My Buy Essay

Archive for July, 2007

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead.

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004.

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day. If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable.

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that.

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now.

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster’s pages. When someone visits the webmaster’s site and clicks on one of Google’s AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry.

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/

I started my Internet Marketing adventure by joining WealthyAffiliate.com so that I could learn how to do Affiliate Marketing. I was incredibly satisfied with the service! You will see me earn $0 to a 3 digit amount this month using only 1 campaign and it’s a campaign I made FOR FUN. Check out the blog link below.

When Kyle and Carson announced the released of Inside the List. I was skeptical at first because I didn’t think that my niche site would generate some cash just by having a list. But I tried it anyway because I have read free guides on how to build a list and they were just plain crap. The basics are there but I already know them, what I needed was solid technique and skill, one that can rip out my revenue records in a month’s time.

So I read Inside the List and there, what I found is extremely valuable information. Among other things, the strongest feature of Inside the List is that Kyle and Carson explain the why and the how of their techniques. They don’t just show it to you step by step. Yes, there is actually solid theory behind the techniques they use.

Now why do you want to know that? So that you can apply their techniques in any niche regardless if you think it’s a profitable one or not!!!

Using one of the techniques in Inside the List (adding value to consumers before anything else–the gist), I made 8 sales at $68 dollars each in ONE of my niches which is Golf related. Let me tell you that I never expected them to follow my recommendations and actually buy Golf clubs through my affiliate link! I posted some links for them to check out because I think those golf club prices were great deals. And the best part is, I just ran a test Adwords campaign that redirected to a squeeze page for one week and collected email addresses.

Why 1 week? Because I budgeted only $15 for this campaign and I maxed it out in 5 days with 140+ sign-ups.

Here are the numbers of my Inside the List experiment:

Sales: $544

Expenses: $15

Profit: $529

That’s a 3427% return on investment!!!

Final thoughts

All in all my Inside the List experiment which brought about this Inside The List review was a great success. I’m sharing this with you because I’m extremely happy with the results and I’m going to apply this to my other niche site which is related to bodybuilding.

If you’re making money already great… if you have a list.. great… Inside the List will help you get those sales up in no time. If you don’t know how to build a list or what a list is then GREAT. You’ll definitely benefit from reading this ebook

Don’t make the same mistake I did, you might be losing on profits by not making a list and using effective techniques at that.

You can use traditional methods to sell products such as direct mail, catalogs and advertising. However, if you have a great online presence, the entire world is your marketplace at a fraction of the cost of most traditional methods. To easily sell to this worldwide marketplace, you need a great shopping cart system.

Choosing a shopping cart system is perhaps the most important single decision you’ll make in your online marketing career.

This is because you will be stuck with the decision for a long time.

If you buy into a system that isn’t adequate, it can cost you money–big money–because it won’t maximize the amount of money spent by each visitor.

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of off-the-shelf, free and alternative products out there vying for your money, time or both. And most of them are junk.

Don’t suffer like I did. I learned the hard way. When I started on the Internet I couldn’t find a decent shopping cart program, so I took one that was highly recommended by my ISP (I now know the only reason they suggested it was because it made them the most money. They didn’t care if it was the best one for me or not). What a headache! The system wouldn’t do anything but take the order, but you had to have a PhD in computer science to work on it.

Here are 22 questions you absolutely, unfailingly must ask anyone trying to sell you a shopping cart. If you don’t hear positive answers to the majority of these questions, put your wallet back into your pocket and evaluate the next option. Don’t get stuck with a crappy shopping cart, even if they give it to you free.

If you have a poor shopping cart, get rid of it. I know that hurts, because you may have spent lots of time and money getting it going, but a bad one will cost you many thousands of dollars by waiting to replace it later rather than sooner.

Oh, and one more thing: if you hear the shopping cart programmer answer one of the questions below by saying, “Well, we could make it do that,” run away even faster, because you’re going to get stuck with a big custom programming bill with no guarantees that the cart is going to work the way you expected.

Every question below is very important when it comes to having a quality shopping cart system that gets more money out of the same number of visitors.

1. Will it calculate shipping and tax?

2. Does it handle specialized shipping like FedEx and UPS?

3. Will it automatically deliver hard goods and soft goods (e- books and other digital products) in the same transaction?

