MIBW
Archives
February 18, 2003
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note that these are archives so many links to ads and
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My IBiz Weekly
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Starting a Business on the Internet isn't impossible if you have the right help...
Vol.2, Issue 5
February 18, 2003
Editor : Donesia Muhammad
Copyright (c) 2002 KDM Publishing
http://EzineAdHelper.com
Today's Issue Is Going Out To over 5,100 Subscribers.
Ad Rates for My IBiz Weekly
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=1
_______________________________________________________________
You're receiving this ezine because you, or
someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no
other way of being added to this list. Please note you will not
be unsubscribed from My IBiz Weekly by replying to this email.
The My IBiz Weekly opt in list is not made available to other
companies or individuals. I value every subscriber and
respect your privacy.
If this was done in error, unsubscribe instructions are at the bottom of this and every email.
OptinCity, The Ultimate Publisher's Resource!
Home to the hottest prices on quality subscribers,
and discounted publisher resources.
It's free to join, and thousands of high quality
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just for being a member! http://optincity.com/p/?i=142
_______________________________________________________________
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR
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_______________________________________________________________
In This Weeks' Issue
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Editors' Notes
Ad Specials
Scam Alert
Voice Your Opinion: New Question For You
Quick Thoughts From Your Publisher
Feature Article: My IBiz Series Part 5:Continuation from Last Week: Web Hosting Sites ... By Donesia Muhammad
Spotlight Ads
New Column By Virginia Rounding: WEAVE WELL: Writing Tips for the Web......STEP, JUMP AND SLAP – Or How Not To Advertise An E-Book
Hot Off The Press: All About Autoresponders
Feature Article: How To Tweak Your Website For More Sales
by Michael Southon
Need Quality Ezines to Subscribe To?
Contact Information
"The Marketing Warrioress / Domestic Goddess Quick &
Easy Recipes eBook Cook Book" -only $9.97- in PDF
and WITH resell rights, to boot!
http://www.jantd.com/cookbook.htm
see the index- mailto:mwdgindex@rimdigest.com
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Editor's Notes
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Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of MIBW.
There was a great response to last week's issue and I thank you all for the wonderful feedback I received. It is those times that I am so happy to finally be able to do my dream job, writing and publishing my own newsletter.
And I thought it would be years before that would happen. Thank goodness for the internet.
I was writing an article on domains and brand recognition which won't be ready until next week though, but I have a quite a bit of information in today's issue as well.
This is one of those weeks when you have a million ideas but not sure which will work for you. So you just kind of play a small waiting game to see which is best for you.
Just one of those thinking days I guess :)
I hope you enjoy today's issue and will continue to enjoy each and ever issue. Thank you
Virginia has some great tips this week on how not to advertise your ebook. Take notes everyone, you can really learn something from her.
I have also reduced prices on the Subscriber Discounts for Ezine Ad Helper's ad coops. Look in the next section to see how you can order your ad at these special prices.
Have a safe and happy week and I will see you on Friday for our classified edition.
Don't forget about the Tools For Your Biz Contest which got off to a roaring start last week, and the new ad specials for February.
Yours Truly,
Donesia Muhammad
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AD SPECIALS
_______________________________________________________________
Subscriber Ad Coop Deals
Its been a while since I offered a great discount in my ad coop, so this should really help as we are all trying to kick start our marketing campaigns for the year.
CLASSIFIED COOP: Now you can order your ad to our classified coop for only $7.00 per group or all groups for only $20.00 which is a $50.00 savings for my readers only
Note: You will be subscribed to the ezines in order to have your ad published.
