Blogs are powerful marketing tools that can help you reach more customers, establish credibility, increase sales, and share company news without having a huge advertising budget.
Blogs have a number of advantages that make them highly effective in promoting your business:
1. You don't have to be a tech geek to start a blog.
Anyone can do it, and sites like Blogger can help you create and publish your blog in less than 5 minutes.
2. Blogs can boost your search engine ranking.
The content of your blog is ripe for the search engines and encourages other bloggers who write on similar topics to link to you. Regularly updated, keyword-rich content (not spam) and linking will help boost your site's visibility and in turn attract more customers.
3. Blogs offer multiple ways to deliver your message.
If you're not the best writer, you can start an audio or video blog and can therefore still reach your customers in a personal way.
4. Blog posts encourage immediate responses from your customers.
Questions, comments and feedback from your customers can help you better address their needs, adjust your campaigns, and react to the market's changing demands.
5. Blogs help you expand your reach online.
By pinging search engines and using RSS feeds you can syndicate your content online, boost your reach and influence, and allow customers to control their communications with your company.
6. Blogs increase transparency and help you establish credibility.
Blogs are much more personal than a corporate website and because they are regularly updated, customers can remain informed about your business and feel more connected to you. Your blog can be your selling point and can sway prospective customers to choose you and your services over the competition.
Blogs are about communicating and building relationships with your readers. Use your blog for branding your business, building your reputation and communicating with your audience ' not just for making a sale.
There are a variety of ways you can use your blog to communicate with your readers and promote your business, while unobtrusively going after the sale.
You can use your blog to:
· Write product reviews and link to product pages (consider signing up to be an affiliate)
· Write insightful articles or tips relevant to your audience
· Recommend products and services (yours or someone else's)
· Post and archive company newsletters
· Share company news and product updates
· Offer special incentives and promotions
· Ask customers to complete surveys and provide feedback
Generating new content for your blog does not have to be a daunting task. You don't have to worry about writing it all yourself. Instead, you can directly post your company newsletters as well as relevant third-party articles, reviews, and links found using sites like StumbleUpon and Google News.
Remember to include links where appropriate to your own website and product pages. Having a blog also allows you to make regular updates quickly and without needing a webmaster.
A blog is a highly effective tool in promoting your business, so start now.
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com/
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6 Reasons Why You Need to Have a Blog with Your Website.
A Customer Support System to Handle Your Growing Site
Good customer service can make all the difference - especially in ecommerce where there is no face-to-face contact.
By offering excellent service you have the opportunity to turn happy customers into loyal customers. What's more, business studies have shown that happy customers tell 4 people about their positive experience. Unhappy customers on the other hand tell 10 people how unsatisfied they are with your company.
Do the math... If you are able to offer excellent service, your bottom line will thank you for it. But in ecommerce this is easier said then done. Customer support requests can be inundating and highly time-consuming for many growing businesses.
How do you offer excellent customer service that creates growth - without sacrificing your time and sanity? What is Customer Service?
You can't build a good e-business without solid customer service. This means responding to customer enquiries, dealing with lost packages, payment problems and returns - and finally answering questions from customers.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back to your site and turning them into repeat buyers. You want to send them away happy and impressed enough to tell their friends - who may also become repeat customers - about your business.
The good news is that a customer service system that's fast, efficient and delivers excellent value to the customer can be set up with very minimal cost, technology and time.
You'll notice that few books on ecommerce deal with customer service.
After all - can customer service really boost sales and increase the bottom line? We believe it can and it should.
The key to good customer service is responsiveness. This doesn't just mean responding to your customers demands, try to anticipate them. Good customer service exceeds your customer's expectations.
A website with 100,000 subscribers and turnover of close to $1 million a year only needs ONE customer service rep working 20 hours a week if the proper systems are set up well.
2 Key Concepts of Online Customer Service
As mentioned earlier, the single most important aspect of online customer service is responsiveness. You can increase your responsiveness by focusing on its 2 key components: communication and interactivity.
1. Communication
Communication should be transparent and painless:
· Visibility: clearly display your contact information on your website. Provide easily accessible email links, phone numbers and feedback forms.
· Availability: Let your customers know that you'll be happy to help them.
· Email lists: these are powerful tools to provide your customers with relevant information, nurture the relationship and encourage further contact.
· Autoresponders: Autoresponders can automatically send your customers the appropriate information in response to a standard question. If a customer replies to an autoresponder they can receive an automated email with a link to the FAQ section on your website and the contact information of your support team.
2. Interactivity
Interactivity can help significantly in building a relationship with your customers. By showing a personal interest in your customer you will build trust and likeability.
Here are some tools you can use to encourage interactivity.
· Surveys: surveys allow you to not only show your customers that you value their opinion but also gather valuable feedback in the process.
· Incentives: reward your customers for interacting with you. These could be discounts for filled out feedback forms, prizes for creative slogans, bonuses for repeat purchases, you name it.
Good customer service can make all the difference. The trick is to offer the best possible service in the least time-consuming way.
Remember that one happy customer could lead to a lot of additional sales over the years through repeat purchases and referrals. It would be a waste not to use this existing resource to the full extent. But while offering great service - you need to pay attention to automation and efficiency so you can free up time to focus on growing your business.
Bjorn Brands is a successful entrepreneur who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same. http://www.moneyacces.com
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Crucial Elements To A Quality Online Storefront
Copyright © 2008 WebCart
Regardless of how long you may have had an online business, immediately you will learn the importance of the shopping cart and online storefront. The more convenient and easy you make it on the customer, chances are you will generate more sales through your online business. To start, you should consider a few crucial elements to help build a quality online storefront.
When you walk into a store, without realizing it the store is usually organized in a particular manner allowing you to find what you need rather easily. With your online storefront, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to navigate their way through. The quicker customers can find what they are looking for without difficulty, the more inclined they will be to purchase and return later on.
While it is important that customers can quickly find what they need, it should also be in-depth to allow them to read about various products. You want to give customers access to more detailed information, but not on the first screen. Because of this, all of your pages should download quickly allowing your customers to scroll from page to page.
Along with organizing the online storefront in a particular way, you want to group related items together. By structuring product displays that are related with each other right next to each other, it allows customers to quickly find all the products that are associated with each other.
Aside from the organizational aspect to online storefronts, the information you provide is crucial as well. When you go into an actual store, the information you will find on a product is minimal because of the limited space. However, with an online business you have all the space in the world. Therefore, it is important that you give a detailed description and information on all products and the business as a whole.
Customers should quickly be able to identify the products offered, prices for them, shipping charges, additional information on the products, and a phone number to speak with an associate. This gives customers the opportunity to speak with someone if they have any questions.
