How To Use Copywriting To Boost Your Online Business

Copywriting, which is the most fundamental skill in any online business, is an important part of Internet advertising. It is the art of writing sales and marketing materials, which can promote your business on the Web. Being able to learn and master this art can help your business stand out from all the other online businesses of the same type.

The Effect Of Copywriting On Your Online Business

Copywriting can either boost your business into success, or it can run it into the ground, and it can depend greatly on how good your sales copies are. Learning how to use words to properly promote your product or service can generate a great amount of sales for your online business and bring you thousands of members to your mailing list. It can even boost your web site traffic through word of mouth if you write a copy that is intriguing or buzz-worthy.

Effective Copywriting For Your Web Site

Copywriting is effective in online marketing because the words or phrases that you use to entice your targeted audience can be placed on any web site and can be viewed by potential online customers, anywhere, anytime and all the time, as long as they are placed on proper portals that will attract possible customers for a specific product or service.

Keep in mind that internet users are constantly looking for information and solutions for their problems, so you should learn how to communicate directly to your target audience and give them the information that they are looking for.

Know how to captivate them by knowing your visitors' needs and desires. Talk to your customers, and address their concerns. Remember that you are irrelevant when it comes to enticing people availing of your product or service, so make sure that you focus on them and not on you.

You could have the best product or service in the world, but if you cannot make your audience feel that their life would be better if they owned what you are selling, then, it is of no use. Pull the visitor into the copy, so you can present your product and make your offer.

Make sure that you write from the perspective of your target audience, and not on yours. You can only do this if you understand your target customer, so learn what their motivation is, and apply that to your copy. You can also create a sense of urgency in them, to make them feel the need to click on your link as soon as possible. Create an impression of scarcity through your words, and explain why they need to act now.

However you may choose to approach your target audience, remember that what you need to do is get their attention, so you can make your offer, and you can do this with a good and direct headline. You usually have pre-headlines that set-up your main headlines to attract the attention of the category of prospects that you want to rein in. Let them know what you have so they will know exactly, if you carry what they need. Tell them what your product is by giving them details. And if you think they don't need it, make them feel so with powerful copy.

Use paragraphs that are friendly by using short sentences and simple words. It is highly suggestible to itemize the benefits of the product, so you can give your visitors a better view of what they are getting. Have plenty of possibilities to make sure that you have at least one unbeatable and unique benefit that can convince a prospect to buy your product or service.

You can also include something extra as a bonus. Make sure that it has value, so people would be more enticed to buy your product or service just to get it.

Aside from the extras, you can also focus on your product or service for enticing your visitors by building-up your product, telling them that the price of the product or service is a good value. Tell them what makes your product unique, and what sets you apart from your competition. You can prove your claims by adding testimonials or sales statistics to your copy.

Making your words sell through your sales letters is guaranteed to increase your conversion rate.

Powerful Copywriting And Search Engines

Since there are over billions of individual pages on the Internet, getting your potential customer to find you in cyberspace is not easy; but with the help of search engines, they are provided a means of doing just that. Learn how to manage search engines to boost your web site's traffic, and increase the rate of conversion of your online business.

Effective and concise search engine copywriting can dramatically increase your web site's targeted traffic, and you can do this by optimizing its use. When using search engines, you need to make sure that you are using keyword phrases that will bring specific traffic to your web site.

Analyze your competition and check what type of keyword phrases are being used most often, to give yourself a better chance of increasing your web site hits. Make sure that your targeted keywords are found in your filenames, title, headline, and description tags, as well as your web site content.

Copywriting is a fundamental skill in online businesses. Because the Internet is primarily a visual medium, you need to come up with copy that makes your page stand out over the millions of similar pages online. Keep your copy short, concise, and meaningul. Most of all, make it hypnotic.

Remember that having the best product in the market is not enough since you also need to learn how to motivate your audience to buy it. Fifty percent of successful sales depends on powerful copywriting. Make yours count.

About the Author
Jeremy Gislason - Want to launch, reinvent & grow your online biz dramatically? Discover a breakthrough membership site considered as the #1 source of supply for most hot-selling digital information products on the web. Go to http://www.surefirewealth.com and skyrocket your profits now!

7 Steps to Building a Successful Web Presence

Doing business in the 21st century will eventually require every company to have a website in one form or another. Whether your site is interactive or simply informational, there are steps you can take to ensure you're on the right track to creating a successful web presence, seven to be exact (at least from our humble perspective).

While following these steps will not guarantee a successful website, it is certainly an intelligent place to start.

1. Perform a Business Analysis.
What is a business analysis? Simply put, review your business requirements and your objectives. What do you want to accomplish? How does your website fit into your overall business plan? What... no business plan? Develop a business plan first before you go any further into the process.

Your business plan will be your roadmap to success, so make sure the objective of your website fits into your overall business plan. I'll say it again, BUSINESS PLAN, don't have one? GET ONE!

2. Perform some research, also known as, the Research phase.
Research your competition and industry sites. See what kind of competition is out there. What kind of marketing does your competition engage in? Don't look to "reinvent the wheel", take a look at how the current market works; develop a list of pros and cons about your competition and then make your web presence work better.

3. Develop a concept and a design.
Finally time for the creative and fun stuff! This involves the selection of specific content, the layout of the site structure and navigation and the overall "look and feel" of your website.

Remember to pay special attention to your navigational structure!!! If visitors can't navigate your website or feel lost when doing so, your "pretty" site will have been a waste of time; don't go there, keep the navigation simple and for SEO purposes, make sure your navigation is text based. Although Flash driven websites look cool, they are not SEO friendly and can create more problems than the "coolness" factor they express (we'll discuss Flash sites in another article ).
4. Develop your website.
When considering which technology to develop your website, think cutting edge technology, not bleeding edge. Make sure the technology you use, such as ASP, PHP, HTML, CSS, will be useful for the next three to five years.

Database driven website are ultimately the easiest to maintain through the use of a content management system, but make sure the CMS you use is SEO friendly. An SEO friendly CMS will utilize real URLs, not strange looking query strings with lots of strange characters and question marks. Search engines despise query strings and rank these site accordingly.

5. Choose a host provider and implement your website.
When deciding on a host provider, make sure the host is not only reputable, but has been in business long enough that you can be sure they will be in business next year. Also, ask about site uptime. If your site is down for any reason, this will not only affect your potential and current customers, but the search engines as well. If the search engines decide on a given day to spider your site and it is unavailable, it could cost you your rank.

6. Promote and market your website.
Register your site with the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Initiate other marketing activities such as an email blasts to prospective customers. Consider "Pay per Click" advertising with the major search engines and don't forget about a long term SEO campaign to drive targeted traffic to your site. 7. Finally, maintain your website.
Probably the most important long term step is continuing to provide current and relevant information on your website. Keep your site content current to encourage return visitors and give them something to return for! Related to SEO, search engines just LOVE sites which provide new content on a regular basis and rank such websites accordingly.

Overall, remember, your website is not just a marketing tool, it's a business tool, and it should be generating a revenue stream for your business.

About the Author Matthew Mckernan - About the author, Website Design, Search Engine Optimization/SEO, Web Development.

Your Own Business - 7 Tips Before You Start

To have your own business often seems to be the ultimate. The grass is, however, not always greener on the other side. It is important not to be blinded by the potential rewards. Do you have what it takes? You need the right skills, determination, financial backing, etc. There are also several serious and potential fatal risks. The following tips act as a guideline before you start your own business:

1. Make sure that entrepreneurship is for you. Entrepreneurship is not for everyone. If you feel safer in your comfort-zone and are risk-averse the chances are that you are better off where you are - nothing wrong with that. Entrepreneurship needs passion, a certain amount of risk-taking and the motivation and dedication to succeed when everything seems to be against you.

2. Understand the risks. Financial risk, including potential bankruptcy, is a real threat if things go wrong. Less obvious risks include social-, career- and psychological risks.

3. Build a support structure. To have your own business can be quite tough at times. The more support you have the bigger the chances of surviving these times. It is worthwhile to make an effort to get your family and friends positive about the business.

