How To Make The Presentation They’ll Remember

How To Make The Presentation They’ll Remember

by: Blur Lorena

Getting board with presentations? Does your audience yawn or snore or check their watches every time you present? If you’re planning to conduct a presentation, here are some useful tips.

Presentation needs an exhausting preparation. Decide first on the topic that you want to present. Choose a topic that concerns your audience. Make a detailed outline or script. Then research on the topic, note all important points. If possible use simple, familiar terms.

Prepare the devices you are going to use. If you are going to use a slide show, choose the software you are most comfortable with. Examples of softwares are Microsoft PowerPoint, Adobe Persuasion and Lotus Freelance. You can also use Adobe PageMaker and Illustrator and other Illustration software. These presentation softwares will help you create high resolution slides and printouts.

If you want an effective presentation make your slides more attractive. In creating a slide make sure that each slide has a basic idea. Use standard slide size, two by three or the standard 11 inch slide. Minimize the words from 15 to 20 per slide. You can use different fonts. The size of the font should be readable and consistent. Do not overuse attributes such as bold, underline and italic. Use identical design that is relevant to the subject. Use colors to add emphasis. You may add charts or graphs, photos and images.

If you want to use the projector, print the slides using inkjet or laser printer or have it printed through a service bureau. Slide services load the file on film recorder and capture the images on film. Prices depend on the quality of the output.

Rehearse your presentation with the devices you are going to use. If possible, rehearse in the room or place where you will conduct the presentation.

Check everything before you start the presentation, the equipment, the script and the printed materials. During the presentation, tell them exactly what you want to tell them. Introduce your topic. Your introduction should include set of goals for the presentation or agenda, information and summary. Start from the last, the summary. Summary should emphasize important points. Keep your presentation simple. Focus on the topic. Do not read or memorize; you are not reciting, you are presenting.

Make your presentation educational and entertaining at the same time. An attractive slide show helps. Read the slide in such a way that your audience can follow. Always acknowledge them.

About The Author

Blur Lorena

For questions and comments about the Artcile you may contact The Postcard Printing Moderator at 888 888 4211 or visit http://www.mypostcardprinting.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 24

by Blur Lorena

Learn How To Use These Six Explosive Marketing Tec

Learn How To Use These Six Explosive Marketing Techniques To Explode Your Website With Traffic

by: Reginald Turner

Learn How To Use These Six Explosive Marketing Techniques To Explode Your Website With Traffic

You could have the best opportunity, product, or service on the internet, but if you are not getting any traffic to your website, what does it matter? Getting massive traffic to your website is just the beginning of being successful over the internet. Nevertheless, itกs not the end.

Although getting traffic to your website should be your main focus, there is just more to it than just getting traffic to your website. In the next following section, we will talk about the six explosive marketing techniques that you would have to apply to your internet marketing efforts in order to become a successful internet marketer.

1.Testing When you are marketing over the internet, you are going to have to know what works and what doesn’t. Thatกs why you are going to have to experiment with different types of advertising to find that out. If you are experimenting with different types of advertising, how are you going to know what type of advertising is working? This what leads me to the next following marketing technique, Adtracking services.

2. Adtracking Services Ad tracking services are a great way to test which form of advertising is working and which is not. Some of these services are capable of keeping track of your hits, sales, etc. To find an ad tracking service, just go to a major search engine and type in กAd tracking servicesก and plenty ad tracking services will come up. After this happens, do some investigating and choose the one that is best for you.

3. Website Design You want to make sure that you have a decent looking website to promote your product or service. Don’t get to caught up in all the fancy graphics when it comes to designing a website. These fancy graphics that you see on other websites could cause your website to load real slow. You must remember when people are browsing on the internet, they like to get on a website to find what they are looking for and get right off. If your website takes a long time to load, you could loose a lot of sales. When you design your website, make sure you use gif or jpeg graphics because they load really quick. Remember, the amount of time it takes your website to load, could determine how many sales you are going to make, or lose.

4. Good Content Itกs very important to have good content on your website. The product or service that you are promoting should strongly state the benefits. You should talk about how the benefit of your product or service could improve the quality of their lives. Remember, people are not concerned about the features of your product or service, but they want to know what it can do for them.

5. Website Traffic If your internet business is going to survive over the internet, you are going to need a lot of traffic, but just not any kind of traffic. When you are marketing over the internet, you are going to need to get ‘targeted traffic.ก What do I mean by targeted traffic? For example, if you are promoting a service that deals with selling envelopes, you are not going to promote it to people interested in health care are you? Absolutely not. You want to make sure you market to an audience that is interested in your product, service, or business opportunity. For example, if you are promoting a service selling marketing software, make sure you find an audience of กinterested buyersก who are interested in marketing software. If you don’t target your audience, your career as an internet marketer will be short lived.

6. Time Management Again, going back to the adtracking service. If you use an adtracking service to track your marketing campaigns, you could use the statistics from the ad tracking service to tell where you should spend your time marketing. For example, lets say you use two different methods of marketing such as ezines, and submission software. Now you go to your ad tracking service to check the results of the two marketing methods that were just mentioned. You find out that your marketing in ezines bought you 1,000 hits, and your marketing using the submission software bought you 100 hits. I would not tell you to stop using the submission software because obviously itกs bringing you hits. It will make more since to spend most of your time marketing in ezines because it brought you more hits. Iกm definitely not saying what was mentioned in the above example will happen, but it just gives you an indication where you should spend most of your time marketing.

This article was not written to critique internet marketers in any way. It was written to help internet marketers become more efficient and smarter when it comes to marketing over the internet. Some internet marketers only focus on getting traffic, but some neglect things such as web design, testing, and good content which could make a big difference. Remember, getting traffic to your website is just half the battle won, but converting it into sales is a complete victory.

