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 Home Business Internet Marketing Strategies
Wed 4th Aug. '99
In this issue:
1. Introduction
==>Brief words from Azam.
2. Feature Article
==>"Promoting Your Web Site" by Kari Sable Burns.
3. This Week's Posts
==>A) [New Topic] Sending out an ezine
- salinfo
- Azam's Comment
4. Tip
==>Do you wait for pages to load?
5. Pause For Thought
==>Seneca, Longfellow, Henry Ford.
6. Voting Booth
==>This week's quick poll and last week's results.
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=================================================================
=====================
+ Introduction +
=====================
Hi,
I'm going to keep it brief this week as the feature article is
quite long. It's very good though, so be sure to read it all!
First of all thanks for all your kind remarks about the first
issue of Biz Bits - they're much appreciated! :-)
Secondly, I want to remind you that as encouragement to get you
started with this "posting thing", I'm giving away a Free Ad
insertion for every post published in Biz Bits throughout August!
Include your ad at the foot of your post and title it
"My free ad". I will insert it in the same or following issue
depending on available space.
It's time to speak up! Let's hear what you've got to say...
surely you don't want to listen to me ALL the time?!!
Get your post in now!
If you missed the last issue, you can get it by sending a blank
email to mailto:BB28799+nowsell.com
OK... I'll let you get on with the rest of the issue, enjoy!
Azam
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Your Privacy:
I greatly value your trust in me. I will never, ever, under any
circumstances give or sell your email address to anyone. Period!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=====================
+ Feature Article +
=====================
-----------------------
Promoting Your Web Site
-----------------------
by Kari Sable Burns
Your web site is perfect, an artistic and informative
representation of the best your business offers.
Where on the World Wide Web are your clients going to
find you?
Have you registered with search engines and directories?
Registering with search engines and directories is necessary,
but it is not marketing.
Clients searching for "Internet Marketing" will pull up
thousands of listings with a keyword search. The possibility
that my site will be seen out of all the listings is not
significant enough to keep me in business. If they are
looking specifically for my business, by name, spelled
correctly, a search engine or directory listing will help
them locate my URL, but if they are searching with a common
keyword term the chance of our web sites making the top 100
entries are about 15000 to 1, if we're lucky.
Considering the amount of time it takes for search pages to
load, the limited descriptions allowed, the length of time
to check out the URL's the average surfer either goes with
the first few businesses they find or they throw up their
hands in frustration and give up entirely.
Attract clients to your site?
After you have registered with major search engines and
directories, your next step is writing a media release to
announce your arrival and create an interest in your business.
Submissions are not limited to Internet media.
Your site could be of interest in your local area, business
news or civic organizations.
Search the Net for your local media listings. Newspapers,
radio and TV stations often have e-mail addresses for
submitting media releases.
Direct your releases to media sources relevant to your scope
of business. (in other words if your web site is about
restoring Mustangs you don't need to send media releases to
the gourmet or medical media.) Address the release to the
correct reporter or desk (this is very important).
Reporters receive stacks of media releases each day, make
it clear, interesting, brief with information the media
requires, "who," "what," " when," "where," "why" and sometimes
"how," in the opening?
Do some research on writing media releases. Every thing you
need to learn to master the art is right online. Writing
effective media releases is something business professionals
should become proficient at. Only use the acceptable standard
format for writing media releases. Write and rewrite until
clear, concise and engaging. If you are available for
interviews, include that information in your release.
Attach a profile or a "bio" This is about you, your
credentials and background.
Media releases, search engines and directory listings give
you a foundation to start publicizing your presence. Now it's
time to start some serious online marketing ...
Ask yourself, "where on the Internet will my leads come from?"
Due to the voluminous amount of rapidly expanding and changing
data that defines the Internet, information is managed by
processes of categorization designed to make this data
accessible. The beauty of marketing through the Internet is
the virtually unlimited opportunities to reach niche markets
and the masses targeting.
Working the Threads
The best method for developing a memorable Net presence is
through discussion lists. There are thousands of different
groups and mail lists from the highly specialized to those
that are completely free flowing. Postings to these lists
reach a large audience. Many web sites are now offering their
own message boards to stimulate topical interaction between
web visitors. E-mail discussion lists are an excellent source
of leads.
Subscribe to the lists, familiarize yourself with the FAQs,
rules and posting style of the group before your first public
post.
To market your business through a discussion group effectively,
it is recommended that your web site feature informative
articles, resource lists, and tips. Post a message to relevant
discussion groups announcing articles, tips, or resources being
featured on your site. Change your content regularly, each
content addition or change warrants a discreet public plug.