4. Get the right partners. It is often not advisable to embark on a business on your own (or even impossible). Good synergy between partners can drastically increase the potential of a business. Unfortunately many business partnerships don't work and are often disastrous. Choose your partners very careful and ensure that legal contracts are in place for any potential "divorce" in the future.

5. Prepare diligently. To have your own business generally means a lot of hard work. This should start with a proper feasibility study and business planning. Is there a big enough gap in the market that your business can fill? How will you do it? How will it be funded?

6. Be realistic. A new business is never just moonshine and roses. It tends to take much longer than expected to breakeven and it needs much more resources (especially financially) than normally planned for. Reflect this in your cashflow planning.

7. Get expert advice. When you lack specific skills it is much cheaper to pay for it in the beginning rather than later when the business does not work. The advice of auditors, attorneys, bankers, consultants and other experts should be sought where applicable.

About the Author
Wim Venter is the CEO of Ventex Corporation, a business development consultancy. To receive more information on starting your own business and other business related topics (articles, case studies and tips) sign up for our free newsletters.

SEO Explained For People with Real Jobs

When talking to clients about marketing their business online I am asked "How do you get to #1 on Google?" While this article is not specially about how to become #1 - I will explain what the process is and what's involved.

Despite our widespread acceptance and use of the internet - I am always surprised by how many people really have no idea what SEO (search engine optimization) is about. They instinctively know WHY they like to click on that first listing in the natural results; but they don't have the first clue HOW it got there. Making matters worse is the fact that the internet world is largely unregulated and still being figured out - so it seems that everyone has their own "best practice" and definitions of things like SEO.

I usually tell clients that their intuitive feeling of WHY they trust that first listing is that - simply put - it's the best result for the phrase you type in. People seem to understand that. However most people don't really understand why one site would be better than another so here goes with a layman's explanation…

What is SEO, really?

SEO is the process of configuring a website so that it has a chance to show up in a search result for a particular phrase. In other words it is our way of telling Google, Yahoo, or MSN what we think our site is about. Many of the search engines have a slightly different formula for how they determine these results. But the short version is that they look at different factors of each website page, rank them and then give those results to you.

Why is SEO Important?

One word sums it up - competition. Depending on what study you read, there are as many as 20 billion web pages being indexed at any given time. The major search engines do their best to go through these pages and catalog them so that they can tell you about it if you use their website to search. With so many website pages out there competing for similar phrases it is absolutely critical to make sure you are using every tool at your disposal to make sure your customers can find you when they are looking.

OK, So What Should I Be Doing for SEO On My Site?

The good news is that doing SEO correctly is not complicated. The bad news is that it is time consuming and requires regular attention in order to maintain results. Our advice is to ethically follow these simple guidelines for best long-term results:

Good site structure - as simple as this sounds many people overlook this. Every day we see sites with heavy flash animation, dated frame designs, pages that don't work and broken links. The bottom line is that if you can't easily navigate a site without problems chances are the search engines can't either. And if a search engine can't go through your site you have absolutely no chance of showing up for a key phrase - no matter how pretty the flash.

Good meta-data - Clients often draw a blank with this one. Meta-data is geek-speak for the page titles, page descriptions and keywords that you enter for each page. Each page on your website should have a unique title and description that summarizes what that page is about.

We often see 2 problems with meta-data. The first is that it is simply overlooked. I am stunned at how many sites have www.yoursite.com as the page title for every page - that's wasting prime online real estate.

The 2nd problem is spam. Putting in a page title or description that does not accurately match what the page is about is considered "spamming" a search engine. Doing this will get your page thrown out of the index and ruin any chance of showing up for a key phrase. Relevant content - People seem to understand that good content is really what they are looking for when they search for something. By "relevant" we mean that the content is specific to the topic in question and recently updated. More and more we are seeing sites that have regular updates or blogs showing up higher in the search results than sites which have larger quantities of older, "stale" content on them.

Our recommendation is to add well-written, grammatically correct and spell-checked content to your website on a regular basis. This ensures that, over time, your site will become a "resource" to those looking for phrases related to your business.

Responsible link building - This is perhaps the least understood part of SEO. In a nutshell search engines consider a link from another website to your website as a popularity vote. Think of it as power rankings for websites. In general the more sites which link to yours, the better; as this shows your site is relevant to the given topic.

Sadly though link building, like keywords and meta-data, have been abused by many site owners with schemes such as link farms where sites are setup simply to house links to other sites. We encourage careful and responsible link building with sites that are related to yours or through appropriate directories and article banks.

So there you have it - SEO explained for people with real jobs. Like most things it's not really that hard but it requires discipline which is where most people get off track. If you would like help with SEO for your website, or other online business needs we would love to hear from you.


About the Author
Andre Savoie. President of WSI (We Simplify the Internet) who help companies take advantage of opportunities to grow their business online. This may include search engine optimization, paid search advertising or newer tools such as social media optimization. My focus is on helping companies find the strategy that best fits their needs and budget and then establishing goals for each marketing campaign. You can visit us at www.mywsiconsultant.com or contact us via email at andre@mywsiconsultant.com.

10 Tips on Estimating Your Business Start Up Costs

by Umer Hayat

Here are ten very important tips on estimating your business start up costs. You definitely shall benefit from them.

1. You need to figure out everything that you need for the start up costs of the business. Remember, this amount is different than the amount cost for the survival of the company for the year. You need money for advertisements, chairs and office supplies, inventory, cash registers, and service supplies. You need to include some money in the start up costs for any other items that you may have forgot about.

2. Don't borrow money from the bank unless you have to. If you borrow money from the bank then make sure to see if you can afford the interest on it. You don't want the interest to be too high.

3. You need to figure out how much it is going to cost for your household expenses during the time of starting your business. You need to have money to cover the amount or be able to get a loan to cover the amount

4. You need to figure out how much it will cost money wise for your business to survive the first year. You need to have enough money for any extra additional costs that will come up every once in a while through out the year.

5. You need to have enough money for any extra additional costs that will come up every once in a while through out the year.

6. You need to take into consideration how much food is going to cost for the entire year. You need to budget money in there for food and other basic expenses. This is important so that you don't suffer during the first year of business.

7. Your company needs to be able to get business loans just in case you end up running out of money during the entire year. Only take out a loan if you can generate enough sales to pay back the loan. If your business isn't surviving very well during the first year then you might want to close it.

8. You need to figure out how much it is going to cost each year for employee's if you have any employees. Remember, you need to include business insurance, any health insurance, and of course workers comp payments. You also have to pay an extra fee to the city for any part time and full time employee's that you have working for your company.

9. Depending upon the type of company that you are interested in starting then you might have to pay money to get certified for any tests. It is important to see which tests that you need to take to get certified and any other rules regarding your type of business.

10. You can sell some items to earn some extra money for your business if you don't have enough money. Just make sure the business is worth selling items for. You don't want to end up broke due to selling everything just to have enough money to start the company.

About the Author
Umer Hayat. http://www.UmerInsurance.com - This is a site where you can learn almost everything related to Insurance and you can also learn almost everything on Insurance types. But if you only want to read more about the above thoughts then you need to work with this link. http://umerinsurance.com/commercial-insurance/10-tips-on-estimating-your-business-start-up-costs

The Sociology of Social Media

by Andrew Clough

While being hired on at StepForth Web Marketing our CEO, Ross Dunn, was interested in how someone with a background in sociology could benefit his company, specifically in understanding social media and how to market to it. Sociologists look at communities and try to dissect them as to what its participants have in common in addition to trends or commonalities within the communities.

Sociologists study society and social action by examining the groups and social institutions people form, as well as various social, religious, political, and business organizations. In essence it is the study of social interactions of people and groups.

They like to watch groups of people and see how they interact and function. Understanding the group's values and ideas is the key because once you understand a group one can participate within it. Participation means that you have the ability to communicate to those within the groups and spread or gain information. The concept of a social media marketer is to gain understanding of a community and leverage it to increase awareness of their own or their client's expertise. Social media based communities are seen as the new web properties for marketing campaigns. Driving traffic and developing information users trust and use is the monetization of the social media world.

