Home Business The Easy Way - KJa Update http://www.blogmoneymiracle.com en-us EasyRSS
By Michael Hayes

Are you a small business struggling to develop your online presence? Regardless of the specific nature of your online business, there are common elements that need regular attention it to prosper. Two essential parts of this process are covered in this article:

1) marketing the online business, and 2) detailing the web site processes and content to achieve the highest possible sales conversion rates.

Maximize traffic to your web site

How long has it been since you last spent time driving traffic to your web site? Do not be left behind. Traffic does not come to your site automatically, search engines and directories send it. Moreover, if you do not optimize your site to convince Search Engines such as Google that you have relevant content, then your site will be largely ignored. Consider implementing a combined strategy:

* Set up reciprocal links from other sites with a higher Google PageRank than yours. One way to do this is to find web sites, forums, or blogs that are related to your market segment, without directly competing with you, and submit articles to them with a link back to your own web site. It is these incoming links that search engines love and your PageRank will rise accordingly. Business and trade directories are another good source of potential traffic. The more relevant you can find the better. An example of this approach could be a small business specializing in a particular form of natural healing. A useful strategy here would be to submit quality articles to an industry site that covered all forms of natural healing, outlining the benefits of your particular specialty. People visiting this high profile site already have an interest in natural healing, and may well be interested in your specialty when guided by an informative article. The benefit to the site accepting your submission is that your article, and others like it, helps to broaden their appeal. If done well, this really is a win -- win situation.

* Dedicate specific pages on your web site to focus on particular themes. Do not make the mistake of trying to cover a grab bag of topics on the one page in the hope that one of them will stick. An experienced web developer, or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist, will be able to help with this process by analyzing your visitor statistics and suggesting themes based on key words and phrases that people are actively searching. After you write an article based on their suggestions, they will then edit it to maximize its appeal to Search Engines.

* Consider paid advertising on a "cost-per-click basis". Google and Yahoo are good places to start, but there are many others. Many of these systems are based on a bidding model where the more an advertiser is prepared to pay for a click, the more prominently the advertisement will be featured. When used carefully, they can be a good way of generating a quick response. This can be important for owners of new web sites while they are waiting for their natural search engine traffic to gain momentum.

Develop a marketing strategy for the next three months

The reason marketing activities should be planned well in advance is to give yourself plenty of time to get in the necessary stock, or if you have a service based business, assemble the relevant resources. For example, if new stock is involved, you will need time to source it and upload the details to your web site. If you are launching a new service, you may need to add an extra page to your web site outlining its benefits and engage additional staff to perform the service. All these things take time. The good news is that by planning you will save yourself a lot of stress.

Detailed planning

This is the 3Ps -- only this time they are Plan, Plan & Plan. Look at your marketing campaigns collectively, and then individually. What do you really want to achieve? Consider planning for the next three campaigns and write a sentence for each one that clearly spells out its main purpose. These are your core propositions. For example, the first could be to clear stock or promote an older service; the second could be designed to tie in with an event such as Easter, while the third could be used to launch a new service or product range. Whatever they are, I suggest that you keep them simple and only have one core proposition per campaign. You will run the risk of confusing yourself and your customers if you try to do more.

Newsletters

It is very common for an online marketing campaign to revolve around a newsletter. If this is the case then all aspects of the mail-out needs to be very carefully planned, drafted and tested.

* There are many sorts of newsletters, however those promoting e-commerce ventures usually have one primary purpose: to drive traffic to an online shop selling products or services. The question is, how best to achieve this. Detailed coverage of the core proposition in the actual newsletter may not be the best approach. Rather, write the copy in such a way that it provides just enough information to whet your customers’ appetite, coupled with a clear link to the remainder of the article stored on you web site. In this way, you stand a good chance of achieving additional sales when customers click through and become re-acquainted with your complete range of offerings.

* In drafting your copy, do not waste time singing your own praises. You or your business may have done some great things, but sadly, customers are not interested. What they want to know is what is in it for them. Keep this as your focus and you will not go wrong.

* Pay particular attention to the subject line of the email newsletter. Remember, with many customers this may be all they read before they look for the delete button. Try to make it compelling but avoid any hype that may trigger junk mail filters.

* HTML email newsletters are acceptable to most customers these days. They present well and they can feature images, but make sure they are correctly constructed. If you are creating your own HTML newsletters, view them in Internet Explorer and Firefox before you send them out. You may be surprised how differently the common web browsers can present the same HTML document. Sometimes with unfortunate consequences. If you are not confident in this area, then seek help.

* Ensure that you comply with all relevant anti-SPAM regulations. If you are not familiar with them, make it your business to find out. In many cases, the penalties for ignoring such regulations are high. At the very least you should always include details outlining who you are, why the person is receiving your email newsletter, and how they can unsubscribe should they wish to do so.

* Before you send out an email newsletter to your whole mailing list, test it, and test it again! That means checking that the content is correct, links work, images display correctly, personalized information is merging correctly, and unsubscribe links are fully operational.

Your mailing list

Mailing lists must be maintained. In addition, I do not use the word "must" lightly. With legislation in place to prosecute those who play fast and loose with their mailing lists, this area requires careful attention by all e-Commerce operators. The technical aspects of list maintenance and email campaigns are beyond the scope of this article, but if you have any doubts, you may be better to consider a hosted solution. A quick search on the Internet for "email marketing" or "email marketing services" should yield results. Constant Contact is one such service that I have used with good results. In general, it is safer to avoid purchasing lists unless you are very sure they are genuine opt-in permission based lists directly relevant to your market segment. Build your own. It may take longer but the result is a list of customers who are genuinely interested in your products or services. Conversion rates with your own list are always going to be higher.

Your online shop

So far, the focus has been on getting customers to your online shop. Now it is time to make sure that when they do, they have a pleasant experience, which encourages them to make a purchase.

* Do the advertised products or services as featured on your web site match up exactly with what you have in stock? If not, take steps to correct this. If the product is not currently available then delete it, or just disable it, if your software will allow. That way you will only have to enable the entry when the item returns to stock. Perhaps, it may be that your published information does not accurately describe the product or service, or the image shows the wrong model or color. If any of these examples apply to your website, then make a point of correcting the detail prior to a mail-out.

* As I have mentioned above, do not be tempted to leave items on display that are temporarily out of stock. You know that they are coming back in, but your customers do not and deliveries can often be late. Online customers have every right to expect that what they see lines up with reality, so it is not surprising that they become very upset when their firm order suddenly becomes a "virtual" one.

* Check the navigation of your site to make sure that all links are operational. Customers quickly find poor navigation frustrating ... and frustrated customers leave.

* Review your terms, conditions, FAQs and freight. I hope there will be first time customers because of your mail-out who will want to check these things. I know this can be boring but do not gloss it over. Put your customer hat on and pretend that you are reading the information for the first time.

* If you have a contact form on your site, test it. You should also place test orders using all the available payment methods your site offers. The last thing you (or your customer) want is a dysfunctional checkout system. In fact, nothing erodes buyer confidence faster.

Finally, good luck with your e-commerce ventures. E-commerce is not rocket science Article Submission; it is just another form of business. Additionally, constant attention to details counts in all forms of business.

As "The Online Shop Designer (TOSD)" Michael Hayes draws on over a decade's experience designing, developing and managing e-Commerce and CMS web sites for small business owners. In doing this he strives to deliver appropriate, manageable solutions that support his client's business goals, and avoid the "technology tension" that so often occurs.

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By Stephen Wright

This article provides specific details for becoming a home based business and Internet marketing guru through careful and selected networking opportunities. Accomplish this ability through an on-going process of networking.

Becoming a home based business and Internet marketing guru is not something that happens overnight. It takes significant dedication to develop your knowledge, skills, and abilities. During the course of this evolutionary process for yourself, you must develop the relationships and respect of your peers and potential clients/customers. Accomplish this through an on-going process of networking.

Networking in this manner includes spending time in various home business forums, relevant groups, boards, loops, and discussion exchanges. Appropriately, each of these has a primary purpose or relevance focus designed to facilitate and enhance the field of Internet Marketing through ideas, promotions, and topic exchange.

You must personally participate in a significant manner in these sorts of activities and venues. You have the "opportunity" to market yourself, your ideas, suggestions, input, advice, and counsel in support of and in a contributory manner to the field of running a Home Based Business and Internet marketing, as well as to the betterment of others --- your peers. All of which is critical to building a proper foundation of service to others.

There are countless numbers of groups for any given topic or subject area of interest. In addition, the best part, many are free to join. The array included popular Internet topics such as; Internet Marketing Ideas and Tips, eBay buying/selling, Work at Home, Employment, Web Hosting, etc.

As you start the effort of building your "online resume", a word of caution: time management can be critical. It is not uncommon to hear or read about the toll taken on unsuspecting web marketers who get totally and utterly immersed in spending time on the Internet that it can quickly have a detrimental impact on their personal and physical well being. The internet can be time consuming and addictive in nature, compounded by the significant amount of distractions continually vying for our attention while interacting on the Internet. You must find ways to allocate your time and resources, allowing ample time both on and off the web!

Diversification is a key element in building yourself and your abilities. This means continuously taking information and feedback you gain from the networking activities, to be applied back with other activities. For example, gaining information and input from a product development forum allows you to give information as a more informed user on a user forum, exchanging information on similar issues. This allows you to utilize your skills, knowledge and abilities, and continually refine your knowledge base. This also helps build credibility among various groups and users. It is a known fact that people do business with those whom they know or trust. Being successful with a home based business is not different.

Using this approach allows others to see you in a supporting role, not necessarily as one just "interested in profits and making a buck!" Networking in this fashion allows you to establish yourself as a knowledgeable fellow entrepreneur, not as someone only out for self-promotion or worse yet "a Spammer"! The trick to subtle self-promotion is a graciously accepted practice. Shameless and abrupt advertising will get you no-where. Once you have this level of respect and credibility, the revenues and profits will not be far behind. If you want real success Free Reprint Articles, get started networking your way there today.

Stephen Wright is President & CEO of www.InternetMarketingUSA.comWeary from failed programs, tips and makes them rich advice? Get it ALL, step-by-step, the gory details, and the handholding to Get You Rich. It is all waiting for you: http://www.internetmarketingusa.com/pips.html

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By Michael Moshkovich

Email marketing has been one of the greatest things to happen to smart business owners. The number one reason people use the internet is to send email. The second reason people go online is to find information. With a well thought out email marketing course, you can do both. Let us look at how you can use an email-marketing course for a more profitable business.

