Online Marketing Blog

By: Nelson Tan
Category: Email Marketing

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, who 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 utilize 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 repotting 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:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage 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.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales 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.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, e-books, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliate’s page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a 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.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when you’ve written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of 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.

7. Distribute advertising. Let’s say you sell advertising on your website or in 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.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out 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 centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will 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.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has 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.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of 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.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an 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.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your 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.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page 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 will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form for visitors 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.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty 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!

Nelson Tan is the webmaster of the Internet Mastery Center. Create Your Online Profits with the RIGHT Products, Environment and Mindset! For more information, visit http://www.internetmasterycenter.com

Publish this article: 15 Creative and Profitable Ways to Use Autoresponders

By: Steve Wheeler
Category: Ecommerce

Ecommerce Website Design: Understanding All of the Aspects

Online business is taking the world by storm, creating billions of pounds in revenue. Many companies are scrambling to put their services online to take advantage of this fiscal boom. With the ever-changing world of technology providing easier access to those wishing to purchase products or services from online suppliers and manufacturers, the online storefront is fast becoming the place to do business. If youre looking to capitalize on this trend, thinking about your ecommerce website design needs is a good place to start.

To have a website that fully supports and delivers to your consumer base, certain coding and security requirements met. Ecommerce website design may be easy to use in the end, but its not always easy to set up at the start. Look at some of these essential aspects.

Database integration has become an important aspect to ecommerce website design. Having a database attached to your website allows you to keep track of your inventory, track your customers, and provide targeted marketing. Just having the database doesnt guarantee this. To properly take advantage of your database, you have to have powerful and specific queries available to you so you can accurately utilized the information that your database contains.

Presentation is also important to any ecommerce website design. Customers now look for a greater depth of interactivity and are no longer satisfied with flashing icons and midi sonic backgrounds.

With complex aspects like these, most business owners do not know what ecommerce website design service or software to turn to. Many dont even know whats available for their virtual storefront. As a result, if youre thinking about your own storefront, it is prudent to seek out expert advice, if not services, for your ecommerce website design needs.

Professional ecommerce website design will not only ensure website ease and beauty, but it will also ensure the security of your customers and your business. There are many companies that provide these services, but not all of them can do the job. Research is the key to finding the right ecommerce web site design solution to meet your needs. MaxiPRO has been providing for ecommerce web design needs since 2002, and with a reputable service record as well as comprehensive customer support for clients at all level, theyre certainly a business you can trust.

Use the MaxiPRO services and get an ecommerce website design and hosting package at a competitive price. A free web management interface is also offered by MaxiPRO which provides an easy to use point & click visual editor. A good ecommerce web design & hosting company will guarantee a 99.9% uptime.

Publish this article: Ecommerce Website Design: Understanding All of the Aspects

By: Arthur Raise
Category: Ecommerce

The World Wide Web is a competitive field and e-commerce websites need to be competitive to be ahead and make a success of the business. The way to attract and retain customers and build a loyalty base is to be internet savvy and follow all the basic must dos of e-commerce websites.

Any online website is successful if it gives a customer what they want, good timely service, quality goods, fair price, and commendable cyber business practices. So work hard towards stocking goods that are of the highest quality and priced competitively. Have in place an excellent marketing team and customer service department that will answer 24/7 all customer queries.

Make a success of your online business venture by following the 8 essential rules for shopping carts:

1. Study your business minutely and choose a shopping cart system that will fulfill all your needs. Choose a software that is affordable, gives value for money and is sure friendly.

2. Once the system is installed check its response time and effectiveness. Fine tune the system such that customers can make purchases from the website without encountering any shopping cart glitches.

3. Be clear about who you are. Give details of your contact information, incorporation, security measures, return policies and so on. Give address, phone and fax number, toll free number if any as well as e-mail address.

4. Display clearly your privacy policy as well as security seal. Ensure that there a link to the privacy page from every page of the website.

5. Be clear about the website’s return policy. A customer must know what his rights are in case of any problem. Clear and visible return and warranty information will contribute greatly towards building a reputation.

6. Design the whole site keeping customer needs in mind. Take expert help in arranging displays and organizing discounts or special offers. This will also facilitate use of a shopping cart.

7. Use online shopping cart organization tips to arrange navigation and information in such a way that it is user friendly. Put in drop down lists as well as links back to product at every possible stage.

8. Ensure that the shopping cart organizes lists of products in such a way that a buyer can always understand what he bought when. Include lucid product descriptions and product reviews. Think what will urge a customer to buy a product from you and not others.