This article is a general understanding as to what social media is and its potential for reaching the public. In the future I will be covering more specific areas within social media and helping clients build campaigns that work for their specific situation in this emerging marketplace. If you have any questions please feel free to ask.
Why People Use Social Media

Social Media is a web based venue that shares ideas, values, and information. Social media sites are formed when groups of people want to share information. They are used to keep up with friends and colleagues, to exchange ideas, and get information from those who might have an answer. Social media sites create a community (a group of individuals) based around this shared information. Many of these sites have gained huge followings and therefore are seen as authorities in their particular area of expertise (news, technology, sports, etc.).

Social media creates a community where like minded people can interact, mingle, and explore. They provide information that's judged by those within the community to be deemed noteworthy. It is interesting to note that social media sites have the same basic format in how they propagate the content provided by their users. Individuals are able to vote on the content or respond to the content. In this way, social media sites seek to gain and direct viewers. Social media is about giving control over information back to the masses.

Information provided on these sites is judged on a combination of criteria; its relevance, its quality, and the uniqueness of its content. The information is seen as trustworthy and unbiased because it is peer filtered. The information within these communities will have influence on the people who view it and can determine what actions they take regarding this new found information. As social media sites prosper with large user bases of interconnected individuals they provide a new platform for finding web based information.

Social media is inherently personal. The users provide personal information and ideas, respond to them, share them, and create a social media personality. This is where social media marketing comes in. Marketers want to know who you are and what you like. With booming global communication and technologies social media sites are seen as important venues for exchange. They embrace ideas surrounding information like connectivity, word of mouth, promotion of quality, and trust of those deemed trustworthy. Social media sites are important because they contain information users find interesting, timely and informative.

Marketing is the sharing of information to influence a consumer to purchase a product or service. Social media marketers want to get their messages out across the many mediums (video, interactive, audio, etc.) on social media sites to the individuals spending time on them. Social media sites also provide a space for advertisers to promote and gain insight on their products. These sites are seen as a great venue for advertising because of their ability to reach individuals based on their demographics, like age, location, and search profiles.

In both social media and marketing a niche is a smaller more focused section of a broader market. Niche communities are able to congregate within social media sites and share ideas and fraternize on very specific topics. This idea is very important to marketers and social media because they want to be able to reach the appropriate market for their information. Niche marketing is the process of finding and serving these specific market segments and designing custom-made strategies to profit from them.

Currently social media sites hold huge amounts of information. Social media is a great tool for spreading information and adding to it. Do people want more personalized, up to date and high quality information? What kind of information do users actually get in a current search inquiry? Is there a better way of accessing all the information on the web? These are questions social media is trying to answer. Social media sites are giving the power back to the people for exchanging information; it is a tool that helps society communicate and connect. Society values unbiased, accurate information and access to it. Social media provides personalized information and the chance for your voice to be heard. Social media's ability to influence one's personal decisions will give it huge potential to shape the society we live in.

About The Author
Andrew Clough is StepForth's Social Media Specialist at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Andrew's articles and those of the StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com, Tel - 250-385-1190, Toll Free - 877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198

Internet And Business Online And Stage Fright

by Scott Lindsay

If you're a person who hates to even think about getting up on stage and performing for an audience then you may have some understanding of what it is like for some to consider starting their own online business.

For many people who experience stage fright there are two dynamics at work. The first is a feeling that they would love to be able to perform. In fact some might even believe they have everything it takes to be a great performer. The second is that they are fully convinced they would freeze on stage and not be able to perform. The potential embarrassment keeps them sidelined.

The idea of business ownership is very similar. If you visit enough brick and mortar stores you can begin to identify individuals who are gifted in multiple areas. They would be prime candidates for business ownership, but in may cases they would never seriously consider the idea although they may be equally certain they could make a business successful.

In most cases this dynamic may be attributed to the fact that the individual has never owned a business previously and may be uncertain that their present skills are enough to develop a business.

It may also have to do with a constantly shifting future timeline. For instance an individual may have a date of five years fixed in their mind to begin their own business, but that date is constantly on fast forward and the business idea never seems to be developed.

This process can be a bit like agreeing to play a part in a locally produced musical. You attend all the rehearsals and memorize your lines. You learn the music and are outfitted with a costume. However, after the dress rehearsal you go home and never return for the actual performance.

In the case of developing an online business a prospective owner can look at the potential of site development, hosting packages, product availability and a myriad of other issues and then just when family and friends think the business will launch the entire thought process stops and the business idea is simply referred to as "the business I could have started."

It really is a bold step to develop a business. You are assuming a variety of risks and rewards and you are placing a dream on a pedestal for all to see. What happens if no one likes your business idea? What will you think if the idea is ridiculed at some point? Wouldn't it be easier to just forget about it?

There are countless potential business owners who have shelved great ideas because they have developed a case of 'stage fright'. They would like to own a business of their own, but they find more comfort in the idea that playing it safe (and out of the spotlight) may be the only option they could handle.

Stage fright comes when anyone has to perform in a setting they are not comfortable with, but the great performers always find a way to ensure that the show will 'go on'.

You can be one of the great performers you just need to find the right stage and then confidently work through your performance.

About the Author
Scott Lindsay - Use the Website Builder with HighPowerSites.com or the Easy Website Builder at BuildAGreatSite.com. Make Money and Sell Ebooks at BooksWealth.com.

Social Networking with Training Wheels

by John Jantsch

Look, I don't really think that the mySpaces and Facebooks of the world are that important for the typical small business as they stand today. There may be very practical business reasons for some to actually use these and other, what are called social networks, for business gain, but most people that have jumped on the social network bandwagon have found themselves left with a "is this all there is" kind of feeling.

To those, I say this, the value of the current public social networks for business folks is not what you can get out of them for gain today, but what you can learn by using them for practical gain tomorrow. That's why SpacebookedIn makes sense for you now.

The Facebooks of the world are busy teaching millions and millions of business folks how social networks work, how social networking works, how shared applications can be viral and ever-present. The real payoff in my opinion is that the wave to come after the Facebook bubble bursts is the "personalized business network." Once everyone of your customers and prospects knows how to use what are easily replicatable social networking tools, like building profiles, sharing video and connecting based on mutual interests, your job of building your own social business network around your own very specific community of niche will get a whole lot easier.

2008 will be the year of the personalized social business network. So, if you've decided to take a pass on the whole social networking trend, I would suggest that you use this handy list to start learning to ride this bike with the training wheels on.

Ten ways to get started with Social Networking

1) Read 10 blogs - sign-up for a Bloglines account and search for and subscribe to 10 blogs about social networking - you can return daily to your page on Bloglines to find and read all the new content on your 10. Of course you can add blogs about your industry and interests here too.

2) Comment on 10 blogs - posting relevant comments to blogs you read is a very simple form of social networking. It's also a good way to get some extra visitors your site or blog.

3) Join Facebook - Join and create a profile. Find and friend some of your existing contacts using tools on Facebook. You'll be surprised how many people you already know have Facebook accounts. Facebook has some real value for you because of the rich set of tools and large amount of active users. This is a great place to experiment with how people interact in social networks. Once you get your feet wet you may also find that Facebook is a great way to connect with business contacts you may never bump into otherwise.

4) Create a mySpace page - this service is really embraced primarily by musicians and the younger set. It also happens to have a large underbelly contingent so be warned, but it is a great tool for learning how to build a presence outside of your web site.

5) Join LinkedIn - this is a service that's been called Facebook for business. It is really about meeting and connecting with like-minded business folks. It is a great service for people looking for a job or to make connections with people who may be out of reach without an introduction.

6) Visit Ning - this is the largest custom social networking service that allows you to create your own community using a variety of tools that can be branded to match your current site.

7) Create a Workbench profile - this one's a little self-serving as this is my new social business networking site but it's a good example of the personalized business community that's the next wave for small business.