4. Does it offer customizable “Return to Shopping” pages without needing custom programming? This is important so you can send your customers to the most likely product they will buy next. Standard carts just send customers back to the main catalog, which forces them to search for related products. This is both irritating and time-consuming. Any delays in finding what they want could mean a lost sale, when they finally throw their hands up in disgust and move on to your competitor’s site.

5. Does it offer customizable “Thank You” pages based on what the customer just bought? These are pages where savvy marketers put affiliate links and other offers specifically related to the customer’s interests. When a customer clicks on one of these links and buys something from someone else, you get a commission.

6. Does it deliver receipt and confirmation e-mails automatically? The customer wants to know immediately that the order went through. If he or she is unsure, you are going to have to field many wasted e-mails and phone calls letting the customer know everything is OK.

7. Does it allow multiple order and dropship e-mails? In many cases, several different people in your organization and/or outside your organization need notice of an order. Again, you don’t want to have to do this manually.

8. Does it have a Web-based administration page so you can work on your cart from any computer that has Internet access?

9. Does it include encryption technology and a secure server? Many companies make a fortune by sucking you in with a cheap or free cart and then make money on selling you an overpriced secure server.

10. Does it deliver easy output to your accounting software? You want to be able to import and export data easily between the cart and whatever programs you have that need to share the customer and sales information.

11. Does it have its own associate/affiliate program or is it easily compatible with other major brands of associate software? An affiliate program lets other people promote and sell your products on their Web sites. You don’t pay them unless they sell something. When I tried to get an associate/affiliate program to work with my old cart, it cost me six months of down time and untold amounts of money lost because it wouldn’t work. The associate program people blamed the shopping cart people and vice versa. But ultimately I was left holding the bag.

12. Does it have integrated up-sell modules? The ability to offer more related products to customers making a purchase makes me a small fortune each month. We call it, “Do you want fries with that?” If you don’t have this ability, you are leaving many thousands of dollars on the table from people who would have spent more if your cart just gave them the chance.

13. Does it have an integrated sales and prospect database? In the old days I would have to print out orders and then retype them into ACT or some other database program. A good shopping cart system eliminates all this hassle and potential for error and gives you instant access to your sales reports and clients.

14. Does it have broadcast e-mail capability? Good shopping cart systems are able to manipulate your customer database instantly and send e-mails to any segment or sub-segment of your clients and handle unlimited e-mail magazines. Again, in the old days I would have to be genius enough to pick out segments of the database, export them to a file, import them into a mail program and then an hour later send the darn e-mail. Now this is all done in a few seconds.

15. Does it have mail merge capability? The e-mails sent are personalized to the recipients in any number of ways. Their names can be popped in to the subject line and in various portions of the body of the e-mail. You can merge “what they bought,” “when they bought,” “where they live” or just about anything that will make them feel the e-mail was just for them. Virtually all studies show that mail merge gets a much higher response than plain broadcast e-mail.

16. Can it handle coupons and other discounts? You can make a deal with Joe Blow that everyone coming from his Web site gets an automatic discount — either a percentage or dollar amount. This makes Joe look great to his visitors and makes more sales for you. Here’s a secret: Joe is your affiliate and makes money on the sale too, so he’s got a great incentive to keep your discounts and coupons in front of his visitors. Good shopping cart systems can automate all of this and also handle any quantity discounts you offer.

17. Can it work for multiple Web sites with no extra fees? When I first started I had to get a separate (and expensive) license for each site and a separate merchant account too. Not only was this a great deal of expense, the hassle with installation every time you wanted a new site to go up was enormous. Modern carts can sell bras on one site and bibles on another, and no one knows the difference. The carts run on their own servers so there is no expensive installation and set-up is immediate.

18. Does it have unlimited and fully integrated “sequential” autoresponders? This is one of the most powerful features when it comes to Internet marketing. This feature follows up automatically over and over again to your clients and prospects to provide them customer care and to sell them more products and services. You can even provide free or paid e-mail courses, and each part of the course is delivered automatically.

19. Does it have ad tracking tied into actual sales? Simple ad tracking can be had all over the ‘Net, but it is pretty much worthless unless it is tied to actual sales. This is called the “conversion ratio.” Your cart system should be able to tell you how many people clicked on a particular promotion and how many people bought. This is the only way you can determine if an ad paid off. Good carts will also automatically split test one of your sales pages against another and tell you which page sells more. You keep the page that sells more and get rid of the page that sells less.

