Handling Complaints Without Making Things Worse

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver


The email comes, or the phone rings, and there's an absolute flood pouring right at you. "Hey, you didn't do what you said you would do. This didn't work as advertised. You goofed!"

Yup, a complaint. Ahhh! A complaint?! But you poured your heart and soul into it, how could they complain?

Then you take a breath, and you read what they're asking for, and you realize... they were right. You DID make a mistake. Things are goofed up, perhaps badly.

Time to hang up your hat and go work in a cafe?

Well, no, not really. But it can sure feel that way. Why is it that when you get a complaint it always stirs you up?

I could say it's a gift from Source (and it is) but let's not go there immediately. Before you try to figure it out, take a moment, or two, or an hour, or even half a day, for yourself.

That's right, you don't have to respond immediately.

Not every complaint is going to shake you, but when they do resist the urge to respond immediately. Instead, take time for yourself to feel upset, to connect with your heart, and to realize that perhaps it's not as bad as you might think.

Once you catch up to your heart, then it's time to respond. Let's take a look, shall we?

We apologize for any inconvenience...

This is exactly what you -don't- want to say. Unfortunately, there's been 'corporate' language creeping into every day speech. Plus, as a small business owner, you don't necessarily see what other small business owners do in the dark of their email inboxes, so you don't have other examples.

You and I are only used to seeing the kind of emails/letters/phone calls that the big boys send out to their millions of customers.

This is not what you want to emulate. Not.

The three most important things in an apology response.

When someone complains, they are actually giving you an incredible testimonial. You see, trust and hope have been broken so often in our culture, that many people just take average or below-average as 'normal.'

For instance, our trash can broke just a year or two after we bought it. A trash can? It should last for years, really, but I didn't expect any better. And I didn't complain to anyone (except my wife.)

So, if you get a complain, that means they trust you enough to show you how much they wanted your offer/product/service to work for them. That they trusted you enough to handle them with care, even when they are upset. That they trusted that you will take care of them.

That's a lot of trust.

So, how about those three things that are needed in the response? Let's take a closer look at them.

Keys to Caring for Complaints.

Hear ye, O hear ye!

First and foremost they want to be heard. They want you to hear the facts of the matter, but even more importantly, they want you to get that they are upset to some degree.

Read their email, or letter, or listen to the words they spoke carefully. Did they say they were "frustrated?" Or did they say they were "really upset!" Did their tone sound like it had a LOT of energy in it, or was it fairly mild.

You want to let them know that you get exactly how upset they are, and the tone of the emotion. If someone says "really upset!" don't say: "Sounds like you're a little frustrated."

They aren't a little frustrated- they are "really upset!" So let them know you see it: "Wow, I get that you are really upset! I'm glad you let me know how upset you are!"

It's 'me' not 'we.'

We've all been trained to say "we" in these kinds of situations. "We apologize for any inconvenience." But, seriously, who is "we?" Even if you have a company of 10,000, you are the person responding.

They showed you trust by complaining, show them trust by being a little vulnerable here, don't hide behind the 'we' even if other people were involved.

For instance: 'I'm sad about the goof, because I want you to get the best from me (or us if there is more than one of you), and I'm grateful you let me know so I can fix it.'

Accountability.

Tell them how you're going to fix the problem. Give details. Instead of 'We'll replace it for you.' try writing something like this:

'I'm putting the replacement in the mail today by priority mail- you should have it in about three days. Please let me know when you receive it and if it's in good shape.'

Most of all, respond to the people who complain as you would talk to a good friend, not to someone who you need to hide from or keep at an arm's length.

An example.

We received an email asking about an order- and, you know what, our system dropped the order, and we weren't tracking. We got paid, but we never shipped the item. Luckily, this happens rarely.

The instinct from corporate examples is to respond like this:

"We apologize for any inconvenience. We're sending you a replacement copy immediately, and you should have it very soon. We really appreciate your business, and we want to make this right with you.

Sincerely,"

It's perfectly fine, in some ways. And yet, here is how we like to respond:

"Wow- I'm so sorry that we goofed your order like that! Ugh! I can imagine you've been frustrated, wondering where in the heck your order is, and here it is more than a week later!

"I want you to know that I just put your book into a priority mail envelope and it's going out today. It should take about three days to get to you. If you don't have it by Tuesday, let me know.

"apologies! appreciation!

"Mark (or whomever is writing the email)"

And, we also usually put a little extra gift in the package, as a surprise, when we goof.

If you let yourself breathe through your initial reaction to a complaint, then you will see the deep trust that is being given, and you can return it in a way that will feel great to your heart.

Stick with saying "me" instead of "we," being authentic, and show them how you are going to fix it, and you'll see how goof-ups can actually be doorways to creating deeper trust, and your upset clients just might turn into raving fans.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com

Your Next Deadline Can Bring You New Business, or It Can Take It Away - You Choose

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Acey Gaspard


Deadlines are important in the business world. You, as a businessperson, must be strict about deadlines.

Larry thought differently. He was to have 20 manuals printed and binded for 9:30 Monday morning. Larry had a little problem: his binding machine broke down and he was unable to repair it. So Larry thought, "Well, it's not my fault." He tried to get a replacement, but that would take three business days. Larry explained this to the customer when he came in for his materials. The customer was furious. Larry explained, "I tried to get a replacement, but that will take three days. There was nothing I could do. I did what I could. I think you're overreacting."

The customer began to really get upset and raised his voice: "I have people coming down from the head office, and now they won't have any materials to work with. We've been planning this for months. You think it's not a big deal, but it is. My job is on the line. I trusted you! Just give me the originals." And the customer walked out, never to return.

What Larry should have done was to get the job done no matter what. He could have easily gone to a printing shop and completed the job. Customers don't want to hear about your problems. They don't care, not because they're bad people, but because they have their own worries to deal with.

The worst thing Larry did was to wait until the customer arrived. He could have at least called to let the customer know there was a delay or that his machine broke down and he was going to have the manuals done for him elsewhere. You can't take people for granted and say that it's not that important. There's no excuse. A deadline is a deadline.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind when you agree to a deadline

If you can, take some extra time for your deadline. If you think you can have the work done by 2 p.m. Thursday, take an extra day in case something goes wrong. Ask for the customer's contact info, in case there's a problem.

Call the minute you know you have a problem that you can't clear up. Suggest solutions for clearing up the problem, and ask the customer what he would like you to do. Also, take any suggestions the customer has.

When problems occur, ask yourself, "What's the best way to resolve this?" You may need to go to a competitor to get the job done.

Never give excuses to customers when there's a problem. It's not their problem that you couldn't stick to the deadline.

If sticking to your deadline creates issues beyond your control, then make sure you're clear about your agreement to the deadline. For example, you could say, "I can guarantee the job for Friday morning, provided I receive the product from the finishing department on Thursday."

Always promise that you'll be on time, provided no circumstances beyond your control take place.

See if you can finish early. Contact the customer to let him know you were able to finish early. That will make him happy.

Place yourself in the customer's shoes. If you need something and you expect to get it, you don't want excuses.

You want what was promised. Sticking to deadlines is a good promise. It keeps you motivated, it helps you stay organized, and it keeps your customers coming back. It's best to keep your promise. After all, a deadline is simply a promise.

That's the way I see it.
To Your Success!
Acey Gaspard

Action Steps Regarding Deadlines

1. Define the time you need, and take some extra time in case of a problem.
2. Make sure everything is clear when you agree to a deadline.
3. Take some extra time to make up for unforeseeable events.

Important Points to Keep In Mind When Dealing With Deadlines

Deadlines are important in the business world.

You, as a businessperson, must be strict about deadlines.

Customers don't want to hear about your problems They have their own to worry about.

Take some extra time for your deadline.

Ask for the customer's contact info, in case there's a problem.

Suggest solutions for clearing up the problem, and ask the customer what he would like you to do.

If sticking to your deadline has issues beyond your control, then make sure you're clear about your agreement to the deadline.

Take some extra time to make up for unforeseeable events.

About the Author:
Acey Gaspard has over 20 years of business experience. His site, A Touch of Business.com, http://www.atouchofbusiness.com is steadily growing with well over 1,100 original pages to help you run and market your small business. Get Tips you can use today! http://www.atouchofbusiness.com/tips.html

Why Joint Venture Partners Don't Promote Your Product

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford


You spend months creating a product, designing a website, and having copy written and tested. You spend countless hours schmoozing joint venture partners. Then your launch day comes, you "push the button" and...