8) Create a Twitter account - this tool is pretty silly on the surface, it allows you to type in 160 characters or less what you are doing right now. It feels like a giant waste of time but a very large and active community has grown around this kind of micro-blogging and you should understand how people are using it.

9) Create a StumbleUpon profile - This is a social network built around discovering and recommending sites that you like. Active stumblers can send a lot of traffic your way.

10) Create a Digg account - this site allows you to keep up to the minute with what's happening in the world of business. Users submit and vote on what is believed to be the most important content.

You might also consider Mixx, Squidoo and Flickr as places to find and develop niche related communities when you're ready to really get out there.

Think of mySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook as your labs - get in there and experiment for the future. then start planning your own personalized social business network.






About The Author
John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide. You can find more information by visiting DuctTapeMarketing.com

Color: An Important Aspect of Business

by Joann Snell

The world was once black and white. The television had black and white programs and publications were mostly black. However, in the 60s, all that changed to what we see today. Therefore, we know color is now the best means of drawing attention to any media.

We each have our own tastes. Therefore, different people have different ideas in associating colors with products. There is no actual answer on what the best color would be for a product and at one time everything was done by chance. Now you can now find the best equipment and personnel in the design and printing industry that help produce beautiful labels. The same importance is now applied to producing the appropriate label as it is to producing a product. There are many family owned companies that guarantee in creating a label with 100% satisfaction and that gives a lasting impression.

Getting brand awareness that gives a lasting impression is a point of major concern for most companies today. By using a variety of logo or product colors you may decrease your marketing efforts.

Furthermore, the effectiveness of retail space is greatly reduced with the wrong colors. Sometimes, the variety of colors from different products may make a unique product blend with other products on the store shelf. Therefore, uniformity of a color is very important in creating brand awareness and a presence in the retail atmosphere.

The best way of making a product stand out from other products is with colors and materials that pop. Large manufacturers know that value and this is why they are always striving for color brilliance. You too, are sure to experience increased sales when your product has good shelf appeal.

Colors have a psychological influence in marketing The effect of colors in influencing the mind of the prospective customer is high. The moods and the sentiments are represented with colors. Symbolic representation is not blind, but an effective way of communicating the feelings spontaneously and strongly.

The changes we observe on earth with the advent of spring, the blossoming of the colorful plants and the joyful moods of the birds and other living beings. They all have been so synchronized that it stands testimony to the fact that color does have an effect on the human mind and the living beings. Therefore, as we verbally communicate to people in different dialects, so do the effects of colors in nonverbal communication.

The best example would be nature. As a creative artist, Mother Nature has made the best ever color combinations on earth. Whether it is color in flowers, in butterflies or in the other millions of living creatures. We as a civilized world had the basic lessons of the uses and impacts of the colors from Mother Nature.

While Mother Nature has used the same impact for its continuity, reproduction and sustenance, we today make use of the same for our selfish motives. Even more so in getting the target market attracted. To the ever expanding clientele, the language of the color has evolved as an effective marketing tool.

About the Author
Joann Snell is a freelance Graphic Designer. She specializes in print, corporate id, branding, and other marketing tools for small-medium sized businesses. For further information visit Jo's Graphic Designs at http://www.josgraphicdesigns.com.

How to Be Successfully Self Employed

Being self-employed allows for flexibility, the ability to take time off if one wants to or if it is needed. It also provides an individual a level of control over their life and their time. However, if it is not done correctly an individual can end up being unable to maintain their self-employed lifestyle and instead, be forced to go back to work in the traditional sense. There are several factors that will help one successfully work for themselves, we will discuss them below.

1. Be Disciplined: If you wish to work for yourself, it will require having some measure of discipline. This is because if your are self-employed, you only get paid when you work. It is not like a 9-to-5 job where you can slack some times and still receive a pay check. If you work for yourself if you don't perform you starve, so discipline is key.

2. Have a Vision: Having a vision is so important. Have some idea of what you want, where you want to go with your business. Doing so will help you to continue when times get hard, seeing the big picture will help keep you encourage and motivated.

3. Set Goals: Setting goals is also important for those who wish to work for themselves. Setting goals allows you to create a roadmap and measure your own success. Goals give you something to shoot for so that you don't get stagnant. They also help you to be focused.

4. Know Your Industry: Another important factor in successful self-employment involves knowing your market. Understand the costs and barriers to entry. Have some type of understanding of who your target market is and the best way to reach them. Who are your competitors? Knowing and understanding your industry, will increase your likelihood of staying power and profitability.

5. Don't Give Up: Being self employed is difficult. It will depend that you push past some lean times and feelings of insecurity. If you have done your homework, are disciplined and are hard working, you already have an advantage. If it makes sense, then stick with it. If it simply isn't working, try changing your approach, or going into another line of business. There is no shame in failing, only failing to try.

Being self-employed is a great way to earn a living. If you are disciplined, have a vision, are prepared and willing to work hard than you have a great chance of successfully running your own business and joining the ranks of the self-employed.

Ten Ways To Be Better At Dealing With Difficult People

By Martin Haworth

There are some key points to make when you are dealing with people who, for one reason or another, seem to be difficult, so get ready - it's you that has to change your own behaviors. So, here are a few clues to move you 95% of the way!

Build Relationships

Just talk to people. Listen to people. Spend time with them and show that you truly care.

Focus on Outcomes

Bottom line - you have a business to run - you have goals and visions for your business. Whilst you are working towards these you are able to take really objective positions. Working in tandem with a 'difficult person' is challenging, but focus on where you are going, not the personal issues you face.

See Value

Recognising the potential of 'difficult people' is half the battle. They are a value and flicking the switch that truly turns them on is a worthwhile challenge.

Meet Regularly

For an ongoing issue, make sure that you show and keep your commitments to them. This builds trust and that, in turn, makes resolution a whole lot easier.

Be Honest and Open

It is no good trying to resolve issues when Dealing with Difficult People, if you are going to either renege on your agreements or fall down on your business targets. Now is the time to be frank and honest and get a stake in the ground.

These people have been lied to enough. Be really clear on your expectations and stick to them. Change their view on authority forever!

Deliver

If you can go some way to help them resolve the cause of their anger, and it fits with everything you and your business stands for, then do it - and do it fast. Whatever you promise, deliver on. Liaise with them in good time.

Overdeliver on pace and issues, where you can. You will be amazed at what a difference this makes. Wanna become a hero? This works!

Respect Them

These people are real human beings. They hurt just like you do. They are, it's true, showing some tricky behaviours - so help them with them. Make a difference to that person - you could be changing their life in a way you would never have thought possible. Have some fun even. Share a laugh maybe?

Find a Win-Win

Solutions when Dealing with Difficult People are not cop-outs on either side. A compromise means that someone is losing here. Find a common position and seek to meet half way without losing site of what is the most important to each of you.

There is usually a win-win out there. If not, it's time to find a solution that removes them from your business.

Stick to the Point

Be clear where you are going with your challenges. It is vital to have everything in place with the most difficult of 'difficult people'. It is also of great value to have a majority on your side, albeit subtly to avoid an apparent 'ganging up'. Play this game from a position of strength

Focus on Behaviours

There are often ways of highlighting a 'difficult persons' qualities. Usually when Dealing with Difficult People you'll find they do have them! In many ways these people stick around because they like bits of the role, but not others, so you can play on their capabilities and leverage them.

Treat them not as a difficult employee, more as a misunderstood and valuable person and work on their behaviours. Remember though, that you have to work on your own first!


About The Author
Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. For a free e-course contact cbts01@aweber.com. More? There are hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.Coaching-Businesses-To-Success.com

How To Setup A Successful Online Business In 7 Easy Steps

Do you want your own online business? No more than ever it is possible to start a business quickly and inexpensively. Below are seven steps you can follow that will help you start off in the right direction every time.

1. Find a product to sell. You can create the product yourself. You can sell an affiliate product on a commission basis, or you can find a private label rights product that allows you to edit and resell as your own product. The product can be an ebook in a pdf format, or audio format. Video or software could be the product as well. If you are enthusiastic about the product and believe in it, you will have an easier time selling it.