1. You will need an autoresponder. An autoresponder allows you to automate your follow-up by capturing name, email addresses, and automatically sending them pre-written messages. You can Google search and find all kinds of autoresponders. Make sure you are getting one from a reputable company; it is the primary tool used.

2. Your email-marketing course should focus on a specific topic. Write about a problem your audience has and then over a series of messages, solve their problem.

3. Keep your emails informational. One sales letter after another does not solve their problem, but asking and answering questions that they have, will. Remember they are researching information and you are giving it to them.

4. Naturally, work the products and services into the content of your messages. This may mean you do not mention a product or your website address until your signature at the bottom of the email. By doing it this way, you give your potential customers a way to find you in a non-threatening manner.

5. Write professional content. If you cannot do this yourself, hire someone to do it. Many people make a full time living selling products by email. If your email-marketing course is written poorly, no one will pay attention to it and will never buy anything from you.

6. Consider selling digital products. No matter what your product is, you can add to it by selling digital products to download instantly. EBooks are great for this because you find thousands of them that relate to the topic of your course. Another idea is to give away a brandable copy of an eBook free. Brandable means that it has your i.d. number in it for a product you sell. You have a chance to make a sale, when people read the eBook. Make it a viral marketing tool by allowing people to give the eBook away free, as well.

In summary, you can use an email marketing course to make more money if you do it right. You might subscribe to a few courses by email yourself. Create a swipe file and put any good ideas you see in it for future courses of you own.

Michael Moshkovich is a web developer and internet marketer who has written over 50 articles on SEO, shopping cart software and PPC marketing. To find out more information about WebCart's seo friendly shopping cart software visit our Website, (http://www.webcart.net/). For additional shopping cart tips, visit the webcart eCommerce Blog (http://www.webcart.net/shoppingcartsoftware).

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By Karl Stadler

If you are prepared to work hard and take a small risk, then an online business opportunity is waiting for you. Discover for yourself the possibility of creating additional income online.

You are reading this article because it just might be possible for you to make money online, or you might be considering a home based business. Either way, you came to the right place. If you are new to the subject of earning income online, read on and I will show you the basics of being successful on the internet.

I have felt the sting of starting up an online home based business. I know the pain of failure, but now I know the feeling of success. It required testing numerous opportunities, spending quite a few dollars, nearly throwing in the towel and returning to the day-to-day grind of nine to five, just before success came knocking on the door. I am glad I opened that door and pushed harder. The first thing to remember to be in the position to create a six-figure income online from your home is ‘too many secrets are not really secrets anyway’. There are opportunities for everyone. Creating an online income is not just for a ‘select few’.

You can make a very nice income the moment your online business takes off, but to start you need to be realistic in your approach. Allow time for yourself and allocate time for your business. At the beginning, it will take hard work and commitment from you, but when it starts to pay off, it pays handsomely. If you are faint hearted or looking for a get rich quick scheme, then a trip to the casino might be a much better idea than an online home business.

There are many opportunities on the internet for you to create your own business. The challenge, however, is finding the right online business opportunity. You are looking for an opportunity that is legitimate, profitable, easy to start up and just as easy to run and maintain.

Some of the best opportunities to make money online are becoming available as the internet expands globally. This is evident for searches that the major search engines are handling every day. With this growth, more and more people are eager to explore the new possibilities to supplement their income or create a full time income enabling them to quit their nine to five jobs.

The opportunities are just waiting to be taken by anyone willing to take a small risk and do a little hard work. The people who are making it are just regular people like you with a dream to create a better life for themselves and their families.

There are different models of online businesses and then there are the ones that work. Most of the internet sales are downloadable information products, information that people need every day. To the online business owner this means no stock and immediate delivery to the client and money in your bank account.

You do not even need your own product. Most of the online business owners are selling products as affiliates Business Management Articles. It is just a matter of learning and applying the basics.

The great news is that there are legitimate business opportunities available for you. Starting your own online business can be the best life choice you will ever make.

Explore legitimate work from home businesses. It might be the right opportunity for you to make your dreams come true online. Click on the link now to find out how you can start today. http://www.viralbiz.net/jobs.php .

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By Andy West

Are you ready to start making some serious cash? Sick and tired of trying online businesses that seem destined to fail from the start? Then it is time to look at setting up your own AdSense websites for profit. Many people fail to realize that making money online is very simple, if they know where to look. It is true that the money seems to trickle down on the internet in terms of commerce. This is especially true when discussing AdSense websites. Think about how many investors have poured money into Google, and then picture how many millions of people advertise with Google each day. The numbers are mind-boggling. This is why AdSense websites can afford to pay you a ton of cash, if you know how to set up your sites for profit. There is literally an endless amount of money to make with AdSense websites. The person, who takes the time to learn about the trade, can utilize the tools and tips needed to bring home big profits from AdSense websites. Without a doubt, the most consistent way to make money online today is through affiliate marketing. AdSense websites provide you with an easy way to get involved with the Internet's top affiliate, Google's AdSense.

Simply setting up a website, putting the AdSense websites to work for you; will not cut it, and certainly will not make you rich. The key to AdSense websites is the keyword placement, and the building of content and quality. Realizing what is in a secret recipe, one must first understand how AdSense websites really work. Advertisers typically pay Google to put their ads in areas where customers might be searching for them. Then, the advertisers pay more money to have the customers click them. When the AdSense websites are set up for ease of use for a customer, chances are they will get a click. Each time an AdSense website ad gets a click, you will receive a payment for that click, typically a few cents to a dollar per click. This is how AdSense websites work, and how thousands of people have been making a small fortune for years off Google.

One product that works well is adsensegold, a unique e-book that explains how AdSense websites can make you a lot of money. The one time fee of less than $100, accounts for all that one needs to start making money with AdSense websites. It is a great way to get a solid body of knowledge on what works with AdSense websites, and what doesn't. Further, adsensegold is owned and operated by an AdSense guru that has made a fortune using the same techniques.

In addition, a site adsense-powerpack provides a large amount of AdSense websites for you to use for your profit. The websites are unique and custom made. One can utilize them to make major cash from AdSense websites each day.

Whatever the product, it is important to look at unbiased customer reviews of the products before purchasing them. With AdSense websites, it is necessary to check out a site like Review Place where customers chime in about the quality of a product, and its overall ease of use. Visit Review Place. Users can get information about the price, and quality of many AdSense websites, and related products.

Making money with AdSense websites can be an easy task, if you follow the road carefully, and look for the best deals possible. It is not always necessary to purchase a product to make money with AdSense websites, but it can greatly help increase your chances for success.

Andy West is a freelance writer for ReviewPlace. For more information and reviews of AdSense Websites, please visit ReviewPlace at http://www.reviewplace.com/cat-375-InternetBusinessTools--Google-Adsense-Website-Tools.html.

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By David Fishman

You have had your website up and running for a while and the major search engines have yet to recognize the site. You are not alone. Many sites have a hard time becoming indexed. Sometimes it is due to being new or possibly it is just a matter of bad luck. Fortunately there are options in the quest to be indexed and one, if not a combination of a few, will get your website the attention it needs by being indexed by the major search engines.

First method to consider is search engine submission. Sounds easy, right? All you have to do is sign up and your site is indexed. Not exactly! For most of the search engines, simply filling in the requested information on the submission form is enough to get the ball rolling. This method is useful everywhere except when dealing with Google. As the most popular and largest search engine, they tend to be a little pickier. The key to becoming indexed by Google is to get link exchanges from other sites that are indexed by Google. Otherwise the powers that be see the unlinked site as of little value.

Another way to help your website get noticed is pay per click advertising. This one will not actually help get the site indexed, but it may increase traffic to the site. That could increase revenue and make your site more appealing to other webmasters that may allow links to be placed. And that does help with search engine indexing.

While on the subject of links, these little blurbs on someone else’s website can be incredibly useful in getting attention from the major search engines. One way to receive links is to politely request a link exchange of the potential webmaster. Often you will discover that if space on the site allows, the other website owner will request that you place a link on your site back to them. While search engines have gotten wise to this practice, it will up your website’s exposure to the general population. The notion of registering with web directories will help gain the respectability needed to be recognized by the search engines for indexing. Some directories charge a fee for inclusion and others will accept payment to place your listing quickly or higher on the page. If finances are a major concern, there are some web directories that don’t charge for inclusion. It will help with the indexing issue; just not as quickly as the directories that charge.

It can be incredibly time consuming to build up the necessary links to get attention from the search engines. There are programs available that will help you set up a request letter and submit the requests to other websites with similar content to yours, saving you a lot of time. While there is a monetary charge associated with this type of software, it can save the webmaster hours of work and frustration.

While working to get your new, or slow-moving, existing website noticed by the search engines for index inclusion, remember to be patient and get those vitally necessary inbound links.

David Marc Fishman is a link marketer and owns the site http://linknetics.com.

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By SeoAmitPatel

Even in this era of technological breakthroughs, many website owners have a wrong idea about web directories. They think these web directories are simply a way to gain a one-way incoming link. Inclusion in the different web directories is seldom perceived as more than a one-time entry event. The aim, be listed, and obtain the inbound link, for better or for worse. Traffic from some mainstream directories is almost always low and rarely seen as part of the equation. The dormant capability of the directory listings as a source of potential link partners not considered as a strategy at all, which is not a wise move.

In reality, web directories have far more possibilities concealed within their listings than it is generally believed. Many webmasters and search engine optimization experts ignore the less obvious value residing in the numerous categories.

By looking beyond the single link and searching abilities of a web directory, a website owner can have unrestricted access to innumerable potential link partners, waiting to be added. These partners you will find, without much effort, in the major internet directories and in the copious niche directory listings.

Not all web directories are adept in searching for links. The DMOZ (also known as the Open Directory Project), The Google Directory, and The Yahoo! Directory are the directories, which one should use in order to carry out link research tasks.

It will not be an exaggeration to compare the web directories to a gold mine of linking partners if one can get the full potential out of appropriate strategies. Any enterprising and prospecting webmaster can successfully use the web directories as an effective link building tool. It is expected that the readers will now be able to avail this opportunity after reading this article.

The Author SeoAmitPatel is a SEO Expert who owns a SEO Company http://www.theseoworld.com and which is working a major SEO Project http://www.gii.in
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By Sharon Housley

What are Content Sites?