Give customers various payment options like, person to person services, third party payments, debit and credit card payments, as well as merchant account credit cards. Tell the customer how to shop, what a shopping cart is for, and how to maximize his or her online shopping experience. Build a loyal customer base by including easy to navigate tools and as few click through as possible. State your reliability by displaying your security seal, merchant association details and so on.

Build a roaring online business by maximizing use of the shopping cart.

Arthur Raise is a writer for http://www.1888shoppingcart.com , the premier website to find shopping cart software online, shopping cart software, best shopping cart, shopping cart, shopping cart program, free shopping cart software, free shopping cart, web site shopping cart and many more.

Publish this article: 8 Essentials Of E-Commerce Shopping Carts

By: Scott Lindsay
Category: RSS

There can be enormous marketing benefits to podcasting. Podcasting is the ability to download a segment of audio for playback. This audio source can be entertaining or simply educational.

Many individuals will peruse various websites looking for podcasts they would like to listen to. This is a normal and accepted use for podcasting, but the implementation of a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed makes it possible to avoid several steps and save time in the process.

When you subscribe to an RSS feed it is possible to have the podcast downloaded to your computer. This process eliminates the need to specifically visit the site and spend the time needed to access a download.

Essentially when you are out golfing or shopping at the mall a new podcast can be published and your RSS feed can access the podcast automatically and download it for you. When you get back from participating in life the podcast is ready for you to enjoy.

The good news is podcasts are portable. You can download the RSS fed podcast to a portable mp3 device and plug it into a compatible car stereo or you can simply use the ear buds on an mp3 player and listen in wherever you are.

Originally podcasts were very simple audio ramblings that were meaningful only to computer technicians who were wanting to know more about a variety of computer related issues. Today broadcast professionals who produce talk shows use podcasts; morning shows and interviews are also available to motivated listeners through an RSS fed podcast.

Like digital video recorders for television, podcasting allows popular programs to be readily accessed in an on demand world.

In many ways this process is changing the way individuals are responding to life. Podcasting has allowed traditional radio listeners to enjoy life and still listen to what they want, but they do so WHEN they want to and not when it may originally air on a radio station in their area.

The integration of delivery methods has allowed audio to become a part of the everyman experience and allows it to connect with the listener on their terms. This may be causing some disturbance in traditional radio listening, but many radio stations are compensating by making much of their programming available through an RSS fed podcast or live stream.

Podcasting is also becoming a prime marketing component in online business especially when the material is informative and worth referring to often.

In an on demand world how are you compensating for customer expectations? How does podcasting fit in those expectations?

About the author: Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

Publish this article: Podcasting And The RSS Connection

By: Stan Tomaszewski
Category: Email Marketing

I am sure you have seen this ad or article title many times in recent months. That is because it is a fact that many people never see online success and worse never even make a dime in their new business.

We have found a solution to this problem with online business opportunities and will offer that within this article.

It is true that most online business fail or make very little money. Most never earn that $30,000 per month income level so many sites claim to be earning.

I’ll cut right to the chase and tell you why….then I’ll offer you a solution to this problem.

People fail for three main reasons:

1. They don’t know how to effectively advertise and market their new business.

2. They are NOT sales people and are not good at “selling” their program or system and then closing their prospects to make sales.

3. Most of you trying to better your lives or get out of a dead end job that is draining the life out of you, don’t have the time to learn how to market online, let alone do the daily tasks one needs to do to generate traffic and then sales.

I too am terrible at #2. As my 20 year old son put it, “Dad, you s*** at sales”. I did not want to spell that out so I don’t offend anyone. That was an eye opener but I also knew he was dead right!

So, what did I do to fix that problem?

I couldn’t in short order take some advanced sales course to become a super sales person overnight. So, I did the next best thing.

I located a program that does the selling and closing for you. I don’t even need to talk to my prospects!

Now that is powerful stuff and what you really need when looking to start an online business.In this type of program, I usually don’t even know who is sending me money!

Of course I can check my program stats to see who is purchasing from me, but the point is the money comes while I am NOT doing the selling! My son was right and I say thanks Mark for the words of wisdom

Yes, I know you heard it all before about “fully automated” systems where you do nothing but set back or take vacations while your online business runs itself, but I must say that the solution I located does exactly that.

What I love the most about this type of program is I know you have the best chance possible to be successful. You don’t need to find that all knowing mentor or join the best team to be assured success!

You just let the company do the marketing for you.

This is also a great way to get started in online marketing as you can watch what the experts are doing running your website, and you can learn the ropes.

Then when your income level is where you want it to be, you can quit that “day job”, and live the life that all the guru’s have been telling us about.