Do not cross post, send your announcement to one list at a
time. Many people and some Newsgroups filter out cross
postings. Don't post a message that looks like a bunch of
hype, such as the overuse of caps, exclamation marks or
grandiose claims. It looks like Spam and most likely will
be regarded as such.
If it's not possible or you don't feel comfortable writing
your own copy, link to a site that provides information or
education basics in your field or offer a page of resources
and tools. If you write but don't have the ability to make
changes or add content to your site, post your article on
the discussion lists with your SIG displayed.
Many discussion lists are associated with web sites.
Contribute an article or volunteer work for a byline with
your URL and see if you can exchange a link.
To create a positive and powerful business presence on
discussion groups, be helpful and friendly. If someone
is looking for information or assistance and you are able
to help, do so, by all means. Lending friendly assistance
while wearing your SIG proudly, is the best online Public
Relations strategy I know of.
Be a friend
When you post publicly, your SIG advertises to hundreds,
if not thousands, of people. This is the single most
effective system of networking on the Internet. You establish
a presence and develop a network. Networking among Internet
professionals is alive and thriving.
Spam, Flames and Competitors
A savvy business person promotes their service and products
without blatant, in your face, billboard style messages. If
you have recently shared information about your services,
on the open group, respond to following leads for your
services. Mass mailed messages to private e-mail, Usenet or
Mail Discussion lists is considered Spam. If you are Spam
you will be permanently filtered out of many in-boxes and
your professional reputation on the Internet will be
darkened in the most profound of ways.
Flames are a public confrontation. There are people out
there seething with anger and frustration. They apparently
have plenty of time on their hands and not much to lose.
You do have much to lose by responding. So just don't. Not
even to defend assaults or accusations. Be prepared to be
accused of being labeled a "nazi" or "moron" and just about
any other offensive title possible for even the most innocent
remarks. Let it slide, you are a business professional online
and you are known for your words and reactions. Quotes become
misattributed and you don't want your good name posted under
tangled threads.
Be your competitors friend! Go out of your way to be congenial
and helpful to your competition. NEVER speak ill of competitors.
My competitors sent me my first business on the Internet! Now
I'm sending them business. Self employment is often feast or
famine. A strong referral network of aligned professionals
can help even out the work load. Make it worth other
professional's time to send business your way. I reward
my "finders" liberally. Consider how time consuming marketing
and searching for leads can be. Referrals are pure gold. I
want to do anything I can to keep them coming!
Webs, Guest books, Links, Rings, Banners
The web offers endless opportunities for free advertising.
Target your audience. Establish a connection with sites that
offer complimentary services. For Internet Marketing, I contact
site providers, designers, producers, and new web businesses.
I also market off-line in my own geographical area, so I look
for business web sites within my community.
Visit your competitor's sites. See what they are offering and
how it is being presented. Sign the guest book or send them an
e-mail and say something nice.
Signing a guest book is like handing out a business card,
only better. Guest book entries deserve a reciprocal visit
to their site and a reply. Always reply to any person showing
interest, offering help or just being friendly. Respond to
everything except flames.
Guest books entries are open for viewing and many people do.
Set time aside each day for signing guest books on web sites
offering services or products related to yours or who target
the same clientele. Don't just leave your e-mail and URL. Tell
them what you really liked about their site, the articles, the
graphics, links the format, etc. Briefly share something about
yourself.
When you see a site you would like to link with, send an
e-mail asking permission and explaining why you are feel
a link is good idea. Sites with link collections often
include information and forms to facilitate your listing.
A plethora of web marketing innovations have been developed
to make doing business on the web more convenient for the
client and beneficial for business, such as malls, web rings
and reciprocal banner programs. These can be very effective.
You will need to carefully evaluate these programs to determine
which would benefit your business and serve your clients best.
Every marketing strategy above is FREE. There are so many free
marketing sources available online that you are only limited
by your time. If business is slow, spend your time marketing
yourself! When business picks up don't forget to keep marketing,
even if means paying someone to do it for you.
Breads Cast Upon the Waters
If you want to be successful in business you better be
successful as a friend. Not just a friend long enough to
attempt to sell your product, but sincerely a person who
genuinely likes and cares about others. If you don't enjoy
socializing hire someone that does to represent your company.
These contacts do pay off. If you want to be known online, you
want to be known in the positive sense.
If you are sincerely interested in helping others you have
the best marketing profile there is, especially on the Internet.