If you are like many of those starting out with intentions of making millions online and struggling to capture the attentions of the large search engines, you are in good company. Times have changed, and due to the low cost of entry, the online world is becoming very competitive for businesses starting out. Unless a website has a regional appeal or caters to a very niche product or service, it is rare that a webmaster can create a website that is only focused on selling.

What is the answer?

The answer is content. The concept is not new; it comes down to the simple concept of bartering, give something in order to get something. In this case the trade off, is free information in exchange for website traffic and search engine ranking. The key is to create a website with content that other webmasters, bloggers, and publishers will want to link to. In order to generate interest and incoming links that result in web traffic, you will need to provide unique content. Related content drives traffic; understanding what makes one website a standout when others fail is the key to building a content rich portal.

How do I use content to sell my stuff?

First off, the content you provide must be of interest to potential customers. If you are selling a product, why not provide dimensions, customer ratings, reviews, warranty information, additional product suggestions, color or size charts. In addition to additional product information, consider your demographic, and find content that will be of interest to individuals (or businesses) that you feel typify a potential customer. It is also best if the content you provide relates to the product you are promoting.

Lets take a look at some content rich examples:

Gourmet Living (http://www.gourmet-living.com )

How does the site Gourmet Living focus on selling cooking items, use content to promote their products, and sell their wares? Gourmet Living uses recipes to draw in individuals interested in cooking. The topic (recipes) relates closely to the products they are selling (cookware and gourmet cookbooks), additionally the recipes target their potential audience, those with an interest in cooking. The Gourmet Living website uses additional food preparation tips and articles that discuss gourmet cooking to generate additional interest.

Recipe Directory - http://www.gourmet-living.com/recipe-directory.htm

Tips for Food Preparation - http://www.gourmet-living.com/category.html?category=preparing+food

Along with articles that discuss gourmet cooking - http://www.gourmet-living.com/gourmet-articles.htm

Dog Pound (http://www.dog-pound.net)

How does Dog Pound, a website promoting products for dog care, use content to generate website traffic? The Dog Pound website has educational articles related to dog breeds and training. In addition, the dog pound website has videos of common dog breeds, cute pet photos, and free recipes for dog treats. My recommendation would be to take the photo section a step further, encourage individuals to send in their favorite doggy photos and conduct a dog beauty contest.

Articles about dog training - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-articles.htm

Videos with dog breeds - http://www.dog-pound.net/videos.htm

Dog Treats - http://www.dog-pound.net/other-dog-treats.htm

Photos - http://www.dog-pound.net/dog-photos.htm

Security Port (http://www.security-port.net)

How does security port, a website that does not sell anything and profits from advertising, use content to attract traffic and promote their website? The security port focus is on aggregating a host of security resources, from security glossaries to security forums. By creating a topical portal with information relevant to security, they are providing one stop shop for security information.

Searchable Security Databases - http://www.security-port.com/security-databases.htm

Security Blog - with related security news - http://www.security-port.com/blog.htm

Security Articles - http://www.security-port.com/security-articles.htm

Remember, at the end of the day, all of the advertising campaigns and attractive affiliate programs will only result in traffic spikes, which will be transient. Generating a content rich website that is useful, educational, or entertaining will attract and retain customers. While it is hard to assemble a content-rich site that motivates others to link to you, it is certainly not impossible. Keep in mind that search engine rankings influence the amount and quality of a website's content. Provide content that will make webmasters want to link to your website.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition, Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.
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By Scott Lindsay

Building a successful online business is more than simply attempting to place a product on a webpage with the belief that visitors will be drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

If you spend a little time on the web, you will find many such sites with very little in the way of visual interest or compelling reason to explore the product any further. Many of these sites appear to have been created in the mid 90’s, with only marginal skill in website creation. That is not to say they receive no business, after all, their entire website is still up and running. However, if you turned away from the site quickly, chances are many others have too.

The idea of a successful website takes strategic thinking, planning, and execution. The development of an online marketplace requires research and marketing. You need to find a niche and learn to market to that niche. It may also be advisable to discover a niche that is actually of interest to online buyers.

You will likely need to learn certain online software applications and terms that allow further development of your site for easy navigation. The successful optimization of keywords and phrases allow your site to rank higher in the search engine results.

There will be security issues to address along with ezine options, RSS feeds, and the best use of autoresponders. A good website will also make use of affiliate programs for residual income and determine a course of action for a finely crafted website design.

As you roll out your website, you might want to include phased-in plans for video streaming as a means of demonstrating your product or services, or podcasting with experts in the field.

If all of this seems a little too much for you, please understand the reason I bring up so many different marketing tools is to spark the idea that there is as much that is a part of the development of an online business as there is in establishing a brick and mortar storefront.

It may seem easy – even tempting – to throw a site together, but without a plan the site is likely to perform on a mediocre level, at best.

Take the time to visit some of the more successful online stores. As you look through their webpages, you will gain some idea of the things that work on an e-commerce website. A well-defined purpose for your website will go far in determining the initial launch and success of your foray into web-based sales.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com.
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By Scott Lindsay

A difficulty that standard brick and mortar stores face is in providing follow-up to their customers. When you make a purchase with a normal retailer, your contact information might be used to send sales flyers or an invitation to a ‘customer only’ event. There is very little personal contact with the customer, although a growing number of these stores may ask for email address or other contact information to alert you to upcoming events.

With online marketing, this scenario is quickly resolved using autoresponders (sometimes referred to as auto responders). If someone sends your company an email, an autoresponder can send a return email instantly to advise them their question will be addressed very soon.

This idea has been expanded to include an autoresponder message when a customer concludes an online sale. Once the credit card information is completed and authorized, an autoresponder message is executed providing an immediate thanks for the sale and confirms their order. Generally, these messages are in rich text (html) and can provide pictures, company logos, and other unique design features. Customers will also find contact information and a tracking number in most cases.

Most opt-in mailing lists also provide autoresponder messages that welcome the new member and provide control functions for changing their subscription when they need to.

Online business can take advantage of the many uses for autoresponders by utilizing multiple email addresses for a variety of business applications. Each email address should be set aside for a specific business purpose so an autoresponder message can be put in place that is specific to the intended purpose of the email address.

One of the functions for an autoresponder is important for online business because they can independently send out a series of timed messages that provide a broad overview of your business and provide a welcomed means of learning more about your business.

In essence this means if you have a series of six messages that you plan on sending to customers over a six-week period, you can set up autoresponder software to automatically ship these six messages once a week, for six weeks. On the same day, your software could be sending out each of these six emails to customers who purchased from your online store at separate times. Autoresponders can take the guesswork out of follow up by insuring that every contact you receive will automatically receive a return email.

While this is a broad overview on the subject, hopefully, you gain an understanding that autoresponders provide a meaningful and many times, multiple step mechanism for developing, maintaining, and keeping your customers.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at http://www.highpowersites.com.

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by Mary Hanna

Successful free article submissions to directories on the internet are an effective way to market your article and get more traffic to your websites. Submitting to an article directory is a great way for people to find a free article written by you. There are a few problems with this system, but you can overcome them and become more proficient in marketing articles. The trick is to submit your articles without being considered a spammer.

The weakness of the article submitting techniques is; it is very time consuming. I have submitted articles in three different ways: by Hand, with Article Submitter, and Instant Article Submitter software. Many directories require a login, ID and password, so each directory must be visited and a login established before submissions are accepted.

When submitting by hand, you have to cut and paste each section of the article into the individual directories. There are a lot of sections; first the Title, then the Category (very important – I’ll get into this later), Author, Author email, Website Address, Keywords, Article Summary, Article Body, and About Author box. That is nine cut and pastes to submit to ONE article directory. If you wish to submit to 150-200 directories, a good part of your time is spent doing grunt work which does not allow you to pursue other avenues of traffic generation.

Now we come to the "semi-automated" submission software programs. Yes, they are easier, some more than others, but you still must go to each directory individually. It is crucial that you select a Category for your article. If this is not done, the article directories will know you are using automatic submitting software and will treat your article as SPAM. Many directories especially frown on the "Automated Article Distribution Services" for just that reason. Therefore, you will not be published and not only have you wasted your time writing your article but you may be classified as a spammer.

Within the "Article Submitter" Software, they have 138 auto-fills, and 25 manual-fill directories listed. A visit to a majority of the directories must be done first in order to establish a login. You have the option of adding other article directories on your own, which is a nice touch.

The software will open to a page with a form for "User Information". There are typical information requirements you would find in any sign up sheet like, name, company, email, website, etc. Then hit the tab for "Articles" where you will place the article for submission. You will fill in the Title Section, Article Body (including About Author), Summary, and Keywords. Then choose the "Websites" tab. You can "select all" or pick and choose. Click on "Auto Fill" and it will take you to your first directory. A flaw here is that you can only have one article posted in the article section at a time.

Sounds easy, right? Well with "Article Submitter" you must be very careful. Once you have chosen your Category, check each section. This software does not always put the right information in the right box and it leaves some boxes blank. Again, if the directories feel you are using software carelessly, they will delete your article. The manual sites are just that, manual top to bottom. It took me a full day for each article, so it is still a time consuming process.

Then my partner found "Instant Article Submitter" which I have tested thoroughly. It is by far the easiest and quickest available at this time. Set up is still a bit tedious. Once again, you have to establish your logins, but only once. I found them much more accurate in filling in the necessary submission forms. Yes, you still must choose your Category, but only once, for each niche.

They have 100's of Article Directories listed, but there is a tab where you can mark your "Favorites". At first, I was a little intimated, but it is easy to follow and saves you a lot of time. I submitted to over 150 directories in about 4 hours and that was my first time using the software, so I was on the learning curve. Be careful not to hit the "Next Site Button" until after you have the confirmation that your article has been acknowledged.

Therefore, that has been my experience with these three systems for submitting articles to an Article Directory. I do not recommend hand posting – it is much too difficult.

For me the most convenient and least cumbersome was Instant Article Submitter for getting my articles out there to many Article Directories in the least amount of time.

Copyright © 2006 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

Mary Hanna writes eBooks, Software Reviews (for people who are technically challenged like her) and Practical Articles on Internet Marketing, Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at: http://www.WebMarketingReviews.com http://www.eBookSecrets-Exposed.com and http://www.CruiseTravelDirectory.com.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.
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By Craig Bucknall

Do you need an easy way to update your customers with your company news? Try adopting an email newsletter or e-Newsletter on a regular schedule. It can keep them informed, and it may even generate more business.

