, integrate your USP statement into everything you do. Put it on every page of your website, on your letterhead, in all of your advertising and marketing. Communicate it to your employees, managers and staff. Let it infuse into your corporate culture. Every time you talk to your customers, employees or suppliers you should mention this USP. You cannot just give lip service to your USP, you must live it and breath it! It must become a part of you.

Every product, business or service needs a USP that will make it stand out from the competition. It’s up to you to discover or create this element of uniqueness. Differentiate yourself, your business and your products from your competition and watch your profits soar!

Copyright 2004 Eric Graham

About The Author

Eric Graham is the CEO of several successful online companies. A top authority on eCommerce & Internet Marketing, he’s an in-demand speaker & consultant. Visit www.web-site-evaluations.com for a FREE subscription to his eCommerce Mastery newsletter.

Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »

What Can You Do To Beat Your Competition?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

In many cases when you start a new website you are really starting at the bottom of the barrel.

Your competition probably has more money than you, they certainly have better rankings and more repeat visitors. How can you compete with that when you are on a shoestring budget?

First off, you need to get one idea out of your head that has been beat into it by countless marketing sites, E-books, and “experts.”

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE SUCCESSFULL OVERNIGHT!

However, you can make regular and weekly progress and overtake your competition, both in rankings and sales. There are a few things you are going to have to do though.

1.) You will need to track your statistics, website visitors, and keep track of the Search Engine Bots. If you need to learn more about statistics, may I reccomend http://www.track-it-now.info . Statistics and paying attention to them are one of the important things that successful webmasters all do. You should know at the end of the week what each visitor to your website was worth.

2.) Work harder at your important tasks. Many webmasters started a website because it’s perceived as an easy way to make money. It’s not, so get that idea out of your head right now. Start managing your time smarter. If you spend 20 hours per week surfing the Internet, chatting, or just goofing around, stop and divert that energy into something productive like link building. I’m a professional freelancer and I still get stuck in the old habit of just sitting in front of this computer and getting nothing done. I recently got so frustrated with myself I actually made a blog post out of it. I will be adding tips and tricks to be a little more productive and how I cut some of the “fluff” out of my day. It would be great if others contributed as well. http://stmadeveloper.com/blog/?p=7

3.) You are working harder, but are you working smarter? I don’t mean you have to be smarter than your competition. I mean that you need to become smarter on a certain subject. For example, there are 1000s of programmers like myself who can work with PHP. I have made myself a niche working for Internet marketers who don’t want to explain terms like “downline builders”, “2 teir affiliate programs”, etc. It doesn’t matter what subject matter your website is, you just need to know more about one aspect of your content or service than other people.

4.) Make sure you are productive and earning at your real potential. Chances are if you are keeping track of your statistics (see step one) you know that every visitor is worth X dollars or cents. If your really tracking, you can tell how much value you are getting from traffic to certain pages or from certain advertising methods or SE keywords. If you have a method that is just sending you visitors that never purchase or stay just stop using it and put more effort into those things that are returning a value. If you have set your value at $30 per hour to meet your income goals, you better not be concentrating on things that return pennies per hour, right?

5.) Make sure you have the tools and services you need to communicate with your visitors. It might be live help ( http://track-it-now.info/helpcenterlive_tutorial.htm ) or it might be something like an autoresponder ( http://emaileasy.info/7.html ), but you better have some way for your visitors to contact you and ask you questions.

6.) Don’t expect overnight success. Growing a site takes time and effort. However, don’t get discouraged. Daily effort turns into weekly growth. One day you will wake up and find that your efforts have paid off.

7.) Use your expertise to help others. Did you know that if you have something you are knowledgeable about that you are being looked for right now? There are thousands of forum’s, newsgroups, and communities on-line that would benefit from your advice. If you spend the time to help them, you will see an increase in traffic and of course revenue. Many forums allow a signature which is similar to the resource box for this article. People do click on those signature links when you help them. Since you have already taken the first step and built some trust in your knowledge don’t you think they will be more likely to use what your website provides.

