The Business World

Don’t Link With Any Old Web Site You Come Across .......................................6

Steps To Improve Your Link Popularity .............................................................7

Do Your Research.............................................................................................8

Ask For a Link … But Be Nice! ..........................................................................8

Monitoring Your Link .........................................................................................9

Paid URL Inclusion .............................................................................................10

Is It Worth Paying For Inclusion?.....................................................................10

How to Decide Whether to Pay To Be Indexed ...............................................12

Pay Per Click (PPC)............................................................................................14

What’s Pay Per Click?.....................................................................................14

Will PPC Be Cost Effective For You?..............................................................15

Doing Keyword Research................................................................................15

Writing Your Description..................................................................................16

Monitoring Your Bid.........................................................................................16

Analyse Your Visitor Behaviour .......................................................................16

Protecting Your Search Engine Rankings...........................................................17

Choose Your Links Carefully...........................................................................17

Avoid Hidden Text ...........................................................................................18

Keyword Stuffing .............................................................................................19

Cloaking ..........................................................................................................20

Search Engine Keywords Selection ....................................................................21

Gathering Your Keywords ...............................................................................21

Evaluating Your Keywords ..............................................................................22

Evaluate Performance.....................................................................................23

Monitoring Search Engine Positions ...................................................................25

Watch Your Rankings......................................................................................25

Watch Your Competition .................................................................................26

Monitor Search Engine Popularity ...................................................................26

What to Do If Your Rankings Drop ..................................................................27

Have Your Keywords Become Too Competitive?............................................28

Selecting a Search Engine Optimization Company.............................................29

How to Select an SEO Company ....................................................................29

Constantly Monitor Their Results ....................................................................31

SEO Is a Marketing Cost.................................................................................32

Ask For References.........................................................................................32

Evaluating Web Site Performance ......................................................................34

Your Site Conversion Rate..............................................................................34

How to Improve The Flow of Traffic to Your Site .............................................35

Is It Easy For Your Customers To Do Business With You?.............................35

Have Someone Review Your Website Copy ...................................................35

Analysing Website Traffic ...................................................................................37

Understanding Your Data................................................................................37

Don’t Follow the ‘Hits’......................................................................................37

Track The Exit Pages ......................................................................................39

Analysing Your Keywords ...............................................................................39

Are They Finding You Directly?.......................................................................39

Increasing Your Search Engine Ranking ............................................................40

The Title Bar....................................................................................................40

Website Content..............................................................................................41

Meta Tags .......................................................................................................41

Link Popularity.................................................................................................42

Introduction to Autoresponders...........................................................................43

Why Use Autoresponders? .............................................................................43

How Autoresponders Work .............................................................................44

Personalise Your Autoresponders...................................................................44

Use Autoresponders to Offer Courses ............................................................45

Free Autoresponder Providers ........................................................................45

Choosing Your E-Mail Address .......................................................................46

Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoreponders..........................................47

How You Can Profitably Use an Autoresponder..............................................47

Conclusion ..........................................................................................................51

Other E-Books Available From Small Business Success....................................52

earch engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are the first tool that

potential customers use to find the products and services they need.

This is why link popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find

your website, you have no possibilities of making any sales.

You're probably wondering what the blazes is popular about a link! Well, in a

word - plenty! Link popularity refers to the ranking assigned to your website by

the search engines, and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords

are entered into a search engine. So, you're probably wondering, how do I make

my link popular?

Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking to sites that have

links to their pages from related, quality sites. It's a simple formula, but a very

important one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the most popular

search engines employ it to rank your web pages in their indexes.

The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will be to achieve link

popularity, but without achieving this step, it is almost certain your site will never

rank highly on any search engine. But don't be discouraged; there are tried and

true ways of achieving link popularity using the most competitive keywords.

There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is that just linking up

with a large number of other websites will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it

may have quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when pertaining to

websites that are nothing more than "link farms" - pages containing line after line

of indiscriminate links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against

your website if you are associated with a link farm, so steer clear of them!

The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site you are linking to. Never

link to a page you have reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing

of poor quality will only lessen your link popularity, if not completely destroy it.

So let's get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link popularity and

improve your rankings to stellar status on all the popular search engines.

The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the door, is to get a listing in

a popular directory, such as Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is

business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and despite the fact that it

will cost you around $300 a year, it will be money well spent. If your site is noncommercial,

the listing will be free, but it will take time and follow-up to actually

get it listed. Open Directory gives you a free listing whether you are businessrelated

or non-commercial, but be prepared to make a lot of follow-up inquiries

before you see your site listed.

You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of appropriate category, and this

just takes some common sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca

wool from an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny State, do NOT

submit your listing to "Retailers from Nowhere, Tiny State." BIG MISTAKE! All

you have to do is look a little deeper - and submit your listing to the "Fine Alpaca

Wool" category. You will not only associate yourself with culture and quality, but

you will be listed in a national category.

The next step after you have attained directory listings is to locate other quality

sites that will increase your link popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way

related to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase, but your customer

base may also be expanded. You want to avoid your competitors and look for

sites that are useful to your site's visitors. Let's look at the Alpaca Wool site

example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies would be helpful to your

visitors, and the chances of the knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site

your sites' link popularity.

Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have to do some research

when you are looking for possible linking partners. Google is an excellent starting

place for your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think quality

customers will also enter to find your own site. Remember, your criteria are

quality, highly ranked, non-competing websites that have a links or resources

page. Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the quality of the

product, the graphics, and the ease of use. Then check out the other sites they

are linked to, and determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.

When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must set out to woo

them. The first thing to do is to add a link on your own links page to their site.

This is an essential first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances

significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added their link, you must contact

the webmaster of their site.

Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make sure it is

immediately clear that your message is not junk mail. This requires that you tell

them right off the bat that you have added a link to their page on your site. A

hook like this almost always insures the reader will read on.

Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much you appreciate their

website. Make sure you emphasise that you have actually visited their site, and

that their site is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your links page,

and ask them to check out the link for themselves. It's a good idea to mention

that they will not only benefit from the increased traffic your website will direct

their way, but you will also increase their link popularity. Briefly, explain why link

a professor! Finally, tell them you would greatly appreciate if they would

reciprocally add a link on their own links page to your website.

Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as you can find, bearing

in mind the criteria of quality and non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all

relevant sites, be sure to check this website frequently to see if they have added

a link to your page. Give it about a month, and if no link appears, try another

charming email. Then give it another month, and if your site is still absent from

their links page, it's time to remove their link from your own links page. The only

time you want to pursue a link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial to

your link popularity and your business needs. Just remember to keep all your

communications complimentary and cordial.

Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search engines frequently to see

if your link popularity has improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye.

It will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no way around the

labour-intensive quality of improving your link popularity, which is why search

engines regard it with such importance.

By the way - make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined site or you will never

persuade anyone to link up to you. Be prepared to keep plugging away at this

Here are many ways to promote your website and one of the most

efficient ways is to use search engines. Search engines are the first stop

for most people trying to find information, services, and products online.

Because of this, it is essential that your website appears quickly in search

results.

The Internet contains numerous search engines, some of which offer what is

known as "paid inclusion." This means that you pay the specific search engine an

annual fee for your web page to be included in their index.

Of course, every search engine already has an automated program commonly

called a "spider" that indexes all the web pages it locates online, and it does this

for free. So whether you pay or not, your web page will eventually be indexed by

all Internet search engines, as long as the spider can follow a link to your page.

The major issue is, then, how quickly your page is indexed.

A search engine that offers a paid URL inclusion uses an extra spider that is

programmed to index the particular pages that have been paid for. The difference

between the spider that indexes pages for free and the spider that indexes only

pages for a fee is speed. If you have paid for inclusion, the additional search

engine spider will index your page immediately.

The debate over paid URL inclusion centres around the annual fee. Since the

regular spider of these search engines would eventually get around to indexing

your web page anyway, why is a renewal fee necessary? The fee is necessary to

keep your pages in the search engine's index. If you go the route of paid

inclusion, you should be aware that at the end of the pay period, on some search

engines, your page will be removed from their index for a certain amount of time.

It's easy to get confused about whether you would benefit from paid inclusion

additional cost. There are both advantages and disadvantages to paid URL

inclusion, and it is only by weighing your pros and cons that you will be able to

decide whether to spring for the extra cash or not.

The advantages are obvious: rapid inclusion and rapid re-indexing. Paid inclusion

means that your pages will be indexed quickly and added to search results in a

very short time after you have paid the fee. The time difference between when

the regular spider will index your pages and when the paid spider will is a matter

of months. The spider for paid inclusion usually indexes your pages in a day or

two. Be aware that if you have no incoming links to your pages, the regular

spider will never locate them at all.

Additionally, paid inclusion spiders will go back to your pages often, sometimes

even daily. The advantage of this is that you can update your pages constantly to

improve the ranking in which they appear in search engines, and the paid URL

inclusion spider will show that result in a matter of days.

First and foremost, the disadvantage is the cost. For a ten page website, the

costs of paid URL inclusion range from $170 for Fast/Lycos to $600 for Altavista,

and you have to pay each engine their annual fee. How relevant the cost factor is

will depend on your company.

Another, and perhaps more important, disadvantage is the limited reach of paid

URL inclusions. The largest search engines, Google, Yahoo, and AOL, do not

offer paid URL inclusion. That means that the search engines you choose to pay

an inclusion fee will amount to a small fraction of the traffic to your site on a daily

basis.

Google usually updates its index every month, and there is no way you can

speed up this process. You will have to wait for the Google spider to index your

new pages no matter how many other search engines you have paid to update

their index daily. Be aware that it is only after Google updates their index that

your pages will show up in Google, Yahoo, or AOL results.

One way to figure out whether paid URL inclusion is a good deal for your

company is to consider some common factors. First, find out if search engines

have already indexed your pages. To do this, you may have to enter a number of

different keywords, but the quickest way to find out is to enter your URL address

in quotes. If your pages appear when you enter the URL address but do not

appear when you enter keywords, using paid inclusion will not be beneficial. This

is because your pages have already been indexed and ranked by the regular

spider. If this is the case, your money would be better spent by updating your

pages to improve your ranking in search results. Once you accomplish this, you

can then consider using paid inclusion if you want to speed up the time it will take

for the regular spider to revisit your pages.

