Websites all contain some form of Web copy and/or Web content. Web copy and Web content can be put to use - by earning money by itself or by helping you to earn more than you do now. First, it's important to understand the difference between Web content and Web copy.
How You Can Make More Money With Web Content And Copy
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Richardo]Ryan Richardo
Websites all contain some form of Web copy and/or Web content. That Web copy and content can help you to earn money on its own, or can help you earn more money than you're currently making online. There are differences between Web copy and Web content, and you need to know what those differences are.
Web content is a way to keep your readers entertained and/or informed. Web content usually takes the form of articles. Some sites also include audio files in their content, as well as videos and photos. Web content often is what an online business uses to attract visitors to the site, even if indirectly.
Web copy - Web copy generally refers to text on a website that is either trying to get a response out of the reader or visitor, or that works to forward the company's message in some way. Web copy can be used to get the reader to buy items, to accept a newsletter, or to click on specific links. Copy also includes things such as a company / site slogan, and internal / company pages on a website (about us, contact, media kit contents, etc.), which goes towards portraying an image that you want to convey to visitors.
How does Web copy and content help you to make money? Here's how you do it:
Web content- lots of sites use their content alone to make money. There are plenty of large and small sites that use their content to bring in money- larger ones are content networks, such as About.com. The Web content is there to bring readers in, but the webmaster has to put advertisements on the site or to charge a fee for membership to the site in order to make money. To use Web content to make more money, there are a few things you need to do:
1. Use the highest quality Web content available. High quality content will bring in more readers, is sometimes well suited for SEO purposes, and will earn you high-quality back links, which in turn brings better traffic, better search engine rankings, and more earnings.
2. Keep publishing the content. New Web content will bring in more readers, as they return again and again to see the new items. More web traffic means more money. While ideally you should publish Web content both regularly and frequently, even if you can only publish once per week or once per month, schedule updates as regularly as possible.
3. Your content should be something that will attract new readers. Research topics and keywords by using Wordtracker or Overture and find out what is currently popular. Instead of concentrating on keyword stuffing, get content that appeals to your readers. A lot of searches for one specific topic can mean that there is an existing need for more information on that topic. The number of results given for any keyword is just as important as the number of times it's searched- many of those niches are already overfilled.
Web copy - Web copyrighting is usually reserved for making sales or bringing people back to the site. E-book sellers use Web copy to sell their items, often using different colored fonts, lots of subheadings and testimonials to persuade the readers.
The Web copy used to sell an item doesn't have to be that flashy. All order pages have copy that is meant to persuade and to get an immediate purchase of the items, and perhaps even more items as well. Some Web copy relies on guarantees to persuade readers to buy the item right then without worrying the outcome.
There are strong psychological underpinnings in good Web copy, getting people to act a certain way and with a certain outcome. Hiring a professional copywriter (or even studying copywriting yourself before developing your website or online business) can easily lead to higher conversions from website visitors to buyers, earning you more money online in the process.
Ryan Richardo is a writer for [http://www.internetbusinessanswers.com]InternetBusinessAnswers.com Internet Business Answers offers free answers to questions you have about [http://www.internetbusinessanswers.com/2007/03/10/i-want-to-make-money-with-a-website-where-do-i-start/]making money online with your own internet business
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Richardo http://EzineArticles.com/?How-You-Can-Make-More-Money-With-Web-Content-And-Copy&id=621049
Showing posts with label Ecommerce. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ecommerce. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
The 5 Best Revenue Models in E-Commerce History
There was a time, back in the 20th century, when everyone wanted to have their own online shopping cart system. By 1997, Amazon.com had served their millionth customer and was really starting to impress regular folks. The internet looked like a realistic way to do business, maybe even for small businesses.
So soon everyone wanted a shopping cart, got one ready to go, and… nothing. They didn’t get any traffic. Then came the website submission hounds with programs like SubmitWolf. It worked for a time, though some submitters turned into spammers and thus began the game of cat and mouse between spammers and search engines.
As the number of websites grew, and around 2000 when Google, who had partnered with RedHat and Yahoo, began to become a real force, it was no longer enough to have a website and submit it… at least not for small businesses online. Sure, about $66 billion dollars in in goods was sold online in1999, but mostly by big players who already had bricks and mortar momentum. If the new guy on the block wanted a piece of the action, he had to get smart and stay smart.
Cue the SEO experts, a growing herd of geeks with a profusion of theories about the directories and search engines. Some search engine optimizers were ethical and followed the rules set by search engines. Others practiced “black hat” SEO. The search engines guarded closely how they rank pages but some SEO devotees put all their energy into trying to reverse engineer those algorithms, to discover the magic formula, and find holes, however temporary, to exploit.
By the dawn of the 21st century, some basic “white hat” SEO principles had solidified, and the fad had shifted from shopping carts to informational websites. You can’t optimize something that doesn’t have information, and the more you have the better. Also, a lot of internet junkies prefer the purely digital and neither had, nor wanted to have, any physical products to sell.
But digital purists need money too, so various revenue sources have been explored – from running advertisements (clunky old banners and the dynamic AdSense variety), to helping others sell their goods through affiliate programs, to developing their own digital goods, like ebooks, special reports, even programs and web utilities. These paths have already been trailblazed, but you still must to choose the best one for you. If you have a product, you’ll want to use the internet to sell it. If you don’t have one, you could develop one. If you don’t want to, sell other people’s. If you don’t want to do that, just run ads.