TOP SPONSOR COOP: Now you can buy each group for only $30.00
( group 5 is $35.00)
That is a $15 savings off the normal price for MIBW readers only. Remember you WILL NOT BE subscribed to this group of ezines in order to have your ad published, and we now offer
FREE ad tracking with every order.
http://ezineadhelper.com/ezine/mibwdiscount.htm
And get this, you can order all 5 groups for only $80.00
Yes, $80.00 which is a $100 savings over anyone who normally orders with me. Hurry and order your special ad now. I am not sure how long I will offer this deal, at least for the next few weeks so hurry on over and start your marketing campaign http://ezineadhelper.com/ezine/mibwdiscount.htm
AD SPECIALS for My IBiz Weekly:
Buy One Top Sponsor Ad plus One Spotlight Ad for Only $10.00
Buy One Spotlight Ad and Get Another One Free ( $5.00)
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/cgi-bin/arp3/arp3-t.pl?l=1
hurry hurry, this offer ends on March 1st.
As always if you have any questions, comments, or feedback , just let me know here
mailto:donesia@ezineadhelper.com
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SCAM ALERT
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I received word of this scam through Adrian Ghioc from Ads Market Ezine
http://admarket.biz Please take notice of this scam so you don't fall prey to it, thank you.
-http://www.EmarketingMiracles.com
WARN everyone you know that this is a sc@m, because it is. This jerk has not contacted me, despite repeated emailings for him to deliver. He has not delivered ANY traffic whatsoever. Paypal shut down his account, so he got another merchant.
He will take all your money from your credit card or bank account. Not only that, but he is infiltrating the admin section of reputable > safelists and posting his sc@m to members contact email addresses.
This !@#$%^&* should be in jail, where he belongs. Your safelist is not sc@m proof either, so consider this a warning to all your safelist members AND owners!. I would not send this email if I did not do my own research.
This guy ripped ME off, and countless others. WARN everyone you know before they get sucked in and bled dry too!!!!! He/she will even use YOUR admin address to post to YOUR members. This will seem to come from YOUR admin of YOUR safelist, whereas it doesn't. Make sure that EVERYONE you know ignores ANY email they get from this jerk, or points to this url. http://www.EmarketingMiracles.com THIS IS A SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jason
(alert member)
P.S. He also operates another sc@m site - http://cybermailman.com
. You will notice that there is no contact info on either site. He wont reply to your emails anyway...
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Enter To Win The Tools For Your Biz Contest
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Ezine Ad Helper has Done It Again!!
Enter to win the "Tools For Your Biz" Contest
Subscribe to an elite set of publishers to win free prizes to help get your business that vital boost it needs.
Details here http://ezineadhelper.com/contest
You can't get started with a bunch of Free Ads. Our contest will get your promotion off the ground for free, saving you time and sparing your budget. So what are you waiting for?
http://ezineadhelper.com/contest
Publishers, I am looking for quality publishers to join the contest. It does not matter the size of your ezine, however the content of your ezine must be family friendly,
Join here http://ezineadhelper.com/contest/publishers.htm
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VOICE YOUR OPINION
_______________________________________________________________
Hi Donesia.
I have a question for your readers!
---
Have you ever tried Subscription Rocket?
What results did you get?!
http://sr.BizMarketingSecrets.com
Keep making profits,
Codrut Turcanu.
http://BizMarketingSecrets.com
If you have a question that you want answered, anything that has to do with business, computer related, etc, just send it here and I will post it for everyone to answer
mailto:donesia@ezineadhelper.com?subject=voiceyouropinion
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QUICK THOUGHTS FROM YOUR PUBLISHER
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Hidden Sales Prices
Last week I posted this question and was surprised at the responses I received on this subject.
Apparently I am not the only one who doesn't like this sneaky method of selling. Thank goodness..
I got used to seeing long sales letters and the price is way at the bottom right next to the order link.
Now I see that you have to click on the order link just to find out the price in the first place and once you see the outrageous price, you normally say " oh please, they must be crazy if they think I am shelling out that kind of money"
Who started this new trend because it doesn't work.
Maybe you should call me the "Blue Collar Entrepreneur" ( now you know I am taking this name and turning it into a big info packed series soon )but I don't shell out my money for any product just because it has some so called reduced price or because I " have " to have it in order to succeed.
You know what I do when I need to buy a product or service and have the money to spare.