2. Register a domain name that fits your product. If at all possible, include the key words that relate to the product in the domain name. Since domain names are not very expensive these days register several similar names. The content would be basically the same in each one.

3. Find a web host that is reliable and affordable. Make sure the web host has an easy to use control panel so you can upload your web pages yourself. Many of the most popular hosts use CPanel which is very easy for you to master quickly.

4. Create a small website or have someone create it for you. Some websites are only one page long, although it's a very long one page. Others are only three or four pages of content. There are free website sales page templates you can search for and use in your site. When writing the content for the sales page stress the attributes of your product. Make sure your headline grabs the visitors attention and pulls them into the copy. If you include endorsements or testimonials make sure they are from real people. Ask for the sale more than once and include a link to the order page.

5. Set up a payment processor. PayPal is quick, free and easy to set up. There is a fee to process the transactions. This fee is taken right out of each sale so you do not need to keep records. Tell your visitors they do not have to have a PayPal account to use PayPal, they can use their credit card. You have access to your money and can withdraw the money nearly immediately. Clickbank is another alternative. Clickbank takes longer to get your account approved and there is a fee to set up the account. Like Paypal, there is a fee per transaction and a percentage based on the price of the product sold through Clickbank.

6. Be sure to set up product delivery as instant and automatic. Doing this serves your best interest as you do not waste a lot of time emailing the product or download link to the customer after they have paid. And it serves your customer's best interest since they do not have to wait to download their product.

7. Drive targeted traffic to your website. You can use search engine optimization and keywords research. One fantastic approach is article placement in ezine directories. You can participate in discussion forums. And one of the newer marketing methods is social bookmarking.

True these seven steps do not go into any great technical, this is because to much detail would only slow you down in the beginning. There will be plenty of time later to learn the technical side of everything. For now, just get started.

Business Success Tips

Lose is a terrible thing. Losing a loved one is terrible, getting terminated- distasteful, both in one year; horrific! Such events plunge people into the quicksand of depression. What about lose of your desire, lose of your purpose, or meaning? Several years ago I did lose my mother in law, three jobs and almost my family in one year. My purpose and my mission were abandoned.

If you find yourself aimless and seek to find your mission, then you can find ways to align the stars. Rather than question, "Why me"? Perhaps it is time to ask "Why not me"?

Here are some thoughts to assist your mission, align the stars and live the remainder of your life with a purpose.

1. Stop manifesting in self-doubt. We tend to wallow too much in despair. What you focus on you become. Become great by focusing on the positive!

2. Listen. Stop and smell the roses. By this I mean listen to all around you, friends, colleagues, peers, the Lord. Professional Speaking did not enter my mind until someone suggested teaching.
3. Stop looking for the perfection. Success comes from not using the elevator of life but one step at a time. If you love what you do the money will come to you. Refrain from trying to make your world perfect... it doen't exist.

4. Build a brand or message that emotionally and intelligently involves the client. Too much competition today confuses clients, seek differentiation and illustrate value.

5. Ironically, 63% of us go at least 10 mph or more over the speed limit. We drive 70 mph on a dark and slick road. 81% drink at a social gathering and drive home. We choose not to take risk because we believe we are not ready. Fact, you will never be ready! Risk is about confidence, risk is about self worth. If you are confident, you will take the risk. If you are passionate, you will take the risk and if you have self worth, you will take the risk.

6. Passion comes from the Greek word entheos which means to be filled with God. When you are filled in spirit you are instantly filled with energy and inspiration. Find something you are passionate about and you will make money at it.

7. Confidence is the attitude of 80-year-old women that attends college to get her bachelor's degree or Thomas Edison that tried 10,000 times to get it right! If you are confident in your abilities you can achieve anything you set your mind to!

8. Competence. People seek you and your services because of your expertise. Illustrated your expertise with speaking, consulting, writing articles or anything else that attracts people to you. Your expertise will be sought only if you show it.

Confidence plus passion, plus, market need plus competence begets success. Success is easy if you know where to look. You do not have to point true north or west, simply at yourself. Success begins with you. As Loa Tzu once stated the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step. You must make a move. Live each day in acquisition, live each day in passion, live each day knowing that your success lies within you not in others.

Addtional Success Tips

1. Keep raising the bar
Look for new and innovative ways to achieve results

2. Results are about choices you make
You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

3. Winning is about hits not home runs
Each day, each goal, each success is movement toward your dream.

4. Be a student of the game.
Learn what you did right and keep on doing it.

Good luck!

Font Basics for Branding Your Small Business

By Erin Ferree

There are many components of a brand identity: logo, color palette, font choice, and the Visual Vocabulary. There's a lot of information available about the use of logos, colors, and Visual Vocabulary, but not much on the effective use of fonts. So, here's some information on the creative, practical, and technical aspects of fonts.

Font Basics

A font is a set of all the letters in the alphabet, designed with similar characteristics. This is also known as a typeface.

Fonts are usually designed to include several style variations. This can include styles like light, regular, bold, semibold, ultra bold, and italic. Some fonts also include "Expert" versions, which are fonts that include fractions and mathematical symbols.

Font families are typically packages of fonts that include all of the different versions of a font. Using fonts with large families will give you a wide range of fonts to use in your materials, for variety and emphasis.

There are many basic classifications of fonts. Four of the most common classes of fonts are:

Serif fonts, which have little "feet," called serifs, at the ends of the lines that make up the letters. Some examples of serif fonts include Times, Palatino, and Garamond. These fonts are more traditional, elegant, and old-fashioned.

Sans-serif fonts don't have those feet. "Sans serif" means "without serifs." Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, and Helvetica are some of the most common sans-serif fonts. These fonts are more clean and modern.

Scrípt fonts are calligraphic or cursive fonts. Brush Scrípt and Nuptial Scrípt are two common scrípt fonts.

Display fonts are decorative and often used for logos or headlines.

There are other types of fonts as well, including handwriting fonts and all-caps fonts. However, the four listed above are the most common and useful in business communications.

Creative Font Usage Guidelines

Each type of font has certain characteristics that translate into that font's personality. A font might be serious or light-hearted, traditional or modern, legible or decorative, or any number of other personality traits. The traits of the font that you use in your marketing materials and business communications should reflect and enhance your company's brand.

Your company should have designated fonts to use in the following situations:

A logo font, which is typically not one of the fonts that come installed on Windows machines: it should be more unique and interesting. Some logos will have two or three different fonts in them. If this is the case, then consider using one of those fonts as the secondary font as well.

A secondary font, used for headlines, sub-headlines, taglines, special text such as graphics and captions, and decorative text such as pull quotes, which are the large quotes that are used decoratively in articles and documents. This can be the same font as is used in your logo. This is typically an interesting and unique font as well. This may also be used as the font for your contact information in your stationery, depending on its legibility.

A tertiary font is optional and may be used when the secondary font is not always legible, for mid-length texts such as pull quotes and contact information.

A serif text font, for lengthy printed documents. Printed materials are more easily read if they are in serif font rather than sans-serif font.

A sans-serif font, for shorter printed documents and on-screen use. Text on a computer monitor is easier to read in a sans-serif font than in a serif font.

A website font, which may be the same font as is used as the main sans-serif text font, depending on how that font translates for online viewing.

All of these fonts should have similar or contrasting characteristics. Choosing fonts with similar characteristics will make your fonts match and create consistency throughout your documents. Choosing fonts with contrasting characteristics will build visual texture and interest into your materials. For example, you could pick all thin, sans-serif fonts such as Arial and Frutiger to create a harmonious, matching suite of fonts. Or you could pick fonts with contrasting characteristics to create greater interest, such as using a serif font like Palatino for the headlines and then using a sans-serif font like Verdana for the text.

Each piece of marketing material or document created should have a maximum of three or four families of fonts on them. (A font family includes all of the bold and italic variations of a particular font, so using bold or italic effects does not count as additional fonts.) Using more than three or four fonts is confusing, and it looks unprofessional.

