Forgotten Marketing Opus

Tactical marketing processes are once again -
It's probably pining for the fiords.
They are been hunting grandmas pain:
A terrible tastless seemless word.

Forget Conventional Marketing - Embrace the Web!

Tactical marketing processes are once again undergoing fundamental shifts from traditional to web-based processes. Many traditional marketing firms/agencies are still touting the tried and true to their clients; i.e. Tradeshow attendance, Print, Traditional PR, TV and Radio. However, these conventional marketing processes work best for broad market awareness and/or branding, especially for a Fortune 1K company with significant resources to spend on demographic analysis, test marketing and more test marketing. It's much more difficult for a smaller company (startup to $50M per annum) to leverage the economies of scale that are typically available for a larger company for the media buy and operational efficiencies.

It's obvious that lifestyle and business processes are shifting towards a much greater dependence on digital media - people are traveling less due to cost issues and the ever-increasing speed of business is underscoring the usage of the Internet for information and research. If you're a small to medium sized business the chances are that you've probably cut your marketing budget significantly - by eliminating or scaling back tradeshow attendance, trade magazine advertising and/or direct mail in favor of response driven marketing on the web that can be deployed faster and more cost-effectively than traditional marketing methods.

Capturing leads from a web site generated by opt-in e-mail, newsletter inserts, text link advertising and/or other forms of pay per click marketing is still the absolute best way to generate leads that are quantifiable as soon as they are generated. You have the ability to easily track where the lead came from and via what interactive advertising process; assuming this has been setup for you by your interactive ad agency or with the online publisher. And, there are typically no lead times like more traditional marketing processes - we've created and deployed campaigns (creative, media buy, testing, ROI analysis, etc.) for our clients in 3-5 working days in some cases.

There are some pitfalls to web-based lead generation and follow through that you need to be aware of as you deploy an interactive campaign. Here are five of the most important "gotchas" that you need to think about as you build an interactive lead generation program around your web site:

1) Don't make it difficult for people to contact your company - make sure your web site really communicates with your prospects - by "communicating" I mean by providing telephone contacts, e-mail address and/or a lead capture form that is short. Note: this form has to be supported by a published Privacy Policy ("we won't divulge your info to a third party under any circumstances") and it absolutely must be short; i.e. don't request any more than baseline information, name, phone, e-mail and address, augmented with a comment box.

2) Your marketing objectives have to be supported by your sales team - the sales team has to be incentivized to respond to inbound e-mails and requests for information via a contact form in a timely manner, within 24 hours or sooner. If you have a geographically dispersed sales team then make this clear on the web site by providing specific contact points for states, regions and countries.

3) Make sure you IT person/department attends your marketing planning meetings with your sales team - your web site will need some type of a lead capture setup that redistributes leads based on function and/or geographical responsibility. Your IT staff has to create a database solution that captures, stores and distributes leads - this does not need to be done in-house, products like Act (the market leader in contact management software) are now web-enabled, you can capture leads via a web server and share leads with others via a browser and very inexpensively.

4) We don't advocate popup advertising for most of our client's advertising campaigns. But, we have "crossed over to the other side" and we do (highly) recommend using popups on our clients' web sites to present opportunities that in turn capture leads. Studies have shown effective popup lead captures increase lead generation by 40-85% depending on the market segment. Popups can be set so they only launch on a frequency basis per session (visit to a web site) or a number of times for a specific visitor - they don't have to setup so they are intrusive and annoying.

5) Last but not least (drum roll) - make the customer's usability experience the most important aspect of your web site. Create a user interface ("experience") that is pleasant for your visitors; i.e. use standard universal (top of page and local page left) menus, utilize 2-3 sentence paragraphs with lots of white space, don't overload your pages with graphics that slow down load times and make sure your contact points (phone, e-mail) are readily available from every page.

So, to summarize; advertising is shifting from traditional to web-based or interactive if you will - so, to get on board this tsunami build a web site that communicates with your prospects/customers, provide contact points via telephone and e-mail via the site, involve your IT and Sales staff with the lead capture process so they are all stakeholders and utilize popups to accelerate your lead capturing.

Author, Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines" for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html. Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com.

E-Mail Marketing Real Ode

Spam e-mail is no longer the mild
Of all aspirations like fish on the bank.
But how could I I'm just a child!
But hey, the fish out of water stank!

New Realities for E-Mail Marketing

Spam e-mail is no longer the mild irritant it once was - it's clogging corporate networks and ISP mail servers and has become a real productivity drain, forcing corporate and consumer e-mail users to spend 20-30 minutes a day dealing with this deluge of junk! According to recent figures, unsolicited bulk e-mail now makes up to 36% of all e-mail, up from under 8% just over a year ago. And, what's worse, more and more legitimate e-mail is not getting through to recipients due to Spam filtering taking place via ISPs and/or corporate networks.

Opt-in E-Mail Marketing 30K foot Picture

Opt-in e-mail marketing is clearly losing some of its effectiveness as a viable marketing tool much to the consternation of those of us who have been advocating its effectiveness for years! This is not to say opt-in e-mail isn't a viable way to market goods and services - but ROI (read response rates) is heading south quickly and needs to be considered when assessing the viability of this marketing process, as response rates have dropped on average from 10-20% to 3-10%.

However, opt-in e-mail is not disappearing off the marketing horizons - Forrester forecasts spending on e-mail marketing will grow from $1.3B (USD) in 2001 to $6.8B in 2006 and Jupiter Media Metrix is even more optimistic, forecasting growth rates from $1B in 2001 to $9.4B in 2006. But, there is a dark undercurrent to these numbers that is fueling the market growth and driving down response rates - some opt-in agencies, brokers and media representatives are "flogging" lists by overselling them - so caveat emptor.

Five Offsetting Marketing Strategies

1) Deploy opt-in e-mail campaigns very selectively (!) - buy opt-in e-mail lists from legitimate top-tier broker/list managers who are well established, are not "over-sending" messages to list subscribers and who are constantly refreshing their list quality by adding new subscribers. Critical questions to ask brokers include: how many messages ("frequency" in ad speak) are sent to each list recipient per month, how are new subscribers added and what is the percentage of new members added per month, are they using "third party" (someone else's list) lists to augment their own, are their lists "double opt in" (meaning, you sign up and then must reply to a signup confirmation to be added to a list) and last but not least, what is their privacy policy and how strictly do they adhere to published industry standards.

2) Utilize plain vanilla text link advertising - find web sites or portals that have traffic that is comprised of customers who are in your market segment. Then, add a text link (banner ad or graphic button if you will) to a page or pages and negotiate a media buy that is based upon a "cost per click" basis; i.e. paying only for traffic that clicks through to your web site.

3) Creating and deploying a "link strategy" campaign (i.e. getting a site listed via other web sites) is one of the best self-sustaining interactive marketing processes available to any company seeking to drive qualified traffic to a web site. This process is not based upon the more traditional "reciprocal links" procedure but incorporates some web-based competitive analysis. You start by analyzing the links that are pointing back to your top 3-5 competitors' web sites and then establish relationships with these sites and also submit your site to top and second tier directories to augment the number of links.

4) Newsletter insert advertising used to be considered rather mundane and not very effective. But, if you contrast the effectiveness of this process versus the new opt-in e-mail response rates the heretofore-lowly newsletter advertising has new and vastly improved luster! Also, in the past it was difficult to track when and if people clicked on a text link ad in a newsletter - but new technology enables virtually any publisher to provide you with this information, enabling you to track your ROI for the media buy. Finally, the real beauty of newsletter text advertising is that it is very targeted and people want to receive the information so you can be confident your ad will at least be viewed by some finite number of prospects.

