Press Releases and Your Online Success by Matthew Bredel

Sunday, May 25, 2008

When you try to make money online, you need to get the word out about what you're doing so people will be interested in visiting your website. Many people do this through press release distribution. Companies like PRWEB can help you mass distribute your news.
What is a press release?
A press release tells the media about your news and gives them an opportunity to publish your piece. If there's something exciting going on in your business, this is a great way to spread some buzz.
How do you write a press release?
First, it's a good idea to make sure you have something that's actually newsworthy. What might be newsworthy? A new website, a new product, a staff change, a promotion, you get the idea.
Second, unless you're a great copywriter you'll probably want to hire a writer or press release service to do the writing for you. If you are a decent writer, you can find some templates to use to help you with your press release. Then, you need to get organized and make a plan for where and how you'll distribute it. There are free and paid options which we'll explore here.
The anatomy of a press release
A basic press release is a news item. It follows the typical news format which answers the classic newspaper questions, "Who, What, Where, When, Why?" Generally, a press release starts off with an eye-catching heading and the first few sentences of the press release are what will create interest. If you don't capture your audience in the first paragraph, chances are they'll move on to something else before even reading the rest. At the end of the news bit, you have an opportunity to list where people should go for more information and this answer is your website.
How will press releases help my online business?
The success of the press release is two fold. First, people that read it could visit your site and buy something. Secondly and perhaps just as importantly, the search engines will read that there are articles on trusted sources out there pointing to your website and this, my virtual friend, will help you with your search engine rankings which is what you want more than anything online because that's the key to getting customers. Ranking well for target keywords will get you not only search engine visibility but will get you traffic that consists of people interested in what you're talking about. Now, your website copy needs to speak well so that you can convert visitors into customers.
Press releases are something you can often submit to free services that will syndicate for you but this is not full utilization of the press release. If you pay for a service like PRWEB, you could increase your reach and find that many more sources will display your article, which can result in an incredible viral marketing campaign. You could end up in places like Yahoo! News, Google News and more and receive visitors already convinced that you are an authority in your niche based on how well your press release reads.

Secrets to Successful Email Marketing by Colin Meunier

If you have decided to use email marketing to further the prospects of your online business, you have to tread very carefully. One little mistake, one little misdemeanor and your email marketing will be labeled as spamming. But if you do not use email marketing at all, you are losing out on the vast potentials that it has in bringing meaningful traffic to your business website. So, the crux of it all is that you have to use email marketing, but use it with the right balance. This is the main mantra of successful email marketing. There are certainly several strategies that you can use to make your email marketing campaign a roaring hit. The following are some of these strategies.
1. The first thing you will need is to build an opt-in list. What is an opt-in list? Simply put, these are people who have agreed to accept emails from you. When you get this list of people, you are going absolutely legal in sending them emails. Also, since these people have already opted to be in your list, they are probably already interested in what you are selling. That means, there is a strong chance they will be your customers soon. So, how you do you get this opt-in list? One very simple way is to put in checkboxes on your webpage itself asking whether people would like more information from your website to be directly emailed to them. If they are interested in what you are showing them on your webpage, and if they are sure that they have nothing to lose, they will opt in by giving their email ids.
2. Another way to get a list of email leads is offering your visitors something free, to access which they will have to give their email ids. You can use a squeeze page (also known as a lead capture page) for this purpose. It's simple to do - just put a link for downloading that free gift you are giving, which is probably an eBook. But do not allow people to go directly to the downloading link. Make them go first through a small page known as a squeeze page. Tell them that they will have to give their email ids on this page for verifying that they are real persons. This is truthfully important for you, because there are bots that can be rigged to take the free gifts from you too. Also assure them that their email ids will never be sold for someone else, and that you will only use these email ids to send them informative emails from time to time.
3. Once you get the list of emails, the marketing process itself is simple. Make sure that you send these people emails that are really informative. Give them some information. But to make them open the email you have to use a very compelling subject line. Something like 'Here are three simple ways that you can beat the heat'. Keep the subject line intriguing so that people go ahead and open the email. In the email, you have to give them the information that you promised in the subject line, or they will feel cheated. Then ask them to visit your website for more such information. Give them the URL of your business website in each email that you write.
4. From time to time, keep testing your email marketing process. You can do this by A/B split testing or multivariate testing. This is where you send different emails to different sets of people and see which email is eliciting the best kind of response. This helps you greatly in improving your email marketing campaign.