I have been online since March 2006 and I truly believe this type of program can get many people into a new lifestyle as it eliminates the chances that you will fail. It totally wipes out the main reasons why people fail in online systems and businesses.

I encourage you to locate a program such as this, and jump on board this amazing work at home online wave of success!

To your success!

http://www.myfasteasymoneyonline.com

Publish this article: Why Most People Fail In Online Business Opportunities

By: Stan Tomaszewski
Category: Email Marketing

Having recently added a new product line to my website which uses email marketing, I found this technique very powerful. I then realized many newbies may not know what this is all about, how it works, and what to expect when using it.

So, here’s a quick over view of email marketing and why it can be so effective in your online business growth and success:

First, it is a proven fact and online statistic that it takes the typical online shopper 5-7 exposures to the product, service or program before they become a paying customer. Email marketing makes this work perfectly. Let me explain this in more detail so you can apply the techniques on your site.

When a prospect stops by your website, you need to capture their name and email address so you can followup with them over the next several days. You can do this with a “lead capture form” or “opt in form” where they enter their name and email address at your sign up form.

Often you may offer a FREE gift for then signing up. This free gift will start to build your relationship with them and also tends to get you more sign ups which is your goal.

Opt-ing in is important because with the anti-spam laws you don’t want to be accused of spamming, or sending emails to people that did not request your information. The autoresponder sets all this up so the sign up will get an email asking them to agree that they indeed asked for the information by clicking on a confirmation link. Once they do this, the autoresponder will automatically send them your first email message!

There always is the chance of someone signing up just for the free gift, then becoming a customer as they learn from your followup messages.That’s why it is important to get everyone’s contact info that stops by your site.

This sign up form then sends their information to your “autoresponder”. An autoresponder stores your prospect information,and also holds a series of followup messages or emails that get sent to them AUTOmatically over a period of up to 30 days or so.There are many autoresponders to choose from but we recommend only a few that are very reliable.

This is all set up in the autoresponder by you. You don’t want to bother them with a barrage of emails, as you could get accused of spamming. You typically will send a message once a day or every other day for up to about 30 days.Beyond the first week you will lengthen the time between messages to maybe every 3rd or 4th day.

One thing we noticed is even with very well written emails that don’t get sent to peoples spam folders (bulk,trash folders), many will opt in and never click on the confirmation link. Then some will click on it days later! Some will “opt out” after the first email followup, and some will read all of your messages, and not purchase. That is fine because there will be a percentage that will buy. Your email marketing system has done its job of weeding through your prospects and finding the purchasers! It’s all a numbers game.

The more people you send to your opt in form, the more buyers your email marketing system will find and close for you.

If you have well written followup messages, you will see a certain percentage of them contacting you or buying around the 5th to 7th email.

One really important item on email marketing before we close this topic for now is all of these people that sign up to your opt in form, over time can grow to a large number of people. This is what the guru’s refer to as your “list”. Just think if you had a 10,000 sized list. If you sent an email about a new product, do you think a certain percentage may purchase it? That’s the power of email marketing.

Next time we will offer you specific tips and tricks on how you can ensure that your emails get read, how to select subject lines that result in emails opened and read, and how this whole email marketing thing can be set up to what we use in our business to be very close to fully automatic marketing.

The email message campaign starting with our opt in page, basically churns through our prospects, weeds out the tire kickers, and closes our sales. A well written program can do this quite effectively for you.

To your prosperity!

http://www.myfasteasymoneyonline.com

Publish this article: All About Email Marketing for Newbies

By: Brian Stone
Category: Ecommerce

Making any purchase online requires research, but getting certain specific items means even more research is necessary. Normally expensive products, like jewelry, are essential to compare for pricing. Perishable items, specifically, should especially be thoroughly researched due to the fact that they are well, … perishable. Everything ordered on the Internet requires shipping of some sort, and for something like a fresh Christmas tree, doing the right amount of research could easily make the difference between a memorable season and one that is less than memorable. Here are a few helpful ideas on what you should look for when searching for a Christmas tree on the Internet.

First, take advantage of the many websites out there where shoppers critique vendors. On these sites you can get first hand information from people who have previously bought the products you are searching for. There are many product review websites which include Christmas tree websites in their ratings. Regardless of the research that these people did prior to making their purchase, they made a purchase from somewhere and chances are that their experiences can provide great insight into your purchase. A couple of these types of websites are Pricegrabber.com and Shopping.com. However, a simple Google search for “Christmas tree reviews” can be a good place to start, too.

