Thur 1st June '00
In this issue (Part 1):
1. INTRODUCTION
==>Are your plans shaping up?
Κ
2. PLACES TO VISIT
==>Places for you to visit.
3. TIPS BITS
==>Url Tracking and Using Mailto Links in Email Ads.
4. CLASSIFIED ADS (6-10 ads per emailed edition only)
==>Subscribe to the quality ezines advertised here.
In this issue (Part 2):
1. VOTING BOOTH
==>This week's quick poll and last week's results.
2. TOOLS AT NOWSELL.COM
==>Useful tools to make your life easier from NowSell.com
3. FEATURE ARTICLE
==>Who Is the CyberCustomer?
By Rob Spiegel.
An info Section with subscription details is included at the end
of both parts.
o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x SPONSOR'S MESSAGE x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o
"PROVEN SYSTEM FOR TRAFFIC AND SALES!"
"Right on the Money" shows you how to set-up an Internet store
generating traffic and sales quickly, with little or no start up
cost. Get all the customers you need. Risk-free. Guaranteed.
Click Here Now: http://activemarketplace.com/w.cgi?righton-1861
AOL
Click
o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
X INTRODUCTION X
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
Hi,
Can you believe it? It's the 1st of June already! Seems like just
a few weeks ago we were bringing in the New Year. Did you make
any new year resolutions, plans or goals for your business? If
so, now would be a good time to reflect on them and the progress
you've made so far.
If things are going well, great! Pat yourself on the back and
work on the steps you need to take for further success. Focus on
strategies that have already worked well for you. Look at how
they might be improved, or adapted and applied in new areas.
If things aren't going well, it might be a sign that you need to
reassess your situation and make some adjustments. A change of
direction may be in order. Take some time off: you'll gain a
better understanding of your problems when you're not buried
amongst them, and can look at them from the outside.
If your current activities aren't achieving anything like the
results you envisioned, perhaps it's time to consider ceasing
them altogether, and investigating alternative avenues. 'There's
no sense in flogging a dead horse' as they say (well, Brits at
least!).
Don't become so attached to your business that you can't bear to
turn your back on it (or at least let it idle while you build
something else), when you know it's simply not working out. Many
- if not most - successful businesses, are built on the backs of
one or two previous failures.
The time you've already put in, 6 months, a year even, is not
wasted. It's never wasted. It's all valuable experience.
Experience you can't buy. Experience that will make success in
your next venture all the more certain.
BB
Join the Biz Bits Affiliate program and earn advertising space
here in Biz Bits. You have your own online stats, and all you
need to do is advertise your unique referral URL in your
signature file, ezine, on your web site, or anywhere else that's
legal. Click to join now: http://www.nowsell.com/bb-aff.html
*** GET 200 IMPRESSIONS FOR EACH NEW SUBSCRIBER YOU REFER! ***
BB
ΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚΚ
Tell me what YOU think! Send your feedback, comments, what you
like, what you hate, etc., to me at: mailto:azam@nowsell.com
Do it!
TTFN
Azam
ΚΚΚ
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o
YOU *have* the knowledge to create your own infoproduct. YOU can
write the next best-selling eBook - even if you've never written
before! 'Make YOUR Knowledge SELL!' is the toolkit you need - the
ULTIMATE guide to making money from your own infoproduct.
LEARN HOW TO PULL IT OUT OF YOUR BRAIN, HOW TO PUBLISH IT, HOW TO
SELL IT ONLINE! Success GUARANTEED or 10 TIMES your money back!
Click Here NOW!
o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
X PLACES TO VISIT X
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
http://www.Tweney.com/
Internet business news and trends analysis in the
straightforward, hype-free Tweney Report by web entrepreneur and
award-winning high-tech writer Dylan Tweney. FREE!
http://www.professionalcity.com/
Directory of links to all kinds of professionals, professional
associations and self-help sites on many professional services
including marketing. Also offers a variety of tools and research
resources. FREE!
http://www.constantcontact.com/
Enables you to offer your visitors several useful services that
integrate with your site and help boost 'stickiness'. The most
popular element is perhaps the email reminder service, where
visitors request you remind them of important occasions. Other
features include notifying on page updates, suggesting/emailing a
page to a friend and an 'add my store favorite' function. FREE!
http://www.keywordcount.com/
Basic keyword density analyzer lets you compare your URL and that
of any other page, to give you a chart displaying the keyword
breakdown of both side by side. FREE!
http://www.clickXchange.com/
Quickly and easily set up your own pay per Click, Lead, or Sale
affiliate program. No setup fees as such, but a minimum deposit
of between $100-250 depending on the type of program you want.
clickXchange takes a commission equal to 30% of your payments to
affiliates. Very flexible system. Fraud screening.
