"Credit Repair" - Download this and if you wish you can add it to your Web Site as a "Freebie" to offer visitors to your Web Site. All the HTML coding is there to do this - just cut and paste it for upload to your Site. This is a great way to attract visitors to your Web Site.
A different "Tip of the Day" is published 5 days a week, Monday thru Friday. These "Tips" are designed to help you use your computer more effectively when surfing the net. If you would like to receive your "Tip" each day, send an E-mail to tips@adv-marketing.com with "Subscribe" in the body of your note. Back "Tips" can be viewed at our Web Site at http://adv-marketing.com/business - click on "Tip of the Day".
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If you would like to take our "Creativity Test", go to our web site at http://adv-marketing.com/business and click on "Creativity Test. This is a real brain teaser.
** Greg Landry's "Fitness-Tip-of-the-Week"
** Special Article: "HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO VISIT YOUR WEBSITE" By Sue Barrett
** "Biz Tips" by Dr. Kevin Nunley - this is a weekly feature in the Newsletter - This week - Encourage Customer Comments
** A little levity: And the Winner is...
** Items of Interest: Speech equipment for the computer
** Questions/Answers: A subscriber has a question about a professional review of her web site
** Upcoming Events: Next Week - "Home Based Communications" by George Lemos
** Article for this edition: - "Increase Your Sales by Reversing the Risk" by Bob Leduc
** Technology: THIS SPAM'S THE REAL THING
** "Buy-Swap-Sell" - no charge for a listing here. Send it to me with "Buy - Swap" as the title of the E-mail. No opportunities or commercial ads will be accepted. Five lines of 60 characters per line maximum including spaces and your E-mail address
Having trouble losing weight?? Here's a testimonial to the power of weight training... Greg, I took your advice about 10 months back and started weight training. I'm 43 and have been trying to lose weight for 20 years. About 3 months after I starte d training 3 days per week, my fat started dropping off...I really couldn't believe it! I can tell that my metabolism is elevated. I've been consistently losing 1 to 2 pounds every week for the past 7 months. This has never happened before. I'm a new believer in weight training! Sign me, Paula, "pumpin' iron" in Pasadena. For more info on weight training, email... Top18@Landry.com
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Author and exercise physiologist, Greg Landry, M.S., publishes a FREE email newsletter, "Fitness, Health, & Weight Loss". To start your free subscription, send any email message, mailto:Fitness-on@mail-list.com or visit http://www.Landry.com
If you want to make money in any sort of way with a website, you have to get people (and lots of them) to visit. Whether you have paid advertising at your website, or products to sell, or just information designed to generate leads or orders, it's all a numbers game. The more people you get to travel through your website, the more income you'll make. Thus, it's crucial that you do two important things with your website: provide content that people will want to make the effort to see, and get the word out about your website.
1. PROVIDE IN-DEMAND CONTENT
Let's suppose that you want to make money, not by selling products or services from your website, but by selling advertising space to other businesses. You could easily create a classified ad website, or even a website with display ads. Big deal. Would you visit a website that was only classified ads more than once, out of curiosity? Probably not, unless...
A. It's devoted to a particular special interest.
There are many websites with general classified advertising, and very little focus. I don't look for many of those to generate a lot of long-term income for the person(s) who runs them. There are a few websites, however, with highly focused specialized advertising. These will, more likely, be successful (as long as they cater to a large enough group).
For example, you could start a classified ad website devoted to buying and selling musical instruments. This would greatly interest any musician, who would tend to visit from time to time. The average person, by nature, will visit websites that cater to their individual interests more frequently than a generalized website that may or may not hold anything of interest to them.
But, if the website only contains ads, just how often would they visit? Once a week? Once a month? You want them to visit as many times as possible. So, you need to provide...
B. Free worthwhile content.
If your website is only ads, nothing else, then the only time people will want to visit is when they want to buy or sell something. That's OK, but wouldn't it be better if they wanted to visit ALL the time? You can accomplish this by providing good FREE informational content on your website, in addition to your ads. After all, this is how a traditional printed magazine or newspaper works: they provide information with the ads interspersed.
So, for the Musical Instrument Buy & Sell website, you could include relevant how-to articles written by yourself or others (put plenty of notes in your website requesting articles from readers - you'll get submissions you can use, in return for free advertising or some other remittance that is low cost or no cost to you), short items of interest, etc. Change these frequently (and note on your website how frequently they change - this is important for drawing people back), so your visitors will have a reason to keep coming back.
To sum this section up, in order to have a website that people will want to keep returning to, you need to gear it toward a specific interest that appeals to a specific group of people (called targeting), and you need to sprinkle it liberally with solid information that changes frequently. This will help take care of getting people to return. Now, how to get them to visit in the first place?
2. GET THE WORD OUT
When you want to find a plumber, where do you look? In the phone book, of course. What if you want to find websites that have information about a subject you're interested in?