An e-newsletter combines the benefits of company information and marketing opportunities with little cost to compose and savings realized by using email technology rather than traditional postal means.

Some things you need to consider when preparing your e-Newsletter;

• Frequency – Make a plan to publish your newsletter on a regular basis

• Content – Keep the content focused on the audience, don’t try and oversell any product or service as these emails tend to get deleted very quickly.

• Size – Try to keep the newsletter to 3 – 4 bullet points, in short attention grabbing sentences that lead to full stories on your website.

• Bandwidth – Try not to over indulge your newsletter with too many graphics. Keep in mind many users still have low speed internet connections, and large image sizes will have an impact on downloading. Try to keep your newsletter to less than 60Kb

In this article I will show you the easy way to create a newsletter based on tables in Microsoft Word ready for importing into your email program for distribution.

Step 1: Open a blank word document and insert a table with 3 columns and 6 rows. I recommend merging the top 3 cells and the bottom 3 cells into header and footer rows. You can easily add the company logo on the header row and your address details on the footer row.

Step 2: Merge the left side rows of the remaining rows into 1 column.

Step 3: Add your logo image or Business Name to header area and Address details to footer area. Do not forget to add email and website URL links here, as well.

Step 4: Formulate a welcome message to introduce your newsletter and its content.

Step 5: Keep the information in the newsletter brief and to the point. If you have more information on your website, make sure you link directly to that article or news/product item on your website. Introduce bullet point’s news snippets with links in the left side column.

You have now created A HTML newsletter that looks like a webpage. Modify colors and graphics to suite your corporate colors, etc. You now have a simple easy to edit Word Document ready for publication via email.

Save the document for future editing, and then selecting the entire table, copy and paste into an open blank email.

Tip: Send the email to a friend, or your free email accounts (hotmail, gmail, etc), to see how the finish product will look when your customer receive it.

If no formatting issues are found after test email is sent, send the newsletter to your predetermined list of contacts.

Remember: Frequency is the key to gaining new and repeat business, so compiling and sending regular updates will help educate your customers on your products and services.

Craig Bucknall is the owner and Managing Director of the Sydney based Website Design studio Bullie Graphics. See their website for more information about http://www.bulliegraphics.com.au website design also checkout the http://www.bulliegraphics.com.au/blog website design and seo tips blog.
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By Jane Wyvern

No matter the kind of job you have or business you own, it seems like meetings are a part of life. They are necessary to make sure vital information is shared and employees are kept in the loop, but they can be a major expense to the employer.

This is especially true for corporations that need to fly employees across the globe for face to face meetings with other employees or clients.

Thanks to the internet and the latest innovations in communications technology, meetings can now occur over the internet via web conferencing. Today’s web conferencing solutions are state of the art, thanks in part to the availability of high-speed internet access.

Corporations can hold meetings and the employees don’t even need to leave their offices. All they need to do is hook into their web conferencing application;--this works well—similar to face-to-face meetings.

The savings in time and money to business owners is quite substantial when you add up travel time, overtime, and person-hours away from the job to attend meetings in an offsite location.

Productivity and efficiency remain at peak levels and the company saves money at the same time. It is no wonder web conferencing has taken the business world by storm.

It isn’t only big business that benefits. Small businesses and startups who work from home can now compete on a global scale thanks to web conferencing and the ability to communicate instantly with anyone on the planet that has access to internet technology.

There are a couple of options to consider when it comes to web conferencing. The choice will ultimately depend upon the budget of the company. In any case, the money saved by utilizing the web conferencing solution will pay for itself in no time.

For higher end solutions, there are full featured stand alone video web conferencing applications. For most small companies however, initiate a simple web conferencing program over the internet, which saves the expense of purchasing equipment and dedicated communication lines.

Web conferencing is a particular boon to those who work at home. It is relatively inexpensive to set up a web conferencing system utilizing a home computer and high speed internet line. Web conferencing provides a link to employees who work from home and gives those with a home business a more professional outward appearance.

Jane Wyvern is an established freelance writer. You can find more of her writing at http://www.webtalkcentral.com and http://www.webhostmatters.com.
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By Izzy Camacho

If you have been looking into selling products online, then you have probably heard some "expert" recommend that you create a web site, fully automated to help you make money 24 hours a day. While that might sound great, they often forget to tell you HOW to do this.

Well, I'm going to tell you right now, in this article!

First, what IS a Fully Automated Web Site? A Fully Automated Web Site can be defined as one equipped with an integrated suite of both e-commerce and internet marketing tools allowing you to be the most profitable with the least amount of effort.

Most e-commerce systems are equipped with the following essentials:

- A shopping cart.
- Acceptance and processing of credit cards.
- A maintenance system that allows you to add/change products.
- An order-retrieval system that enables you to fulfill orders.

However, what most of them are lacking are marketing tools. If your website hits it big and you don't have the proper tools in place, then you will be a slave to e-mail and order processing. I'm sure that's not what you intended.

There are several marketing strategies that are essential in the creation of a successful e-commerce web site:

- Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers
- Effective use of autoresponders (generate automatic email messages)
- Online Newsletter
- Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect's email address
- Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product)
- Advertisement (Ad) Tracking
- Back End Sales
- Affiliate program

Now, if you had a system to support the integration of ALL of these marketing tools, in addition to the necessary e-commerce essentials, then you would have a Fully Automated Web Site. After all, it has been shown that it often takes 7 or more ad exposures before prospective customers actually make a purchase. Consider the following scenario:

A prospect clicks on an advertisement in an online magazine.

These action increments a counter for this particular ad to help you determine how well it is working. They do not decide to buy as of yet, but join your newsletter. They are now considered a prospect. You begin to send them a monthly email newsletter. Additionally, an autoresponder kicks in to thank them for joining the newsletter, as well as, scheduling them to get email twice a month for the next 90 days, reiterating your product benefits, and inviting them to purchase.

Upon sending them one of your "juicy" offers that they couldn't refuse, they finally purchase. They will automatically be removed from your prospect list and added to your customer list.

Based on the particular product or service they have purchased, they will receive a series of emails every two weeks for the next 6 months offering complimentary products.

This will be the engine that will drive your back end sales and keep your customers coming back to your web site.

Being able to play out a scenario such as this using one integrated system, would be impressive, don’t you think?

The internet big boys do this with expensive e-commerce platform suites produced by vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

Having your system automatically perform these follow up tasks frees you to spend more time on your business, your health or your family!

=====> What can you do to create a fully automated web site?

Fortunately, there are ways you can automate your website similar to the way the big boys do. The best and most cost-effective way would be to sign up with one of the handful of Application Service Providers available on the internet, which provide a shopping cart integrated with a full suite of marketing tools. Normally, the shopping cart and tools are very flexible and can be incorporated into any website.

=====> Are there any other ways to automate your business besides working with a total solution provider?

You can accomplish some level of automation without an integrated shopping cart system. However, it will require manual intervention and of course, it would be incomplete. I believe the most important asset of your e-commerce business is your email lists. Therefore, concentrate on the implementation of a good autoresponder/list server system to "enhance" your present e-commerce website. There are several good ones on the market.

Look for providers that allow you to:

- Create multiple lists.
- Add prospects via a web form, email, or manually through a management console.
- Send out an unlimited number of autoresponder messages.
- Send out an unlimited number of email broadcasts.
- Set up and distribute a newsletter.

When setting up your autoresponder system, create one list for your "prospects" and another one for your "customers". Now, here's where you come in: when a person orders your product, you will have to perform the extra task of logging into your autoresponder system and manually remove them from the prospect list and add them to the customer list. This action will then trigger your customer autoresponder series of messages to be sent.

Remember, the key to building a successful e-commerce web site is to automate your marketing engine, as much as possible, and drive your prospects and customers back to your web site. This will certainly create a money magnet e-commerce web site for you!

© Izzy Camacho

****************

To learn more about website automation and to download the complimentary ebook, "Easy Ezine Marketing", visit Izzy Camacho at http://www.internet-marketing-made-easy.com/Automation.htm.

Izzy Camacho is an accomplished software developer with approximately 20 years of experience. He has a degree in computer science from a distinguished university. For the last several years he has been involved in the creation of web site applications for corporate America.
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By Shouvik Mazumder

There are many membership sites on the web. Some of them are paid, some are free. All these membership sites provide information on a range of topics in forms of ebooks, softwares, videos, teleseminars, podcasting etc.

In addition, there are many ebooks available on the net (both for free and for payment) containing information on various topics.

Now have you ever considered, “why does an ebook or membership site provide information for free, while others are providing the same information only after receiving some payment?”

The answer is quite simple: The information is NOT the same.

There is a gap (and this gap can be quite wide) between the quality of information for the free and paid versions. This is what makes the paid version a paid version.

When you read a free ebook on anything, you always feel you are missing something important. Reading a paid ebook does not make you feel like that.

You may feel you can find much information, about a topic, by yourself, within a short period, by searching through search engines. But, in reality ............ you are going the wrong way.

This is simply NOT possible. Not all the information is available via the web. I know because I have tried to do this myself, and failed. Even after spending 1 month on searching a topic, I have gotten more information on that topic, (which I never got earlier through searching), through other marketers.

When you try to gather information on any topic through searching (in other words, when you try to get information for free), you perform the following tasks:-

1) First, you write down some keywords related to your topic

2) Then you go to your favorite search engine and enter those keywords in the search box.

3) After that, you read information on the resulting webpages.

4) Then you decide which information will benefit you.

5) Lastly, you arrange your gathered information in a step-by- step, easy-to-read format.

Now, believe me, doing all these steps will take a lot of your time and energy. What if you can not give the time required? Further, if you suddenly encounter more valuable information about that topic, it will be very difficult for you to rearrange the whole thing.

Therefore, here is the importance of paid version of information over free version of information. Paid version of information is ready for you to read and digest. You don’t need to search for anything. The research is already done for you, by the information product developer. The information product developer is charging you for this.

The info product developers are always at a distance. They know they need to put valuable information into their info product that must benefit the readers, and which would justify their charging. They spend their time on thorough research, and then spend carefully craft their information product. They include valuable tips within their info product, which you will not get from anywhere else. They are a master over a certain topic. Their vast exposure on that topic reflects on the quality of the product they create.

