My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘email’

Email is a wonderful apparatus, outstandingly if used properly.
I’m usually of a group of five or six friends, who “physically” liberated together most weekends (as opposed to as good as). We also email each other, as a rule every few days, to generally commerce jokes, interest rumour, and argue scheduling problems to do with when we are next getting together. We are starting to talk on Harbinger too.
One Monday a not many weeks ago, our emailing rank suddenly spiked to more than thirty emails in there twelve hours. Unfortunately this was a occasional days after someone reborn had precisely joined our group. Luckily she didn’t run away in monster, and things calmed down.
Things indeed NEEDED to staid down because most of the thirty plus emails were coming from a strive with between two of my friends. I’ll call them Katrina and Chris.
Expectantly, reading this article won’t restart the fight. (If it does I’ll have an inflamed email or two saying, ‘I won’t be coming on Sunday…or ever again.’)
Suffer to me repeat. Email is wonderful, if used right. After the wage war with cooled down a little, Chris rhythmical mentioned that the complexion of sending and receiving emails allows a person to believe in the future you rejoinder, if you take the time.

If someone emails you and says you are an idiot, you can safely write the burning acknowledge you require to, exhaustive of all conduct of the foulest insults and immoral language. I recommend you communicate with just such a base answer.
But annul it with a account processor program, sort of than right away into a passive email. You travel all kinds of assistant with spelling, editing, and punctuation. It is massively embarrassing to apprehend an email saying that you are an idiot, and then have even identical misspelled suggestion in your (meant to be) derisive reply.
The more high-level reckon to write your reply in a word processor is that you can’t click ‘send’ the second you set free writing. You can’t cannonade it eccentric without slit a brand-new email and then ‘cut-and-pasting’ your acidic words into it, which gives you a tick to unflappable down.
In a perfect world, give yourself an hour or more to unemotional down in a situation as this. After half an hour, reread the email you are responding too. Did they express ‘you are an idiot’, or ‘you look like an idiot when you don’t spell voucher’?

If you hadn’t guessed already, Katrina and Chris didn’t filch an hour, or metrical a infrequent minutes to unruffled down in advance replying to each others emails. Almost always, both are more ascertainable so peradventure they just had an off-day on the same day. Or, maybe they had unfeigned and proper complaints apropos each other that needed to be discussed and resolved.
Regardless of why they did it, they then traded a series of steadily more insulting emails, replying to each other without charming time to quiet down. Our put together received more than thirty emails. People email foul got sent to ‘undisclosed recipients’, which sparked accusations of erratic overlie ups involving secretly sharing our privileged business with confounding shadowy strangers.
In the final analysis they took their exchange blows with to a more private consistent, no longer ‘CC’ing their insults to the rest period of us. In this private the big board I over the insults got upright more vicious.
No longer getting ‘CC’ed emails, from either Chris to Katrina or Katrina to Chris, I brown study that they both had calmed down and grown up. Then out cold of the blue, both of them emailed me contribution to relinquish into public notice of the group. We about lost them both because they couldn’t arise to be in the unaltered space together after what they’d said in their rapid-fire emails. I knackered days talking to them both on Page to sort it out. We did even squander Chris for the benefit of a two weeks. However, I left the door open in behalf of him to resurface and eventually he did.
Email is a wonderful tool. But be meticulous, you can char your bridges if you don’t throw away it with a cool head.

If you have spent more than a few minutes studying search engine optimization and web traffic building then you know that text links are important — most especially one-way links from quality sites.

So many people interested in building traffic to their sites spend a lot of time, effort, and money building text links to their sites. They purchase links in link directories, buy links from brokers and site owners, and even swap links. Others try different methods like forum posting, blog commenting, and article writing.

But most of these people overlook one very easy and inexpensive way to achieve one-way, often permanent, text links from quality sites. What is this method of text linking? It is usually called Ezine Advertising!

That’s right, just like pork is the other white meat, ezine advertising is the other way to text link.

There are many advantages of ezine advertising when it comes to text link building:

1. You get the added bonus of email marketing benefits

2. Text link surrounded by relevant content, your ad copy, that you wrote specifically for that purpose

3. Limited outbound links competing with yours. Ezines only sell a few ads per issue (many only sell one or two) so your text link will be only one of a few.

