7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

by: Kyle Dusang

With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider these key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.
1. Server Space
First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself กDo I really need that much space?ก. Though itกs true that you should allow your site กroom to growก, don’t opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if youกll never use all of the space offered. Chances are youกll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.
2. Data Transfer Allowance
This decision should be based on the same principal as above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn’t need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you’re running a software download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don’t go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want to be wary of companies who offer กunlimitedก data transfer as there are usually some fineprint stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.
3. Technical Support
A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 tollfree telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.
4. CGIBin Access
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called กCGIBinก. Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use กpreinstalledก scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their serverกs performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, itกs always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
5. UpTime Guarantee
Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers กgo downก. No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the companyกs tech support takes care of you, your site can’t receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee the highest uptime percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100% uptime, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time.
6. Email Accounts
Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you’re just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.
7. Reputation
This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that company. Don’t make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that your hosting company is not going to let you down.

About The Author

Author: Kyle Dusang

Webmaster of http://www.verybesthosting.com

Looking for a web host? Compare plans, features, and pricing from several of the Webกs most reputable hosting companies all in one place at eryBestHosting.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 28, 2004

by Kyle Dusang

Say More Than ‘thank Youก

Say More Than ‘thank Youก

by: Akinori Furukoshi

Most Websites are gathering email addresses. When you submit your email address, you will be redirected to a thank you page. There is nothing wrong with it, but that page can do more than saying ‘thank you.ก
The Result
A while ago, I added some affiliate links to my thankyouforsubscribing page. (You can see it at http://www.thatswise.com/popups/redirect/thanks_subscribe.html .) Even though you can close the window or go back to the home page, 98.8% of viewers of that page have clicked one of the links listed. This is astonishing when compared to the clickthough ratio of banner ads on my site, which is about 0.9%. And, 98% is not a stat of one lucky day. Itกs an average of one year.
They Will Listen
98% sounds unrealistic, but it makes sense. Visitors subscribe to your newsletter because they liked your site in some way. So, they will listen to you as they listen to their friends. When you recommend some places to go, most people will go.
Additionally, you will get better results if you link to a page with one product rather than linking to a page with a lot of products. People who have submitted to you an email address are open minded. This is the time to tell them your recommendation (your favorite product), not to show them options (list of your products).
Note
However, do not use this technique on a thankyouforORDERING page. If you send buyers to another Web page asking them to buy more things, visitors will feel you are trying to suck all the money they have. You may add links on this thankyou page, but be selective which pages youกll send buyers to. I am not saying upselling won’t work. Upselling does work. You have to upsell before receiving payments, not after you received payments. Chasers at McDonaldกs ask, กWould you like to have French fries with that?ก when you order a burger, not after you have paid for your order, don’t they?

About The Author

Though his Web site, http://www.thatswise.com Akinori Furukoshi has been providing ecommerce related information since 1998. His unique way of thinking has helped online businesses to improve their performance. More detailed bio is available at http://www.thatswise.com/about_us.html

This article was posted on June 29, 2004

by Akinori Furukoshi

Three Steps To Building A 50K Email List In Less T

Three Steps To Building A 50K Email List In Less Than 90 Days

by: Melvin Perry

One major asset that every internet or affiliate marketer needs is a big email list. There is a saying in the marketing world that states that ขthe money is in the listข. This is very true because the bigger the list, the greater the potential income. But a common concern amongst many people marketing online is:

ขHow can I grow a huge gurutype email list and how long will it take?ข

What many of us know in the internet marketing world is that it can take a very long time to build a list of 10,000 subscribers. And building a list to this size is a lot more complicated than sending hundreds of visitors to your website. I currently have a website that averages over 500 visitors a day. Out of those 500 visits, I will be lucky to get at least 15 subscribers per day to my list. With these statistics it will take me about 2 years to build an email list to 10,000 subscribers.

So what can you do in order to get 10,000 subscribers very quickly?

Well, the focus of this article is to show you how to easily build a 50,000 subscriber opt in list in less than 90 days. What I am about to show you really works, and if you follow these steps precisely, you will see tremendous results.

Step 1: Get a Virus To Build Your List

In order for you to build a 50k opt in email list in 90 days, you need to spread your marketing message over the internet like a wild fire. The method that is best capable of doing this is known as viral marketing. Viral marketing, in its simplest meaning, is getting others to market your product or service for you and spreading it to others so that they can do the same also. I also call this wild fire marketing because as soon as your marketing message starts, it will be very difficult to stop it and to keep it from spreading across the internet like a wild forest fire. This is the type of response you want when you begin to grow your email list. And the only way for you to generate this type of response is to partner up with hundreds of other marketers that will help you promote your email list in return for something. This is known as joint venturing and it is one of the better strategies for building a huge email list. Located below is a free service that will help you combine the viral marketing component with the joint venture marketing component in order to rapidly grow your email opt in list.