A General Approach: From Free To Paid

In general, to sell their information products, many information product developers first create a free version of the information product, (like a free report) on the theme of the paid version. Next, they input a “useful, but incomplete approach” within that report. This means they first discuss some problems and solutions within the free report relating to the theme of the paid version, not fully disclosing everything). Then they create urgency in the mind of the readers of the report to buy the paid version from them so that the readers can get all the solutions for all the problems on that topic.

This is a good way to sell. The readers know they can trust the author and his recommendation, as they have already read his report. The author, on the other hand, can be certain of creating some credibility in the mind of his readers, and hence can expect some sales.

This article is composed by Shouvik Mazumder. To get a special report on "Information Product Marketing", click below:
http://www.realtimedeal.com/shouvik/infoezine.html
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By Madison Lockwood

We are quickly evolving from a digital world where information was THE marketable commodity to a communications market. New methods of communicating, networking, and socializing become the new consumers of online attention and time, introduced to us on a rapid-fire basis. Blogs, wikis, RSS newsfeeds, podcasts, video socialization are built around applications like YouTube...all of these are recently formulated methods of communication that seemingly overnight have developed millions of participants.

One of the networking methodologies evolving from Internet architecture is the phenomenon of "social bookmarking." One of the more popular sites is del.icio.us. On this site the notion is that you, the web surfer, share interests with others who have web access via your bookmarked URLs. It's the same concept as bookmarking favorites with your browser, but the collection of favorites has a coding system and is shared with others. You build a library of URLs that reflect your interests and you consider worth visiting. You add a personal "tag" with a keyword that characterizes the site.

You can "subscribe" to tags so you can see every new post with that tag. That in turn can take you to the poster's entire list of favorites, which may prove to be a new trove of information for you, and del.icio.us, allows you to go through the same exercise with podcasts, which are now scattered across the Internet galaxy like asteroids.

Others on the web have access to your library and to your personal interests. Utilizing a web based application (in this case, del.icio.us), participants are able to search through sites that others have bookmarked, using not only a standard search term but the tag that has been used to characterize the site. Tags form a collective body of URLs and thus, a body of knowledge - and collective access to those tags forms a community of people with common interests. Included in the process is an optional personal profile, which provides your email address and allow others to communicate with you personally.

The drawback to this format is that a tag search is going to get you every commercial website out there that has laid claim to the same keyword. It takes a lot of scanning and scrolling to find sites that have been tagged by individuals instead of search engines.

There are several platforms out there for social networking. Flickr (www.flickr.com) is a site that uses uploaded photos for networking purposes instead of URLs. You can upload your travel experiences, travel photos and travel interests along with your profile at www.43places.com. Wists (www.wists.com) is a "social shopping" exchange where the bookmarks are all about commercial shopping sites. The level of personal communication allowed by social networking sites is up to you: on 43 Places you can post your photo but refuse personal email. You can also hold the line at public access to your favorite’s library on del.icio.us.

Other social bookmarking platforms (or tools) as they are called, include:

- Backflip
- Blinklist
- blogmarks
- Connotea
- de.lirio.us
- feedmarker
- Jots
- Lookmarks
- Scuttle
- unalog
- Spurl
- Simpy
- Wists
- Yahoo! My Web 2.0

They all have an assortment of tricks and widgets that make their sites a little different. Some of them have fairly sophisticated search methods for their subscribed users; some allow you to "bundle" tags for search purposes; most provide lists of the most popular bookmarks and the recent posts. It's all an interesting experiment in 'distance sharing'. Making use of it for professional (research) or personal uses simply requires taking the time to become comfortable with the methodology and then learning how to get maximum usage out of the tagging system.

Madison Lockwood is a customer relations associate for http://www.apollohosting.com. She helps clients understand how a website may benefit them both personally and professionally. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, & VPS hosting to a wide range of customers.
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By Donna Gunter

Listening to podcasts is not something I enjoy or take time for, frankly. I am a visual learner and prefer to read something rather than listen to it, as I find reading a much quicker way to gather the info that I need. However, with the proliferation of audio listening devices, like the whole iPod family and other mp3 players, I have to acknowledge that I am in the minority, I believe. The world is listening to a wide variety of audio files, much more so than ever before in history, and I need to get on the bandwagon or be lost in the dust.

What is a podcast, anyway? A podcast is an audio file that you create in .mp3 format. You can upload it with an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file to your server for your target market to download any number of programs created to receive or subscribe to your audio file. You can listen to it at your leisure on the computer or a personal mp3 device.

Why should you create a podcast? I think it serves as a marketing tool for the solo service professional, who might want to do one of the following:

--create an Internet radio show, or talk show, in which you create content-rich broadcasts for your target market

--conduct a teleclass series in which you interview experts who have solutions to problems faced by your target market

--promote a printed book, ebook, or CD/DVD series by releasing promotional snippets to a wider audience

--provide short and valuable expert tips to your target market (my Get More Clients Online, podcast consists of the weekly article I write for my newsletter)

Many podcasts are about an hour in length, especially when they consist of recordings of radio shows or teleclasses. However, I think the listening threshold for most people is about 10 minutes. This means your podcast needs to be 10 minutes or less in length. If it is longer, you really have to grab their attention in the first 10 minutes to keep them listening for the full amount of time.

Good content and a good speaking voice are essential to maintaining interest. Do not make your podcast one long advertisement for your services or products -- share some useful information with your target market to help them solve their problems. You need to have a good speaking voice. Nothing is worse than listening to someone read a speech with a monotone delivery. So, for maximum impact when you record your podcast (especially if you're just recording yourself), get up and walk around, smile, gesture, or do whatever you normally do when you deliver a speech. Modulate your voice, much in the same way you would when you have a 1 on 1 conversation with someone -- put feeling and emotion into your words. I pretend like I am talking to my best friend, and that helps me with a livelier delivery.

What are the steps to creating a podcast?

1. Listen to a few podcasts to get a feel for what others are doing. To listen, you will need a podcatcher (podcast reader), which permits you to subscribe to podcasts in the same way you subscribe to blogs. I favor iTunes as my podcatcher of choice, which is a free online download. You will also need to find podcasts. The quickest way to do that is via podcast directories, which include the iTunes store. Podcast Alley, one of the most popular podcasting sites, has a large podcast directory, and Yahoo Podcasts has a podcast search. To find others, simply search online for "podcast directory."

2. Plan your podcast. Who is your target market? What do they want to listen to? How will your podcast be unique from others in your industry? What is your format (interview others, host a teleclass, or record yourself)? How long will your podcast be? How frequently will you deliver your podcasts?

3. Record your podcast. Many people choose to record their podcast with a free piece of software called Audacity. It has an easy learning curve and advanced features for more experienced podcasters. Mac users might want to check out Garage Band. For best recording sound, do not use the microphone that came with your computer or the one built into your laptop. You will want to get a more professional one, such as the ones offered at Plantronics or Radio Shack.

4. Save and upload your podcast to your server. Once you have created your podcast in an mp3 file, now you have to save it, and upload it to a server, via an FTP program (like CuteFTP) so that it is readily available. You can upload it to your website, or use one of the many podcasting hosting services available. The problem with uploading it to your website is that audio files are space hogs, and you can quickly exhaust all the storage capacity of your hosting account, not to mention your monthly bandwidth capacity if your podcast is popular and is downloaded frequently. That is why I use a fee-based audio service hosting company, Audio Acrobat, which offers me generous storage and bandwidth capacity for a semi-annual fee. Another popular podcast hosting company is Hipcast.com.

5. Create your podcast feed. You can create your podcast feed from scratch. However, I recommend you use a feed service to do so. If you use a podcasting hosting service, this feature is included in your service package. For everyone else, the quickest way to create your podcast feed is through Feedburner.com. This same service creates RSS feeds for blogs. The advantage of creating your podcast feed from this site is that you can create a browser-friendly feed, track your circulation, and enhance your feed with its SmartCast technology.

6. Publish and promote your podcast. If you use a podcasting hosting service, the service will publish your podcast and notify various podcast directories about the availability of your new podcast. Alternatively, you can enter the info directly into the major podcast directories. You will also want to promote the podcast on your website, blog, and in your email newsletter. One of the easiest ways to do this is to add feed subscription buttons (called Chiclets) to your sites. You will have to cut and paste the HTML code into your templates to create the chiclets. You can get directions on how to publish subscription buttons from the various podcasters you want to feature. Lastly, you will want to create "album art" for your podcast, or a graphic representation that many podcatchers upload with the mp3 file. Album art may be from 170x170 to 300x300 pixels square at 72 dpi. Any graphic designer can help you create this graphics file.

7. Make money from your podcast. Advertising on podcasts is still new, but some companies like Fruitcast.com or PodcasterAds.com are places to start. Another option is to place Google AdSense listings on all of your sites to list your podcast, or seek sponsors for your podcasts, just as you would for a radio show.

Do not let the audio world pass you by! Podcasting is a very inexpensive way of helping you get the word out about what you do and what you offer to the world.

Copyright (c) 2006 Donna Gunter

Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Business Coach Donna Gunter helps self-employed service professionals learn how to get more clients online. To sign up for more FREE tips like these and claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.GetMoreClientsOnline.com. Read about running an online biz at her blog, http://www.getmoreclientsonlineblog.com or subscribe to her Get More Clients Online Podcast at http://dgunter.audioacrobat.com/rss/get_more_clients_online_podcast.xml

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By Aviva Brown

After you have a website, you start to learn a lot of tips and tricks for doing business on the web. One of the best marketing tools you have is on your server, and you would be amazed at how many people don't use it. That tool is your website statistics. If you have never examined your web stats before, you are missing a real gold mine of information. They are usually found in the control panel section of your web hosting company. Most web hosts will email them to you if you can't access them yourself.

Learn Important Pages Viewed Information

You are most likely familiar with your "hits" on your web stats for finding out how many people have visited your website. Most stats programs will not only tell you how many visitors you have had to your site, but what pages on your website they visited, how long they stayed on a particular page, and what page they last viewed on your website before they surfed on.

Valuable Keywords and SEO

If you're interested in search engine optimization for your website and you aren't sure what keywords to use for your site; there is usually a section in your web stats file that shows you what keywords a person entered to find your site and what search engine they used. You can put those keywords around your website on various relevant pages to increase the search engine optimization of your site. That will not catapult your website to the number one position on Google overnight, but it will increase your rankings if done correctly.