Let’s forget, for the moment, that these all depend on incoming web traffic, and just focus on the pros and cons of each revenue source:
1. Selling physical goods requires warehousing, shipping, returns, and heavy customer service. It’s a significant investment of time and/or money, but this has the highest revenue potential.
2. Just running ads is much less work, especially with if you don’t have to deal directly with the advertisers. However, the earnings per click are quite low, so you need a lot more traffic to make good money. And not all informational topics are profitable. For example, searchers for entertainment and sports information don’t tend to click on ads or buy anything.
3. When you promote other people’s goods as an affiliate, you sit between the last two options- it can pay better than ads and be less hassle than hard goods. But you still have to provide content on profitable topics, and you need to be a comfortable and effective salesperson for the products that pay your bills.
4. Developing and selling your own digital products is at least as much work as selling hard goods, but requires much less overhead. You can write an ebook, turn it into a pdf, and get it onto a website with very little money.
5. And we shouldn’t end without mentioning that you can also sell your services online. If you write about what you do, whether you’re a web designer, lawyer, doctor, psychologist, carpenter, whatever, you can get web visits from prospects in your local area and turn those people into customers.
Since 1999, Brian B. Carter has reached 2 million readers, received 5 calls per week from prospects, and sold his first book. His new ebook is “How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Online”. For more, see his SEO/PPC Website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Carter
So soon everyone wanted a shopping cart, got one ready to go, and… nothing. They didn’t get any traffic. Then came the website submission hounds with programs like SubmitWolf. It worked for a time, though some submitters turned into spammers and thus began the game of cat and mouse between spammers and search engines.
As the number of websites grew, and around 2000 when Google, who had partnered with RedHat and Yahoo, began to become a real force, it was no longer enough to have a website and submit it… at least not for small businesses online. Sure, about $66 billion dollars in in goods was sold online in1999, but mostly by big players who already had bricks and mortar momentum. If the new guy on the block wanted a piece of the action, he had to get smart and stay smart.
Cue the SEO experts, a growing herd of geeks with a profusion of theories about the directories and search engines. Some search engine optimizers were ethical and followed the rules set by search engines. Others practiced “black hat” SEO. The search engines guarded closely how they rank pages but some SEO devotees put all their energy into trying to reverse engineer those algorithms, to discover the magic formula, and find holes, however temporary, to exploit.
By the dawn of the 21st century, some basic “white hat” SEO principles had solidified, and the fad had shifted from shopping carts to informational websites. You can’t optimize something that doesn’t have information, and the more you have the better. Also, a lot of internet junkies prefer the purely digital and neither had, nor wanted to have, any physical products to sell.
But digital purists need money too, so various revenue sources have been explored – from running advertisements (clunky old banners and the dynamic AdSense variety), to helping others sell their goods through affiliate programs, to developing their own digital goods, like ebooks, special reports, even programs and web utilities. These paths have already been trailblazed, but you still must to choose the best one for you. If you have a product, you’ll want to use the internet to sell it. If you don’t have one, you could develop one. If you don’t want to, sell other people’s. If you don’t want to do that, just run ads.
Let’s forget, for the moment, that these all depend on incoming web traffic, and just focus on the pros and cons of each revenue source:
1. Selling physical goods requires warehousing, shipping, returns, and heavy customer service. It’s a significant investment of time and/or money, but this has the highest revenue potential.
2. Just running ads is much less work, especially with if you don’t have to deal directly with the advertisers. However, the earnings per click are quite low, so you need a lot more traffic to make good money. And not all informational topics are profitable. For example, searchers for entertainment and sports information don’t tend to click on ads or buy anything.
3. When you promote other people’s goods as an affiliate, you sit between the last two options- it can pay better than ads and be less hassle than hard goods. But you still have to provide content on profitable topics, and you need to be a comfortable and effective salesperson for the products that pay your bills.
4. Developing and selling your own digital products is at least as much work as selling hard goods, but requires much less overhead. You can write an ebook, turn it into a pdf, and get it onto a website with very little money.
5. And we shouldn’t end without mentioning that you can also sell your services online. If you write about what you do, whether you’re a web designer, lawyer, doctor, psychologist, carpenter, whatever, you can get web visits from prospects in your local area and turn those people into customers.
Since 1999, Brian B. Carter has reached 2 million readers, received 5 calls per week from prospects, and sold his first book. His new ebook is “How I Made $78,024.44 in Six Months Online”. For more, see his SEO/PPC Website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_Carter
40 Ways to Drive Visitors to your Web Site-and Keep Them Coming Back!
In 1998, promoting your Web site was a very easy process. You placed three lines of code called “meta tags” on the top of your home page and submitted your site to the free search engine (Yahoo) or online directories. Fast forward to the present. Search Engine Optimization – yes, it has its own name now! - has become a time consuming project; it’s There are software programs that reportedly help you increase your rankings and an entire new field has cropped up of practitioners who call themselves Search Engine Optimizers.
It’s not enough to just drive traffic to your web site. You must make your web site “trustable” or all that traffic will disappear. The ideas below will show you some of the ways to help both bring traffic to your site and keep your ideal clients coming back for more of your services or products. It’s also not enough to drive “any old traffic” to your site. You want pre-qualified potential buyers. When your ideal client (target market, niche) comes to your web site, you want them to feel special — to know that they have arrived at the right place for them. So make them feel special. Target your marketing directly at them.