5) Search Engine Ranking has come of age in the last 12-24 months - you can now easily create and deploy a traditional (title, description, keywords inserts in content, submissions and optimization) search engine ranking process that is augmented with a pay per click ("PPC") process. Deploying both ensures you derive long term (traditional rankings) and short term (pay per click) results, with the latter being driven by the amount of funds you have in your marketing budget.

Author, Lee Traupel, has 20 plus years of marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com a marketing services company which provides strategic and tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium sized companies. Lee@intelective.com Reprinted with permission from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted freely, provided this attribution box remains intact. (c) by Intelective Communications, Inc.
Lee@intelective.com.

Online Music Recording Opus

Online Recording Studios - A New Player in the Music Industry

The World of Drum Recording

Many people today, especially in home studios where you often have only two inputs to record at once, record their songs one track at a time. Most people starting a home studio can easily acquire the basic engineering skills needed to record vocals, guitars, keyboards and bass. Recording an acoustic drum set on the other hand is perhaps the biggest challenge a recording engineer has to face when recording a single instrument - mainly because drums aren't really a single instrument. Especially in Rock, each drum will often require its own microphone in order to capture its full depth and "punch" quality so highly desired in hard-hitting rock anthems.

A multi-channel recording system, lots of expensive microphones, acoustic room treatment and knowing where to place microphones and how to get the best out of the equipment make recording drums a highly expensive and complex endeavor.

If one decides to record drums at a studio, they will find themselves paying through the nose for a recording engineer and a professional drummer. Bands often don't have the budget to pay for hours of studio time required for their drummer to nail a decent take. Even if the drummer is well versed in the songs when playing gigs, recording in the studio is different in many ways and requires its own experience.

Online drum recording services such as DrumsForYou.com provide a refreshing alternative. Maintaining a studio dedicated to the sole purpose of recording drums, online drum recording provides a simple and quick method of getting a solid drum track.

For those venturing into a studio for the first time, it can be very intimidating not knowing how big the hole in your pocket will be at the end of the day. In online recording studios, a high volume of customers keeping the studio busy recording drums daily allows the service to offer a fixed price rather than charge by the hour. There is no need to collaborate a schedule of meetings with musicians and producers. As soon as one track is finished there is no problem in getting on to the next one.

How Does It Work?

You may ask yourself, how can someone record drums the way I want them without me there to play along, guide and explain what I need?

The answer is – free preview.

This feature is made practical thanks to the special traits inherent to an online recording service. The entire process will usually begin with the user filling out a form specifying parameters such as how they'd like their drums played, at what sample rate they need the track to be recorded and a choice from several snare drums to play. Then the customer is asked to send an mp3 file with a sketch of their track without drums on the left side and a matching click track on the right. The service is then obliged within a certain amount of time to send a preview mix of the drum track over the song. If the customer for some reason doesn't like what they hear, they can ask for changes or scrap the track without paying. If they do like what they hear, upon payment they may choose between online or CD delivery of the full separate tracks as well as a suggested stereo mix.

With this feature, you have nothing to lose by trying. You know exactly how much you'll have to pay, you'll know exactly when you'll get it and you'll know exactly what you're paying for before you need to make your decision. In a studio, being charged by the hour, you take a lot of risks, because you pay for time spent regardless of the result.

The experience and versatility attained by drummers who record parts for songs every day also means they'll probably nail the track the first time. Most people aren't really that picky about having their drums played a certain way and will often trust the drummer's judgment to play what they believe fits best with the sketch provided by the customer.

Who May Benefit from Online Recording?

This unique service can be very useful for budding musicians and bands struggling on their own and professional musical producers alike.

Producers will appreciate the speed and professional quality delivered by this service. Because it's so quick, they effectively won't lose time by trying the service, so their options remain open to go the traditional way if needed.

Thanks to the ever advancing computer industry home studios have become very commonplace these days. They are relatively cheap, easy to build and maintain. Therefore, many budding musicians already have the tools they need to record their sketch and use this service. Until recently, they've had to compromise the live feel of their recordings by using drum loops and samples. Online drum recording services finally allow them to mend what has been until now a consistently weak link in their chain.

Finding talented musicians dedicated to one's cause is also nothing to be sneezed at. Having a demo for your songs that sounds good enough to be on a record can help your wanted-ads on the internet stand out from the crowd. You may find yourself attracting more people to work with you in two weeks than you managed to do in two years.

Not Just Drums

It doesn't stop at drums either. DrumsForYou.com, despite its name, provides services for recording bass, guitars and keyboards as well as drums. Granted that equipment becomes less of an issue when recording these instruments, the expertise of a professional player combined with the speed and no-risk policy of online recording makes these services very attractive.

Musicians trying to produce a good track on their own will probably sing their own track, or have a singer, and play one instrument that they know well. Yet many guitar players like to try playing their own bass, only to find it doesn't sit as tight with the bass drum as they'd like. They would have to choose between keeping their part or take their chances hiring a musician. With online recording, you just order a bass track preview and most chances are you'll have the problem solved.

Indeed, online recording services could very well be the shape of things to come in how music is produced. As the infrastructure of the internet expands and advances globally, online recording services will also advance. For example, it will be possible to hear a recording session online, give comments and even play together in real time from anywhere in the world with low latency. Soon after that you will also be able to see each other. Musicians will effectively be able to rehearse, record and even perform online.

The Bottom Line

Sitting in a fully equipped studio with experienced personnel, including a producer, recording engineer and professional drummer obviously has its advantages. At the end of the day, however, most people look for bang-for-buck solutions – amateurs and professionals alike. Using free preview to solve most of the problems that could arise from not being face to face with the client, online recording services provide a viable solution that fits the bill for all but those who are not willing to compromise on having their own musician play the part note for note.

I highly recommend paying a visit to DrumsForYou.com and taking a venture into online recording. After you do, you may find yourself wondering how you got along without it.

Author, Elad Fish: click here to visit http://DrumsForYou.com and experience the quality of a real drums, bass, keyboards and guitar tracks played by professional session players!

MP3 Ode

MP3 - a Brief Overview!

Internet did not only change the daily habits but also the way people do their shop. And more than that: Internet has also increased the space to commit piracy.

Music is a good example of how Internet can contribute to piracy. With all this revolution regarding in the means of communication, more and more files or software are available and can be downloaded. Music is one of these files.

The most common music format is MP3, which is the short for MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3. These are files of music found in a compression version but which keeps the original quality. These files are highly searched through Internet.

With this option of downloading music and creating your own CD, composers and music bands started to claim for their copyrights and royalties. This arouse another question: how to protect the bands and composers?

The exit found was to create laws to protect them. These laws presuppose that both websites that offer free MP3 downloads without the permission of the owners of the copyrights and also websites that offer paid downloads should be punished. In this case, the owners of those websites that don’t respect these laws are sued.

But of course it’s not every website on the Internet that breaks the law. There are websites that offer both free and paid MP3 download without breaking the law and respecting the composers’ or music bands’ copyrights.

And something that people are usually not aware of is that downloading a MP3 without the previous consent of the owner of this music you may also be sued. It doesn’t matter that you just downloaded it. It works like this: these websites only exist because people download their MP3, so if you stop downloading it the website will disappear. Then, you are considered to be accomplice of the website’s owner.

There are, however, some legal ways for you to download MP3, both free and paid.

Author, Luna Sol: I've always loved music and stuff related to that. That's why I started reading about music, MP3 and Internet. And there are so many things we are not aware of. My intention is to help you find the same things I had figured out. http://www.mp3ps.com.

Referrer Poem

How Did You Get Here?

When marketing your website, it's important to know which of your efforts are producing results and which of them are a waste of time.

You can learn a lot about this by analyzing your website's statistics (assuming your webhost offers this service).

However, even with the best statistics programs, it can be difficult to determine where exactly your visitors are coming from. Did they arrive on your product page by clicking a link in your newsletter or did they get there by clicking the banner you've paid to have displayed on Yahoo?

