15 Easy Ways to Grow Your Subscriber List

While there are seemingly endless ways to promote your e-zine and attract new subscribers, here's a list of my favorite 15. Which ones are YOU using?

Print this out and check those you already do, and note those you should "get a move on."

___ 1. Tell your clients, associates, and friends. Send out one of your best issues (or your first issue) as a sample issue, inviting them to sign up if they like it. (Never sign anyone up without his/her permission.)

___ 2. Put a signup form on your home page and every page of your Web site. No matter what page people may land on, this way they'll know about your amazing e-zine. Don't let them click away and lose them forever!

___ 3. Use a pop-up or pop-under box on your site. Yes, they're irritating if abused, but I can tell you they work. Studies show pop-ups/unders can increase your e-zine signups by up to 10 times! Give it a try and test it. (Automatic popup creators like Ad Impact make it super easy.)

___ 4. Offer a free goodie for new subscribers. We all get so much e-mail these days, that you have to work hard to get anyone's e-mail address. Offer new subscribers a valuable free article, report, resource list, e-book, etc.

___ 5. Offer a free sample issue on your Web site or have one available by e-mail autoresponder. Some people won't sign up for anything until they can see it first.

___ 6. List your e-zine in free e-zine directories. There are hundreds of these on the Web where people visit to search for e-zines on particular topics. Make sure you're here so you can be found! (One of the best is Charlie Page's Directory of E-zines at http://www.directoryofezines.com.

___ 7. Swap ads with other e-zines. Search online e-zine directories for other e-zines whose target readership matches yours, and contact their publishers. Swap at least three ads in a row for best results.

___ 8. Buy ads in other e-zines. Again, search those directories for other e-zines whose target readership matches yours, and see their ad specifications and rates. Purchase at least three ads in a row for best results.

___ 9. Plug your e-zine in your e-mail signature. After your usual contact information at the bottom of all your e-mails, be sure to include a two- or three-line plug for your e-zine.

___ 10. Get published in OTHER e-zines. There are dozens of Web sites where other publishers visit to pick up free content for their e-zines. Why not post YOUR articles there for them to use? You get free exposure and plenty of traffic back to your site.

___ 11. Do a co-op with other e-zine subscribers. You can cross-promote with other e-zine publishers on your own, or use an automated service such as Subscription Rocket.

___ 12. Try a pay-for-subscriber service. These services advertise your e-zine for you and bring you subscribers automatically for as little as 10 to 30 cents apiece. One with a good reputation is Lead Factory.

___ 13. Announce your e-zine to all of the professional organizations and associations you're a member of. They usually allow you to make announcements in their newsletters or on their online bulletin boards.

___ 14. Advertise your e-zine on the back of your business cards. In the text, be sure to tell people how they can sign up for your e-zine.

___ 15. Become active in a few online forums where your ideal readers hang out. In your posts, position yourself as a resource in your area of expertise, and include a signature file that promotes your e-zine!

For STEP-BY-STEP instructions on all of these strategies (and dozens more) see my SPECIAL REPORT: 101 Simple, FREE and Low-Cost Ways to Quickly Build a MASSIVE EMAIL LIST (http://www.ezinequeen.com/listbuild.htm).

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

Create Your First Responsive List

Generating traffic to your site is only half of the milestone found for generating sales. The other half lies in building a house list of prospects that repeatedly visit your site for one reason or the other. There is no use only having a large list of prospects; it is necessary for your members to be responsive too.

The first thing that has to be done to create a responsive list is to build a website, sub domain or page from your main site that is dedicated to collecting email addresses of visitors to your site for your following up. In fact, it is easier to create a responsive list using this method than by any other methods. When creating this site, add some testimonials if possible, and some samples of your work. You could also add a reminder for book marking your site so that the subscriber can forward your publication to a friend. A freebie would be beneficial here too.

However, don't place too much focus on the freebies you are offering; it is important to focus on the content of the site, so as to have a large number of members in your responsive list. With too much emphasis on freebies, you will interest only those interested in receiving freebies, and not in your product. Remember, you are building this responsive list to generate lists of people more interested in your product, and not the freebie.

One of the best means of making people become a member of your responsive list would be by offering them an article series, an additional bonus or a course each mailing, with some glimpses of what is to come in the next part. This way, they will join your responsive list with the curiosity of finding out what will happen next. Invite your subscribers to your responsive list to have some interaction with you and other subscribers. You could let them provide feedback about your product or services through replies, questions and advice. With this participation, they are sure to have an increased interest in reading about the feedback. If required, you could also involve subscribers through group chats, polls and forums.

When creating your responsive list, it is important that your mailing reaches the subscribers of the responsive list. Otherwise neither you nor the recipient will benefit by the responsive list. It will be better if you have an auto responder wherein you could send an un-subscribe response to the subscriber, with an invitation to re-subscribe to a new email address.

Remember, the three main points to remember when creating a responsive list is to build rapport with your subscribers, to create an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation in the subscriber and to expand your line of products as much as possible. Coming out with something new every few weeks for the subscribers to buy will give them a reason to respond to your mail. Provide the subscribers with something to buy or do, over and over again, and voila, you have the best responsive list ever!

Jaz Lai is an Online Home Business Expert. To receive your FREE copy of his famous no BS report on how to start a profitable home based business that are Guaranteed to jumpstart your monthly income, Click http://www.onlineearningmakeeasy.com/free-report,

Ten Ways to Gain an Avalanche of Sales

1. Utilize holidays to increase your visitors or sales.
You could give away free electronic greeting cards,
hold discounts, send customers holiday cards, etc.


2. Become well known by speaking or chatting at
seminars. The seminars could be held offline, in
a chat room, by telephone or via e-mail.


3. Start a free ebook club on your web site. People
could sign up to receive a free ebook from you each
month. Just include your product ad in the ebooks.


4. Give away your products or expertise to internet
business newbies. Just ask them in return to place
your link on their web site.


5. Trigger your visitors to buy your products by using
colors. You should totally relax and think about which
colors would compel prospects to order.


6. Let your past offline customers know about your
web site. When they visit and sign up to your e-zine
it will remind them to shop at your online store.


7. Create a long term relationship with your entire
customer base. You can stay in touch with them
through an e-zine, with greeting cards, etc.


8. Repeat the 3 most powerful or appealing benefits
throughout your ad copy. Repetition can brand your
product's benefits quicker in your prospects mind.


9. Give your new customers surprise free gifts. This
will increase their loyalty and give you more word of
mouth advertising.