20. Does it have a pop-up box builder? Even though many people hate popup boxes, they work. I use them judiciously to make all kinds of offers, and I have the sales figures to prove they get more money out of the same number of people. If you know how to use them properly, no one gets upset.

21. Does it have a printable off-line order form? Believe it or not, many people are still afraid to put their credit card numbers into a Web site. I still get lots of fax orders and phone orders. If you want to maximize your sales, your cart must take these kinds of orders easily.

22. Does it provide free training? You’ll need training in both the basic set up of using your shopping cart and determining your online sales strategy, so that you maximize the amount of money spent by each customer.

You may not understand what all the above questions mean right now, but I can assure you they are important in putting more money into your bank account. If you want to know even more about this subject, you can download a free e-book, How to Pick a Shopping Cart System That Makes You Money at ECommerce with Shopping Carts.

With the onslaught of marketing campaigns geared towards Internet users, viral marketing has paved the way and has become one of the top methods used in advertising.

The principle behind the success of viral marketing is the number of users reached through the campaign. There are several viral marketing techniques that can be applied for an advertising campaign to succeed. Take a look at the following:

1. Creating viral marketing awards.

Creating viral marketing awards help both the companies and users by creating even more users. Awards in viral marketing help innovate the industry more and bring out more effective marketing techniques.

2. Distributing free software.

Anything useful and free gets an instant “fan base” on the Internet. Provide online users with any software that they need for free &ndash even for a limited time &ndash and they will surely grab it.

When using a free software, you can run the program to suit any application, check the flow of the program to learn how it works, make improvisations and have the right to distribute the software for free.

3. Providing free email account.

This is what Microsoft did to initially launch Hotmail. They put in a “teaser” at the end of the free e-mail messages that they send out providing a link for users to sign-up for a free and private e-mail account.

The word “free” has sparked the interest of online users, as well as the fact that this is something that online users really need. Soon, almost all Microsoft users signed up for a free Hotmail account. This started the viral marketing fever.

4. Providing free web space.

Personal web logs have become all the buzz on the Internet.

There are companies now who are competing like crazy just to offer customers the lowest cost on directory listing and have the biggest space allotments.

This competition will benefit the users in such a way that they get their pick from a host of web space providers and have the greatest deal.

5. Creating top 100 site.

Online users often need a list of web sites relating to the topic that they need. Creating a top 100 list is one way to build your list and increase your customer base.

6. Offering free e-cards.

Egreetings.com is one company which provide teasers for online users to send electronic greetings cards. They are animated and personalized, so most users take advantage of the offer.

7. Offering free graphics, banners, templates.

Just like the marketing of regular consumer products, anything that is free and useful will catch the attention of a lot of people. Banners, graphics, templates and other items that online users can use is a welcome addition to their list of freebies and will infuse the viral marketing fever.

8. Offering free consultation.

Most online users do not know exactly where to go for consultations about web services or other services in various fields.

Free online consultation web sites require you to enter your name, e-mail address and other pertinent information and this would help add up to your subscribers and customer base.

9. Offering specialized link directory.

Specialized links directory help build a more specific clientele, as the users who need this service can be classified. This technique yields more accurate results.

10. Free newsletter with bonuses.

An online shopping company might use this viral marketing technique. Offering catalogs with free online gift certificates will generate a huge customer base.

11. Free redirect service.

Redirect services gives out the new contact information of a web site that changed hosts or servers, as well as re-directing users to a new or personalized domain name. This is an alternative to the much longer and complicated URL’s offered by most web hosts.

12. Free screensavers.

You cannot browse through the Internet and not find popup advertisements about free screensavers. This is one way of getting the user’s e-mail address for a company to start building a solid customer base.

Getting online users to take advantage of free screensavers, as well as emoticons or other downloadables that they can use on their computers is one of the most effective techniques used in viral marketing.

13. Free autoresponder service.

Autoresponder services add up to your company’s sales by using follow-up e-mail messages in marketing.

14. Free email course.

You cannot believe the wealth of information that you can gain from free e-mail courses. Most publishers of free e-books want to share their knowledge to other online users and this is a good way to entice users to your web site.

15. Writing articles and distributing them for reprint with resource box.

When writing articles for free download, make sure to have them reprinted with the resource box.