The best way to answer this question is to track your links. You can do this by buying link tracker software or by employing a third-party service to do it for you.

However, if your budget is tight, there's one way you can track your links without spending a dime.

This can be done by tagging a question mark followed by a piece of text at the end of your hyperlinks. This will not affect the way the link works, but will help you identify that link in your website's statistics.

For example, http://www.yoursite.com/page1.htm?linka will point simply to http://www.yoursite.com/page1.htm as if the "?linka" were not there at all.

However, when you analyze your statistics, you will have separate results for both links. That way you can determine how many people visited page1.htm and how many people visited page1.htm by clicking the link marked '?linka'.

You can use this to test the effectiveness of any or all of your links. For example, if you want to know how many people are arriving on your product page from your newsletter, your banner ad and your home page, you could set up your links as follows:

The link from your newsletter: www.yoursite.com/product.htm?newsletter
The link from your banner on Yahoo: www.yoursite.com/product.htm?yahoobanner
The link from your home page: www.yoursite.com/product.htm?home

When you analyze your visitor statistics you can clearly see how each of these links are performing and then act accordingly.

As there is no limit to the amount of distinct links you can create, you can easily track all your links at no cost.

Author, Michael Hopkins, is owner of BizzyDays eBook Publications. Download Brand New Original eBooks for FREE at: http://www.bizzydays.com. Download The eBook Publishing Success Package at: http://selfpublishing-ebooks.htm.

Online Guru Serenade

Is There A Guru In The House?

The Internet has given us many marvelous advantages in international marketing, from the speed and convenience of email to the ease and economy of product downloading.

Yet these wonders pale by comparison when you realize the sheer volume of Gurus that inhabit the Web.

As a young boy growing up in Ohio I was impressed by the rarity of those mystics who with one utterance, could place in a nutshell all worldly knowledge.

On the other hand, there had always existed plenty of "experts."

In olden days folks were forced to rely on the now outdated, 'expert' for knowledge and virtuosity.

When it comes to Internet marketing there are no experts, only Gurus.

You remember what an 'expert' is, don't you!

Well, as a distinguished Chinese gentleman named Charlie Chan, once said, "An expert is a person who provides quick answers that are sometimes correct."

While, as Charlie says, an 'expert' may only from time to time, correctly assume a fact, a Guru never ever suffers from this fallacy.

A Guru just knows all!

You see, the only quality the 'expert' lacks is perfection, otherwise he would be a Guru!

There is one other distinguishing characteristic you'll notice when sorting out a Guru from an 'expert'. An 'expert' is either, self designated or quickly proclaims the title, while a Guru leaves that function to his associates.

As a lad I was just naive enough to believe that the world only offered us one or two true Gurus.

Naturally, I had heard of the mysterious Dalai Lama with his universal wisdom, and maybe about a couple of odd characters hanging out in Tibet, but that was it.

I truly believed that these few individuals summed up the entire Guru population. Then I discovered the Internet.

What a revelation!

When it comes to Internet marketing, the supply of Gurus gives the impression of being endless.

Every day I read of several new Gurus who have recently startled the Internet community by unearthing the 'real' secrets of marketing success.

Thankfully, these Gurus are graciously releasing their deep dark secrets of Internet prowess, even though it may be for a limited time only, and at a compensation said to be ridiculously low for a Guru of their obvious stature.

The Internet is amazing, even Gurus mark down their wisdom!

For awhile, I feared that once these 'secrets' were released our favorite Guru would quickly pack up and take their meditation elsewhere.

But not to worry, as new hidden secrets of Internet marketing are needed, more and more Gurus appear to permeate the Web thus eliminating any major concern of a shortage.

I often ponder, can this abundance of Gurus last, is there a University somewhere that grinds them out, a sort of Guru U!

Perhaps, we ought to just count blessings and gleam as much as we can from these modern day wonders of the cosmos.

After all, shouldn't we be content that there are helpful Gurus everywhere on the Internet, with or without a toga.

They seem to be everywhere these days. In fact, while shaving this morning, I could swear I spotted a Guru in my own bathroom mirror!

Author, Joe Myna, is webmaster at The Virtual Warehouse of in-demand products - http://www.anezbiz.com, author of FREE eBook "Internet Profits The Quick Way" - Download now at http://www.anezbiz.com/Quick.exe. Joe Myna is webmaster at www.anezbiz.com and involved in direct marketing for the past 30 years. Mr. Myna first went online in 1996. Mr. Myna is author of several well known marketing titles.

Netrepreneurs' Verse

Growth From Within

Business on the Net is a fast paced proposition. Net entrepreneurs are looking for the edge that will take their business to the next level. Who doesn't want more business, right? Here's a simple yet POWERFUL idea for increasing your income.

As business people we look at many propositions that will help us take that next, much desired growth step. We hear that we must "brand" ourselves and be easy to do business with. The list of ideas goes on and on.

THE GOLD MINE IN YOUR BACKYARD

Many people overlook how hard (and expensive) it is to create a new customer. Yet, we focus most of our time and energy in just this area, thinking that if we just could get more customers we would achieve our goals. But what about getting more OUT OF your customers?

If you have been around for a while you have a customer list. That list is GOLD. Please understand that I am NOT talking about renting out your customer list of email addresses. What I AM talking about it approaching those customers, who know you and trust you already, with a totally new and different product.

Why should we limit ourselves to selling only one type of product or service when by adding an additional item to our current offerings we can TAKE ADVANTAGE of the relationship that exists now? Will your customers resent this move? Not if you do it with some style.

HOW TO DO IT

One of the keys is to choose a product or service that COMPLIMENTS what you already do. Whatever your product or service is, think through what your customer is likely to buy based upon purchasing your product.

If you sell shoes, someone is going to sell them socks and it might as well be you. Not only will you increase your revenue but you will encounter less sales resistance and show your customers that you are thinking of them.

Another method is to choose a product or service that CONTRASTS what you sell now. If you normally sell a business related product come back at them with a personal product. Why should they NOT buy it from you? You have proven yourself as honest and dependable; now cash in on that hard work.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK

One final word. Your customers decided to trust you when they bought what you sell. Capitalize on those good feelings and ask them for their feedback on what you have in mind. This is by far the most powerful, yet virtually free, market research available in the land. Use it wisely and your EXISTING CUSTOMERS will tell you both what they want to buy and when they want to buy it.

All you have to do then is step up, fill the need, and go to the bank.

Author, Dan Brown, can help you take your income to the next level! Don't overlook the GOLD MINE in your backyard. Your customers are waiting for you to take the next step. Take that step today by visiting Dan on the Web and find a program that will ensure success. (c) by cash-evolutions.com. This article may be reprinted freely, provided the author byline remains intact.

Chaotic Growing Online Opus

Growing Your Company In Today's Chaotic Market!

I think we've all heard enough bad news to last us few months to last us several lifetimes! Our mantra for clients is "get over it" - cut your losses when where you can and focus on the basic building blocks to grow your business. Here are some fundamentals we recommend to any company that wants to survive and grow in this chaotic market:

1. Practice maniacal focus! Who is your customer, how do you reach them with your advertising, partners, channels and/or OEMs? If you can't readily identify these benchmarks, then you may need to take a hard look at look at your business structure, personnel, costs of good/services, etc. and rework your model.

2. Outsource and build virtuosity into your company. We tell clients to minimize fixed costs like the feudal barons of old - they kept a core group of fighters to man the garrison walls and hired (outsourced!) conscripts when the baron from the next door came calling at the castle gates with a legion of longbows behind him to exact tribute. Marketing, finance, HR, IT infrastructure, even product development or manufacturing can be easily outsourced to specialists who have levels of proficiency that you might not be able to afford if you tried to hire them full time.