Before you spend lots of money on software, learning about SEO, or on specialists, see which of the following ways can help bring traffic and business to your site.
If your web site sells high-end services or products, but the site itself looks like you took MS Word and threw something up “just because,” people will leave your site, no matter what you’re selling. There are many hosting programs out there that will help you create a first professional looking web site. Not a programmer? Look for hosting packages that include wizards or content management programs to help you create a more professional looking site. (Although I do recommend hiring a professional as your best choice.).
2. Remember that the most important part of your web site is “above the fold.” It’s the first part of your site someone sees when they visit. So grab their attention with emotional headlines that let someone know they’ve come to the right place and you’re the best company to solve their problem.
3. OK. If you’ve created a web site and have no way for your visitors to become part of your community and learn from you, you are better off NOT creating a site. What good is traffic if all they do is come to your site and read? So place a subscription box above the fold (or very close to it) for individuals to join your newsletter. Include an offering of a free report, assessment, audio, ecourse or something else that will help them learn something new and get to know you and your company, too. Forget about providing a link on the page that makes visitors click to get to a newsletter subscription form. The more clicks someone has to make to do something, the greater the chances that they will move on.
4. Don’t create an online newsletter (ezine) unless you’re willing to send it out at least once a month. Never any less. Best is once a week or every other week. If you’re not a writer, stick to black & white newsletters and write a short tip and use an article you obtain for free at article banks. For article banks and directories resources, visit http://www.ArticleBanks.com
5. Swap Ads: Find another ezine published who has the same ideal clients as yours and see if you can place an ad for your ezine in their ezine for free, and they would then place an ad in your ezine for free. Just make sure that the person who owns the other ezine isn’t your direct competition. Instead, look for companies that compliment your service or product.
6. Ask your webmaster to name each of your pages using a keyword you have designated. The keyword is the most important word on the page. They’re words the search engines will use to find that page. Example: www.YourDomainName/WhatIsOnThePage.html
7. Offer added values that make sense to your business and ideal client. This can include articles or tips, affiliate programs, ebooks, resources, and books. For books, be sure to choose a source company that provides you with additional income if someone purchases a book from that site.
8. Add a “add to favorites or bookmark this site” script to some of your pages.
9. Add a “Recommend This Site” on your web site. If someone visits your site and knows someone else who may appreciate it, this feature will e-mail the page’s link to a recipient.
10. If you have pages on your site that you update monthly (like an articles page or recommended links page) say so on the page. Even offer an email list especially for those who want to be kept updated when you update the page.
11. Provide a subscription box to your online newsletter on all your pages, or at least your most viewed web site pages. You never know which page someone will find when they conduct a search.
12. On large Web sites, create a “What’s New Page” or, even better, design a “Site Map” (a listing of what’s on the most important areas of your web site) for your visitors.
13. Make it easy for viewers to contact you. I’ve seen too many web sites that have email addresses and when you click on them, they don’t work! The site forces you to cut/paste the information to make further contact. These are either lazy or unknowledgeable business owners. I say that because there are ways to protect your email address from spammers and harvesters; it just takes a little more work and knowledge. I recommend that you create an email address just for your web site and have a contact form created so that potential clients can contact you. Have the form encrypted, making it harder for the “harvesters” to gather your email information and if you start getting spam, change your email address and the encryption on the form. Provide a contact form, but remember, don’t ask for so much information that it seems like you’re asking for their first born!
14. Search engines look for certain things - titles, heading, meta tags - so it is crucial to make sure your site is “search-engine friendly.” 1. Title tags: Title tags should be 60 or so characters and include keywords. 2. Header tags are numbered from 1 to 7: some search engines recognize header tags, so make sure you use these tags for each of the titles on your page. 3. Keyword Meta tags: Add no more than 15 to 20 keywords to keep the search engines from flagging your site for keyword spamming. Prioritize your words. The best way to submit to search engines is to submit to each engine individually. 4. Use keywords in the text area of each page. They are especially important at the beginning of sentences and closer to the top of the page. 5. To learn more about meta tags, visit http://html.about.com/cs/metatags/
15. Search engines do not find your site unless you submit your site’s information to them. a. My best recommendation is that you submit to search engines individually (this is the way I do it and it works great, but is time consuming)! b. Some people prefer to use a free service to submit their sites to search engines. If you do this, I highly recommend that you open a free e-mail address to use when you do “anything” for free on the World Wide Web. c. You can pay for a program that will assist you to submit and critique your site. d. You can also hire a Search Engine Optimization expert to handle your search engine submission.
16. Visit these search engine information sites and learn more about search engines: www.searchenginewatch.com and http://www.searchengineguide.com
17. Find easy and secure ways for your clients to pay you. A shopping cart and a secure way to accept checks and/or credit cards is your best bet. Just using PayPal as a 3rd party merchant account is not enough. Some people want something different. Instead, look into having two 3rd party merchant account or a 3rd party merchant account and your own merchant account as alternatives.