The silence from lack of orders is deafening.

What went wrong? Where are all those customers that you knew your 300 joint venture partners would send you?

Chances are, 95% of those joint ventures partners didn't promote, or didn't promote to the extent that you anticipated. Let's look briefly at why the sad sequence of events described above happens all too often. Here are four common reasons:

1) Your JV Partners Promised To Promote Too Many Products

If you are approaching all of the biggest players in your niche, and if there are a lot of product launches happening in your niche, your JV partners may have simply over-promised.

It's not uncommon for may super-affiliates to be approached with joint venture offers dozens of times per week. Some are so bombarded with repeated request from the same people that they often find it easier to give a "tentative yes." The problem is that if it's your launch, you may not know that it's a tentative yes.

The way to avoid this problem is to ask for a definite commitment. Just be frank and ask your joint venture partners "if you can depend upon them?" Another way to avoid this problem is to seek joint venture partners that aren't bombarded with constant joint venture requests. There are many times more less-visible potential joint venture partners who have very responsive lists, than there are overwhelmed "super affiliates."

A good place to have some of these potential joint venture partners actually FIND YOU is The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. Just get your projects and launches into their database, and JV partners in your niche will find you!

2) Your Sign-up Process Is Too Convoluted

It's unbelievable how complex many people make the process of just registering as a joint venture partner and getting an affiliate link.

Don't make your potential joint venture partners register at three different places JUST so that they can help you with your launch. If you do... they'll say yes initially, but drop out when they see how many hurdles they have to jump.

3) You Don't Provide The Right Tools

Most successful affiliate marketers have favorite tools that they prefer using. For some it's videos, for others it's rebrandable ebooks, for others it's articles that they can change the urls in, and for others it's pay-per-clicks.

You absolutely must provide the tools that your affiliates prefer using. Don't expect them to change how they market to conform to your launch plans. They usually know from experience what works best with their customers.

You also need to provide some tools that allow a "soft sell" rather than high pressure tactics. Some affiliates will not use high pressure tactics on their subscribers. For affiliates like that, tools such as rebrandable ebooks (that actually teach something) which sell your product as a solution to problems mentioned in the ebook, work MUCH better. Use rebrander software such as Viral Document Toolkit to allow your affiliate to rebrand links, and even text in these ebooks.

4) Your Timing Is Incredibly Poor

If you are in a niche where there are hundreds of new product launches each month, such as Internet marketing, then your timing is critical! If your launch coincides with another MAJOR big ticket launch, your launch may simply be drowned out by all of the "noise" made by those promoting the other product. Your list members may be bombarded by some much email for the other product that they don't even SEE yours.

To avoid this, you need to consult launch calendars, such as the one available through The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. Savvy product owners make sure that THEIR product launches, events, and even free giveaways are in this database.

Those planning product launches who don't want BIG disappointments consult this database to see what else is planned for the days, or weeks that they plan to do their launch.

Consulting a database such as one provided by IAJVB also uncovers another opportunity. When you see other launches in your niche, you are also looking at events where you can piggy-back or dove-tail your launches.

Instead of competing head-to-head with product launches in your niche, why not contact some of the other product owners and propose working together. Use their product as a backend to your product and ask them to do the same. Maybe ask them to offer your product to their exit traffic that doesn't convert.

There are dozens of ways that you can work WITH others in your niche when you know what they have planned, and you'll get much better results.

Another major thing that you'll accomplish is that you'll get more affiliate who actually promote your product. That's because you won't be forcing affiliates to choose between competing launches... instead you can coordinate for them to promote both launches... sometimes even with one email :-)

You put far too much blood, sweat, and tears into your product launch to allow it to hit a brick wall. Go back and read the common reason that joint venture partners DON'T promote launches... even after they've indicated that they will. Eliminate as many of those reasons from your product launch sequence as possible.

Doing a successful product launch with dozens, or even hundreds, of joint venture partners is not rocket science. However, like any "science" it does involve careful observation of what is actually happening, and responding appropriately. Now you know how to respond to the reasons joint venture partners often don't promote.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is founder of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, and Executive Directory of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. An accomplished joint venture broker, and affiliate marketer for over a decade, Willie shares his experience at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

Beware The Internet Marketing Value Vampires

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford


Thousands of aspiring Internet marketers come online every year, filled with hopes of earning a full-time living from the Internet. They learn HOW to actually accomplish that, yet they never reach their dreams.

Many get so close, and yet they are stopped by ONE thing.

They are stopped by an insidious poison that is so subtle that it kills all chances that they have of success in a way that leaves them with a smile on their faces.

That success killer is a "class of poisons" called "The Value Vampires."

Value vampires are people and things that allow you to gradually master a valuable skill, and then act as if that skill has no value. It's people and thoughts that cause you to undervalue things that you create.

Symptoms of value vampires operating in your universe include:

You spend countless hours writing ebooks and then give them away, or don't even distribute them, because you become convinced that the information that they contain is "common knowledge."

You host teleseminar where you teach people things that they need to know, and you don't charge anything for the teleseminars or recordings because you consider what you teach "common knowledge" or "common sense."

You record interviews or teleseminars and then give away the MP3's, and PDF's that you pay to have created, because you become convinced that the information they contain is "common knowledge."

You spend countless hours creating Camtasia videos showing how to do things such as configure scripts, generate website traffic, or create products, and then you give the videos away because you assume that "everyone already knows what you teach."

STOP for a moment and examine what you're doing!

You're undervaluing your unique knowledge, experience, and skills. You're concluding that because what you're sharing is actually easy for you now, it can't have any real value.

After acknowledging what's keeping your from actually earning a living from sharing your knowledge and skills, you need to ask WHY you behave that way.

If you are like many Internet marketers with a wealth of valuable information, but aren't earning a decent living from it, the problem is very likely caused by value vampires that you can readily "identify."

These are people that you interact with everyday who tell you "point blank" that you should give away your hard work.

They imply that it can't possibly have any real value.

They subtly hint that you should feel guilty having the audacity to charge someone for your ebooks, audios, videos, teleseminars, and even LIVE events.

At the same time, these value vampire consume virtually EVERYTHING that you produce. They value what you produce enough to ask for a steady supply of it, yet lead you to believe that it has no value.

Do you see the inconsistency?

I'm not implying that you need to charge for everything that you produce and share.

I AM pointing out that if you've been in business online for years, know how to do lots of things, and teach others how to do lots of things, and you're still struggling, you MAY be a victim of the value vampires.

I AM pointing out that if people are constantly asking you for files that you create, then they're confirming that your "output" has real value, and that you should probably be charging for some of it.

Step back and examine your online activities today. Ask yourself if you are falling prey to "the value vampires." The first step to protecting yourself from them is learning to recognize them.

After recognizing the problem, the next logical step to finally building a profitable online business, is treating it like a business. Ask yourself if you'd behave the same way if your products were meals in a brick and mortar restaurant.

Now that you've become aware of the Internet marketing value vampires, the only reason you need be victimized by them is that you enjoy it :-)


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is an internationally-acclaimed speaker, author, seminar and radio show host, and leading Internet marketing expert. When not out fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, Willie can be found sharing his 11 1/2 years of online marketing experience with members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle. Join them today at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

Expired Domain Traffic-Is It A Bane Or Boon?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 John Khu


There are two or three different classes of expired domain traders and they always look for different things when buying their preferred expired domain names. What one works for a domain trader may not really work for others! One class of traders may choose and buy names for future web site development, while the second class of traders make it a point to buy an expired domain name with a specific future customer in mind.

However, there is a third group of traders, who consistently buy expired domains with plenty of expired domain traffic or expired traffic. These traders value expired traffic immensely and for them, an expired domain with plenty of expired traffic is a god-sent opportunity and a great money making option.

Traders buy expired domains just for their expired traffic and they park their domains at highly lucrative places that provide them an opportunity to earn some form of income. These domains parked on web portals like Sedo ensures an ongoing income just enough to sustain the cost of maintaining the expired domain. Domains that come with considerable amount of expired traffic are always premium and costly given their immense commercial value and importance.

Now, the most important and critical question is how can one find an expired domain with plenty of expired traffic? Right now, there are just a few methods that will help you to find the amount of traffic. But, you can be assured of its traffic, once you find an expired domain and track the traffic statistics over that domain. Most of the traffic associated with a given expired domain could be useless and commercially unviable. Some amount of traffic can come from either links or type-ins. For example, absolutelyenhanted.com is not that sort of domain that a person will automatically type on the browser window. However, this type of domains could have a substantial amount of traffic associated with it. You can use a convenient tool that will allow you to find out how many links a well known web portal like Alexa.com shows, to see if the domain still has a traffic ranking, or you can alternatively use PageRank.net to see, if the domain has a Google PageRank or not.