=> http://www.workingonyourown.com/traffictool3.html

Step 2: Start Promoting Your Viral List Building Machine

The next step is to promote your viral list builder so that you generate a minimum of 50 partners and fellow subscribers. There are multiple ways of promoting your viral list tool, but the easiest way to do this is through ezine solo ads. I know from experience that sending solo ads is a sure way to jumpstart any internet business. Just one solo ad mailing to a good newsletter or ezine can easily generate up to 85 partners and fellow subscribers that will help you promote your email list. Listed below is a series of ezines that provide excellent results every time I use them.

http://www.probiztips.com/advertising.html

http://directprofit.net

http://ultimatetrafficsystem.com/advertise.php

http://www.superpromo.com/optadorder.html

http://www.theaffiliatereview.com/advertising.php

http://www.christiantimesnesletter.com/advertising/

http://www.hitoverload.com/advertising.html

As soon as you receive your 50 partners that will help promote your email list for you, you will slowly begin to see your list virally grow on its own. But the growth that will be taking place is not rapid enough to generate the 50k subscribers in 90 days. You need to create tremendous momentum in the beginning in order to see rapid, exponential growth of your email list. This is where step 3 comes in.

Step 3: The KEY To It All

The last and final step for creating a large email list in a short amount of time is the most important step out of all the 3 steps. In this step, it is crucial that you motivate and train your partners/subscribers to do the very same things you are doing to build your email list. Out of all the people marketing on the internet, less than 3% of them know how to market properly and build a nice subscriber base. The key to getting around this problem is to show them the exact steps you took to promote your very own list. This is known as duplication. This concept is so powerful that it is the key for experiencing exponential growth with any online business. The reason why most online businesses fail is because they do not know how to train their partners to market effectively online. If you do this, you will gain the trust of your partners and you will grow your list exponentially.

Conclusion:

Building a 50,000 subscriber opt in email list can take a very long time if you do not know what you are doing. As revealed, you can actually generate a 50k email list in less than 90 days by following steps 1 3. Step 1 explains how you must build your list virally by allowing hundreds of other marketers to help you build your list. Step 2 shows you a very easy way to get your first 50 partners/subscribers to help you build your email list for you. This is done through solo email ads. The final and most critical step is to motivate and train your partners to actively do the very same steps you are doing to build your email list. If you follow these steps precisely, you will build a 50k subscriber email list in less than 3 months. So you should really start on this as soon as possible. Here is a free resource that will help you get started:

=> http://www.workingonyourown.com/traffictool3.html

About The Author

Melvin Perry is an internet entrepreneur whose been marketing online since mid 2002. During his marketing journey online, he has created various ways of sending tons of targeted traffic to websites. To find out more about his traffic generation methods, visit http://www.workingonyourown.com/real.html

This article was posted on October 13, 2004

by Melvin Perry

Creative Ideas To Profit With Autoresponders

Creative Ideas To Profit With Autoresponders

by: Zamri Nanyan

An interested visitor who has been strolling through your site has finally come to just what she is looking for and is about to make a purchase. Itกs a sunny afternoon, and her cat, who happens to be sitting on the moss under the visitorกs large fiftyyearold snowrose bonsai tree, suddenly jumps down, and the priceless tree topples over.

In the blink of an eye, your visitor exits your site, and your sale is dust unless you have had the foresight to utilize an autoresponder that has captured her email address. If you have installed an autoresponder, you can then followup with her, and in all probability, make the sale when the poor woman has finished repotting her precious bonsai.

Autoresponders are remarkable, versatile programs that do so much more than just automatically answer your email. Here are a few ideas that will help you to creatively and productively use your autoresponder to transform the casual visitor into a profitable customer. Use your autoresponder to:

1. Publish a newsletter. Certain quality autoresponders will manage subscriptions and followup with interested prospects. Your newsletter can keep your visitors informed about your services or products, while building your reputation as a credible expert in your particular business.

2. Publish a newsletter only for your affiliates. Inform them of current sales you are running and of promotional material that your affiliates can use themselves to increase their commissions. Include tips, advice, and techniques that your affiliates can use to successfully go out and promote your business.

3. Write reviews. Cover books, software, music, ebooks, movies, etc., and put each review in an autoresponder. Review your affiliate programs, using a link to your affiliateกs page in your autoresponder.