A resource box is a box on one side of the web page where you got the article, and it shows the complete contact information of the author of a particular article.

16. Using forums and discussion boards which uses signatures.

The users of discussion boards and forums have the same interests. By getting their signatures on message boards, you can have a very wide array of potential buyers from a specific target market.

17. Starting your own affiliate program.

This is one of the best methods to generate traffic and sales to your site. Here, a specialized link is provided for your affiliates so that users can be veered towards your web site.

18. Providing free guestbook.

A guestbook makes a list of all your online visitors. After a user visits your website, you would have their contact information for future marketing and mailing purposes.

19. Providing free forums.

Online forums have a lot of participants which can be a very useful viral marketing technique.

By applying these viral marketing techniques to promote your products and services, you will surely generate traffic to your web site, build a huge and solid customer base, add to your sales and contribute towards the success of your company.

Note: This article may be freely reproduced as long as the AUTHOR’S resource box at the bottom of this article is included and all links must be Active/Linkable with no syntax changes.

I was looking around at some websites to see what things I liked and disliked about them. There is no doubt that there are things that attract people and there are things that totally turn people off.

I have made a list of 13 tips that can help make your website more successful. Most of them are simple but quite effective at making your site more user friendly.

1. Make your site simple – With all of the bells and whistles available, too many people are trying to see how impressive they can make their websites. They may be attractive but unless your goal is to win a contest for best site, impressing people with glitter will not make sales.

2. Make sure your site loads quickly – You do not have long to grab your customer’s attention. Make sure that you at least get a fair shot at grabbing his attention. If your site takes too long to load, you will lose a lot of potential customers without even giving your site a chance.

3. Don’t have too many items on one page – You do not want to confuse your visitors. You want to make sure that they understand th purpose of your site. Too many items on one page can make this difficult for some. Don’t take the chance. Make all of your pages simple.

4. Make sure every page lings to home page – It is much easier for your visitors to navigate if all of your pages link back to the home page. You will not lose as many potential customers if you make your site easier to navigate.

5. Get your own domain name – Free servers are great for some things but trying to gain credibility in a business is not one of them. It is well worth the price to get your own domain.

6. Make sure your hosting service offers full support – You want your service to have CGI access and offer secure ordering. This is a place that you don’t want to go for cheap. Make sure your service offers the things you need before you choose and save a lot of headaches down the road.

7. Offer as many options for ordering as possible – The more options you provide for ordering, the fewer cutomers you will lose. You should have a secure order form on your site. Offering the options to order by phone, fax and by regular mail can also increase the number who will order.

8. Make sure you accept credit cards – If you don’t accept credit cards, you are making a huge mistake. The biggest percent of your customers will pay this way if the option is available. Don’t take the chance that they will choose another method if credit cards are not a possibility.

9. Offer free information on your site – You will want to offer some type of free material on your site. Free material such as courses are a very good way to build yourself as an expert in the eyes of your visitor. Free ebooks are another good thing to offer. Make sure these freebies are good solid information that can help your visitors.

10. Get your visitor’s email address – You can accompish this in quite a few different ways. Giving away the courses or ebooks is one great way. You can publish a newsletter or ezine that your visitors can sign up for on your site.

11. Make sure to build your site with purpose in mind – If you are trying to sell a product on your site, then sell that product. If you are just trying to get addresses and make the sale later, then make that your purpose when building your site.

12. Encourage feedback – Make your visitor feel like his opinion is important. Offer him the chance to provide you with feedback. Don’t be too proud to make changes if you start hearing some of the same things from your visitors.

13. Remember that you are building this site for your customers – This is not a site to fulfill some fantasy of yours. Remember the purpose of your site. Keep your customers wants and needs in your mind as you design it.

Your website is one of those things that will determine if you are a marketing success. Make sure that you make your website user friendly. Also make sure that you don’t lose sight of the purpose of your site. If your sit e does not come across direct to your visitor, you are going to lose many visitors before you can even make a pitch.

If your website traffic has suddenly come to a stand-still, you may need to give your site a marketing jump start. This is really directed towards Information Marketing (one of the best markets around) but can really be applied to anything. Here are a few ways to get your traffic flowing again.

1.Buy hits for your website.