3. Flex and tier your pricing creatively to minimize barriers to entry. If chaos is the order of the day (and we think it is) then make sure your pricing is tiered or structured so your clients can afford to try out your products and services - and be flexible in your negotiations and look for creative ways to bring new customers aboard.

4. Make your suppliers real business partners! Fed Ex and UPS are setting up shop in their customer's shipping docks to save valuable time and money and become active business partners. You may not have the clout of a Fortune 1K company/behemoth to leverage Fed Ex but you can ask your suppliers to extend terms, work with you on just in time delivery schedules or get creative with pricing, joint promotions, etc.

5. Ensure your marketing fundamentals are up to snuff! We see so many sloppy web sites that do not address the basic fundamentals of good site design, menus, UI, etc., brochures that are out of date, power point presentations that are barely legible, etc. - basic marketing principals should be addressed; i.e. integrate your color scheme and logo across all marcom materials (digital and traditional), reinforce your branding and positioning with clearly worded value propositions ("we save you X by doing Y") and ensure your logo and tagline look professional and are used properly.

6. Create and deploy credible PR that isn't full of fluff; i.e. "market or cost leadership, best of breed technology, leading provider of …, high-performance, etc.; don't use terms any editor sees hundreds of times a day! Create PR that is original and truthful - you will stand out from the crowd much better.

7. It's truly a Global Market! Position your company so you can work with customers all over the world - if you don't have the resources or personnel (see two above) then partner with a local reseller, dealer or distributor who has an established presence in a country or market which you can't serve via your corp/home office.

8. Don't waste time chasing venture capital - fund your company creatively! Venture capitalists are busy today trying to save their existing portfolio of ".bombs" so don't waste a lot of your time contacting them! Be creative, talk to friends and family about investing or look to your suppliers to give you extended terms in exchange for a long-term contract, discounted parts, etc.

9. Leverage technology to help you grow your business. A good web site should answer questions for your customers, not leave them frustrated and confused - make sure you address fundamentals with an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions), or even setup instant messaging via any number of chat technology providers so people can anonymously ask your sales or c/support personnel questions while they are on your web site.

10. Ignore marketing hype and concentrate on technology that really works. Tried surfing the web via your cell phone and finding a hot bistro in a new neighborhood recently? I hate to pick on this technology du jour, but it rates high on my "hypeometer" at this moment in time. There is a reason why opt-in e-mail advertising is the one of the best ways to reach a target market - its virtually instantaneous, is 24/7 in most cases, very targeted, provides global reach, and drum roll ... it really works!

Author, Lee Traupel, has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies.

Amazon Traffic Ode

Don't Let Amazon.com Use Up Your Valuable Bandwidth!

You already know that affiliate programs are a great way to make additional income for your web business.

By promoting products that are RELEVANT to your target audience and presenting those products in a meaningful way through the pages of your ebooks, websites and ezines, you can build up a nice steady income with little effort.

Don't forget though, affiliate programs will only earn you money if you promote them the right way.

Otherwise they're a complete waste of time and effort.

A perfect example of how NOT to make money through affiliate programs is by carrying banners from big web companies like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking these companies.

However, you may as well try making money from selling used matchsticks as from carrying banner ads from companies like these on your website.

Why?

Well, firstly, most people are so familiar with these companies already, that the chances of them clicking the banner are next to nothing. You can expect at the VERY LEAST to go through 1000 visitors before you get a single click!

Secondly, even if a visitor does click the banner, the chances that he/she will buy anything are even less again. And, because Amazon.com and co. only pay out commissions if the visitor buys immediately, then the likelihood or you actually earning anything are just north of none.

Let's face it, these banner ads enable Amazon.com and their like to use webmasters to strengthen their brand name at zero cost.

They'll slow down your pages and will not benefit your business or your visitors in any way.

If you are an affiliate with Amazon, then the only way to effectively make money out of them is by hand-picking a few products that are of direct interest to your visitors.

If your website deals with fast cars, then promote fast car books. If your e-book is all about The Ramones, then promote albums from and books about The Ramones (Gabba Gabba Hey).

Then, promote those products as if they were your own. Nothing short of a rave review or a full-blown sales pitch will do. And place a "Click Here To Order On Amazon.com" link at the end.

Your visitors know you and your readers trust you. If you tell them that this product is right for them, then they'll buy it.

One final point.

Amazon's affiliate program, despite its widespread fame, is neither the best nor the most lucrative one around.

It may be worth your while to look around for websites that promote the same products but that have more effective affiliate programs. Programs that pay out more and that use cookies to record your visitors' click-thrus. That way, if your visitors buy the product at a later date, you still get the commission.

Author, Michael Hopkins, is owner of BizzyDays eBook Publications. Download Brand New Original eBooks for FREE at: http://www.bizzydays.com. Download The eBook Publishing Success Package at: http://selfpublishing-ebooks.htm.

Homepage Working Opus

Does Your Homepage Work?

All websites have a homepage. It is the most important page of your site. It acts as the main gateway to the entire site. Most of your prospective customers will enter through it. Its vital to get it right. You dont want them to just turn around and go away again.

Take a moment to clear your mind. Now go and look at your homepage and take a minute to evaluate it. Does it work for your prospective customers?

Most will arrive at your homepage and quickly scan through the content. If they are interested in what they read and see they'll typically decide to click on a link that takes them to another page where they'll find more information. As they make that decision they'll be asking things like:

What do they do?

Do they look professional?

Whats in it for me?

Do i have the problem they describe?

Are they talking directly to me?

How can i get it?

Alternatively, if the homepage hasnt interested them immediately then they'll leave just as quickly as they arrived, unlikely to return.

Your homepage is the gateway to your website and plays a critical part in the prospects visit. First impressions count. The success of your site depends on your homepage. Now, before we look at what a homepage should be, lets look at what it shouldnt be.

It should not be a false homepage requiring you to click a link to get to the real homepage. It shouldnt be a page that fails to direct the prospect to further action. It shouldnt contain any content that doesnt serve an immediate and clear purpose. It should never read like a dull brochure, that does nothing to motivate prospects to seek more information or buy immediately.

What a homepage should be. It should have a clear message. It should be a dynamic page that instantly conveys a sense of what you do, how you do it, who you are, how you do business, etc. It should start to describe the direct benefits that prospective customers get by buying your product or service. It should create prospect interest and make them eager to find out more. It should provide direction and clearly marked links to get them there. It should focus entirely on serving the needs of your prospective customers and removing their anxieties.

The purpose of your website is to sell your products and services to your prospects. To be effective your homepage must meet the needs of your prospects exactly and provide answers to their questions. To do this you must know what your prospects want and how they want it. If you dont already know, find out. Ask them!

Also, spend some time looking at other homepages learning what works and what doesnt. Are there features and styles that you could adopt on your site?

Once you have these answers design your entire homepage around them. Spend some time getting it right and both you and your prospects will benefit. Dont settle for second best unless you want your website to fail as a result of being ineffective.

When you've done it. Take a moment to clear your mind. Now go and look at your homepage once again and take a minute to re-evaluate it. Does it work for your prospective customers now?

Good luck!

Author, Peter Simmons, is editor of the DYNAMIQ EZINE. GET MAXIMUM RESULTS FROM YOUR WEBSITE! Increase your traffic, prospect conversions, sales, profits, referrals and more... START GETTING RESULTS RIGHT NOW with your $129 WEBSITE EVALUATION ABSOLUTELY FREE at http://www.dynamiq.co.uk/ezine or email me anytime at mailto:peter@dynamiq.co.uk.

Merchant Account Serenade

Choosing An Internet Merchant Account

Surf to Google and perform a search on "Internet Merchant Account". The results are staggering (472,000 results!) If you have created a web based business and need to accept credit card payments, your choices are limitless. Before you partner with a provider, take time to understand the different components of internet credit card processing, and know what to look for in a merchant provider.