4. Distribute your articles. Writing and distributing targeted articles is a powerful tool to build your business credibility, bring traffic to your site, and increase your sales potential. If your articles contain valuable information, many editors will print what is known as a resource box for you. A resource box contains your bio and a brief description of your service or product. It can also contain your autoresponder address. Letกs say youกve written fifty articles. Put them on separate autoresponder accounts and create a master list that contains the titles of each article, the autoresponder address, and a brief abstract. Then promote your master list. Additionally, include your publishing guidelines so your affiliates can add their articles to your list, increasing the number of writers who are represented in your article list.

5. Create mailing lists. Inform subscribers to your articles when youกve written new ones that they may want to publish in their own newsletter or website.

6. Automate your sales process. Use an ad to insure repeated exposure of your message, which has been proven to effectively increase sales. In your ad, put your autoresponder address where a visitor will be exposed to numerous marketing materials. This multiplies the chances of converting visitors into customers. For example, if you’re selling a particular product, put testimonials about how spectacular it is on your autoresponder, and add a detailed, enticing description of your product.

7. Distribute advertising. Letกs say you sell advertising on your website or in your newsletter or ezine. Set your autoresponder to send the information about rates and how to place an ad automatically to all prospectsก email addresses. Then have your autoresponder followup. It can also send notification of any special deals you are currently offering.

8. Distribute an email course. Each day, have your autoresponder send out another lesson. Just be sure that each lesson has quality content not a sales pitch. Your content will do the selling for you, and will do it much more effectively. You can include tips centered on a different topic for each lesson, illustrating how your product will benefit the reader. Include the tangible benefits the visitor will reap by purchasing your product. Make sure to include a paragraph or two at the end of each lesson enticing your prospect to consider making a purchase.

9. Automate a reminder about your service or product after a visitor has completed your course. This will increase the possibility of sales from visitors who have taken your course but are dragging their feet about actually making a purchase. You can also use these reminders to promote new products or services, and the products and services of your affiliate programs.

10. Distribute free reports. This gives your visitor an idea of the type of information you can provide and the quality of your product or service. Make sure these reports are not sales letters or you will more than likely lose a potential customer than gain a sale.

11. Create trivia quizzes on your site and place the answers in an autoresponder. Your visitor will then be motivated to request your autoresponder, and you will have a record of the visitorsก email addresses who took your quiz. Or create a contest and have any visitors that enter send their responses to your autoresponder. Your autoresponder can be setup to send them a confirmation of their entry.

12. Offer a trial version of your product. Give your prospects a sample of your ebook, course, software, membership, etc. People who are exposed to a little taste often end up wanting the whole pie. You can also capture their email addresses when you offer them a free trial from your website. Set up your autoresponder to give instructions on how to obtain their free trial, and then make sure to followup to try and close the sale.

13. Link to hidden pages on your autoresponder. For example, a hidden page could be your affiliate page that contains graphics, promotional articles, and text links that interested affiliates can make use of. Inform visitors that they may have free access to your affiliate page by simply requesting your autoresponder. You will then gather a list of visitors who may be interested in becoming your affiliates.

14. Use an autoresponder on your order page. Post a request form for visitors to be notified of special offers or discounts in the future. This creates a very effective mailing list that contains the names of people who are already your customers.

15. Put your links page on your autoresponder. It should contain up to fifty links that would be of particular interest to your visitors. Make sure to add your own promotional copy at the top or bottom of this page.

Now that you have proof that autoresponders can be used creatively, see if you can come up with some brilliant ideas of your own!

About The Author

Zamri Nanyan models a lowcost, highprofit concept to build successful internet businesses, as mentioned at www.LowCostHighProfit.com. He now owns and operates several moneymaking websites from the comfort of his own home. Read more about Zamri Nanyan at www.ZamriNanyan.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 17

by Zamri Nanyan

The Lazy Manกs Way To Building a Massive List In M

The Lazy Manกs Way To Building a Massive List In Minimum Time

by: Dan Kelly

As you read every word of this article, youกll be stunned by how quickly and easily you can build a massive list of opt in subscribers without spending a fortune. (The idea is to make money, not spend money. Right?)

Iกll get right to the point…

It can be a real pain in the butt trying to build an optin list using the กold schoolก methods of list building that every Internet marketing guru out there is teaching these days.

They tell you… กUse pop ups and pop unders, delayed pops, and exit popsก, กPut a subscription box on every page of your websiteก, กUse PayPerClick (PPC) search engines to drive traffic to your optin pageก, etc. etc. etc.

Those methods are OK, in my opinion. If you’re using them now and they are effective for you, continue using them. If you’re not, Iกd suggest that you at least experiment with them to see if they work for your situation.