8.) Do not be afraid to get some help. There are 1000s of freelancers and other helpful people that make their living on the web. Farming work out to those freelancers may just be worth your time. Here is an example: You are running a finance site. You need to get a new layout, new graphics, and Search Engine optimization done. You could spend days working on all of that, and since you are not an expert you end up with an inferior website both in looks and functionality. Your two days of effort cost you money in lost sales, but the poor website will cost you thousands over the next year. A few minutes with a competent designer would have cost you a few days pay, but you end up with a great functional and attractive website. Which way is better?

Edward Charkow is the lead programmer and copy writer for Stmadeveloper. Stmadeveloper provides top notch niche sites that focus on high paying keywords. No technical knowledge is needed since they do the creation, content, and promotion. Visit Stmadeveloper at http://www.stmadeveloper.com

Posted in Website Promotion | No Comments »

The Birth of a Professional Web Site

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

The Internet has opened a whole New World of opportunity for all of us. With the vast amount of information available at your fingertips, it has never been easier to communicate your message to the world.

A web site will enable you to create your own home on the World Wide Web. Your home may be as simple or dynamic as you’d like and is only limited by your imagination.

Although designing a great web site is an important part of developing a successful online business, it is only one small part of an overall plan.

Although many new Internet entrepreneurs believe that all they need to do to make money online is to put up a web site, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth is developing a successful Internet business takes a great deal of time, thought and effort. It takes a sincere commitment, a lot of patience, and a lot of personal drive.

There are a lot of lessons that must be learned, and a lot of failures that must be endured. However, if you’re truly passionate about your business and success, it will happen — you will succeed.

A major factor in determining your success is the amount of time you take to educate yourself. Please don’t take this point lightly, as it can literally mean the difference between your success and failure.

Sure, learning HTML is an important part of designing a successful web site; however, it is only one small part. You must first develop a strategic plan and design your web site accordingly.

Prior to designing your web site, here are some questions to assist you in developing your strategy:

? Who is your target audience?
? What is your most wanted response?
? What products and/or services will you offer?
? Will you sell affiliate products and/or services?
? What type of design will you use?
? Will you design your site or hire a professional?
? How will your site be navigated?
? How will your site be optimized?
? What type of graphics will your site use?
? Where will you obtain your graphics?
? What graphic formats will you use?
? What fonts will you use?
? How will you design your site for different screen sizes?
? How will you design your site for different web browsers?
? How will you optimize your pages for the Search Engines?
? How will you make your web pages load quickly?
? What type of content will your site offer?
? Where will the content come from?
? How will you gain your visitors’ trust?
? How will you build your credibility?
? Will you write your own sales copy or hire a copywriter?
? How will you accept payment through your site?
? How will you process your orders?
? How will you deliver your products or services?
? How will you collect your customers’ information and store it within a database?
? How will you automate portions of your business?
? Where will you find the scripts you need?
? What types of scripts will you use? CGI, JavaScript?
? Will you need to hire a professional to write your scripts?
? Will you edit and install your own scripts or hire a professional?
? What kind of computer software will you need?
? Where will you find the software?
? How will you decide on a domain name?
? How will you register a domain name?
? How will you host your web site?
? How will you upload your files to your server?
? Should your files be uploaded in binary or ASCII mode?
? What should you look for in a quality web host?
? Will you publish an ezine?
? How will you collect email addresses?
? How will you send out mailings?
? How will you drive traffic to your web site?
? How will you advertise your products and services?
? How will you test your advertising?
? Will you offer an affiliate program?
? How will you run your affiliate program?
? How will you market and promote your web site, products and/or services?

Although this list of questions is far from complete, it will give you a basic idea of exactly what is involved in developing a successful web site. As you can see, there is much more to take into consideration than just learning HTML. You must look at the entire picture and design your web site accordingly. Plan your work then work your plan.