How It Works

Accepting credit card payments through your web site actually requires multiple components. Between a paying customer and your bank account, three layers exist:

Payment Gateway - This is the code that will transmit a customer's order to and from an internet merchant account provider. The payment gateway provides you the ability to accept customer billing information (credit card number, credit card type, expiration date, and payment amount) and the necessary validation steps that must be followed before the credit card is actually billed.

Internet Merchant Account - A Merchant Account is an account with a financial institution or bank, which enables you to accept credit card payments from your clients. The payment gateway actually transmits the billing information to the internet merchant account provider. Unfortunately, most local banks do not provide internet merchant account capability.

The main reason why most local financial institutions or banks do not want to provide online merchant accounts is because transactions conducted over the Internet are totally different from face to face transactions where a signature is required to authorize the purchase. This makes online transactions prone to credit card fraud. Fraud protection should be one of your primary considerations when choosing an internet merchant account provider.

Web Site - Regardless of which merchant provider and gateway service you choose, your web site will need to integrate with your service providers. Most providers include detailed web integration instructions.

How Much Does It Cost

Understanding the total costs of your merchant provider can be tricky. Remember my Google example - there are more merchant account providers than there are people looking for internet merchant accounts so ask questions and be picky! Typically, an internet merchant account will have three types of costs:

• Up Front Application Fees
  
• On Going Fixed Fee
  
• Discount Rate
  
• Fixed Transaction Fee
  
• Termination Fees
  
• Miscellaneous Fees
  

Let us discuss each type of cost:

Up Front Application Fees

Many internet merchant accounts will require an up front application fee. This fee, supposedly, is to cover their costs for processing your application. In case you choose not to open an internet merchant account, they still cover their initial costs. Although common, many providers waive these fees and I recommend that you choose a provider that does not require an up front fee.

On Going Fixed Fee

Most all internet merchant providers require a monthly fixed fee or "statement fee" as it is commonly named, which is simply another way to cover their costs and make money. You will be hard pressed to find a provider that does not require this type of fee on a monthly basis. However, do not choose an internet merchant account that requires more than $10 per month. Additionally, most internet merchant providers require a monthly minimum (usually $25). The bottom line is that you will be paying at least $25 per month (on top of the monthly statement fee) for your account.

Discount Rate

Usually, the discount rate will be between 2 and 4 percent. The discount rate is the sales commission the provider earns on each sale. For example, if the discount rate offered is 3%, and you receive a sale over your web site for $20, you will owe 60 cents to your internet merchant provider.

Fixed Transaction Fee

Usually between $0.20 and $0.30, the fixed transaction fee is the fixed fee portion of each sale. Unlike the discount rate, the fixed transaction fee is the same for every transaction. Whether you get a $1 sale or a $100 sale, the transaction fee will be the same.

Termination Fee

A bit more hidden in the small print, a termination fee can apply if you cancel your merchant account within a specified period of time (usually within one year). But beware, some merchant providers require a three year commitment!

Miscellaneous Fees

If a customer requests a refund and they want their credit card credited, an internet merchant provider will charge you a separate fee (usually between $10 - $20). Read the contract carefully, as other special fees may apply.

Putting It All Together

Now that the different fees have been explained, let us look at an example set of transactions to help understand what an internet merchant account may cost your business on a monthly basis.

I have created a simple formula to help you calculate your monthly charges:

Total Charges = Statement Fee + Number of Transactions x (Average Sale x Discount Rate + Fixed Transaction Fee) + (Number of Chargebacks x Chargeback Fee)

For example, let us see you sell widgets over the internet. The sales price for each widget is $10. You typically have 100 sales per month and about 5 people request refunds (chargebacks). For this example, let us assume you have signed up with Jones&Jones internet merchant account services and have the following terms:

Discount Rate - %2.5

Statement Fee - $10

Fixed Transaction Fee - $0.30

Chargeback Fee - $15

Using my formula above, your monthly Jones&Jones charges will be:

Total Charges = 10 + 100 x (10 x .025 + 0.3) + (5 x 15) = $140

You can calculate your monthly sales revenue by multiplying your sales volume by your price:

Monthly Sales Revenue = 100 x $10 = $1000

Your internet merchant provider is costing you %14 or your total sales.

Making Your Decision

Before you choose and internet merchant provider, understand all of the cost components. Use your current or projected sales data to forecast what your internet merchant account costs will be. Planning ahead can save you time and money.

Author, Andy Quick, is co-founder of Findmyhosting.com (http://www.findmyhosting.com), a free web hosting directory offering businesses and consumers a hassle free way to find the right hosting plan for their needs. Feel free to contact Andy at andy@findmyhosting.com in case you have any questions or comments regarding this article.

Online Branding Verse

Branding On The Web Is Like Mining For Fools Gold

I am sick and tired of marketing geeks touting the beauty of branding, brand building and just spouting branding in any context, especially when the term is used with "internet" or "web" or "digital!" You can't have a conversation today for more than five minutes without some marketing type throwing in a line about brand building!

Branding doesn't work with the net's warp speed - look at some of the leading online brand builders, including a certain big three TV network here in the states and a book seller in Seattle trying to do classic brand extension, from books to barbecues.

We tell our B2B clients to build a revenue-producing online brand by developing a campaign that sells the value of their goods or services! Forget the esoteric, very expensive brand building campaigns that have no measurable impact! Here are my ten "cliff notes" to building an effective B2B Brand Online, B2C coming next article.

1. Do a careful Competitive Web Analysis of your competitors - you can't build a unique brand without knowing the lay of the digital and real-world land! The beauty of the web is that it is a 247/365 resource for analysis and you can find out quite a lot from your competitor's web sites. We've created a comprehensive matrix of 75-200 items to assess when preparing a competitive analysis report for a client.

2. Identify your target audience early on as everything flows from this. You can't conceptualize your creative, graphical imagery, content or what type of online media you want to deploy until you know the size and characteristics of your target audience.

3. Think revenue producing branding - this translates to marketing campaigns that deliver sales (the goal of all good marketing campaigns) by customer acquisition. Meaning, develop messages that speak to your audience. B2B customers typically want referenceable data that addresses their needs. "Our xyz services help you leverage your IT resources by…." Think providing tactical information to enhance their decision-making!

4. If your early to market or just plain old early stage then you may want to develop some branding with other complementary partners who have established names (brands) in your market segment. This can include joint announcements, co-branded pages; direct marketing or opt-in e-mail pieces, etc. Here's an example of a co-branded page we did for an existing client, PolyServe, Inc. http://www.polyserve.com/partners.html

5 .Make sure you PR agency and Interactive or Traditional Agency are all in concert when it comes to building a branding campaign. Your various messages and processes should be mutually reinforcing.

6. Select an Interactive or Traditional Agency that understands your unique B2B needs. Consumer branding is much different than B2B Customer Acquisition Branding. By "understand" I mean ask them about the types of campaigns they've set up for previous clients, what types of media they've used, do they know how to develop creative that speaks to a potential B2B client - I love the "do the Dew" campaign, but this isn't the type of branding you would want to deploy for an IT Manager who is contemplating a purchase of your software.

7. How do you measure effective branding on the web? I am not sure if I have any answer or if I have unlimited answers - this is such a difficult marketing characteristic to measure. But, again, be "customer-centric" - ask people who purchase your software or services what they think. Why did you purchase (or why not if you can), did our marketing address your needs, was it meaningful and informative?

8. Think digital shelf life when branding on the web - you have to build messages and content that will only last for a finite amount of time. You have to continually refresh your branding and positioning by developing new content for a web site, opt-in e-mail or banner advertising campaign.

9. Incorporate your offline branding (creative, content, graphics, etc.) into your online branding when/where you can. So your customer has a sense of continuity when they review all of your marketing and communications processes. This also sends a signal to them that you have carefully thought through your overall campaign.