However, you should be extremely cautious, while buying an expired domain exclusively for expired domain traffic. In many cases, people like you may be just trying to see, if the domain you are trying to buy has an established expired traffic. This type of traffic is not the real traffic and search engine may never recognize this traffic. Again, if the expired domain that you buy has a number of traffic it does not mean that the traffic is real. May be the links point to dead sites or to a place where no one ever visits.

Thus, to identify whether an expired domain has a verifiable source of traffic or not is actually quite difficult. You will also need to try and use a number of tools and utilities to verify the expired domain and its expired traffic.


About the Author:
John Khu is an author and also a seasoned professional with vast experience in expired domain name business. He is the owner of the path breaking web site called http://www.expireddomainsecret.com which provides complete and up-to-date information on expired domains and their eternal secrets.

Have We Really Seen The Death Of Article Marketing?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Bill Platt


Article marketing has been an effective method of website promotion that has literally been used since the inception of the public Internet. I have been online since November of 1995, and even in those early days, I would read people's articles and click the link in their resource box to learn more about their website.

The Early Days of Article Marketing

In those early days, there were a few players who recognized the value of article marketing. The two writers who were most influential to my use of article marketing, as a promotion method, were:

Dr. Nunley (http://www.DrNunley.com) has been online since 1996, and this website was registered in Oct. of 1997. Dr. Nunley was influential in that he taught me the power of syndicated article content.

Wild Bill Montgomery (http://www.MakingProfit.com) started his website in Nov. of 1998. Wild Bill offered one of the very first article distribution websites. I received his daily mailings for nearly a year, until he shut his article system down. I subscribed to Wild Bill's mailings, so that I could locate articles for my own publication and website, and later to distribute my own articles.


It was in the aftermath of the demise of Montgomery's article distribution system that I wrote my first script to enable me to make better use of this promotional method for my own articles. That original script was adapted later to became the foundation for my article distribution service a couple years later.

How Article Marketing Came To Be Regarded As A Powerful Tool

For several years, article marketing remained a promotion technique utilized only by a few hundred people who fancied themselves as decent to good writers. These individuals were able to generate quite a buzz for their own websites. The buzz in turn created streams of traffic to their websites, and more importantly, sales.

Their articles were picked up regularly by ezines, which need good content to retain the attention of their readers. Publication of the articles in ezines resulted in thousands of website visitors in just a few days. My biggest ezine publication event resulted in 16,000 visitors in the first 96 hours after publication. I regularly see thousands of visitors in three-to-four days, due to publication in individual ezines.

Articles that I had written in 1999 still reside on websites where they were originally published those many years ago. And, I still see regular traffic from the placement of those articles. Yes, and I still retain link popularity and good search engine rankings, as the result of the placement of those articles on third-party websites.

Many writers were seeing the same results as I had seen, and they told others about their great success. People began to pay attention and take advantage of the technique for their own promotion.

A New Breed Of Article Marketers

In late 2004, the market changed when people decided that the only goal of article marketing was for the purpose of link building for link popularity purposes.

A few new distribution systems popped up only targeting placement of articles on third-party websites. With these new systems, the article writers had to put their own articles into the distribution services database, and they had to select a general category for the placement of their articles.

Suddenly, with these new fully automated systems, computers were left to answer the most important question of category placement. These new systems left this important question to the computers to solve.

People were being removed from the article placement process, because people cost more money to employ, leaving a lot of results to chance. But, the new breed of article marketers did not care. They liked the lower cost of human-free article placement.

The Four Primary Players in of a Successful Article Marketing Campaign

There are four primary players in the article marketing game. First of course is the writer. Then there is the distribution person or service. Third is the website owner or ezine publisher. And the final element is the person who will read the article and act upon what they read in the article.

Sometimes the writer is the same person as the distribution person. That is fine. The website owner or ezine publisher is actually the most important person in the link building process, because he or she wants to be sure that the fourth person, the reader, will be happy with what they are publishing.

Believe it or not, the website owners and the ezine publishers are frequently very selective about what articles they are willing to accept from a writer or distribution service. After all, if the readers are not happy with what is published on the website or ezine, then the reader will not feel a need to return to either one. Webmasters and ezine publishers, who are committed to success, will be even more selective in their article choices.

To see what website owners really think of many of the automated article distribution systems, read this: http://www.articledashboard.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4679

Any writer or article marketer, who does not pay attention or consider the needs or desires of webmasters or publishers in the process, is condemning their article marketing campaigns to failure.

Twisted Logic

When this new breed of article marketer began showing up at my article distribution service, I found myself in many strangely naïve conversations.

People would enquire about the value of our service. Naturally, I would mention publication in ezines as a method of driving thousands of targeted visitors to their website. Then I would mention the value of links on third-party websites, which results in the double benefit of targeted traffic from the third-party website and link popularity for search engine rankings.

Frequently, people would tell me that they literally "do not care about placement of their articles in ezines." They continued to explain that they were only interested in placement on third-party websites for the purpose of influencing their search engine rankings.

Wow! Every time I heard someone make this claim, I would think to myself about the shortsightedness of this approach. In my experience, link popularity and search rankings were a long-term benefit, and the publication of an article in an ezine is what was generating the most immediate and largest amount of click-through traffic to my websites.

But, who am I? I am just some guy who had been using this marketing technique for five years at that time, and I was a person who had been providing distribution services to other writers for several years. Why would anyone want to hear my thoughts on the subject?

The Proclaimed Death of Article Marketing as an Effective Promotion Tool

I have been hearing rumors for years of the death of article marketing as an effective marketing tool. Here are a couple samples:

Dmitri Davydov proclaimed in June of 2007 that "'article marketing' has been long dead." (http://www.nichegeek.com/article_marketing_is_it_dead_yet)

In May of 2007, a few people in this forum thread declared that article marketing does not work, one of them just a little more vehemently than the rest (http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=338394).

What I find somewhat funny and disconcerting at the same time is that most of the people making this proclamation actually admit that they have only tried article marketing with "one or two articles". In their wisdom, you should ignore people like me who have seen success with this promotion method, and you should follow their advice to abandon all hope for article marketing as a method for website promotion.

I have asked a few people to better define the status of article marketing:

1. Does article marketing not work? Or, 2. Did article marketing just not work for them?

The Nail in the Paid Links Coffin

On April 14th, 2007, the Google Guy (Matt Cutts) spoke out against paid links. A firestorm of complaints from webmasters followed Cutts' initial comments.

On June 12th, 2007, Cutts' original comments became official Google policy as shown here (http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/06/more-ways-for-you-to-give-us-input.html)

Vanessa Fox (formerly) of Google summed up the issue very succinctly, "Links that are purchased are great for advertising and traffic purposes, but aren't useful for PageRank calculations. Buying or selling links to manipulate results and deceive search engines violates (Google's) guidelines."

Confusion Ensues Over Paid Links

With Google officially stomping on "paid links," a lot of confusion entered into the marketplace. The confusion really hinges on one simple question: What kinds of links does Google consider to be paid links?

Many people have extrapolated Google's campaign against "paid links" to suggest that anytime someone pays money for a link building activity, then the links created during that activity will be construed by Google as a paid link, and that link will be discounted or ignored by Google. But, that simply is not the case.

Some have even chosen to lump "article marketing" as a "paid link", thereby decreeing that article marketing is truly and finally dead.

But all one has to do to gain a different point of view is to listen to Matt Cutts' comments from the SMX Search Marketing Expo in Seattle on June 4th, 2007 (http://videos.webpronews.com/2007/06/04/smx-seattle-matt-cutts-on-duplicate-and-paid-search/).

Within this video, Matt Cutts said, "If you are going to syndicate your content, try to make sure people know that you are the master or source of it. You can do it with a link from the article or link from the video, or stuff like that..."

The End of Article Marketing As We Knew It...

I don't know about you, but I read Cutts' last comment above as an indication that Google still considers article marketing to be a valid and Google-approved method of building links to one's website.

But, no matter how we cut it, we have in fact passed "the end of article marketing as we once knew it." Here is why:

Some people will never have the chance to read this article and make their own mind about whether what I say has merit, or not.