For more info about website marketing techniques, please visit: http://www.adalyzer.com/727/traffic_attack

About The Author

My name is Reginald Turner and my purpose in writing articles is not only to help internet marketers become more efficient and smarter when it comes to marketing over the internet, but to teach them how to quickly find out what type of marketing works and how to make more money over the internet in less time while exploding traffic to their website. If you would like more info about website marketing techniques, you could eithr visit: http://www.adalyzer.com/727/traffic_attack or just send a blank email to [email protected].

This article was posted on November 23, 2004

by Reginald Turner

How To Fail… Faster Then a Speeding Bullet!

How To Fail… Faster Then a Speeding Bullet!

by: Troy Pentico

Hello, I am getting married. Want to pay me $798 dollars to come? Yes, this is the theme in the latest marketing campaign from the infamous Corey Rudl. Now before I give you the wrong idea here it really doesn’t cost $798 dollars to attend. In reality it will cost you only $97 dollars and Corey has promised to give everyone that attends a $97 dollar credit towards any of his products. So really Corey is only going to make $97 dollars per person that attends his wedding. Pretty Good Deal, huh?

The $798 dollars is for the one day finally. What someone could actually learn in a seminar environment in one day that is worth $798 dollars is beyond me. But, I am sure even some of you have bought into it. If you are thinking about it but, have not committed to it, I would consider spending the money on some oneonone time with a consultant if you feel you must pay someone to learn about your business.

This really is not what this article is about though. It surely made me think about writing this but, would make for a pretty bland article unless I was promoting Coreyกs Wedding wouldn’t it? No, you see Corey is in the Internet Marketing Information business which in my opinion is getting way out of hand lately. And that is the basis of this article.

So I give you กHow To Fail… Faster Then a Speeding Bullet!ก

As all of you know one of my favorite past times and really the whole กNicheก of my online business is testing new marketing tools, and resources and then sharing those reviews with my subscribers and customers.

Through all of the years of doing this I have gained some serious in site on what makes the online entrepreneur tick. Most of the กinitial successesก these marketer have, as well as most of the failures are attributed to many different things.

This list of reasons people fail is enormous but here are the five most common and how to avoid them:

#5 Bad Guidance

Through out life people are used to being taught how to do things. Their parents teach them how to tie their shoes, and talk. In school they learn how to read, write, and perform arithmetic. In college or trade school they learn how to perform the tasks they are going to use at their job for the rest of their lives.

Then one day they decide to start a business on the Internet. Most of the time that is exactly what happens. They decide to start กA BUSINESSก. Not just any business mind you. But, กA BUSINESSก. These would be entrepreneurs want to make money that all the SPAM mail promises can be had on the Internet. But, there are now a few road blocks. They don’t have a product sell. They don’t have a web site to promote. They don’t have any friends that are successful making money on the Internet to help them. So in pure haste they go to the nearest search engine and type in กHow to Make Moneyก or something a long them lines.

A lot of them won’t be to picky when it comes to choosing. They jump onboard every free to join program out there. Some are กsmarterก. They know that if every body is selling this or that product it must be the one people want and therefore they need to sell it to. Luckily for them they will inevitably end up on the mailing list of a very successful online marketer who will provide them with all the guidance they need.

Generally this will consist of them telling their prospect that to succeed they need to buy and follow the strategies in a particular book they wrote. Once they spend their money and read the hype in the book they find out to make money with these strategies they will need to utilize a particular software program, or service that luckily for them is provided by the same person that sold them the book! And then thankfully that same marketer is throwing a seminar that you can pay an arm and a leg to attend so that you can actually figure out these strategies that so far you haven’t had any luck with. All the while nobody is working on your business because you are to busy reading, learning new software programs, and attending seminars to build your own business.

Avoidance Strategy:

When looking for guidance find a professional with a telephone that they answer when you call. If at all possible find someone near your location that you can work with face to face. Demand a free consultation to see if this person truly knows what they are talking about. Demand a money back guarantee. If this Guru is flashing sales copy that you can make Millions selling this or that surely they can guarantee that you will be profitable with your business following their strategies in X amount of time.

Do not buy any products at all dealing with Internet Marketing until you know what your business is going to be. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars trying to figure this out. You will find your own Niche without the help of a $137 dollar digital book.

#4 Playing the FREE Game

Why should I pay to advertise on Google when I can join that FREE Safelist and mail my ads to millions? Why should I for advertising on ClickBank when I can join CBClicks for FREE? Why should I pay for ads on Google when I can use this free click exchange program to generate traffic?

There are an endless amount of free programs on the Internet that promise to make you successful. This game started years ago with a service called a Free For All Links Page. Here is how they all work and why you can get them for FREE. When you signup for a FREE service you will need to provide some information to the provider. This can range from just your Name and Email to a more extensive survey that includes questions about your monthly income level, your physical mailing address, your phone number, etc. A small price to pay for using these services for FREE right?

WRONG!

If you didn’t catch on yet these services can guarantee you what ever they want. But, the truth is they rarely work because they were not designed to! These services are for the provider to obtain your contact information and your permission to contact you with advertising anytime they want. Many times your contact information is sold via a leads service. In the end you find out that you wasted your time joining the program and all you gained out of the FREE deal was in inbox full of junk!

Avoidance Strategy:

Do not utilize FREE Traffic or Lead Generation Strategies with very few exceptions (like submitting your URL to Google for FREE for example). Find a service that is pay to play by a known provider of successful strategies. Like Google Adwords for example. Use the service that you can afford to and when you can afford to utilize another move into it. Don’t make any exceptions to this no matter what anybody tells you!

#3 No Focus

This one is closely related to all of the other causes for failure. The normal scenario goes something like this. You are selling a book you wrote about cross stitching. You have made a few sales and things are going nicely for you as your business is starting to grow. Someone that you respect sends you an email. It says, กHey my Google PR just shot through the roof because I am using X productก. You quickly move into action and purchase the product. You follow the directions and spend hours, sometimes days applying the strategy.