4. When the issue is archived on the web (which is how you achieve your permanent text link) the page is usually text-heavy with the content that search engines love

5. The site where your permanent text link resides (the ezine archives) is regularly updated and in turn regularly visited by search engines

All these advantages roll into one additional bonus for you. The text links appear to have developed organically and naturally — not as so many traditional text links do — which makes them even more powerful and effective in terms of traffic building and search engine optimization.

And unlike so many text links which are purchased monthly or for a limited time, an ezine ad is purchased for a particular issue and will remain alive for the months or years that the issue is archived. If you aren’t sure how long an ezine archives then check their web site. Many ezines and newsletters archive for years.

Using Email to market your web site

This is a very touchy subject. One that needs to be addressed and that you need to understand. Email marketing falls into three categories. First is simple, you place a signature line in your email program that automatically adds your signature block to each out going email. This signature line identifies your web site and a brief tag line or catch phase. Every time you respond or send an email, your signature advertises your business. No problems with that. However, the next two types of email marketing are very touchy.

By now, everyone has heard of SPAM. Your definition may be different from mine and from the governments. However, you look at it, SPAM is unwanted email. Now email marketing requires that we send emails to our potential customers. This can be done either with or without their permission. Sending email without the permission of the recipient put us in a bad light. Often resulting is negative feelings and responses from the recipient. This is bad for business. If you piss off the potential customer, well…. they are no longer a potential customer as they have deleted you email and won’t be visiting your site. You have wasted valuable time and money. So, the only people you will be sending any marketing emails to will be those that have requested information from you or have agreed to receive information from you. This is called permission based email.

Where can you find people who are willing to receive your emails? First provide a place on your web site to gather the names and addresses of your visitors. Offer them something in exchange, such as a free publication, or your newsletter, or something else of potential value to them. Let them know when they sign up that you will from time to time be sending them information. Include in the email a means to unsubscribe at any time. As people sign up you are building your email list which you can market to as often as you like. I wouldn’t recommend more than twice a month.

There are other web sites that maintain a list of people who want to hear from your. This permission based method is usually based on a particular subject matter. Such as hobbies, business ideas, child care etc. You can find them on the web by searching for mailing list.

Emails are an inexpensive way to keep in touch with your customers. If you have a brick and motor store, try to get the email addresses of your current customers and add them to the list as well. You will be surprised at how much extra business can come from a personalize email about a special you are offering for their support over the last year etc.

Using E-books to market your web site

What can your own E-zine or E-book do for your business or web site? How about:

Sell more products or services. An e-zine/e-book can increase your credibility, making it easier to sell your product or service as well as those of others in which you have a stake.

Attract more affiliates to help sell your products or services. This form of advertising is viral in it approach. E-zines and e-books get passed from person to person. Creating more interest which makes people want to jump on board and become part of that success.

Establish yourself as an expert in your field, creating more ‘believability’ and trust.

People don’t buy from strangers. With you e-zine or e-book you become better known to them. When the time comes they need or want your products or services, there’s no question who they’ll buy them from — YOU!

Show your visitors and clients everything you can really do for them, maximizing your sales efforts.

Build a base of customers who are ready to hire you, buy from you, evangelize for you and create more fans for you.

Effortlessly spread the word about your business via “viral marketing.”

Create new revenue streams from selling ad space and recommending other products that you’re an affiliate of. See our affiliate page for more information.

Become a recognized publisher. Have others writing your articles, advertisers paying for exposure in your publication.

Here is an IMPORTANT point, capture the email addresses of your Web site visitors, gaining permission to market to them over and over again and multiple chances closing the sale. Not to mention the sales of other products or services.

Keep in touch with all of your customers, prospects, and associates &ndash on a regular basis.

Simple tips for creating e-zines and e-books

Package your knowledge on a regular basis into tips and articles that can be reprinted in other publications for tons of additional exposure and traffic. There are thousands of ebooks and e-zines in publication today. Most are specialized in a particular segment of the web or interest. When you find an ebook/ezine that reaches the people that may be interested in your product or service. Contact them to see if they take outside articles. If they do, send them an article or two that you may have written. Include information on your business and its web site If they publish your article, your name and web site will be listed. This is a great way of getting free advertising and traffic to your site.

Another way to get articles for your e-books is to find someone to write them for you. Much like the process above but in this case you are the one publishing the material. Use your web site, chat rooms, forums etc to advertise for articles.