10. Last but not least - build net speed into your overall campaign. I've said it before in many articles, but always essential to underscore; better to be quick to market with something that may need slight calibration later on that to delay a facet of a campaign of the entire campaign to get everything perfect! Revenue is the engine that makes a B2B Branding campaign work and you can't drive sales unless you are putting your branding message out there in front of your potential customers!

Author, Lee Traupel, has 20 plus years of business development and marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective Communications, Inc., http://www.intelective.com, a results-driven marketing services company providing proprietary services to clients encompassing startups to public companies.

Successful Affiliate Opus

Overcoming the Five Obstacles to Affiliate Success

Nearly every mass marketable product or service available online sports an Affiliate Program or MLM matrix to encourage small business people to sell those products or services to others.

For beginners in the online marketplace and even some pro's, these programs offer the best opportunity for earning substantial incomes to their participants.

Yet, despite the promise of Affiliate Programs and MLM's for making money online, fewer than 5% of all participants will ever be successful with them! Only one out of a hundred will ever earn more than $1000 per month from the programs!

There are several factors contributing to these dismal numbers:

• Failure to try
  
• Failure to learn
  
• Building sales without any concern about building a network
  
• Building a network without any concern for sales
  
• Failure to duplicate
  

FAILURE TO TRY

Many people will argue this point. They argue that they tried and the program failed them. Yet, if you were to persist in your queries, most people's idea of trying is throwing a banner on their website or running one or two untested ads. Folks, that just does not cut it!

Being successful in an Affiliate Program, MLM program or anything else be it online or offline requires much more than a half-hearted, short-lived attempt at promoting a program.

FAILURE TO LEARN

Whatever endeavor is undertaken, success comes with knowledge. College is good at teaching folks the basics of hundreds of professions. Folks understand that in order to be a CPA, an attorney, a chemist, an engineer or any of a number of professions, they must learn a great deal of knowledge before they will be successful in the field.

Yet, the same people will come online and believe they can turn on the computer and already know everything there is to know about running a successful online business.

To be successful as an online marketer, it helps to at least become acquainted with web design, graphics design, copy writing, marketing research, promotion, advertising, customer service and many other areas. It also helps to know about areas specific to the Internet such as search engine optimization, web traffic patterns, direct email marketing, and networking with others.

As an online marketer, you should either have knowledge of these various disciplines or be prepared to hire on people who already possess these skills. Unless you have very deep pockets, you should be prepared to learn a few of these skills for yourself.

BUILDING SALES WITHOUT ANY CONCERN ABOUT BUILDING A NETWORK

The largest advantage of the Affiliate Program or MLM program is the ability to grow a network of affiliates underneath of you.

While you are able to sell a certain amount of products or services to the consumer, a team of people who can sell just as many products or services as you can, will add to your full income potential. Due to the nature of the Affiliate Program and the MLM program, you will earn a small percentage from the sales of all of the people in your network of sellers.

As an affiliate without a network, your potential earnings are limited by the number of products and services you can sell by yourself.

With the average Affiliate Program or MLM, the first tier of your network will generally net you a 10% to 20% cut of all of the products and services your first tier people sell. With only five sellers underneath of you on your first tier, you are at the minimum capable of doubling your monthly income.

BUILDING A NETWORK WITHOUT ANY CONCERN FOR SALES

The most devastating cause for failure is building a network of people whose sole focus is building a network of affiliates!

Folks, no matter the size of your network, be advised. No income can be earned until someone sells a product or service!

What good is a network of thousand marketers whose only concern is building a network and not selling the products and services which are required to earn commissions?

A thousand affiliates with no sales adds up to a whopping zero dollar check for you!

FAILURE TO DUPLICATE

The most important person in your network is YOU!

You begin by making an honest effort. You follow-up by building your knowledge base, continuing to learn always. You then focus on actually selling products and services. Always in the back of your mind, you are looking ahead to the day when you will begin building your network of affiliates.

The important thing to remember is that your network is always a mirror image of YOU and YOUR EFFORTS.

Duplication is the process of actually teaching someone else to do exactly as you do. Nothing more, nothing less.

If you are doing everything right, then those who look to you for guidance and leadership will be making a sincere effort, learning, selling products and services, then building their network, and leading their people to success, just as you are.

It is up to you and you alone to avoid the common pitfalls in Affiliate Programs and MLM's. It is up to you to do what it takes to succeed in making money online. It is up to you to develop the skills necessary for success and to lead your team by example.

Keep things simple and manageable. Focus your attention to doing what it takes to be successful in whatever program you take on. Then find five good people to lead in the development of their online business and truly DUPLICATE YOURSELF with each of these five people.

You have what it takes to join the 5% who are successful with Affiliate Programs and MLM programs. It is now time to get to work and make your dreams of online marketing success a reality.

Author, Bill Platt, is co-owner of Double Eagle Business Center (DEBC). By providing an honest and well thought out MLM Opportunity, DEBC meets all the legal requirements for an online MLM plus offers products and services which can support any online business, along with an innovative and a generous commission structure for Affiliates. http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,52.

E-commerce Wrong Ode

The Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce Errors

While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the "abandoned shopping cart problem" continues to wreak havoc on online sales. Recently I judged a raftload of sites for the Webby Awards (my second time) and for the Inc. magazine Web Awards, as well as for my own clients. Here are the five irritants and obstacles that most frequently disrupt the visitor's shopping experience at e-commerce sites.

• Lack of quick orientation for first-time visitors. What does the site sell? I've had to poke around for several minutes sometimes to understand the focus of a site. Jargon is one culprit. Another is lack of context, like an airline site that sells tickets not giving a single clue on the home page in what countries or even what continent it flies.
  
• Explanations that don't explain. What does the product do and not do? Another basic, but it happens often that a site doesn't explain whether their "Turbocharge VT27-Plus" is a one-time download, a subscription, a Web-based service or something else. An alternative payment system's site failed to offer a clear, systematic description of how it works.
  
• Missing prices and shipping charges. How much? You shouldn't have to put something into a shopping cart or enter your credit card information to learn how much an item costs, including shipping. Unfortunately, you still find this mistake at sites that have had plenty of time to get their act together.
  
• Unreadable text. Say what? Creativity gone haywire seems to be the hallmark of some Web designers. Orange letters on a blue background, olive green on black, light gray on white and blue on blue were combinations that sent me packing, as did lettering too small for over-40 eyes.
  
• Inconsistencies. Huh? One site says, "To sign up, click on the Sign Up link at the top of every page." But the site does not have any "Sign Up" link, only "Sign In." Such carelessness wastes the time of earnest shoppers and gets them frustrated and fed up, never to return.
  

Blunders are equally rampant at well-funded corporate sites and those from home-based businesses. The good news is that many of the errors are extremely easy and inexpensive to fix.

Written by marketing guru Marcia Yudkin, author of Poor Richard's Web Site Marketing Makeover: Improve Your Message and Turn Visitors into Buyers, from Top Floor Publishing (http://www.yudkin.com/mmakeover.htm) and numerous other books on marketing. She began offering Web site reviews for $40 (http://www.yudkin.com/sitereview.htm).

Online Business Poem

Guarantee For Success

If you're trying to get a new online business started, and you don't have a clearly stated guarantee policy, I can GUARANTEE you that a year from now, you'll still be trying to get your business OFF THE GROUND, unless you've gotten discouraged and given up!

Even in the traditional brick and mortar world of off-line sales, people need to touch and see a product before they have enough confidence to buy. That's why stores like Sears and JC Penny do so much more walk-in business than catalog sales. In an online business, this consumer apprehension is intensified by not having a physical store, or in many cases even a phone number to turn to if a product doesn't meet expectations.

Add to that the common fear many consumers have about credit card transactions in cyberspace, and it's not hard to see that you need to put your prospective customers at ease if they're to become buyers.