When you are finished you decide to stop by one of your favorite marketing forums and find everyone talking about this out standing new book by X marketer where he reveals all his top secret marketing strategies. You move into action and purchase the book. You spend days reading it and then weeks applying the strategies.

This is a never ending chain for some people. They never spend one day completely devoted to working on their business because, they are to busy being distracted by the next big thing.

Well I got news for your folks. There is always going to be a next big thing. Some things do not change and will provide you with much more success.

Avoidance Strategy:

FOCUS your time on YOUR Business. The Top of you Todo list should always be Provide Outstanding Customer Service, Market Your Product Continuously, Build Strong Relationships with your customers, Improve the Content of Your Web site, etc.

Don’t start another business if the current one is not successful! Why put yourself through the mental challenges of failing at two businesses? When you have made one business successful you will have the know how and the resources to successfully expand it to include another.

If you do this you will laugh as you watch your competitors chase their Internet Marketing Dreams in Circles.

#2 No Creativity

You decide for your business that you are going to market X product as part of their affiliate program. This one has to be the easiest business to start in the world! They provide a web site template, prewritten ads, banners, articles, and graphics! All I have to do is use these items and I will make Millions!

WRONG!

Having no creativity is a killer. Especially, in the affiliate sales world. Think about it if everyone of the affiliates in X program are using the exact same sales materials for every aspect of their marketing program who do you think a prospect is going to buy from?

If you answered กI have no ideaก, you are correct. And a lot of the times the prospective customer has no idea either. If you don’t successfully close the deal on the first visit from this customer you are probably not going to. Your prospect wakes up the next morning and decides to buy the product. They forgot to book mark your site so they type the name of the product into a search engine and come to a page that looks exactly like yours and they buy.

The scenarios for not having creativity are endless. They go from something simple like using canned sales materials from an affiliate program to creating a software product that is exactly the same as 12 others on the market.

If you do not put some creativity into your business. You will fail.

Avoidance Strategy:

Only join and market an affiliate program if you have purchased the product and used it yourself? Why? Because, if you don’t you will have no choice but, to used the canned sales materials. You cannot extend any creativity into it and write your own sales copy, give a testimonial to your prospects or anything of that sort because, you will have no idea on what you are talking about.

Always, write your own sales copy, advertisements, web pages, etc. Even if you only change a few graphics, and include a few of your own paragraphs into a canned version you are way above the heap. When modifying web pages include testimonials (if you don’t have any when you sell some ask the customer for one). Always include your contact information including a phone number that you answer. Always change the headline. If the headline is just to good to change then change the sub headline. Do what ever you can to make your sales materials unique.

When creating your own product research the hell out of it. Don’t create something that can be had elsewhere. And definitely don’t create something that people can pick up at the local WalMart. If you can’t come up with your won idea hold a survey with your ezine or mailing list subscribers asking them what they wish they had to improve any aspect of their life or business.

Apply creativity throughout your business from product creation, to sales, to good customer service at all time.

#1 No Determination

What am I doing wrong? I have created a unique product. I have an awesome sales page. I am getting tons of hits from my Overture PPC Campaign. But, nobody is buying! The heck with this.

I have a ton of ads inserted for my Google Campaign but nobody is clicking on them. The heck with this.

I just can’t get people to buy my product. I guess I will just give it away.

I see this all of the time. People try everything that they can to make their business work but, nothing seems too. They give up and never really tried. Folks, the Internet is not a get rich quick environment no matter what you may think. Yes, it is easier to target your customer base and actually make contact with them. But, it is no different then selling off line. If you don’t provide a compelling reason to buy then no one will. And just because you think it is compelling and all your marketing friends said the same thing does not mean it is going to work.

The failure rate of online business due to No Determination is astronomical. People actually believe that whatever they do is going to work and when it doesn’t they give up without a fight.

Avoidance Strategy:

Expect failure and LEARN from it. Write the underlying cause for each failure down and refer to it when ever you can so you don’t make the same mistake twice. Research and analyze your marketing methods. Write at least two versions of a sales page for a particular product and run a splittest on it. Always ask your current customers why they bought a particular product. Make them be specific. Apply copy cat strategies with your products. If it worked once it might work again. Just don’t go word for word. Ask for help from an Internet Marketer that you respect by offering them a cut on sales. If you can’t make it sell maybe they can provide you with a way it can. Above all DON’t GIVE UP, DON’t GIVE UP, and DON’t GIVE UP.

If you are the average everyday Internet Marketer you probably found at least one failure strategy that you are following right now. This does not mean your business will fail. If just means you got a head start in start in that direction.

Keep in mind that I could not possibly list all the scenarios, or avoidance strategies for each of these as it would have created a volume of information and this article is already long as it is.

You must learn to identify failure strategies and cut them off before they have an adverse effect on your business. I have provided you with a good start it is up to you from here on out.

So I challenge you from here on out to remain determined, be creative, stay focused, avoid free things with big promises, and seek out and find good guidance if you need it.

Copyright © 2004, Troy Pentico

About The Author

Troy Pentico is the Editor of the FFAMall Gazette eZine and has been a successful Internet Marketer since late 1997. Are you tired of reading Internet Marketing Tips eZines packed with advertising and marketing fluff? Subscribe Today and learn the Truth! http://gazette.ffamall.com

This article was posted on August 14, 2004

by Troy Pentico

Who Else Wants to Sky Rocket Their CD Sales, Fan b

Who Else Wants to Sky Rocket Their CD Sales, Fan base and Indie Music Career?

by: Ty Cohen

If YOU Answered YES, Then Start An Online Newsletter…It’s Easy, Here’s How!

I’ve always praised the benefits of using a newsletter to promote your music, but this article give a bit more detail into how to go about it.