The most important factor in deciding whether to use paid URL inclusion is to

decide if it's a good investment. To figure this out, you have to look at the overall

picture: what kind of product or service are you selling and how much traffic are

you dependent on to see a profit?

If your company sells an inexpensive product that requires a large volume of

traffic to your site, paid inclusion may not be the best investment for you; the

biggest search engines do not offer it, and they are the engines that will bring you

the majority of hits. On the other hand, if you have a business that offers an

expensive service or product and requires a certain quality of traffic to your site, a

paid URL inclusion is most likely an excellent investment.

Another factor is whether or not your pages are updated frequently. If the content

changes on a daily or weekly basis, paid inclusion will insure that your new

pages are indexed often and quickly. The new content is indexed by the paid

spider and then appears when new relevant keywords are entered in the search

engines. Using paid inclusion in this case will guarantee that your pages are

being indexed in a timely manner.

You should also base your decision on whether or not your pages are

dynamically generated. These types of pages are often difficult for regular

spiders to locate and index.

Paying to include the most important pages of a dynamically generated website

will insure that the paid spider will index them.

Sometimes a regular spider will drop pages from its search engine, although

these pages usually reappear in a few months. There are a number of reasons

why this can happen, but by using paid URL inclusion, you will avoid the

possibility. Paid URL inclusion guarantees that your pages are indexed, and if

they are inadvertently dropped, the search engine will be on the lookout to locate

them immediately.

As you can see, there are numerous factors to consider when it comes to paid

URL inclusion. It can be a valuable investment depending on your situation.

Evaluate your business needs and your website to determine if paid URL

Advertising your services or products on the Internet is both extremely

effective and extremely competitive. There are several ways to go about

attracting traffic to your website; Pay-Per-Click is one of the options you

can choose from, along with developing an SEO, or search engine optimization

campaign. Both pay-per-click and SEO are targeted to get your website placed

as close to the top of search engine results as possible. One of the differences is

that it takes minutes to set up a pay-per-click campaign versus months for a good

SEO campaign.

Pay-Per-Click is a simple type of paid advertising that most search engines,

including some of the largest ones, now offer. It requires a bid for a "per-click"

basis, which translates to your company paying the bid amount every time the

search engine directs a visitor to your site. There is the added bonus that when a

per-click site sends your website traffic, your site often appears in the results of

other prevalent search engines.

As with all marketing campaigns, there are advantages and disadvantages. If you

understand the process and monitor your pay-per-click campaign frequently, it

can be very effective. One of the greatest advantages is that you never have to

tweak your web pages to change your position in search engine results, as you

must do in a typical SEO campaign. What you do have to do in a pay-per-click

campaign is pay a fee.

Another advantage is the simplicity of the pay-per-click process. You just bid and

you're up and running. It doesn't demand any specific technical knowledge,

though the more you know about search engines and keywords, the easier - and

more effective - the process will be.

yours will lower your position on search engine results. This means that you will

have to raise your bid to regain your position - which can obviously become quite

expensive, especially if you are bidding on a popular keyword.

In order to determine if pay-per-click is a cost effective form of marketing for your

business, you must do some computing to figure out how much each visitor to

your site is worth. You can compute this value by dividing the profit you make on

your website over a given period of time by the total number of visitors for that

same time period. For example, if your site made $5,000 in profits and there

were 25,000 hits, each visitor would be theoretically worth 20 cents. The basic

formula is profits divided by visitors.

The figure of 20 cents per visitor is the point at which your business breaks even.

The idea, of course, is to show a profit, not to merely cover your costs. Therefore,

you are aiming at a figure less than 20 cents per click.

Be aware that the most popular keywords often cost considerably more than 20

cents a click. The only way around this is to bid less for these phrases or you will

be paying too much for each individual hit.

The key (pun intended) to success is to learn everything you can about search

engine keyword research. The good news is there isn't a limit to the amount of

keywords you can add to your bid because additional keywords do not add

additional cost. This translates into a lot less hassle for you because there is no

need to optimize your site to index a particular set of keywords.

Obviously, some keywords are much more effective than others are, but they will

not cost you anything except time to set-up your account in your pay-per-click

bid. Of the popular search engines that offer pay-per-click, one called Overture

provides an online tool that will give you the data on how often particular

keywords after you enter a description of your site.

In pay-per-click, this written description is crucial. You must understand that the

object of your description is not to generally attract visitors, but to be as specific

as possible so that only those visitors who are likely to buy your service or

product go to your site. You must use expert marketing copy to guarantee that

your description is both precise and enticing to attract the most ideal candidates

to your site. This description is your most powerful tool to insure that your bid is

profitable.

Another essential element of pay-per-click advertising is that you constantly

monitor your bid. It is very important that you bear in mind that the results of the

top search engines providing pay-per-click advertising, which are Overture and

Adwords Select, usually appear on other popular search engines. Because of

this, the competition for top ranking is intense, and very often you will find that

the bidding price balloons too high for pay-per-click to yield a profit.

If this happens, it is advisable to withdraw your bid on that particular keyword and

try another one. Remember: when you pay too much per click to make a profit,

you are in essence losing the bidding war.

Since losing is not acceptable, you must have a plan in place to closely track the

effectiveness of your keyword. It is advisable to monitor your keywords on at

least a monthly basis.