The Magic of Referrers

Another great feature is the referrer section. Know what sites or search engines are referring your website visitors. Referrals can come from other websites, news groups, clubs and forums, or even competitors - if people are being referred to your website, find out by whom. In many cases, someone who had a great experience with your firm will be referring your company to someone on a message board that is looking for a similar product or service.

Use Your Web Stats

If you notice people are leaving within a few seconds of hitting your index page. Look at it in a few different browsers because they are not all created equally. What loads like a champ in Internet Explorer may look like garbage in Firefox or Opera browsers; or it simply may take too long to load. If you notice people are leaving at a point in your shopping cart - either your shipping is too high or your program may be faulty. Find out what items are getting the most looks and promote those to bring in more visitors.

Now that you know how your web stats can work for you, jump-start your Internet business today.

Aviva Brown recommends that you promote your website by submitting it to http://www.avivadirectory.com/.

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By Kanaga Siva

Free Membership, Free Submission, Free eBooks, Free Websites, Free Downloads, Free Classifieds, Free to Join; yes, anything Free has an incredible pulling power in both Internet and Affiliate Marketing.

It is simply amazing how this four letter word, ‘FREE’, can capture the imagination of the newbies, and also the most seasoned and experienced Internet Marketers, and Affiliate Marketers.

The Success of your Internet Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Business depends on several inputs such as Determination, Dedication and Motivation, among others. In spite of possessing these qualities, financial limitations can be a dampening factor in your endeavor to succeed. Therefore, an offer of free tools, free eBooks, free classifieds, etc. can be just the thing you have been longing for to boost your confidence and help you succeed in your business.

Even if you are not short of funds to operate your Internet or Affiliate Marketing businesses, the offer of free items that could be helpful to develop your Internet business is something no sensible entrepreneur wants to ignore. Why pay for something when you can get it for free?

It is important to note that in spite of the prominent display of the word Free, some items are not always Free, and some are useless; nevertheless, the urge and desire to try them out persists.

There are many scammers who capitalize on this, to make a quick buck. This is where the newbie has to be watchful and not fall prey to scammers.

Many genuine smart Marketers do take advantage of this inherent weakness of both man and woman and offer free items to promote their businesses.

There are several great free webmaster tools that are extremely popular with Internet marketers, Affiliate marketers, Internet home based business entrepreneurs, and other online entrepreneurs.

Similarly Free eBooks and Articles written sincerely with the sole purpose of educating the audience are also very popular and sought after by webmasters.

There are websites dealing exclusively with Free items that are very popular in the Internet.

Another Free item extremely popular with low budget business entrepreneurs are Free classifieds.

There are also several very much sought after Free to join affiliate programs that are long standing, safe and secure, and global in nature, who provide you with free tools, free web sites, and great support systems.

Thus the Internet abounds with all kinds of free items. Some have hidden charges. Some lead to scams. Some have both free and paid versions. Some are totally free with no strings attached.

Regular visits to the Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Altavista and studying these various free items will help you to weed out the Good from the Bad and the Ugly.

Great people do exist out there in the Internet World. They are prepared to share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of the Internet fraternity for Free. Webmasters and Online Entrepreneurs should indeed be grateful to these Individuals and Organizations who are constantly making the Internet experience much easier, cheaper, pleasant, and enjoyable for millions of Internet users.

The Incredible Power of the word FREE without doubt continues to captivate the hearts and minds of the Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing world, until a more powerful substitute is discovered.

Copyright © 2006 Kanaga Siva Kanaga Siva has a wealth of experience in Marketing and operating a successful Home Based Business. Visit his http://www.business-fromhome.com Website for Tips, Ideas and Advise to start and operate a Home Based Business.
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By Jack Doren

Difference between RSS Submit and RSS Feed Submit.

Let's compare the two solutions...

a] Both tools are desktop software, which essentially submits your feeds to the appropriate places online. As such, both tools provide the same functionality.

b] RSS Submit will submit your feeds to 78 engines and directories, while RSS Feed Submit covers 75. Not much difference here, although it seems that RSS Submit might be doing a better job at keeping their tool updated (I've been using them since April and already have received many updates that made the software easier to use and added new engines and directories).

c] Certain search engines and directories require more information than can be provided through a fully automated submission process. RSS Submit tackles this problem by first asking you to fill-in a longer form. It will automatically take you to each of the manual submission sites, where it already pre-fills the forms and only asks you to confirm manually. RSS Feed Submit makes this even easier, first requesting that same information, but then doing all the work automatically. The only question in my mind is the quality of submissions. How do they compare to each other?

d] Ease of use is a strong factor. RSS Submit takes the game here. It allows you to submit multiple feeds at the same time, save them in the management interface, and track how many times you submitted each of them. RSS Feed Submit allows you to do one at a time.

e] As far as expanding the basic functionality of the tool, RSS Feed Submit is the clear winner. It allows you to add new search engines and directories by yourself, even tackling those that would otherwise require a manual submission. This is a great user-interface for adding new sites.

f] The final differentiating factor is the price, with RSS Submit starting at $44.95 for the Personal Edition, and RSS Feed Submit selling for $29.95.

Source:

http://www.rssdiary.marketingstudies.net

Jack Doren

I am working on http://www.softwareriviewblog.com. I usually publish articles regarding latest software tools of different categories which are mentioned in my weblog. I am also handling article marketing of this Blog.
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By Scott Lindsay

You will need a shopping cart application to facilitate ecommerce, in order to sell products or services online. While your customers simply want a way to make a purchase, if they are interested in your product, you will have already considered tough choices

For Instance...

If you want a full solution for invoicing, statements, receipts, and company financial history, there are solutions to cover all of this with an application for a shopping cart connected to company financial data. One such company is COREsense based in New York. This service requires less redundant work, because data entry on sales to a separate accounting software application is not required due to the full integration of financial data. For most companies, this solution will fall outside normal budget constraints.

If a shopping cart does not fit your budget, you have a couple of solutions that might work depending on your technical expertise. OSCommerce is available at no cost. This product is a fully customizable solution for a shopping cart, but it does require personal programming. In many cases netrepreneurs will hire a programmer to set this shopping cart up for them.

If you have no up-front budget for a shopping cart, PayPal makes one available at no cost. However, they do retain a fee, as well as, a small commission on each sale. The power of PayPal may make this a trusted source for online transactions for your customers.

Yahoo and eBay provide shopping cart services, at $30-40 per month, and offer a few features unavailable with the low-cost or no-cost checkout solutions.

There are other online solutions for cyber transactions with the tipping point based entirely on the size and needs of your online business. If you are a large company with thousands of online transactions, it may ultimately be less expensive to purchase a shopping cart system requiring a monthly fee. In the end, the fees and commissions associated with no-cost carts could outpace a standard monthly fee from other ecommerce transaction solutions.

Your customers have a choice in where they shop online and you have a choice in how you manage online transactions. Spend some time checking out the services offered and how the fees will affect your bottom line, both now, and as your company grows.

As with all ecommerce sites, your business will not do well if it is difficult to checkout. Make sure the transaction solution you choose allow your clients to make a purchase easily. If the process if too difficult, the prospect may bow out before the sale is complete.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com
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By James Yaqins

Abstract: In addition to Google AdSense, advertisements in the business environment have played a role. Sometimes, they can use their web search engine optimization conditions (SEO) detection tool! If your website of just doing a column optimization, but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code, AdSense refers to the content of the advertisements, and may be 'food for thought' from the information.

If your website joined the Google AdSense, look at the Google advertising on their website. There are some surprising discovery and enlightenment; for example, found a new competitor, or some of the new trends within counterparts. The Google AdSense advertising in the business environment has been playing the role of relevant articles. In addition, Google AdSense advertisements and sometimes even their own web search engine optimization used as a tool for measuring the conditions!

AdSense website used as a search engine optimization (SEO) tool. This is my columns on the front page of a web site observation and the analysis found. Google’s AdSense discovered in the course of the trial, the front-page columns online marketing a new observation. Although the text of a lot and seldom changes, it also believed that, the body had been included, and web pages related to the themes of the word. However, the website of AdSense advertisements are often not normal; the advertisement bore little relation to the core content pages. In addition, visit the website, by Alexa toolbar shows, and related sites, are not directly related to the web page (Alexa website statistics and information can be used as a reference tool). According to the information analysis, preliminary assessment is the theme of the website homepage. Meta labels or website content may exist some problems search engines cannot make an accurate judgment of the core content of the website.

According to this idea, words are related to the website, so many checks Meta found that the problem is the label "page description" content, to a certain extent. Since the adoption of a common template, the website of the "page description", and the theme of the website, website content is not much correlation. Simply modify this issue shortly after a big improvement on the aforementioned issues.

This is why I use AdSense advertising, search engine optimization tool, for measuring the website as an example. However, this "search engine optimization tool for measuring" has certain limitations, are not effective for all website, Moreover, a strong correlation between advertising pages there AdSense advertising or not. Another possible situation is that theme and content of the website pages contain keywords. Corresponding advertisers do not put in advertisements or it is not suitable for advertising in this area, of course, impossible for advertising, Google advertising alone cannot determine the site of the phenomenon to a simple search engine optimization, only as a reference to a certain extent.

If your website or the website of just doing a column optimization, but just joined the Google AdSense advertising code.

AdSense refer to the content of the advertisements may be some food for thought from the information.

James Yaqins own http://www.kersearch.com, this is a free articles search engine and directory for search engine marketing. See more articles on the search engine marketing, please click http://www.kersearch.com

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by John V. W. Howe

One of the first considerations in building a mailing list should be “how am I going to handle all those names that I will have in my list”. An autoresponder is the answer to this “nice to have” problem.

When you study successful Internet entrepreneurs, the most common theme that runs through the success of these individuals is building a list of customers who then become faithful repeat customers. You know from your off-line life that the businesses that you continually use are the ones that do a good job and treat you right. Once you gain confidence in them, you continue to go back to them. The same is true on the Internet.

An eBook called “The 30 Day Blueprint for Success” tells convincing stories of the importance of building a mailing list. The book is a compilation of articles from 15 highly respected Internet professionals from different arenas of the Net who were challenged with the following scenario:

“Dear Internet Marketing Expert,

You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and reputation, and only have your marketing know-how left.

You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone.

Plus, you have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, and an Internet connection for only one month.