_____________
Kari -Marketing, Copywriting, Consultations, Training, Seminars,
Trade Shows, Research and Grant Proposals. Over 20 years
experience. An Internet business since 1994.
http://www.olywa.net/kari mailto:kari+olywa.net
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=====================
+ This Week's Posts +
=====================
A) [New Topic] Sending out an ezine
- salinfo
- Azam's Comment
From: salinfo+sylvania.sev.org
To: BizBits+topica.com
Subject: NEW sending out an ezine
I am still working on finding the best solution to putting out my
ezine:
I use Listbot and what I need is some input from others as
to which programs you are using to write your ezine on (ones that
leave clickable hyperlinks after typing) and if you copy and
paste to your email program from another editor then send it to
your mailing list?
Also do you use a template and if so which program do you store
it in and overwrite from?
Your tips will surely help me decide ! Thanks !
Visit the newest site for Starting your own business now at:
http://jump.to/StartBizNow
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Azam's Comment*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Before selecting Topica to host Biz Bits, I carefully studied the
alternatives (ListBot, OneList, Egroups, etc.,). After weighing
up the pros and cons of each, I decided Topica best met my needs.
Some of the key points that led to my favouring of Topica are:
* The ability of the moderator to post directly to the list
by email using a password encoded address. This means you don't
have to waste time using a web interface at the host's site, or
in approving your own posts. You can't do this with OneList,
for example.
* The ability to subscribe by email. Apart from the obvious
convenience to subscribers this has another important advantage
for site owners. You can create your own subscription form on
your site so that visitors can subscribe without ever leaving
the site. With Egroups for example, subscribers will be sent
to the Egroup site.
* The amount of advertising inserted by the list host. There are
no ads placed in lists hosted at Topica.
* Ease of manually adding new subscribers to your list. Some free
hosts (ListBot for example) severely limit the number of subs
you can import. As I recall, at Topica you can import up to 300
at once.
I use Eudora Pro for Biz Bits and links are clickable as long as
you leave a space at each side of the link. Links will remain
"clickable" if you enclose them in "<...>" but not if you use
">...<". For example http://www.nowsell.com works, whereas
>http://www.nowsell.com< doesn't.
I generally use BBedit (I'm a Mac lover) to hard wrap the text to
65 characters per line, simply using copy and paste. I'll write
small additions directly into Eudora, making a return at the end
of each line. To make things easier visually, I maintain a
default window width of 65 characters in Eudora.
I use a stationary file in Eudora as the Biz Bits template.
Actually this is just the previous issue, which I find quicker
and easier than having a blank template file that only contains
the header and footer along with the section heads.
This way any other information from the previous issue that I
need to use again is already present and only needs to be
modified slightly. I simply paste new articles, posts etc., over
the old and save the changes.
This stationary file also includes my posting address for Biz
Bits and the subject line, so to send out the next issue, I only
need to double click on the file's icon and queue the resultant
email for delivery.
Hope that helps!
What are YOUR thoughts on sending out an ezine? How do YOU do it?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
=================================================================
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=================================================================
//---Posting Guidelines---//
Put the subject of the post in the subject line and to make life
easier for me, please prefix it with "NEW" or "CONTINUING". Try
to keep your posts on topic as much as possible. Due to the
obvious limitations on the number of topics we can discuss at
once, postings relating to new topics may be held back for later
release.
Also please don't send the whole issue of Biz Bits back to me. If
you use the reply function, please cut out everything except the
post you're replying to.
Only useful, informative posts or questions will be published.
You're encouraged to include your signature file, but
self-serving gratuitous ads disguised as posts will be weeded
out.
Note to spammers: You will never be published in Biz Bits! Your
subscription will be cancelled if you violate again after being
sent a warning. Archives are only viewable by members, so if you
want to learn - DON'T SPAM!
//-----End Guidelines-----//
=================================================================
Learn from the best. Corey Rudl does 2.6 MILLION DOLLARS in sales
online EACH YEAR... all from his one small office! He reveals all
his unconventional tips, trick and techniques with examples so
you can learn the most efficient and fastest way to make money on
the Internet. http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/20370/
=================================================================
=====================
+ Tip +
=====================
Do you wait for pages to load?
Though I always recommend that you design your pages to load as
fast as possible, just as I do with my own, I actually never wait
for pages to load when I'm surfing. However, statistics abound
that show that most people do wait, since it's the #1 reason for
people leaving a web site. With that in mind, it occurred to me
that obviously most people don't surf the way I do, otherwise,
page load times wouldn't be such an issue.
I don't wait for pages to load simply because I always surf with
between 2 - 4 browser windows open at once. Why doesn't everyone
else do that? It saves so much time! Now I know I have an unfair
advantage over most of you because I use a Mac, but even Windoze
(Oops! Did I really say that? :-) machines will let you keep
several windows active at once.
[If you regularly do this, you can skip the rest. Sorry!]
If you have a small monitor and you find you don't have enough
room on the screen, just use 2 windows that overlap completely
except for a small sliver across the bottom and down one side.