The last part to building a solid online storefront is making purchasing as easy as possible. While it may seem obvious, the easier you make it on customers to purchase their items, the more sales you will generate. Too many online businesses require customers to go through several pages to finally purchase their items. The fewer steps a customer has to go through, the better off you and your customer will be.
There are a number of things you can do to create a promising online storefront. However, the best thing you can do is make your online storefront easy to navigate through and easy to purchase.
Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing.To find out more information about WebCart's seo friendly shopping cart software visit our website.
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The Importance Of Quality Website Content
Copyright © 2008 WebCart
With over 8 billion websites on the internet you have a lot of competition to get your website seen. Or do you? If you have spent any amount of time surfing around online you have quickly realized that there is a lot of terrible websites out there. That is good news for you if you are a quality conscious website owner. In this article we will talk about the importance of quality website content and adding quality website content.
When someone first arrives at your website they immediately form an opinion of it. You have a small window of opportunity to capture their attention. Although some of this is a design issue the content of your website makes a big difference as well. If you have a good body of web pages for them to read you stand a better chance of them staying around for awhile.
What is say and how you say it is an important aspect of quality content. This means no spelling errors, short sentences that make sense, and content that solves a problem or answers a question. If you are not a good writer consider taking a writing course. Most web pages provide content in the form of an article that is 400 to 500 words long.
This is not a long article, but it does give you a chance to add useful content to your website if you do it right. If you just do not think you can write well, then hire it out. This is your website and your business. On the internet, a quality website has quality content and you do not want to cut corners here if you expect to pass by your competition.
In your content you have a chance to sell a little bit as well. You want to work into your website content links to sales pages for products you sell. You do not want your content to be a bunch of sales letters, but you do want to add content that mixes in information with sales. After all one of your goals with your website is to make money.
You would think that words matter when you are adding content and they do. Search engines can not read graphic. They only read words. For this reason you want your new website content to target specific keywords and keyword phrases. Build each new web page around a targeted keyword. Write 400 to 500 words around that phrase and then move onto the next one. Websites like Wordtracker.com can quickly provide you a list of hundreds of keyword phrases your visitors are searching for.
If you think quality first and quantity second you can build a website that provides your visitors a satisfying experience and have them coming back to see what new content you have added over and over.
Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing.To find out more information about WebCart visit http://www.webcart.net. For eCommerce marketing tips visit the WebCart Blog
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Interview: Easy Store Creator
What do you think is the most important component of a shopping cart?
Assuring the customer that their information it is safe!What do you consider sets you apart from your competitors?
What is your pricing structure?Our excellent customer service. Many of our customers sign up because when they
call, 1. they get a live person and 2. I speak English.
Our service is only $67 per month and a 25% discount for yearly.Does your solution come with hosting?
Yes it does. Your readers can check our site for all of our
features.
How many shipping options do you provide?
We have USPS, UPS, and FedEx and Canada Post.What are your contract term sizes?
We have no contracts.Do you provide a free trial?
No, we do not provide a free trial. Your readers can go to our website and under
FAQ's see the exact tutorials that our store owners view.
How can a potential buyer find out more?
By going to http://easystorecreator.com/ or calling 866-324-2764 Monday -
Friday 8:30 - 2:30 PST. They can also reach us via live chat.
A Note To My Readers
You can now participate in these interviews. Simply submit your questions here.
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Do You Own - And Control Your Domain Name? You May Be Surprised!
All too often, website owners are lax in nailing down ownership and control of valuable domain names, and as a result, are often required to litigate these issues costing them thousands. The case of Dawson v. Brandsberg illustrates these costly mistakes and how to avoid them.
Dawson v. Brandsberg - The Facts
The dispute was between a website operator and developer regarding rights to a domain name that consists of the operator's name: "robertedawson.com". Plaintiff Dawson and his real estate firm (the website operator) hired Defendant Brandsberg (the website developer) to develop a website. A key fact is that there was no written agreement regarding possession or use of the domain name.
Other important facts include:
Eventually, the business relationship soured, and the Plaintiffs sought to transfer the domain name and the website to another internet service provider. The Defendant refused to transfer the domain name and the website, and essentially held the domain name hostage.
Dawson v. Brandsberg - The Decision
Dawson brought suit against Brandsberg in the U.S. District Court in Virginia under the Cyberpiracy Provisions of the Lanham Act,Section 43 (d), 15 U.S.C. 1125(d). Dawson v. Brandsberg, 2006 WL 2915234 (W.D. Va. Oct. 10, 2006). Plaintiffs argued that the federal cyberpiracy prevention statute was applicable, and that it protected the domain name and imposed liability for a bad faith registration with the intent to profit from the registration. Plaintiffs also argued that it had a non-exclusive, implied license to use the domain name, given that Plaintiffs had paid for registration, development, hosting, and maintenance of the website.
Defendant Blandsberg argued that:
Defendant Blandsberg filed for a motion to dismiss most of the counts of the suit. The Court ruled in favor of Plaintiff Dawson denying the motion. The Court seemed to rely heavily on Plaintiffs' arguments regarding the implied license, stating "Even assuming that Brandsberg created the website, if Plaintiffs have no license to use the website or domain name, the creation would be valueless".
Conclusion: Lessons Learned
Don't rely on oral agreements; get it in writing! Provide not only for ownership of the website, but also of the domain name.
Provide that your domain name be registered in your name, not in the name of the vendor.
Also, note that control over the domain name is very important, and control goes with knowledge of the ID and passwords to the domain name account with the Registrar. So to maintain control, be sure to change the password so that you are the only one who has access to the administrative controls for your domain name at your Registrar's site.
Chip Cooper is a leading intellectual property, software, and Internet attorney who advises software and ecommerce businesses nationwide. Chip's easy and affordable online contract drafting service coordinates website contracts such as Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Subscription, Membership, and SaaS agreements. Visit Chip's http://digicontracts.com/ site and download his FREE report, "12 Sure-Fire Ways Your Website Can Get You Sued".
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Make Your Website More Mobi-Friendly
Copyright © 2008 Jim Edwards
Ok! Tis the season to make startling predictions about where the web will head this year and what rates your attention in the world of ecommerce.
I'll say I've seen some great predictions by others this year, including some of my friends who say the "newbie" market and the Asian markets will explode this year.
However, I want to talk about something that most of the "geek" set take for granted, but none of us fully understand the impact of just yet: mobile surfing.
No, I'm not talking about hauling your laptop around to find the nearest free hotspot, I'm talking about the tens-of-millions (if not hundreds-of-millions) of cell phones, iPods and other mobile devices built to surf the Web while on the go.
With so much surfing power now in the hands (literally) of millions of people, anyone with an online business can no longer ignore the importance of this growing audience.
So what caused this great epiphany about the rights of the mobile surfing masses? Simple!
I got an iPod Touch for my birthday (the iPhone without the phone part) this past month and realized I could surf the Web through any available wireless network, order music, and watch YouTube videos without my computer.