Some people will simply trust the fear mongers who have been trying to declare article marketing dead for years.

And, some people will decide that they are not willing to take the chance that I might be right.

Going forward, we will see a fewer people using article marketing as a promotion technique.

The fact is that many people have quit using article marketing as a promotion technique. This outcome will only strengthen the hand of those of us who continue to utilize article marketing to promote our websites. After all, with fewer people using articles to market their websites, we will have fewer writers to compete with, in order to get attention for our own articles.


About the Author:
Bill Platt has offered article marketing services at The Phantom Writers, since 2001. If you are interested in guaranteed link building services, utilizing articles as the foundation for the links, then Bill's team can help you with that as well. If you have questions that only Bill can answer, give him a call at (405) 780-7745, between 9am-6pm CST, Monday through Friday.

How To Get And Keep More Loyal Ezine Subscribers

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford


When I noticed an automatically generated note from one of my email list hosting accounts at ProfitAutomation warning me that the account was approaching the 200,000 subscriber limit, and that I needed to increase its size, I realized that I finally had all of the subscribers that I really "needed." That account is one of five that I have with ProfitAutomation, and I also have one with Aweber.

So, while I still have a goal of building my database to over 1 million subscribers before the end of 2008, subconsciously I have to admit... that's somewhat for "bragging rights."

As I studied list building over the years, I eventually realized

that a more important question than how to grow your list is "How do you keep loyal subscribers."

Growing a large list is fairly simple... depending upon your definition of large.

It's as simple as:

Having a subscribe box on every page of your website

Having a subscribe box somewhere in the backend of each sales processes

Giving people a very specific reason for subscribing (telling them what benefit they'll gain from being on your list)

Using testimonials from happy subscribers to prove that other already enjoy your ezine

Focusing your ezine on a tightly niched topic that your audience has a real interest in

There are other things that you can do such as joint ventures, and finding ways to get in front of other publishers' audiences, but it all centers around answering the question of "What's in it for me?" that all of your potential subscribers have.

Once you get subscribers though, how do you keep them?

My friend Paul Myers, in his ebook, "The Amazing List Machine" taught me that you simply deliver to your subscribers what you promised them when they first joined your list.

If your ezine is on affiliate marketing, then your content teaches them affiliate marketing.

If your ezine is on website traffic generation then your content teaches them about website traffic generation.

If your ezine is on cooking (as one of mine is) then you teach them to cook.

Sounds fairly simple doesn't it?

If you give your subscribers what you promised them when you enticed them to join your list, they should stay on your list, and read your newsletters, provided their needs don't change.

For many ezine publishers, the tougher question becomes "How do I monetize my list without driving off subscribers." After all, isn't that why most of us started a newsletter?

Yes, it's fun writing something that people enjoy reading. It's nice getting emails telling you how long they've been a subscriber, and how much of a difference your lessons have made in their lives.

However, that won't put food on your table. So, how do you monetize your list?

The answer is that you offer them goods and services directly related to the topic of your list. If your list is on cooking, then you offer them cookbooks, and cooking gadgets, and perhaps cooking videos... or live workshops.

If you ezine is about list-building then you offer them supplemental courses on list-building. You offer them software that automates the process more. You offer them case-studies that show how others are building large, responsive lists.

The whole process is fairly simple when you step back and look at it. You entice subscribers to join your list by promising them exactly what they want (that you can deliver). You keep them by delivering what you promised. Finally, you monetize your list by selling them things that make it easier for them to get what they were looking for when they first joined your list.

Take a few minutes now and examine your process. Honestly look for weak points in your system... and then fix them. Then you too will one day realize the you no longer need to focus on growing your list. Then the challenge becomes deepening the relationship that you have with list members, although you should have been focused on that all along too :-)


About the Author:
Willie Crawford has been running an online business, largely driven by email marketing, since late-1996. He is the author of the popular ebook "How I Boosted My Ezine Sign-Up Rate By 5200 MORE Subscribers Per Month - Virtually Overnight - And You Can Too." Get your copy now at http://TheRealSecrets.com/5200/

Sales Pages With Style - Create Quality Sales Pages With CSS

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Elizabeth Adams


Sales pages, to be effective, must immediately catch the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page needs to be both easy to read and understand. If the content-display styling is well-crafted, the sales message can be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. An interested reader will re-read the page for the details.

Sales copy provides the content which entices the reader to move deeper into the page towards the "Order Now" button.

The job of a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), is to

facilitate page navigation,

improve readability, and

call attention to important content.

There are lots of articles and ebooks available on the Web about "writing" profitable sales copy. You can easily find them with a quick search. This article focuses on "styling" the sales page and its content with CSS.

There are several advantages to using CSS for display styling. One of the best reasons is that it frees the copywriter from initial concerns about page formatting. Using very basic HTML code, such as that allowed for submissions to ezinearticles, the page content can be written with any basic text editor without concern for special content formatting.

Before any CSS styling has been applied, the sales page would not convert any prospects. At this stage, the HTML document contains all of the "content" that will be used. Text and images will typically be positioned on the page in roughly the order these elements will be used in the final sales page. CSS will make everything "pop" and "sizzle" when it is applied to the page.

After the sales copy is written, important page elements (identified through HTML tags) and content (information between HTML tags) can be identified and linked to the appropriate CSS formatting code, contained in separate CSS text file, for browser display. A previous article of mine, published at ezinearticles, explains how the HTML content gets linked to the CSS file. Briefly, the HTML-CSS link is done through the HTML "link" meta tag and content is identified through class and id tag attributes and through the use of the HTML span tag.

Content-specific styling includes special text formatting, such as highlighting and quotations, and the placement of items such as images and forms within the page.

I like to display the content in roughly the middle half of the monitor display and use a line length of about 60 characters. I also like to use a large enough font size to make blocks of text easy to read.

Because the page layout is so important, I use a fixed table design for the content: the content is placed in the center of the display and is framed in by wide right and left margins and narrow top and bottom margins. If the width of the browser page is narrowed by the reader, the right and left margins will narrow equally but the content area will remain the same width, and thus the content layout remains the way it was designed (i.e., not "liquid").

Essentially, my basic page layout consists of 4 nested "boxes:"

HTML Box -- demarcated by html tags and contains all other boxes.

BODY Box -- demarcated by body tags and contains the table and main-content boxes.

Table Box -- demarcated by table tags and contains the main-content box.

Main-Content Box -- demarcated by div tags and contains the sales-page content.

The HTML box includes the entire HTML document (except for the document-type declaration). The Body box contains everything visible to the reader. The Table box contains the sales page. The Main-Content box, as the name implies, includes all of the visible content of the sales page.

A sales page requires both global and content-specific CSS styling. Global styling includes such considerations as the page background, default font and line attributes, and page margins. Here is the global code I include in my CSS text file for sales pages:

body

{

font-size : 62.5%;

font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;

color : black;

line-height : normal;

background-image : Specify the image URL here;

}

#main_content

{

font-size : 1.6em; /* this sets the default font size for the sales page and will display at 16px */

margin : 5%;

}

h1

{

font-size : 2.25em; /* will display at 36px */

}

h2

{

font-size : 1.5em; /* will display at 24px */



}

h3

{

font-size : 1.25em; /* will display at 20px */

}

h4

{

font-size : 1.125em; /* will display at 18px */

}

table.sales-letter

{

width : 60em;

margin-left : auto;

margin-right : auto;

table-layout : fixed;

background : #ffffff;

}

The body code above sets the default for the document's font size to 62.5% of 16px or 10px (px = pixels). This is too small for my sales page, and I adjust it in the #main_content section. The CSS body code also sets the font color to black, the line spacing to normal, the font family to sans-serif (with Verdana as the first choice), and specifies a blue background image used for the body background.

I use the #main_content code to set the actual base font size I use for the sales page text. All other font sizes in the sales page are sized relative to this base. Unless otherwise specified, all text in the sales page will be 1.6em or 16px. I use the margin attribute to provide content spacing between the content and borders around content.

The "Hn" tags set the basic header sizes and are calculated based on the font size I specified for the #main_content. As an example, since I will be using a default font size of 16px for the sales-page content, the H1 font size would be 2.25x16px or 36px. The "Hn" tags can later be modified with additional attributes, such as color and centering.

The CSS table attributes I use place the sales page in roughly the middle half of the full-size display page (1024 x 768 pixels). The width of the table, 600px, is just right for the line length I want to use. Since the table-layout attribute is "fixed," the table layout in the browser will be preserved at all times.