Above all else, you must be willing to invest in your business — not only monetarily, but also your time. Although there is a lot of free information available online to assist you, keep in mind…you get what you pay for.

The great thing is you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are many successful Internet entrepreneurs that have been where you are right now. Subscribe to their publications — listen to their advice — purchase their products. If you begin by following in the footsteps of successful Internet entrepreneurs, you will eventually begin making your own paths and find your own success.

For more information visit at http://www.accessti.com http://www.accesstechnologyindia.com

About the Author:

Rjesh Singh is the author of the access web design course, Web Design magic. http://www.accessti.com

Posted in Web Development | No Comments »

Sales Marketing: Secrets To Using Blogs (Online Diaries) To Increase Your sales And Profits

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

These days, everybody is blogging.

How about you?

You can incorporate blogging into your sales marketing and achieve more success.

Have your customers publish an online diary instead of giving you a testimonial. The diary would include regularly updated entries of how customers are using your product to improve their life. You could give customers a free product or a rebate in exchange for them publishing it online.

Your customers could write diary entries about goals they have reached using your product, the positive emotions it’s given them, the fears and worries your product has taken out of their lives, how bad their lives were before they bought it, how it has helped other people in their lives, etc.

Your customers could update it daily, weekly or monthly. It will depend on how often they use your product. You could publish the diary right in your ad or link directly to the diary. You could provide the people with web space for writing the online diary or have them e-mail you the diary entries for you to publish.

You can make the online diary extra persuasive by also including customer’s personal profile, pictures, online video of them using your product, net audio of them talking about your product, even scanned handwritten letters, etc.

An online diary would likely outsell the common testimonial because it’s updated on a regular basis and reveals more personal information. A diary is considered private which would make people more curious to read it and believe it’s legitimacy.

May you these sales marketing secrets help you to make a lot of money.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”, (internet income opportunity) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free "cash"?

Posted in Blogging & RSS | No Comments »

Is A Picture Really Worth a Thousand Words?

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

The great debate: how much copy you should have on your site, particularly on the home page?

Do you subscribe to the idea that a picture is worth a thousand words–and therefore images, not a lot of text, should be the main thrust of your home page? Or do words have more power to capture a visitor’s attention and compel them to buy–meaning you should aim for powerful copy?

As a graphic designer, my natural inclination is to create graphically-rich, light text websites. Since I’m focused on what a site looks like visually, I like using impressive images, bold splashes of color all over the page, and not very much copy. The end result is an attractive, visually-appealing site, with very few words.

However, I’ve learned that I have to balance this inclination with a cold hard reality: what appeals to me as a designer is not necessarily the same as what visitors need.

The main problem with websites that don’t have any copy is that they fail to quickly and effectively communicate the three points that all commercial websites must get across: You must explain what your company does, what the benefits are of using your product or service, and why prospective customers should purchase from you.

These important pieces of information can only be conveyed vaguely, if at all, through images. While pictures are often very useful in reinforcing a message, it’s difficult to succinctly drive home these important points solely through images.

On your website, visitors want specifics, and they want them quickly. They want you to tell them exactly what you can do for them, and they want to know right now. You must specifically state what you do and explain how your product or service is going to make your customers’ lives better. You have to spell out why people should buy from you versus your competitors.

Particularly on a home page, you must catch a visitor’s attention and give them a reason to stay on your site. If you don’t do this immediately, they’ll be gone.

For this purpose, words are far more effective than images. In almost all cases, pictures cannot communicate the message nearly as specifically or quickly as well-chosen words can.

It’s important to remember that the web revolves around information. People use the web to find out what they need to know, to be informed on topics that are important to them. That almost always means they are looking for text. They want explanations, answers, reasons, and motivation.

I firmly believe that pictures and images enhance a website, but they should be used to provide a tasteful, professional frame for your copy, not replace it.

It is true that web users are notorious for having short attention spans and not wanting to read large amounts of copy. However, the problem is that most of the copy on websites today is vague and not enticing. It’s focused on the company rather than the customer. So it should be no surprise that visitors avoid reading it.