Not only is careful monitoring important, but the analysis of visitor behaviour can

produce invaluable knowledge about consumer motivation, habits, and trends.

Expert monitoring and consumer analysis is essential to your overall business

Our website's ranking on search engines is a vital element of your

overall marketing campaign, and there are ways to improve your link

popularity through legitimate methods. Unfortunately, the Internet is

populated by bands of dishonest webmasters seeking to improve their link

popularity by faking out search engines.

The good news is that search engines have figured this out, and are now on

guard for "spam" pages and sites that have increased their rankings by artificial

methods. When a search engines tracks down such a site, that site is demoted in

ranking or completely removed from the search engine's index.

The bad news is that some high quality, completely above-board sites are being

mistaken for these web page criminals. Your page may be in danger of being

caught up in the "spam" net and tossed from a search engine's index, even

though you have done nothing to deserve such harsh treatment. But there are

things you can do - and things you should be sure NOT to do - which will prevent

this kind of misperception.

Link popularity is mostly based on the quality of sites you are linked to. Google

pioneered this criteria for assigning website ranking, and virtually all search

engines on the Internet now use it. There are legitimate ways to go about

increasing your link popularity, but at the same time, you must be scrupulously

careful about which sites you choose to link to. Google frequently imposes

penalties on sites that have linked to other sites solely for the purpose of

artificially boosting their link popularity. They have actually labelled these links

You can raise a toast to the fact that you cannot be penalised when a bad

neighbourhood links to your site; penalty happens only when you are the one

sending out the link to a bad neighbourhood. But you must check, and doublecheck;

all the links that are active on your links page to make sure you haven't

linked to a bad neighbourhood.

The first thing to check out is whether or not the pages you have linked to have

been penalised. The most direct way to do this is to download the Goggle toolbar

rank" which is represented by a sliding green scale on the Google toolbar.

Do not link to any site that shows no green at all on the scale. This is especially

important when the scale is completely grey. It is more than likely that these

pages have been penalised. If you are linked to these pages, you may catch their

penalty, and like the flu, it may be difficult to recover from the infection.

There is no need to be afraid of linking to sites whose scale shows only a tiny

sliver of green on their scale. These sites have not been penalised, and their

links may grow in value and popularity. However, do make sure that you closely

monitor these kind of links to ascertain that at some point they do not sustain a

penalty once you have linked up to them from your links page.

Another evil trick that illicit webmasters use to artificially boost their link popularity

is the use of hidden text. Search engines usually use the words on web pages as

a factor in forming their rankings, which means that if the text on your page

contains your keywords, you have more of an opportunity to increase your

search engine ranking than a page that does not contain text inclusive of

keywords.

Some webmasters have gotten around this formula by hiding their keywords in

such a way so that they are invisible to any visitors to their site. For example,

they have used the keywords but made them the same colour as the background

spider can spot them easily! A spider is the program search engines use to index

web pages, and when it sees these invisible words, it goes back and boosts that

page's link ranking.

Webmasters may be brilliant and sometimes devious, but search engines have

figured these tricks out. As soon as a search engine perceive the use of hidden

text - splat! The page is penalised.

The downside of this is that sometimes the spider is a bit overzealous and will

penalise a page by mistake. For example, if the background colour of your page

is grey and you have placed grey text inside a black box, the spider will only take

note of the grey text and assume you are employing hidden text. To avoid any

risk of false penalty, simply direct your webmaster not to assign the same colour

to text as the background colour of the page - ever!

Another potential problem that can result in a penalty is called "keyword stuffing."

It is important to have your keywords appear in the text on your page, but

sometimes you can go a little overboard in your enthusiasm to please those

spiders. A search engine uses what is called "Keyphrase Density" to determine if

a site is trying to artificially boost their ranking. This is the ratio of keywords to the

rest of the words on the page. Search engines assign a limit to the number of

times you can use a keyword before it decides you have overdone it and

penalises your site.

This ratio is quite high, so it is difficult to surpass without sounding as if you are

stuttering - unless your keyword is part of your company name. If this is the case,

it is easy for keyword density to soar. So, if your keyword is "renters insurance,"

be sure you don't use this phrase in every sentence. Carefully edit the text on

your site so that the copy flows naturally and the keyword is not repeated

incessantly. A good rule of thumb is your keyword should never appear in more

than half the sentences on the page.

The final potential risk factor is known as "cloaking." To those of you who are

diligent Trekkies, this concept should be easy to understand. For the rest of you?

Cloaking is when the server directs a visitor to one page and a search engine

spider to a different page. The page the spider sees is "cloaked" because it is

invisible to regular traffic, and deliberately set-up to raise the site's search engine

ranking. A cloaked page tries to feed the spider everything it needs to rocket that

page's ranking to the top of the list.

It is natural that search engines have responded to this act of deception with

extreme enmity, imposing steep penalties on these sites. The problem on your

end is that sometimes pages are cloaked for legitimate reasons, such as

prevention against the theft of code, often referred to as "pagejacking." This kind

of shielding is unnecessary these days due to the use of "off page" elements,

such as link popularity, that cannot be stolen.

To be on the safe side, be sure that your webmaster is aware that absolutely no

cloaking is acceptable. Make sure the webmaster understands that cloaking of

any kind will put your website at great risk.