Since all of the font sizes are relative to the font size I set in the #main_content section, all sizes can be made larger or smaller by changing just the one value. For more information about the use of ems for sizing, I would suggest a visit to a blog post by Richard Rutter.

After the global formatting is applied page now has some nice-appearing structure.The content now lies between attractive borders and the content is contained on a "page" with adequate margins and on a background of choice.

Below are 12 additional tips, including the CSS code, you can use to stylize specific elements and text in your sales pages.

(1) I want my headline to be big, bold, red, and centered. Here is the CSS code I use:

h1.headline

{

line-height : 1.5;

color : #cc0000;

text-align : center;

}

(2) I use a smaller, blue, bold, and centered sub-headline.

h2.subheadline

{

line-height : 1.5;

color : #1b356e;

text-align : center;

}

(3) I use a small font size for the spider text and copyright. I position the spider text at the top of the page for the benefit of search engines.

#spidertext, #copyright

{

font-size : 1.2em;

}

(4) I use CSS code to position my photo so that it "floats" to the right and any text to the left flows around the photo.

.photo

{

float : right;

display : inline;

}

(5) If you want to center section headings and color the text red or blue, here is usable code:

h3.red

{

line-height : 1.5;

color : #cc0000;

text-align : center;

}

h4.blue

{

line-height : 1.5;

color : #1b356e;

text-align : center;

}

(6) I change the font type for quotations. Using Courier New sets the quotes apart from normal body text.

.quote

{

font-family : "Courier New", Courier, monospace;

}

(7) I use an unnumbered list for my benefits list. The list can be customized to use a custom bullet and extra space between list elements. The CSS code to accomplish my custom list formatting is as follows:

li

{

list-style-position: inside;

list-style-image: Specify the image URL here;

list-style-type: none;

margin-bottom: 1em

}

(8) You can highlight important text with a yellow background.

.highlight

{

background-color : yellow;

}

(9) You can emphasize text by making it bold.

.bold

{

font-weight : bold;

}

.boldred

{

font-weight : bold;

color : #cc0000;

}

.boldblue

{

font-weight : bold;

color : #0000ff;

}

(10) I like to make sales-page testimonials special by framing them and using a pastel background for the text.

.testimonial

{

display : block;

margin-left : auto;

margin-right : auto;

background : #fffacc;

padding : 1em;

border : double;

border-width : thick;

border-color : #999999;

}

(11) The purchase form is a very important component of the sales page. I use a red-dashed border for the form.

.purchase-form

{

padding : 1.5em;

border : dashed;

border-width :medium;

border-color : #FF0000 ;

background : #fffac6;

}

(12) If you use an image and associate a link with it, you will want to turn off the border or you will get a distracting blue border around the image.

a img

{

border : 0;

}

After all CSS styling has been applied, the sales page now has some "snap" and "pop". The colorful headline immediately catches the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page is now easy to read and much easier to understand. The well-crafted content-display makes it possible for the sales message to be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. After a preliminary scan, an interested reader will more than likely re-read the page for the details.

To get a ZIP file of the HTML and CSS files mentioned in this article and that you can use for practice or for your own templates, please visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com A full-color PDF of the article is also available for download.

Sample web pages showing the template sales page without CSS applied, with just global CSS applied, and with all CSS applied can be seen at http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/template/exhibits.html

To look at a "real" sales page that used the CSS techniques discussed in this article, you can visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/greatheadlines


About the Author:
Elizabeth Adams has been writing direct sales copy since the early 1990's, when she employed several people to handle mailings and product fulfillment for her postcard marketing business. Elizabeth learned in direct mail how to tweak her sales copy on the run and improve her sales conversion by as much as 400% in only one mailing. She learned how to write a great headline and effective sales copy. Get "Great Headlines - Instantly" today to learn how to do for yourself what Elizabeth learned in the trenches: http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/greatheadlines

What Your Customers Really Crave

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Andrea Conway


Your customers want something from you. It's not your rock-bottom prices. Not your wacky publicity stunts. Not your mastery of Google ads, social networking sites, or brilliant podcasting techniques.

Sure, that stuff gets their attention. And I hope it goes without saying that you must offer a quality product with excellent customer service.

But beyond those givens, what customers really crave is ... you.

Your originality.

To keep customers, allow them to see into your heart and soul. They want that connection. We all do.

In this attraction-based universe, your perfect customers are drawn to your energy and you to theirs. But they can't be drawn if you're not beaming an original signal to attract them.

Back in the early 90s I did a lot of copywriting for huge corporations about "customer retention," "customer loyalty," and "customer satisfaction."

The VPs of marketing who hired me didn't want to hear about heart, soul and deep connections.

Fortunately, today is the era of the individual entrepreneur. Most creative people these days want to have their own businesses and control their own time and destiny.

It's finally OK to express our authentic selves in business! In fact, it's imperative that we do so.

Why imperative? Because the Internet has created one vast marketplace in which millions of individual entrepreneurs compete.

Stressing out about competition isn't necessary when you express who you really are. The Law of Attraction broadcasts your originality to everyone you can serve.

Take Dave, the enthusiastically original owner of the UPS store franchise where I receive my mail. His sincere interest in his business keeps me from switching to any of his rivals, though there are half a dozen mailbox store franchises within two miles of me.

Dave knows my name, greets me cheerfully, offers to take care of my copying jobs while I run other errands, and forwards my mail religiously when I'm in Arizona for the winter.

Two years ago, when Dave's youngest son died unexpectedly, he bravely expressed his grief and agony to his customers. That took guts.

People often ask me for "tips and techniques" they can use with the Law of Attraction to become more successful. Their requests come from an outdated business model based on manipulation.

Why struggle to manipulate? Relax, be your original self, and allow the Law of Attraction to bring your perfect customers to you.


About the Author:
Andrea Conway, M.Ed., C.C., is the law of attraction success mentor for solopreneurs and small business owners ready to make all the money they want at the business they love. Get an instant bonus e-report, "Fire Up Your Business Success Using the Law of Attraction," when you subscribe to her free e-zine at http://www.succcessfulselfemployment.com. You could qualify for a free 30-minute coaching session!

The Clash Of Titans: Article Directory Owners Vs. Automated Article Submission Services

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Bill Platt


Article marketing has been considered a useful method of promotion on the Internet, since the very early days of the Internet. By writing an informative article, writers have been able to get their sales message read by millions of online consumers, through their resource box that follows their articles. Until 2005, the whole point of article marketing was for the purpose of attracting huge numbers of readers as a result of the articles being published in ezines that had a large reader base.

A New Kind Of Article Marketing For Link Popularity

In 2005, Jason Bradley, owner of Article Dashboard, released his free article directory software. Websites that use his software are commonly referred to as AD sites.

During the same time frame, people began turning to article marketing in droves, based on its promise for building link popularity with Yahoo, MSN, and primarily Google. Most people who jumped on the bandwagon in 2005 to endorse article marketing for link popularity purposes promoted a very limited view of this promotional technique.

Their thoughts went along the lines of "the only purpose for article marketing is link popularity." There was no other role for article marketing, they said. And since one only needed to type enough words to get a link into an article directory, the most common recommendation was that articles should only be 300-400 words in length.

It was also commonly recommended that most article directory owners do not review the content submitted to them, so it was not important that the article made sense or pleased the article's readers. After all, the recommendation being made was not for the possibility of generating traffic from articles; it was only for the purposes of influencing the search engine algorithms, which are not capable of actually reading articles for grammar or understanding.

People flocked to this new kind of article marketing, and they were more concerned with "quantity than quality" – quantity of links that is.

Software Developers Rallied

With the mass deployment of websites under the Article Dashboard software, and others since, programmers jumped through hoops and developed new article distribution systems that relied on computers instead of people for the distribution process.

Soon, these programmers had systems in place to mass submit articles to the new breed of article directories. They told the new article directory owners that if they would add a simple script to their website, then the submission service would populate their directories with article content.

Hundreds of directory owners flocked to this new kind of article distribution system.

Early on, people who used article marketing to promote their businesses were elated. They were getting links all over the place.

The Realities Of Article Directory Management Sank In

In September of 2005, one company bought nearly 200 domains and installed the AD software on all of them. By May of 2006, their operation had never actually gained a foothold in the profit sector of the Internet, so they sold their domains to another company. In early 2006, I had documented a list of 180 websites owned by this operation. On a recent review, I was unable to locate a single one of these 180 AD sites still running the AD script, and most were offline completely.

