Posted by admin on May 29th, 2008 — Posted in World Wide Web Resources
What is the most important part of your online business?Many people would say: “my website”. And that’sunderstandable - it’s the most visible part of an internetbusiness.
But the real power in your online business is email. It’sthe ability to reach your database of contacts at the clickof a button. The efficiency of your email pipeline willdetermine how much money your business makes.
Your website is just a way of building your mailing list -by collecting the email addresses of your visitors.
In fact, we’re not talking about one list, but several.Here are the lists that I maintain - they’re all people whoat one time or another have visited my websites:
- people who have bought my products- people who have signed up to receive my articles- people who have joined my affiliate program- people who have signed up for my email course- people who have joined my newsletter
So why are these lists so important?
Because most of your visitors won’t buy on the firstcontact. Statistics show that most people will need to seeyour message 7 times before they make a purchase. So ifyou’re not collecting the email addresses of your visitors,you are losing out on a lot of sales.
But there is one list in particular that is like gold. It’syour list of previous customers. These people arepredisposed to buying from you. In fact, some businessesmake 80% of their sales from previous customers.
All well and good - but what do I do with these lists?
Here are some ideas:
- announce your latest product to your customer list
- announce your latest product to your affiliates list
- send your latest article to your articles list
- announce your latest product in your newsletter
- publish your latest article in your newsletter
- announce ‘related’ products to your customer list
- send your latest article to your affiliates list so they can use
it to promote your products
For each list that you manage you will need (1) anautoresponder account or an autoresponder script and (2) away of capturing your visitor’s email address.
(1) Autoresponder Accounts
An autoresponder account gives you the ability to manage alist without installing software - it’s all done on aremote website. Most autoresponder accounts will give you:
- an email address for subscribing- an HTML form for subscribing- seven or more follow-up messages- a confirmation email to you every time someone joins- the ability to broadcast messages to your list- the ability to personalize your messages- database of your prospects- online stats
Here are some sites that offer autoresponder accounts:
http://www.aweber.com/
http://www.getresponse.com/
http://www.responders.com/
http://www.proautoresponder.com/
http://www.roibot.com/
http://www.infogeneratorpro.com/
http://www.replypro.net/
http://www.auto-responder.co.uk/
Now, autoresponder accounts cost between $17 and $20 permonth. And with most autoresponder services you can onlymanage one list per account. So if you are managing 5lists, that quickly adds up to a hefty monthly bill.
But there are a few services that allow you to managemultiple lists with one account. Here are some of them:
http://www.rapidreply.net/http://www.ezmailpro.com/http://www.autorespond-it.com/http://www.1automationwiz.com/http://www.royal-responder.com/
(2) Capturing Email Addresses
The most popular way to get new subscribers to your list isa ’subscribe form’ that pops up when your website loads. Iget 25 to 30 new subscribers a day using this technique.The HTML code for the subscribe form usually comes withyour autoresponder account.
Another way to invite visitors to join your list is an’alert box’. An alert box is a small gray dialogue box thatpops up when someone visits your website. It usually sayssomething like: “Please subscribe to my Newsletter. 5 FreeeBooks when you join”. It’s impossible to ignore an alertbox - you have to either close it or click OK to continue.
Alert boxes have two advantages over subscribe forms.Firstly, there’s no form to fill in, so it’s much easierfor people to join your list. People who have switched froma subscribe form to an alert box report 3 to 5 times asmany subscribers.
Secondly, alert boxes capture only “real” email addresses -the email address from the visitor’s client browser. Youend up with very few Hotmail and Yahoo addresses, whichmeans you’ll have a much more responsive list. For moreinformation about alert boxes, visit:http://www.optinlightning.com/
So to sum up, use your website to build several optinmailing lists and you’ll have a private audience of peopleyou can market to over and over again - it’s the key torunning a successful online business.
————————————————————
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
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Posted by admin on May 25th, 2008 — Posted in World Wide Web Resources
Knowing when is enough can be a tricky thing. It also depends on what you’re trying to do with your site. If your goal is only to sell stuff on your site then maybe having ads cover 95% of your site is a good thing. But if pushing content is your thing then maybe 30% is better. There needs to be a fine ratio between content and ads. This ratio can even be seen in the keyword/content relationship. Search engines start to reject sites that have over a 20% relationship. And people start to reject sites that have too many ads at a certain point too. Although no one has come up with a survey or poll to figure that out yet, it doesn’t taker a rocket scientist to know your sites not working. Maybe they did have a survey page, but it
had too many ads, I would have to say that the ratio should be between 20% and 30% depending on your page.
You page should be easy to navigate through. Your content should be easy to find. Yes, there are tricks to make the ads look like your material in order to trick people
into clicking on them, but remember if people can’t find what they want then they
might not come back. Would you rather trick someone one time for a click or have
them return for many more clicks.
You can experiment with your ads. Try some pages with 45% ad ratio and some with
30%. See how each of these pages work. You can even try different placement.
Some people believe that Content should be aligned Top:Left. Others Center
Frame:Left Heavy. Bottom line is the content must be in plain sight.
We live in a world that is quick, multi facet and multi tasking. People would rather
click then scroll. So anything belong the fold (the term used for anything below the
page that is displayed in your browser) is not important. Hence build smaller pages.
Now with smaller pages the ad content ratio can really get out of hand. So you need
to know when is enough.
Michael is currently growing his new venture as editor of Christian InTech. Michael
spends most of his time gathering technical articles and information for his site. You
can find his site at http://www.christianintech.com
This article is allowed for reproduction as long as the links are included. © 2006
Christian InTech
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Posted by admin on May 12th, 2008 — Posted in World Wide Web Resources
‘All the money’s in the list!’ is the favored catchphrase of
many Internet marketing professionals. ‘All the money’s in the
list!’ refers to the importance of setting up an opt-in list for
an online business.