10. Make your long ad copy interesting enough so
people click through to the next web page. If it's not,
they won't take the time to click and read more.


Article by Randy Charach of Synergy Marketing Group Inc.
Randy's site has helped 1000's of people profit online.
Visit: http://www.123smg.com -> No time to visit the site?
Subscribe to the FREE NEWSLETTER "Synergy Success"
by sending a blank email mailto:tips@123smg.com

5 Google Adsense Secrets to Increase Your Revenue

If you’re one of the thousands of people that have tried google adsense with no luck, don’t be discouraged. Too many times people believe they can place an adsense ad on their page and begin making quality money right away. Here are five google adsense secrets that will help you begin making money.

1. Blending the ads with your background is a google adsense secret that many know of but forget to do. It is proven that more people will click on an ad if it looks like your website as far as the font and color of links as well as the same background. It makes it look less like an ad and more like your own work.

2. Keeping your google adsense above the fold is crucial. More times than not people only read part of your website or simply take a quick glance. By placing your ads above the fold, people can see the ad without having to scroll down. This gives you many more opportunities to receive clicks.

3. A google adsense secret that is not only important for your ads but your website as well is focusing on a niche. If you focus on one particular niche you will have a better chance at keyword optimization and climbing higher on the search engines. By focusing on a single subject, adsense can target your readers with relevant ads to increase your earnings. While the google adsense bot is smart, it won’t be able to figure out what your website is about if you write on every topic possible.

4. Cut down the clutter to eliminate the chance of your google adsense being skipped over. The problem with placing multiple pictures and banners and menus on your page is that it looks cluttered and makes it difficult to read. With a mass amount of information and displays it increases the chances of your visitors not even seeing your adsense ads. By keeping your site simple and informative at the same time, you have a better chance of getting clicks and increasing your revenue.

5. The last google adsense secret I have for you is far from being a secret. You must generate traffic to your site if you want people to click on your ads. There are multiple ways you can increase your traffic from writing articles, using search engine optimization, and posting in forums. However way you choose to increase your traffic, you must do something to build up a high traffic volume if you want to get any money from google adsense.

While these “google adsense secrets” may not seem like secrets, you would be amazed at how many people do not do them. By doing each and every single tip you will notice an increase in your google adsense revenue in no tim

Shon Christopher's making money website will provide you with the tools needed to boost your internet income in no time. With various secrets and tips, you will find informational articles and more to help you become a successful internet marketer. Go here to find more: http://www.moneymultipliermethods.com

Podcasting: Your Means to Fame

iPod is a portable media player developed by Apple. A revolution has been on in the media industry which now includes the web as well. Pod casting companies are sprouting everywhere. These are jumping onto the bandwagon of pod casting popularity. Adam Curry automated the process of downloading and syncing audio files to iPod’s. What followed was the RSS 2.0 specification which was used to deliver information on pod casts. RSS files is a way of publishing meta information about content. Pod casting is the application of RSS to audio files.

The Pod cast basics can be outlined in a few steps

• Creation of audio content in MP3 format and posting it to a web server.

• Publishing an RSS feed that contains RSS news items that reference to the audio content posted on the web server. RSS item provides meta information, file name, description of the file and an RSS enclosure which is the URL of the audio file.

• iPodder is used to check for new versions of the news feed. The iPodder identifies the audio file URL’s and downloads and syncs then to a medial player.

• Users listen to the downloaded “podcasted” audio file at their convenience.

Pod casting has spread rather rapidly due to the rapid adoption of iPod and other MP3 players.

Your Pod casts

Since you know the easy steps in a pod cast, creating a pod cast all by yourself is a way to get yourself on the web. Create your audio content like audio books, music, radio, interviews or even sermons. What ever be the show you want to pod cast. If you have a Macintosh, a free music pod casting choice is the GarageBand or you could search for pod casting softwares and take a pick.

To get the best quality save the file under the maximum quality available in whichever application you use. It will be easy to edit and reuse the saved file and convert it to the defacto pod cast standard: MP3. Software’s may ask you about bit rates. Use the minimum settings to achieve good results. It could either be 48K to 56 K mono and if you are looking at better quality stereo then 64Kor higher plus stereo option would be the best. Once your files are in MP3 format you need to save your files in the directory on the web server. Putting all the files in a particular directory makes it easier to manage.

Now you need to create your podcast news feed which is a RSS file that links to your MP3 file. RSS file is a simple text file and you can use your text editor to create an RSS feed. However blogging programs as well as other applications allow you to automatically generate new feeds. All you need to do is to create an item for each audio file and use the URL of the content as the enclosure. In case you are using a text editor download a sample file and replace the contents of those with those of your own. Save your file with a .rss or .xml extension. You could use one RSS file to contain all of your pod casts ordered from the newest to the oldest.

Publishing your RSS feed is transferring this *.rss file to the server and validating it using an online validator. If the news feed is valid it is ready to be published to the web. You then add your site to the pod cast directory for people to come and visit your site. Branding your pod cast by adding logos, sound effects and adding it to the right pod casting directory will add to the Pod casting benefits for professional pod casters.

http://www.onlypodcasting.com introduces you to the new world of pod casting. Pod cast basics, pod casting benefits, etc. are elaborated for those interested in pod casting. Look for this information and more on this site.

Protecting Your Profits on Pay-Per-Click Engines: 3 Common Mistakes

The plan in your head seems so simple: bid on keywords on pay-per-click (PPC) engines then watch your business skyrocket. Some marketers do achieve instant success. However, many are losing money because they’ve got gaping holes in their PPC strategy. Don’t overlook the basics.

Search engines such as Yahoo! and Google allow you to bid on keywords and drive visitors to your web site for a per-click fee. The Yahoo! Sponsored Search program has a $30 non-refundable deposit and a $0.10 per click minimum bid (and a $20 per month minimum spend). The Google AdWords program has a $5 account activation fee and a $0.01 per click minimum bid. For many PPC engines, the highest bid typically gets the highest position, and you’ll only be charged when someone clicks on your ad.

Just because it can take less than 15 minutes to set up a PPC campaign doesn’t mean you should! Let’s look at three common mistakes PPC advertisers make:

1. Choosing the Wrong Keywords

The wrong keywords deliver too much traffic that doesn’t convert, or too few visitors to impact your bottom line. The trick is to choose highly-targeted keywords that are targeted, yet popular enough that you’ll get decent traffic without blowing your entire budget in 24 hours. If you’re trying to get visitors to take action on your site, it’s mission critical to track your leads or sales at the keyword level. Without knowing which keywords did and did not perform, you won’t be able to maximize your advertising profits.