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
X TIPS BITS X
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
Track Your Ads - part 2
Url Tracking And Using Mailto Links In Email Ads.
Last week we looked at why you should track your ads and the kind
of ads you should consider tracking. Today we'll look at the
mechanics of tracking.
How do you track your results?
There are numerous solutions. The simplest (though not the most
accurate) is coding the end of your web page URL's. Whenever you
include an URL in your ad, put a unique code in the end of the
URL to connect it with the resource in which it is to be used.
For example, you might arrange for a link exchange with another
site to advertise a free service you offer. Lets say that site is
called 'PromotionQueen.com'. Don't simply provide PromotionQueen
with your regular URL to link to, add a little code to the end of
the URL like this:
http://www.YourSite.com/freeservice.html?PromoQueen
Your server will ignore whatever appears after the question mark
(?), and serve the freeservice.html page to the browser as
normal. However, it will write the entire URL, including your
'PromoQueen' identification code to your log files, treating it
as a request for a unique page, distinct from freeservice.html.
Whenever you check your log file stats, look under 'Referrers' or
similar to see how much traffic your link on PromotionQueen.com
is sending.
If it's not bringing much, don't waste that valuable space;
terminate the exchange with PromotionQueen.com and find a better
source of traffic. (You can also use a CGI script to check how
much traffic *you* are sending to PromotionQueen.com, but that's
another story). Of course, the same applies to any other location
where you may have advertised: if it doesn't bring results, don't
do it!
What if you are using an ezine ad with just an email address?
Though not foolproof, there is a simple solution for this
scenario as well. Add a little bit of code to the end of the
'mailto:' link that will cause it to automatically write a
specific subject line into the respondent's email message.
For example, for an ad here in Biz Bits you might use:
mailto:subscribe@yoursite.com?subject=BizBits
Or, if you don't have your own domain:
mailto:you@yahoo.com?subject=BBsubscribe
Note: you must use the 'mailto:' at the beginning of your address
for this to work.
In your email program, set up a filter to catch all mail with the
specified subject line - or simply count it. Keep a record for
future reference and comparison with other ads/locations.
What if your subscribe email address is to a free list host?
Then you must include an URL as well. In this case, you won't be
able to ascertain the exact number of respondents. However, you
will be able to gauge comparative performance.
Don't worry about how many respondents use the email address,
compared to how many use the URL. For most text ezines with a
reasonably large subscriber base, the ratio should be
more-or-less constant, conforming to average user behavior. An
exception however, could be any list with an above average
number, or predominance of, AOL users.
In AOL, neither your URL or email address will be 'clickable' and
has to be copy-pasted. This may lead to an increase in the ratio
of respondents visiting your web site, since few will know what
to copy from a 'mailto:' email link. It may lower overall ad
response rates as well, since taking action requires more effort.
There's not much you can do about these problems, other than
using the full HTML format for your 'mailto:' link like this:
<a href="mailto:you@yahoo.com?subject=BBsubscribe">
mailto:you@yahoo.com?subject=BBsubscribe</a>
Though this will provide users of most email systems something
they can click on, it does - as you can see - take up a lot of ad
space. Tracking aside, the problem of AOL not recognizing links
is another good reason to always include both an email and an URL
address in your ads wherever feasible.
Next week, I'll finish off this oversized tip with the how-to on
tracking affiliate URL's in your campaign and a look at some more
advanced solutions.
Azam
GOT A TIP?
Send it, together with your 4 line signature file to appear here!
mailto:TipsBits-nowsell.com
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
X CLASSIFIEDS X
X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X=X
(6-10 ads per emailed edition only)
OK, that's it for part one! Below you'll find the info section.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
*****************************************************************
Do you find Biz Bits useful?
Then it is your *duty* to forward a copy to your friends!
*****************************************************************
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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 on the Web please go to:
http://www.nowsell.com
Archives: Biz Bits Internet Marketing eZine
Posts to Biz Bits FFA [mailto:FFA@topica.com]:
This is where you can send all of your ads, sales letters,
promotion offers, etc. You may post once every day. If you've not
yet joined, you can do so with a blank email to
mailto:FFA-subscribe@topica.com
=================================================================
Information on sponsoring Biz Bits: mailto:bbads-nowsell.com
=================================================================
Biz Bits is Copyright © 1999-2000 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 reproduced with permission.
Biz Bits is an internationally registered weekly publication.