Second, when you locate websites that you are thinking about ordering from, double check their available shipping options. Clearly, the faster your tree can be delivered, the better. Also, how do they package their trees from the farm? Do they provide you with the necessary items to keep the tree fresh through shipping and until you get it in your living room? Some websites provide better shipping resources than others, and this is an important question to ask. Not all purchases works out so great, so also remember to ask how soon they are able to send a replacement tree in the event that yours comes to you in bad shape.

In case you don’t already know what type of Christmas tree you want to order, third on your priority list should be available selection. If the websites you are looking at purchasing from have a varied selection of tree types, find out whatever you can about the different trees they have available and which will work best in your location. A reliable website will make this information available for you directly on their pages, but not having it should not immediately disqualify a website on its own. Take advantage of free websites like Wikipedia.com to research different types of Christmas trees to find the best one for you.

Lastly, and always important, is cost. A memorable Christmas is priceless, however, price does matter when purchasing a Christmas tree on the Internet. Be sure to compare the prices of the websites that meet your other criteria, as pricing differs depending on the seller. Focus on the total price instead of just the sticker price of the tree. Christmas trees are fairly large to ship and shipping charges can often make a fairly inexpensive tree skyrocket in price, so keep an eye out for discounted shipping offers from some websites. Also, many websites that sell Christmas trees do not take any refunds. Steer clear of these websites and make sure that you have familiarized yourself with the return policy of whichever website you end up buying from.

Following these simple rules for researching your tree before you buy it will help ensure that you get the best possible Christmas tree this holiday season. This may appear to be a lot of effort, but think about how much more work it will be to piece your holiday together at the last second because you bought a Christmas tree online from an unreliable website. The choice is clear.

Brian has been scripting content across several industries ever since finishing his degree in English. His writing has ranged from Christmas trees to Italian cuisine. His writing has been presented to millions of readers across the Internet and newspapers and magazines.

Publish this article: Buying Real Christmas Trees Online? Shop Around

By: Biana Babinsky
Category: Ebooks

Have you written an ebook recently? Do you want to make more money with it? The best way to make more money with your ebook is by selling more copies of your ebook!

If your ebook is not selling as well as you would like (or if it is not selling at all), you are not alone. Every week solopreneurs contact me to ask for help with marketing their ebooks. Here are two of the most common stories of ebooks not selling:

- A service professional has spent hundreds of hours writing an interesting e-book, had a copywriter create a sales letter for the e-book and put the e-book up for sale on the web site. It has been a year since the e-book was released, and the service professional has sold a grand total of two copies. He has invested a lot of time and money into the e-book and wants to get some return on that investment. What should he do now?

- A coach has seen many of her colleagues release e-books. She decided to do the same thing. She has created an e-book put it up on her web site. She has posted information about the ebook on a few coaching lists, but no one is coming to check out the e-book on her web site. How can she get people to at least come to check out the e-book on her web site?

Does this sound familiar? If your ebooks are not selling, you are not alone. Many service professionals have told me that they have spent many hours creating an ebook, only to post it on their web site and find out that it is not selling.

Do you want to know why this is happening and how to prevent this from happening to your ebook? Here is how:

- Your target market may not even be interested in the ebook. Sometimes service professionals are too excited about the idea that they create an ebook without finding out if their target market is interested in buying it.

Remember, your target market must want to buy your ebook in order for the ebook to sell and make you money. Before you invest time and money into an idea, survey your target market and make sure that the topic for your product resonates with your target audience.

- Your ebook is not priced for the target market. This is a common mistake that I see service professionals make. Many service professionals underprice their ebooks, thinking that they will get more sales by doing this.

Unfortunately, this is not true. Since the ebook has many benefits and a low price, your potential customers doubt that what you are promising them is true. Great benefits and a low price usually sound too good to be true. Therefore, many people just pass on your great offer. Instead, these people buy from someone else who sells their ebooks at a higher price.

Many times I have seen that sales of ebooks have gone up once the price was increased. Spend some time on researching your product pricing; this is a very crucial part of your overall ebook marketing plan.

- You do not market your product effectively. Many solopreneurs put up a product on their web site and expect it to sell. The truth is that a product will not sell on its own. To have consistent product sales you need to drive web site traffic to your product page every single day.

If you want to earn money with your e-books and teleseminars, make sure that your target market is interested in buying them, price your products correctly and market them effectively.

Sell thousands of copies of your ebook! Biana Babinsky, the online business expert, shows you how to make thousands of dollars with your ebook in her Make Thousands Of Dollars With E-books Home Study Guide at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/zebookt

Publish this article: Why Your Ebooks Are Not Selling