First, there are tons of different providers out there that can send out your email newsletter. Some are expensive while other like cafepress.com allow you to make one free if you sell products through them. Although this isn’t EVERYTHING you could do it is a good starting place.

Define the letter – is it going to be strictly about your band or other acts in your genre? You might be able to pick up other readers/listeners who weren’t aware of your music, but know other acts if you go broader.

Develop a schedule. Are you going to do it daily, weekly, monthly? Whatever you choose does not matter. The most important part is to stick to it, once people get to reading and enjoying your newsletter, they’ll expect to receive it on time, all the time.

How much content will it contain?

Are you going to have one page or six pages? Try to make the content the same size each issue.

K.I.S.S – Yet again, keep it simple stupid. That means staying on topic and writing in a tone that is both understandable and friendly.

Ask for reader feedback. Perhaps someone might have an idea for a new feature or they may have a hot news tip. Always answer your reader’s requests and emails regardless of if you use their idea or not.

Keep copy short and in the active voice. Avoid passive words if you can and give your articles some kick. You’re writing for people, not Harvard educators so keep your tone to one that people will enjoy looking at each week.

Extra set of eyes. Always have an extra set of eyes look over everything you send out. Even with our newsletter and sites, www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com, www.OrderYoursNow.com and www.TheIndustryYellowPages.com we always have someone look the pages over for typos, spelling, grammar, etc. You want to inform people, but you also want to come off as intelligent when you do it.

A newsletter is not a difficult feat, in fact you can easily get started in an afternoon. If you lack the time and skills then hire someone to do the task or see that your manager and/or promoter informs your followers of all the news they need to know.

About The Author

This article was written by Ty Cohen, the music industryกs most recognizable voice!

Ty is the C.E.O of Platinum Millennium Publishing, Platinum Millennium Records as well as owner of www.MusicContracts101.com and www.MusicIndustrySuccess.com.

Some of his work includes: books, directories, minicourses and software programs including the titles: กHow to Make a Fortune in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourselfก and กHow to Make $500,000.00 กor Moreก A Year in the Music Industry by Doing it Yourselfก.

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 12

by Ty Cohen

Music in the Digital Age

Music in the Digital Age

by: Esperdi Bova

We are on the brink of a major change in the way the music industry operates. Digital music will not just change the way people purchase music, but it will also change the way musicians approach creating albums. Digital music gives people the opportunity to instantaneously purchase a song they like – without having to purchase the rest of the album. Artists and executives are both going to have to look at how music is released, and if it is worth producing an entire album if people aren’t going to buy it.

Piracy of course is another major issue that the music industry will have to look into and examine. Currently, it is so simple to download a single song everyone does it and doesn’t feel that what they’re doing is illegal. Laws are being put into place in an attempt to stop downloading illegal music, but technology always appears to be one step ahead of the law. Some companies have found success offering music downloads for a price, but this practice only enforces the concept of downloading one or two songs from an artist, and not buying the entire album.

This trend may force the music industry to change the way they package music to the masses. People’s tastes will become a larger factor and will affect the finished product. Personalized CDs and play lists will have a larger influence. Instead of artists creating new albums, they might focus their attention on one song, or perhaps executives will look into theme compilations – give a number of different bands and artists one theme, and then release that music all together. Whatever the music industry decides on, the next few years are going to revolutionize the way we view – and listen – to popular music. The music industry will never be the same.

About The Author

Esperdi Bova is the owner of Fth Music, expert site for your musical needs. For more information, please visit us at: http://www.fthmusic.com

This article was posted on February 16

by Esperdi Bova

Be Creative before you Purchase or Create a Websit

Be Creative before you Purchase or Create a Website

by: Charles Nixon III

Before you jump into spending coutnless hours on designing and publishing your website, or spending hundreds on having it done by anyone else you should plan out your full design (or structure). This is very important so that when it comes time to do this longlasting project you will be well prepared.
Layout the Structure of your website. The basics to getting your website going is to know what type of pages your going to have on your website. These pages can be more complex than you think. Say for example your going to have a homepage, contact page, and a about page. Write these three links out, and branch off other links below them. Like on your contact page youกll maybe have a link to go to a contact form, and/or a link to go to your forums/community. And for your about page you could have information about you, info on your company, info on how you became started, frequently asked questions, and maybe even a reference or howto guide on how you started your business.
As you can see deciding how many links you will have can be a very time consuming job. But it is always better to have all of this planned out and done before you start designing your webpage, or having someone do it for you. The more info you can provide yourself, or your webmaster will benefit you greatly.
Say for example your webmaster charges you by the hour… If he/she has to spend time thinking of your linking structure you could be paying this person more than you really need to.
Here are some things you should think about before you get started on building your layout structure:
Whatกs the topic of your website going to be based on?

Cars…
WebDesign…
Your Company…

Who are your visitors/clients going to be?

Little Kids?
Adults?
Teenagers?

What do you need to gear your advertising towards?

Search Engine Optimization
Newsletter Mailing List
Article Submissions

How can you make all of your pages easy to access?

Does your website have a easy linking structure?
Are your pages search engine friendly?
Example: (book_spider_man.html)

Who are your competitors?

Are they going to be serious competition?
Could they be possible affiliates?

Gather content and important information for your website. After you have your linking structure all setup you will want to start looking around your house, computer, work, or wherever and gather up information about your websiteกs main topic. You will need content to fill up your homepage, contact information for your contact page, and anything and everything else to fill your website with content.
Content will be the number one key to the success of your website. If your content isn’t updated regularly, or isn’t 100% complete than you will loose visitors and even potential clients/product purchasers.
Try to avoid having links to pages that don’t work. This will cause visitors to not click on those links again, or even not come back to your website again. Try to atleast throw a page up with Under Construction, and have some content on there for them to go through.
Back to the point… Be Creative before you Purchase or Create a Website. Dont jump straight into something without knowing anything about it. Ask your self, would you buy a brand new car with no engine knowing you have to use it to get to work the next day? Planning out your website structure is on the same lines as purchasing a car without a engine. You need the content and structure built up before you can get it to run.