How can you make your customers feel that doing business with you is not a risky proposition? The answer is incredibly simple...offer a money back guarantee!

Let's take a look at the up-side of offering a guarantee. First, it provides a statement of personal confidence in your product. To be blunt, if you lack confidence in your product - you shouldn't be selling it anyway!

The same is true even if you're marketing someone else's product for a commission, or an affiliate program for a multi-level marketing sales program. If the parent company doesn't eliminate risk by offering to refund fees within a clearly stated time frame, find a different program to market. You'll be amazed how much easier it will be to sign up new affiliates if you eliminate the risk.

More on the up-side - A solid guarantee policy gives your enterprise a clear image of professionalism. After all, only a legitimate business would offer to give dissatisfied customers their money back, right?

There are so many entrepreneurial start-ups on the Net today, that many opportunity seekers are skeptical of any program giving the appearance of being a small home business. The assumption is: "They're no bigger than I am, and may not be in business next month, so why risk my money with them?"

Offering a money back guarantee dispels the small entrepreneurial image, and alleviates skepticism more than you can imagine.

Now let's take a look at the downside. If you offer a money- back guarantee, you'll be deluged with refund requests, right?

This is only true if you're selling something that is not as you describe it in your sales literature. If you've done an accurate job of explaining the features of your product to the customer before they make their purchase, there won't be any surprises that will trigger their refund reflex. In other words, give them what they paid you, and they'll be unlikely to complain about it.

Overall, the percentage of buyers asking for refunds from reputable online businesses is very low. A 10% return rate would be surprisingly high, and you would want to take a hard look at either your sales material, or your products themselves, to try to determine what was causing the dissatisfaction. Be sure you're not promising something you aren't delivering.

Of course, from time to time, you will probably get a refund request, people being generally a fickle breed. What to do? Process it immediately - no questions asked! Make it as painless for your customers to get a refund as you do for them to make a purchase. Stand behind your guarantee policy. Flaunt it - cheerfully take care of dissatisfied customers. Make it a pleasant experience, then request a testimonial about your guarantee policy...turn it into a positive part of your marketing literature.

Don't be concerned with losses; they'll be minimal. If you're shipping hard goods, of course, wait until the customer returns the product before you process the refund. However, if you're selling downloadable software or website access, you'd be hard-pressed to convince me that you experienced a measurable financial loss even if a customer dishonestly didn't destroy the software they downloaded. With a website membership, of course, you should deactivate their password, but whatever you do, don't let pettiness or greed cloud your judgment and delay prompt processing of refund requests.

You should try to seek out comments from dissatisfied customers as to the nature of their complaint, so that you can take any action necessary to improve your product, but don't make this a condition of the refund. Send the refund notification in an e-mail, and then close by politely requesting comments as to where your product failed them.

A word of caution...DO NOT make your guarantee policy complex or vague...the cleaner and simpler, the better. Best is: "If you are dissatisfied with your purchase for any reason, we offer a 100% money-back, no questions asked, refund of your purchase price." It is acceptable to set a time limit if you must, but make it reasonable. If it will take them a month to use and honestly evaluate your program, don't limit the guarantee to a week.

Vague, unclear guarantees will place you under a blanket of suspicion, and will do more harm than good to your sales efforts. Leave the conditions out...simply accept ANY REASON, or even NO REASON, for customer dissatisfaction.

Don't nitpick in your policy. Even if your credit card processing company doesn't refund the service fee to your account, give the customer 100% of their money back. Losing a few dollars on a refund is far less costly than losing hundreds of sales with a convoluted refund policy.

The boosted sales that a liberal guarantee policy will give you far outweigh any minimal losses you might incur from processing infrequent refund requests.

There is simply no better way to increase sales than to make doing business with you a completely risk-free proposal for your customers. A guarantee is essential to a sound business plan.

Written by Bob McGrath, author of the acclaimed new eBook: 'Don't Quit Your Day Job...YET!' He is also the Founder of Web Home Jobs, a unique home based self-employment opportunity at: http://www.webhomejobs.com.

101 Website Marketing Serenades

Website Marketing 101

When it comes to website marketing and promotions, you need to start here...

Every website, whether new, old, or just a thought needs to consider the marketing that will be put that website in front of it's targeted audience. Sounds easy huh? It just takes time, perseverance, and the will to succeed! A budget will help too!

The hardest part is sorting through all the crap that's available to (supposedly) help you. Yes, I said crap.

There is a mountain of businesses out there making incredible claims about FREE traffic generation, FREE hits, Mega sales, $20,000 in 3 hours,- or worse, for a small fee of $29.95 we can... blah, blah, blah.

Save your money! I have spent enough for all of us.

Following through with our suggestions offers you the most lucrative, ethical, and professional ways to achieve substantial results and still sleep at night. No, you don't have to go for your wallet, I will tell you about these programs in this article (for no charge). A good education will assist you the most.

If you already have a site, we recommend a Website Analysis.

Before You Build

#1 Have a plan - Not just a good idea. Take your idea and formulate a complete plan around your goals. Highlight any USP's you may have.

#2 Build Meta-tags into every category page! This is crucial to targeted traffic success with the Directories and Search Engines. You need to be found, not by your company name (only) but by "keywords" that the general public would use to find your type of business or service. DO NOT just pick any words, this is critical!

#3 Use those keyword phrases throughout your site or particular page. Reinforce what topic you are addressing within that page (content).

#4 Publish an article or newsletter that shows you are an authority on the topics you cover (or try to sell). Just a spiffy sales letter is not enough. This is also critical in acquiring the email addresses of prospective customers.

#5 Create some banner ads with impact for future partnership advertising. You will use these on your site as well as banner partners you can swap impressions with.

#6 Begin considering what types of businesses or partners would or could compliment your offerings. Start a list.

#7 Important: Create a budget for marketing your website. Yes, there are many things that you can implement for free, however, successful websites HAVE spent money wisely to get them to where they are. Don't be fooled, you WILL spend money on marketing your website - it could be potentially more than what your website costs you to build. The verse goes like this... "Build it and they won't come". You may have already learned this, and that is why you're here.

Good luck with your promotions!

Author, Scott 'Gears', is the Founder and Sr. Project Manager for Hyperformance Media.com, a Technology Marketing Company serving online businesses since 1996. His 23+ years of experience in the computer industry will help you succeed. Their website offers free education & resources that will assist any business in successfully marketing their company online. ss@hyperformancemedia.com.

Outsorcing Marketing Verse

Outsourcing

Can your business benefit?

Depending on the project, outsourcing can sometimes be a very cost-effective business decision. Sure, we can all accomplish some of it in-house, but can we do it all, and do it well?

Would it surprise you to know that Compaq Computer™ outsources? How about Underwriters Laboratories™? Gateway Computers™? Yes, even the Chicagoland Area Chamber of Commerce™! I was involved with projects involving each one of these companies. They all outsourced specific portions of their projects. Even Hyperformance Media out-sources specific project requirements! Every business does not know every other business.

What I mean is, your business can not know everything there is to know about printing (for example). Therefore, in certain situations, it would benefit your company to outsource this service to some printing specialists. It could save you time, money, and benefits, leaving your employees their time to continue to do what they do best, their job - with minimum productivity loss!

In this simple example you can begin to see the many benefits.

• You have professionals creating the desired product.
  
• They will do a better job in less time.
  
• No need to buy additional equipment or software.
  
• No set-up, no training, no lost time.
  
• No payroll, benefits, or accounting headaches.
  
• Your employees remain focused on their goals and your business productivity!
  

These are just a few of the many reasons used to justify the outsourcing of some projects versus attempting to do everything in-house.

Your business website is a mission-critical marketing tool. Used properly, your website should be your most outspoken salesperson. Your business should be getting more business from the Web, if not doing business on the Web.