18. Check your links regularly to make sure they all work. Use a free link checker like Xenu, which I’ve been using for years. It’s available at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
19. Provide bulletin boards (forums) or blogs to build relationships and community.
20. Conduct periodic contests and announce the winners on your site.
21. Offer a free e-book or e-report on your site. Its size doesn’t matter if you’re providing it for free and it’s specifically for your ideal client. Provide permission for the e-book to be forwarded to others for their personal use.
22. Write articles, post them to your site, and submit them to article banks. www.ArticleBanks.com
23. Build a strong, solid business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing plan, ideal client profile, and 30-second elevator speech. Why? First and foremost, these tools will help you with your business. Secondly, you’ll be very clear and focused on your business and its message and your web site will reflect that. Third, the words you place on your foundation pieces could be used on your web site and you’ll have consistency in your message. Read articles about plans, ideal clients, and elevator speeches at www.CoachMaria.com/articles/ .
24. Design some quizzes or surveys. Statistics show that visitors love online quizzes and assessment tools. Make sure that you have a way to capture email addresses and provide the visitor with the results of the form, too.
25. Participate in online forums or bulletin boards as an expert, moderator, or member. You get to “quietly” promote your business in your 3 or 4 line signature. For bulletin board resources, visit www.TheResourceQueen.com
26. Place your web site address on all your printed literature — business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, ads - everything!! but only if you have a web site that is viewable. Don’t follow this suggestion if your web site is under construction! Instead of helping your business, you’ll annoy folks who come to visit your site.
27. Promote your web address in your signature for e-mails and change your signature regularly to highlight something new you’re promoting.
28. Teach classes or speak to groups about subjects relating to your service or products. Bring a sign-up sheet for your newsletter to the event.
29. Attend networking events locally to bring people to your site. Be careful when networking online. It can start getting addictive. Make sure that all your online marketing produces results. If not, use an idea that will leverage your time better.
30. “Permission Market” by gathering, in writing, the e-mail addresses of students, or an audience, as part of your evaluation forms. Create index cards so that you can invite your friends, networking partners or associates to join your list. Keep any papers involved in this process for at least a year or two so if you have to prove that you have not “spammed” someone, you’ll have the back-up.
31. When your web site is launched, updated, or you write a free e-book, send a press release to the media, your clients, friends and associates.
32. If this list of promotion ideas seems overwhelming, visit your favorite search engine to conduct a search for Search Engine Optimizers and Consultants or ask others who they use and recommend.
33. If you want people to register to gain access to free information on your site, know that freebie seekers don’t like doing this, which is great for you! Who goes into business just to give away the shop? But if you do it right, your ideal client will be happy to join your newsletter. If you want to increase the odds that people register for your free content, offer valuable information and don’t create a form that asks for their life story.
34. Tailor your site to the disabled and those with very slow computers. When placing a graphic on a page, Include “alt” image tags with a written description of what the picture represents. When possible, use keywords in the description, too.
35. Include a site map. Site maps help some search engines to find you. At the very least, they help your visitors learn more about you and your services which, in turn, means they’ll stay on your site longer.
36. Scrolling: Ever gone to a website and had to scroll to the left to right because someone made the page too wide? Most likely you scrolled your way to another site. People don’t mind scrolling up and down for good information or products. But they never like to scroll left and right on a page. No way, no how!
37. Pay per click (PPC) This is a whole other field of advertising on the web that is worth looking into. Google and Overture are the most well know in the PPC field.
38. Blogging. The search engines like blogs because they like pages that are updated often. To learn more about blogging, http://www.theresourcequeen.com/favorites/websitetools.html
39. Attend networking events and provide some sort of postcard advertisement that will bring others to your web site. Maybe give out a sample. Or a gift card. Or even a notice of a free audio they can download from your site.
40. Promote your newsletter or services in Craig’s List under Small Biz Ads
Do I use all of the above? No. But I use many of these techniques and my sites are very highly rated and visited. The choice is yours to choose which forms of marketing online will bring your “ideal clients” to your website. Remember, though, that it’s not just traffic that’s important. It’s the quality of people who visit your website and the relationship you build with them (so that they’ll purchase from you at some point!) that counts!
©2007 A former Wall Street trader, Maria Marsala, Business Strategist and Trainer, helps women with independent micro, small to mid-size businesses and branch managers to boost profits, productivity and have more playtime – faster! Subscribe to More Business Strategies Ezine to download a one-page business and marketing plan MP3 and create your business vision statement now. Visit http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maria_Marsala
It’s not enough to just drive traffic to your web site. You must make your web site “trustable” or all that traffic will disappear. The ideas below will show you some of the ways to help both bring traffic to your site and keep your ideal clients coming back for more of your services or products. It’s also not enough to drive “any old traffic” to your site. You want pre-qualified potential buyers. When your ideal client (target market, niche) comes to your web site, you want them to feel special — to know that they have arrived at the right place for them. So make them feel special. Target your marketing directly at them.
Before you spend lots of money on software, learning about SEO, or on specialists, see which of the following ways can help bring traffic and business to your site.
If your web site sells high-end services or products, but the site itself looks like you took MS Word and threw something up “just because,” people will leave your site, no matter what you’re selling. There are many hosting programs out there that will help you create a first professional looking web site. Not a programmer? Look for hosting packages that include wizards or content management programs to help you create a more professional looking site. (Although I do recommend hiring a professional as your best choice.).