Why Promoting Yourself Is As Important As Your Product by Bob and Cindy Floyd

You have a great idea for a home business, or you see a great product you want to sell. You talk to everyone you know to see what they think. Everyone agrees it's a great idea and so you go about starting to put together your opportunity. So why can't you sell it? Because one of the most important things the new home business owner overlooks is self promotion. It really doesn't matter what your product is, many people who join affiliate programs or join network marketing companies or buy your product want to know you. Are you someone they can trust, will you there to help them? You should never make selling a product or service just about the product or service. Even in this day and age of the internet people still want to know who you are. I'm sure this is why video marketing has become so popular; people can put a face behind the product. It builds trust. So how do you go about promoting yourself? There are many free and low cost ways of getting your name out there and letting people get to know you.
1. Write articles and allow them to be published for free. The internet is all about content. Publishers of all kinds, bloggers, newsletters; they all need fresh new content. Allow them to publish your content with your bio attached at the end, that's a must.
2. Create a give away like a free e-book. Since it's your e-book in the author section give your readers an "About the Author" section. Tell them who you are, what you've done and promote your business. You shouldn't feel awkward about this; you see it on every flap of a book you purchase.
3. Send out media releases. This is one of the easiest ways to promote yourself. You can write about a new product release, maybe your new e-book or an interesting industry event. This is a bit different than publishing an article so make sure you follow the format. And there are plenty of free PR sites to post to; search Google for a listing.
4. Use your email list. Once you have established a list, even a non-buying list, send out information to them regularly about you, your business and how you can help them succeed in their home business opportunity. This tactic is two fold, you're promoting yourself and your business while establishing a relationship with them. This one task alone will create profits beyond your wildest imagination.
5. And always, always add your card/bio to the end of every email and article you publish. This is your online business card, hand it out everywhere you go. Every email, every article is another chance to tell people who you are. Make sure you keep it short so it's sure to get read.
If you apply these few quick and easy suggestions you will be rewarded with more customers, more revenue and you might just find a new friend or two.

How To Get Internet Money And Find Success With Your Internet Business? by Louis Charles Martel

You hear about people getting online every day to start their own home business and finding success. You can easily find success with your own internet business if you do what it takes to make it happen for you. One thing that successful business owners understand is that getting internet money doesn't have to be hard, it just takes a few things from you to make it happen. When you want your own part of internet money you have to do some very important things. If you don't do these things than you will always find yourself struggling to make money and find success. Here are the things that you have to do.
One: Education - You have to take the time needed to learn all you can about building an internet business and about marketing your business. Learning is something you will do every day when you have a home business. The more you are willing to learn about the easier you will find it to build your business and make internet money.
Two: Marketing - This is imperative to making internet money and finding success. If you don't market your internet business then people can't find you. You have to get your website and business in front of as many people as you can. This is where the education will come in because you will continuously be learning how to market your business.
Three: Hard work - Too many people get online and start a business expecting to find success right away without any work or very little work. Having an internet business is just like having a business offline. You have to treat it like a business and work hard to make is succeed. This is just a fact of life that applies to all areas, including building a business.
Four: Time and effort - The more time you spend building your business the more internet money you will make. Your business will build according to how much time and effort you put into building it, if you are not willing to spend time and effort than you shouldn't start your own business.
These are not all of the things that you will have to do to build your business and make internet money but they are the most important. Don't ignore even one of these things because if you do you will find it very hard to make your internet business successful.