The solution does not lie in eliminating text-based communication; it means we have to work harder to capture interest with copy. People DO read copy that catches their attention.

If visitors are met with paragraphs that are focused on them, that are rich with benefits, and that are formatted in easy-to-read chunks, they are much more likely to be drawn in and to act on your offer.

Don’t focus strictly on graphics. Go for copy.

About The Author

There are 605.6 million people online. Can they find your business? Jamie Kiley creates powerful and engaging websites that make sure YOUR company gets noticed. Visit www.kianta.com for a free quote.

Get a quick, free web design tip every two weeks–sign up for Jamie’s newsletter: www.kianta.com/newsletter.php

jamiekiley@kianta.com

Posted in Web Design | No Comments »

You Cannot Hide From the Public Record Search Engines

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

As a search engine optimization specialist, I often run across search engines of different sorts than most people are aware of. This week I stumbled across a free site that is used by journalists to do background checks and fact checking on sources of news stories. I am also an advocate for personal and financial privacy and find privacy invasion particularly offensive, so this search engine offends me.

The http://www.pretrieve.com/ Free Public Record Search Engine – Person Search is an example of the databasification of all public records. It’s instructive to take a look at the results of a search for yourself in this free people search engine that is apparently used often by journalists. The linked page above takes you to the site home page which is a form allowing you to search for a person, business, address or phone number and the results pages can be frightening.

The results are listed as questions on the Pretrieve.com site in a row of tabs labeled “Property Info, Criminal, Court, Professional, Local Info, Miscellaneous” and the “Criminal” tab (Criminal) inserts your name or that of the person you are searching for in each possible source of criminal information under a link labeled “Registered Sex Offender Search” then a question with the searched name and state inserted: “Is anyone named (your name here) a registered sex offender in “your state here”? If you searched for your own name, it appears in that frightening position and startles you quite handily.

The arrangement of tabs with criminal info first must be done for the dramatic effect it has on what would otherwise be a rather mundane search of bland information. But when I went ahead and pressed that frightening link, I got a gratifying “no information could be found” result page. Whew! Then again on the link leading to the “Federal Inmate Search” I got a gratifying “Sorry. No Inmate Named (Your name here) Race: unspecified Sex: unspecified found.” on the new window launched on the Federal “Bureau of Prisons” site search.

Since I write frequently online, there are hundreds of sources of information on me available in one of the results tabs labled “professional”, I was happy to see that my occupation was correctly listed as “Search Engine Optimization Specialist” with sources coming mainly from resource boxes of my articles appearing across the web.

The interface of the Pretrieve.com result page also links you to organizations that have published information about you and fills in the name information, going directly to a search on the name entered at the new site. The interface of Pretrieve.com links you to their sources by launching new windows at different web sites and prepopulating the search forms with the name and state info.

The “professional” affiliations are tracked by a site called “Eliyon.com Business People Search” where links to web mentions are tied to the byline of my articles. Seems their forte is finding business mentions to connect with names. OK. But I was surprised to see that one company that I work with was incorrectly listed as being in Northern California, when they are in fact in Southern California. Oh, and they incorrectly named, but correctly linked to the web site of that company.

This type of error is probably common in online databases and is one of the biggest problems with this type of data aggregation. It is not kept current or accurate by all sources and there are others with the same name, etc. There is a prominent link on the Eliyon.com site labeled “Log in to Update your Profile” or the Didn’t find yourself? Add your profile!” link is ridiculous. Why give them info they don’t have so they give it to everyone else?

The Property Info tab is truly offensive as it gives you a link to the county tax assessors office record of any property owned by someone you’ve searched for. Plus their home address, square footage of their house, how much it is worth and amount of taxes owed on it. Oh, and phone number, street address, zip code.

The multiple other options take you to financial records such as bankruptcy filings, political contributions, defaulted loans and dozens of other possible financial records you don’t want the world to see. Why is this acceptable – and the bigger question – why is this legal?