In order to fully understand the job of the article directory manager, the manager must manually approve or reject every article submitted to an AD site. Many AD directory owners realized that the approval process was a long and tedious affair, especially when they were receiving hundreds of articles per day from these automated distribution systems. For testing purposes, I had set up my own AD site and subscribed to receive articles from these automated systems. I let go the approval process for one week and returned to find 800 articles waiting for approval. It does not take long to get overloaded with articles that require manual approval.

After only a few months of operation, many Dashboard sites stop approving articles for one of two reasons: 1) it took too much time to manage their article directory website, or 2) the amount of income generated from the process did not match the time requirements of the directory.

The Clash Of Titans

Things really began to change in the AD directory ownership game a few months into the project. Directory owners began to realize that in order for them to profit from their article directories, they must do something that brings readers to their websites and encourages loyalty from their site's visitors.

Since most article directories rely on advertising to drive their revenue stream, the directory owners had to do something that the other directory owners were not doing. They had to distinguish themselves from the masses.

The AD owners who have survived the early explosion of AD sites have generally taken the attitude that they should focus on "quality over quantity".

This one step has set the goals of the software developers' article distribution systems and their customers (quantity over quality) in conflict with the best interests of the article directory owners (quality over quantity).

Directory Managers Began To Implement New Submission Rules

Early on, many of those article directory owners who were intent on survival took actions to reduce the garbage flowing into their directories. Directory managers noticed trends in the articles that consistently failed to measure up to their new standards.

The owner of Invisible MBA, an educational article directory, told me that he had to review ten articles to find one he wanted to use. He also regularly complained about people who did not follow even the simplest instructions about appropriate content on his website. He eventually resorted to banning 70% of the people submitting articles to his website, including the automated article submission services, because they simply could not follow his category guidelines for submission.

His whole issue is a common complaint among the article directory managers. They insist that writers should take the time to appropriately categorize the articles they submit. Since it takes so long to approve articles manually and to select the correct category, directory managers have resorted to deleting articles instead of categorizing those articles for the writer.

Article Dashboard, Article Garden and many others have taken the step to prohibit the submission of articles that only point to affiliate websites. Article Express had gone one step further to prohibit affiliate links, even if the affiliate programs are advertised from the writer's domain.

Across the board, directory owners have stomped on Private Label Rights (PLR) articles. When article directory managers began to realize that their websites housed dozens of copies of a single article, each of which had been signed by different people as the stated author, they realized that they had a serious quality problem. They instinctively knew that those PLR articles created a trust problem with their readers. When one article has been claimed to have been written by twenty people, it makes one wonder how the website owner can claim to have a quality website. And if the trust factor has already been raised as an issue, why would the reader want to trust anything else on that website?

Lee Asher who owns Articles-Galore and a couple of other AD sites was one of the first to come down hard on software submissions to his website. His guidelines state in no uncertain terms that if someone uses software to send articles to his websites, the person will have all of their articles removed from his website.

Some AD site owners have implemented minimum word count guidelines as a measure to break some of the junk article peddlers. After all, the people focused on writing articles for link popularity are driven by the concept of 300-400 word articles. I have seen word count restrictions that include the minimum of 500, 600 and 700 words. 80% of what is submitted to my AD site does not even have the number of words I require.

Proper Category Placements Is A Consistent Issue For Article Directory Managers

Article directory owners want to impress their readers and the search engines. But, they need the properly categorize articles primarily for their human readers, who are looking for specific information on their website.

In order to help their website visitors, the directory managers frequently update their category arrangements. For example, on my AD site, I provide several well-defined subcategories for the health category. In the cancer subcategory, there is a wide range of cancers that needed their own child categories. Since the AD software only shows 30 articles per listing page, and since there is one writer who has written more than 400 articles just on the topic of mesothelioma, it made sense to subdivide my cancer category so that it was not an advertisement for only one writer.

One of the main problems with the auto-submission software is that the software does not accurately address the up-to-date category hierarchy for each article directory. This creates a real quality issue for the directory owner and managers. In order for the directory manager to stay true to the formatting of his or her directory, he or she must either complete the category selections for the auto-submitters or delete the articles submitted through them. Manual deletions take as much time as manual approvals, unless the manager has to choose the category for the article, then it takes longer.

Article Marketing Still Works For Those Who Care About Quality Over Quantity

If you still like article marketing for its ability to get your business seen by ezine readers, then it is as effective as it has always been. If you only like article marketing for its ability to influence your link popularity, it can still be effective, if you do it right.

It is true that those automated article distribution services can get your article to a lot of websites, but on a percentage basis, how many of those submissions are getting approved?

For my own use, I use my own article distribution service to reach ezine publishers. And for mass directory submission, I prefer to submit articles to the directories by hand, because hand submission permits me to get the category right every time, which in turn permits my articles to get approved more often.

In the end, it is a karma thing – if I treat the directory managers right, they will treat me right by approving more of my articles. Since it is not uncommon for me to spend six to seven hours to write an article like this one, it makes a lot more sense for me to spend the extra time to get a wider reach for my articles, by honoring the desires of the more substantial article directories.


About the Author:
Bill Platt is the owner of thePhantomWriters article distribution and ghost writing services. In business since 2001. http://thePhantomWriters.com

Successful Internet Marketing Without Search Engines

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Bill Platt


Believe me or not, a business can survive and thrive on the Internet without good search engine placement. That does not mean that a Webmaster should not strive to get good rankings in the search engines, but it does mean that a Webmaster should not throw his or her entire advertising budget towards search engine optimization (SEO).

The SEO guys are rolling in their Ferrari's as you read this. I would have said that the SEO guys are rolling their graves, but they are not dead, yet.

There Can Be Only Ten

How many web pages will be listed on page one of the search results at Google? How about on Yahoo or MSN? That is right; there can be only ten web pages listed on page one of the search results.

According to the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org), there are currently 85 billion web pages on the Internet. But, if you have ever used the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, then you know as I know that they have not archived everything that is out there, so that 85-billion number is actually smaller than the real number of existing web pages.

With only ten listings on page one of the search results, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people in the world. They cannot all be on page one of the search results.

First Things First

Search engine optimization is an expensive undertaking, so it should never be taken lightly. I talk to people everyday who are building their first website for the very first time. These folks, bless their hearts, know just enough about Internet marketing to blow their savings on a website that may or may not deliver a profit to them.

There are steps that people should take when they start their website, and SEO is not one of those first steps.

Here is a checklist of steps that the new Webmaster should use in the development of his or her website:

Step One: Select the products or services that the website will sell.

Step Two: Determine if there is a market for what will be sold.

Step Three: Analyze the competition and determine the competition's weaknesses. Competition is about building a better mousetrap or reaching customers that another might be under serving.

Step Four: Build the website to sell the chosen products or services. Sales conversion is the most important element in any successful business model.

Step Five: Run test advertising to figure out what will generate traffic to your website, and more importantly, to figure out what one needs to do in order to sell goods and services.

Testing And Tracking Advertising Results Is Essential

I sold advertising in my newsletter to a guy one time. He paid a nice fee to have his advertisement run in my newsletter, but he did not invest any money in writing or testing his ad first. The advertisement itself was written very badly.

I asked him if he would like to tweak his advertisement before I ran it in my newsletter. He said he did not care what the ad looked like. He just needed me to run his ad.

I offered to rewrite his ad for him to enhance his chances of getting traffic from my newsletter. He agreed and I did.

As the newsletters I subscribed to began rolling in the following week, I noticed his bad advertisement ran in dozens of those newsletters.

I asked him later his results, and he said he had spent $10,000 running that advertisement and closed four sales at $25 each. He spent $10,000 to make $100. Needless to say, his website closed down just a couple months later.

The problem was clearly his ad, but his website may have contributed to his lack of sales conversion.

Starting Small Serves A Very Real Purpose

As we saw with the guy who spent ten grand to make $100, starting small would have been beneficial. It is all a matter of figuring out how to get traffic to one's website and more importantly, how to convert traffic to sales.

One should start small with his or her advertising to find the ad formula that will actually deliver traffic to the website. Once the traffic is coming to the website, the webmaster needs to tweak his or her sales copy to make sure that the copy will close enough sales to justify the expense of a large advertising run.

SEO should be treated in the same way. By using Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC), a webmaster can get an idea as to which keyword phrases will actually generate traffic to a website, and with the right analytical software, the Webmaster can determine which keyword phrases generate clicks that will lead to a sale. .

Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) is a good program to help webmasters figure this out and it is free, but it has its shortcomings.

Popular paid programs include:

http://www.opentracker.net

http://www.keytrail.com

Another two-dozen web analytics applications are reviewed here: http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/internetmarketing_webanalytics.asp

SEO campaigns should never be undertaken until one knows exactly which keywords will actually generate sales for a website. To do otherwise, one runs the risk of optimizing a website for keywords that will not help the website convert traffic to sales.

Advertising Lessons Learned

While testing your advertising and your PPC advertising, a few very important lessons were learned.

First, you learned how to tap into the Law Of Attraction to bring people to your website.

You have learned what keywords you should target, if you decide to optimize your website.

You have learned how to track your successes and your failures with your website analytical software.

And finally, you have learned to tweak your website for the purpose of increasing your sales conversion.

All are very important lessons, because each will contribute to how much money can be earned from a website.

Building Links Is Not About PageRank

If you remember, the title of this article is, "Internet Marketing Without Search Engines." That should imply that this article is not about getting good rankings in Google. By extension, the title should also imply that what I am telling you has "nothing" to do with PageRank.

The fact is that every person using the Internet is clicking on links to take them from one website to another. Some links are in emails; others are in paid adverts on websites, or in informational web pages. Even social bookmarking websites have links to other web pages.

Building links to your website is about getting your sales message, with its accompanying link, in front of the people most likely to buy what you are selling, in a way that encourages your potential customer to click your link and visit your website.

Once you understand who your customers are and where you might be able to reach them, then you will know what steps you need to take to get your link within reach of their mouse.

You may need to buy advertising at that location. You might be able to write an article to give to them, in exchange for a link to your website. You might be able to participate in the website's forums and leave a breadcrumb trail of links for your potential clients to find. You can even create social bookmarks that will point to your website or to a page that points to your website.

The goal of linking is to give your potential customers more ways for them to find your website.

An Ironic Twist To This Tale

Although this article is about thriving on the Internet without relying on search engines, any person who undertakes linking for the sake of attracting customers will find their websites climbing in the search engine results, due to all of those links on targeted and relevant websites pointing to their own website.

Imagine that --- a link that will attract and deliver potential customers to a website AND influence how well a website might rank in the search engines.


About the Author:
Bill Platt has been writing reprint articles for the promotion of his websites since 1999, and now he has written an ebook to share what he has learned. His book is called, "Article Marketing For Traffic, Sales and Profit". Included in the book are many examples and the Five Essential Elements Of Creating A Successful Article. To learn more about Bill's business, visit: http://www.thephantomwriters.com

Why Repeat Offers Are the Key to More Sales

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Judy Murdoch


Last week I attended the Colorado Independent Publisher's Association's monthly meeting. At one point in the meeting I was chatting with Jen, an author who told me how frustrating she found marketing.

When I asked for more details, she told me that after publishing her book, she sent emails and postcards to "everyone she knew." The postcard announced that her book had been published, gave some details about the book, and told them how to buy her book on the Internet.

She got a few nice notes back congratulating her on publishing a book. Sold one or two to friends. And that was it. From this experience Jen concluded that marketing didn't work. Or that she was a terrible marketer. Either way, she was discouraged. Then I told the Jen something that surprised her.

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What Went Wrong?
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I told her that her strategy to announce her book to everyone in her contact list was very sound marketing.

Why? It was inexpensive, she was getting in touch with people who wanted to support her, and she wrote a friendly, informative offer with clear steps on what to do next.

So what did Jen do wrong?

Simple: she made only one attempt to contact prospects.

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Rule of Seven
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I talk with small business owners all the time and this is one of the most common problems I hear.

Fortunately, the solution is simple.

Just repeat the offer to the same audience over time.

How many times? Seven times. For how long? A minimum of eight weeks, preferably more.

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People Need Reminders
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When I say this to small business owners guess what they say? "I don't want to annoy people."

Of course you don't! But unless your product or service is addressed at solving an important, urgent situation, people will not act on your first offer. They may not even act on your second, third, or fourth offer.

This doesn't mean they're not interested in buying from you. It just means they're not ready to buy NOW.

In Jen the author's case, people reading her announcement, probably thought, "cool, Jen published her book, I'll have to check it out" and went back to whatever it was they were doing.

I bet you can relate.

If they stop getting reminders they will forget.

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Keys to Creating Effective Reminders
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#1. Send Offers Once a Week or Every Other Week

When you send an offer once a week or once every other week, you are reinforcing the message over time. Each time they get the message, your prospects are a little more likely to remember and more importantly to ACT.

#2. Add Value with Each Offer

Keeping your offer consistent is important for reinforcing your prospect's memory.

To keep their interest, however, you want to include a new piece of information that adds a bit of value.

For example, Jen could send new, relevant information with each offer by including a section in the email that she could change each time the offer went out.

In the first offer she could included a paragraph about what inspired her to write the book. Over the next six weeks, she could used the section for reader testimonials, to tell a success story, to share information about support groups, and so on.

In this way, she reinforces the offer but keeps it from getting stale by including new, useful information.

#3. Create Urgency

Never underestimate the power of inertia when you create your marketing. This is especially true if your product or service is about preventing a problem from happening or has a payout that's more than 3 months in the future.

How? - Early registration discounts with clear deadlines

Keeping count of the number of available spaces (example, "only two seats remaining"

Remind prospects of the cost for not taking care of their problem (example: if you're tired of losing sales because you just don't know how to talk with prospects)

WARNING: Make sure your urgency is based on truth. If you haven't sold a single seat, don't advertise your seminar as being "75% full."

The message you want to give is this "if you're thinking this product, service, etc will help, take action. I really want you to get the support you need."

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Bottom Line
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When it comes to marketing, once is not enough. To get results from your marketing you MUST:

1. Make the same offer seven or more times over a period of 8 to 12 weeks
2. Add value each time you make the offer
3. Create urgency to counter natural inertia.


About the Author:
Judy Murdoch helps small business owners create low-cost, effective marketing campaigns using word-of-mouth referrals, guerrilla marketing activities, and selected strategic alliances. To download a free copy of the workbook, "Where Does it Hurt? Marketing Solutions to the problems that Drive Your Customers Crazy!" go to http://www.judymurdoch.com/workbook.htm
You can contact Judy at 303-475-2015 or judy@judymurdoch.com

The Business Opportunity: Global Resorts Network

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2008 Kevin Opper


When you start looking into the possibility of going into business for yourself, you are going to want to be sure that you are looking into all of your options. Particularly when there are economic challenges nationwide, you want to take the time to consider those things that interest you as well as that you are passionate about doing. However, there's one more consideration that you'll want to be sure that you make: what do other people need even more now than they often have in the past?

If you know that you are passionate about travel - and you understand just how much everyone wants to be able to get away every now and then - you will want to be sure to look into business opportunities within the travel industry. Of course, before you start to think that getting into the travel industry means opening up a full fledge travel agency, keep in mind that there are other alternatives available to you - you just have to be sure that you're looking for them.

For example, not every business opportunity in the travel industry includes helping others to find the airline tickets that will help them get to their destination. Not every business opportunity within the travel industry is focused on providing hotel reviews and helping to book those rooms that the hotels have left - on making last minute reservations. Similarly, not every business opportunity within the travel industry involves buying and selling time-share profits.

Unfortunately, when many people make the choice to take advantage of the opportunities that exist for business within the travel industry, they focus on the big picture of the market. Rather than choosing a clearly defined business opportunity, they try to go it alone. Rather than taking advantage of those business opportunities that allow them to take a closer look at what people really want and to provide those services, they focus on what they think that people are looking for and try to provide it.

When you do not take the time to choose a business opportunity within the travel industry that is all but guaranteed to help you to reach your goals - a legitimate business opportunity that puts you in control - you ultimately will not see the success that is possible. On the other hand, when you know what you are looking for and you are able to make educated choices, then you will find profit opportunities abound within the travel industry.

Don't believe that there is an ideal business opportunity within the travel industry? Don't believe that it is still possible to open your own travel business, to learn from those who have achieved the level of success that you imagine? Don't believe that there are still opportunities within the travel industry that will allow you to travel for pennies on the dollar while making the kind of income that will allow you to leave your fulltime job behind and to retire earlier than you thought possible?

If any of the above questions pinned your perspective down, it's clear that you have not looked into the business opportunity that is created by Global Resorts Network.