I go to my advertisers first.
Yup, I thank them for buying from me by ordering at their site.
If I know they are an affiliate for a product I need, then I would look at them first.
Just Good old fashioned Business Common Sense there.
But first I read, and I mean I really read the sales letter first to see exactly what I am getting.
Is there an email for support or a phone number? I don't think a phone number is necessary for everything but in terms of list hosting or anything complicated like that should have a support number for you to go to.
If there is a problem, who can I turn to.
What is their return policy?
You never know until you complain about the product how that company is really all about.
I once bought a script from a company which will remain nameless for $50.00. They offered to install it for another $50.00. I opted to install it myself and save myself the money as I knew what I was doing.
I installed it fine but there was one feature that wasn't working so when I emailed them about it, I never heard from them at all. Several emails later, still nothing.
In their terms and conditions stated that there would be no support for those who did not it professionally installed through them.
Now my mistake was glancing through the terms and conditions, so I was stuck.
I still thought that maybe they would at least send me an email about it or refer me to a professional if they really wanted me as a customer.
So I just went right over to ClickBank and received my refund.
I then found another company with the same type of script with unbelievable tech support, and never looked back.
They helped me all the way, and was so friendly and courteous.
They have a customer for life from me.
See how we can retain and keep customers. Through good customer service and just plain old fashioned decency you can always make money.
I have well over 20 advertisers over the past year who always order from me. Why..
Because I fix errors as fast as possible, I help in any way I can, and I thank them for their help.
Never let that fail or you will never succeed.
If it gets too much hire someone.
I see plenty of publishers and webmasters hiring their readers and visitors to help them answer support questions or other business tasks.
You can barter with them if you are unable to pay them directly. People love exposure and you would be surprised how much people are willing to help.
Just my 3 cents for today.....
Enjoy your day
Donesia
NOTE: I do not like the method that some people use of using a product or service, then requesting a refund from payment companies such as Paypal or Clickbank.
I have dealt with people who order from me and after their ads go out they request a refund for some unknown scam reason. I did try to get in touch with that several times over a 3 week period, that is why I requested a refund. I even went to one of the programmers site asking for help, again, nothing... So my reason for a refund was valid.)
That is my gripe for the week.. Customers Who grab Refunds only because they never intended to pay for it in the first place..
Any thoughts.. mailto:donesia@ezineadhelper.com
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MY IBIZ SERIES PART 5 Continued: Domains and Web Hosting.... Learn First Before The Mistakes are Made
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This is Part 5 of a series to help you get started online with your business. If you have not read the previous parts, you can read it online here http://www.ezineadhelper.com/myibiz/
A detailed list of each part of the My IBiz Series can be found at the end of this article.
Here is a list of some quality web hosts that come highly recommended by myself and some of my readers.
This is not the " Try These Hosts Or You Will Fail Online" type of lists. Just some recommendations. If your current host is working for you, no need to up and move unless you are unhappy with their services..
HOST 4 PROFIT ( this has been my web host for the past year)
http://www.host4profit.com/cgi-bin/home.cgi?14508
I have yet to see a company respond to email as fast as H4P does. They answer every question, no matter how simple you may think it is. I have 3 websites in one account. My domains are still registered with Go Daddy
http://godaddy.com , but my websites are stuck on H4P. Every few months or so, they add on new features and services that makes me wonder how I lived without them. They have an extensive knowledge base and an impeccable forum where you can learn well, just about anything you need to know about marketing online.
LIFE TIME WEB HOSTING ( highly recommended from Jan Tallent -Dandridge
http://RimDigest.com )
http://www.LifetimeWebHosting.com/jantd
Here is a note on their services: You will never have to pay us anything again...no monthly
fees, etc. after your initial payment. How can we offer
you so much for so little? We don't have to spend much
money to advertise...our plans are so good, word of mouth
does the trick for us! We take the money we save from
advertising and give it to you in savings!