2. Writing Ad Copy that Attracts Non-Buyers

Generic-sounding copy is terrible, especially for pay-per-click. Something like “we offer business solutions to help your company succeed” is so vague that it’s going to attract people who have no use for your company. You’ll be paying for wasted clicks. A worse offense is to over-promote your offer which also attracts non-buyers; the word “free” has to be used carefully for this reason. Make your ad descriptive and compelling so potential customers know what you’re selling and get ready to buy before they land on your site.

3. Using a Landing Page that Doesn’t Sell

Do not, I repeat, do not send PPC traffic to your home page. Besides certain exceptions, it’s not the most relevant page for the users’ search query. The landing page you send visitors to, and the way it’s designed and written, determines if people stay or abandon your site. Design and test your landing pages for optimal conversions.

Successful pay-per-click campaigns start with careful consideration of the basics. New advertisers should take time to plan out their campaign while existing advertisers should optimize these basic ingredients. Protect your profits!

Catherine Seda, author of Search Engine Advertising (New Riders, 2004), shares search engine marketing tips in her seminars and complimentary e-zine (http://www.CatherineSeda.com). To learn more about search engine marketing, check out Catherine’s NEW self-study tutorial, a five-set CD-ROM, Search Marketing Mastery™. Her program guides you through the step-by-step process of effectively setting up and managing profitable pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns. Learn more at http://www.SearchMarketingMastery.com

How to Build Traffic to Your Blog

With the growing interest in blogging as a means of online promotion and branding, a lot of marketers are starting blogs to promote their opinions, products, books and services.

But a blog is like a website. "Write and they will come" isn't exactly a magic formula to bring in traffic by the boatload.

If you need to promote your website in order to build traffic to it, you need to promote your blog as well.

Here are some ways you can become a well-read and influential blogger.

1. Write Posts That People Will Want To Read

This should be common sense, but many marketers tend to forget that their readers are real people and that you need to use the principles of online copywriting to make your headlines and copy interesting to your readers.

If you write posts that people enjoy reading, they will reward you by returning to your blog regularly.

Make your posts conversational, pithy and topical. Keep them short and stick to one topic per post.

Write often and regularly so that both readers and search engines visit your blog more often.

2. Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines

I cover this topic in detail in my article on "Search Engine Optimization For Blogs"

But here are the most important rules to follow to get your posts listed for keywords of your choice.

• Make sure your blog URL contains the primary keyword you want to optimize for
• Use your primary keywords in the title of your post
• Use your secondary keywords in the body of your post
• Use your keywords in the anchor text of links in the body of your posts

3. Submit Your Blog and RSS Feed To Directories

If you publish a blog you should submit your blog and RSS feed to big directories like Yahoo and Dmoz, as well as the numerous blog directories and search engines.

Here is the best list I've found of places to submit your feed or blog, compiled by Luigi Canali De Rossi, who writes under the pseudonym Robin Good.

Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites

Another list of sites to submit your Blog

4. Ping The Blog Services

There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated your blog so they can come check you out.

Bookmark the Ping-O-Matic ping results page so you can visit it and quickly ping a number of services with a single click.

5. Build Links To Your Blog

I recommend the methods here as the best ways to get links pointing to your blog.

• Link to your blog from each page on your main website
• Trackback to other blogs in your posts
• Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics
• Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites

6. Edit Your Blog Posts Into Articles

One of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.

The suggestion for extending this to edit your blog posts into articles and submit them to directories came from the coach at "Explode Blog Traffic" who also has other noteworthy suggestions at his blog.

You'll find an extensive list of article directories here

7. Create Buzz About Your Blog

Creating a buzz about your blog posts and topic in the local and online media will give your marketing a viral component.

• Create a controversy around your blog or it's topic.
• Distribute bumper stickers or other merchandise with your blog's URL and tagline.
• Write a press release about something newsworthy and tie it in with your blog topic.

8. Capture Subscribers By Email

It may seem strange for a blogger to send out updates by email, but email is still the #1 choice of most people who want to receive news and information.

Using a free service like Bloglet to manage your subscriptions is easy and it allows your subscribers to manage all their subscriptions from one interface.

However, if you want more control over your list and don't mind mailing out the updates yourself, you can use an autoresponder system to capture and follow-up with subscribers.

RSS Responder is a new script that allows you to keep in touch and follow-up with your subscribers without the hassle of email.

These tips should give you a good start to building your blog traffic.

---

Copyright © 2004 Priya Shah

Priya Shah publishes an internet marketing ezine by day and doubles as a Blog Maniac by night. Blog Brandz is the legitimate offspring of her affair with the blogosphere.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed Quickly and Widely

1. Submit your blog to all of the directories listed on http://pingomatic.com/. Pingomatic will ping 15 services all at once.

2. Ping your blog after every post at http://pingomatic.com/

3. Here's a real gem: Submit your blog to http://www.pingoat.com/ Pingoat will ping over fifty blog ping services all at once. So you don't have to hunt for ping services and manually ping them. Pingoat pings over fifty blog ping servers (growing) with just one click.

4. Ping your blog after every post at Pingoat at http://www.pingoat.com/

5. Sign up for a free account at BlogExplosion.com and register your blog there: http://www.blogexplosion.com/

6. Submit your blog to all of the directores listed at http://www.rss-feeds-directory.com/blog_lists.html

7. Sign up for a "My Yahoo" at http://my.yahoo.com/ and attach your blog to your own "My Yahoo" account. This will get your blog included in Yahoo very quickly. This is worth the effort to stop what you're doing right and do it, since Yahoo has a PR 9.

8. Use this code: "http://add.my.yahoo.com/content?url= http://www.yourblog.com/urblog.xml" in your blog to allow others to put your feed on their own "My Yahoo" account.

9. Sign up for a "My MSN" at http://www.my.msn.com/, and attach your blog to your own "My MSN" account. This will get your blog included in MSN very quickly. This is also invaluable because MSN has a PR 8.

10. Use this code: "http://my.msn.com/addtomymsn.armx?id= rss&ut=http://www.urblogfeedaddress.com/urblog.xml" in your blog to allow others to put your feed on their own "My MSN" account.

11. Place the link and description of your blog in your signature, so that any posts to Forums, Outgoing Emails, Autoresponder Courses, etc, will promote your blog.