Practical Font Usage Guidelines

Fonts can require special consideration when you send materials to a professional printer for reproduction, use them on your website, or send Word documents to others. Here are some basics on using fonts and preserving their appearance in these cases.

In printed materials, it's easier to read long blocks of copy that is set in a serif font. Sans-serif fonts are usually used in print for short blocks of information, like headlines, pull quotes, or bulleted lists.

When sending your materials to be professionally printed, make sure to address your desires regarding the use of fonts. You can either include the fonts with the files you send to the printer (which might be considered a copyright license infringement), rasterize your artwork (convert it to pixels, so the font data is no longer needed), or outline your fonts (creating shapes out of the fonts, an option that's available in most vector art programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand), so that they can be printed accurately. Outlining the fonts is the best way to ensure that your fonts will remain accurate and sharp.

Online, in websites, emails, and HTML newsletters, sans-serif fonts look the best: they're clean, clear, and easy to read. There is one other trick to online font use: you have to make sure that you use fonts that will be installed on the computers of people reading your site. Otherwise, your text will appear in the default font selected by their browser, which is often Courier, a very plain font. That limitation does leave you with several fonts to choose from, though, including Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, and Trebuchet MS.

Serif fonts could also be used on websites; however, it's best to use them in limited quantities, such as for headlines and subheads. Some fonts that are available to use on the web include Times, Times New Roman, and Georgia.

Another issue that commonly arises with online fonts is the difficulty in controlling the size and appearance of those fonts. Standard font tags in HTML don't provide precise sizing control and need to be used several times throughout each HTML document, so making changes can be time-consuming. You can use Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS, to precisely control the exact size of your fonts and to make site-wide font, size, or color changes with one simple alteration.

In Word Documents, you also want to make sure that the fonts that you use for the text will be available on the recipient's computer. Good fonts to use are the standard fonts that come installed on PCs, which include Arial, Verdana, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Georgia, Palatino, Courier, and Trebuchet MS.

In order to insert a small amount of customized text - such as your logo, tagline, or address information - create an image of that information and place it in the header and footer of the page.

Another way to preserve the appearance of text is to export your document as a PDF file and send it to the recipient; PDF files embed the fonts into each document so that they can be viewed on any computer and still look right.

Some Technical Info About Font File Types

When you purchase fonts to use on your computer, you'll often be given a choice of buying a PostScript, True Type, or Open Type font. Here is a brief explanation of the characteristics and problems with each of these formats:

PostScript fonts are considered industry standard and are therefore preferred by professional printers. There is a format of PostScript fonts available for Macintosh computers and another format available for Windows computers; those fonts cannot be shared between Macs and PCs.

True Type fonts are often found on Windows machines. These fonts do not print as well as Postscript fonts.

Open Type fonts are the newest type of font. They are cross-platform compatible, but many fonts aren't yet available in this format.

With this information about the creative, practical, and technical aspects of font usage, we hope that you can make font choices that will enhance your brand.

About The Author
Erin Ferree is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Through her customized marketing and brand identity packages, Erin helps her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos, business cards, and other marketing materials and websites to reflect that differentiation, as well as to improve credibility and memorability. http://www.elf-design.com/

How To Start a Profitable Online Business in 5 Easy Steps And For Under $40

By Gabriel Aguinaga

So you want to start an internet home business?

There are five important steps you must follow:

(1) Find a product to sell

(2) Design your sales page

(3) Setup credit card processing on your website

(4) Find a website host and upload your sales pages

(5) Promote your website products

Now the question remains: How can I follow the above steps with a $40 budget?

FACT: I have found that buying resell rights to quality digital products is by far the easiest & cheapest way to start a successful online business.

1) Find a product to sell. Average cost: $30

You can buy resell rights to quality information & software Products for as little as $30. A quick search for the terms "resell rights" on any major search engine will produce plenty of product offers for you to choose from.

Once you have bought the product/resell rights you will be able to sell the product yourself and keep 100% of the profits every time. Another advantage of selling digital products online is that they costs nothing to deliver. Translation: huge profit margins.

2) Design your sales page. Average cost: $0.

That is right, $0. Most, if not all, digital products for which resell rights are available come with a professional ready to take order websites. This means that as soon as you buy resell rights to a product -- not only will you have a product of your own -- but you will also have a professionally designed sales page to help you start selling your product immediately.

3) Setup credit card processing on your website. Average cost: $0

There are various ways to this; however, since we are trying to keep our expenses to a minimum we are going to use paypal.

Visit www.paypal.com and open an account. Their website is very well designed and it does an awesome job of guiding you through the registration process. NOTE: paypal will setup your merchant account at no cost but will deduct 1.9% + $0.30 transaction fee.

4) Find a website host and upload your sales pages. Average starting cost: $13.

Well, you can do this for free but I wouldn’t recommend it. I suggest that you choose www.godaddy.com because they are highly reliable. Note that I am not affiliated with godaddy in any way; I advocate them because I am a customer myself and I have experienced nothing but 100% top service. You can register a ".COM" domain for as little as $8.95 per year and get hosting for only $3.95 per month.

If you choose to get free hosting, go with freewebs.com. They provide free bannerless web hosting, which is extremely rare to find.

5) Promote your website products.

Now that you have completed steps 1 trough 4 you need to drive traffic to you website. I suggest that you start by advertising on free classified sites, joining free traffic and banner exchange programs, join list builders, use free email safelists as well as other similar programs.

Note: Although it is not free -- I suggest that you start a Pay Per Click Campaign at any of the top search engines in order to drive highly targeted visitors to your site/s. Overture, Google Adwords and Findwhat.com are my top picks for this type of marketing.

Final Thought.

There you have it: a fully functional online business in 5 easy steps and for under $40. Always keep in mind that knowledge is money... the more knowledge you have the more profits you will rake in. Always keep learning about internet marketing, stay focused and never quit.


About The Author
Gabriel Aguinaga, "The Resell Rights Guy", is the owner of Guranteedpayouts.com to learn more about him and his expertise, visit his site at http://www.guaranteedpayouts.com/

The Single Most Important Ingredient For Internet Marketing Success

By John Hostler

I’m sure you think I’m going to tell you it’s your list...or maybe Big Gun JV partners, or something along those lines. Yes, those are certainly valuable and can help you become incredibly profitable. But that’s not even close to what I am talking about.

The single most important ingredient in Internet Marketing success is “focus”. Focus? “Whoa, John you’re nuts.” Well, that may be, but focus is life or death in this game. Focus is what separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls, and the successes from the wannabe’s.

Internet Marketing often highlights the brilliant successes and rarely speaks to the massive failure of 90+ percent of its business owners. Most of those 90% are basically what I refer to as the churn and burn crowd. Why? Because they don’t focus.

They buy the latest and greatest “thingamajig” or get involved with the next “Super Fabulous Mega Pre-Launch”, go at it for a couple of weeks, don’t see the massive riches they were promised, and move onto the next great thing. Churn and burn.

Although I will agree that the Internet is awash with garbage programs that offer money for nothing; there are many good programs out there as well. And yet people without focus get involved with quality programs, fail, blame the product, and move onto the next one.

Now, I am not in any way taking shots at the focus impaired, because I too am guilty of distractions. In fact, I am probably two steps from ADHD. But I know that I will not win at this game if I do not make a plan, follow the plan, and execute.

Here are some simple little strategies I use to stay on track and keep focused –

1)I make a schedule using Outlook (use whatever calendar you want) and follow it as much as possible. I set appointments and tasks and all that happy jazz and if something comes up which takes precedent over my previously scheduled to-do, I reschedule.

2)I turn off my email for certain periods of the day and shut down my messenger programs. It’s brutal being shut off from the outside world but when I have that stuff open I can get lost for hours...“Oh, I better get back to this email” or “Hey, Jerry’s IM’ing me”. Trust me, step away...it works wonders.

3)This one is more for the visually oriented like me. I keep a notepad next to my laptop and when I complete a task I scratch it off. I know this isn’t very tech friendly in this day and age, but seeing a to-do get scratched off gives me a feeling of accomplishment and motivates me to move on to the next item.