The successful marketing of your business website should NOT be taken lightly. Yes, your company now has a webmaster on the payroll full-time, not to mention the design and development staff, but is your web presence working? Are you achieving results besides just looking good?

Outsourcing the marketing services of your website gives you the experience you desire and the results you need. Your business needs to be found yesterday! Your business needs customers to grow, not just survive! Who has your market share?

Let's talk about getting some of that back! Let's talk about what changes can be put in place to GET BUSINESS from your website.

Today, tomorrow, and every year going forward!

Thanks - and good luck with your promotions!

Author, Scott 'Gears', is the Founder and Sr. Project Manager for Hyperformance Media.com, a Technology Marketing Company serving online businesses since 1996. His 23+ years of experience in the computer industry will help you succeed. Their website offers free education & resources that will assist any business in successfully marketing their company online. ss@hyperformancemedia.com.

Worldwide Viral URL Opus

URL Everywhere

Your URL (www) should be everywhere and more. I know many of you are going to think this is common sense, but how many of these are you using? Your web address should be on every piece of anything your business does, period.

Your customers can come from anywhere, at anytime. Yep, the airport at 3:32 a.m., or how about the car behind you?

Below is a list of some of the obvious and the not so obvious places you should be advertising your website. Some of them cost you nothing, most of them cost you very little. Do you want more customers than your competitors? Then put yourself 'out there' - more than your competition! You'll be surprised at how much traffic you can directly generate.

Hopefully you are using all of this first set...

• Invoices - Make sure, or get it on your next re-order.
  
• Statements - Another one, get it printed!
  
• Business Cards - Every card should have the website address and appropriate e-mail address. Letterhead - Right after your address should be your web address.
  
• Envelopes - This all goes to Branding effectively and getting people to your site.
  
• Company Vehicles - Often overlooked, but I thought I would add it here... don't forget these!
  
• Corrugate Products - Each and every package or product you ship should have your web address either stamped on it (cheap) or printed on the next run.
  
• Everything you publish with your company name should also carry your URL. Your Holiday cards for example...
  
• Advertising - It amazes me not only how much business spends on print advertising, but how many of them do not include their web address in the Ads. It's 'way' better than your phone number at 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning? You already pay to print everything, just be sure you're adding the line: www.we are real.com
  

Do you have all of those? Good job! Now try these...

You never know where your visitors (customers) could come from.

• Your Answering Machine message..."be sure to visit our website at www." Your "On Hold" message..."for additional savings, visit our website at www."
  
• Include your website business card with every bill you pay! You'll be surprised.
  
• On a Bus waiting bench. Just your URL, thousands of people keep seeing these every-single-day.
  
• Engrave the bottoms of your gym shoes. This way, everywhere you walk in the mud or snow leaves your URL impression... C'mon, laugh with me!
  
• Clear window stickers - The greatest invention, removable, for car window, car door, trunk, etc. * License Plates or Frames - If legal, make your "other plate" an Ad for your website!
  
• Bumper Stickers - Don't laugh, - you can make them classy, and they're inexpensive to boot! Use for cars, sponsorships, tradeshows, mail one with every order, etc.
  

Best of Luck in your Business Promotions!

Author, Scott 'Gears', is the Founder and Sr. Project Manager for Hyperformance Media.com, a Technology Marketing Company serving online businesses since 1996. His 23+ years of experience in the computer industry will help you succeed. Their website offers free education & resources that will assist any business in successfully marketing their company online. ss@hyperformancemedia.com.

Wrong Web Promoted Ode

Time Wasters and Energy Suckers

Stop wasting your time and having your energy sucked dry! What do I mean by this statement? You're all over the internet trying to find out where to promote that new business you entered into, or trying to promote your own business. You've been told by so called experts to promote your new business to free classified ad sites or FFA pages.

They even told you that you will get a ton of traffic to your new site. And you will have 100's or even 1000's in your downline if you advertise your business this way. "Keep at it," they say, and within a couple of weeks you will see exponential results.

So you follow their advice. Night after night you come home from work and advertise your business to free classified ads and FFA pages. You just know that sooner or later your efforts will pay off.

And then reality hits like a ton of bricks! You've been advertising your business for two months now. To your dismay you find that you don't even have one lead or one referral.

What you might have though if you upgraded to the PRO version of the FFA submission is a credit card bill. The bill can be anywhere from $20.00 to $40.00 US dollars.

What you definitely do have is your email client filled with tons of counter ads. So what's the best way to advertise your new business?

Submit articles to ezines and promote your business with the help of others. This is the most cost effective way to promote your business. All it costs you is the time to write your article, and you don't receive a ton of counter ads in your inbox.

If you like this article and know of someone who may benefit from it, please feel free to forward it to them.

Written by Dianne Salmon, author of Time Wasters and Energy Suckers, and is the owner of http://www.choiceresources.com Dianne offers free tips advice and information on starting, growing, and expanding your internet business. Subscribe to the Choice Resources newsletter by sending an email to Dianne@choiceresources.com.

Home Shopping Networks Poem

What The Home Shopping Networks Can Teach Us About Online Marketing

Who would have thought that a TV network dedicated to selling products on a cable network could become a success?

Besides most people hate commercials… What would make them sit down, watch a shopping network and, ultimately, buy?

Simple… the networks applied principles that have been selling products for hundreds of years.

1. Get targeted prospect’s attention. The networks have a matter of seconds to grab those people flipping the channels looking for something to watch.

• Their solution is an excited host and an attractive display.

• These images say a thousand words, but, on the internet, this task is quite daunting. That is why you must have an exciting headline to get people’s attention, yet leave out the fancy graphics… they take too long to download, while a headline pops up on the screen in a matter of seconds…just like on the home shopping networks.

2. Handle the customer’s objections. The first thing the prospect sees, after his interest is perked, is the price at the bottom of the screen. He is now asking, “Is this product worth the price and will it meet my needs?” This is where the salesmen and women show their expert sales skills.

• Before they get on air, they have done their research and know potential customer’s needs and objections.

• They know that for each need and objection you ignore, you may be missing out on a sale.

• This same concept can be applied to the internet. By writing to your customer in a way that he feels that you have the perfect product for him, you can make a sale.

3. Show the benefits and justify the sale with features. My favorite products to watch being sold are clothing. They have been selling the same types of clothes for years, but they are able to sell thousands and thousands of clothes that would never sell in a department store.

• They do this by citing benefits, like, “You will look beautiful, and you will receive lots of compliments.” This gets the potential customer’s attention, but they are still hesitant because they want to make sure they are opening up their pocketbook for a quality product.

So the sales person will say, “This shirt is different because it has original stripes, and it is a perfect fit.” Now the customer will have the justification he needs to make the purchase.

• On the internet, this step is absolutely vital, and the customer must know why he should buy your product. Do this by making him picture what it would be like for him to use your product.

4. My favorite part… testimonials. On the home shopping network, they always have people calling in to explain why they made their purchase. The customers are doing this so they can justify their purchase to themselves. Everyone wants to make sure he has made the right purchase and so he calls in, so the sales person will say, “Yes, you were absolutely right, and everyone else should take your advice.”

• I like the testimonials so much because I always have to laugh at the various reasons people will use to justify their purchase.

As I am writing this article and listening to QVC, a woman just called in and gave an extremely detailed explanation of why she purchases from QVC and not from department stores. The woman says she has been buying from QVC since the inception of the network and she likes it because she does not have to go outside to buy her clothes.

• This example shows that you need to give testimonials that allow prospects to find reasons to justify their purchase. People want to buy, but they are not going to, unless they have a reason.

All this information is just a touch of everything you can learn from the home shopping networks.

So get tuned in!

Written by Hans Klein. 100% Free- Discover more Internet marketing tips, tricks and strategies to quickly and easily promote your business or product on the Internet. Just visit http://www.WealthStarters.com to learn more.