Just as you must be diligent in increasing your link popularity and your ranking,

you must be equally diligent to avoid being unfairly penalised. So be sure to

monitor your site closely and avoid any appearance of artificially boosting your

rankings.

earch engines are the vehicles that drive potential customers to your

websites. But in order for visitors to reach their destination - your website

- you need to provide them with specific and effective signs that will

direct them right to your site. You do this by creating carefully chosen keywords.

Think of the right keywords as the Open Sesame! of the Internet. Find the exactly

right words or phrases, and presto! hoards of traffic will be pulling up to your front

door. But if your keywords are too general or too over-used, the possibility of

visitors actually making it all the way to your site - or of seeing any real profits

from the visitors that do arrive - decreases dramatically.

Your keywords serve as the foundation of your marketing strategy. If they are not

chosen with great precision, no matter how aggressive your marketing campaign

may be, the right people may never get the chance to find out about it. So your

first step in plotting your strategy is to gather and evaluate keywords and

phrases.

You probably think you already know EXACTLY the right words for your search

phrases. Unfortunately, if you haven't followed certain specific steps, you are

probably WRONG. It's hard to be objective when you are right in the centre of

your business network, which is the reason that you may not be able to choose

the most efficient keywords from the inside. You need to be able to think like your

customers.

And since you are a business owner and not the consumer, your best bet is to go

directly to the source.

Instead of plunging in and scribbling down a list of potential search words and

phrases yourself, ask for words from as many potential customers as you can.

You will most likely find out that your understanding of your business and your

customers' understanding is significantly different.

from them are words and phrases you probably never would have considered

from deep inside the trenches of your business.

Only after you have gathered as many words and phrases from outside

resources should you add your own keyword to the list. Once you have this list in

hand, you are ready for the next step: evaluation.

The aim of evaluation is to narrow down your list to a small number of words and

phrases that will direct the highest number of quality visitors to your website. By

"quality visitors" I mean those consumers who are most likely to make a

purchase rather than just cruise around your site and take off for greener

pastures. In evaluating the effectiveness of keywords, bear in mind three

elements: popularity, specificity, and motivation.

Popularity is the easiest to evaluate because it is an objective quality. The more

popular your keyword is, the more likely the chances are that it will be typed into

a search engine which will then bring up your URL.

You can now purchase software that will rate the popularity of keywords and

phrases by giving words a number rating based on real search engine activity.

Software such as WordTracker will even suggest variations of your words and

phrases. The higher the number this software assigns to a given keyword, the

more traffic you can logically expect to be directed to your site. The only fallacy

with this concept is the more popular the keyword is, the greater the search

engine position you will need to obtain. If you are down at the bottom of the

search results, the consumer will probably never scroll down to find you.

Popularity isn't enough to declare a keyword a good choice. You must move on

to the next criteria, which is specificity. The more specific your keyword is, the

greater the likelihood that the consumer who is ready to purchase your goods or

Let's look at a hypothetical example. Imagine that you have obtained popularity

rankings for the keyword "car companies." However, you company specialises in

bodywork only. The keyword "car body shops" would rank lower on the popularity

scale than "car companies," but it would nevertheless serve you much better.

Instead of getting a slew of people interested in everything from buying a car to

changing their oil filters, you will get only those consumers with trashed front

ends or crumpled bumpers being directed to your site. In other words, consumers

ready to buy your services are the ones who will immediately find you. Not only

that, but the greater the specificity of your keyword is, the less competition you

will face.

The third factor is consumer motivation. Once again, this requires putting yourself

inside the mind of the customer rather than the seller to figure out what

motivation prompts a person looking for a service or product to type in a

particular word or phrase. Let's look at another example, such as a consumer

who is searching for a job as an IT manager in a new city. If you have to choose

between "London job listings" and "London IT recruiters" which do you think will

benefit the consumer more? If you were looking for this type of specific job, which

keyword would you type in? The second one, of course! Using the second

keyword targets people who have decided on their career, have the necessary

experience, and are ready to enlist you as their recruiter, rather than someone

just out of school who is casually trying to figure out what to do with his or her life

in between beer parties. You want to find people who are ready to act or make a

purchase, and this requires subtle tinkering of your keywords until your find the

most specific and directly targeted phrases to bring the most motivated traffic to

you site.

Once you have chosen your keywords, your work is not done. You must

continually evaluate performance across a variety of search engines, bearing in

mind that times and trends change, as does popular lingo. You cannot rely on

visitors actually made a purchase.

Luckily, some new tools have been invented to help you judge the effectiveness

of your keywords in individual search engines. There is now software available

that analyses consumer behaviour in relation to consumer traffic.

This allows you to discern which keywords are bringing you the most valuable

customers.

This is an essential concept: numbers alone do not make a good keyword; profits

per visitor do. You need to find keywords that direct consumers to your site who

actually buy your product, fill out your forms, or download your product. This is

the most important factor in evaluating the efficacy of a keyword or phrase, and

should be the sword you wield when discarding and replacing ineffective or

inefficient keywords with keywords that bring in better profits.

Ongoing analysis of tested keywords is the formula for search engine success.

This may sound like a lot of work - and it is! But the amount of informed effort you

put into your keyword campaign is what will ultimately generate your business'

ince search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking

for goods or services, the position your website appears in search

results is an important factor.