> THE BIG PROBLEM IS THIS…

The two biggest problems youกll face using the กold schoolก methods are… either it takes way too much of YOUR TIME or it costs way too much of YOUR MONEY to build a list of any respectable size.

(In the BizOp, MLM, and Internet marketing arenas, many potential joint venture partners won’t even talk to you unless your list has at least 50,000 100,000 subscribers.)

> WHATกS THE SOLUTION?

Very simple…

Instead of waiting for customers to come to you (which you have to do even with PPC search engines)…

You can BUY subscribers.

Thatกs right! There are companies out there that will sell you the names and email addresses of people that have REQUESTED information about business opportunities.

> WARNING: NOT ALL LEAD SOURCES ARE CREATED EQUAL

There are 8 things you want to look for from any lead/subscriber source.

Here they are:

100% OptIn: You want to buy the contact information of people that have actively requested more information. There are various methods of capturing contact information. Some leads sources sell you names that came from CDROM that has 12 million names on it. Some lead sources precheck the subscription box, so many of their leads didn’t know that they were going to be sent any information from you. You want to make sure that all the names you buy have explicitly requested the information that you are going to send them.

Targeted: You want Business Opportunity Seekers ONLY! What good is it if the names you buy really just wanted to be on someoneกs joke list or recipe newsletter? Iกll tell you… Absolutely NOTHING! Actually, less than nothing if you get a lot of SPAM complaints and your ISP bans you from sending emails or your email addresses ends up on blacklists all throughout the Internet.

Only กFreshก Leads: Plain and simple… The older the list, the less responsive it will be to your offer. As time goes by, people become less and less interested in what they requested information on. The more time between their initial request and your first contact, the easier it is for them to forget that they even requested information. My personal recommendation is that you never buy leads that are over 30 days old, unless you can get them at a steep discount.

Quick Turnaround: You don’t want to wait months for your leads source to fulfill your order. Many smaller sites aren’t able to keep up with the demand for leads so you could be waiting months if your order is large. You want a source that can fulfill large orders in a timely basis. Time really is money… especially when someone has yours, and you’re left waiting months for your list.

Accessible & Effective Support: You want to be able to ask a question any time, day or night, and get a fast, courteous, and most importantly, effective solution to your concern. With some companies, you send them an email and it takes them days to get back to you, if they reply at all. And, speaking bluntly, many of them use incompetent people for their support because they’re only after a quick buck. Their motto, กGrab the money and run… They should be able to figure it out.ก

CANSPAM Compliant: If you buy a list that has been harvested from websites, forums, newsgroups or any number of other places, you could get in serious trouble just for sending them your email. Itกs just not worth it! Please, only send your information and promotional material to people that want to hear from you.

Exclusivity: You don’t want to compete for your leads attention any more than you have to. Spam filter, blacklist, and unexplainable Internet กglitchesก cause email marketers enough grief. You want to know that your list is not going to be resold to a dozen or a hundred different marketers. My personal recommendation is that you NEVER purchase a lead that is sold to more than 5 marketers. The quality of response will be horrible if you’re competing with that many people for your prospectsก limited time and attention.

Alternate Means Of Communication: If you can get them, you also want their home address and home telephone number. If you’re really serious about promoting your opportunity, you should be communicating with your prospects with more than just email. Postcards and short phone calls/message have be proven to increase response to almost any offer especially offers where people are naturally skeptical at the outset.

BTW, some websites (I won’t name any names.) make it sound like they’re doing you a favor by กgiving you their name at no additional costก. Give me a break! Names are MANDITORY!

ACTION STEP: Now that you have the criteria, you should evaluate your current lead sources and check out a few new ones.

About The Author

Dan Kelly is the CEO and webmaster of BizOpListbuilder.com

กHelping entrepreneurs build and profit from their single greatest marketing asset their list.ก

To see how inexpensive it can be to get your very own list and to check out all 8 bonuses you get buy ordering today visit http://www.BizOpListbuilder.com/ today. Youกll be glad you did!

I look forward to helping you build and profit from your very own optin list.

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 23

by Dan Kelly

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

The Cybermagic of Whitelists

by: Niall Roche

Before we start getting deep into the meat of this article itกs important to explain some standard terminology to make sure the rest of this article makes sense.

An IP address is a number which identifies your location on the Internet.

A blacklist is a list of IP addresses which your antispam software uses to block incoming spam.

A whitelist is the exact opposite of a blacklist.