Save thousands of dollars printing and postage by producing your newsletter online instead of printing it. Adobe Writer is a good program for your e-books and any email program can be used for e-zines.

We have several resources in our download area on ebook. One of the better programs for creating ebooks is Deadeasy although not free it makes a great tool for creating ebooks. If you would like more information on Deadeasy, click here.

Using Letterhead to market your web site

Every business uses paper to correspond with its customers, vendors and other businesses. Many small businesses and home based businesses today use the computer a and a word processor to generate this correspondence whether it be printed or electronic we all do. So how can we use this correspondence to market our business? Simple, create a letterhead template and make it your default document when ever you create a business related correspondence.

In your letterhead template make sure you have your website address and you company slogan (if you have one) prominently displayed. I have even seem some letterhead lately that simply has the website address listed and no physical address as many companies are Internet based or figure that you will have access to the Internet and can visit their site to look up the street address if needed. This is actually a clever move, in that it get you to visit the site, which is what our marketing is trying to do to begin with.

Using Magazines to market your web site

Those articles that you wrote or had written for your business can also be sent to magazine and newspapers for publication. Each one that is printed is free advertisement for your business that last for years. Just think how many issues are passed around from person to person before they end up in the trash. I saw several magazines at the Laundromat that were from 1996-1998 that people were still reading. You can do a search on the web for publications in your area of expertise. Visit their web sites and find the editors email address. Be sure to find out the policy for submitting an article for publication and follow it. Some editors don’t like it when the mail box is full of unsolicited articles that do not conform to their policies and will just trash the email instead of replying to you.

Did you know that your tracking url could be costing you sales?

It’s true! Repeatedly experienced marketers have learned that using a tracking link lowers the click through rate of any ad. If you think about it this does make sense. How often do you click through on a link that reads like a line of gibberish?

First and foremost, the internet is about trust. If you do not offer a link that at least appears “trustworthy” then many people aren’t going to click. And ask yourself the hard question? Does a link filled with an odd sequence of letters and numbers appear trustworthy to you?

Another drawback to using a tracking url is that ezine ads often have a very long life — often much longer than that of any tracking url or program. You don’t want to lose out on the potential of a long-term link or future visitors because of your tracking url.

If you are able to use your main web site address or a subpage then it just appears so much more trustworthy. Plus you are more likely to catch people in the future who lost your original ad but NOW want to visit your site. They will never remember a complicated tracking url but may remember BoatsRus.com etc.

No matter how much you want to be able to promote your web site directly there is still that tricky question of being able to track click throughs. Well there is actually a simple (and free) way to do both.

You create a redirect page.

This way you can promote your main url and have a unique page to track clicks. In fact, you can even name your page something to make it even more clickworthy, such as boatsrus.com/classicboats.php .

You can create unique landing pages for any number of advertisements but this might be time consuming. It is far simpler to code that page with a redirect script that loads whatever sales landing page you choose.

Now you can track your clicks without worrying about losing customers due to unfriendly tracking urls. You will always have full control over the url so you can change the redirect destination at any time and if you ever choose to take it down the visitor will still land on your site. It is the perfect tracking system! It also works great for affiliate links.

Now more then ever profitable opportunities exist to promote your local business on the Internet. Through search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, email marketing and local listings, you can connect with a willing audience. Your customers are turning to the Internet to find local products and services. If your competitors have an online presence and you don’t, guess who gets to take home the prize

Below are several crucial techniques for promoting your business regionally:

Local Listings

Even if you do not have a web site you can still promote your local business online. For example, you can list you business and contact information with the local search engines of Yahoo and Google. It takes an hour at the most to get a free listing on the two most popular search engines. Your listing will include an interactive map that can direct customers right to your front door.

Another important resource that accepts free listings is Verizon’s Superpages.com, as does the local version of AOL.

And don’t overlook regional and industry specific directories. Many accept free listings, or charge a nominal fee. Once again, for most a web site is not a prerequisite.

Pay Per Click Advertising

If you do have a web site, than you need to promote your local business through Pay Per Click on both Google and Yahoo. With Pay Per Advertising you bid on keyword terms that your potential customers would use in a search. An example is “Tacoma Wedding Photographer.” The cost per click depends on how competitive the term is. You only pay if a prospect clicks on your text ad and goes to your site. This is referred to as performance advertising, where you only pay if the ad performs.