Luckily, the web has many phonebook-like databases which are relatively easy to get listed in. That way, when your potential visitors consult the phonebooks, your website will pop up in the list of their choices.
The process of getting yourself listed in a search database varies from database to database. Usually, though, it's just a matter of filling out a form with information about the content of your website, the URL (address), your name, etc. Each database is fairly clear about how to do this, with a link on their opening page to their respective how-to instructions.
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Sue Barrett works for FApublications and operates the Home Business Center - helping people start their own home businesses.
For more information on increasing the number of visitors to your website, or how to effectively list YOUR website with internet search engines, visit the Home Business Center at http://www.homebusinesscenter.com or contact Sue at sue@homebusinessce nter.com
FApublications 31 N San Mateo Drive Suite 144 San Mateo, CA 94401-2865 888-809-0494
Encourage Customer Comments
One key building block of good marketing is promoting customer feedback. It's an old rule of communication that you aren't really communicating until the conversation is a two way street.
The benefits to hearing from customers are more satisfied buyers and frequent good ideas. Both complainers and complimenters can be a great source of improvements.
Often a happy customer will describe one of my services in an appealing way that I'd never thought of. Echo the things customers say in your marketing messages. Those customer written lines work best.
Encourage customer feedback by giving buyers a number of ways to reach you: toll free phone number, regular mail, email, and fax.
Rather than simply listing your phone number, include a line that says something like, "call our free number with your comments, concerns, and ideas. We love hearing from you."
It makes you look warmer, friendlier, more real, and more accessible. Those are the things that make people buy.
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Kevin supplies marketing advice, copywriting, and web design fast and at low cost. Ask for his free report. DrNunley@aol.com or (801)253-4536. See all his articles at http://www.DrNunley.com
If you have something humorous to share with us, please send it to me by E-mail.
Results of a contest for "theories" sponsored by Omni magazine.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: When a cat is dropped, it always lands on its feet, and when toast is dropped, it always lands with the buttered side facing down. I propose to strap buttered toast to the back of a cat; the two will hover, spinning inches above the ground. With a giant buttered cat array, a high-speed monorail could easily link New York with Chicago.
RUNNERS-UP: #1 If an infinite number of rednecks riding in an infinite number of pickup trucks fire an infinite number of shotgun rounds at an infinite number of highway signs, they will eventually produce all the world's great literary works in Braille.
#2 Why Yawning Is Contagious: You yawn to equalize the pressure on your eardrums. This pressure change outside your eardrums unbalances other people's ear pressures, so they must yawn to even it out.
#3 Communist China is technologically underdeveloped because they have no alphabet and therefore cannot use acronyms to communicate ideas at a faster rate.
#4 The earth may spin faster on its axis due to deforestation. Just as a figure skater's rate of spin increases when the arms are brought in close to the body, the cutting of tall trees may cause our planet to spin dangerously fast.
HONORABLE MENTION: The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks" his "cah, "the lost r's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl wells."
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Gary D. Hood Business EMail: HoodPress@CompuServe.Com Personal EMail: KFRS95A@Prodigy.Com If it will not matter in ten years, do not worry about it now.
Ergo Tips:)
(We recommend that you consult your own physician regarding specific problems. These answers are for general informational purposes only.)
Hello again and welcome. Hope you all are ready for school to begin. Our question this week is a little different from previous weeks. It deals with speech equipment for the computer. The question is where can I find speech equipment for my computer as I have a lot of pain using the mouse?
Dr. Grossan suggests that you surf to http://www.tifaq.com/speech.html. You will find a lot of information about speech equipment for your computer. Various brands are listed and additional links are included.
Thanks again for reading us. Please send your questions to medpad@evansville.net. Sorry, but due to the number of questions we receive, we cannot answer each one personally. Please look for your answer in future issues. Questions are answered by Dr. Murray Grossan, http://www.ent-consult.com. NEW ARCHIVES at http://www.tifaq.com/ergotips. ET:) is sponsored by http://www.evansville.net/~medpad.
Ginny Grein - medpad@evansville.net For information on the newest innovation in women's sanitary products, check out my homepage @ http://www.evansville.net/~medpad.
For information on Internet Marketing please email : insiderbook@cafecourt.com
Bob - I heard that it is possible to have a professional evaluation of my website for free. Is this true?
Carolz@hotmail.com
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Carol - Yes - If you want to run a tune up on your whole site there is a charge, but they will run a free tune up on a single web page. Visit http://www.websitegarage.com/ - I used it myself and got some interesting feedback.
Bob
"Home Based Communications" by George Lemos - Technology has given every day people an opportunity to move into entrepreneurial status.
You may be losing a lot of business without knowing it. It happens every time a potential customer decides not to buy from you because they may not get all they expect from your product or service. You can save much of this lost business by reversing that risk. One way to reverse the risk is to guarantee every claim you make. For example, tell your prospects:
"If for any reason (product or service) doesn't deliver every claim or promise we made, we'll refund 100% of what you paid."