2. Remember that the most important part of your web site is “above the fold.” It’s the first part of your site someone sees when they visit. So grab their attention with emotional headlines that let someone know they’ve come to the right place and you’re the best company to solve their problem.
3. OK. If you’ve created a web site and have no way for your visitors to become part of your community and learn from you, you are better off NOT creating a site. What good is traffic if all they do is come to your site and read? So place a subscription box above the fold (or very close to it) for individuals to join your newsletter. Include an offering of a free report, assessment, audio, ecourse or something else that will help them learn something new and get to know you and your company, too. Forget about providing a link on the page that makes visitors click to get to a newsletter subscription form. The more clicks someone has to make to do something, the greater the chances that they will move on.
4. Don’t create an online newsletter (ezine) unless you’re willing to send it out at least once a month. Never any less. Best is once a week or every other week. If you’re not a writer, stick to black & white newsletters and write a short tip and use an article you obtain for free at article banks. For article banks and directories resources, visit http://www.ArticleBanks.com
5. Swap Ads: Find another ezine published who has the same ideal clients as yours and see if you can place an ad for your ezine in their ezine for free, and they would then place an ad in your ezine for free. Just make sure that the person who owns the other ezine isn’t your direct competition. Instead, look for companies that compliment your service or product.
6. Ask your webmaster to name each of your pages using a keyword you have designated. The keyword is the most important word on the page. They’re words the search engines will use to find that page. Example: www.YourDomainName/WhatIsOnThePage.html
7. Offer added values that make sense to your business and ideal client. This can include articles or tips, affiliate programs, ebooks, resources, and books. For books, be sure to choose a source company that provides you with additional income if someone purchases a book from that site.
8. Add a “add to favorites or bookmark this site” script to some of your pages.
9. Add a “Recommend This Site” on your web site. If someone visits your site and knows someone else who may appreciate it, this feature will e-mail the page’s link to a recipient.
10. If you have pages on your site that you update monthly (like an articles page or recommended links page) say so on the page. Even offer an email list especially for those who want to be kept updated when you update the page.
11. Provide a subscription box to your online newsletter on all your pages, or at least your most viewed web site pages. You never know which page someone will find when they conduct a search.
12. On large Web sites, create a “What’s New Page” or, even better, design a “Site Map” (a listing of what’s on the most important areas of your web site) for your visitors.
13. Make it easy for viewers to contact you. I’ve seen too many web sites that have email addresses and when you click on them, they don’t work! The site forces you to cut/paste the information to make further contact. These are either lazy or unknowledgeable business owners. I say that because there are ways to protect your email address from spammers and harvesters; it just takes a little more work and knowledge. I recommend that you create an email address just for your web site and have a contact form created so that potential clients can contact you. Have the form encrypted, making it harder for the “harvesters” to gather your email information and if you start getting spam, change your email address and the encryption on the form. Provide a contact form, but remember, don’t ask for so much information that it seems like you’re asking for their first born!
14. Search engines look for certain things - titles, heading, meta tags - so it is crucial to make sure your site is “search-engine friendly.” 1. Title tags: Title tags should be 60 or so characters and include keywords. 2. Header tags are numbered from 1 to 7: some search engines recognize header tags, so make sure you use these tags for each of the titles on your page. 3. Keyword Meta tags: Add no more than 15 to 20 keywords to keep the search engines from flagging your site for keyword spamming. Prioritize your words. The best way to submit to search engines is to submit to each engine individually. 4. Use keywords in the text area of each page. They are especially important at the beginning of sentences and closer to the top of the page. 5. To learn more about meta tags, visit http://html.about.com/cs/metatags/
15. Search engines do not find your site unless you submit your site’s information to them. a. My best recommendation is that you submit to search engines individually (this is the way I do it and it works great, but is time consuming)! b. Some people prefer to use a free service to submit their sites to search engines. If you do this, I highly recommend that you open a free e-mail address to use when you do “anything” for free on the World Wide Web. c. You can pay for a program that will assist you to submit and critique your site. d. You can also hire a Search Engine Optimization expert to handle your search engine submission.
16. Visit these search engine information sites and learn more about search engines: www.searchenginewatch.com and http://www.searchengineguide.com
17. Find easy and secure ways for your clients to pay you. A shopping cart and a secure way to accept checks and/or credit cards is your best bet. Just using PayPal as a 3rd party merchant account is not enough. Some people want something different. Instead, look into having two 3rd party merchant account or a 3rd party merchant account and your own merchant account as alternatives.
18. Check your links regularly to make sure they all work. Use a free link checker like Xenu, which I’ve been using for years. It’s available at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html.
19. Provide bulletin boards (forums) or blogs to build relationships and community.
20. Conduct periodic contests and announce the winners on your site.
21. Offer a free e-book or e-report on your site. Its size doesn’t matter if you’re providing it for free and it’s specifically for your ideal client. Provide permission for the e-book to be forwarded to others for their personal use.
22. Write articles, post them to your site, and submit them to article banks. www.ArticleBanks.com
23. Build a strong, solid business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing plan, ideal client profile, and 30-second elevator speech. Why? First and foremost, these tools will help you with your business. Secondly, you’ll be very clear and focused on your business and its message and your web site will reflect that. Third, the words you place on your foundation pieces could be used on your web site and you’ll have consistency in your message. Read articles about plans, ideal clients, and elevator speeches at www.CoachMaria.com/articles/ .