A very interesting note comes from the Pretrieve.com privacy page where they make this curious statement: “It may seem contrary for a company dedicated to making public information more easily accessible to be an ardent supporter of information privacy, but the fact is we take information privacy rights extremely seriously. We believe public information should be open and made available to everyone as adamantly as we believe private information should remain private.”

But doesn’t making all sources of public information easily available, make possible private information easily available along with it? Actually, this only applies to informaiton directly available on the pretrieve site, which is nothing other than your computer and connection info as they don’t require registration to use their service. They do place cookies on your hard drive so the site will not work if you turn off that option in your browser. The information business seems to be full of contradictions.

Mike Banks Valentine © copyright March 9, 2005
http://PrivacyNotes.com/privacy_blog/

Mike Banks Valentine operates http://PrivacyNotes.com/privacy_blog/ Web Privacy Tutorial at: http://privacynotes.com/Phone_number_privacy.html And Performs Ethical Search Engine Optimization http://www.seoptimism.com/SEO_Contact.htm Press Release Optimization & Distribution Online If you’ve got news you can rank top for your search phrases

Posted in SEO | No Comments »

7 Reasons YOU Need a Website

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

1) A marketing necessity

I still hear it said from time to time that you really do not need a website if you are a private practice professional. I disagree. In today’s world, I think you are selling yourself short if you do not have a website, because you are not using one of the most powerful ways in which to market you and your services.

2) Websites are affordable

When I had my very first website in 1997, the domain name by itself cost me almost two hundred dollars. Today you can get a domain name and a month of hosting for just over eight dollars.

3) A website increases your “expert-ability”

When you have a website featuring your area of expertise, you are perceived as the expert, no questions asked.

4) A website increases your prospects

One of the many useful strategies we teach in our TeleSeminars at BuildingYourIdealPractice.com is that you have to have a prospect first in order to have a new client. Prospects can visit your website, learn more about you, your services and the benefits available without you having to be there.

5) A website increases your publicity

A website gives you a worldwide presence. Even thought there are millions of websites on the internet now, a website stills says “I am here, I know what I am doing, and I can help you.”

6) A website increases your profits

One of my favorite experiences as a practice building coach is the look on the face and/or the sound in the voice of someone who has just made their first passive income on the internet. It’s very addictive. A website allows you to make money when you are doing something else. It’s a real kick to get up in the morning and have more money than when you went to bed.

7) A 24/7 worldwide store

How would you like to have a 24 hour a day, seven days a week, 365 day a year store whose sole reason for being is to promote you and sell your products that will help other?

Get a website.

Visit BuildingYourIdealPractice.com for more leading edge tips and tools for creating your ideal practice. You are also invited to visit our Private Practice Marketing Podcast

Posted in Web Development | No Comments »

How To Pull Massive Profits From Resale Rights Instantly

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007

What’s in your name?

I’m not trying to be funny here, this basic question holds the key to you making much more money with your resale rights business than you probably realized.

May I ask again then: "what’s in your name"?

If you look at it, the main difference between your name and everyone’s else is well, it’s different…

And here’s the vital key to pulling massive profits from resale rights you can take advantage of instantly:

..Just be different!

The resale rights business is very lucrative but extremely competitive, without doing something different from the thousands of other resellers out there, your chance of success will be unjustly limited.

Being different makes you stand out from among the rest, and give customers a good reason to buy from you, instead of the same ‘me-too’ crowd.

Here are three powerful ways to achieve the differentiation you need:

(1) Creating a new image

You’d NOT want to use the plug-in websites, salesletters and graphics that come packaged with many resale rights products.

Everyone’s using them that’s why.

The first and fastest way to become unique is to get new graphics for the product. Next you may even want to rewrite the sales letter if the original doesn’t convert well.

Even a simple thing as changing the web background colour can bring increased results?