Four Tips To Help You Choose The Right Internet Based Affiliate Marketing Business by Stephen Meyer

If you are looking for an online business opportunity that will allow you to work at your own pace and on your own schedule. An Internet based affiliate marketing opportunity could be right for you. Research is the key and must be done before you start an affiliate marketing business. There are many businesses out there and it is important that you research each of them to find a program that meets your needs and you feel you are capable of selling. The hardest part of Internet opportunities is finding the right one. Here are four tips to help you make your decision.
1. When searching products you want to find those that cater to a large consumer base. It is much easier to sell a specialized product than it is to sell a bunch of different products.
2. When choosing which internet based affiliate marketing program is right for you, it is important to choose one that provides promotional tools and strategies. Look for companies that have a clear marketing plan and offers you many tools to promote that plan. When the company gives you tools and a clear plan of action you will have the ability to start profiting much quicker.
3. Remember that you are the one that is building the business, which means that you, the affiliate, should be of the highest priority. Do not even consider a company that does not respond politely to emails or treats you badly. If the company does not respond to your emails quickly and treats your rudely it is a sign that they do not value you and that you should not choose their company.
4. The final thing you should do when deciding which company you should become an affiliate marketer for is to find the company that has a proven sales record and is part of your niche market. These are the companies that will give you what it will take to build a business and be successful.
Affiliate marketing programs are a great part time or full time business and are a good way to make money. By following the above four steps your search for an Internet based affiliate marketing business will lead you to success and profit.

3 Main Problems When You Work From Home by Orkhan Ibadov

There is no doubt that working from home is a great way of making a living. It can be a lot of fun at the same time. But there can be problems that you will encounter and this article will explore the main problems you can have while working from home.
1. First of all it's easy to get distracted. Because you work at home you will find that many of your well-meaning friends and relatives think you really are not working. Therefore, they can stop by, or call you and ask you to do things pretty much 24 hours a day. They wouldn't do this if you had an eight to five job yet they feel it is o.k. because you are working from home. They can contact you whenever they feel like. There are other types of distractions as well. Some of these can be brought on by yourself. Things such as errands to run, TV shows to watch, neighbors to visit, and so on can become distractions. You really have to be able to control your schedule when you work from home.
2. Another problem is you no longer have a steady paycheck. When you work for an employer you are trading your time for their money. But when you work from home for yourself, you will trade you time for the potential of making money. Some people have a hard time dealing with this because they never know exactly what they're going to make. Unless you're financially secure, sitting on a stable bank account, this can create added stress that you may or may not able to handle.
3. Benefits such as vacation days, sick days, retirement fund, etc. are not guaranteed if you are working for yourself. If you are the type of person who valued the benefits that your job provided then you need to set up a way to reward yourself accordingly. These are 3 problems you will have while working from home. The flip side of this is you are in control and can have a huge impact on your own personal success.
When you are setting your office hours people will respect that. Not only that but you'll get more done because you know exactly when you're working. Your potential income will depend on yourself. The more you work the more your income will increase. You can also set up a retirement plan and reward yourself with vacation days and sick days because you are the boss.
Most people find that the problems they have when they work from home nowhere near compare with the many rewards. Hopefully you will fall in that category.