The appeal of PPC is you can get it going within an hour. You set the budget, you determine what keywords are relevant, and you determine your price per click. You can also turn it on or off in an instance. The general consensus is that PPC generates a higher return on your investment over traditional offline advertising.

Search Engine Optimization – Free Traffic

For those that like a challenge there is search engine optimization. SEO is the ability to optimize your web site for high search ranking. If you can optimize your site properly, you can benefit from an endless stream of free, targeted search engine traffic. It takes time and effort, but the results can take your business to a whole new level.

If you are selling nationally SEO can be cutthroat. For a local business it can be relatively easy to rank for terms that relate to your business and location. (ex. Richmond Wedding Photographer)

Local Email Marketing

Another tremendous marketing tool is email. For virtually nothing you can communicate with both prospects and your existing customers. Email is an excellent method to convert prospects to customers. It can also significantly increase the lifetime value of your existing customers by simply alerting them to upcoming sales and promotions.

Knowing the power of email communication, I find it hard to believe how few use it to promote their local business. Now listen up, start collecting your customer’s email addresses today. I can guarantee they will respond favorably to joining your list. We all like to be informed on bargains and special offers.

The future of your local business will depend on the Internet. It is estimated 25% of searches online are local in nature. The Internet is the perfect resource for finding local products and services, which is why your customers are searching online. Now is the time to get your business positioned to reap the rewards.

You have seen them all over the internet — blinking, flashing, animated and garish. You vow that you will not contribute to this internet graffiti. You feel smug with your decision because after all banner advertising is dead.

Wrong. Banner advertising is not dead — and in fact it is still an effective internet marketing tool. However banner advertising has evolved — or rather I should say successful banner advertising has evolved. Some of the horrible eye-damaging banner ads still exist but successful, knowledgable internet entrepreneurs have long abandoned those marketing efforts and instead concentrated on targeted, tasteful, and trim 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.

And savvy internet marketers are taking them up on these advertising opportunities.

WHY USE BANNER ADVERTISING?

Consumer research historically shows that most people see an ad several times before they take action. Banners allow you to display your ad over a period of time, increasing the chances that a prospect will see your ad and remember it.

Your banner ad can be targeted to specific audiences and displayed on internet pages and sites matched to that specific audience.

People seeing your advertisement can instantly click through to your web site store to to learn more or to make a purchase on the spot.

You can track your results and make adjustments to your campaigns based on response. Analyzing your results can help you finetune your banner, landing page, or target audience to improve your response and sales.

Banner advertising is really a buyers market, as there is always more banner spaces available than advertisers need or want, which means you can find many bargains available.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING YOUR BANNER AD CAMPAIGN

There are several aspects to consider when planning out your banner advertising campaign.

The first consideration should be your ad graphic itself. These are usually animated GIF images but remember you want to attract customers — not simply attention — and remember the overall tone of your ad campaign when designing your graphic. Also keep in mind that many sites limit the file size of the graphic to somewhere between 12 and 16 KB.

Your banner can come in variety of sizes. The full banner size is 468 x 60 pixels. Some other standard banner sizes include:

Size(pixels).Type

468 x 60…..Full banner

234 x 60…..Half banner

392 x 72…..Full banner with vertical navigation bar

120 x 240….Vertical banner

125 x 125….Square button

120 x 90…..Button #1

120 x 60…..Button #2

88 x 31……Micro button

Your graphic will be hyperlinked to a target url of your choice so you may want to spend some time planning how you will track traffic and clicks. Some programs provide a tracking and statistics service for you but most individual sites can’t offer that information.

When selecting where to display your banner ad the first consideration should really be choosing a site offering information that appeals to your target audience. A high-traffic dating site isn’t going to be much good for advertising your maternity clothing line, for example.

Then you should look at traffic. When looking at site stats you want to make sure you focus on page views or page impressions rather than hits (which may count individually each graphic viewed). Depending on your banner and market you may be primarily concerned with unique page impressions.

Banner advertising is often sold by CPM (Cost Per Thousand displays, the Roman numeral “M” stands for one thousand). Many sites also offer a fixed rate price for a set period of time.

Many marketers do not concern themselves as much with click-through rates and instead see banner ads as “branding” tools. They create brand awareness and a brand image in the viewer’s mind. The hope is that when the viewer gets ready to make a purchase then your “brand” pops into their mind. Branding can also generate sales over the long-term. Branding is difficult to measure, but can be very powerful.