I did just that with "Net Gurus Secrets Revealed" and response literally skyrocketed

=> http://TurnkeyMoney.com/netgurus

What you’d want to do basically is:

Breathe NEW LIFE into both your new AND old resale products by simply changing their looks!

(2) Creating a new package

Another proven tactic is to create a brand new resale package, and this is entirely within your control and creatively.

Surefire methods to do this include packaging new bonuses, creating themed packages and combining audio and video tutorials?

There’re many combinations of how to do this, and again it’s up to your own creativity to come up with new ideas.

(3) Re-creating a ‘new’ strategy

Here’s something you ought to think about?

Many resellers simply forget the fundamental truth that everything comes down to good old marketing, yes even resale rights.

Apply all the marketing strategies you know to resale rights and I guarantee you making much more profits.

For example how many people bother to promote their resale rights products through articles?

Not many I can tell you.

Applying time-tested marketing tactics to your resale rights business can mean increased profits easily, so don’t ever limit yourself.

Now this is JUST ONE technique you’ve learned here today, check out http://www.ResaleRightsSecrets.com for more powerful ways to instantly profit from simple resale rights products you never thought existed!

Copyright 2004 Ewen Chia

About The Author

Ewen is the editor of “Web Marketing Exposed” which reveals specific techniques you can use to get more traffic, subscribers and sales to your websites quickly and easily!

Ewen Chia has released the official resale rights marketing blueprint revealing the hidden secrets to amassing a fortune from resale rights?in as little as 72 hours! He’ll even hand you $9,700 worth of resale rights products to kickstart your own resale rights empire. Find full details at : http://www.ResaleRightsSecrets.com

Posted in Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Methods of Website Promotion

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Promoting a Website is not an easy task. New Website Developers may have the impression of building a Website and sales are generated. This is far from true. There are millions of Websites. Within those millions, there are bound to be competitors. To rise above, or obtain a portion of the market-share, developers need to utilize an effective promotion campaign.

Establishing a Website is not much different than a brick-and-mortar business. Open a Deli in the heart of a City and millions of potential customers will pass daily. In contrast, open the Deli in the suburbs, and there would be one quarter of the potential customers. Obviously, the City would be much more expensive to get started and maintain, but the revenue should provide for the added expense.

The same holds true in Website Promotion. However, the landscape is different. There are no streets and sidewalks customers have to use. Therefore, our businesses need to be found by customers in a variety of places. It needs to be brought to the potential customer, or viewable from wherever they may be lurking.

Where do we start with Website Promotion?

One of the topics sweeping the developer’s world is Optimization. The internet will naturally bring potential customers, if the site is optimized properly. Computers work hard on matching relevant information. This is a huge benefit to e-business owners.

Before promotion begins, or altering existing efforts, understand the Internet’s backbone. Why has the World Wide Web become popular? Most should agree, information retrieval rules. Internet users don’t have to sit down and watch television waiting for local weather. They don’t have to wait for news of interest. They don’t have to drive to find the best prices. They don’t have to look through cook-books to find a recipe. They don’t have to talk to salespeople for a car. Today it’s all on the, "information," super highway.

As a developer, focus on information delivery before beginning promotion of a Website. If a page can be divided into two topics, make two separate pages. Over-use of graphics can present problems too. While it’s nice to make a Site pretty, most people don’t care. They want the information or products they are seeking. Sectors such as art could be an exception, but for the most part, lots of graphics are a waste. People read on the internet. Give people something to read, not just something to view.

Promotion Budget

If launching a new campaign, it may take time to decipher an effective budget. There are simple variables that should be considered with budgeting. Given the potential scope of a Website, advertising should be devoted to different areas of the site. For example, paying to promote the free portion of a Website is not logical. In contrast, a free forum may sell advertising. The advertising segment of the site should be exploited.

There is a simple formula to develop a budget. If a site is new, it takes some research and investment to draw an accurate conclusion. Put simply, consider the following; how many potential customers are required to make a sale? From each sale, how much profit is generated? Of the profits, how much is invested into advertising? This identifies the value of potential customers. If ten customers make one sale, and ten dollars are allocated towards advertising, each customer is potentially worth one dollar. However, room for growth could be made by reducing the value of a potential customer or increasing the advertising contribution. A competitive sector may force reduced profits rather than reduced value of potential customers.