A whitelist is a predefined list of IP addresses that are allowed to send email to and receive email from each other. Blacklists exclude known and suspected spammers. Whitelists can be used to exclude everyone except known IP addresses. Think of it like this. A whitelist is a like having a phonebook which is owned by a small group of people who only wish to speak directly to each other. They don’t want just anybody ringing them. Not only that but the entire group need to approve new phone numbers before they appear in this exclusive phonebook.

To send email to a whitelist you must be approved by the owner of the whitelist. This is a lot like the double optin systems used by legimiate ezines and mailing list owners. Whitelists are the nightclub bouncers of the virtual world if you ain’t on the list you ain’t getting in. Simple but very effective.

A real world example of a whitelist would be if two companies wanted to exchange email only with each other. These companies could implement a whitelist that contained the IP address for just the two email servers that want to send email to each other. That would mean that any email coming from an IP address not on the whitelist would be returned to sender. For companies they can ensure that employees are only dealing with work related email and not chatting with their friends.

The benefits of whitelists are many but proper management of the whitelists is equally important. Misuse of whitelists will only lead to more headaches for everyone involved with missing email, irate customers and IT departments doing overtime just being the tip of the iceberg.

If youกd like to learn more about spam then drop by http://www.spamsite.com today.

About The Author

http://www.spamsite.com reviews and tests spam filtering software for the business and end user. Niall Roche is the content author and owner of spamsite.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 09, 2004

by Niall Roche

Autoresponders: Ease Your Life

Autoresponders: Ease Your Life

by: Pavel Lenshin

What every small business operator always lacks is time. Sometimes lack of time leads to inefficiency, what in its turn, leads to business failure even if you have plenty of financial resources.

That is why there are so many programs designed to automate every business step starting from sign up process and ending with processing online payments.

Autoresponders play a special part. At the dawn of their usage they greatly assist in solving the most timeconsuming business task that is customer support. Nowadays there are other ways of how autoresponder can help with your everyday routine tasks. Below are the most common tasks where autoresponder fully reveal its potential:

Customer support;

Singup/unsubscription procedures;

Timely delivered emails;

Electronic materials on request;

Response tracking.

The usage of autoresponder as a customer support is based on the topic your customer interests in. Whether it is problems with program installation, billing or general question, it will reply with prewritten answers the same moment email was received from customer.

In very basic way autoresponder can simply notify customer/visitor that his/her inquiry was received and will be answered within 24 hours.

Subscription/unsubscription is also usually required instant notification. The majority of existed mailing scripts have an automatic notification feature, still in its basis it is the same old autoresponder.

Ezine or newsletter subscription is not the only process where autoresponder can give you a hand. They help in many cases with all sorts of email notifications of successful sale, accepted inquiry, thanking for completing the survey and many other cases.

Next way of autoresponder usage proved to earn huge income to many online entrepreneurs. Timely delivered follow up emails that are based on autoresponder are widely recognized as a musthave marketing strategy. The theory behind claims that biggest customer response is gained at 8th contact only. That is why business owners setup a follow up autoresponder sequence that, when signup for, starts emailing prewritten messages on specified time basis daily, every other day, weekly, biweekly etc, generating the biggest possible response rate on complete autopilot, without any need of owner interference.

Email courses are small variation of previous strategy. They were designed to educate interested people, work the same way as product followups do, still serving as a perfect marketing tool for generating subscribers, customers without any hassle.

Publications on request play another important role. It may be articles, reports, brochures, schemes, ebooks, audio, video files, any electronic media may be emailed in the body of the email message or as an attachment to every person immediately on their request and to an email box they considered to be the fastest to download from, presumably, ISPกs.

As strange as it may seem, autoresponder may be used for tracking response rate as well. For instance, by putting slightly different autoresponder email addresses on different webpages you can easily count how many requests came from each page, testing which webpage generates the biggest interest.

To track ezine advertisement response you will also have to setup a different autoresponders for each ezine you plan to run your advert in. At the end you will see how many people each ezine has sent you and generated the biggest income.

Dominating majority of webhosting plans, offered today on the Internet market, come with simple, usually unlimited, email autoresponders. That means they can help in 4 main cases that we have discussed above, except for timely delivered emails. That is because they imply onetime reply email, so you can setup (1) customer support emails, (2) subscription notifications to both your subscriber and yourself, (4) publications on request, (5) response tracking, but (3) timely delivered emails like email followups or courses.

In order to offer automatic, say, weekly, email courses you will have to look for:

custom autoresponder internet application (script);

3rd party autoresponder providers.

The rule of thumb is to know your needs and resources. First choice is preferable if you know what FTP and CGI mean or have someone with basic knowledge of how scripts are setup, want to install it once and forever, have time and money to make onetime investment. You can even try to find free script that in some cases may be even quicker to setup than sign up for some 3rd party service.