The opt-in list can be used to send out regular correspondence
to customers informing them of the latest products and services
offered by the site. The ‘All the money’s in the list!’ slogan
of an opt-in list is a powerful marketing tool that can rake in
profits in the coming years.
There are various ways to encourage site visitors to sign-up for
a website subscription. The subscription may provide subscribers
with either free items such as e-books or downloads as well as
monthly newsletters. These items should be useful to the
subscriber in order to sustain their interest and retain their
subscription.
Internet marketers refer to this as pre-selling and consider it
as a valuable advertising tool. The opt-in list can help build a
website’s credibility among its subscribers.
Once trust has been established, most subscribers become more
open to whatever product or service the site has to offer them.
‘All the money’s in the list!’ is an effective Internet
marketing tool that any site can benefit from.
Not only does it help build a solid customer base, it also
fosters confidence and loyalty between the subscriber and the
website. Everyone should seriously consider building an opt-in
list to experience the rewards that all the money’s in the list
can bring.
How to get ‘All the Money’s in the List’
Whoever created the slogan ‘All the money’s in the list’ wasn’t
lying. Many sites that have built an opt-in list can sincerely
swear to the fact that all the money’s in the list.
Other sites should seriously consider building an opt-list to be
able to cash in on all the money’s in the list. There are
several ways to build an opt-in list to be sure that all the
money’s in the list.
Websites can make use of an auto-responder service offered by
various companies on the Internet. An online business may also
offer free products or services in exchange for a visitor’s
email address to be included in the site’s subscription service.
Things to Do to Get All the Money’s in the List
A lot of people use the Internet for a variety of reasons.
However, online businesses should understand that the larger
part of Internet users go to the web to dig up answers to
questions they may have.
These particular groups of Internet users are also those most
likely to make purchases on the World Wide Web. Providing them
with the information they need would ensure a qualified customer
base that will surely bring in all the money’s in the list for
years to come. Starting a subscription newsletter is a good
start. It’s important to place a subscription form on each web
page of the site to encourage visitors to sign up.
Keep in mind the newsletter should contain feature articles
related to the product or service promoted by the site. At the
same time, the articles should draw attention to how these
products or services would be beneficial to the subscriber.
Offering site visitors free courses is a good way to bring in
all the money’s in the list. Complimentary educational how-to
articles can be given to site visitors when they sign-up.
In exchange for email addresses, a site may also offer free
items like a free e-book download. E-books are generally in PDF
formats that are highly accessible to many Internet users.
In addition, e-books often get passed along to family and
friends thus creating a continuous flow of information that
reaches a wider audience. Placing links that would connect a
reader directly to the site where the e-book originated,
encouraging new site visitors to sign-up also.
Another way for a website to cash in on all the money’s in the
list is to distribute articles to other sites that are related
to their own. Numerous webmasters on the Internet publish
articles from other sites.
When circulating articles in various sites, be sure to place the
author’s information at the end of the piece. In addition put a
link to the author’s website where readers can sign-up for more
articles.
Start building an opt-in list today to cash in on all the
money’s in the list for years to come.
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Posted by admin on April 15th, 2008 — Posted in World Wide Web Resources
-Use a color scheme. If you use too many colors, typically your
designs will begin to look tacky and unprofessional. This does
somewhat depend on the business type, however. If you’re
creating a logo for a toy store, this would be an exception. But
you’d definitely want to stick to only a couple colors if you’re
designing for an insurance firm, for instance.
-Keep it simple. Try creating logos that convey as much
information as possible while also being as simple as possible.
This is the mark of a professional designer. Having a simple
logo will help in a number of ways, including the ease of
distribution. For instance, they are easy to place on letterhead
and business cards because they don’t require much space to be
recognized and understood. If your logo is the Mona Lisa with
some text slapped on top of it, you would always need the logo
to be quite large just for people to be able to see what it is,
and this is the kind of thing you will want to avoid.
-Make it memorable. You want viewers to become used to a logo,
and they will do just that if you make it unforgettable. Think
outside of the box and try to create a unique quality that’s
never been seen before. Making your logos memorable will, if you
are or wish to become a designer, help you in the same way it
helps the business it represents, with recognition. If your logo
is well-known, that’s a great mark for the portfolio.
-Use a font that compliments the style of what it represents.
You aren’t going to want to use an old-english type font for a
pet store logo, and you aren’t going to want to use a child’s
handwriting for a debt consolidation firm. Just use common sense
in this area. You can also search the web for free fonts if you
aren’t quite happy with what you’ve got. There are a bunch of
websites out there that contain lots of great community-designed
fonts.
-Make your logo fit with different background colors. If you’ve
got black text and a black icon, they won’t show up if you have
to place them on a black background, so create multiple versions
of your logos to accommodate for different background colors. If
it’s imperative to stick to a certain color, then you might try
adding a stroke (border) to your design to make it show up
better, or perhaps placing the logo on top of a solid-colored
rectangle of inverse color. You always will want your logos to
be clearly visible so make every effort to keep them that way.
-Use vectors. Create your logos using vectors (paths) as opposed
to pixels if possible, so you will be able to scale them up at a
later date with no loss in quality. This way, you will not run
into any issues if you ever need to print out your logo that
you’ve created as a 200*100 pixel file onto a poster or banner.
Insufficient size when you’re stuck with pixels just isn’t very
easy to recover from. The only options you would have would be
to either ignore the problem and scale it up despite the bad
quality, or completely redesign the logo at a higher resolution,
and you’re simply not going to want to do either of these.
If you stick to these guidelines your logos will start looking
very attractive, but don’t take them all at face value; rules
are made to be broken!
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