If you have a big advertising budget then you might want to consider an ad agency or media buyer. They can offer a lot of value for the dollar because they have the experience, knowledge, and contacts to make the most of your budget.

It is quite possible to be your own media buyer, if you are willing and able to handle the increased workload. The biggest difficulty is finding the right sites on which to advertise your product or service. Then after you find a site that might be a good match you need to negotiate the best possible deal. It is important you be as knowledgeable as possible as it is a buyer’s market and you don’t want to pay too much. Of course you also don’t want to alienate a web master whose site is a perfect match for you.

You also have the option to buy banner space on many search engines and directories. Often this option allows you to display your ad only to a targeted audience which can obviously increase your chances for a successful campaign but it can be a pricey option.

Banner ad networks are another targeted option that might be more affordable. Individual web site owners contract with a single company to serve their banner ads and handle ad sales for them. In turn, these networks divide their sites into categories and subcategories to allow advertisers to advertise on particular sites within the network that are the most highly targeted. They also offer very sophisticated tracking tools that give you lots of valuable information about who is visiting your site, and what actions they are taking.

Some networks offer pay-per-click advertising which only charges you when someone clicks on your banner and comes to your site. However, this approach is subject to fraud by unscrupulous site owners.

A pay-per-sale network, otherwise known as an affiliate program, only charges the advertiser when a purchase is actually made. The advertiser pays both the affiliate and the network but only when there is a sale. Of course the competition to attract quality affiliates is high so while this can be effective it shouldn’t be the only method of banner advertising you use.

And some final banner advertising tips:

* Keep your message brief, direct and simple.

* Attract more attention using words such as “free” and “now”.

* Put “click here” somewhere on the banner.

* Create different versions of the banner.

* Animate your banner but only if it improves it.

* Keep the file size as small as possible.

Every busines sonline or off line needs a promotion. The type of business we wish to reserch is email marketing techniques.

Using newsletters, announcements, promotions, is a good, inexpensive way to reach prospects and customers with your message.

Being totaly honest and keeping our integrity we don

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.

I don’t know everything and if I have learned one thing about doing business on the Internet it is that the more you learn the more you don’t know. However, I have been doing business on the Internet since 1999 and I’ve managed to carve out a successful enterprise for myself with several profit streams. The largest percentage of my marketing and promotional efforts has been conducted through one simple method-Ezine Advertising.

These are the 8 important lessons I’ve learned regarding Ezine Advertising and Marketing Success:

A common mistake many advertisers make is to attempt to do too much, or rather sell too much, in one ad. Sure you have lots of great products but you can’t sell them all in a few lines-at least not individually. Instead focus on the benefit your customer can achieve from all your products and promote that! People are much more likely to click on a link that BENEFITS them than a link that promises to sell them something.

For example, “Help your child reach their maximum potential” instead of “Try our many reading, writing, math, shapes and colors programs”

More importantly, tell the customer “what your product or service is going to do for him.”

It is important that you identify your Unique Selling Proposition before you begin your advertising program. This will determine which Ezines (or markets) you target as well as what you should include in your ad copy. Who will be interested in your product and why? What benefits does your product offer them?

Don’t go for the sale in your ad! You are at a disadvantage because you can’t list all your products’ wonderful benefits in the space allowed. Also, there is only a small percentage of any Ezine audience that is ready to buy your product at the exact moment they view your ad. Yes, maybe they should be, but most people today live in the moment and if this isn’t the time they want to buy then they aren’t going to buy, end of story.

But it doesn’t have to be the end of the story. If you go for the soft sell approach your target consumer is much more likely to click on your link and then you’ve got the chance to go for the hard sell-again and again!

Here’s an example. I’m selling a product called the Preschool Prep Power Pack. It’s an educational CD for preschoolers. Now I could go for the hard sell in my promotion and I would make some sales but a lot of people who really might be interested won’t even look at my site and product. However, I’ve chose to go the soft sell approach. Instead of selling my product in my ads, my ads offer two FREE items. I offer a free newsletter (Preschoolers Learn More) offering tips about preparing preschoolers for kindergarten. This is my target market for my product. The folks who subscribe also receive a free ABC-123 coloring book. Why wouldn’t the parent of a preschooler subscribe, right?