You no longer have your big guru name or JV partners. Other than your vast marketing experience, you’re an unknown newbie.

What would you do, from day 1 to day 30, to get yourself back on top?”

(The above quote was excerpted from Volume I of “The 30 Day Blueprint for Success”.)

The most common method that these individuals used was to rebuild a customer list as quickly as possible so they could be effective in rebuilding the business they once had. Just as an aside, the book was very revealing about the thought patterns of these experts during their 30 day quest to restore the income stream that they once enjoyed.

I was fortunate to be able to attend a class taught by my friend and mentor, Jim Cockrum (author of “The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay”). During the class, he said that if his office caught fire the first thing he would save was the backup of his mailing list.

How to Manage a List - Autoresponders

Some might consider this a little backwards, but let’s plan for how we are going to handle the list before we figure out how to build it. We need to be able to capture basic information like name and email address. We need to be able to automatically send a reply to the person joining the list and verify that they were indeed the person who sent the request to join. (This is called double opt-in and it is vitally important so you can prove that you are not sending SPAM to the members of your list). We will need to send out emails to all the people on the list in the future when we start communicating with the customers on the list.

To handle this in any volume on your own is an impossible task, but there are services called autoresponders on the Internet that will handle all of this for you.

There are free autoresponders such as FreeAutoBot.com and there are paid autoresponders such as Aweber.com and GetResponse.com. Free sounds good for a start up, but the downside is the fact that the autoresponder puts its link and sometimes places advertising in the emails that it sends for you. This does not look as professional as a message from a paid autoresponder.

If you use a free autoresponder and then want to switch over to a paid one later, you face the conversion problems of converting your mailing list. This can be done with import features in autoresponders that allow for mass input of lists. However, this is additional work and the autoresponder will take a close look at the list since this is how large SPAM mailing lists are loaded into an autoresponder. This is your choice and should be carefully researched before you make your decision.

Let’s discuss the autoresponder, Aweber.com. The site has a 30 day free test drive that will allow you to experiment with it and decide if it is for you. Go to http://www.aweber.com look around.

If you decide to use it (and you will have to use an autoresponder to build a list of any size), one month of service from Aweber.com is $19.95 as of this writing if you start off with a monthly plan. Once you are satisfied that this is for you, you can save $60.00 per year with an annual plan.

After you have registered, log into Aweber.com and go to the “How to Get Started” page. This is very complete and has great instructions and tutorial videos to help you set up your first autoresponder.

Compose your email to send in MS Word or similar word processor. This will help you with spelling and grammar. Then open MS Notepad or a similar text editor. Notepad strips off the word processor formatting in preparation for copying and pasting your message into the Aweber input screen.

If you use MS Notepad , it is found under Accessories in Programs on your MS Windows. If you have not already done so, set up a shortcut icon on your desktop or on your systems tray for Notepad. It is very handy to be able to open this quickly. It can be used as a scratch pad for copying and pasting information from web pages to print or save for later use.

Each week when the weekly issue of Boomer eZine is being prepared for publication these are the steps that are followed:

1. Log onto Aweber and set up what is called a “Broadcast Message”.

2. Copy the newsletter from MS Word and paste it into Notepad.

3. Copy the text from Notepad and paste it into the input area on Aweber.

4. Check the formatting in Aweber.

5. Send a test email to myself to see how the email looks. This is a tool on Aweber.

6. If the email is acceptable, queue the broadcast message to send the Boomer eZine to all the names on the list.

The Aweber autoresponder automatically sends follow up emails. It is set up to send a follow up email 14 days after the initial sign up to thank a new subscriber to Boomer eZine for being a reader.

Now that we know there is a simple way to handle all those names that you will add to your list, go out and get started building your money making mailing list.

Good luck.

Copyright 2006 John Howe, Inc.

John V. W. Howe is an entrepreneur, author, inventor, patent holder, husband, father, and grandfather. He has been involved in entrepreneurial activities for over 40 years. He founded http://www.boomer-ezine.com and http://www.retirement-jobs-online.com to help Boomers (baby boomers) become entrepreneurs when they retire.
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by Scott Lindsay

The specifics of ecommerce can require a learning curve that many are reluctant to tackle. Perhaps that's why many brick and mortar stores have not entered the world of online marketing.

It is possible to look at ecommerce and consider the things you might need and lose heart. You take a look at some of the items you need such as site design, hosting, shopping cart, autoresponders, search engine registration and a laundry list of other services and you wonder how in the world you are going to come up with a way to make it work. This is especially true for those who are just happy if they can figure out how to open their email account.

Because not everyone is adept at the specifics of ecommerce, sites that customize a package for their customers are a boon to many entering the world of ecommerce.

Don Fortner, a Direct Marketer describes a one-stop ecommerce solution, "You can really have it all. I was quickly able to build a fully functional commercial web site using the easy-to-use templates with slide shows, image maps, fully functional search engine, Pay Pal shopping cart and more! Highly Recommended."

According to High Power Sites you can find a, "solution that affordably allows anyone with even the lowest level of Internet experience to make their own professional ecommerce website."

These solutions are feature-rich in design and function and manage the very specific needs you may have in a user-friendly interface. Those who use these one-stop ecommerce solutions find they are able to successfully launch their website in a very short period of time.

Many online marketers have found that the integration of multiple technologies in one package provides a choice that gives them time to learn the skills of optimization. For some netrepreneurs this option becomes a long-term solution.

Dale McIntosh from AMJ Funding Group who uses an integrated ecommerce solution said, "My website pages are as good or better than some of my friends who are in the same type of business."

When you follow the success stories of those who have added ecommerce to their brick and mortar store you will notice a growth pattern that is more than encouraging.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to an online store is it never closes. Automated function in a solid website design allows for transactions to occur at the discretion of your clients. The fulfillment of the orders can be taken care of when you or your staff is available. Those who utilize the web for purchases enjoy the control they have in making online purchases at times that are convenient to them. Ecommerce allows you to cater to that desire.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at: http://www.highpowersites.com.
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by Paul Williams

Are you looking for innovative ways to increase your ROI, your bottom line and downright save a ton of money on your IT costs? Let me answer that for you! Of course you are, you would not be a savvy business owner if you did not seek out ways to stretch your money. Drum roll please, introducing Open Source technology a new way for small businesses to even the playing field with their enterprise and big boy competitors.

Why is this important? You now have access to the same or comparable solutions that normally costs hundreds if not thousands to implement and deploy. Case in point, the Open Source version of SugarCRM, which is a Customer Relationship Management tool can be had for free while one of its proprietary and commercial competitors Salesforce.com cost about $1,000 to start per year for a five user license. Another quick example has Ubuntu, which is a full-featured Linux based operating system against Microsoft XP. XP Professional edition costs $299.99, while Ubuntu costs nothing and comes freely loaded with Office utilities that rival Microsoft’s Office software suite. You do the math. Remember to include per user and or per pc price and upgrades. Yeah, I know, you have been suckered for a long time and we didn’t even mention the server operating system and licenses. Ask yourself, why am I paying for something when I can get it done for little or no cost?

Using Open Source is like using “guerrilla tactics” for your small business IT needs. Does free mean cheap? Let’s take a look. Open Source software affords the user to have software developed by hundreds of developers instead of just a few. Most of the Open Source solutions mentioned here are tried and tested solutions. Did you know that you already use Open Source? Yep, in fact if you use a web browser or use email your using opens source software. The Internet is built upon open standards and runs on Open Source software. Who currently uses Open Source software? IBM, HP, Oracle, whole governments, Google, Yahoo and Amazon just to name a few.

So you might be asking yourself, what exactly is Open Source? Open Source software in its simplest form is software that freely distributes the source code along with the object code (the actual program that you install and use), so that any programmer familiar with the language can tweak, improve, modify or customize it without needing to ask anyone for permission or wait for a vendor to do it for them. For a more verbose definition, please visit http://www.opensource.org. The bottom line is, this model of software distribution can give you a freedom and a savings that compels you to at least become a bit more knowledgeable to its uses.

These are some useful links to help get you started on the Open Source road.

http://www.opensourceweekly.com (for the latest is Open Source technology for small business owners)
http://www.sourceforge.net (the world's largest Open Source software development web site)
http://www.freshmeat.org (Open Source software repository site)
http://www.theopencd.org (a collection of high quality Free and Open Source Software.)
http://www.ttcsweb.org/osswin-cd/ (a collection of over 100 free/Open Source software for home and business.)
http://www.itservants.com (Open Source Technology Consultants)

Top Open Source Applications for your small business needs.

http://www.openoffice.org (Great alternate to the Microsoft office suite.)
http://www.firefox.com (Open Source web browser, great alternative to Internet Explorer)
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird (Thunderbird email application, similar to Outlook)
http://www.tightvnc.com (for remote connection to your computers)
http://www.mysql.com (The worlds most popular Open Source database)
http://www.phpmyadmin.com (database management tool)
http://filezilla.sourceforge.net (Filezilla- ftp application to upload and download your web content)
http://www.joomla.org (Website Content Management System or CMS)
http://www.mamboserver.com (Website Content Management System or CMS)
http://www.apache.org (Very popular Web server application)
http://www.oscommerce.com (online shop/ e-commerce solution)
http://www.sugarcrm.com (the CRM tool mentioned in this article)
http://www.dotproject.net (project management web application)
http://www.gimp.org (Image manipulation program)
http://www.nvu.com (complete Web Authoring System)
http://www.gnucash.org (personal and small-business financial-accounting software.)
http://www.subversion.tigris.org (Subversion- Document management and revision control system)
http://www.k5n.us/webcalendar.php (WebCalendar- Online calendar program for single or multiple users)
http://www.openvpn.net (full-featured SSL VPN solution)

Desktop Linux Distributions

http://www.ubuntu.com Ubuntu
http://www.redhat.com Redhat
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki Fedora
http://www.novell.com/linux Suse
http://en.opensuse.org OpenSuse
http://www.slackware.com Slackware

You can also get the server versions to take care of your business client/server needs such as Email, file, print, FTP, Web, Database, Domain, Authentication etc., There are many distributions of Linux available please check http://www.distrowatch.com for additional resources.

This list is not at all exhausting and not meant to be. This should serve as a starting place on your journey into the Open Source realm. For general questions feel free to email me, if you have specific questions about any software listed here try posting to the respective forums. A good book to read is Open Source Solutions for Small Business Problems, written by John Locke. My definition of Open Source was found in this book.