Sure, everyone in my family carries a cell phone, but the power of this mobile Internet access didn't come home to me fully until I was sitting in my easy chair laughing at an online video downloaded directly to my iPod.
In my opinion, there's an expanding world of mobile users out there that most online business owners (myself included) neglect.
However, the great news is that you can start catering to the mobile market now more easily than ever.
The following tips should help anyone who sells online (or wants to sell online) make their sites more "mobile-friendly":
- If your website depends on surfers seeing your layout at a certain browser size, consider creating a mobile-friendly version of your site and put a link at the top that says "Mobile Users Click Here".
- Keep your html code simple and avoid using numerous graphics or depending on a fixed width to display text properly.
- Use a single table to display text and graphics so the mobile device's browser can "squish" your site horizontally to make it fit on the small screen.
- Keep navigation on your mobile-friendly site down to two or three links at the top to minimize choices and cut down on load times.
- Since mobile devices load web pages in chunks, put your most important information toward the top of the page so you don't force surfers to scroll too much.
- Test your site on at least one mobile device to see how it looks.
- Test your site on the Opera Browser (one of the most popular mobile browsers). Download it free from www.Opera.com/download/, pull up your site in the browser, hit SHIFT+F11, and preview how your site looks to a mobile user.
By the way, anyone who understands web design realizes that I just described how to build a site for the Web back in 1996!
If you wan to hit the emerging mobile surfing market, the first step is to realize they exist.
The second step is simply to make a few allowances in your design to allow them access to your site's information.
The final step is to keep your eye on this emerging user-base and look for opportunities to serve them.
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click..."A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up Your OWN Moneymaking 'Mini' Websites... Without Being a Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"
Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
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Top 10 Tips for Creating Unique Online Content
A website is more than just merging photos and graphics. Webmasters must also integrate quality themed content into their website. A "sticky" website is one that attracts individuals and encourages them to return. "Sticky websites" contains content that is related and of interest to the prospective customers. A sticky site is a place people will visit again and again. By creating an atmosphere people like to revisit, will increase their exposure to your product or service.
1. Top 10 List
Create a top 10 list of industry sites resources, and products that are related to the website's theme. The list should contain helpful resources or authority sites that are respected and have genuine useful information. Providing a credible top 10 will help web visitors and showcase tenability of the website.
Example: RSS Top 10 - http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-top-10.htm
Top 10 Small Biz - http://www.small-business-software.net/top10-small-biz.htm
2. Product Comparisons
If you managed an industry website, consider creating a product or service comparison guide. Use a grid to illustrate the differences between the specific products or services. The comparison guide will be of interest to website visitors and contain unique aggregated data to assist in the visitor's decision making.
Example: Podcast Directory Comparison - http://www.podcasting-tools.com/podcasting-directory-comparison.htm
3. Consumer Reports
Product warnings, recalls or alerts are generally issued by government agencies. The product alerts contain a list of related products, and any critical information related to that product. Consider syndicating the RSS feed of products from a specific industry or sector, displaying critical information will generate goodwill with potential customers and demonstrate social-consciousness.
Example: Overview of Toilets - http://www.terrylove.com/crtoilet.htm
4. Buyers Guides
Creating a buyer's guide is especially useful in the holiday season. A buyers guide or gift guide will attract both advertisers and web surfers. You can create a Buyers Guide using a web form, which effectively makes the process easier to manage. You can take the the Buyers Guide a step further, by making the guide interactive. Ask website visitors questions and offer helpful suggestions, based on their preferences. Analysis of product specifications, features, reviews and comparisons can be provided as part of an online buyers guide, important products or services can be highlighted in the guide.
5. Tutorial
Creating educational tutorials or demonstrations about how a technology or service is effective in a specific industry or sector, is not only useful but it helps website visitors consider how they might further use a product or service. Consider providing wizards, tutorials or educational material that will assist in educating users. Educational materials also distinguishes the website publishers as knowledgeable in a specific area.
Example: Tutorial - http://www.feedforall.com/podcasting-tutorial.htm or http://www.feedforall.com/rss.ppt (downloadable power point)
6. Glossary
Decipher those difficult to understand words, for your website visitors. Despite sometimes being entrenched in an industry, consumers often remain unaware of what specific terminology means. Provide a clear, concise glossary of terms related to a product or service. Educating users about the lingo will help them better understand a product or services benefit.
Example: Ecommerce Terms - buildecommercesite.blogspot.com/2008/04/glossary.html Medical Terminology - http://www.hospital-software.com/medical-dictionary-online.htm
7. History
Profile the history of an industry, event, or individual related to the product or service that you are promoting. The historical perspective will educate and attract those who have an industry interest.
Example: What is Shareware / History of Shareware - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/article25.html
8. Online Tool or Service
Provide a online web tool or service. Webmasters or search engine marketers may provide a free website critique or a free tool related to the product or service they are marketing in order to attract web traffic. The tool or free service will act as a lost leader bringing web visitors to their website for an indefinite amount of time.
Example: Button Maker - http://www.feedforall.com/public/rss-graphic-tool.htm
9. Interviews or Success Stories
Generate content by interviewing industry professionals. Not only are interviews interesting to website visitors, but also webmasters might find a number of interviewees provide links back to the interview from related industry websites.
Example: Software Success Stories and Interviews - http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com/software-success.htm
10. Interactive Content
Content that is interactive will not only generate buzz, it will draw in website visitors. One of the first examples of interactive content, the Subservient chicken, generated not only buzz, but a good amount of traffic for Burger King. Marketers have adapted interactive content allowing webmasters to cater content based on web visitors choices or behavior.
Example: Subservient Chicken - http://www.subservientchicken.com/
My Virtual Model - http://www.mvm.com/en/go_shopping.htm (select clothes to be modeled)
Creative content building techniques can draw interested website visitors. Create timeless, unique content and watch your webtraffic and visitors grow.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com/ software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net/ a wireless text messaging software company.
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Interview: AbleCommerce.com
We’ve been developing eCommerce software for over 14 years. Please download a copy of AbleCommerce and compare us with ANY of our competitors you’ll quickly see our experience in the quality of the code and product design. AbleCommerce is fully compliant with payment card industry standards and may be used in a load balanced environment for high traffic stores. Visit our website at http://www.ablecommerce.com/ or call us toll free 866.571.5888 Monday – Friday 9am to 5pm PST 
What do you consider sets you apart from your competitors?
What is your pricing structure?$995.00 to purchase for use on your own server or hosting facility.
Does your solution come with hosting?You can get an on demand hosted version for $195.00 setup and $99.00 a month.
How many shipping options do you provide?UPS, USPS, FedEx, DHL and Canada Post. In addition to built in shipping by flat fee, weight and order total.
What are your contract term sizes?Hosting is available month to month no long term contract required.