MARKET TRENDS http://marketrends.net
This is a great hosting company. Phone support, great customer service, all the latest bells and whistles, and they cater to Ezine Publishers and Online Marketers. This host was recommended to me by Penny Melendez from A Penny Saved is A Penny Earned
http://apennysaved.info/
And by Bobbette Madonna from Logon New Zine http://www.logonnewzine.com
A QUALITY HOST http://aqualityhost.com/
I know the owners of this hosting company and she is one of the best in professionalism and customer service. She offers so much for so little. This is one of the few hosting companies that I have seen that offers so many ways to get in touch with them, so much help with you on installation of scripts, she explains everything to you.
Diana Ward is the owner of A Quality Host and also runs a great newsletter as well so she understands exactly what you are going through.
That's it!!
You mean to tell me there are no other web hosts that you recommend..
WHY IS THIS LIST SO SHORT?
Not because there aren't any good hosts out there, these are the ones that I know has satisfied customers through personal experience from myself and other clients, so I am not just going to throw every web host that I see to you.
Are you happy with your web host? If so, let me know and I will publish it. This will also go into the My IBiz Series as well.
mailto:donesia@ezineadhelper.com?subject=hostsIrecommend
Here is an article from Shelley Lowery which details the basics that you should have in a web host. I always reference back to this article when I started looking for a web host.
FREQUENTLY ASKED WEB HOSTING QUESTIONS
By Shelley Lowery
Congratulations! After much thought and consideration, you
finally took the plunge and decided it was time to have your
own web site. That's a great accomplishment in itself.
However, now you're left with another daunting task --
selecting a quality web host.
Selecting a good web host is of the utmost importance.
However, with all of the technical mumbo jumbo, knowing what
to look for can be very intimidating to say the least.
For this reason, I have devised a list of the most
frequently asked web hosting questions.
Question: I'm not exactly sure what a web host is. Can you
please explain?
Answer: A web host is a company that provides you with
server space for your web site. This includes all of the
files associated with your web site. When your web address
is typed into a browser, the web host displays your pages.
Question: Is it true that a good web host will cost me a lot
of money each month?
Answer: Although the old adage "you get what you pay for"
still holds true, there are many quality web hosts that are
reasonably priced. You can expect to pay $20 - $50 a month
for up to 50MB of space depending on the company and your
specific needs.
Question: I have been considering hosting my site with a
free hosting company, but I'm a little concerned with their
reliability. Can you shed some light?
Answer: NEVER host an ecommerce web site with a free hosting
service. These services are highly unreliable and could care
less if your site goes down. Their main concern is with
their advertisers. As long as their ads are up and running,
for the most part, they could care less about you or your
site.
In addition, sites hosted with free services look very
unprofessional. If you've taken the time to get your own web
site designed and your own domain name, why would you risk
your success and host with a free service? It's just not
worth it.
Question: I'm at my wits end. I've been to so many hosting
companies and am completely overwhelmed. I have no idea what
company to go with. Can you please tell me what I should be
looking for in a good host?
Answer: Selecting a quality hosting company can be an
intimidating process. Your first consideration should be the
company.
• Do they offer fast connections?
• Do they have a back-up system in place to protect your
data in case there is a power outage?
• Do they require you to make payments in advance?
• Do they require a long-term contract?
• Do they charge set up fees?
• How is their customer support? Test them.
• Do they provide you with free access to a secure server
for order processing?
• Do they offer shopping cart software to process
your orders?
• Do they provide you with an online Web Site Manager?
• Do they provide you with an online support manual?
Ask for references. Talk with some of their customers and
ask them if they have been satisfied.