12. Post a link and description of your blog on each of your sites.

13. Place your blog on all the major search engines. AddMe.com will submit your blog free to the top 14 Search engines here:
http://www.addme.com/submission.htm

SubmitExpress.com will submit your blog free to the top 20 Search engines here:
http://www.submitexpress.com/

14. Use Article Directories as a resource for articles to post on your blog. Here are a few:
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://goarticles.com/
http://www.knowledge-finder.com/
http://www.informit.com/articles/

15. Locate blogs with a lot of traffic and place useful comments in their comment box. Be sure the blog and your comments are relavent to both your blog and theirs. Senseless posts won't help you, they'll hurt you.

16. Once you get around 5 to 10 posts on your blog, start a PR campaign and announce it to all relevant channels.

17. Make a blog post as often as possible. More than once a day is not really necessary. Remember, if you can't write that much, go to step # 14.

Greg White, Internet Marketer, Author, Consultant and Project Manager has been running successful web projects since 2001. His sites and blogs cover Blog Marketing Tactics, Internet Marketing Tactics and a variety of 'Niche' topics, in addition to starting and marketing profitable web project. http://www.blogmarketingtactics.blogspot.com/ http://internetmarketingtactics.blogspot.com/

Using Blog PR to Promote Your Site

The recent trend of using the press release to promote an online business has emerged with good reason – good press costs very little and can do more for a business than thousands of dollars of marketing. Most businesses use press distribution services like PR Web or PRFree to get the word out about their news. While distribution services certainly can be effective, they tend to miss out on arguably the most influential group of the press – bloggers.

Bloggers mold and shape the opinions of their readers, who are normally the most important in their particular industry, many of whom are also bloggers. Not long after a post from an influential blogger, your news has been picked up by several other bloggers and within days you are all over the blogsphere. Before you know it your site is getting more attention than it would if a story ran in the local newspaper! So how do you get the influential bloggers in your industry to run a story about your business?

Why Would Anyone Do a Story About Your Business?

Are you a new company? Did you just launch a new product that they could review? Did your business win an award? Are you a group of college kids who started a company on savings from your summer jobs? You get the idea. There needs to be a reason that someone would want to read about you. Bloggers take pride in the content they feed their readers. You don't stand a chance of getting a blogger to write about you if you don't have a story that their readers will be interested in.

Research Bloggers in Your Industry

More is less when it comes to contacting bloggers. Buy a list of 1,000 bloggers and send out a generic email to all of them and you'll likely get no response. But send a small amount of personalized emails to the appropriate bloggers and you'll be shocked at how many positive responses you get.

The first step is to make a list of the bloggers that would be interested in your story. You can generally get a feel for whether or not a blogger would be interested in your story by reading a couple of posts and checking out their bio. If they've done a few similar stories in the past or they are heavily involved in your industry, there is a good chance they'll want to hear your story. If not, leave them off your list and move on.

The single best method that I have found to research blogs is the Technorati Blog Directory http://www.technorati.com/blogs/. You can peruse blogs in your industry in order of “authority” - how important Technorati thinks a blog is. This is extremely useful. For example, if you are in the travel industry, you can view a list of the most influential blogs in the world of travel.

Another great way to find the right bloggers is to search through your competitors press sections on their websites to see what blogs have mentioned them. You can also find out who has mentioned your competitors by looking at the sites that have linked to them (type in “links:www.theirsite.com” on Yahoo!). There's a good chance that if they found your competitors story interesting, they'll find your story interesting as well.

Compose Your Email

The best way to contact bloggers is by email. The good news is that most bloggers make themselves easy to access and provide their email addresses on their blogs. The bad news is that most people don't know what to do with said email address once they get it. Use the following outline for your email and you'll see amazing results:

• Have a simple subject. You probably won't get many responses by treating your email like a press release and writing RELEASE in the subject line. Try something simple like “fan of your blog” or “comment about your blog.” You want to make sure they actually read your email and don't mentally mark it as SPAM when they see the subject.
• Start by complementing them. Since you've read their blog and learned about them from their bio, you know quite a bit about them. Use it to your advantage. Complement them on your favorite post, or how cool it is that they worked for XYZ company.
• Request them to post about you (be direct). In three sentences or less, tell them your story, why you think it would be of interest to them and their readers, and respectfully ask that they write a post about it. Be direct and to the point. They will respect that.
• Offer something in return. You have something that could help them. Maybe it's a link back to their blog from your personal blog, or maybe you could provide them with a free product or service that could help them or their business. One way or another, there's something you have to offer them in return for the time spent on a post about you.
• Close with something nice. Thank them for their time and wish them luck with their blog and/or business ventures.

Notice that of the five components of the email, only one is about your story. The rest of the email is spent complimenting them and offering them something. Your chances of getting a positive response have just gone through the roof. Every blogger, no matter how large, likes to hear that people are enjoying their posts.

Respond Promptly and Respectfully

Not everyone is going to agree to run your story. Some will say that they don't do that type of thing or that they don't have time. Since you have been so nice as to compliment them, they will still usually reply either way. Regardless of the response, be sure to thank them for their time and wish them luck with their ventures. You never know when they will encounter someone who needs your product or service in the future (remember, they are in your industry) and if they have a positive image of you and your company they will undoubtedly give you a good recommendation.

Sit Back and Watch the Traffic Roll In

Over the course of the next few weeks you will see post after post appear about your business. Be sure to send another thank you email to the blogger after the post and also be sure to promptly provide whatever you offered them in return. At this point you have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with someone important in your industry that can become invaluable over time.

That wasn't that hard was it? With a little research and a carefully crafted email, any business can effectively use blog PR to drive traffic to their site.

Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize - simple to-do lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, check from your mobile phone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others.

Up Your Sales with Testimonials

When a prospect is deciding to hire you, register for your program, or buy your product online, you aren't there in person to help convince them you're "for real." That means you have to go the extra mile by building credibility, so your web visitor immediately can trust you!

One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this - and increase your sales by leaps and bounds - is to feature TESTIMONIALS from your clients and customers. Testimonials may seem like a given, but many people completely forget to use them in their marketing.

You can never have too many testimonials. In fact, if you enjoy watching TV infomercials like I do, you've probably noticed a typical 30 minute spot is over 80% testimonials! And that's for good reason... they are the hands-down BEST way to gain instant credibility. So rack 'em up, and put them everywhere!