Do you provide a free trial?You can test drive a fully featured evaluation of AbleCommerce free for 30 days on our servers or download it and install it to your hosting environment.
How can a potential buyer find out more?
A Note To My Readers
You can now participate in these interviews. Simply submit your questions here.
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Special Edition: Mobile vs. Normal Websites
I recently published an article about the growing importance of mobile websites. The author of it linked to another article his own blog about Sly Filters Going Mobile. In the comments section of that blog I asked the author the following question: Hi Nate, The real difference between websites for mobile devices and websites that are viewed on desktop computers or laptops is the way they are formatted.
Question:What are the differences between mobile and normal websites?
Answer:
Here is the part of the article about Sly Filter Going Mobile:
Because mobile internet access speeds are normally slower than broadband speeds, the content for mobile sites has to be ’slimmed down’ to take this into consideration. As such, images are normally greatly reduced in size or removed completely.
The web page layout is also formatted so that it renders correctly. This means the mobile user does not have to scroll sideways to read the text.
In your question you made the reference to “normal websites”. Although websites that are designed for desktop and laptop viewing are ’seen’ as normal websites, very soon we will start to see more mobile users accessing the internet, and more often, than desktop and laptop users.
This will also cause mobile device manufacturers develop mobile devices with more advanced internet access and viewing capabilities.We have found that having a mobile version of our website, known as a ‘mobi’ version, means that our clients can access the main parts of our website directly from their mobile phone or PDA (or any mobile device that they use) so they no longer have to be at the desk or have a laptop with them.
You can read the rest of this article here.
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Mobi Websites: The BIG Revolution on Small Phones
The world is on an ever changing spree. The last fifty years have seen more changes in the world of electronics than the last 200 years. Bulky computers gave way for slim sleek desktops.
The un-portability of desktops made people think and invent laptops. The laptops eventually became too heavy and cumbersome to be carried around so they gave way to palm tops and blackberries. Now, the situation is different.
The Internet as we know it will soon be making way for a new revolutionalized version called the mobile internet.
Picture this: An executive needs to make a presentation about the latest market trends. Earlier, he would need to go to his desktop or open his laptop to surf and gather information from the net. These days he just connects to the internet with his Blackberry and accesses the mobile internet. In minutes, he has all the information he requires.
Scenarios like these are becoming more and more common with the advent of phones like Nokia N5 and Blackberry.
Now the arrival of the Mobi internet has further enabled the busy executive to explore the net as per his convenience. What is Mobi internet? Mobi internet is the internet which has been specially designed for mobile phones and wireless devices such as PDA's. Mobi internet offers more than just web browsing. It offers features such as Global Positioning Service (GPS) amongst others.
We all know that mobile internet is the new rage these days amongst the young crowd. However, there are many businesses and websites which are migrating from the regular internet to the mobi versions. What are the advantages of mobi over regular internet for businesses?
There are more mobile users than laptop or desktop users. With mobi, your website can be viewed any time and anywhere.
Most consumers like browsing on their mobile phones while waiting at the bus stand or at leisure. There is a better chance of getting hits on the mobi net than on the laptop/desktop as these are used purely for work and business purposes
A 'dot mobi' name tells your customer that the site is mobile friendly
If you buy the mobi version of your company's website now, you will not need to worry once the mobile internet space starts getting crowded. The mobi websites are slowly but surely increasing. The pioneers get the maximum visibility.
In developing countries, mobiles are cheaper than laptops and desktops. A mobi website will ensure the visibility of your business amongst millions of people.
Most people would love using their mobile phones for browsing the net since no one likes to hold a mouse or tap on a keyboard for long. However, there are not many mobile friendly sites available. Go mobi, you will gain more customers.
It's predicted that the cost of mobile internet advertising will go into billions of dollars. Be one of the first to take advantage and get a profit from advertising.
Mobi internet is the new kid on the block which is slowly becoming a rage. Mobi websites are a great indication to the internet buffs that your site is mobile friendly.
So, invest in mobi site and see the difference. Like they say the "early bird gets the worm".
Invest in mobi internet and score over your competitors in the years to come.
Industrial Air filtration manufacturer Sly Filters (Europe) Ltd have launched a mobile version of their website. Go to http://slyfilters.com/blog/sly-filters-goes-mobi to see how this has given them an advantage over their competitors.
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5 Secrets to Attracting More Business Whenever You Open Your Mouth
"So, what do you do?"
Does this question make you cringe because you have to speak your 30-second introduction? Perhaps you're uncomfortable with it because it's just "not quite right"---and it doesn't capture the magic of what you really do to help others. Or, maybe you're wondering if it sounds canned, corny, and over-rehearsed. That's a real turn-off, for you and the other person, isn't it?
One thing I know for sure is we've all been through the exercise of writing our 30-second introductions multiple times. Typically, you get a piece of paper on it with lines that you have to fill in, and voila, you have your 30-second introduction! Maybe it's time to revisit the old "30-second", update it, and breathe new life into it so you can attract more business!
Would you like some tips about how you can energize and emotionalize your 30-second introduction, or "30-second sound byte". Great! Here's how...
The Formula
As human beings, we respond to people, topics, and things that stimulate our emotions, so it is crucial, if you want to be "heard", that your 30-second sound byte stimulates emotions. If you fail to stimulate an emotional interest or response, people simply won't listen to you. Here is the 5-part, sure-fire formula to get the emotional response you want from others to generate interest in YOU!
1. Don't label yourself (I am a mortgage broker...I am a Web designer...).
2. Identify "What" you are really selling (benefits and value).
3. Use strong verbs, such as create, design, and teach. (NEVER use adjectives.)
4. Use numbers to "dollarize" and quantify what you do.
5. Relate these numbers to Money, Love, or Health. Let's get into some more detail about each of the 5 components of the formula...
1. Don't label yourself.
As of this moment, stop labeling by saying, "I am a graphics artist", or "I am a marketing consultant". As soon as you say something like that, people try to place you somewhere in their minds, because the brain is a HUGE filing cabinet! For example, if you say, "I'm a mortgage broker", usually the first thing the other person will think is, "I've already got one, and I don't need one". Oh, and you're selling promotional products? "Got some, don't need any more." If you label yourself, you instantly close the other person's receptiveness to you, because they think they don't need you. Give yourself a greater chance of being heard by keeping the other person's mental filing cabinet open.
2. Identify "What" you are really selling (benefits and value).
You're not just a mortgage broker, marketing consultant, or a massage therapist. The key in this step is to identify what it is that you are truly selling. For example, if you're a mortgage broker, perhaps you're selling financial independence through investment in real estate. If you are a marketing consultant, you may be selling how to increase a person's income, and a massage therapist is selling stress relief.
Identify the ultimate benefit and value someone will receive by working with you.