Pay for targeted hits to your web site. You can do what is called “pay per click” advertising. This is where you pay search engines every tine some one clicks on your link for your web site. A great advantage to this is it almost instantly gets you visitors.

2.You can also send out a promotional email to the opt-in email list you SHOULD be creating by offering free reports or courses to your visitors.

3.Pay your competition a flat fee to email your promotional offer to their lists. This is a great way to build relationships with your competitors.

4.You can do what is referred to as a Joint Venture. This is when you pay someone a commission on sales when they email your promotional offer to their email lists.

5.You can pay for advertising on someone else’s website by paying a flat fee up front to put an ad, banner or link on the site.

6.You can pay for advertising by offering a commission to your competition or anyone on sales when they put your ad, banner or link on their site.

7.You can submit your website to search engines with your keywords and website description.

8.You can submit your link to other websites, and in return, add them to yours.

9.You can write a free report or course to give away to other websites in your market and allow them to put an affiliate link inside (so they have an incentive to give it away), and give that away for free. If its good information, it will spread like a virus. This marketing concept is known as “viral marketing”.

10.If you have good material you can have a nice marketing edge because people will share the website because the enjoyed it. You can also offer affiliate programs so your customers can earn commissions when they refer some one to buy your product .

These should give you some good ideas to get more traffic, and maybe even spark some ideas of your own!

Best wishes,

Maranda Mann

Most business owners fully understand that not advertising is the surest way to kill your business.

However they are also bombarded by so much information and so many choices they quickly lose track of what options are available to them.

There are a number of cheap and easy online advertising options available to you.

1. Ezine Advertising

Ezine advertising is one of the best ways to reach your future customers because it is often inexpensive and flexible as well as offering you the option to match the ezine audience with your product and ad. It also often offers a double benefit–your initial ad plus longevity in the ezine archives.

2. Text Links

This simple tool is often overlooked by many. It is simply one of the least expensive and yet most powerful advertising option available. You can often buy text links for under $10 and the link will not only promote the specific site or page you choose but also connect it with the specific key words that will benefit you the most.

Text links also provide a double bonus. You can attract immediate traffic from the host site as well as achieve better search engine ranking which will further increase traffic.

3. Pay per click advertising

Just like it sounds pay per click advertising is simply paying for specifically targeted traffic. You can monitor and control these advertising programs very closely and tweak your ad copy and the key words that you are sponsoring. This can be a very expensive option but doesn’t have to be if you plan carefully and watch closely.

4. Email marketing

Despite ever-increasing vigilant attempts to stop spam, we all know that email marketing is still alive and well. While it is foolish in the extreme to risk your business, web host, or internet connection, by sending out spam you can still use email marketing as a way to reach out and touch your customers and your future customers.

You just need to make sure that no one receives mail except the people who ask for it. People are still willing to sign up for mailing lists–especially if you have something to offer them in return for sharing their email address. Sponsor a contest; give away an article, ebook, or tutorial; or offer a discount and you will have people sign up willingly.

Then if you don’t abuse the mailing list you will have the opportunity to reach them again and again!

5. Banner Ads

Banner ads have a bad reputation. In part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.

Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don’t forget that you don’t have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.

It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.

Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.

~~ Sell Your Knowledge ~~

These next five advertising methods are all free or relatively inexpensive because you are trading something of value — your knowledge and expertise — in return for advertising.

6. Publish a Newsletter

Creating your own regular newsletter or ezine offers you all the advantages of ezine advertising and email marketing offered above.

7. Publish a Blog and RSS Feed

While publishing a newsletter or ezine isn’t that difficult it is much easier to create a blog and make its content available via RSS feed. This can offer you the benefits of regularly updated material for your web site which will be attractive to visitors and search engines alike. It will also help establish you as an expert in your field.

I personally like using WordPress on your own site but many web hosts now offer blogging services and there are many free blogging sites around where you can create a blog on their site.

8. Write Articles

Take some of the material you have generated for your newsletter and/or blog and share it with others. Make it available in one of the many free content directories available on the web. This not only helps to establish your credibility but the contact info you provide in your resource box (which will run every time someone else publishes your material) will bring in both direct traffic as well as search engine attention.

9. Create an Ebook

Once you have enough material generated from your newsletter and blog then you can package it into a convenient Ebook and give it away. Make sure to collect names and email addresses and offer a coupon or discount to bring people back to your site!