About The Author

Charles Nixon Website Designer. Driven by Creativity. Building websites to increase sales, and web presence. Did you start your business to create a website? Or to run your business? CharlesNixon.com may be the web design firm for you! Competitive prices and your project delivered on time and on budget.

http://www.CharlesNixon.com/

mailto:[email protected]

This article was posted on July 13, 2004

by Charles Nixon III

Does Your Website Make The Grade?

Does Your Website Make The Grade?

by: Mal Keenan

If you aren’t making money after sending any quantity of visitors at all to your website then you may be making simple mistakes that ARE costing you money and affiliate signups. I remember my own first marketing website it was like a night on the strip in Las Vegas, banners flashing all over the place hoping to attract prospective buyers and affiliates. Needless to say it didn’t do too good and I moved on.

Today I own many different websites and domain names and they all try to follow simple rules that will ensure my visitors don’t click off before the site content reaches their toolbar. Have a look what I believe to be a perfectly structured site and one that I have found great success with:

http://www.eliteteamireland.com/

Did you look closely? The reason for the success of this site is that it doesn’t contain many of the marketing errors that new and not so new online business entrepreneurs will make in todays market. If you are a member of an affiliate program that contains these erros then you need to take action immediately. If you don’t have the option to create your own site for affiliate promotions then you need to find a new program to promote. This or continue to suffer losses in sales and team members.

Here is a quick overview of how to structure a successful marketing site:

1)Clearly define what your website is about. Patience is a virtue but unfortunately it is not an attribute prevalent in 99% of online surfers and if they don’t know the purpose of your site almost immediately, they will move on.

2)Focus on one or two services or products. A website going in too many different directions will leave your visitor feeling confused and more likely to click on to something less cluttered.

3) Include a follow up form AND let your prospect know exactly what is is for. Most people visiting online business websites are doing so for the first time and they are very untrustworthy, rightly so given the amount of scams that have been perpetrated online, so it is important that you tell them why you want their contact info.

Explain what they are going to get for providing their details and in what form it is going to come (ie You will receive an email course over 30 days etc. etc. etc.).

4) Provide your full contact info on your site preferably with your own photograph prominently displayed. Again this is down to trust, people need to know that there is a REAL person behind this website and the more you can convince them with your own details the more trusting they will be. More trust equals more sales.

5) If you are going to make statements about your business then it is much better to back them up with testimonials. With the testimonial, like with your own contact info, provide as many personal details as possible and for maximum effect provide a photo aswel. Look at the website above again to see how itกs done.

6) Explain the compensation plan clearly. If you are running an affiliate program or are promoting one then you need to state how people will get paid in an easy to understand format. The main reason people are at your site is because they are looking for a way to create further income, you need to state in clear terms how and when this is going to happen.

Take another look at how the comp. plan is clearly set out here:

http://www.eliteteamireland.com/

The above website works so well because it allays many of the fears and answers the questions that people setting off on a new business venture will have. It does this by setting out clearly what you must do to get started and backs it up with testimonials from people who have followed the exact same methods to gain success. If you follow the same strategy with your own website then you will gain the same success as far as getting people on board.

What you don’t see in the above model, but will be explained in a subsequent article, is how effective followup and a duplicatable system can virtually eliminate any chance of failure if you follow the steps outlined.

There are people out there who will succeed at whatever venture they happen to come across but for us mere mortals it depends so much on the quality and layout of a company backed up with sound support and a duplicatable system that our financial success depends upon it.

If you don’t want to fail then ensure that you do choose a program that follows the steps above when supplying you with a site to promote. Either that or build your own.

Copyright 2004 Mal Keenan

About The Author

Mal Keenan is editor and publisher of Home Business Tips Newsletter: http://www.homebusinesstipsnewsletter.com/ For a company that DOES provide support, easy to follow training and a duplicatable system join my team below: http://www.eliteteamireland.com/

This article was posted on September 16, 2004

by Mal Keenan

Real Estate Marketing for the ขYouข Generation

Real Estate Marketing for the ขYouข Generation

by: Dominick Evans

Are you working in the real estate industry? Are you a real estate agent, mortgage consultant, builder, real estate broker, appraiser, construction worker, etc?

The Internet is the wave of the future. You can no longer sell homes without at least some sort of internet presence.

According to Harris Polls….over 70% of people in the world use the Internet.

The Internet is the most trusted source for purchases and this includes houses.

Chances are…you already have some sort of Internet presence on the web. You may have gone with a real estate web site design company for your design. You may think your design is ok. Is it really?

That is the first thing prospective clients see when they click on a link to your web site. If they don’t like the design then they leave. The web site design company may even make templates that you can use. However, did you know that you aren’t the only one using the same exact template?

I have gone to enough real estate sites to realize that these companies are making a lot of money by cloning your site. People that are buying homes aren’t going to want to see a clone site. In fact, many may not even realize it is a clone site. They click on your link and leave as soon as they see the design, not even realizing that your site is different.

These sites contain the same articles, same look, same design, etc. They are based on image marketing. Image marketing isn’t going to fly on the Internet. It just doesn’t work anymore.

You are probably wondering what image marketing is. In the early 1980กs real estate agents realized how successful image marketing was. Back then they used catchy slogans (such as #1 in sales), told you everything they had that other agents didn’t, and used images (including their faces), to win you over so you’d choose them as your agent.

Since the 1980กs people have gotten wiser. They no longer care what you have, what your credentials are, or that you are ข#1 in salesข. Did you know nearly every agent in your area claims to be #1 in sales? How do you know? You can’t track other agents sales since they all work on commission.