Ecommerce Information and Resources by diane jenkins

The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution
ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business. Here are some of the advantages of using ClickBank.
1. Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account
If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), ClickBank may be an excellent solution for you. For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.
2. Start Your Own Affiliate Program
With ClickBank, you have your own built-in affiliate program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you would like to pay your affiliates. To learn more about ClickBank.com, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank.html
3. Receive Free Advertising
You receive additional exposure through free listing on the ClickBank website and through the search facilities of other websites, such as CBMall.com. To learn more about CBMall.com, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/cbmall.html
4. Obtain Referral Commissions
Even without applying for ClickBank credit card processing, you can earn referral commissions on thousands of ClickBank Marketplace products. To learn more about ClickBank Marketplace, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank-marketplace.html
5. Eliminate Sales Tax Problems
Are you registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) for online transactions for European Union (EU) countries since July 1, 2003? Are you collecting the appropriate state or provincial sales taxes? If you are a Canadian, are you aware of your obligation to collect Goods and Services Tax (G.S.T.) and Harmonized Sales Tax (H.S.T.) on Internet transactions? Again, ClickBank may be your solution. ClickBank is registered for EU purposes and adds the appropriate VAT to each transaction.
As well, to deal with ClickBank, you must agree to sell your product to them. ClickBank then resells your product to their customers. Thus, ClickBank becomes the retailer responsible for collecting sales taxes -- not you. Obviously, ClickBank will not be subject to sales taxes in most jurisdictions. Since ClickBank is located in the United States and can only sell or use the products it sells from there, it would appear that Canadian G.S.T. and H.S.T. would not be applicable to them. Of course, this is not legal advice. To determine your liability for sales and similar taxes, consult your lawyer and accountant. To read more about sales taxes on Internet transactions, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/e-commerce-tax.html
Considering its many advantages, ClickBank may well be your e-commerce solution!
Resource Box: J. Stephen Pope, President of Pope Consulting Inc.,

How To Create And Add A Shopping Cart To A Site by Ranjith Kumar

There are many solutions to adding a shopping cart to an online merchant site. You may want a very personalized shopping cart for your portal and so will have to hire the expert services of a software programmer. There are many online merchant solution service providers out there and can have your shopping cart software and payment gateway set up and running in a matter of days, but it is bound to cost you. Then there are free online merchant solutions available such as the many online payment services. PayPal is one such solution and a very trusted one. With the free online merchant solutions available you do not have to make a payment up front. These services charge you a percentage of the payments you receive online. They have ready made software that is easy to install on your site. You just have to fill in an online form that requires some details of your business and payment procedures. They will then provide you with software code that is generated instantly. You have to just copy and paste this code in the html code of you site. The online payment processor will guide you how to do this as well. When you are done, you will be able to accept payments from customers through credit cards and debit cards. The difference with the free payment processors and customized online merchant software is that the money will not be deposited into your bank directly. The payment will go to the online free payment processors account and you will have to withdraw it from there to your bank account for which there will invariably be a charge. These are good solutions for small online businesses as it beats paying huge software development costs.
The Benefits Of An Online Merchant Account
The internet has emerged as the largest marketplace and source for information. It is estimated that about a million people are being introduced to the internet every 100 days. This included emails and search engine services. In fact, surveys have shown that 80% of all online sales begin as a search on some major search engine. It is possible for a business establishment to advertise, sell and collect payments online without ever having to meet the customer personally. Technology has advanced with such a rapid pace in the past ten years that electronic payments have become the norm of the day. More than 40% of payments are transacted electronically through credit and debit cards, apart from the usual wire transfers and online payment portals. One of the emerging payment methods is through mobile phones. It is fast catching on and experts in the field feel that this is going to be the preferred payment method worldwide. Paying through your mobile handset will be as easy as sending an SMS. With these advancements and most businesses adapting their payment procedures and policies to suit customer's conveniences, it is only advisable in the interest of business that any business set up an online merchant account with a payment processor in order to cash in on the business that is being transacted on the Internet. There are many online merchant solution providers out there and have established themselves in the field setting up and maintaining online merchant software and products that fraud, though exists, is very difficult to perpetuate. So get yourself an online merchant account and get a piece of the action that your competitors will otherwise get.