10. Post in Forums

If you have the time you should start your own forum but even if you only have a few minutes a week to spare for this effort then it can be well worth the effort. Don’t offer blatant spam posts but find a forum where you have something to offer. Make sure that you include an appropriate url and description for your forum signature and you will attract the double benefit of traffic and search engine attention!

No successful advertising campaign embraces one single method of advertising and no single method of advertising works for everyone. Advertising cannot be treated as a one-size-fits all proposition. However you know what your business needs and can offer–mix and match methods and make sure to track your results–to optimize your choices.

When you think about Online Marketing, what do you think of first? Which aspects of Online Marketing are important, which are essential, and which ones can you take or leave? You be the judge.

1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base. You already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility to them.

2. Make it a practice to up sell to new and existing customers. After they decide to buy one product, offer them another product.

3. Cross promote your products and services with other businesses that aren’t competition. You will reach a wider audience at less cost.

4. Create joint venture deals with other businesses. You can expand your product line and target other profitable markets at a lower cost.

5. Start an affiliate program for your business. You will be able to spend less profits on risk advertising and spend more money on guaranteed sales. I trust that what you’ve read so far has been informative. The following section should go a long way toward clearing up any uncertainty that may remain.

6. Trade advertising with other businesses to save revenue. You could trade e-zine ads, banners ads, links, print ads, etc.

7. Out source part of your workload. This can save on employee costs, equipment costs, taxation costs, expansion costs, etc.

8. Add low cost bonuses to your offer that have a high perceived value. It could be ebooks, members only sites, consulting, e-reports, etc.

9. Use viral marketing to promote your business on the internet. Give away free stuff with your ad copy include on it so others can give it away.

10. Follow up with all your prospects. You can use a free e-zine, a follow-up autoresponder, an update or reminder list, etc.

The day will come when you can use something you read about here to have a beneficial impact. Then you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more about Online Marketing. .internet-marketing-ez.com/

If you already have a website or want to get one then spending time learning what your website needs to have in order to increase online sales should be your primary step you take. In this article we are going to cover some major TOP 10 points on what your website should have to consistently drive online sales.

1. Get the attention through clear marketing messages &ndash Your website should have a clear message about your products or business. Show your visitors the benefits they get if they choose your product or business. Make sure that you define your marketing messages clearly for all your critical audiences.

2. Make your visitors feel comfortable &ndash Make sure that your visitors will feel comfortable on your website. Use nice and creative graphics with your content. Use your main business address on your contact page and not P.O. Boxes since it won’t make your business look very dependable. You should also have your phone number located on all of your pages on a visible spot. Your answering message should have the name of your business recorded on it. You are a professional right? Remember to always have your e-mail, phone number, or contact form easily accessible from all pages of your website so your visitors don’t have to struggle to get in touch with you. Another good idea is to provide FAQ page to give your visitors the extra confidence to buy without having to contact you.

3. Create a newsletter &ndash Provide your visitors with a newsletter that they can easily subscribe to. This is your marketing tool that doesn’t cost you anything. It is something catchy that will grab their attention and make them want to sign up.

4. Include your specials &ndash Make sure that you give your visitors good reasons to buy from you. When you tell your potential customer who’s just looking around that you will give them the best deal in town, and to call you back before they buy. I can guarantee that if you handled the communication good they will call you back before they make a buying decision. What you say to them will always be in the back of their mind. Now don’t think that you need to beat the price that they bring back to you. You can always include something extra special to the mix.

5. Keeping in touch with existing customers &ndash Remember that your existing customer is more likely to buy from you again, or refer you to someone, than someone you find who in only interested in your product or business at the time. Remind your customers by phone, e-mail, or postcards about your website or business and let them know about the updates or specials that you have.

6. Create an online marketing campaign &ndash Set some time aside every once in a while and keep looking for ways to promote your website. Establish new linking partners that will advertise your website on theirs. Write interesting and resourceful articles that can help other website owners to provide for their visitors. Establish your monthly budget and invest it in search engine marketing or good business related websites that will bring you quality visitors.

7. Improve you website graphics – Try to stay away from clip art images or something out of style because it won’t have much effect. Make your graphics unique and come up with nice and catchy advertising tag lines. If you need help, hire an agency that will help you come up with the appropriate marketing messages and design eye catching advertising pieces that will seize your visitors’ attention.