3. Use strong verbs, such as create, design, and teach. (NEVER use adjectives.)
Verbs are the most powerful words in the English language, so, you certainly want to put them to work for you.
All of us also tend to define each other by the verbs we use in our speech. For example, if you say you help, you are the "helper". If you say I assist, you are the "assistant". Think about this...if you say you help or assist, the client still has a lot of work to do in their minds to solve their problem, don't they? Their problem still isn't solved, and they're not interested in your solution, because they want pain relief and results now!
Use strong verbs in your 30-second sound byte, such as, "I teach", "I create", or "I develop," because they make you appear stronger, dynamic, and more helpful in solving problems.
It's also a good idea not to use use adjectives in your 30-second sound byte. Repeated studies in the advertising field show they simply don't work. Saying, "I have the most fabulous skin cream that works wonders!" seems like a sales pitch, and is not very credible. This leads us into our 4th part of the formula...
4. Use numbers to "dollarize" and quantify what you do.
Numbers are the MOST powerful "words" you can use in your 30-second sound byte. People remember numbers because:
- Numbers make the abstract real.
- Numbers are shown to make us anxious and curious.
For example, if you say, "I teach people the 5 secrets about how to create financial freedom," or "I've developed 2 techniques how to increase your online traffic by 30% within 2 months," it captures attention, and creates curiosity, doesn't it?
"Dollarizing" your value is the most powerful thing you can do to create both interest and a response in the listener to your 30-second sound byte. Think of your best success story, and use this as a guideline to dollarize and quantify your sound byte.
The last piece of the formula is to...
5. Relate these numbers to Money, Love or Health.
Things having to do with money, love or health creates the strongest emotional triggers in people. That's because we all have very strong needs regarding all three of these topics---they are key primary needs we all need to have satisfied. Tying what you do with these three trigger words almost guarantees you will get a stronger emotional response another person.
To give you an idea how to put all five pieces of this formula together, here's an example of my 30-second sound byte:
"I teach solo entrepreneurs the 7 steps to increase their income by 50%."
The most common response I receive when I tell people this is, "Really? Tell me how you do it." I then continue with additional sound bytes to keep their interest (rather than jumping into a long, drawn out story about myself).
If you use these 5 steps to create your 30-second introduction, you will create an emotionally charged message that will capture peoples' attention, and generate interest in what you have to say.
Bonita L. Richter, MBA, founder of Profit Strategies, teaches solo professionals and small business owners how to launch and grow businesses, attract more clients, and market their businesses to increase sales, business success, and generate wealth. Find out more about how to market your business and boost sales with her popular FREE eBooks at ===> Profit Strategies.
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Domain Name Registration and Privacy
The internet is a wonderful thing, except for a few small details. When you register your first domain name, you get your introduction to one of them. There's a lot of information they want. Your name, your email address, your physical address, your phone number. For each of 4 separate categories, and the Registrant, Admin and Technical categories are publicly available (for almost all TLDs - Top Level Domains, with the possible exception of .ws - Western Samoa).
Email addresses, which must be valid, phone numbers and physical addresses which also must be valid. I personally think it's both absurd and dangerous to make this information so easily available. Once again the right to privacy of law-abiding individuals is being abridged supposedly to help catch lawbreakers. Since this information would be provided under a court order, making it publicly available just invites abuse.
Spammers, scammers, stalkers and the idle whacko can easily get this information. And it's a nice start on identity theft, too. However, for most people, the most likely result is an increase in the amount of spam you get. But, much worse can and has happened.
So what solutions are there? Basically there two ways to protect your privacy if you are a private individual without access to a legal entity such as a company to own the domain name (note that if it is a company, you must provide accurate information. This only moves the problem to a slightly less personal level).
First, a proxy registration is one alternative.
Essentially you make a binding legal agreement with a company which will register the domain name as if they owned it and then provide their own information to meet the requirements. For each domain, they will set-up a special email which they will monitor and forward to you, usually after spam filtering, if you want them to.
They, of course, retain your data and will also monitor physical mail. You will be notified of first class mail which appears to or could be legal documents or if registered or couriered mail arrives. They will, for a fee, ship such to you, if you agree and pay. Generally such items would be sent by courier. Phone callers will be directed to use the email or physical address shown in the WhoIs record.
Of course, under subpoena or other specified conditions they will provide your details. You will have full rights as owner - as long as you behave and don't violate the agreement.
The other alternative, usually called "private registration", is a little different. Here your name would still appear as registrant. You would provide the names of the admin and technical contacts. But the address, email and phone number would be provided and monitored by the organization handling the private registration in essentially the same manner as a proxy registration. Thus with this alternative you remain in full legal control of your domain name since it is registered in your name rather than the name of a proxy.
On the face of it this second alternative sounds better, but your name is hanging out there on view and you may have valid reasons for not wanting that (perhaps the company you work for takes a dim view of moonlighting, or you have had a stalking problem or are doing something perfectly legitimate but don't want your name linked to it).In that case, a proxy registration is the only real alternative.
In case you're thinking you can hide out and do whatever sort of bad stuff behind a proxy or private registration, don't even dream about it. These outfits take it very personally if you misbehave and the legal agreements spell it out.
If you decide to pursue a proxy or private registration, make very sure that you are working with a legitimate company with a track record. A domain name can be a very valuable possession. Both your registrar and, if it's a separate organization, the entity that does the proxy or private registration must be quality, legitimate outfits. Registrars offering extremely low prices which are way out of line with the going rates - unless it's a special - just might be after your credit card and identity. Also, this time, actually read the agreement and TOS so you do know what you're doing and what could happen under what circumstances.
Wondering why I'm writing about this? Well, it's because I'm getting more and more spam and I started doing some research on possible solutions. And I figured, I wan't the only one looking to do something about the problem. And then, I discovered that some registrars will provide free proxy or private registration with your domain name purchase. So think about it and do some checking before you buy a domain name. Your privacy is a precious possession.
Richard teaches, trains and consults, on and off-line. And he writes a lot. Visit http://www.aboutwebhosting.info/ for articles, information, resources and links related to web hosting and domain registration and http://www.building-ecommerce-websites/ for more on eCommerce in particular.
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How to buy expired domain traffic
Right now, it seems that almost everyone is rushing to buy expired domain traffic to enjoy the unlimited power of web site traffic. Web masters and online entrepreneurs buy expired domain traffic for their own personal use or buying a fair amount of traffic from others, who own a web based business. Here is a small primer that explains what a traffic domain really means to those people who are still new to this term.
A traffic domain is a domain that is either expired and still getting considerable amount of traffic, or the one that is being searched by internet users, by typing the web site address URL into the browser address bar (people call this type-in traffic). Fairly successful websites that expire due to some unknown reasons always come with a good rate of traffic and inbound links. This is the reason why people rush to buy expired domain traffic from those people who deal with such domains.