24. Design some quizzes or surveys. Statistics show that visitors love online quizzes and assessment tools. Make sure that you have a way to capture email addresses and provide the visitor with the results of the form, too.
25. Participate in online forums or bulletin boards as an expert, moderator, or member. You get to “quietly” promote your business in your 3 or 4 line signature. For bulletin board resources, visit www.TheResourceQueen.com
26. Place your web site address on all your printed literature — business cards, brochures, newsletters, letterhead, ads - everything!! but only if you have a web site that is viewable. Don’t follow this suggestion if your web site is under construction! Instead of helping your business, you’ll annoy folks who come to visit your site.
27. Promote your web address in your signature for e-mails and change your signature regularly to highlight something new you’re promoting.
28. Teach classes or speak to groups about subjects relating to your service or products. Bring a sign-up sheet for your newsletter to the event.
29. Attend networking events locally to bring people to your site. Be careful when networking online. It can start getting addictive. Make sure that all your online marketing produces results. If not, use an idea that will leverage your time better.
30. “Permission Market” by gathering, in writing, the e-mail addresses of students, or an audience, as part of your evaluation forms. Create index cards so that you can invite your friends, networking partners or associates to join your list. Keep any papers involved in this process for at least a year or two so if you have to prove that you have not “spammed” someone, you’ll have the back-up.
31. When your web site is launched, updated, or you write a free e-book, send a press release to the media, your clients, friends and associates.
32. If this list of promotion ideas seems overwhelming, visit your favorite search engine to conduct a search for Search Engine Optimizers and Consultants or ask others who they use and recommend.
33. If you want people to register to gain access to free information on your site, know that freebie seekers don’t like doing this, which is great for you! Who goes into business just to give away the shop? But if you do it right, your ideal client will be happy to join your newsletter. If you want to increase the odds that people register for your free content, offer valuable information and don’t create a form that asks for their life story.
34. Tailor your site to the disabled and those with very slow computers. When placing a graphic on a page, Include “alt” image tags with a written description of what the picture represents. When possible, use keywords in the description, too.
35. Include a site map. Site maps help some search engines to find you. At the very least, they help your visitors learn more about you and your services which, in turn, means they’ll stay on your site longer.
36. Scrolling: Ever gone to a website and had to scroll to the left to right because someone made the page too wide? Most likely you scrolled your way to another site. People don’t mind scrolling up and down for good information or products. But they never like to scroll left and right on a page. No way, no how!
37. Pay per click (PPC) This is a whole other field of advertising on the web that is worth looking into. Google and Overture are the most well know in the PPC field.
38. Blogging. The search engines like blogs because they like pages that are updated often. To learn more about blogging, http://www.theresourcequeen.com/favorites/websitetools.html
39. Attend networking events and provide some sort of postcard advertisement that will bring others to your web site. Maybe give out a sample. Or a gift card. Or even a notice of a free audio they can download from your site.
40. Promote your newsletter or services in Craig’s List under Small Biz Ads
Do I use all of the above? No. But I use many of these techniques and my sites are very highly rated and visited. The choice is yours to choose which forms of marketing online will bring your “ideal clients” to your website. Remember, though, that it’s not just traffic that’s important. It’s the quality of people who visit your website and the relationship you build with them (so that they’ll purchase from you at some point!) that counts!
©2007 A former Wall Street trader, Maria Marsala, Business Strategist and Trainer, helps women with independent micro, small to mid-size businesses and branch managers to boost profits, productivity and have more playtime – faster! Subscribe to More Business Strategies Ezine to download a one-page business and marketing plan MP3 and create your business vision statement now. Visit http://www.ElevatingYourBusiness.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Maria_Marsala
Online Business Scams - Finally Ridding Myself Of Guilt About Work-At-Home Opportunities
I have been trying my hand at the latest craze that is running my own online business. I have tried many different "turn-key" operations only to discover that I had been mis-led. What I thought was a legitimate business only turned out to be a pyramid scam. Basically I was left high and dry, with no help in sight, and an empty bank account.
I will not name those places that are scams here, because I am still new at this and am not sure about liability issues, but I have reported those "companies" to the proper authorities. I have since become involved in a business that has actual product to sell. Not just some "Pay this amount and have your own website that nobody visits". Business has been pretty slow but things are starting to pick up. I am finally starting to make a profit, after just a few weeks, and I can tell the hits are picking up steam.
The beauty of the companies that I have just recently gotten involved with is that they are all tied in together. One is strict MLM. Another is a company that sells all natural health products. It has an honest-to-goodness, in demand product that can essentially sell itself. The third company in this group is actually an ADVERTISING COMPANY! They sell your product and your website for you! That is fantastic. This is finally the dream situation. You can really be able to do very little and make money because you have 3 powerful forces working for you at once.
I guess the main point to this article is that you really can forget all of those empty promises that you can get rich overnight on the internet. I have tried many affiliate programs, MLMs, and other opportunities. None delivered. None of them actually offered a product that was in demand and THAT IS WHAT IS KEY! If you want to make money, you have to have something to offer of value. No one is going to give you a single cent for NOTHING IN RETURN.
I have finally found a money maker that does not involve me requesting a credit line increase in order to remain operational. Instead of making a "membership" payment every month, I am actually cashing checks. Most importantly is that I sleep well at night knowing that I am not scamming anyone to do it. I am providing in-demand products that enrich the lives of those that order it. That, more than any amount of money, makes me a happy man!