Autoresponder service, provided by independent Internet company, is easier for new comers as all technical stuff will be hidden, leaving simple webinterface to manage your autoresponders. For such convenience Internet companies will charge you on monthly or yearly basis, although there are free socalled adware autoresponders available.

In general you can find discounted allinone services, hosting offers or mailing lists coming with followup autoreponders and allowing you to save money.

About The Author

Pavel Lenshin is a devoted Internet entrepreneur, founder of ASBONE.com, where you can find everything to make your business prosper. Discounted Internet services,

FREE ebooks http://ASBONE.com/ebooks/

FREE reports http://ASBONE.com/reports/

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 04, 2003

by Pavel Lenshin

I Want to Do an Ezine! Part 1

I Want to Do an Ezine! Part 1

by: Terri Seymour

I have been getting numerous emails lately from people who want to start publishing an ezine, but really don’t know where to start. So, I am going to write this series of articles from start to finish in the hopes of helping some of my associates get started with their own ezine! Please feel free to email me if you have questions about anything stated in these articles.

First of all, what is an ezine? An ezine is simply an electronic magazine or newsletter sent out periodically to a list of Opt In subscribers. Opt In means they have voluntarily signedup to receive your ezine and were not added to the list without their knowledge or permission.

This is one of the reasons an ezine is so valuable to your business. Your subscribers have given their consent to receive announcements, promotions, ads, recommendations, etc. from you!

BUT, let me stress this, you must treat your subscribers with respect, provide valuable and helpful content and be there for them when they want or need you. You do not want to USE them as a mailing list for every ad that comes down the pike.

Ok, to get started, one thing you should do is look over a few successful ezines to get a feel of how they are done. Each publisher will add his/her own style, personality, and soul to their ezine which in turn is what makes it unique and successful.

A few ezines I would recommend are:

Rim Digest at http://www.rimdigest.com

Simple Biz Ezine at http://www.simplebizpublications.com

Ideas By Post at http://www.ideasbypost.com

and also, My Own Ezine at http://www.myownezine.com 😉

These ezines are very well written and each publisher has a very distinct style and personality to go along with the useful content.

What you want to do with your ezine is establish a trust relationship with your readers. You want them to get to know you and learn that they can trust you and your recommendations. Be there for them if they have questions, if they need advice, or support, or if they just want to talk with someone who has more experience.

Your ezine is much, much more than an advertisement for your business. It is a bond between you and your readers. Treat it as such!

Ezine publishing can be a very rewarding, fun, challenging and if done right, profitable venture!

In next weekกs article, I will be dealing with layout, design and format and also naming your new ezine.

About The Author

Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com

Learn to publish and promote your own ezine. mailto:[email protected]

For a complete list of my articles available for reprint please email: mailto:[email protected]

ATTN: Ezine Publishers, save hours of your valuable time! http://wetrack.it/eza/af.cgi?710

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This article was posted on November 1, 2002

by Terri Seymour

Your Condensed Guide for Working a Room

Your Condensed Guide for Working a Room

by: Oscar Bruce

Working a room…if only it could be fun…or at least guaranteed productive. I am referring to that mandatory event that requires us to mix and mingle, to meet and greet.

Command performance events like a cocktail party, a business dinner, or a charity event can feel stiff and uncomfortable. Very few people actually enjoy walking into a room full of strangers.

So why put yourself through that torture? Well for one thing, Nathan Keyfitz, professor of sociology at Harvard observes, กSocial skills will be of even greater importance for economic success in the future. The most successful people will be those who can communicate and connect best.ก

Put another way, itกs free advertising, and you control the entire message. Is it sometimes uncomfortable? Absolutely, but the upside is huge. The more you put yourself in networking situations, the easier it becomes and the greater the professional, social, and personal benefits.

Here is a condensed guide for working a room:

Approach every networking opportunity with the attitude that it is going to be fun. While no single event is guaranteed to change your life, any single event could. Remember, success is measured by percentages, not perfection. Who isn’t attracted to someone who is smiling, laughing, and enjoying him or herself!

Be Prepared. Be clear about your objectives. Keep focus on your purpose in being there. Don’t be easily distracted from the outcome you have in mind.

Next, don’t wait for others to approach you. Yes, I know it is a bit uncomfortable for some, perhaps you. So think about how great you feel when someone takes the initiative to walk up to you and introduces themselves. Then you do the same.

Acquire and practice several good conversation openers. The best technique is art of asking intelligent questions that convey the impression there is depth and style to your personality. Show them that they could benefit by getting spending more time with you.