Tip: Inbound traffic may be quite misleading as there are many URL's that have similarly sounding names or names with intentional spelling errors. Traffic that results when someone is trying to reach a particular web site, but land on some other web sites, is at most useless and misleading.
A number of expired domain names show a satisfactory level of inbound traffic and when you buy such expired domains, you can always expect good and effective results. When you a buy expired domain traffic-rich domain and develop a web site over it, you can even get about 20-25 visitors a day, that ultimately results in a revenue of about $10. This type of web site is a very good candidate for a pay-per-lead affiliate program.
When you buy expired domain traffic from a vendor, you can use it to redirect the visitors to your other web sites. However, buying such traffic could be very risky and dangerous, as there are several unscrupulous operators, who may dupe you in the end.
There are two types of scams that occur with such purchases:
a) Expired domain traffic vendors may deliver the targeted hits with your purchase, but the real truth is that the actual traffic may never exist in life
b) Such traffic may also come from sources like auto surf web sites that take your visitors without their knowledge.
Caution: You may never know the targeted traffic that you buy is really targeted or not!
Here is a classical example:
Let us say that you will buy expired domain traffic from a vendor at a rate of $55. The sales package will contain a high quality and premium targeted visitors. Now, if you have such a large number of qualified visitors in your kitty, will you be ready to sell them at such a ridiculously low price? Let say that you are selling a product for $50 and only 1% of these qualified visitors will make a purchase, and then the total sales will amount to a staggering $50,000! Do you believe that a vendor will be a fool to let go of such a marvelous business opportunity? One word of caution now! When you buy expired domain traffic from a vendor, be sure that you check out the veracity of the claim made for the package offered for sale.
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.
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How To Choose A Domain Name
The purpose of this article is to discuss how to choose a domain name for your online business.
WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?
Let me explain . . .
Recently, I went to a lawyer to change my name for some administrative purposes. To my surprise, the lawyer told me that I can change my name to anything I want. And I can certainly change it again and again with just a small fee!
However, he told me with a serious expression that I cannot change my ID Number!
Though all of us have an ID Number and a name, we remember people by their names and not their ID Numbers. It's just so much easier to remember my name, Roger Loh, rather than by a long string of numbers, don't you think?
On the other hand, computers on the Internet communicate via Internet Protocol (IP) address. Each computer is identified by an IP address in this format:
eg. 192.168.100.1
Thus, strictly speaking, when you want to access a certain web site for information, you have to remember and type in the string of numbers that is the web site's IP address!
Thank goodness someone came up with the concept of domain names. In short, the Internet now use a Domain Name System (DNS) that converts domain names to IP addresses.
eg rogerloh.com -> 192.168.100.1
(Note: this is just an example and not the real IP address)
Now, all you need to do to access my site is to type my web site address [www.rogerloh.com] and the DNS will convert that to the actual IP address so that you computer can find my site.
So, a domain name is the part that comes after the "@" in your email address, or after the "www" in your web site:
Eg. A person with an email address of someone@rogerloh.com has a domain name of rogerloh.com
Eg. A person with a web site address of www@rogerloh.com has a domain name of rogerloh.com
Each domain name is also UNIQUE. Thus, since I have registered my domain name 'rogerloh.com', you cannot register it even if your name is the same as mine.
HOW TO CHOOSE A DOMAIN NAME
Before you register your domain name, here are some pointers on how to choose a domain name:
1) Choose a name that is easy to remember
2) A short name is better than a long name. However, short 1-word names are already mostly taken up. That's one of the reasons why you should go for other domains beside .COM (such as .NET .BIZ .INFO .WS)
3) Instead of 1-word names, you can create domain names by joining 2, 3 or even 4 words together (such as my domains, ‘ViralMLMLeads.ws' & ‘ViralMLMLeads.com'.)
Note that the capitalization is to capture the attention of humans easily, especially when we advertise the domain name.
In other words, domain names are NON-case sensitive. You can type in viralmlmleads.ws or VIRALMLMLEADS.WS or ViralMLMLeads.ws.
4) Some gurus advocate the use of hyphens in domain names. (So, a domain name can be viral-mlm-leads.com)
However, it is not conclusive that the hyphenated domain name is superior to the non-hyphenated name in terms of search engine ranking.
In fact, some gurus advocate that we must NOT use hyphens. They argue that when you tell someone your domain name verbally, it can be misleading and confusing! It's better to leave the hyphens out, especially when you do an audio recording or tele-seminar or advertise in the printed media.
5) The name should contain keywords that you are targeting for your online business. Keywords are search words or phrases that people typically type into their search engine when they look for information on the Internet.
Eg. Let's say I provide a solution to generate leads for MLM through a funded sponsoring franchise. Thus, it makes sense for me to include the terms like ‘MLM' and ‘leads'. That's how I got my domain name ViralMLMLeads.com
6) Before you go about registering a domain name, make a list of names on paper first. You can start with at least 10 to 20 names by brainstorming. Then cross out those that you don't want and prioritize those that you want. Next, attempt to register those you want according to your priority.
7) Think about how it would look on your business cards. Your domain name must be relevant to your business.
Eg. Do not choose a name associated with dog training if your online business deals solely in dog food
8) If you have a choice, secure a .COM domain name instead of any other extensions. Some people have tested that a .COM always rank higher on the search engines.
For further information, download your copy of FREE ebook on "How To Register A Domain Name And Build A Web Page Quickly And Easily!" from: http://www.rogerloh.com/20061105-domainweb.html If you are in a hurry to register a domain name, click the link below: http://domains.rogerloh.com/
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How to Create Attention-Grabbing Headlines Part 2
An effective headline should be well integrated with your website's focus and allow you to direct the eyes of your customers to where you want them to go. When it comes to creating a headline that demands attention, there is no set formula. But here's what most experts recommend.
First, study the competition and read existing headlines on the web to get a sense of what works, from successful ecommerce websites, and from direct marketing ads you might be getting through the mail.
When you've gotten a good idea of some of the existing headlines out there, get a pad and pencil and start making a list of at least 50 headlines that might apply to your product.
Don't worry about nailing it just yet, instead just write down whatever comes to mind. You will refine and test your headlines later. To start, analyze your customers and ask yourself:
·What do they care about most?
·What is the biggest problem they face?
·How can you help them solve it? And most importantly - How are they finding your site? What Google search terms are they using? Are you answering their search query with your headline?
If you find yourself getting stuck, realize this: most top copywriters don't come up with their own headlines. They copy them.
Top copywriters know certain set formulas work and they simply apply these formulas to their products... over and over again. Here's one example of a set formula. How to _____ and _____.
This is the formula used by Dale Carnegie for his best-selling book "How to Win Friends and Influence People."