You can find more information and details on the companies I am finally making money with at http://thecashiscoming.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=K_Adams
I will not name those places that are scams here, because I am still new at this and am not sure about liability issues, but I have reported those "companies" to the proper authorities. I have since become involved in a business that has actual product to sell. Not just some "Pay this amount and have your own website that nobody visits". Business has been pretty slow but things are starting to pick up. I am finally starting to make a profit, after just a few weeks, and I can tell the hits are picking up steam.
The beauty of the companies that I have just recently gotten involved with is that they are all tied in together. One is strict MLM. Another is a company that sells all natural health products. It has an honest-to-goodness, in demand product that can essentially sell itself. The third company in this group is actually an ADVERTISING COMPANY! They sell your product and your website for you! That is fantastic. This is finally the dream situation. You can really be able to do very little and make money because you have 3 powerful forces working for you at once.
I guess the main point to this article is that you really can forget all of those empty promises that you can get rich overnight on the internet. I have tried many affiliate programs, MLMs, and other opportunities. None delivered. None of them actually offered a product that was in demand and THAT IS WHAT IS KEY! If you want to make money, you have to have something to offer of value. No one is going to give you a single cent for NOTHING IN RETURN.
I have finally found a money maker that does not involve me requesting a credit line increase in order to remain operational. Instead of making a "membership" payment every month, I am actually cashing checks. Most importantly is that I sleep well at night knowing that I am not scamming anyone to do it. I am providing in-demand products that enrich the lives of those that order it. That, more than any amount of money, makes me a happy man!
You can find more information and details on the companies I am finally making money with at http://thecashiscoming.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=K_Adams
Ecommerce Solutions - Employ Them, Be a Part of Race and Make Money Beyond Expectations
In today’s ecommerce trend and craze, if you want to be the part of race and are planning to have your own online store, you need to have sound knowledge of ecommerce to be the winner and stand out among your rivals. Once you have a look around, you will have many options for e-store. But obviously you will want to go for the best option; be it readymade or customized ecommerce solution from scratch. Another big decision, you need to take whether you want just a shopping cart e-store or entire website to be your online storefront, each page having the shopping cart functionality. Let’s discuss about the first option i.e. shopping cart as a part of your website.
If you are already running a website, it will not be a wise step at all to transfer everything to a new site for an e-store. So, getting start with simple add-on shopping cart software will be the best option in this case. But don’t compromise with your future possibilities. You can integrate your website with a full-featured web store and harness only its shopping cart functions for now. You can get an online store set up to show at a sub-domain of your existing domain or host it absolutely off-site.
You must know that shopping cart is, in fact, a full-featured site having its own homepage. In web world, you need not to buy a new building to expand your e-store. You just need to buy some more space expanding the existing one. So, there is no question left for not choosing ecommerce software that can help you grow with your business by expanding your store as big as you want it to be. There are many established ecommerce companies that offer various readymade ecommerce packages with many features and functionalities at very affordable prices.
Another option of having a complete site as an online store is a good idea if you want to start off your foray in ecommerce business from scratch. This option needs an application to be created, which will be the base of a complete ecommerce website. Another option comes up as using software that creates an online store with integrated ecommerce functionalities. These options will prevent you from buying separate content management system software and then integrating this software with your current site. CMS attached to a website gives you numerous tools and facilities that can help you grow your online business in a smooth and easy manner. It not only eases the users while making purchases but also the administrators to track the purchases and orders effectively. Nowadays, many reputed companies can provide you with ecommerce website development integrated with various tools and add-ons as per your business needs.
Well, ecommerce business is no doubt an easy job to think of, but it will earn you profits beyond your expectations only if you employ best ecommerce solution from reliable and established ecommerce service provider and running your e-store making best use of all features effectively to boost your sales and so the business.
The writer specializes in writing on technical topics like, offshore software development, custom software development, ecommerce development, web marketing etc. To know more, visit software development company .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Catherine
If you are already running a website, it will not be a wise step at all to transfer everything to a new site for an e-store. So, getting start with simple add-on shopping cart software will be the best option in this case. But don’t compromise with your future possibilities. You can integrate your website with a full-featured web store and harness only its shopping cart functions for now. You can get an online store set up to show at a sub-domain of your existing domain or host it absolutely off-site.
You must know that shopping cart is, in fact, a full-featured site having its own homepage. In web world, you need not to buy a new building to expand your e-store. You just need to buy some more space expanding the existing one. So, there is no question left for not choosing ecommerce software that can help you grow with your business by expanding your store as big as you want it to be. There are many established ecommerce companies that offer various readymade ecommerce packages with many features and functionalities at very affordable prices.
Another option of having a complete site as an online store is a good idea if you want to start off your foray in ecommerce business from scratch. This option needs an application to be created, which will be the base of a complete ecommerce website. Another option comes up as using software that creates an online store with integrated ecommerce functionalities. These options will prevent you from buying separate content management system software and then integrating this software with your current site. CMS attached to a website gives you numerous tools and facilities that can help you grow your online business in a smooth and easy manner. It not only eases the users while making purchases but also the administrators to track the purchases and orders effectively. Nowadays, many reputed companies can provide you with ecommerce website development integrated with various tools and add-ons as per your business needs.