Here are 3 ways to make sure your testimonials sell FOR you...

1. Ask for RESULTS-ORIENTED Testimonials

The most effective testimonials are results oriented. That is, they share actual results your clients or customers have gotten. Also include numbers, dollar amounts, and/or percentages to get your prospect's attention and dramatically increase your response.

Lame testimonial: "Alexandria Brown's Online Success Blueprint course is a great guide to online marketing."

Awesome testimonial (and a real one, too!): "Thanks to the Powerful, Simple Strategies I Learned From Alexandria Brown's Online Success Blueprint, I Made $60,000 in TWO DAYS. I Will Easily Quadruple My Income in 2006. Thank you!"

2. Include Full Information on the Client or Customer

Have you ever seen shifty ads in the back of magazines with testimonials like this? "These super magic pills melted away 300 pounds of my extra weight overnight!" - E.B. in Wichita, Kansas.

Yah, right! I'm sure "E.B." is a real person and that's a real testimonial. Hmmm...

The more information you provide about your clients and customers, the more believable your testimonials are. Include full name, occupation or company name, city and state they're from, web address (if applicable), and a PHOTO. (Even a crappy photo, if that's all they have. It's important to make them REAL to your reader.) You can see samples of how I did this at http://www.ezinequeen.com/blueprintworkshop0306.htm.

3. Use Audio (or Video) Testimonials for Even Better Results

Audio and video also add a TON of credibility to your testimonials, because your prospects actually hear and/or see the client or customer delivering the testimonial!

Audio is a snap to set up on your web pages using a great tool call Audio Generator. Have your customers/clients call their hotline and leave a voicemail testimonial. Then you just copy and paste the code onto your website! You can see samples of how I did this at www.ezinequeen.com.

I'm also venturing into video testimonials using Instant Video Generator.

Bug, Then Beg. And If All Else Fails... Bribe!

If you have trouble getting testimonials from your clients or customers whom you KNOW have had great experiences working with you or using your products, don't get mad at them. You just have to bug them. It's rare you'll receive a testimonial unsolicited.

First, contact clients/customers whom you know have gotten great results thanks to you. Ask them if they can write up a short testimonial outlining their experience. They'll probably say "yes" but will forget to follow up or take a long time.

I then usually offer to write something up for them based on what they've shared with me, which I'll email to them for approval. Every time I've offered this, they are relieved and say "great!" And 99% of the time they are delighted with what I sent them.

As a last resort, and if you're dealing with clients/customers whom you may not know as well, I suggest offering an "ethical" bribe to encourage them. For example, have a contest and the people whose testimonials are chosen for your web page get a free prize or product. Gets them off their butts and works every time!

Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, "The E-zine Queen," publishes the award-winning 'Straight Shooter Marketing' weekly ezine with 20,000+ subscribers. If you're ready to jump-start your marketing, make more money, and have more fun in your small business, get your FREE tips now at http://www.EzineQueen.com

How to Put Your Online Marketing on Autopilot

Do you want to not be actively participating in day-to-day marketing activities?

Do you want your target market to come to your web site and subscribe to your newsletter?

Do you want qualified buyers to come to your web site, buy your product and download it, all without any involvement from you?

One of the important building blocks of creating passive income streams is to have a web site that can do as much as possible for your web site visitors, before you get involved. For example:

- If someone wants to become your business coaching client, they should be able to fill out a questionnaire with information about their business, their goals, their budget, etc. This way, the client will be pre-qualified online, instead of you spending time on pre-qualification. Pre-qualification is a good process to automate, as answering a questionnaire can be done easily online.

- When someone wants to buy your ebook or special report, have a process that processes their payment, confirms the payment and lets them download the product without your involvement. Again, this will help you save the time getting the payment, processing the payment and delivering the product. This is another great process to automate, as all the tools for accepting payment online and delivering a digital product are readily available.

Remember, people come to your web site for many different reasons. Some want to read your articles. Some need your services. Others want to subscribe to your newsletter. Yet others need to purchase your products. All of these actions require a different online marketing process.

While each process is different, the processes may be easy to set up. Once you formulate what a process needs to do (process payment, deliver product, qualify a potential customer), you will be able to define and implement the process.

Over to you - let’s take action! Here are the steps you need to take to put your marketing on autopilot, and have your web site do the majority of your marketing for you:

- Audit your current web site, and all the processes to use to qualify clients, register newsletter subscribers, sell products, deliver products, etc.

- Identify how involved you are in each process – from the very beginning of the process, from the middle, not at all. Every process is different. Some will need your involvement at some point (when someone asks for a project quote). Others can be 100% on autopilot (digital product sale and delivery).

- Identify how you can improve each process. Are there ways to add more automation? Is there a way to pre-qualify a client futher?

By putting your marketing processes on autopilot, while still offering your customers your products and services, will give you more time for working with existing clients and creating more passive income streams products.

Biana Babinsky is the online business consultant, expert and author, who teaches business owners and solopreneurs how to put online marketing on autopilot and make money. Learn how to increase your own product sales - get Top 5 Ways To Increase Your Online Sales Special Report, absolutely FREE at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/free_newsletter.html

Your Signature File - Give It Some Love

Your signature file -- the blurb at the end of your forum posts and your emails -- is prime real estate. Are you using it to the fullest?

Do you put any thought into your sig lines? I hope you are putting as much thought into your sig lines as you would a paid advertisement. Your signature file has the potential to work for you, if you let it.

Of course, if you’re posting on forums, the #1 most important thing is your actual message. Don't attach your signature file to anything that will reflect poorly on your business.

And, likewise, in emails, if you're sending around jokes that are a little risque, then think twice about attaching your URL if it's not appropriate.

Tip 1: Give people a reason to click on your URL.

How can you entice viewers to click?

Your signature file should capture attention and create interest. It should always be clear and direct in stating the benefits your program offers.

Don’t just say “We sell gadgets.” Explain how those gadgets will help your potential customers save time, money or to make their lives better.

Tip 2: Don't Write a Novel

Make your signature file short and catchy. A long, drawn-out signature file is sure to be ignored. And, a boring one will be, too. Stick to one or two URLs, even if you have 30 or 40 websites. Any more than that will dilute your branding and effectiveness.

Tip 3: Don't Confuse

When writing your sig file, remember that a confused mind always says "no". Don't go crazy in your signature file with too many links or options. Be clear and direct about the benefits of your program so anyone and everyone reading it can see exactly how your product or service can help them.