8. Perform a regular competitor and customer research &ndash Continue doing research on your competitors and customers. Try to keep your website updated and competitive. After all, the website is your best educated and most knowledgeable salesman that works 24/7.

9. Customer is always right &ndash Your customer is always right, even if they are not. It is important to acknowledge the comments or concerns your customers may have. This will allow you to improve your website in order to make future customers completely satisfied. After you have changes made, jump right back into selling again.

10. Choose a reliable web hosting – Don’t settle for less or judge the hosting by price. You need your website to be available to the world all day everyday. Please note that there is no such thing as “unlimited bandwidth” in web hosting. Any good network engineer or technician can explain why that is.

These 10 tips will help you understand how to increase your online sales. To finalize this article I just want to add two more very important things. Please do not put your picture on the home page. Your navigation of the website should be easy to follow and fool-proof. Don’t complicate things by providing too many options for the customers that will just get them lost. Now go sell.

Headlines are the most important part of your sales letter. They account for ~ 90% of your success. In other words, if you don’t get your headlines right, your site won’t sell.

What’s the job of your headlines? They have to get your site visitor excited. Their goal is to grab your reader’s attention and to make her continue reading your sales letter. If your headline fails to create excitement, it’s very likely that your visitor will leave your site immediately and probably never return again.

How do you create excitement? You have to intrigue your reader with the fantastic benefits of your product. The headline of your sales letter has to present the most important benefit – the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) — of your product.

The goal of your headline is to stir emotions and to help your reader to imagine enjoying all the great benefits of your product. People buy for emotional reasons and that’s why it’s so important to describe the benefits of your product and not its features.

Your site visitor is having only one question on her mind: What’s in it for me? — How can I solve my problem?, How can I make more money?, How can I get that job? … Focus only on your customer and answer her burning questions immediately — that’s how to write a great headline.

In your headline, tell your customer that you have a solution for her problem, that you have the answers for her questions, that you will provide what she wants…

The result? Your reader will be excited right from the start, she will be eager to continue reading through your sales letter and chances are really good that you will get the click on the “credit card symbol” at the end of your sales letter.

Learn how to write a great headline and getting the sale will become easy — outstanding headlines can increase your sales by several 100%.

One headline isn’t enough – use also subheadings

* Right at the beginning of your sales letter you have to fire your biggest gun — your USP, that’s the most compelling benefit of your product. To keep your reader interested and excited, use several subheadings throughout your sales copy.

* Each of these subheadings conveys a benefit. That way you will pull your reader through your sales letter, right to the “Buy Me” button. If you don’t keep your reader interested, you risk loosing her. So, keep on firing benefits. Also, it’s absolutely ok to state one and the same benefit several times in different ways.

* Most web surfers only scan pages, they don’t read every single word, but they will you’re your headlines. Therefore you have to make sure, that a visitor who reads only your headlines understands exactly what he will get out of your product.

* Make your reader’s job easy. Divide your text into small logical blocks and start each block with a headline. A headline is like an ad for the text that follows — it has to convince your visitor to keep on reading.

10 simple tips to make your headlines more effective:

1. Write down all the benefits of your product. What kind of problems does it solve? How it make people happier, healthier, wealthier?…

2. You might not be aware of all the benefits. Think outside the box and keep on looking for more benefits — don’t let any of them slip away.

3. What is the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of your product. What makes it stand out of the crowd, what makes it unique? That’s your most important benefit, that’s the one that will differentiate your product from those of your competitors.

4. Use short, active verbs that rouse emotions and create images.

5. Write your headlines only for your target customer and don’t care about the rest.

6. Powerful words you can use in your headlines: How to, Free, Why, Who wants to know, Finally… or ask an open-ended question: “Why do so many people fail to attract more money?”

7. Don’t hype, what you are saying has to be believable.

8. Brainstorm 10 – 20 headlines.

9. Pretend you are your customer. Which headline would get you excited, which one stirs your emotions? Pick your three favorites and keep on modifying and changing them until you are really happy.

10. Take a break and come back the following day with a fresh mind. Do a final edit if necessary.

Learning how to write a great headline takes time and effort, but its absolutely crucial if you want to succeed. It’s very likely that you will spend the same amount of time for your headlines as for the rest of your sales letter — and that’s perfectly ok.