4)When I start one of my to-do’s I do not move to another until I finish; or until I run into a roadblock that forces me to leave it as an open item. Some times things happen and you simply can’t finish what you started at that very moment. But for the lion share of the tasks where this isn’t the case, finish what you start.

5)I limit myself to a certain number of purchases per month. I love toys, gadgets, and new fangled programs that will blast this and submit that...but when I get a new toy I have to go at it immediately, figure it out, and play with it. It costs me hours when something is cool. Those hours could likely be spent making money so it’s best to keep this to a minimum and eliminate the distractions.

This is just a hint at some of the things you can do to keep from getting distracted and staying focused. You have to stay with your programs and see them through. You need to make a plan, implement it, and stick to it. Eliminate your distractions. That kind of focus and determination will allow you to succeed on the Internet in ways you might not even have thought possible.


About The Author:

John Hostler, aka the Internet Renegade,has been marketing successfully both online and off for 6 years. He released his widely anticipated book on the subject of Internet Marketing on 02-01-06. To find out more about John or his newest release check out http://www.internetrenegade.com/

Cornerstones of an Effective Website

by Patrick Schwerdtfeger

Just about everyone has a website today. Certainly, if you're in business one way or another, you have a website. And people have different objectives behind their sites. Some are content-driven. Others provide an online service and have sophisticated user interfaces. Others still are designed to entertain and amuse their visitors. But regardless what your website is designed to do, there are a few primary objectives you should keep in mind before you start building.

This first website objective is FOCUS. Your site needs to have a narrow and specific focus. Why is this? Because there are literally millions of websites out there and the visitors you're lucky enough to attract will only take a few seconds to decide whether they'll stick around or whether they'll simply click the back button and continue browsing elsewhere. Within those few seconds, your site needs to communicate exactly what it's designed to do so the visitor can decide if it meets his or her needs or not.

One of the best exercises to enhance the focus of your site is to establish a 15 to 25-word positioning statement that guides all your development activity going forward. Think about it like a mission statement. It should articulate exactly what your website does in just 15 to 25 words.

Another way to look at it is to do a Google search for a keyword in your field and see what comes up in the results page. Under each listing, there's a short description of what that site is all about. As it turns out, the search engines get that description from the meta tags on those websites but it's exactly the same thing. What do you want YOUR description to say?

Once you've established a positioning statement, you should display it prominently on your homepage. It should be one of the first things visitors see when they land on your website. And as I mentioned above, the same statement should be included in your meta tags as your site description. That way, the search engines know exactly what your site is about at the same time. And if your site shows up in a search results page, that description will show up as part of your listing.

The second objective is DEPTH. Again, this objective serves your visitors as well as the search engines. Build a massive amount of content all about your narrow business focus. That way, if a visitor lands on your website and decides in the first few seconds that they need what you're providing, they'll go on to find a ton of resources all about that topic, satisfying their need and establishing trust along the way.

Depth of content helps your website with the search engines as well. Google uses complicated algorithms to assess value to different websites and one of the biggest things they look for is content. If your website has a narrow focus and lots of content about that focus, it will get ranked higher within your area of expertise. Google will consider your site a good resource for people searching for your narrow focus.

The third objective is to make your site STICKY. This is a relatively new term that describes a website's ability to keep a visitor on the site. A lot of sites do a fairly good job of attracting visitors but many of those visitors take one look at the site and leave within a second or two. As I mentioned earlier, the positioning statement can do a lot to help someone understand what your site is designed to do. But you need more than that to keep them browsing.

The visitor needs to see immediate value when they visit your site. They need to see something that will benefit them right away. They need to see something they can use to make their own lives better. This is the foundation behind today's value-first marketing moniker. People have been over-marketed and have become skeptical in clever marketing slogans. They want to see the value. They want proof that you can deliver. They want to sample your product or service before they buy anything.

You should spend some time and think about what you can offer your website visitors as soon as they land on your site. It could be information. It could be a tool or calculator of some kind. It could be a free subscription. It could be an entertaining video or an interactive game they can play. Whatever it is, you need to capture your visitor within seconds and guide them to something that will benefit them.

Once they've received one piece of value, give them a second and then a third. Guide them through a maze of value, encouraging them to continue browsing and discovering even more. This is the key to a sticky website and you can get a good idea of your progress by measuring your average time on the site through your analytics platform.

There are a million different websites out there and they're all designed to achieve different objectives. But each one of those websites can be a bit better by incorporating more focus, depth and stickiness. All three improve your website' effectiveness and all three offer benefits with the search engines as well.

About the Author
Tactical Execution with Patrick Schwerdtfeger is a strategic company focused on growth marketing and program implementation across business markets. Visit the website for actionable guidance for revenue generation.

47 Simple Ways to Build Trust in Your Website or Blog

By Miles Galliford

If your website does not create a sense of trust in your visitors, all your efforts will be in vain. Your online business will not succeed. That's the bad news. The good news is that it is very easy to create and build trust in your online visitors. Below, I have listed all the techniques used by the hundreds of websites I have helped launch. If you have additional techniques, please add them to the líst.

As the old saying goes, you have only one chance to make a first impression. Building trust cannot be achieved by one single action. Trust is achieved by hundreds of little things you do throughout your website that, when taken together, give readers a sense of honesty, legitimacy and stability.

The other bit of good news is that few website owners focus on building trust in the minds of their visitors. If you do it well, it can become a real and sustainable competitive advantage.

Here are 47 simple actions you can take to get started.

1. Trust is built by lots of small actions on every page of your website.

2. Your website design is the first impression. Make sure it is professional and relevant to the subject matter.

3. Navigation must be intuitive. If visitors can't find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.

4. Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice. People buy people.

5. Follow the HEART rule of creating online content. (Reminder: HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.)

6. Use language that is appropriate to the audience. It will build empathy.

7. Regularly add new content to your site. It shows that the business is alive and kicking.

8. Review all links. Doubts will quickly form in your visitors' minds if links don't work or, worse still, take them to error pages.

9. Good grammar and spelling matter. Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.

10. Don't make outrageous and unbelievable claims, like "Read this blog and you'll be a millionaire by the end of the week." People are used to scams, get-rich-quick schemes and rip-offs.

11. Publish REAL testimonials and third-party endorsements. Try to always use real names and link to websites where possible. Some sites show images of letters sent by happy customers.

12. Publish case studies about customers you have helped, who use your product, etc.

13. Don't put down, curse or insult competitors. It's unprofessional. It is better to offer an objective comparison of competitive services or products.

14. Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.

15. Write articles for humans, not search engines.

16. Make your 'About Us' page personal and comprehensive. It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.

17. Publish your photo or the photos of the key people involved with the site. Again, this reinforces the fact that there are real people behind the screenshots.

18. Clearly identify who is behind the site. Nothing creates more suspicion than a site that tries to hide the identity of its publishers.

19. On the 'Contact Us' page, provide an email form, telephone number, fax and address of the company. In Europe, it is a legal requirement for sites taking funds, but even sites driven by advertising will benefit from openness.

20. Provide a telephone number that people can call and talk to a person.

21. Provide Web addresses linked to the website domain, not addresses from free webmail services such as Hotmail and Gmail.

22. Don't lie to make money. The most common way is to write a glowing report about a product or service to earn affilíate revenues. It is very short-sighted to lie to visitors to sell them rubbish. They'll won't come back or, worse still, they'll actively condemn your site on forums and blogs.

23. Think carefully about reciprocal links. If your site is about organic food and you have links to Party Poker, people are going to question your integrity.

24. Think carefully about the adverts you display on your site. Ensure that they are relevant to your subject and audience.

25. Be explicit when you are being paid to endorse a product or service. An advertorial is fine as long as it is transparent. Paid-to-post is corrupting the Web and will experience a user backlash. I don't read websites that accept payment for posting.

26. Write and publish your privacy policy. Be clear about what you will and will not do with any personal data you collect. State that you adhere to all data protection laws. Make it easy to read and don't use legal gobbledygook.