Here are some basic features you should look for when
selecting a web host:
1) 24/7 reliable tech support
2) Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
3) At least 10GB of monthly transfer (traffic)
4) A minimum of 20MB - 50MB of server space
5) Unlimited true POP email accounts - name@yourdomain.com
6) Unlimited email aliases
7) Email forwarding
8) Unlimited autoresponders
9) Your own unrestricted CGI-Bin
10) Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
11) MySQL Database
12) Perl
13) htaccess password protection
14) Server Side Includes (SSI) support
15) Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or
other HTML editing software
16) Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions for those
utilizing FrontPage
17) Unlimited free access to your server via FTP/Telnet
18) Easy access to your log files
19) Statistics on visits to your site
20) Referral Program
When selecting a web host, you must look at the entire
picture prior to making your decision. You may find a host
that charges $5.00 - $15.00 a month to host your site,
however, their technical support may be poor, or your web
site may be slow or down a lot.
A lower monthly payment may look appealing, but how much is
it actually going to cost you in lost sales? Most likely
much more than the amount you'll save.
Although there are many web hosting companies online, there
are only two that I can recommend. They are as follows:
Adgrafix - Professional web hosting starting at $19.95/mo.
for a 50MB web hosting package.
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=wh
Host4Profit - Professional web hosting specifically designed
for the Internet marketer. $24.95/mo. for 300MB
http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=h4p
Take your time and select the host that best meets your
needs. It will be well worth your time and effort in the
long run.
Copyright © Shelley Lowery 2002.
About the Author:
Shelley Lowery is the author of Web Design Mastery - An in-
depth guide to professional web design. And, Ebook Starter -
A complete ebook design kit. Visit Web-Source.net to sign up
for a free subscription to Etips and receive a free copy of
the highly acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing
Strategies." http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=bl1
Next Week: We start to look into Web Design and Sales Copy. Now I am no expert on this so of course I will have the best articles for you and my own tidbits as well.
Stay tuned for that.
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READ THE ENTIRE MY IBIZ SERIES
_______________________________________________________________
Part One: Hustling Your Business Down the Drain..
One of the most common questions my readers ask me is "How did you start your business?" "What steps did you have to take, how much money did you need to start?"
How to separate hype from fact
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/myibiz/one.htm
Part Two: Setting Up Your Business the Legal Way
Purchasing a business license, deciding on the type of business structure you want to have, all come into play with starting your business. There are three common types of structures that we will look at in this section. Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, and Corporations
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/myibiz/two.htm
Part Three: Dotting the I' s and Crossing the T's
Learn more on the different types of Corporations, how to obtain a federal tax id number, working with international customers.
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/myibiz/three.htm
Part Four: Never Keep All Your Eggs In One Basket...
Learn about developing offline skills to succeed online and how to work at home through telecommunication, and just how do you find a telecommuting home job anyway?
http://www.ezineadhelper.com/myibiz/four.htm
Part 5 will be added by Friday
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Hot Off the Press: ALL ABOUT AUTORESPONDERS
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From the desks of Donesia Muhammad and Glenn Gordon:
We have teamed up to bring you special pricing on a product
that anyone using email marketing won't want to miss, at a
price you can't get anywhere else.
We don't have to tell you how important it is for any Internet
marketer to have autoresponders working 24 hours a day,
automating your advertising, sales and follow-up efforts.
But, until now, there was no one place to go to get all the
information you needed to put autoresponders to work for
maximum profit.
Like side-by-side comparison charts showing you all the
current choices at a glance, so you could choose the right one.
Like a really comprehensive manual showing you all the techniques that take years to discover.
Well, now there is a source for all that information, plus lots more. Glenn Gordon put in the hours and dollars so you won't need to.
The result is what one reviewer called The Ultimate Autoresponder Guide. More than just the most comprehensive e-book on the topic - it's a combined e-book, product database and monthly news bulletin. At a special price you'll agree is almost a steal. It includes a set of fantastic bonuses, like Terry Dean's "Insider Secrets to Email Marketing," the #1 selling Email Marketing course on the net.