What Are Transaction Processing Solutions?
Transaction processing, as the name suggests, is a process of carrying through a transaction from making a payment for a service or product to the actual delivery of the same. Most businesses are carrying out these transactions online with the help of sophisticated software. This transaction processing software records every step of the transaction for future reference. A good transaction processing solution will not only record all transactions but will be able to tabulate and reproduce any or all of them at any given time. This aids in rectifying any problem or error by recalling a particular transaction and tracing each step right down to the point where the mistake was made and rectifying the same. Online transaction processing is a very crucial part of any online business. It is an electronic ledger of all the business transactions carried out by the online merchant account. There are many online merchant transaction processing solutions available. A merchant may choose to get a ready-to-use transaction processing software or may choose to have a customized one made for his online merchant account. Of course, there are vast cost implications involved, however there is almost no difference in the security levels of the two. It is imperative for an online merchant account to have a transaction processing solution in order to transact business online. From accepting an order, processing payments and getting the cash in the bank, transaction software is what will get the job done.
Internet Payment Gateways - Should You Make Your Own In-house
An internet payment gateway is crucial for any online merchant account to facilitate selling goods and accepting payment for the same. This is known as e-commerce. This process is like any sale made in a physical store, where someone buys a product and passes his or her card to the check out clerk for payment. Only with an Internet payment gateway, the customer does not have to pass his card over but just enter the card data into a secure online form. This data will include the card number, name of the holder and the CVV number on the rear of the card. The payment will be debited from the card and in a matter of days, will be credited to the merchant's bank account. From a security aspect, online payment gateways are quite secure, though the customer should be certain that he or she is using a reputed site. Look for the 's' after the 'http' in the URL of the site. This is a start but not a guarantee to prevent the site from using your card information for illicit purposes. So does it make a difference if you make your own Internet payment gateway in-house? Perhaps yes. This will give the net savvy customer a feel that you have taken the trouble of developing your own secure software instead of just getting one off the net. It will also merge with your site design instead of displaying other third party ads and logos on your site. It may cost you a little more, but you will be offering your online customers a sense of security and will have full control of the software. So you will not have to wait for the third party to wake up to rectify any fault in the online processing solution they have set up for you.
How To Open An Online Merchant Account
An online merchant account is an account that is known as a "Payment Gateway". It is not a very difficult task to open an online merchant account. A payment gateway is a software that your web developer or engineer will have to incorporate into your web site. This is software that may or may not include a shopping cart, a system that allows visitors to your online merchant site to browse through your products and add them to a virtual cart, much like a shopping cart at a super mall. The visitor will ultimately keep or remove items from the cart and pay for the remaining items through the payment gateway. A payment gateway may or may not be linked to your merchant bank account. This depends on the type of online merchant solution you have chosen. You may have had the software created especially for your site; in this case the software will naturally accept all credit cards and will be linked to the major credit card processing companies such as VISA or MasterCard. The software will also be linked to your merchant bank account. Customers can use this software to pay for services and products using credit cards, debit cards and bank transfers. When someone uses a card or online banking to make a payment the user is connected to the bank that issues the card and the money is transferred to the bank within a matter of days. Nevertheless, you may go ahead and complete the transaction by delivering the product to the customer as the payment will definitely come through. Online merchant solutions are a way of taking your business to your customers instead of waiting for them to come to you. The online payment systems are an added advantage as anyone will like to have convenience at their fingertips.