But what’s in it for me as a business person? A lot! Think about it. I now have the freely offered contact information for my target market. Now I can regularly email them information about my product. I’m confident they will buy eventually because my product provides a solution to something that concerns them-or they wouldn’t have subscribed in the first place!

Another common mistake is not giving your ad campaign enough time to work.

Studies show it takes prospects an average of seven exposures to your promotion before they take the bait. Even after they have clicked through to your site visitors may need to visit your site as many as three times before they buy from you. So make sure you keep that offer in front of them. That means it may well pay to take the long-term package versus a one-shot ad.

People run through their emails rapidly and delete things they wish they hadn’t. Make their wish come true! Give them a second, third, fourth chance. The formula is–when you’re sick and tired of it, the public is just beginning to hear it.

Just because you’ve bought ad space doesn’t mean you have to utilize every pixel or character-space. Short, punchy lines that do not use up every available space are more effective. Think about the reader scanning down the page or screen. What will catch their eye and make them stop scanning and actually read? White space is your friend so don’t squander it. Use it to set off your important message.

Make sure you apply the same principal to your urls and e-mail addresses as well. Nothing can make an ad look more cluttered than giant web addresses with a complicated string of numbers and letters. If you have to use an address like that (perhaps for your affiliate code, for example) then it might be wise to use a redirect. There are numerous free services out there (snipurl.com for exmple) although perhaps it might be a good idea to use a page from your own web site with a redirect programmed in

USE YOUR HEAD

Your headline is the most important part of your ad. This is usually the line that determines whether the skimming reader will stop or skip ahead.

Some of the proven headline formulas include:

1. Ask the reader a question: “Are you worried about filing your

tax return this year?”

2. Tell the reader how to do something: “How to buy a

car without getting a lemon.”

3. Provide a testimonial: “Big Al saved me $200 last month. Thanks, Cindy Lou from Paducah, Kentucky.”

4. Make a command. Turn your most important benefit into a commanding

headline. “Stop rushing through life.” “Make more money this month.” “Feel better about yourself.”

5. Important news makes a good headline. “Max Electronics just went international!”

6. Start the clock: “Buyers who act before midnight Tuesday will save an extra $50!”

7. Give the reader something free: “Free whatsit for the first 100 visitors!”

DON’T FORGET TO TELL THEM WHAT TO DO!

It sounds almost ridiculous, but simply giving clear, specific directions about what you want the reader to do can increase the response to your ads.

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SET YOUR BUDGET

One of the most difficult things to decide for any business person is how much money to spend on promotion. There really is one simple way to determine the answer. How much is a customer worth to you? That tells you a great deal about how much you can afford to spend on advertising.

The simple formula to calculate the net worth of a visitor is: Net Profit divided by Conversion Rate.

First, what is your net profit on an average sale? Let’s say $10 to make it easy. (Hey, I’m an English professor, I need to keep it simple!)

Then consider what your conversion rate is for visitors to become customers. Let’s say one visitor out of 50 becomes a customer. (This makes your conversion rate 50 as you need 50 customers to make a sale)

With this example, a visitor is worth $0.50 to you. ($10 divided by 50)

So if you spend $100 on an advertising campaign that draws in 1000 visitors then you made $400 on that campaign.

SET REALISTIC GOALS

This issue is really about control. Yes, if you could control things that you would have a high sell through but that isn’t always going to happen. In fact, for most advertisers that isn’t going to happen. However, if your goal is to capture customers then you are much more likely to match your goal or even exceed it. And in the end a customer is worth a lot more to you than a sale because a customer can represent many sales over years to come-sales that were fairly easy to achieve.

As frustrating as it may be, advertising is usually about long-term versus short-term benefits. Your ad simply serves as a lure to draw people into your site or long-term promotion. Once you’ve pulled them in then you need to sell them. So it is not really fair to judge an ad campaign on simple sales.

The success of an ad campaign should be measured by one or two elements only-first, how many people followed up on your offer (click-through rate) and second, how many of those visitors were you able to convert into customers (conversion rate).

Over time you will be able to judge where the weak link in your chain of customer creation exists and work to fix it.

Low click-through rate? Then it is probably your offer. You are not giving readers enough incentive to follow through. What is in it for them to click on your offer? Remember you are selling benefits!

Low conversion rate? Then perhaps you are not attracting the right sort of visitor. Target your incentive (the free offer, for example) to match your target audience. See my example in SOFT SELL.