Available for one week only at this price, so don't wait! Go to
http://www.allaboutautoresponders.info/MIBW
Let's face it, you don't have the time to sit around thinking
up new ways for autoresponders to present your products,
automate sales and please your customers. Now you don't have to
try. With a 6 month you-gotta-love-it money-back guarantee - all
you have to lose is the feeling that others know something you
don't! Grab yours today at
http://www.allaboutautoresponders.info/MIBW
Best regards,
Donesia Muhammad
http://ezineadhelper.com/
AND
Glenn Gordon
http://www.allaboutautoresponders.info
_______________________________________________________________
SPOTLIGHT ADS
_______________________________________________________________
YOUR OWN BUSINESS - HANDED TO YOU ON A SILVER PLATTER!
Everything you need to start & succeed in online business is right here. This is THE ultimate kit for designing your site, building traffic and selling your OWN CUSTOM-MADE PRODUCTS like wildfire. It's never been easier!
http://probiztrack.com/trackbiz/control/redirect.php?id=39
2003 Awesome Advertising Packages!
Extreme value, Extreme Service, Extreme Results
Unlimited Banner Impressions and Unlimited Classified Ad Views and so much more!
More than 500,000 hits to over a million hits
Get YOUR BUSINESS OFF TO GREAT START!
http://www.netwealthcreator.com/advertisingpackage/advertisingpackage.php?personalid=geneology
Hello Fellow Internet Marketer,
Do autoresponders confuse you? Believe me, you're not
alone. Get answers to your follow-up marketing questions
at A1eBiz Solutions! No more FAQ's! No more forums! No
more help pages written in geek.
Visit http://tinyurl.com/5mu0
for the best in free or PRO
autoresponder accounts.
Weight Loss Patches - Fantastic opportunity to get in on something BIG!! FDA approved - still in pre-launch. Payment schedule is percentage of overall earnings of company. Contact me at:
j.abrum@verizon.net
or look at temporary site:
http://hiodcom.readyhosting.com/mcl/jaa/
Include my name and email address when you sign-up. This is a once in a life time opportunity!!
_______________________________________________________________
So, how do You Like this Ezine?? Feedback and
Testimonials are Greatly Appreciated.
Contact me at either:
mailto:donesia@ezineadhelper.com or
mailto:webmaster@ezineadhelper.com
_______________________________________________________________
WEAVE WELL: WRITING TIPS FOR THE WEB
STEP, JUMP AND SLAP – Or How Not To Advertise An E-Book
By Virginia Rounding
_______________________________________________________________
NOTE: This is a brand new column for MIBW from one of our readers, Virginia Rounding.
Please visit Virginia's site http://www.virginiarounding.com and sign up for her ezine, Poetry Competition Updates. Tell her Donesia sent you :)
Do you ever read an ad – one of the hundreds, if not thousands, that land unsolicited in your inbox each week – and think ‘This sounds like a translation from a foreign language’ or even ‘I’m not sure if the person who sent me this ad actually understands a word of it’?
Here’s one that struck me as being a rather poor translation – and it therefore immediately inclined me not to believe it. The first paragraph read:
‘Stephan Ducharme, the "Free Ad Guru" just released his new 9
steps ! It is what everybody is waiting for since weeks now
and it just was released.’
Well, for a start what does ‘his new 9 steps’ mean? An aerobic exercise? A dance? It might make more sense to say ‘his new 9-step program’ or ‘his new 9-step course’. And the second sentence would of course make more sense if it read: ‘It is what everybody has been waiting for weeks now, and it’s just been released.’
Next paragraph:
’Thousands of marketers just jumped on it in the same day.
Don't wonder why.’
That makes three ‘justs’ in three sentences so far. And perhaps this really is a dance routine – all this jumping, after all.
The ad doesn’t improve. We get the usual stuff about Stephan Ducharme being an internet millionaire at 31, and then:
’His top affiliates are making $5000.00 a week selling his
ebook right now. It sells like hot bread.’
I think the expression should be: ‘It sells like hot cakes.’ When I look at the ‘hot bread’ version, my eye trips me up and sees: ‘It *smells* like hot bread.’
The 9 steps which are making everybody jump came about as a result, apparently, of ‘2 years of brain sweat’. Yuck – give me hot bread any time.