You can apply this formula to just about any product. Selling job hunting services? How about this headline "How to Enjoy Your Career and Earn More Money." Selling exercise equipment? How about "How to Look Great and Feel Young Again."
Copywriter David Garfinkel offers the following advice: "Behind the title and headline is a secret code that makes it powerful.
The secret code is actually a generic formula that gets attention and creates desire in your prospect's mind. Every winning headline has a unique generic formula hidden inside." Here are some other formulas you can use. Each of these work on the "secret code" principle.
·Who Else Wants to ___________ ? For example: "Who else wants to Learn the Secrets of Ecommerce Success?"
·Revealed: The Secret to ____________. For example: "Revealed: The Secrets to Learning Foreign Languages Quickly."
·22 Reasons You _________________. This example uses the word "reasons" and provides a specific number for credibility. For example, "22 Reasons You Should Be Testing Your Headline Today."
·Don't Do ________ Before You Do __________. This example grabs the reader with a warning. For example, "Don't buy any Autoresponder Software Before You Read this Article."
In addition to the formulas above, a second strategy is to develop a longer headline that clearly spells out the key benefit of your product. This is the type of headline commonly used by Internet guru Armand Morin.
Here are some headlines used to sell his products. Notice how each headline clearly spells out the key benefit of his product.
·Create Cash Producing Sales Letters. The same Kind of Letters I Have Used To Generate $167,434 In Just 5 1/2 Months!
·Instantly Generate 30 SmartPages And Create An Avalanche Of LASER TARGETED TRAFFIC To Your Website Or Affiliate Link —ALL In Under 3 Minutes Flat!
·I will show you how to... take any mediocre site and turn it into Amazingly Stunning...in less time than it takes you to drink a cup of coffee!
·What If You Could... Hire a World-Class Graphics Designer Who Would Create Amazing eCovers For You 24 Hours A Day 7 Days A Week For Only a One-Time Low Payment?
Learn from the 100 best headlines ever written, compiled by Jay Abraham. Once you have your preliminary list of headlines written down, (and remember, you can do this over several days - we don't expect you to wrack your brain doing it in one sitting) take a break, relax, and forget about them.
The very next day, take a fresh look at the headlines you wrote. Cross out as many as you can until you're down to 20 or so. If you think of better headlines, add them. Then once again, take a break and forget about them.
Again, on the next day, look at your list and further reduce the list to 5 - 10 headlines. Now you're done with the first step and ready to move to the second step. The testing of your headlines. Now the fun begins.
Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how he can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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7 Steps To Design A Signup Form
Even if you're a genius in directing traffic to your site, traffic alone won't make you any money.
If your visitors leave without making a purchase, your traffic is as useful as a fork is to eat ice cream. And unfortunately, only a very low percentage of online visitors buy something on their first visit.
That's why you will have to make sure to draw them back to your site, establish a trusting relationship and remind them of the great products you're selling.
How would you do all this?
Use The Power Of The Signup form. The signup form is one of the most critical elements of your website because it gives you the tools to turn a visitor into a prospect.
The moment visitors complete a signup form, they give you the permission and the ability to start a dialogue - a long-term relationship that will hopefully translate into sales down the road. That's why it's so important to design a signup form that attracts your visitors enough so that give you their name and email address.
It needs to offer value and create trust. Designing a signup form might not be as exciting as creating animated Flash movies or experimenting with different website designs, but it is lot more critical to get right.
Signup forms are a very important online marketing tool and usually form the gateway through which revenue is generated. We've seen signup rates go up by 8% just with simple tweaks to the design of our signup forms.
We'll share these tweaks with you in this tactic and show you how to design a killer form.
Designing Forms that Convert Well
1. Keep Your Forms Short and To the Point Shorter forms generally get higher completion rates. So strip your forms down and ask for the absolute minimum amount of information you need from your visitors. For subscription forms this is often just a first name and email address. Sometimes you might want to ask additional questions to gauge customer views or collect marketing data. In this case you need to be very careful. Is the additional information worth the drop in sales you might create from expanding the length of your form?
2. Mention Your Privacy Policy People are often reluctant to give out their email on the internet. Stating a privacy policy in simple terms can often boost form completion rates.
3. Watch Your Submit Buttons Be careful not to create any obstacles to the completion of a subscription. This is an unwise thing to do. How often would one need to actually clear a form this simple and start over? The problem with the clear button is that a significant percentage of users who are in a hurry will click on that button, see their data get lost, and then give up in frustration. Remove all CLEAR or RESET buttons. They don't help and can create problems when clicked on by accident. To improve the form above we would also suggest renaming the SUBMIT button to something more meaningful. Never stick with the default text "Submit." Change it to something like:
·"Subscribe Now for Free Training"
·"Get Your Free Report"
·"Claim Your Free Audio"
4. Make Your Form STAND OUT Often, your form constitutes the core of your most wanted response on a page. In this case the entire goal of the page is to get a visitor to sign up. For pages like this the form should stand out like a zebra on a subway train. It must draw the user's attention.
5. Use Multiple Pages to Boost Signups on Longer Forms Often, you may need to collect more data than just a visitor's first name and email address. Yet, adding more fields to a form usually causes a drop in signup rates. The way to do both is to have a 2-step signup. In the first step, you request only a first name and email address. In the second step, you can ask for any additional data.
6. Always Place Your Form Above the Fold The form should always be on the top fold of your web page. This is the portion of the screen that appears in the average visitor's browser window without having to scroll down. Make sure the entire form is visible above the fold and that the submit button does not fall below the fold on lower resolution monitors.
7. Embed the Form in Multiple Sections of Your Copy In addition to placing the form above the fold, be sure to also place the form at the bottom of the page. It's a good idea to place the form within several sections of the page copy.
Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how he can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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Design Your Site For Success
Don't make the mistake of hacking together a sloppy site. Good site design is easy and will allow you amazing flexibility to test and implement future ideas and strategies.
What is good design?
It's got nothing to do with fancy graphics, flash animations or dedicated web servers. Good site design for ecommerce involves just 2 things:
1. Focus on the most wanted response for conversion (i.e., what you want customers to do when they arrive at your site. This could be subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase).
2. Make your site easy to update so you can rapidly implement and test new conversion ideas.
The problem with ecommerce websites is that too many entrepreneurs think that fancy sites with flashy graphics and impressive presentations will work.
They rarely do. When it comes to creating sites that sell, designers are often your worst enemy. Here's what you need to know before designing your site. Ecommerce websites need to be focused on getting customers to respond in a specific way.
This is called the most wanted response or MWR. The MWR on a landing page may be to get the customer to subscribe or make a purchase.
The MWR on a signup confirmation page would be to have the customer download a free product or to forward your free gift to a friend. The most important thing to realize is that each page must focus on ONE most wanted response.