So what can you do? Stop using the words ขME ME MEข and start using the word กYOU!ก

Let them know exactly what you have to offer them. List what you can do for them. There are numerous ways you can do this without compromising your job and your commission.

Offer them FREE informative articles.

Did you know that I went to a real estate agent’s site and they wanted me to put in my phone number and email just so I could read their free article? Doesn’t this seem a little odd to you? I don’t even have to mention the kind of spam I received once I did put in my email. I was contacted daily with statistics (that seemed to be made up), information, and a bunch of updates on the agent’s web site progression. I don’t care how many sales he had in August. I just wanted to read his article on Moving when you Have Pets.

This is the number one way to LOSE clients not gain them. No one wants to be nagged incessantly to buy or sell their home. Buying and selling a home is one of the BIGGEST processes a person will go through. They can lose or gain money in the end, and choosing the wrong agent isn’t something they want to do.

So, don’t let them choose the wrong agent. Offer them buyer, seller, investment, and even FSBO articles. Why FSBO’s? If you are so willing to offer information on how a client can sell a home on their own then you really must care about your clients. You won’t be getting anything in return for FSBO articles…or will you?

Did you know that over 90% of home sellers that start out as FSBO’s end up going with an agent? They do not get results, don’t understand the process well enough, or it simply is too much work for them to handle. They may not have the time to put in to selling the home on their own. When choosing an agent they are going to remember the person who was so willing to help them out, by offering advice and information. They are going to remember you!

Give them indepth information on the area you serve.

Did you know that one of the biggest complaints home buyers have is not enough information on the cities, towns, and communities in your area? You need to do more than just list a link to the URL for each community page. Have a history, demographics (such as income level, number of residents), school information, and businesses listed about each city and town you serve. You may even want to include pictures, small maps, and anything else you can think of to make the page really stand out.

You are offering something very few real estate agents even consider offering. The prospective clients will have a much better understanding of the area, and can decide where they want to move, and what they can afford.

Community pages usually list hospitals, businesses, restaurants, sporting facilities, and recreational opportunities for your area. You may even want to list important community events such as festivals, fairs, and holiday celebrations. This will definitely be helpful to current residents and prospective residents.

Your time and effort will pay off in the end. The buyer is going to want to go with the person that offers the most information on the area they are moving. Why not let this person be you?

Offer free calculators.

If you are a mortgage consultant why not offer free calculators on your site so your clients can see what kind of loan they may be eligible for? The calculators may have different requirements and can give them a basis to go off of before they contact you to assist them through the mortgage process.

Blogs and Forums

You may want to have your own web blog and forums on your site. The search engines place these two things very high if there is content on them that is relevant to your site topic. You can write articles or post other real estate articles on your blog. Forums not only give you a place to post articles, they also give you a visible way to interact with clients (prospective and current) in a public setting. You can answer questions and it is a very humanizing thing. People will see you less and less as the elusive agent they know only enough about through your web site. They will see you as a well informed, caring individual.

Once they realize that you are in fact a human (much like they are!) and not just a concept in their mind they are going to be more willing to trust you with the sale of their home, their mortgage, and/or choose you to build their home.

Team up with a Local Group

People looking to buy a home are more likely to work with a team (or network) then a solitary individual. If you are an agent you probably work with the same inspector, appraiser, or loan specialist. Why not become a team? You can refer clients to one another and create a network of clients. You also get your name out there because you aren’t the only one working for you…your team is promoting your business, as well.

There are many other things you can do to increase your visibility on the Internet and increase your profits. You just need to remember that the client always comes first. When you do this, you are sure to win over clients every time!

For more information on how to promote your real estate web site, the importance of real estate web site design, SEO, linking, and more email me at [email protected] or go through the contact form at my web site http://www.domashdesigns.com.

(This article can be replicated so long as a link back to my site is added, and proper credit is given. Thanks in advance.)

About The Author

Dominick Evans is the Head Designer for DomAsh Designs a web site design company that specializes in web site design, promotion, internet marketing, virtual assistance, and writing services for business professionals. DomAsh Designs specializes in work for Real Estate Agents, Brokers, Mortgage Specialists, entertainment web sites, retail, pop culture sites, and the computer industry. A new division of DomAsh Designs is going to start offering family based web design within the new year. All work is copyright to Dominick Evans www.domashdesigns.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 27, 2004

by Dominick Evans

Does Your Marketing Plan Need Changing?

Does Your Marketing Plan Need Changing?

by: Joy Gendusa

Change is good, right? Not always. But when is it bad? Is it a question of good or bad? Sounds philosophical. Maybe it is.

Philosophize on this…why would one take something that is going good – no.. great – and change it? Obvious answer is to make it better. Not!

In business or in marketing, change is not always good. When you have certain promotional actions that are in place making things happen, or in better terms, making you money – don’t change them! Why do I say this? Because I see it time and time again. Someone has a marketing campaign that is bringing in a good return on investment and they up and decide to change their postcard! What?!?!?!?!? Change your postcard – why??????? ขEr uh, we just decided to do something different.ข

And then some three or four months down the road, they call back with their tail between their legs and ask – no demand to have everything back the way it was before. In this latter case – change is good.

I am not just saying that to say that one should always keep their postcard marketing campaign the same and never change it. Quite the contrary. Change your marketing, change your habits, change your way of life when it warrants it. There is really some truth to the old adage ขIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.ข Maybe it is human nature to want to change everything once something gets going just the way they planned it. Who the heck knows? All I can say is step outside the humannature box. Change only when things are drastic or when change is warranted.

Drastic circumstances deserve drastic measures. But how do you determine drastic? Sometimes that is really easy. Your company’s income is crashing. Do something! Change! Or better yet, figure out what you changed and get it back to what was working.