When you make an interesting contact, focus all your attention on that single person. Don’t let your eyes wander around the room. Keep eye contact and actively listen. Give that person the sense that you have been waiting all evening just to meet them. In other words, make them feel important.

Learn the art of small talk. Call it chit chat or even foreplay if you like. Its purpose is to put people at east. It starts with finding an area of common interest. This means knowing just the right questions to ask, and at precisely the right moment. Always remember, small talk doesn’t teach, preach, or try to impress. It is just light and easy conversation.

Do your homework. If possible review the names of the people attending, their spouses or partners, their affiliations. If you can recall any prior contacts, refer to that to open the conversation. That will appreciate the fact that you remember.

Finally, common sense tells us not arrive late, drink too much, dress too casually, or push your agenda excessively. Don’t glue yourself to one person the whole night just because they are fascinating, mingle.

Few things personally or professionally happen by accident. Consider going to your next command performance (thatกs what it is) totally prepared. Then watch how much fun you can have when you know why you are there, and can tell your story with style and humor, persuasively.

About The Author

Oscar Bruce is considered the ultimate personal communications guru. His dynamic books are considered field manuals for mastering conversation and confrontations. His website offers several verbal strategies that can add power to your conversations at no cost.

HIS FREE NEWSLETTER is available at http://www.oscarbruce.com

Copyright: 2005

Article Autoresponder: mailto:[email protected]

Author Contact Email: mailto:[email protected]

TERMS OF REPRINT Publication Rules

The requirements for publishing this article are:

You May Not change the content of the article, except for minor corrections for layout, typos or grammar.

You May Not use this article in UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). Email distribution of this article MUST be optin email only.

If you post this article on a website, you MUST set any URLกs or email addresses in the body of the article or in the Authorกs Resource Box as hyperlinks (clickable links).

Please, if possible, forward a copy of the ezine or newsletter in which you published the article, or if on a webpage, the link to the article, to the author.

This article was posted on March 25

by Oscar Bruce

Why Your ISP Takes Bribes From Spammers

Why Your ISP Takes Bribes From Spammers

by: Niall Roche

The lifeblood of the spammer is email. They need to be able to send lots of it on an ongoing basis to stay in กbusinessก. High profile spammers can send 80 million pieces of junk email every single day. Yes one single person.

ISPs all over the online world have vowed to stop spammers sending such vast amounts of email through their mail servers. Do they really keep their word? All the end user sees is that the spam keeps coming. There must be a loophole there somewhere. There is.

In the soft white underbelly of the internet there exists something known as a pink contract. The term pink contract comes from the color of the famous tinned meat that junk email gets its name from. A pink contract is simply a business agreement between the ISP and the spammer. The spammer agrees to pay the ISP to turn a blind eye to the junk email passing through their mail servers.

Surely this is bad business for the ISP? Well the answer to that is both Yes and No. Yes itกs bad news for the people who receive the junk email and No itกs good news for the ISPs bank balance. A monthly pink contract can pay the ISP amounts from $10,000 upwards. Bearing in mind that the average workathome spammer averages $100,000 net per year the above figure is small change fo the bigger junk email vendors (the guys who earn $200,000 $400,000 per month.)

But….. the CanSpam Act 2003… surely thatกs going to make a difference? Of course. Any ISP in the United States can get in serious, serious trouble for signing pink contracts. Problem is that thereกs a whole big world wide web out there and the vast majority of pink contracts are signed with overseas ISPs where US authorities have no jurisdiction China and Russia being perfect examples.

Thereกs no moral to this story. Spam is a huge problem thatกs finally being taken seriously by Governmental bodies. However until they start imposing prison sentences or seizure orders on those individuals and companies in the pink contract business the problem can only continue.

If youกd like to learn more about fighting spam and spam blocking solutions drop by http://www.spamsite.com

About The Author

Niall Roche is the content author and owner of http://www.spamsite.com which reviews and tests spam filtering software for the business and end user.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 07, 2004

by Niall Roche

Free Marketing = Effective Marketing

Free Marketing = Effective Marketing

by: Brandon Milford

According to Google.com there are over three billion web pages online today. So what are you doing to separate yourself from the crowd? How are you targeting your customers? How much capital are you investing in marketing? Is it working?

I hear many business owners complaining about the inability to successfully drive targeted customers to their website. I listen as they tell me about purchasing email lists and buying advertising spaces on related websites. While these methods may work there are free and effective ways to drive targeted traffic to your site.