If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer

never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine

position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you

have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines

positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign.

Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your

stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep

close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This

is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and

done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a

continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment

that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine

position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your

positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio.

Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It's the long-term

changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analysing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The

your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get

your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system

to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your

top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch "the market"

closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search

engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some

search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a

formula doesn't become overused or outdated.

Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may

suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your

positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas

and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be

vigilant about. Your competitor's position may suddenly rise, automatically

lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher.

Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are

occurring in your competitor's position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing

strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will

also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase

your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order

for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular

search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you

face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are

monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every

month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favourite

search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The

search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old

news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to

the whims of the Internet users. Check out

website favourites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search

engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning

sign!

It could mean a number of different things.

If all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search

engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their

positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have

recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused

and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your

website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear

from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change

its formula, and suddenly your entire website comes up as irrelevant. If that

search engine is a current favourite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of

your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital

that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they

influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes

change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the

Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned

keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the

entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your

monitoring efforts.

If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean

that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search

engine spiders.

Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed

into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost

ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and

money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would

your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective

perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time

and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term

Search Engine Optimization Company can be an invaluable asset in

your Internet marketing campaign. They specialise in knowing how to

raise your search engine positions, monitoring those positions on the

regular basis, and adjusting their strategies to account for undesirable results in

any given month. Since this takes a lot of time, effort, and specialised knowledge,

it can be in your best interest to go to an outside source rather than try to

maintain high search engine positions on your own.

However, like every business, there are good companies and there are lemons.

Knowing the right questions to ask and the criteria to look for will help you in

choosing an affordable, effective search engine optimization company.

When looking at different companies, begin by considering the approach they

employ to raise your search engine positions. Steer clear of companies that use

cloaked, doorway, or bridge pages to raise your positions. These techniques

violate most search engine policy, and in the worst case scenario, will only get

your website severely penalised, if not removed entirely from a search engine's

index.

A cloaked page is a page that is created which is invisible to the regular visitor to

your website. The cloaked page is coded to detect a search engine spider and

divert them to this special page, which is set-up to artificially boost your search

engine position. Doorway or bridge pages utilize the same concept, but often

reside on an entirely different server. Google, one of the largest and most

important search engine on the Internet, will remove your website from their

index if they detect you have cloaked pages. Never, never employ any company

that uses this technique!

not work with your competitors while they are working for you. Obviously, this

would seriously compromise the effectiveness of the search engine optimization

campaign. Be aware that some companies will use the success they achieve for

your website to sell their services to your competitors. So get your guarantee in

writing, and make sure it is legally binding.

Of course, one of the most important factors you want to check out is the

company's track record of results. However, don't take the company's word for it.

They will undoubtedly be slanting their results in order to sell their services to

you. To go beyond their simple statement of success, ask them a few pertinent

questions, and verify their answers.

Ask them which engines they have achieved the best results on. The ones that

are important are the most popular engines, and these are the ones you want to

see good results on. Since the popularity of search engines can change with the

landscape of the overall Internet, check out the Nielsen Netratings page at

Search Engine Watch. You can access this at

www.searchenginewatch.com/article.php/2156451

Next, find out what keywords and phrases they are claiming great results with.

It's easy to get high rankings with unpopular words. For instance, the keyword

"cat leashes" will get high popularity ranking because no one else would think of

using it. What you are looking for is good results using popular keywords. Check

a free trial, or a subscription ranging from 1 day to 1 year. This software rates the

popularity of keywords and phrases based on actual search engine use.

Next, look for good results over an entire site that the company claims to have

successfully worked for. You want to see a wide range of positions over a

number of different search engines using different keywords or phrases for the

entire site. Request a report for any client the company claims to have done well

for. This report should show good positions on a number of the most popular

search engines for a variety of different, popular keywords and phrases.

they have actually done the work they are claiming to have done. Some

companies will use other company's results in order to get you to sign on with

them. If you are in doubt, call the company they are showing you results for, and

ask for the name of their search engine optimization company.

It's important to keep in mind that a successful search engine optimization

campaign will result in maximum exposure across a wide range of popular

search engines using a variety of keywords and phrases. This is the formula for a

successful campaign, and you should keep it always in the forefront of your

marketing strategy.

Ask the search engine optimization company you are considering for a report that

shows you rankings across a number of popular search engines for a period of at

least six months. Remember: search engine marketing is a process that is

continual, and you need a company that not only understands this, but keeps

constant tabs on your search engine positions. That company must also be able

to adjust its strategy in the event that search engine rankings drop.

Since search engine marketing is an on-going process, your positions must be

constantly monitored. If you want your search engine optimization company to do

this for you, request a sample of a monthly report. It is essential that this report

should show rankings for the most popular search engines. Don't be impressed

by a report that only shows great results for a limited number of small search

engines. These are fairly easy results to acquire. Also confirm that the popular

search engine results they are showing you are indeed the popular search

engines currently.

Be sure the sample report the company shows you is in a format that you can

easily understand. For example, it could be in the form of a chart that covers a

period of at least six months and presents data such as the top 50 positions

broken down on a monthly basis or the top 5 pages each month. Then, ascertain

every month, and that the sample report they show you includes findings and

recommendations for the specific site. This insures that the company will actively

monitor and make adjustments to their strategy on a continual basis rather than

simply gather statistics on your positions. You need a company that is actively

participant in your search engine marketing campaign, not just an information

gatherer.