27. Write and publish a security policy. State what measures you take to ensure that all transactions are secure.

28. Ensure that you have a security and privacy policy which is linked from the footer on every page. Make the link more prominent on all the order pages.

29. Clearly publish your guarantëe. I would recommend making it a 100% money-back guarantëe if possible.

30. Clearly state your refund and returns policy.

31. Piggyback off reputable brands. If you use PayPal, put the PayPal logo on your site. If you have a merchant services account with a major bank like Citibank or HSBC, put its logo on your site.

32. Use Google search on your site for two reasons. First, it is a great search solution which will help your visitors find what they are looking for. Second, having the Google name on your site instills trust.

33. If there are well-known industry associations for your subject, join up and put their logos on your site.

34. Have a forum on your site and respond quickly to questíons. Have the attitude that you are happy to help others without receiving immediate reward. As the old saying goes, 'Givers always gain.'

35. Allow people to comment on articles. Interactivity and an exchange of views build community and a sense of involvement.

36. If people provide constructive criticism or comments in the forum, don't delete them, but respond with your point of view.

37. Put photos on the website of the owners, publishers and/or team. Let visitors know there are real people behind the business.

38. Put images of the credít cards you accept on every page of the order process.

39. Use the words 'secure website' whenever you try to get any information from visitors, including newsletter sign-ups, forum input and payment.

40. On every page, state, "We take your privacy and security very seriously." Link the statement to the security and privacy policy.

41. Remember, reputations take years to build and seconds to destroy.

42. If you are selling a subscription, offer a low-cost, entry-level option. This could be a one-day taster, 'a week before billing starts' or a monthly tríal.

43. Use a high level of security when processing credít cards. Make sure you make your clients aware of all the steps you are taking.

44. Don't send credít card information or personal details over the Internet unencrypted. Tell your customers that their data will be encrypted.

45. Only ask for information from customers that you really need. For example, for an email newsletter sign-up, the only information you REALLY need is an email address, so that is all you should ask for.

46. If you have pricing on your website, make it transparent. I recently went to buy a book which was advertised for $10. When I checked out, they added tax, post and packaging, and the final bill was $19.50. I didn't buy it as I felt they had deliberately tried to mislead me.

47. Keep your SSL certificate up to date. Let people know you are using SSL encryption and who the provider is.

You can't do too much to build trust. Most of it comes down to common sense and good business practice. To ensure that you are continually improving your trustworthiness, every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the opinion you have. Continually try to learn what makes a site trustworthy or untrustworthy and implement the relevant changes to your site.

If people trust you, the revenue will follow!

About The Author

SubHub provides an all-in-one solution to enable you to rapidly design, build and run your own content website. Publish for profít on the web. Website: SubHub.com SubHubArticles Feed

Strategies To Fight Email Spam

By John Tourloukis

If you are a business owner and you rely on email, spam is going to be a major concern. How you address it can make a big difference in employee efficiency. Email spam has been a nuisance and has gotten even worse over the last several years. Email spam slows down server performance and can eat away at storage. Cleaning all those bad messages out of your inbox is time consuming. The easiest way for viruses to spread is via email.

Having a strategy to deal with email spam and viruses threats is essential for any business to survive and be productive. You can limit the negative impact to your business by having policies and guidelines in place.

Tips to avoid getting email spam:

If you have a company web site, use a contact form that the web site visitor can fill out. Some spam mers use robots that crawl web pages looking for email addresses. Your web site designer should be able to help you with this.

When signing up for forums, products and services use a free email or throwaway account like hotmail or Yahoo mail.

When signing up for offers be careful what boxes you check although technically not spam you may get a lot of email offers you do not want.

Never reply to an email spam message, this just lets them know that your
account is active.

You may want to use a throwaway email address if you post on newsgroups or forums.

These measures may help to reduce spam, but if you have an old email address you may want to change your email address or deploy a spam filter system. There are several choices for anti spam systems you could buy software that runs locally on your PC to filter the spam, but this can be expensive, does not prevent virus infection, and is not a good choice in a networked environment. Managing individual machine spam software is inefficient.

If you have limited technical resources you can outsource you email spam filtering to a hosted anti spam and virus solution provider. Spam filter service providers colocate their spam and virus filters in data centers with redundant power and network connections. You will need to change your mail exchanger on your dns servers to point to the service providers spam filters. Your service provider will then scrub your email for spam and viruses. They then forward your email to your mail server minus the spam and viruses. This gives you a few extra layers of protection. In the event of a network outage or server downtime your email is held and is delivered when the network or your server is available minus the virus and spam. Spam filter services also scan for viruses; this adds another layer of defense to the virus software already running on your network.

If you have an organization with more than one hundred email boxes investing in your own spam filter appliance is the most cost effective solution if you have the technical expertise to manage the system. A spam appliance sits in front of your email server and blocks spam and viruses. The price of the spam appliance will depend upon your number of users, amount of mail and storage requirements.

Fighting spam is no longer be a losing battle if you have a good strategy to deal with the threat.


About The Author

John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks Data Center Colocation,Disaster Recovery Services, and Spam Filter Service.

E-mail Marketing: Increasing Your Conversions and Exploding Your Sales

By Brad Semp

The internet has allowed businesses from around the world to increase visibility and exposure to more potential customers. Businesses that use e-mail marketing are able to increase customer conversions leading to higher sales and profits.

The world of internet marketing has opened doors for businesses in more ways than one. In general, the internet has destroyed traditional boundaries by connecting businesses with client prospects and potential customers from around the globe. Unfortunately, the worldwide exposure doesn't necessarily translate to increased sales.

In order to take advantage of the increased exposure that the internet offers, the key component to improving your sales revenue is to convert your site visitors to customers. The percentage of the visitors to your site that buy your product or services is referred to as the conversion rate. Understanding, tracking, and improving your conversion rate should be the goal of any online business.

For this reason, business owners will place a heavy emphasis on those items that entice a person to buy. These items often include but are not limited to website graphics, sales copy, and sales mechanisms necessary to close a transaction. Although all are important and vital to the success of your online business, most businesses will only convert somewhere between 1 - 4% of visitors (for sales transactions).

To better illustrate this situation, let's look at an example of a site that receives 1,000 unique visitors per day. We'll assume a fairly high conversion rate of 4%. This means that 40 of your visitors are purchasing your product or service and are converted into a customer. The other 960 visitors leave your site without a completed sale.

What happens to the 96% of visitors who leave your site without making a purchase? In most cases, you've lost this person as a potential customer. Yes, it is true that some will bookmark your site and return at a later date to make a purchase. However, most of the visitors to your site will leave without making a purchase.

Are you resigned to the fact that not everyone will make a purchase? Is there something that you can do to increase your overall conversion rate of visitors?

The solution is e-mail marketing. E-mail marketing is important because it provides you with a way to contact many of those who left your site without making a purchase. How? All you have to do is entice your site visitors to provide you with their name and e-mail address. As soon as they do, you will begin to grow an e-mail list which is often considered to be the single most important asset in internet marketing.

There are advantages of using e-mail marketing as part of your business strategy. First, you gain the ability to sell future products to those people that have purchased from you in the past (i.e. your customers). This is an extremely effective way to increase your sales by selling to your "warm market". The first sale is always the most difficult; subsequent purchases are usually easier as the customer knows and is familiar with your website and products.

The second advantage of e-mail marketing works directly to improve your conversion rate. E-mail marketing enables you to contact those visitors who did not purchase from you but who did give you their name and e-mail address. Why is this important? Many statistics show that people often will not make a purchase until sometime between the 5th - 8th time that you contact them. Consistent contact and follow-up with those visitors through e-mail marketing techniques will help to convert additional site visitors to buying customers.

About The Author:

Brad Semp is the CEO and founder of iMarketing4,LLC(http://www.iMarketing4.com.com) and the CashMap Marketing System.Through Brad's research and personal usage experience,he endorses ListPing.com(http://www.ListPing.com)as an integrated,cost-effective solution for growing and managing your e-mail list.