How about a plateau? Does that deserve change? Depends on how long that plateau lasts. I have never seen things leveling off and staying level forever. It either goes one of two ways – up or down. I know an optometrist who had a very successful practice in small town USA. He never really marketed. He never really had to. People knew of him from miles around. Mainly he did PR stuff – a fundraiser here, networking there, etc., etc. His good works made him well known and respected and the community ooo’ed and ah’ed over him so much the paper loved printing it.

But things changed. Malls started opening up. People started shopping out of smalltown USA and into the bigger cities. The environment changed. But he didn’t. He still kept a good practice, but you could see something interesting – his gross income started to plateau. And over time – many years – that plateau gradually started to show where it was really going. I actually don’t have to say where – you’ve got the picture.

Now, would that demand drastic measures? Taking into account inflation, cost of living and other factors that are on the rise – yes, I would say that would demand drastic measures. Did he take them? Not until the direness became all too apparent. But yes, he finally did take them. He started postcard marketing his youknowwhat off!

I have another client that is just a dream. They have had the same list for the past 5 years, ever since they have been in business – thirty thousand physical therapists they mailed to over and over and over and over and … They never changed. They figured if it was bringing in the income it was the thing that was working. And it worked and it still works. And today – they made Entrepreneur’s 100 Hot List for 2005.

So, next time you think about changing your marketing plan, look to see if it needs it. Look at your numbers. Are they improving? Declining? If your income is going up – don’t change one single thing. But if it is going down or flat lining – for heaven’s sake, change!

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. As an Expert Author, she is always willing to share her marketing advice through articles, interviews and speaking engagements; visit www.postcardmania.com.

This article was posted on September 07

by Joy Gendusa

Searching For The Right ISP?

Searching For The Right ISP?

by: Neil Shevlin

When searching for the right ISP there are a number of items to look at. How much is it going to cost me? What is the connection like? What are the Features? Is it available in my area? You will soon find that there are many ISP’s to choose from. So, it is beneficial for you to pick the right internet service provider.

The cost is probably the most important aspect to most subscribers. Yet, many are not willing to put up with the low quality provided by free ISP’s. This leaves them looking for low cost ISP’s. The best way to find the lower cost ISP’s is to search for them. Most of the ISP’s you are going to see advertising are going to be a bit higher than those who do not have as much advertising. A search of the internet may help you find some of these ISP’s.

Although the price may be right, if your connection is weak you may not to go with that ISP. This can happen because problems with the cable or phone lines are common with the ISP. It can also occur if your ISP has a large volume of users trying to access the internet at the same time. This is particularly true with dialup ISP’s that do not have enough phone numbers. Also you want to make sure that the ISP is compatible for the tasks you want to do. For instance, AOL users sometimes have problems with some aspects of the net. This is because the program that runs AOL is so dominating. If you frequent certain sites, they may list ISP’s that have problems using the site. This usually applies to sites that have music, video and effects but don’t really apply to straight text.

The features are also important. In fact, if you don’t want to be frustrated with popups you may find yourself drawn to ISP’s that offer popup blockers and virus protection. You may be worried about your children surfing the web. A feature to block adult sites may be what you are looking for in that case. ISP’s are coming up with new features all the time so you really do have some choices here.

Another important aspect is availability. Not all ISP’s are widely available. This is especially true for ISP’s that are free or low cost. Even if an ISP is available in your area, there may not be an available local phone number. When you use your dialup modem with a long distance number you may incur long distance charges while you are on the net. In addition, if there are local numbers but not many of them, you may have trouble connecting to the internet.

About The Author

Neil Shevlin is the owner of UK Broadband Review which is a great place to find broadband links, resources and articles. For more information go to: http://www.ukbroadbandreview.com

www.ukbroadbandreview.com © Copyright 2005

Please feel free to copy and paste this article and itกs resource information.

This article was posted on August 09

by Neil Shevlin

4 Questions to Answer Before Contacting a Book Age

4 Questions to Answer Before Contacting a Book Agent

by: Roger C. Parker

Obtaining agency representation is your first step toward getting profitably published. Most publishers won’t even look at unsolicited manuscripts.
But, before approaching an agent to represent you, you should finalize the presentation of your book.
Agents don’t have time to waste dealing with publishing ‘wannabees’ who don’t have, and may never have, a concrete project to represent. To busy agents, dreams don’t make it.
If you approach an agent before you’re prepared, you may never be able to contact them again. They’ll consider you a ‘dreamer’ and disregard you emails and phone calls.
Elevator Speech
Before approaching an agent, prepare an ‘elevator speech’ describing your project in the less than thirtyseconds it takes for an average elevator ride. If you can’t, your project probably isn’t ready for prime time.
Your elevator speech must answer four major questions:

What is your book about?
Who is going to buy it?
How does it differ from existing books on the subject?
How are you going to promote it?

1. What is your book about?
Finalize your book’s title and contents before contacting an agent.
The title is crucial to your book’s success. It must attract the attention of acquisition editors, book reviewers, bookstore managers, web surfers and readers. The title is often your one – and only – chance to make a sale.
Finalize your book’s table of contents and prepare a brief description of the contents of each chapter. You should also know how long your book is going to be and the number of illustrations, graphics or worksheet
Prepare two – three, if you’re a firsttime author – sample chapters and hire a professional editor to finetune them. It’s better to show three perfect chapters than a finished manuscript filled with spelling errors.
You don’t have to write your whole book before approaching agents. And your sample chapters don’t have to begin with the first chapter, nor do they have to be in sequence. But, they must represent your writing at its best.
2. Who’s going to buy your book?
Next, show that there is a reachable market for your book.
Strive for urgency. Describe the market intrigued by, or frustrated by, your book’s topic. What symptoms does your book help solve? How many people share the problem? What are the consequences of the problem your book addresses?
Quantify your book’s market in terms of buying power, willingness to buy books and ability to be reached through associations or publications.
3. How will your book be different?
Next, position your book relative to existing books on the topic. Existing books on the same topic are a plus, not a minus. They prove there is a market for books on the subject.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of existing books?
Why will readers choose your book over existing books?