Don't assume readers know as much as you do about your business. Don't talk jargon. Some terms or ideas in your industry may be over the heads of potential customers. Oftentimes I read ads and have no idea what in the heck they are selling, or why I'd need it. Make sure to state your benefits in simple words and grammar so that anyone who isn't in your industry can understand them. For instance, everyone has skin, but not everyone knows what an epidermis is. Make it simple.

Tip 4: Nab them

Once a reader does click through your sig line, do you have a way to capture their contact info so you can stay in touch? If not, get your newsletter sign-up box ready to collect those interested visitors. Otherwise, you're losing that potential customer, possibly forever.

If appropriate, offer something free to collect their email addresses. Offering a discounted item or freebie is always a good idea.

You may be wasting PRIME opportunities to get visitors to your site if you aren't putting as much thought into your sig line as you would invest writing paid ads. Try some new wording and watch your click-throughs rise.

Nicole Dean shares advice for work at home moms at her fun and informative site http://www.showmomthemoney.com/ Do you need free bonuses to offer? Don't miss http://www.free-ebooksonline.com

How to Make Paid Membership Sites Work for You

There was a time when setting up paid membership sites on the Internet -- where you have a site only people who pay you an ongoing fee can access -- was all the rage.

Lately it seems this isn't as popular as it was. Mostly because so many of them fail. In fact, in many cases, it seems people drop out the bottom as soon as they sign up.

Even so, there are a few smart Internet marketers who have been able to make it work.

And one of those ways to make paid membership sites work is to simply offer content people simply cannot get anywhere else.

In other words, you’re probably not going to get them to pay you an ongoing fee to access your content unless you offer them something that’s just not possible to get online or offline anywhere else but from you and your site.

Yes, that sounds simple, but that's really what it all boils down to.

The whole key to making paid membership sites work is giving people something unique, valuable, proprietary to you, and that you, and only you, can provide.

For example, there is a marketer named Matt Furey. He has a monthly membership site and he gives away a ton of material to people who sign up for a year. Not material people can download online somewhere else, but real, valuable books, CDs, and even personal assistance with members' questions.

These are all things you can't get anywhere else but through him and so his membership deal thrives and grows. You can do the same thing.

It doesn't take a whole lot of sophistication or technological savvy, either. Just follow the model above with what you're selling and you will be fine.

Michael Senoff is a sought-after Internet marketer, interviewer and business coach with more than 50,000 students on four continents. For a limited time he is giving away free over 120 hours of in-depth audio interviews with some of the richest and most successful marketers, copywriters and business experts in the world at his famous website http://hardtofindseminars.com

Email Secrets Worth $ 3.5 million (per year)

Recently I wrote an article about HUGE changes in the world of email
marketing that can be extremely profitable to you if you're "in
the know."

And since I sent that article, I've received a flurry of emails
from anxious readers everywhere...

People are *shocked* to discover that there are TONS of big
changes coming up in the industry... like, in just 3 years, one
in every six email inboxes will be "mobile"... and that the
"Big 3" email providers are moving away from filtering SPAM
based on the content of an email (and looking at things like
your reputation, instead)... and many more!

And they want to know HOW they should prepare for these
income-shifting changes, and WHEN they're coming.

Well, these questions are WAY too big to deal with in a simple
email...

... so I've arranged for you to have access to the special
webpage I told you about that explains ALL of these changes for
an additional trial period!

Like I said before, this page reveals how one guy made over
$3.5 MILLION last year from email marketing alone... how to
quickly build an email list of 1,000s of qualified buyers (even
if your site gets NO traffic)... how to get "whitelisted" with
Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail and guarantee the delivery of every
email you send...

... plus much more!

To get all of the details, just go to:

http://www.marketingtips.com/emailsecrets/t.cgi/824062

But remember: the page is only available for a limited time, so if it's gone when you get there, sorry, but you'll have
missed out on your chance to keep pace with your competitors --
or even get AHEAD of the curve and profit from these HOT new
trends *before* everyone else!

Enjoy,


The Editors at InternetSuccess.com

P.S. By the way, if you view this page while it's still
available, you'll ALSO learn about six bonus reports, valued at
$394.73, but yours FREE.

So make sure you follow this link right away:
http://www.marketingtips.com/emailsecrets/t.cgi/824062

Link Building for SEO on a New Site

Ah, the joys of link building and search engine optimization. If you have a new site, here is a tip that you might want to consider. Then again, you may just want to pitch it.

Link building simply refers to an issue known as relevancy. When ranking sites in search engine results, Google tends to list the site that is the most relevant. There are a lot of factors that go into determining relevancy, but the number of other sites linking to yours is one of them. This is why a site like the one for the IRS is high in search results for tax issues even though it does not trade links per se.

Ideally, you want only inbound links from other sites that are relevant to the subject of your site. If you have a plumbing site, you want links from other plumbing or home improvement sites. Despite all the junk email you receive, links from casino and pharmacy sites are not going to help the rankings for your plumbing site. They will hurt the rankings because they are not relevant.

When building links to your site, Google favors a slow, steady increase in links. If you want top rankings on Google, you should follow this mantra with one exception. If you have a new site, you need not be a slave to this approach.

As you probably know, new sites are not ranked by Google. Instead, your site will sit for six months or so in the much discussed Google sandbox. Given this fact, you really don’t need to worry about Google for the same period of time when it comes to your links. Google isn’t going to rank you anyway, so picking up the pace isn’t really a problem.

With a brand new site, I prefer to create as many legitimate, relevant links as possible as soon as possible. The reason is I find it beneficial to start aging the links as soon as possible. Links to your site tend to grow in value the longer they exist on another site. From my point of view, why not maximize the number as quickly as possible? It isn’t like it is going to hurt your rankings on Google. You aren’t going to have any!

In taking this approach, I am not suggesting that you purchase links, use link farms or so on. I am just suggesting that you maximize your link trading efforts immediately to build up as many links as possible and get the aging process rolling. As you approach month four in the sandbox, you can start scaling back your efforts to a more slow and steady approach. Its worked for me.

Halstatt Pires is with MarketingTitan.com - providing internet marketing services.