Comprehensive budgeting could be applied to aspects of the business. Promote each aspect as a unique entity. For example, a Website that sells music and movies could have separate budgets for the segments. This could reveal vital information to the survival of a business. Implement effective models that assist in tracking expense and results. This is fairly simple with website statistics and tracking tools.

Free Traffic Promotion ? Keywords and Phrases

When it comes to free traffic, it’s about information retrieval. People utilize tools that provide information accurately and quickly. These tools rely on the developer’s interpretation of a Website or page (On-Site Optimization). What is the Website or page about? What phrases are people looking for that want to use this site? Information retrieval is a complicated double-edge-sword between people surfing the web and people creating the web. When the people creating the web do not create clear and focused pages, people surfing the Web cannot find them.

Free traffic is a gift from creating user friendly pages, clearly focusing on a specific topic, and the result of promotion efforts. It stems from a good balance. While free traffic primarily comes from Search Engines, it also comes from referring sites. People will write about a Website in blogs, forums, or on their personal pages. People will add links to Sites they like.

If developers hunt for free traffic, problems can arise. Hunting for free traffic has made developers try tricks that got the site removed from Search Engines. This can present a big problem as they are a large source of free targeted traffic. Keep free traffic in mind while promoting a Website, but don’t make it the focus of promotion. It will come naturally over time. Take it as a gift and an acknowledgement that a Website has been optimized well, presents clear information, and is promoted in the right places. Although some may argue the point, don’t anticipate quality free traffic to begin immediately. It takes extensive thought, advertising, and planning for this to happen, especially within competitive sectors.

Promoting in Directories

One place to start promoting a Website is Website Directories. Most directories are organized by topic. Some are more comprehensive than others. In addition, there are, "Niche," directories that focus on one topic. For example, there are directories for shopping, reference, art, and automotive sites. In contrast, there are general directories that provide all the niches.

Finding an appropriate place within a directory may be difficult. Directories can a large structure. However, a comprehensive structure benefits advertisers with targeting. Comprehensive directories enable developers’ to classify a Website. For example, it maybe possible to promote a site the sells speakers, for cars, but only domestic cars, and ones that are late model. In addition, some directories may implement regional indexing. Targeting an index in a directory can be complex, but it can be a great benefit too.

Don’t expect to rush from directory to directory and establish a bunch or references. Each directory is unique. Take time to understand how the directory is structured, what they expect as a title and description, and how the suggestion process works. Seek similar sites; take note of where they appear, and how they are described.

Directories are generally affordable solutions. Most Directories are indexed by search engines. They help search engines understand a sites focus. In addition, they are a reference point for some people. It may be a good idea to seek-out one or two directories a week, or as appropriate to a budget. Finding good directories will consume a lot of time. However, once a link is added, it will remain there for a long duration.

News and Media Promotion ? Public Relations

Public Relations an important factor when promoting any Business. News and Media channels are the vehicles that convey information to the public. News about a business can make a huge impact on the public. Good news can make lots of people remember a business. Some developers release news about every change or added feature to a Website. Ironically, some developers never utilize this area of promotion.

There are a variety of distribution sites that will expose news releases to numerous channels, for a modest fee. In addition, most will offer free options. It may be a good idea to utilize free options for news that is not very important. For example, adding a, "Calculator," to a Website probably will not gain much attention. However, anything that may be important to the public needs to be announced.

If it can be added to the budget, outsource public relations efforts. PR companies have knowledge of what the media likes and contacts that make them valuable. PR specialists can be found in almost every City.

Ezine Articles – Provide Rich Content

Writing articles is a powerful promotion tool. Some developers refer to this as, "Viral Marketing". There are Websites that require content. Content brings them traffic. Traffic builds valuable ad space.