Obviously, your finances have to figure into your choice of company, but bear in

mind that a search engine optimization company is crucial the success of your

marketing campaign. It is not just a casual accessory. If you cannot afford a

company that will do a thorough and reliable job for your website, you might

consider waiting until you do have the finances in place.

If you have to find a company and can't wait for your finances to catch up, you

may be able to find an affordable company that will also be able to supply quality,

reliable work, such as a fairly new company. Just remember that there are risks

involved with using a company without a proven track record - and that risk is

your money! Don't take that leap unless the company can supply you with a least

a few references.

References are the most reliable indicator of a good company. Don't use a

company that won't show your references because of any reason, confidentiality

included.

Remember - even doctors will provide references! The firm you choose should

provide you with a minimum of two references, one that is from the past, and one

that is current.

When you contact these references, be prepared to ask precise, specific

questions so that neither of your time is wasted. Ask them what their experience

was like with the company, such as their availability to answer questions and

the overall performance of the company.

Find out if the company requested that the reference make significant changes to

their web pages that affected the visitors coming to their site. You are looking for

a search engine optimization company that can balance the needs of both search

engines and site visitors without compromising either.

The most essential question to ask is whether the work of the search engine

optimization company resulted in higher profits for the reference. Without profits,

etting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing

campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on

how specifically you have defined your website goals. If you don't know

what you want your site to accomplish, it will most likely fail to accomplish

anything. Without goals to guide you in developing and monitoring your website,

all your site will be is an online announcement that you are in business.

If you expect your site to stimulate some form of action, whether it is visitors

filling out a form so a representative can contact them, or purchasing a product,

there are steps you can take to insure that your website is functioning at peak

efficiency. One of the first indicators of how well your site is working for you is

finding out the number of visitors in a given period of time. A good baseline

measurement is a month in which you haven't been doing any unusual offline

promotional activities.

However, just because hoards of people have passed through your gates does

not mean your site is successful. Usually, you want those visitors to actually do

something there. It is equally important to monitor the number of visitors to your

site who made a purchase. This figure is called the site conversion rate, and it is

an essential element of the efficacy of your website.

To find the site conversion rate, take the number of visitors per month and figure

out the percentage of them that actually performed the action your site is set up

for.

For example, if you had 2,000 hits to your site, but only 25 of them purchased

your product, your site conversion rate equals 1.25%. To get this figure, take

your number of visitors and divide that figure by the number of visitors who made

If your website is set-up to get visitors to fill out a form, make sure to then figure

out what the difference is between your site conversion rate and your sales

conversion rate. This is because not everyone who fills out your form will actually

become your customer. However, whether your site is set-up to sell a service or

product, or to get the visitor to fill out a form, the site conversion rate will measure

the success or failure of your website whenever you make changes to the site.

You may find that you need to implement some additional marketing strategies if

you find that traffic to your site is extremely low. There are several effective

methods to improve the flow of traffic to your website, particularly launching a

search engine optimization campaign. This campaign is targeted at increasing

your position in search engine results so that consumers can find your pages

faster and easier. You can either research the steps you need to take to improve

your search engine rankings, or employ a search engine optimization company to

do the work for you.

In either case, after your have improved your search engine positions, make sure

you keep on top of them by regular monitoring and adjusting of your efforts to

maintain high positions.

Another factor to examine is how easy it is for a visitor to your website to

accomplish the action the site is set-up for. For example, if your goal is for the

visitor to fill out a form, is this form easily accessible, or does the visitor have to

go through four levels to get to it? If it's too difficult to get to, the customer may

just throw in the towel and move on to another site. Make sure your buttons are

highly visible, and the path to your form or ordering page quickly accessible.

Finally, have a professional evaluate the copy on your website. The goal is, of

course, to get your visitor to make a purchase or fill out your form. Website copy

job from your company brochure. The right copy can make the difference

between profit and loss in your online campaign.

Analysing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a

number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this

tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information

that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you

receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don't understand

how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let's start by examining

the most basic data – the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and

monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website's activity. It would

appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can

assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must

also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to

accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as "hits"

and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply mean the

number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact

that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an

idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your

homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in

reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your

interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more

precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the

number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis.

The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly

your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how

long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively

brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure

out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your

website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to

exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your

site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to

use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective

areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but

visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example,

consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and

enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors

can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages

that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales

copy and marketing focus to that particular page.

As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the

effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is

essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form.

This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every

visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so

statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless

you notice an exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page.

In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a

page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular

page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on

that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant

impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the

wrong page.

After you have analysed your visitor statistics, it's time to turn to your keywords

and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor

to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are

looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a

purchase – the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say

misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword

demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site

who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your

visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your

visitor's needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your

company name directly, break open the champagne! It means you have

achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of

burgeoning success.

The methods employed to increase your search engine rankings may

seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing

with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your

website! A high search engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you

have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way

you can continue to avoid this issue.

At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find

websites through search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of

optimizing your pages for high search engine rankings is to attract targeted

customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The

higher your page comes up in search engine results, the greater the traffic that is

directed to your website. That's what search engine optimization is about.