Search and the Three Engines

“Did you know that only 1,1 percent of the top results of the four leading search engines are the same.” This text is from a banner on the first page of dogpile.com. That is a search engine that compares the results of the other (three) search engines. This simple comparison is one of my own on the subject, focused on the word "search". The three search engines return each more than a billion results:

1. MSN 1,164,314,650 results containing "search".
2. Yahoo about 5,010,000,000
3. Google about 16.010.000.000

People search for the word "search" 1,784,324 times a month (Overture, keyword selector tool, June 2006). And either of the three engines will deliver quite a different result:

MSN fetched the following two sites as the first ones: Search.com (1) and Search.org (2)

The rest of the search result on the first page consists of: searchengineshowdown.com/search.shtml (a search engine users guide), www.greatbuildings.com/search.html, www.hplovecraft.com/about/search.asp, www.pandia.com/searchworld/detective.html, www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/MetaSearch.html, www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce/search.html, and www.webdesignpractices.com/functions/search.html

Yahoo retrieved the comparison site a one of the first results, the next one is a normal search engine: www.dogpile.com (1) and www.altavista.com (2) The rest of the first page is covered by: www.hotbot.com, www.webcrawler.com, www.lycos.com, www.alltheweb.com, www.metacrawler.com, www.google.com, search.yahoo.com and www.ask.com.

Then Google: search.msn.com (1) and www.zvon.org/search.php (2). www.google.com/, search.yahoo.com, www.altavista.com/, www.yahoo.com, search.aol.com/, www.imdb.com/search, search.netscape.com/ and www.excite.com/ are the other search results of the first page.

Some conclusions – for this situation;

You often hear that an URL should be keyword rich. MSN is the only search engine that uses rich keyword as their prime selection criteria; search.com and search.org are found because of the keyword in the URL. If you look at the second site (search.org) you will find out that the site has little to do with (general) searching.

The relevance of google’s second find (zvon a search engine focused on XML) seems to come out of the blue. The First choice for MSN fits their -- be no evil -- style; they appoint their own search engine to a humble third choice.

Yahoo suggests the user to use a broad method by offering the comparison search engine; by using Dogpile you are certain that what all three engines offer is probably the right thing.

From these three outcomes -- and again dedicated to this simple example -- MSN seems to apply the most transparent search rule. Google’s rule appears to be a commercial choice where Yahoo seems to offer the technical best option.

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management advice. Astor Online solves issues in hours what normally would take days. You can apply for a free demo account

Why You Should Use a Free Autoresponder Series to Market Your Internet Business

Anyone who is looking for a successful internet marketing strategy should instantly be thinking about using content to pull web surfers to their site and turn them from visitors into customers. The internet is primarily an information resource and therefore it is no wonder that content is so effective when promoting an internet business.

Of course, there are numerous ways in which to promote your internet business through content, the most popular of which are writing articles for distribution or writing ebooks to sell. However, a highly underused way of using content to bring visitors to your site again and again is to use a free autoresponder series.

What’s that? Many people don’t know exactly what a free autoresponder series is and therefore do not pursue finding out how beneficial they can be. A free autoresponder series is an email series that a visitor can sign up for on your website. He or she will then receive periodic emails for a set period of time which you, as webmaster, can choose. You can also choose how often your email recipient receives these standard emails as well. And the best part about a free autoresponder series is that it is absolutely automated. Your autoresponder will just keep on sending out pre-written emails to your visitors until there are no more emails to send. All you have to do is write the emails to be sent beforehand.

For example, you might be running an internet business about golf tips. You could create a free autoresponder series that your visitors could sign up to that sent those who signed up emails every day for 2 weeks. Each day, in their email, they would receive a golf tip. As the webmaster, you would have written these emails before you advertised the free autoresponder series. Once people start signing up, the whole system runs on autopilot.

Using a free autoresponder series can benefit an internet business greatly. The most valuable quality of a free autoresponder series is that once you have captured your visitor’s address upon their first visit to your site, you can keep on sending them emails to constantly remind them of the usefulness and importance of your site and how it could benefit them through your autoresponder messages. The trick is to make it seem like you are teaching your email recipient something useful but at the same time to advertise your own website subtly as you go along. In this way, a free autoresponder series can bring visitors back again and again which will improve the chances of them making a purchase greater.

A free autoresponder also does great things for your credibility; an extremely important attribute on the internet. If you are able to create a high quality, free autoresponder series then readers will start to regard you as more of an expert in your field because obviously you are knowledgeable if you are able to write such a series. Credibility on the internet can lead to many more sales because it will push visitors past the barrier of fear that you are not going to give them their money’s worth.

Overall, for the small amount of work that it takes to create a free autoresponder series, it is definitely worth it, because once it’s created, it is a fully automated system that will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to promote your internet business.

$1000s worth of ebooks and software products are waiting for you ABSOLUTELY FREE at: http://www.info-ebooks.co.uk/ These COMPLETELY FREE products will show you how to skyrocket your annual income by making huge profits online.

Website Promotion via Social Netoworking, Search and Bookmarking

If you have been trying to get traffic to your site without paying for it, you must know by now that participating in online communities is one of the best ways. There are many different types of online communities that you can join and most will help you get a certain amount of traffic to your site. For this article, I will focus on only three types. Most commonly, new webmasters try to promote their website by subscribing to an online forum or a news site such as Slashdot or Digg. In addition, there are two other overlooked communities that can help you drive lots of traffic to your website and that includes social search engines and social bookmarking sites.

When it comes to using an online forum or news site as part of your marketing campaign it is important that you remember the most essential rule and that is, do not spam. Make sure that you are actively participating in the discussion and that you are not there just to promote your website. Many of these forums such as Slashdot and Digg use a moderation system that allows other users to give your posting such a low score that the vast majority of people will never see it. This is what will happen to you if you spam the forum other than of course getting banned all together. If you ad meaningful comments to a discussion, other users will become interested in what else you have to say and they will visit your website either via your signature or your profile.

In addition, social search engines have, recently, been gaining popularity. The internet consists of billions of websites and dishonest webmasters have been busy keyword optimizing their sites just to profit from Adsense. It has become very difficult for surfers to find the most relevant sites to their queries. Even Google’s results even though the best compared to other search engines often are not the most relevant. In an effort to avoid this clutter, web users are coming together in social search engines such as Rollyo.com to create a searchable collection of websites with useful content. If you are a webmaster and you want to promote your content rich site and your search engine optimization is not working then you might want to consider submitting your website to one of these social search engines.