With this travel industry business opportunity, you will find that you are able to open your own business without starting from scratch; and you will be joining a business with more than twenty years of experience. More importantly, you will find that you are able to find mentors willing and able to help you develop your business into a real moneymaking endeavor. You will also find that your mentors in this business opportunity will be more than happy to help you achieve the level of success you truly deserve.

Most importantly, when you form your travel industry business in partnership with Global Resorts Network, you will find that you are able to focus on providing something that people everywhere are looking for - the opportunity to travel to exotic destinations, with enough money left over to truly enjoy their vacations. With the rising costs associated with airline travel and fuel, your business within the travel industry will help to ensure that some of the world's greatest destinations remain attractive as ever to those who want to get out there and take advantage of all that the world has to offer.

Imagine the pleasure that you will receive when you are able to offer a service that people want, help them to save money on their purchase, and to help them get more joy from their own vacations, during an economic cycle that most people would consider detrimental to their travel plans. Imagine further if you will the pleasure and satisfaction you can achieve when you able to make a good living for you and your family, while you are providing this needed service to other families, who are itching to hit the road this summer.


About the Author:
Kevin Opper is involved with the Global Resorts Network business opportunity himself, and he is happy to be involved in a business that not only helps people earn a good living online, but also an opportunity that offers real value to the end customer. Travel is a product that people are always willing to spend money. Many people look forward all year to take their yearly vacation, but with the rising costs of fuel, many people are having to rethink their plans. But with this program, we can help people keep their vacation plans intact: http://www.travel-5star-resorts.com

What Does Your SEO Linking Portfolio Look Like?

Article Presented by:
Copyright © 2007-2008 Bill Platt


Commercial webmasters have been taught that link popularity has a great influence on whether a website will rank well in the search engines. There is a lot of truth in this teaching, but I have to tell you that the way that most people practice building links is wrong and may end up hurting their website in the search results.

Carpet Bombing Is Dead

Google understands that people are always looking to manipulate Google's search results. Every time Google makes an enhancement to their systems, someone gets clever and figures out a new way to manipulate the system, so they can sell their SEO services to desperate webmasters.

It is a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse. Google understands as we do that a top ten listing in Google's search results can make millionaires overnight.

When it first became clear that a massive number of links could contribute to link popularity and propel a website to the top of the search listings, deep pocket companies came out of the woodwork to carpet bomb the web with their links.

In April of 2007, Matt Cutts of Google-fame announced Google's intention to take a bite out of the "paid links" trade. Everyone from webmasters who were selling links on high PageRank pages to people who were trying to buy top listings in Google were crying about Google's interference in the "paid links" industry.

Cutts was not pulling any punches when he shared his news about Google's intention of minimizing the effect of "paid links" in their search algorithms. He said it, and three months later, Google was implementing new algorithms to limit the effect of paid links.

Taking a bite out of paid links was only step one in the war against the carpet bombers.

Step two was implemented rather quietly a short time later, and it appears to me to have been the more successful of the two steps.

What Does Your Link Portfolio Look Like?

Most webmasters generate their links in one of several ways.

For free links, webmasters seek out reciprocal links, directory listings, forum postings with signatures, etc.

Those webmasters who have a little bit of a marketing budget undertake article marketing as an additional method for generating links.

People who have an even bigger marketing budget often consider press releases, paid blog reviews, etc.

Those with the really deep pockets had always used paid links to step above the crowds.

Those webmasters who are really clever build "link baits". Link baiting is a concept where someone creates a page that other people will "want to link". The most common link baits provide some kind of tool, such as a calculator, or a paint color-selector, or a java-based application that does one thing or another.

I knew a lady one time who developed a link bait to let her hairstyling readers pick their hair length and hair color and have different hair styles applied to the website's models, so the reader could see what a particular hair style looked like on a real person. Since this java-based tool only appeared on her own website, people who were building websites and newsletters about hair care were knocking down doors to create new links to her web page.

A Link Portfolio is an analysis of the kinds of sites and web pages that link to your website and web pages. Where are your links? What kinds of links are they? Are your links all structured the same? Do they come in the same format (articles, press releases)? Here is the one important to our discussion. Do they all appear on the same kind(s) of website?

The Death of The Article Directory

Don't be jumping to conclusions here. This is not the time for you to be scanning this article. It is the time you need to start paying closer attention to what I am telling you.

Some people have observed the change in the Google algorithms that I had noticed, and on their observation, they have declared the death of article directories. But, the answer is not that simple.

It all comes back to the evolution of article marketing in 2004.

Until early 2004, most people engaged in article marketing were only interested in writing excellent content. In mid-2004, a lot of gurus started telling their readers about article marketing.

These gurus were right when they said a lot of people are making a lot of money using reprint articles to promote their businesses.

But the gurus involved in the explosion of people using reprint articles to promote their websites had one thing wrong. They were telling their readers that the only reason for the reprint article was a link back to one's website, and that link could influence a website's link popularity and its ability to rank in the search engines.

Don't get me wrong, those links can affect link popularity and the ability of a website to rank in the search engines. But, here is where they had it wrong:

The gurus said that the only purpose for article marketing was link building, so they advised that all articles should be between 300-400 words, and they advised that it really was not important whether the article was good or not, since the only purpose of the article was to provide some kind of content to get the link back to their website.

The Actual Role Of Article Directories Online

For those of you who do not realize it, the purpose of an article directory is to provide a warehouse where webmasters can go to gather articles that they can place on their websites for the benefit of their readers.

Some of the more well-known and heavily trafficked article directories include:

http://www.EzineArticles.com

http://www.GoArticles.com

http://content.thePhantomWriters.com

http://www.ArticleCity.com

http://www.Isnare.com

http://www.IdeaMarketers.com/

http://www.ArticleDashboard.com

http://www.ArticleFriendly.com/

http://www.ArticleBeach.com

Now, Article Dashboard gives away their software to webmasters for free. Article Friendly was developed to be more "friendly" than Article Dashboard, for the site managers, but it costs a few dollars to acquire. The Article Beach software is also being sold in places, but it has zero support for webmasters.

With the birth of the Article Dashboard software, hundreds of new article directories popped up nearly overnight.

A couple of the article distribution companies positioned themselves to be low-cost providers of article distribution services for the new "link only" article marketers. To ensure a low-cost, big bang approach to article marketing, they programmed their services to send all of their articles to the hundreds of Article Dashboard websites.

These are the services that the carpet bombers turned to in order to get their links onto thousands of web pages across the Internet. And brilliantly, this is also the undoing of the carpet bombers.

The Line In The Sand

I am always impressed at the cleverness of the Google folks. They always develop methods to figure out who is spamming their systems and who is deserving of the links they have been given.

The Google engineers realized the problem with the article directories, and they figured out how to identify the article spammers. If you ask me, their solution was beautiful.

Think about social bookmarking for a minute. Social bookmarks can add value to a web page that is linked in the bookmark, because "a person" has voted on the referenced URL or article. That is a very powerful addition to Google's algorithm arsenal. Human editors are the same reason that Google puts such high value on Yahoo's directory listings and the listings in the Open Directory.

But, did you realize that there is a way to track articles through the concept of social bookmarking?

Here is the answer:

If an article was distributed six months ago, and no one else has chosen to publish it, except for the article directories, then it is probably safe to assume that the article is pure garbage and not worthy of the links it possesses.

When an article is of good quality, people will vote on that article, by putting it on their non-article directory website! If an article is on article directories AND it is on average niche websites, then it must be a good article and worthy of its links, including those in the article directories.

It Comes Down To Human-Validated Quality

So, what does your link portfolio look like? Are your articles only in the article directories? Or, are your links in article directories AND niche websites?

By my observation, an article can be placed in 100 article directories.

If three months down the road that article only exists on 100 article directories and no niche websites, then Google's algorithms will consider the article to be a spam article, deserving of no link popularity value.

However, if an article is in 100 article directories and 25+ niche websites, then it shows that the article has been voted worthy by 25 niche webmasters, so the article is worthy of credit for all 125 links it provides back to the author's website.

Of course, we all know that Google will never count all 125 links to a website from the various displays of an article, but it will count more of those article directory listings and niche website listings than it will if the article has received zero votes from the webmaster community.


About the Author:
Bill Platt is the author of "Article Marketing for Traffic, Sales and Profit", available for only $37, from his website. Learn more about how-to diversify your link building at: http://www.linksandtraffic.com