How does Pay Per Click work? by Will Jones

How does Pay Per Click work?
An often asked question amongst people who are new to online marketing is "How does Pay Per Click work". Well, simply stated, pay per click allows you to effectively "buy your way" to the top of the search engine ratings.
How does Pay Per Click work with the search engines?
Whenever you run a search on any of the major search engines, you will notice that alongside the usual list of results, you will also see a set of results labelled " Sponsored Results" or "Sponsored Links" All of these "Results" and "Links" are actually paid advertisements for the exact search phrase and/or words you have typed into the search box. The ranking position of these advertisements are based on how how much a business is willing to pay for each word or phrase. This is done slightly differently by Google who base theirs on a combination of the bid amount combined with the websites popularity. The advertisements are purchased through Pay Per Click suppliers. The two biggest suppliers are Google's Adwords and Yahoo's Overture.
Why would I pay for traffic - How does pay per click work to make it worthwhile?
If your website already ranks amongst the first three in the search engine rankings purchasing traffic probably appears less than appealing. For the remaining 99% however, If they can make more from a visitor than it costs to get them there, then they are producing guaranteed profits. After all, they can chose the exact search terms they wish to advertise on and they only pay when the searcher actually clicks on their ads.
How does pay per click work profitwise?From this we can see that the main aim of the advertising campaign must be to bring in more money than it cost to run the campaign - What is left is guaranteed profits. With careful analysis you can work out which ads and search terms are making money and which aren't allowing you to home in on the successful ones and thereby increase your profits.
How does Pay Per Click work - Tip 1:
Track your results. Only by tracking your results will you know what works and what doesn't. Both Google and Overture provide free tracking tools - use them. if you don't know what works you are just throwing your money away.
How does Pay Per Click work - Tip 2:
Always use a large number of (relevant) search phrases. Have a good old brainstorming session and think of your product names, descriptions and the sort of search phrases that your customers would use - The more, the merrier.
How does Pay Per Click work - Tip 3:
Use different ads for each search phrase. Use unique ads for the individual search phrases. Ads that are closely matched to their search phrases receive far more clicks and result in far more targeted traffic than campaigns that rely on blanket or catch-all ads.
How does Pay Per Click work - Tip 4:
Send clicks to the appropriate page of your website. If the ad refers to a particular product or service, don't just send them to your homepage and hope that they will find their own way - they are more likely to just click back to the search results.
What are you waiting for. Hopefully I have been able to take you somewhere towards answering the question "How does Pay Per Click work" As we speak, millions of customers are searching for the exact product or service you are selling. If your site is not in there at the top of the search results, you can bet your customers will be.

If this article has peaked your interest in Pay Per Click, You might like to check out the following links:
Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Exposed
How To Generate Highly Targeted Pay Per Clickleads
Download Competitors Keywords And Adwords

Tax Advantages of having an MLM Business Opportunity by Colin Meunier

MLM professionals use a lot of promotional talk when they are trying to build their network. They speak about MLMs being the easiest businesses to enter into (with zero investments most of the time), and they speak about how easy it is to earn by doing nothing with this business opportunity. But one important thing they do not use in their pitching talk is that the MLM business opportunities are also good for tax. There are some significant tax advantages with an MLM business opportunity that you should know about and seek the benefit of before joining into such a network.
First of all, you need to know that all businesses attract their own tax advantages, and you can avail of these through your MLM business too, considering you are showing your home as your place of work. There are several deductions connected with a home business - you can write off the expenses you incur for the portion of your home that you are using for your business, for the mileage on your car that you use for your business related travel, for the various bills you pay for your business such as your phone bill, your Internet bill and your electricity bill, and the equipment you are using which includes whatever furniture you may have and your computer. Maintain a proper log of all these expenses and at the end of the year, write off these expenses when you are filing your returns. You will find that you are able to write a significant portion of your income for your MLM business opportunity. You will have to call people a lot and drive to meet people, you may have to organize seminars and events sometimes even within your home. You will be able to write off all these as business deductions. They amount to your tax breaks.
However, you will have to actually run your business in order to gain any significant advantage out of it. If you are planning to start an MLM business just for the sake of earning some profit out of it, it is not going to work. Instead, you can plan to devote a set amount of time per day for your MLM venture and make it flourish also. Even simply checking the emails and responding to them, calling up your prospects and preparing for meetings and conferences count towards working for your business, and will qualify you for your tax deductions. But what is more important is that this will actually make your MLM network grow and the real income will begin flowing in too. Your MLM business can be a very real moneymaking opportunity for you and can actually spell big gains at the end of the day. One of the great supplementary advantages of participating in this opportunity is that it can help you to gain significant tax breaks when that dreaded period of the year comes. These significant tax breaks can be one of the great impetuses to you to enter into your own MLM business opportunity.