Finally, social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us are becoming very popular and you can definitely use them to promote your site. In social bookmarking, you store links to your favorite websites online so you can access them from any computer that you are using. Most importantly, you can make your collection of links public so that others can also use them. In addition, you specify a set of tags for each link that you submit. You and other web surfers can use these tags to search for links of similar interest to their own. This is how you can promote your site. Simply bookmark your site and tag it with the most relevant keywords. Then, when other people search using these keywords, your site will come up and they might pay you a visit. If people enjoy your website, they might bookmark it themselves increasing the chances that others will come across it.

Peter E. is the creator of The Dollar Factory, a portal for webmasters with articles, news items, website spotlight and forum. If you are a new or old webmaster, join our growing community at The Dollar Factory (http://www.TheDollarFactory.com)

Reasons to Build Incoming Links on Web Directories

Website traffic is important to all individuals who have their own websites. One who takes the time to establish a website is either looking to publish content for the masses or offer products for sale. In order to make the website work, it has to have its share of visitors. In fact, the more visitors the better. One way to get as many website users to visit your site as possible is to build free incoming links on web directories. There are a few different reasons to do so.

Posting Links on Web Directories Draws Website Users

When individuals go to a web directory they are looking for some specific information. They know what type of website and information they are looking for yet they do not have a specific web address from which to obtain this information. This is why the Internet user visits a web directory first. By posting free links on web directories, the website owner is doing their part to draw in new visitors to their website and perhaps make it that much more likely that the visitors will return in the future.

Posting Links for Free is a No-Brainer

Another reason to build free incoming links on web directories is that it is free of charge. An individual who has a website and wishes to bring new web visitors to their site can post these links on the web directories and not have to pay a cent for them. What better way to get free publicity for a website than by using a service such as web directories?

Posting Incoming Links on Web Directories is Easy

Lastly, one who chooses to build free incoming links on web directories will find that the process is quite an easy one. Web directories will usually walk the website owner through the process and show them how to build the incoming links on their web directory.

Conclusion

One who wants to bring in user traffic to their website should consider building free incoming links on web directories. The website owner will find that this is an easy and economical way to make it that much more likely that individuals will visit their website. One can use this method to try and draw in user traffic as well as use other procedures to bring visitors to their particular site. The best way to increase website traffic is to get the word out amongst Internet users in any way possible.

Build incoming links to your web site by submitting to the Net-Guild web directory at http://www.net-guild.com

Building an Online Business with a Shoestring Budget

Accepting Payments Online
Whether you're selling services or products there are multiple ways to get started. The easiest and simplest way is an all-inclusive solution. Many companies offer turn-key solutions which include a basic website template and a hosted ecommerce store. Usually to cost varies from $20 to $30 a month with a modest set-up fee to process your application. Monies you make are either mailed to you by check or transferred to your bank account. One popular program offering is Yahoo Stores.

Simple = The Home Grown Factor
The pitfall of having an "all-inclusive-online-store template" is that the end result is an online store or website that does not look very professional. It could look down right ugly. This wouldn’t matter if you had an inexpensive niche product or service that everyone wanted to buy, but this is probably not the case. Niche products and services are slowly disappearing as more and more websites filling these voids come online. But hey! you never know. Nothing ventured is nothing gained.

Pay Pal Offerings
Let's assume you already have a website or even a Blog site like Live Journal or My Space. Pay Pal offers a program where you sign-up for free to accept monies online. They charge a very small fee per transaction when money is sent or received. Millions of people use Pay Pal this way. Simply sign up with Pay Pal (you'll need to have an active bank account) and in 2 to 3 days you are ready to go.

You need to have a minimal amount of web or HTML experience to place a Pay Pal button in your website. Don’t have HTML experience? Most city recreation centers offer classes at reduced rates or you may seek out the help of a technical or college student in your area. Most students are itching to get some practical real world experience under their belts. Start by calling the school’s director or person in-charge of student internships. But remember, you need a website in which to paste the code. Cost for a website may range from $500 to $2800 depending on your needs and your budget. You might also consider populating your information into a web template.

Web hosting plans costing $130 per year offer a free web template builder. You simply choose the template you like and populate it with your own content. Now you have a place to paste in your Pay Pal code. Most hosting companies will do this for you free!

We should also mention that Pay Pal offers an up line of merchant tools that include a shopping cart for a more professional store. But this will require a good deal of web development experience for you to master.

Raising the Bar
So you want a store with a shopping cart and product thumbnails like L.L.Bean?

If you're ready to invest a little money into your business, then it’s time to begin requesting RFPs (Requests for Proposals) from professional web design companies in your area.

The difference between a very basic ecommerce store and a professional store is the user experience. The look and feel of a professional store has a well designed or even custom designed interface with a variety of options for shopping such as coupon or specials section, send to a friend function, displays similar or optional shopping choices, multiple thumbnails or a slideshow of the product, multiple shipping choices for next day, overnight and so on.

You will also need to acquire a merchant gateway account and an ecommerce hosting company. Most professional web design companies can walk you through this process, even if you haven’t a clue of what to do. Cost for a professionally designed custom ecommerce website ranges from $3800 to $7500.

No matter which road you take, you have to do a bit of marketing. You can’t depend on web surfer’s to come stumbling across your website to do business. You have to market yourself. Tell your friends, get a write up in your church bulletin, and use every option you can think of to economically get the word out about your website.

Naming Your Website
Pick a website name (domain name) that follows 3 simple rules:

1) Easy to spell 2) Easy to say 3) Easy to remember

If you are chatting among friends and you casually drop the name of your website, you want people to easily remember what you said. Good domain name: www.bigfatpumpkins.com Bad domain name: www.organicallygrownpumpkins.biz

Marketing Online
You can go to chat rooms and talk up your website. You post a few items or services on EBay and include a link to your main website. You may also submit your website information to hundreds of free directories over the Internet. You might also consider setting up an affiliate program whereby you offer commissions to people who resell your products or services. There are people who make a living participating in multiple affiliate programs.

Take that First Step
Set up your website and grow your online presence. The longer your online store is live on the Internet, the greater the chances are of being found. Most importantly don’t quit your day job just yet. Building an online business at any level takes time and patience. Six months may go by without one single sell. Don’t get frustrated. Give the search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN time to find your website and list your website. Talk to other people who have similar products or services online. You'll be quite surprised how helpful and friendly these people can be in offering you some solid advice in growing your business. After all, they have been there and done that.

Build it and they will come. Wait and they won’t.

About the Author Rick Vidallon is President of Visionefx, a Web design company based in Virginia Beach, Va. They provide services to national companies as well as small to medium businesses throughout the United States. Rick can be reached at (757) 619-6456 or rick@visionefx.net.