Article Distribution sites assist promoters with circulating articles. Many Ezines rely on Distribution Sites for their content. Post an article to a distribution site and the article is, "up-for-grabs," to anyone. The article begins to circulate the internet like a virus. Everywhere it appears, reference is given to the author and their Website.

Advertising on the Web

There are a variety of reference websites. Generally, these sites consist of Forums, Article content, and Online Chats. They rely on selling ad space as the main revenue stream. While some reference developers are, "trying to rich quick," there are sites that offer affordable solutions to promote a Website. With free traffic in mind, seek-out text link advertising venues. Look for sites that charge a flat fee. Sites that charge per click or by the impression usually mask links for tracking. This does not build good recognition with search engines.

Seek relevant opportunities for promoting the Website. If the allows people to buy tennis shoes, a sports reference and information area may be prove beneficial. Another might be a reference site about footwear. Trial and error will reveal good advertising sources for promotion. Regardless of the site being promoted, there are reference areas that are valuable promotion tools.

Promotion Summary

The internet moves fast in certain aspects. When it comes to Website promotion, it moves slowly. Modifications that are made to a Web Page are not going to be seen the next day. Significant results appear months later. The most important area of promotion, is keeping accurate records. Website promotion is complex. Developers need to consider on-site and off-site optimization, targeting, and ad construction. The right mix can provide a significant advantage over the competition.

Michael Medeiros has an extensive background in business and advertising. He is the proprietor of the Mjmls Classifieds (http://www.Mjmls.com), which is an open-source advertising solution for businesses and individuals.

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How to Write a Landing Page

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Is there a difference between writing a landing page and any other web site page? Yes and no. But mainly, yes.

You still have to work within the fundamentals of good writing and copywriting. And you still have to recognize the differences between writing for paper and writing for a monitor.

However, there are some important differences to consider when it comes to writing a landing page.

>> You KNOW what you want your visitors to do

On many web pages we are writing text to help people find what THEY want, either on that page or a different one. This may involve writing careful descriptions, using images and providing descriptive links to help our visitor move forward to the right page.

In other words, a lot of the time the pages we are writing are not the final destination pages for many of our visitors. So we deliberately help them leave the page, pointing them in the right direction.

With a landing page, everything changes. With a landing page, you know what you want them to do and you DON’T want them leaving that page until they have decided to make that purchase, sign up, download a white paper – or whatever else it is you want them to do.

>> Now you’re in the realm of direct marketing

A landing page is a direct marketing piece, pure and simple. You have attracted someone there through an ad, a link, a keyword…whatever. And now you have them on the page, you want to convert them.

When direct marketing with a landing page, remember these points.

- It’s about the copy, the words. It’s the text that will bring you success or failure.

- Design? The purpose of the design is to support and showcase the text. If you want results, your visitors must read the text. This influences your choices of colors, your use of images, the layout on the page.

- Navigation links? No thank you. On a regular web page, there are plenty of links on a page to make it easy for people to move around and find what they want. On a landing page, there is only ONE link you want people to click on, and that’s the one that says YES. You don’t WANT them to navigate. You want to give them just the one way forward.

- Multiple choices? Not if you can help it. If you have three or four things to sell or promote, create separate campaigns and separate landing pages. Too many choices on a single page dilutes attention and reduces response rates. Keep it focused.

>> Concluding thoughts

Many large and medium sized companies struggle with creating landing pages that are unashamedly built to maximize conversion rates. Perhaps they don’t have the skills in-house to write and design that kind of page. Perhaps they feel uncomfortable about ‘direct marketing’ through their site pages.

Whatever the reason, it’s the companies that have the will and the resources to build high-converting landing pages that will come out the winners.

Nick Usborne is a freelance copywriter, author and speaker. For more articles and resources on writing for the web, visit his site, http://www.excessvoice.com.

To find out more about landing page writing and design, read his review of MarketingSherpa’s Landing Page Handbook – How to Raise Conversions.

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