The first is the ever popular search engines. There are a number of ways to successfully optimize your website for the search engines and subsequently receive better rankings. Search engine optimization is an enormous topic and there have been many books written on the subject and businesses specializing in this service, but I will give you a few important pointers on optimizing your website. First, be sure to have a great deal of relevant content on your website that is no more than three levels deep (the search engine’s crawler does not typically search more than three levels down). This content can include articles, white papers, case studies etc. Second, be sure to have a large number of websites linking to yours. Trade links with other website owners and place their links in a ‘Resources’ section on your website. One of the important variables, among many, that Google will use in your ranking is the number of relevant websites that are linking to yours. So be sure the majority of incoming links to your website are from businesses that provide similar offerings. Third, be sure to include accompanying text links to all of your pages if your current page links are buried within images. This is important because the crawler cannot see images, but it can find text links.

The next way to drive free targeted traffic to your website is to include a link to your site and small ‘hook’ in your email signature. I’m surprised at how many business owners still do not do this. This hook will be one sentence that tells your audience what you do. This ขsmall adข of sorts will be on every email you send out. Example:

John Smith

President

ABC Company

ขProviding communications solutions in a technology driven worldข

Next, get involved with various online message boards/discussion forums that discuss topics that are relevant to your business and provide a link to your website in your signature. You’ll be surprised at its effectiveness. Be sure to participate in relevant discussion forums so that you can learn and contribute the most by participating in knowledgeable topics and at the same time receive targeted clicks. Do not spam any discussion forums, this is not effective and will kill all credibility in your business and your product/service.

The next way to receive free targeted traffic is similar to exchanging links, but even more effective. Seek out partnerships with companies that offer complimentary product offerings and agree to place a prominent link to their site if they will do the same for you. You can set up a ‘Partners’ section on your homepage and display the company’s logo, link, and information.

It is important that we not forget about marketing offline as well. If you are just starting and need customer referrals don’t be afraid to give away products/services for free or at least in exchange for another company’s services. For instance, let’s say that you design websites. Offer a lawyer a free website for their company if in return they will give you free legal advice for a limited time. Also, offer a limited number of businesses free products/services. After you have provided a few businesses with your products/services and they are happy ask them to write a testimonial for you and display this testimonial prominently on your website. Also, give them a few of your business cards and ask them to send any of their friends your way as well. You’ll be surprised at how many people will hear about your business via wordofmouth through satisfied customers.

I hope this condensed list of suggestions have helped you in formulating ideas on how to better market your website. Use your imagination and get creative in your marketing efforts. Get out there and tell the world about your website!

About The Author

Brandon Milford is the President of Pimil.com, a web solutions company based in Georgia, and the Marketing Director for Email Marketing Software Center, a website devoted to providing knowledge and product recommendations on permission based email marketing.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 02, 2004

by Brandon Milford

10 Ways To Get More Of Your Visitors To Subscribe

10 Ways To Get More Of Your Visitors To Subscribe To Your Ezine

by: Ken Hill

1. Promote your ezine on the top third of your site, and on every page of your site with a subscription box that advertises your ezine.

2. Tell your visitors the benefits of subscribing to your ezine whatกs in it for them for subscribing to your ezine.

3. Provide a bonus for subscribing to your ezine. Your bonus could be a free ad, ebook, email course, software, or access to your members only site.

4. Make sample issues of your ezine available to your visitors by autoresponder.

Your sample issues will increase your subscriptions by giving your visitors a firsthand look at the valuable content to be found in your ezine, the topics you cover, your point of view, and your personality.

5. Provide an archive of all your past issues.

You could provide your visitors with a web based archive of all your past issues. This will not only help you to get more subscribers, but will also fill your site with keyword rich webpages which can help your site to rank higher in the search engines.

In addition, you can create your archive by making all of your past issues available by autoresponder if you don’t have the time to keep up a web based archive.

6. Tell your visitors that if they subscribe to your ezine that theyกll be entitled to subscriber only discounts.

This could be discounts on purchasing your products or discounts on advertising in your ezine.

7. Publish testimonials for your ezine on your site.

This will increase the number of people that subscribe to your ezine by showing them what your ezine has done for other people how it has helped them, provided them with valuable information, showed them how to promote their businesses etc.

8. Let your visitors know that you will never sell or give away their information. Have a strong privacy policy in place.

9. Tell your visitors what your next issue is going to be about. For instance what the topic of the feature article is or anything new you have planned.

10. Have a sweepstakes or contest for free advertising or products. Tell your visitors that if they subscribe to your ezine that they will be entered every month in your contest or sweepstakes.

About The Author

Article Copyright by writer, Ken Hill. Save Money With Affordable Email List Hosting! Fast, easy and cost effective email delivery to your lists. Youกll increase your sales while reducing your investment! Get your First 30 Days Free! Learn more now at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5343

This article was posted on March 20, 2004

by Ken Hill