You'll be amazed at how much more business you'll get with this simple guarantee. Reversing the risk breaks down your customer's resistance and instills confidence that your claims must be true. It enhances your credibility because you certainly wouldn't guarantee a full refund if your product or service didn't deliver as promised.
Maybe you're reluctant to provide a money back guarantee because you're afraid some people may take unfair advantage of it. I've learned by experience that you don't have to worry about refunds if you offer a quality product or service at a fair price. The buyers who take advantage of a money back guarantee represent only a tiny percentage of the total increased business generated by the guarantee.
MAKE YOUR OFFER BETTER THAN RISK FREE
Did you ever decide to buy something then change your mind at the last minute? Maybe you even had your checkbook or credit card out but stopped at the very last second. Some of your potential customers do this. You can convert many of these "almost sales" into customers by offering a guarantee enhanced with a bonus. TV informercials use this technique all the time. You can copy it to increase sales in your business.
To use this technique, add something extra to your offer as a bonus and tie it into your guarantee. If your customer is dissatisfied and uses your guarantee, he or she can return the product or cancel the service and get a full refund. But, they don't have to return the bonus item. Now your offer is better than risk free. This "free bonus you can keep" motivates many "almost buyers" to take action and become customers.
Sometimes you can offer a guarantee your customer automatically gets from somebody else. It may be a guarantee from the manufacturer or even a legally required guarantee. For example, most states require life insurance companies to refund 100% of the premiums paid when a policy is returned within 10 days after delivery. Many insurance agents persuade prospective buyers to submit an application with the premium payment based on this guarantee. This is a good example of a guarantee provided by somebody else (government regulators). It's also an excellent example of reversing the risk from the buyer to the seller.
REVERSING THE RISK FOR A SERVICE BUSINESS
Removing the risk by providing a money back guarantee works well when a product is involved. But, how do you provide a guarantee when the transaction involves a service? Your customer can't return yesterday's plumbing job. The work was already performed.
Instead of offering a money back guarantee, a service business can provide a guarantee to solve the customer's problem. For example, our plumber in the example above can guarantee to come back without charge as often as necessary to stop the leak . A landscaper can replace without charge any plants that don't survive for at least 6 months. A sales consultant can continue working without charge until the promised sales results are achieved.
REVERSING THE RISK FOR A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Nobody can guarantee someone else's success in operating a business. But, there are some things you can do to lower the buyer's risk.
If you offer a MLM/Network Marketing business opportunity, your company is responsible for any guarantees involving their products or services. However, you can lower the business risk for your new distributors by offering support in sales and recruiting. For example, you can:
* Provide free prospect leads. * Recruit their first few distributors. * Conduct 3-way conference calls to help persuade their prospects to sign up. * Provide free recruiting postcards.
Any sales or recruiting support you offer reduces the business risk and convinces more people to sign up under you.
Start thinking about some of the things you can do in your business to reverse the risk for your potential customers and clients. Then implement them and watch how fast your sales and profits increase.
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Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more information... Email: BobLeduc@aol.com Subject: "Postcards". Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time) Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133
THIS SPAM'S THE REAL THING
Hormel Foods has decided to overlook the insult
of having its Spam brand turned into a pejorative synonym for junk e-mail,
and is now looking to the Internet as a way to enhance the brand's image.
It's launched the official Spam Web Site http://www.spam.com, a domain
name it acquired years ago, along with hormel.com, hormelfoods and others.
The company will capitalize on its Spam brand, selling a line of Spam-logo
clothing that includes boxer shorts and baseball caps.
INTEL CATCHES FLAK FOR WEB ADVERTISING TACTICS
In an effort to sell higher-power computer chips,
Intel is sponsoring an "Intel Inside Optimized Content" program that encourages
Web sites to use dense, complicated graphics that slow down a computer's
processor when the pages are downloading from the Internet. An accompanying
message tells the user that a Pentium II microprocessor would speed up
the process. Intel normally reimburses PC makers 50% of their Web-based
advertising costs if the ad sports an "Intel Inside" logo, but ups its
contribution to 75% if the site uses complicated graphics and includes
wording that says the page could be better viewed using a Pentium II processor.
"It's a hell of an incentive," says one Web editor. "PC companies are going
to advertise on sites where they pay only 25% of the costs, as opposed
to sites where they have to pay for half of the ad." But the innovative
tactic has raised the ire of some Web site owners: "What they're asking
us to do is turn our sites into a demonstration of their products," says
a senior VP at IDG, publisher of Computerworld magazine. "We're going to
optimize our content for our readers, not for Intel."
Direct TV 18" Satellite Dish with remote control & digital receiver. Brand new. Never been used. Gift Certificate. $175.00. Call me at 605-642-2838 or mailto:blemke@dtgnet.com for information.
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Postcard Swap - if interested in swapping or selling postcards of Lighthouses, New Jersey, Boats, Planes, Bridges, or anything of interest, E-mail to YJRM21D@prodigy.com
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That's it for now - Bob