What have we learned? Before you plunder hundreds of your hard earned or borrowed money into software seek out or find someone who is versed in this technology. Research and evaluate if an Open Source solution can fit your needs. Remember, Open Source Saves!

Paul Williams is a technology consultant, who teaches people how to save money by using open source software to solve their top 10 technology business problems. http://www.opensourceweekly.com.
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by William Z. Piker

It is one of the supreme ironies of the Internet that the computer, so long derided as impersonal, is now being used to create highly personal experiences for Web site visitors. Because a computer can sift through vast amounts of existing information according to preprogrammed rules, computers can now take company information (or special interest information) and combine it with information supplied by prospective customers and digest it in a way that is meaningful to each individual.

What are the best ways for businesses to personalize selling and customize products in order to build business. Although many of these methods are still in their infancy, a great deal can be gleaned as to current strategies and technologies and techniques and strategies can be implemented.

To attract new customers, companies can now establish Web sites that provide highly individualized recommendations based on information provided by the customer. In this way, it's possible to tell a prospective customer exactly which product, among a plethora of possibilities, is just right for that individual or that business. The strategic idea behind these efforts is clear: By empowering the customer with information about how a specific offering meets his or her needs, the company positions itself as a knowledgeable place to buy and also demonstrates how its products are just right for that individual customer.

This information, properly used, gives an existing supplier or retailer a clear leg up on the competition: The Company is able to use its information to establish itself as the supplier of choice and to suggest services to existing customers before they request them. Companies can maintain effectively private Web sites for individual clients so that they can both provide extraordinary service and recommend new products that will be of value to these customers.

In the past, this type of personalized communication was virtually impossible: Retailers and suppliers lacked the detailed information necessary to provide these recommendations and the ability to cost-effectively communicate it to individual customers.

However, today we have moved into an era where technology allows firms to cater to the individual needs of customers in a way that have not been possible before. The value of these initiatives, both in tightening the bonds with existing customers and in attracting new customers, is high. Another business tool made possible by the Internet is something that previously was available only to the wealthy: product customization, done quickly and inexpensively.

How are companies making use of several levels of "personal" recommendations ?

In adopting any strategy based on personalization, privacy is a central issue. The ability to make the customer feel comfortable enough to give you the information you need to create a tailored product or solution is among the primary challenges companies must overcome.

1) The Web's ability to help companies establish marketing intimacy is possible because a Web site combines five elements:

2) An opportunity to present information in an interactive format, permitting customers to express their preferences to the owner of the Web site

3) Virtually costless online communications between the potential buyer and seller

4) A visual component that lets potential buyers see prospective purchases and how they would appear if personalized The ability to store tremendous amounts of personal information about their customers

5) An unprecedented ability to create systems that configure products so that costly errors are eliminated, thus reducing the expense of creating custom products

Presently, one-to-one selling can be viewed in two general categories, recommending and customization.

Brick-and-mortar companies have long known that for the most part, either a motivated buyer has done a great deal of research on a particular product, or a product has been enthusiastically recommended by a friend or business associate. This knowledge leads to two keys to establishing a Web site that motivates buying:

Ample information (so that the buyer needn't do any more research—and, in the process, possibly depart your Web site for another)

A positive recommendation.In the past effective recommendations were generally person to person, there are several reasons why these technology-based recommendations are valued now. One has to do with the dizzying array of choices that now faces consumers. A cosmetics firm may offer hundreds of shades of lipstick or eye shadow; financial services companies have become true supermarkets filled with choices; well-known cold remedies now have multiple versions that end with words such as "plus" and "sinus" and "cough."

A generation ago, the dilemma posed by the array of choices was generally solved through one-on-one interaction (selling, if you will). Someone with a cold would have stopped by his or her local pharmacy and chatted with the pharmacist about which of the three or four cold remedies carried by the pharmacy would be best.

Depending on your product and customer, several types of recommending functions may work best. But first, let's take a moment to consider how to judge effectiveness..

Personalization, like any business initiative, should be used judiciously. There are real costs that accompany developing personalized applications: They range from the hard cost of development dollars to the cost of disappointing customers or prospects who expected a better experience. It's important to assess whether a personalization effort will be effective and contribute meaningfully to new sales or customer retention before investing the time and money in bringing it to market.

The criteria for establishing an effective recommendation system are different for every product. The system chosen is dependent upon a balance of the following: (1) the nature of the product, (2) the amount of information needed from the potential buyer to make an effective recommendation, and (3) the likely willingness of the prospective buyer to share this needed information with you.

Will consumers will trust the information they receive from companies on the Web as much as (or more than) they trust sales representatives? All evidence to date suggests the answer is yes. People believe that no trusted brand will risk its good name by posting misleading information on the Web.

As you go about creating an online recommendation system, your overriding goal should be to make the online shopping experience better than what a customer might encounter in the physical world. Therefore, you need to ask yourself: "What can my company accomplish using this medium that can't be accomplished in the physical world?"

Payment issues online seemed to have been taken care of by the credit card companies as a matter of routine.

What about issues of privacy? Consider gathering data anonymously. Recommendation systems that provide advice to consumers anonymously are likely to be far more popular and, therefore, more effective. In these cases, you are able to provide the prospective buyer with value without needing to jump the hurdle of "you can trust me with this information."

If you'd prefer to record the identities of site visitors, you are one step ahead if you are a recognized brand. Consumers are already predisposed to believe in your company name. In this case, address the privacy issue head-on with a statement that precedes your online registration form: "The information gathered here is to help us better serve you; we will not share or sell this information to anyone."

Finally, if you plan to share customer data with others, then you need to be explicit about it and receive the customer's permission. The worst thing you can do is fail to inform the customer that some piece of information you determine about him or her may be used in some way the customer does not expect.

Product customization is possible because of a convergence of two elements: the Web as a one-to-one communications technology and manufacturing processes that allow for the development and delivery of custom products.

Designing your own custom desktop computer at Web sites such as Dell has become "commonplace," but what about designing your own swimsuit or, perhaps, golf clubs? These customized services provide several valuable benefits for companies: (1) They help to drive new business, and (2) customers are willing to pay a premium price for an individually designed product, which means these products and services sometimes have higher profit margins than standard offerings.

The ability to interact with customers and say, "I can create the product that is just right for you," is one of the most powerful features of the Web. Expansion of this Internet capability will be the inevitable result of the combination of (1) manufacturers creating products that permit increasing customization, (2) further advances in computing power at ever decreasing costs, and (3) new software that is continuously enhancing the options available to businesses to personalize.

Smart companies realize that the more involved the relationship becomes with the customer, the better their rate of retention. They are implementing this strategy in a wide variety of creative ways, involving both personalization and customization, and will certainly enhance their applications significantly over time:

1). Companies are creating extraordinary convenience for customers and establishing systems to speed the fulfillment of custom orders.

2). E-mail communications and reminder systems are going to be used increasingly.

The ultimate goal of every business is to have a customer who wants to hear from the business about new products that he or she might want to buy. E-mail, for the first time, provides this type of powerful tool, since it's an almost costless communications vehicle.

3). In business-to-business selling, smart companies are also linking tightly to their customers.

Leading-edge technology companies are offering custom password-protected Web sites for their corporate accounts and high-volume small business accounts. These sites are typically designed to simplify the buying process, and they offer

(1) customer online malls offering products preselected by the company to be bought by employees at volume discount prices,

(2) electronic mail links to account managers responsible for serving that customer,

(3) the ability to track the status of orders, and

(4) dramatic increases in the speed of order fulfillment through the elimination of paper forms and a reduction in errors.

This is a clear way of providing customers with additional value and of tying the customer more closely to your company. Most companies will also see an increase in revenues from these accounts.

What was called for, of course, was a new category of employee: "e-mail respondents"; yet no one wanted to add staff at an additional expense to a project that was in its infancy.

Enter "response software."

Several intelligent software systems, are able to routinely handle and route questions, so there is no excuse for underserving your customers with the first and most basic customer service—answering their questions.

Companies who are successfully managing their e-mail via electronic means are also taking the opportunity to benefit from the Knowledge they glean.Companies are finally transforming their Web sites from marketing brochures to vehicles that turn visits into sales leads. Those who develop a Web presence and fail to respond to electronic inquiries in a timely manner run the risk of losing existing and new customers.

Industry research also shows that only 30 percent of Fortune 500 companies respond to questions directed to these companies through their Web sites, which means a large number of customers aren't getting the personal attention winning companies need to provide.

As you consider the possibilities offered by personalization and customization, I suggest that these initiatives be weighed against these criteria: Will the initiative enhance relationships with my customers by adding convenience or a better ability to meet their needs?Will the initiative result in potentially high cost-savings for my organization Will intelligent product configuration eliminate and reduce costly order errors and help to target vital marketing efforts directed at the customer base entity?

Mr. William Z. Piker
IT Department Head Ace Employment Services
billys_office@yahoo.com
Interest in e-Commerce Systems as well as Vintage Computing
http://www.vintagecomputermanuals.com
http://www.badgerlinux.net
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by Oleg Ishenko

Internet Search

For the last decade the Internet has emerged itself into an integral part of our everyday life. What previously was mostly a network of research institutions has become an unprecedented medium for commercial and social use. With the number of web pages now exceeding 12 billion it is extremely difficult to find information without using search engines.

Search engines appeared almost immediately once the WWW was born. A pioneering search engine called Archie was created in the University of Montreal in 1990 and was used to search files located on public FTP sites. The first search engine created to crawl and index text files on the web, World Wide Web Wanderer or Wandex, was introduced in 1993 in MIT and worked on principals similar to those used by the modern web search engines.

However it was not until late 90s when search engines have become the major tool to find information on the Internet. Before Internet directories such as Yahoo! or BestOfTheWeb were used to locate web pages. But it didn't take long for web users to recognize the usefulness of the Internet search, once indexing and ranking algorithms have reached a state where search engines were able to quickly return highly relevant results

Search Results Relevancy

It is all about the relevancy of results. In their infancy search engines were utterly vulnerable to abuse. Originally search engines used to index file names and later meta-tags. It doesn't take much to stuff file names and meta-tags with popular keywords which are irrelevant to the document's content. When a user queried a search engine with a keyword he received results that couldn't satisfy him. That is why Internet directories with pages classified into directories by human reviewers were far more useful than the search eng