This section offers you an opportunity to describe your background and how it contributes to your book.
4. How will you promote your book?
Promotion is your responsibility, not the publisher’s. Your ability to promote your book is as important as your ability to write your book.
Start by identifying book reviewers and editorial contacts who can help promote your book. List publications that might run an extract from your book. Research producers who book guests for radio and TV interviews.
Discuss your speaking experience and willingness to travel to support your book. Describe how you will promote your book on your web site.
List authorities in your field who have offered to write a foreword or provide you with cover testimonials.
Agents are busy. To the extent you can sell your book idea as a realistic possibility in thirty seconds and can support your answers with research and strong sample chapters, you are well on your way to success.
After you’ve been successfully published, you may be able to sell a book on just the basis of an email. But for now, you must be fully prepared.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketingdesign.com

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by Roger C. Parker

The Future of Video Games

The Future of Video Games

by: Daniel Punch

I’ve recently been thinking about where video games could be going in the future. I’m hoping to work in the game industry one day after I’ve finished university study and I’ve been wondering about it a lot. What do I want to see happen in the future? Well I may not have too many answers right now, but I have come up with a few ideas that I think may come into ‘play’ in the not too distant future.

Firstly forget Virtual Reality, as we know it. They’ve tried VR goggles and they made a lot of people sick in doing so. It’s probably never going to work very well in its current form. They’re still around and you can still buy them but they really don’t seem to be taking off. It will probably take a lot to get people totally immersed and involved in a new form of game play. It’s threatening to lose touch with the outside world and the people around you aren’t going to appreciate it much either. The Scifi neural implants are also both a long way off and not likely to be accepted by a majority of the general populace without some severe marketing and luck. I for one am not planning on going through brain surgery just to have a computer attached to my head. In fact I never want anyone to able to plug into my brain.

A technology that was brought to my attention by a zealous presenter at the local ‘Science and Technology Centre’ (a sort of science museum aimed at making science fun for children and juvenile adults such as yours truly) is that of ‘Augmented Reality’. Augmented Reality is essentially the overlaying of virtual elements onto the real world, such as a pair of transparent glasses that can display certain elements over the top of what is actually there. I agree with the presenter in that this could indeed have some awesome potential. Forget all the socially beneficial applications such as workmen being able to view underground pipes before digging, think about it from a games point of view. This technology could provide gamers with the ability to run around looking like complete idiots shooting at things that aren’t actually there and that no one else can see, kind of like in the film ‘They Live!’ The upside to this is that it would be a lot of fun. A group of people from the University of South Australia created the ‘ARQuake’ project, http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/projects/ARQuake/www/, merging the classic shooter Quake with this Augmented Reality technology. Again, this technology may not ever become overly popular, but it would be entertaining to play with.

Technology has driven the games industry for a long time with new games always trying to keep one step ahead of the competition. It started way back at the dawn of technology and it continues to this day. 2D graphics gave way to 3D and 3D is becoming ever better. Graphics are starting to lose the ability to impress like they once did. The step between Quake 2 and 3 was amazing, but DOOM 3 while being visually very impressive isn’t leaps and bounds ahead of its competitors in the same way new games used to be. 2D graphics encountered a similar problem; there comes a point where you just can’t do much more with graphics technology. It is this that turns graphics from striving for technological achievement to becoming art. It is my hope that we will start turning away from tech demos and return to game play and making great entertainment. Games such as Zelda: The Wind Waker or The Sims that strive to show greater depth of character through simplifying the game enough to portray emotions will hopefully become more common (and more fun… but that’s just one person’s view…). Technology plays a certain part in the conveying of emotions and story but it’s quite hard to focus on everything at once. When technology is easier and less essential to game sales we’ll hopefully see an increase in games that cast a lasting impression.

Somewhat unfortunately the rise of the ‘Casual Gamer’ will probably lead to more simplistic games being released. While personally I would love to see depth of story and characters, there are a significant number of players out there who want to pick up a game for twenty minutes or so, have a bit of fun, and then put it down until another time. These gamers are generally less interested in the latest greatest technology and more interested in a ‘fast food’ kind of entertainment that satisfies the moment, despite the lack of quality or the lasting effects. Hopefully the two game types can coexist peacefully although recently it has been seen that some developers are cutting down on some of the planned depth of a title in order to accommodate the more casual gamer.

As technology pushes forwards boundaries are slowly being broken down between systems. We saw the Bleemcast a few years back enabling the running of Playstation games on the Dreamcast, and the PC is able to run almost anything given the right emulation software. Consoles are able to emulate other consoles and new consoles are being announced that promise the ability to play PC games. The Xbox 2 is reported to have a model in planning that comes in a PC case and with the ability to run both PC software and Xbox software. Macs can emulate Windows software and viceversa. We’ll probably start seeing less of a distinction between consoles and PCs as the price of technology continues to drop and consoles continue to become more and more powerful and able to compete with the more expensive computers. Ideally we’ll see a single platform come into prominence so that everything can be run without purchasing a copious number of different machines, although that does have a downside in that it can establish a monopoly for one particular company.

The technology price drop and increase in power has also lead to more powerful handheld machines than before. Real games, not just simple toys are now available for the portable market. The advent of PDAs and mobile phones with the ability to play games raises awareness of portable gaming and new competitors are starting to get in on the field that was once primarily dominated by Nintendo’s GameBoy. There is a new product, the gp32, that can run many different emulators and hence, many different system’s games (including some PC games).

I can’t say for sure what’s going to happen but these are just a few ideas that I’ve had recently. Hopefully the games industry will continue to strive towards new heights with new and interesting game play, stories, characters and ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few years.

About The Author

Daniel Punch

M6.Net

http://www.m6.net

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 28

by Daniel Punch