This means whichever window is at the back, there will always be
enough of it visible for you to click on and bring it to the
font.
Alternatively you can minimize a window to the bottom of the
screen. It will continue to load, even though you're not looking
at it. If you run a Mac, just double click on the top frame of
the window for it to shoot up like a roller blind, leaving only
the title bar visible. Double click on it to open again.
You can either view pages from different sites in different
windows, or different pages from the same site, or a combination
of the two.
Or what about this: You know the situation, you're reading an
interesting paragraph and you come upon a text link. You want to
keep reading so you probably decide to come back to it when
you've finished - a real pain if it ends on the next page!
If you have your windows open on the screen at the same time (as
opposed to collapsed) you can really take advantage of these text
links with ease. Just highlight the link, click on it and without
releasing the mouse, drag the link into another window, where it
will open whilst you go back to your reading!
If you only have one window open at this point; not to worry.
Simply right click on the link (click and hold for a moment on a
Mac) and a menu will pop up. Scroll down the menu and select
"open link in new window" (MSIE) or "new window with url" (NAV).
If you're not already doing this you really should, it will save
you an awful lot of time. And time is money!
Here's an example of how much time you might be wasting:
Generally, I average about 4 hours a day online. Assume I spend
an average of 5 minutes on each page (many pages will get much
less of my time. If I don't find something that interests me
after a quick 30sec "overview scan", I'm gone. On interesting
pages, which are far less frequent, I will spend considerably
longer).
So, 4 x 60 = 240 minutes online each day, divided by 5 mins/page
==>Average of 48 pages visited a day.
Now, lets say the average of all page load times is 20sec.
==>48 pages x 20sec = 960sec or 16 minutes wasted each day!
I'm often online every day, so that's almost 2hrs a week!
And I pay for both the telephone call and the ISP access charge!!
I can't afford to waste up to 100hrs a year waiting for pages to
load...
Can you?
=====================
+ Pause For Thought +
=====================
"He that does good to another, does good also to himself, not
only in the consequences, but in the very act; for the
consequence of well doing is, in itself, ample reward."
- Seneca
"The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can
do well, and doing well whatever you do..."
- Longfellow
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable
reason why so few engage in it."
- Henry Ford
=================================================================
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=================================================================
=====================
+ Voting Booth +
=====================
This is the place where we take a quick poll for a snapshot of
our family's opinions on a given topic.
This week:
Is your own Domain essential to doing business online?
YES! >>>> mailto:yes+nowsell.com
You can't build a credible business without one!
NO! >>>> mailto:no+nowsell.com
If you know what you're doing, it's not necessary!
ERR? >>>> mailto:err+nowsell.com
I'm not sure... depends... what's a Domain?
=====================
Last week:
Usually, if you receive an email with a subject line like -
"Earn at Least $5,000/Week!" or "FAST CASH NOW!",
would you open it or send it straight to the trash?
YES! >>>> 0%
I would definitely open it, it may be true!
NO! >>>> 100%
I'd send it straight to the trash, it's sure to be a scam!
ERR? >>>> 0%
I'm not sure... depends... if the moon's...
Well, that was pretty decisive! Seems we have a web savvy family
of "No time wasters please!" individuals!
=====================
OK, that's it for this week!
I always love to hear your thoughts, so send your feedback,
comments, etc., to me at: mailto:azam+nowsell.com
Have a good one!
TTFN
Azam
PS - Still not got your free download of 100+ pages from
Ken Evoy's excellent book? http://www.sitesell.com/info.html
*****************************************************************
Do you find Biz Bits useful?
Make it even more useful by forwarding a copy to your friends!
If you know anyone that should be part of our family, be sure to
invite them - the more the merrier!
*****************************************************************
To post to the list, just hit "Reply" on your email program or
mailto:BizBits+topica.com
=================================================================
To subscribe to Biz Bits, send a blank email to:
mailto:BizBits@NowSell.com
Should you ever wish to unsubscribe (hopefully not!):
mailto:BizBits-unsubscribe@topica.com
To subscribe/unsubscribe on the Web please go to:
http://www.nowsell.com
=================================================================
Information on sponsoring Biz Bits: mailto:bbads+nowsell.com
=================================================================
Biz Bits is Copyright © 1999 Azam Corry. All Rights Reserved.
No part of Biz Bits may be reproduced in whole or in part without
written permission, though it may be freely redistributed in its
unedited form. All guest articles are copyright their respective
owners and are reproduced with permission.
Biz Bits is an internationally registered weekly publication.
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Last Modified: 12:47, Monday November 29, 2004. Copyright © 1999-2008 NowSell.com. All rights reserved.
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