How Can Internet Marketing Videos Help Your Internet Business? by Louis Charles Martel

With the help of the internet many people are starting their own internet business. The internet is always changing and new things are being added every day. When you have a home business online you will have to use many different tools and marketing methods if you want to find success. One tool that is becoming a popular way to market your business is with internet marketing videos. You can make internet marketing videos that will give other people information that will help them build their internet business. At the same time you can promote your online business on the video. Lots of people like to get online and watch videos instead of reading about things. Watching internet marketing videos and being able to see how things are done is much easier than reading. So, if you are not using videos in your business then you are losing a lot of traffic to your site. It doesn't matter if you have never done a video before. You can easily learn how to do this.
There are many people that have found success with this method of marketing and teaching others that they have started writing eBooks, reports and other things that will help you learn. You have to take the time to search for ways to learn and then spend time learning how to do it because if you ignore using internet marketing videos for your internet business you will be left far behind. When you have an internet business there will always be new methods to learn about. That is what is so great about having a home business, you get to learn about many new things every day and make money while you do it. Internet business is on the rise and more people will be starting their own business every day. You want to make sure you keep up with every new method of marketing and learning so you can provide your customers with what they need. The more help you can give others, the more they will trust you, which will mean the more money you will make. Don't let other pass you by. Use internet marketing videos to your advantage and learn from them, while you make money with your own videos also. This is definitely one thing you will have to know about because it is growing in popularity every day, so take the time needed to find out more about it now.

How to create a website by Diana Ennen

Do you have the Virtual Edge with your business? That website that when people go there they say, Wow, I want to work with that company. If not, here are a few pointers.
Packing a Punch
Your website is the one thing that defines you and your business and has the potential to draw the entire virtual world to your products or services. How important is it? Well, I just recently had mine redone, and I immediately starting gaining more clients. Also, because I added a more professional edge to my site, I started getting clients who were a higher caliber and who paid more, now it don't get any better than that.
Here are a few pointers I think you might find useful:
§ The First Glance - Hook Them!! Keep in mind that the first thing listed in the main body of your site should be the best you offer. The main thing you are bringing people to the site to see. It has to clearly state what is it you want to sell, offer, feature, etc. Go look at your site, have you done it?
§ Buttons That Tell & Sell - Those side and top buttons-you need to clearly set up so that people want to click on them and find out more. Also, you need to have these correctly labeled. That name is critical to making them take the time to check out that page. § Bullet Power- Clients often skim sites and rarely read through the entire site. They look for items that interest them. If you list paragraph after paragraph, it won't get read. Think back, do you read those paragraphs. I don't! Therefore use bullets or symbols instead. And try diferent types of bullets.
§ Chose Your Words Wisely - Every word on your site should say something important. Absolutely you need to use keywords, but you also need to use convincing words to sell you and your business. Don't get so caught up in keywords that you lose the focus of the site. Write the text, edit and delete, and repeat that last step over and over until you have it just right.
§ Convenience -- Clickable Links -- In the body of the website itself, whenever you are providing a reference to a site, make sure you have a clickable link, even if you have it on the side panel. People won't go searching, so make it easy to find. § Colors Are Cool -- Match your colors to your business or your book. For example, for one of my clients who has a science fiction book with an awesome green cover, I designed the website to match. Now you immediately make the connection.
§ Front Page Magic - Offer Something FREE - On your front page, it helps to offer something for FREE. I offer a free booklet on obtaining clients in a pdf format. How about a free 10 ways to do whatever it is you do? That sort of thing. Let people long after they leave your site remember you and want to come back to you with their money and business.
§ Contests - Come One- Come All -- Yes, we know they work. They get people to your site, which adds to your traffic. But, here's a tip to make them really successful. Follow-up each response with a personal e-mail. Now, the key is not making it a hard sale sales letter they will never read. Instead, how about a "Thanks for entering our contest. You didn't win, but we'd love to stay connected ..." And then give them something special, including a coupon off of your services. Make them feel special.
§ Newsletter -- List your newsletter on numerous pages if not all. This is what is going to be reconnecting you to your clients and potential clients. § The Eyes Have It - I strongly suggest you have another friend or business associate view your site and offer opinions. It's incredible what they can discover you don't as you are too close to it.
§ Eyes -- Take Two -- Right now, stop and check out your site. Have you looked at it from a potential client's viewpoint? What did you think? Did it clearly define you and what you offered? Did it spark your interest?
I hope these tips help you to get the virtual edge you need for your business.