You must identify the optimal conversion path and lead your customer down this path. For example, your main page may not be designed to sell your product but to sell the customer on downloading a free 30 day trial. At the end of the 30 days, the customer then gets an email offer attempting to bring her back to the site to purchase the full version.
Once back on the site, the customer sees compelling copy explaining why she needs to upgrade from a demo to the full featured product. The conversion path of this site is as follows:
1.Customer provides email address and downloads free software.
2.Email sent to customer after 30 days to bring her back to site.
3.Customer reads site copy to sell her on making the full purchase. On a site like the one above, the conversion path is well defined. Each page is designed to get the customer to accomplish a specific action.
An example of a bad site is one which offers the customer multiple options and multiple paths. This almost always reduces conversion rates.
Keep every page on your site focused on generating a single action from the customer.
Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how he can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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Where and How to use Audio on Your Site in 6 Steps
Streaming audio has a variety of uses that can help you win more customers and increase your profits.
Some of the most powerful ways you can use streaming audio on your site are for:
Welcome Messages
A personal introductory message about yourself, your business, and your products can help orient customers, create transparency into your business, and build trust between you and your customers.
Site Maps
Tell customers where they can find things on your website and direct them to important parts of the site where you want them to go (towards your product).
Quick Tips
Share inside tips and tricks with your customers that will enhance their online experience. Over 80% of customers will click on a link to a tip because they know it offers useful information that will save them time.
Instructions
You can provide quick and easy instructions to your customers by placing audio buttons on your site. Explain what you want them to do and they will listen. Assurances Study your site statistics to see which page(s) customers are seeing before they leave your site.
Is there something on the page that may make customers hesitant to continue, such as a subscription form or a payment link? An audio clip explaining your payment process or privacy policy can help you reassure nervous customers and put their fears to rest.
A testimonial with a photograph is more credible than a testimonial without one. If you have a photograph and use an audio message, you will be greatly increasing the power of those testimonials. Prospective customers will feel even more confident about buying your product or service. Teleconferences and Seminars Streaming teleconferences and seminars can attract customers interested in the topic (and hopefully in your product or service) as well as those who, due to geographical or time constraints, were unable to attend.
Thank You Messages
Audio in emails or on order confirmation pages is a good way to personally thank customers for buying from you. It will help you build customer loyalty and increase the chance of repeat sales.
Building Trust
Offer an audio statement of your guarantee. Or, even better, record a personalized audio introduction to your bonus. Some merchants claim that this helps build trust and credibility as the visitor gets to better identify the 'real' person behind the site.
No matter how you use streaming audio on your website, you must have a well prepared message and good delivery. Keep your voice animated and use a conversational style rather than a formal tone. Your voice is what humanizes you and what your customers relate to. Above all, just be confident and be yourself!
Don't Forget To Do This When Using Audio... Refer to the checklist below before you finalize your streaming audio message:
1. Keep your message short and to the point. Don't waste time with long audio. Introduce yourself and your site, make your pitch, point customers in the right direction, and then stop.
People have short attention spans so you don't want to overload them with too much information. Instead, you can break apart long audio and use it in relevant pages throughout the site.
2. Speak at a normal volume. You don't want to speak too loudly when recording your audio. The sound could get distorted or it may seem as though you're shouting. Speak at a normal tone and customers can always increase the volume if necessary. It's therefore a good idea to have a volume scroll bar among your audio buttons.
3. Let customers control playback. Don't assume your customers want to hear your audio right away and launch it as soon as they arrive on a page. You never know where they are accessing from or what other sounds they may already have going on in the background. Simply invite customers to click and you'll be surprised by the surprisingly large number who are driven by their curiosity and will click on your link.
4. Include a Play, Pause, and Stop button. Sometimes customers don't have time - or the desire - to listen to your entire message. And sometimes they need to listen to it one more time to catch something they missed. Let customers take control and put a play, pause, and stop button on your audio.
5. Include a picture. Customers like to see something while they're listening. Include a picture of yourself above your audio buttons so they have something to look at and can match your face with your voice. This will help you add a personal touch.
6. Listen to your audio before it goes up on your site.
These little streaming audio tips will help you win more customers and increase your profits.
Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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Keep Your Website Fresh
What site would you prefer to go to? A site that has 100 pages of content but has not been updated in a year, or a 50 page site that keeps adding new content once a week?
Search engines think the same.
As you start to build out the content on your site, space it out and try to upload a new 200-500 word page every week.
Each one of these pages should go after a different keyword or keyword phrase. Use the top keywords from your PPC campaign.
We'll repeat this point since it is so important: a website that is stagnant and has not changed content over the last year will never lead the pack in search engines.
What are the easiest ways to add fresh content to your page?
A) Build a site that is easy to update and change.
We recommend that you build your site in a modular way. Just think of a site built out of Lego blocks. Every page on your site will consist of a lot of Lego blocks and you can use the same Lego blocks on each of your pages.
Let's say for example you want to change your top header. Most websites navigation bar at the top. If you are using a modular site that uses Lego blocks, then one Lego block would be for your top header. Now you can just update this one Lego block and the header on all of your 68 pages is automatically updated.
This will save you hours of work and make it far easier to update your pages and keep them fresh. Fortunately, you don't have to be a programmer to use this. Building a modular site with Lego blocks is very easy. We cover this in detail in the module on Site Design.
B) Add dynamic content into your site.
Dynamic content is content that automatically keeps changing. In the past, adding dynamic content used to be very hard but with new advancements it has become super easy to do.
Here's an easy way to get updated content into your website effortlessly. Let's say that you are trying to build an expert site on "web design."
In this case, you could go to a site such as BlinkList and automatically add the latest "web design tutorials" that people are finding online to your site. To do this, all you would have to do is:
1) Go to BlinkList
2) Look for the instructions on the sidebar to BROADCAST the content.
3) Copy and paste the javascript code that is provided by BlinkList into your site If you did the above, you would have a section on your site that would constantly show the latest web design tutorials that people are discovering online.
This is not only great content for site visitors but would also keep your site fresh and help significantly with SEO.
C) Attach a blog to your site.
Blogs are very easy to update and should be a key part of every search engine optimization. Search engines like Google love regularly updated, content-rich sites ' which is exactly what blogs are!
Most blogs are updated with new articles and information on a daily basis; over time the search engines recognize them for their wealth of information and boost their ranking.
Blogs also contain a rich supply of links. Since bloggers are always looking for ways to keep their blogs fresh, they are likely to use links rather than create all the content themselves.
Links to quality sites, including blog search engines and directories, can lead to high search engine rankings.
If you have a great site with excellent content that visitors love, this will start to work in your favor. If you are just spamming search engines and not providing value for the visitors, then Google will eventually catch up with you.
Bjorn Brands is a successfull enterprenuer who transitioned from having his own building company to a great online business. Check out his site and see for yourself how his FREE course can help you do the same at http://www.moneyacces.com
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