You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to

figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you

can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments,

and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should

examine is the title bar on your homepage.

The title bar is the collared bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that

appear there when you access your home page. To increase search engine

rankings, the words on your homepage's title bar should include the most

important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.

Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access.

Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important

keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long

strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords

to each other.

The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search

engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating

graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords - the

words that potential customers will be typing into search engines to find your site.

Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to

your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a

high ranking on search engines, this text is essential. However, the search

engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML

and not graphic format.

To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a

word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not

highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to

change the text into HTML format in order to increase your search engine

rankings.

Next we come to what is called meta tags. I know this sounds like something out

of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that meta

tags are the key to high search engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a

limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a search engine will

use meta tags in their ranking formula.

To find out if your page is set up with meta tags, you must access the code. To

do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source."

This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If

there are meta tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For

example, a meta tag would read: meta name="keywords" content=. If you do not

much for your search engine rankings, but any little boost helps.

Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely

important in terms of search engine rankings. Almost all search engines use link

popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites

you have linked to from your links page.

If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular search engine, the search

engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there

aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low

search engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.

Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they

exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings

of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only

boosts your search engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your

website.

Search engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet

marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a search engine optimization

company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't

boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet

marketing. Remember, the higher your search engine ranking, the more quality

customers will be directed your way.

If you've reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the

mountain of emails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you're

ready to learn about autoresponders.

The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their email inquiries.

However, unless you can figure out how to work continual twenty-four hour shifts,

or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming emails (while they're eating

up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an

inexpensive - or even free - method of quickly responding to emails. What these

programs do is automatically respond to incoming emails as soon as they are

received.

Emails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most

importantly, these invisible email voices give you their feedback about your

website - for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these

emails, how are you supposed to run your business?

The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that

automatically respond to your emails without you so much as having to click on

your mouse.

There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides

just answering your email. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need

a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there

are repeated questions asked across large numbers of emails. Maybe you want

to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant

articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can

advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers

by using autoresponders.

Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your email program to

a specialised script that runs on your web hosting company's server. This kind of

script may use a web page form or simply operate with your email account. This

kind of script is programmed to send out a standardised message whenever an

email is received. The message is sent to a particular script or email address.

Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardised

messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent

at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder

to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.

There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your

website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this

is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies

who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an

advertisement for their company to your emails.

To personalise your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature.

Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your

name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.

It's a good idea to attach a signature to every email that is sent out. This works

as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it.

The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to

mind when your particular service or product is needed.

You can create a standardised signature that every employee in your business

uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal

signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines

to creating a personal signature.

Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more

than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your email program does not

your email address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800

numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company.

It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your

company's reliability and longevity.

Another specialised use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then

offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an

expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.

Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different

sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day

offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome

message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your

explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free,

quality information that your target audience will find of great value.

With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information

about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few

blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.

Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and

leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very

beginning.

Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you

have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional

writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.

There are a number of free autoresponders you can use. Try

you will find a long list of free autoresponder companies. Then sign-up for your

set it up and transfer your text.

Email is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to

advertise your business by choosing your email address carefully. Your website

should contain different email addresses for different contact requests.

For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or

sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It's a good idea to set up one

for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company

in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.

Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to

make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset

considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before

you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponser allows you to automate

part of your marketing campaign.

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally

come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase.

It's a sunny afternoon, and her cat, which happens to be sitting on the

moss under the visitor's large fifty-year-old snow-rose bonsai tree, suddenly

jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust - unless

you have had the foresight to utilise an autoresponder that has captured her

email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then follow-up

with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished

re-potting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than

just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to

creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor

into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

subscriptions and follow-up with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep

your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your

reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use

themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques

that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to

powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and

increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many

editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box

contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also

contain your autoresponder address. Let's say you've written fifty articles. Put

them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains

the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then

promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your

affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who

are represented in your article list.

new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad,

put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous

marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into

customers. For example, if you're selling a particular product, put testimonials

about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing

description of your product.

your newsletter or e-zine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about

rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospects' email addresses.

Then have your autoresponder follow-up. It can also send notification of any

special deals you are currently offering.

another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content - not a sales

pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively.

You can include tips cantered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how

reap by purchasing your product.

Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your

prospect to consider making a purchase.

completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors

who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a

purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or

services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure

these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential

customer than gain a sale.

autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder,

and you will have a record of the visitors' email addresses who took your quiz. Or

create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your

autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be set-up to send them a confirmation of

their entry.

ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little

taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email

addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your

autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make

sure to follow-up to try and close the sale.

could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text

links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have

free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You

affiliates.

to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very

effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your

customers.

links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your

own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you

can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!

Used correctly and constantly monitored and tweaked, a website can be a major

contributor to your sales process and ultimately your profits.

I hope you have found the information both useful and thought-provoking. All

that’s left for you to so is to take action on the ideas and tips you have learn!

In my weekly newsletter we will regularly look at how you can further improve on

your website. I know that you will enjoy the numerous ideas I have to share with

you over the coming months and years.

Every Success

Robert Warlow

Small Business Success

www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz

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