Well, ecommerce business is no doubt an easy job to think of, but it will earn you profits beyond your expectations only if you employ best ecommerce solution from reliable and established ecommerce service provider and running your e-store making best use of all features effectively to boost your sales and so the business.
The writer specializes in writing on technical topics like, offshore software development, custom software development, ecommerce development, web marketing etc. To know more, visit software development company .
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anne_Catherine
The Future of Shopping
I am visiting the UK at the moment and an article in the local paper mentioned that parking charges are about to be increased in Warwick and the local traders fear there will be a loss of business, and they are probably right. I for one hate not being able to find parking spaces and will always try to find a place to park for free. I do know that in Warwick Sainsbury have a large car park and now no longer check that it is used by their own customers. Naturally if I am parked there I am more likely to purchase items in the shop.
Going shopping is a weekly chore or though some people love it, the fact is that it costs both time and money. You usually have to drive a car, putting up with traffic jams and then waste time and energy search for a place to park. So what are the alternatives?
Most cities and towns in the have copied the USA idea and have out of town shopping malls, with superstores, shops and restaurants combined with large car parks to help alleviate the parking problems. These shopping malls become a magnet for shoppers, with the result that you are bustled and hustled as you shop. Yes there are wide ranges of products and commodities on sale but you will often spend more that expect taking up special offers.
The alternative that I prefer is to shop online. Online you can find shopping malls such as Clubshop, providing access to hundreds of shop where you can get discounts and earn reward points. Items will be delivered to your home, often for free. Shopping can be completed in minutes, saving you time and driving costs. Shopping online for items such as clothing can be a little challenging but once you know what size you are it strait forward.
You will find quite often that shopping online brings you extra benefits such as qualify for extra discounts by ordering items from your Clubshop portal where your earn reward and pay points, then perhaps quoting or using the stores own card and finally paying by credit card which can earn points on your credit account.
The choice of course rest with each individual shopper, but if you care for the environment and which to reduce the use of fossil fuels, ware and tare on your car and save time and money the place to shop must be on the internet.
Internet fraud is often mentioned as reasons not to purchase online but in reality provided you shop at a secured site, you are probably at less risk than shopping in the high street, where you could be at additional risk from muggers and pickpockets.
An Informal study in 2003 took place with two twins shopping for Christmas items, one online and the other in a local high street. Onine shopping took just 36 minutes compared with 4 hours and heart rate levels were compared 67 for online shopping rising to 176 for shopping in the high street. So its seems that online shopping is also good for your health. http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=10847
Past studies by Yahoo have indicated that the internet is used more for research when considering purchasing large items and then the transaction is finalised offline. This is borne out by Google during a study in the USA where 37% of the internet users Purchased online.
Online Shopping is continuing to grow at 25% per year and this level has been maintained for the past 5 years.
You will find the latest online shopping news here
About the Author
David Ogden lives in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia where he has set up an Internet marketing business providing Free Marketing Tools to help build business and a home shopping business The world Shop He has loves Adventure Racing and sells ebooks at International Adventurers
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Ogden
Going shopping is a weekly chore or though some people love it, the fact is that it costs both time and money. You usually have to drive a car, putting up with traffic jams and then waste time and energy search for a place to park. So what are the alternatives?
Most cities and towns in the have copied the USA idea and have out of town shopping malls, with superstores, shops and restaurants combined with large car parks to help alleviate the parking problems. These shopping malls become a magnet for shoppers, with the result that you are bustled and hustled as you shop. Yes there are wide ranges of products and commodities on sale but you will often spend more that expect taking up special offers.
The alternative that I prefer is to shop online. Online you can find shopping malls such as Clubshop, providing access to hundreds of shop where you can get discounts and earn reward points. Items will be delivered to your home, often for free. Shopping can be completed in minutes, saving you time and driving costs. Shopping online for items such as clothing can be a little challenging but once you know what size you are it strait forward.
You will find quite often that shopping online brings you extra benefits such as qualify for extra discounts by ordering items from your Clubshop portal where your earn reward and pay points, then perhaps quoting or using the stores own card and finally paying by credit card which can earn points on your credit account.
The choice of course rest with each individual shopper, but if you care for the environment and which to reduce the use of fossil fuels, ware and tare on your car and save time and money the place to shop must be on the internet.
Internet fraud is often mentioned as reasons not to purchase online but in reality provided you shop at a secured site, you are probably at less risk than shopping in the high street, where you could be at additional risk from muggers and pickpockets.
An Informal study in 2003 took place with two twins shopping for Christmas items, one online and the other in a local high street. Onine shopping took just 36 minutes compared with 4 hours and heart rate levels were compared 67 for online shopping rising to 176 for shopping in the high street. So its seems that online shopping is also good for your health. http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=10847
Past studies by Yahoo have indicated that the internet is used more for research when considering purchasing large items and then the transaction is finalised offline. This is borne out by Google during a study in the USA where 37% of the internet users Purchased online.
Online Shopping is continuing to grow at 25% per year and this level has been maintained for the past 5 years.
You will find the latest online shopping news here
About the Author
David Ogden lives in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia where he has set up an Internet marketing business providing Free Marketing Tools to help build business and a home shopping business The world Shop He has loves Adventure Racing and sells ebooks at International Adventurers
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Ogden
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