But if I ignore this offer I will, I am told, ‘slap myself’. Ouch.
Well, I know it’s difficult to write an eye-catching ad. I know some of them all sound the same – indeed, *are* the same (how many times have you read similar ones about Stephan Ducharme?), so of course it can be a good idea to vary the text a bit, make it more your own. But if in doing so, you become incomprehensible or inadvertently funny – perhaps because the language you’re writing in isn’t your mother tongue – your efforts are almost bound to be counter-productive. In short, no one’s going to trust you to know what you’re talking about.
It’s always worth getting a friendly someone – and someone who’s a native speaker of the language you’re writing in – to read through your ad before you send it out. And if you don’t know any other friendly someone, send it to me at
mailto:webmaster@virginiarounding.com
and I’ll be happy to advise.
Virginia Rounding
http://www.virginiarounding.com
_______________________________________________________________
How To Tweak Your Website For More Sales
_______________________________________________________________
by Michael Southon
There are two pillars to a successful online business.
One of them is traffic and the other is sales copy - in
other words, your website. That's what this article is
about - getting more sales from your website.
(1) Format. The fastest selling websites have the
following format: a one-page sales letter; a single
column of text occupying half the screen width; and a
maximum of 2 or 3 linked pages (eg. partners.html,
testimonials.html, author.html etc.)
(2) Headline. This should be in font size 4 or 5 and
offer a strong benefit. Writing a compelling headline
is a delicate balancing act - you need to grab your
readers attention but you don't want to strain their
credulity. Here are some tips on writing effective
headlines:
http://tutorials.findtutorials.com/read/id/28
(3) Date. A date at the top of your page adds to the
feeling that your sales page is a letter, which makes
your page more readable. It also assures visitors that
your site is up-to-date and still relevant. Here is a
javascript code that will insert the current date:
http://www.ezine-writer.com/date-script.html
(4) Paragraphs. Keep them short - no more than 1 or 2
sentences per paragraph. It makes your page much
easier to read.
(5) Bolding and highlighting. If you emphasize certain
keywords your sales page will be much more effective.
It draws your readers attention to your benefits and
it also breaks up the monotony of the text. To highlight text,
use these tags:
<SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: yellow">your text
here</SPAN>
(6) Book covers. An attractive book cover will
increase your sales by up to 300% - so if you don't
have one, get one! Here are some websites that design
book covers:
http://www.killercovers.com/
http://www.ebookwow.com/
http://www.ebook-cover-art.com/
http://www.ebookcreators.com/
http://www.dynamitecovers.com/
(7) Testimonials. These will also dramatically
increase your sales. If you don't have any, ask your
customers for them. Every testimonial will always
contain a key phrase or benefit - make that phrase
leap out at the reader by using bold type. Always
provide the website and/or email address of the person
who wrote the testimonial. If you make the website URL
and active link, you'll get more testimonials - but
you'll also lose traffic when your visitors click on
those links.
(8) Bonus Gifts. Offering freebies with your product
is an old trick in web marketing - nearly everyone
does it. My advice is take the freebies off. Why?
Firstly, chances are the freebies you offer are also
being offered by hundreds of other websites - your
visitors have seen them all before and are not
impressed. Secondly, offering freebies sends the
message that your product is not really worth it on
its own.
(9) Unique Selling Proposition. You must differentiate
your product from your competitors' products. One way
to do this is to have a 'Warning' near the bottom of
your page that says "Do not buy an eBook on XYZ unless
it meets the following criteria..." And then list the
unique features of your eBook (or product).
(10) A Call to Action. This is the biggest cause of
lost sales. Most people procrastinate - so you must
create a sense of urgency. You can do this in various
ways - a price rise after a certain date, a price rise
after a certain number of copies have been sold, or a
bonus report for the next 15 orders.
(c) 2003 by Michael Southon
Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over
3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use
this simple technique to get massive free publicity and
dramatically increase traffic and sales. For more information
visit: http://www.ezine-writer.com/
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