Is Your OnLine Business Customer Friendly?

Is Your OnLine Business Customer Friendly?

by: Philippa Gamse

Customer service is increasingly seen as one of the most valuable uses for a commercial World Wide Web site. Your Web site is available on a 24 hour, seven days a week basis. So it is well worth exploring ways in which your customers can virtually ขserve themselves,ก without the need for overtime staff, or lengthy voice mail procedures.

James Feldman is President of JFA, Inc., an online business offering high quality and unique gift items including automatic watch winders, Grundig shortwave pocket radios, and nitroglycerine pill fobs. The JFA Web site has been online since 1997, and has doubled its income every year it’s now a multimillion dollar ecommerce enterprise.

Jim, who’s also a professional speaker and expert on customer service, highlighted for me how the online buying experience differs from the bricksandmortar model.

Buying online eliminates the physical presence and personality of the salesperson from the process. This makes the Web site copy critical in creating a onetoone relationship with the customer or prospect.

Which echoes one of my favorite mantras:

Every page of your site should be written from the visitor’s point of view, not yours.

A visitor should be able to look at your offerings, and immediately answer the questions:

ขWhy me?ข – that is, is your Web site the right place for me?

ขWhy should I care?ข – does this copy convince me that you can meet my needs?

It’s much easier and immediate to jump from Web site to Web site than to move between realworld stores. So the visitor has far more freedom of choice online. Jim says that the challenge for customer service is therefore very clearly to focus on one customer, one purchase at a time. Ecustomers expect great service, with little or no direct interaction. They will tolerate some mistakes, but not many.

Jim offers five rules for effective online customer service:

1. Be accessible. Show very clearly on your site all the ways that your customer can contact you – including email, phone and fax numbers, and your office hours.

And, if it’s practical for your business, be personal – give your visitors a real person to call who has a name, as opposed to [email protected]

Of course, if you’re really upscale, you can include a ขCallmeข button on your site.

2. Return every email or phone call in the same day, as far as reasonably possible. This may sound simplistic, but a recent experiment with the top Fortune 100 companies showed that nearly a third failed to respond to email sent through their Web site within one month! Some of these companies still don’t provide a usable email address on their sites at all.

3. Acknowledge all orders. Send email confirmations (this can be done very effectively with autoresponders), and if you’re shipping actual products, give tracking numbers and expected delivery dates.

4. Provide a clear return policy, honor it and learn from it. This may give you more information about what’s working and what’s not. Jim’s products are sometimes returned with no explanation, so his staff always call the customer to establish and resolve the problem.

5. Expect more phone calls. Jim says: ขCustomers can’t read or write!ข If your Web site traffic and response rates grow (which is, of course, what we want), so will the volume of phone calls, whatever your business or industry.

Regardless of the site quality, clear returns and privacy policies, secure servers, etc., people still require human interaction. All of my clients report talking to customers on the phone, and walking them through the Web site, where their questions are clearly answered. Maybe these psychological barriers will lessen over the next few years, but right now, they are very much there.

If you can get the customer service aspects of your business working well, there’ll be a definite bottom line impact. Jim is quite clear that his business has grown substantially through repeat business and referrals from satisfied customers.

And in contrast, we can see the impact of poor customer service and fulfillment procedures in many of the dot.coms that are currently failing. Jim says that people buy things online in the expectation of getting something more valuable than the actual money they spend.

Does your Web site do this??

JFA Inc. can be found at http://www.jfainc.com/

About The Author

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized ebusiness strategist. Check out her free tipsheet กBeyond the Search Enginesก for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 4650317 or mailto:[email protected].

This article was posted on November 14, 2002

by Philippa Gamse

A Look at Ask Jeeves and Teoma, an interview with

A Look at Ask Jeeves and Teoma, an interview with Jim Lanzone with Ask Jeeves

by: Robin Nobles

Recently, Jim Lanzone, Vice President of Product Management with Ask Jeeves, attended a chat session with students from the Academy, and he answered a lot of very interesting questions about Ask Jeevesก Web properties.

So, letกs look at this interview with Jim, and learn more about Ask Jeeves and their relatively new search engine on the block, Teoma.

As Vice President of Product Management, Jim overseas the strategy, features, Web design, and product development for all of Ask Jeevesก properties, including Ask.com, Teoma, and Ask Jeeves for Kids at AJKids.com. Ask Jeeves is a top twenty Web property and is among the most recognized Internet brands worldwide.

Jim began by giving some background information about Ask Jeeves and Teoma.

กAsk Jeeves is one of the leading search engines on the Web, with more than 16 million unique users per month. We also recently launched a new search engine called Teoma (Gaelic for กexpert,ก in case you were wondering).

กBoth Ask.com and Teoma.com are powered by Teomaกs search technology. The difference between the two sites lies in the design and the features.

กHereกs an easy way to think about it: Ask is for `Passengersก (people who want help searching) and Teoma.com is for `Driversก (people who don’t).

กOur company makes money by serving advertisements that are triggered by the searches people conduct on our sites. There are three main types of advertisements: Graphical (e.g., banner ads), Paid Placement (Sponsored Links), and a new program called กPaid Inclusionก (pay to be entered into our search index).ก

Is free submission still an option?

Question: Can you still submit to Ask Jeeves if you have a site that answers questions, like we have been able to do in the past for free, or do you have to go through pay inclusion to get into either index?

Jim: กWell, yes, if you want to submit, you need to pay. It takes special attention, and therefore resources, for us to take a site rather than simply crawl the Web as usual. But there are special benefits to paying!

กOur editorial staff is much smaller than the old days, and the `questionsก for Jeeves (what we call the `Knowledge Baseก internally) are not emphasized as much as they used to be, so the exposure will be more limited…and it may take our editors quite a while to get to your site.ก

So, you can still submit your site to Ask Jeeves for free, but it will probably take a while for your site to make it into the index.

Jim: กFor the search index, there is no free submit (for Teoma).ก

Question: Compared to, for example, the free add URL in Google, the one for Ask Jeeves makes you jump through hoops.

Jim: ‘thatกs because itกs quite an old program that was developed for our editors to review.ก

Remember that Ask Jeeves was established to answer questions, so you have to กproveก that your site does, in fact, very effectively answer the question you’re going after which is a lot more detailed than a simple submission at Google.

What about pay inclusion?

If you submit to Ask Jeevesก and Teomaกs pay inclusion program, your site will get visibility at both sites. The pay inclusion program is now out of beta, so the subscription period is 12 months.

Benefits of their pay inclusion program include:

* Your page will be indexed within 7 days. * Your page will be refreshed every 7 days. * Your page remains in the index for 12 months.

Cost?

$30 for the first URL, and $18 each for 2 through 1000 URLกs. For larger numbers of pages, you can use their batch processing facility.

Visit http://ask.ineedhits.com/ for more information.

Question: The Direct Hit site has been taken down, and traffic is being redirected to Teoma. What about the Direct Hit results that were being shown in engines like HotBot? Are those now Teoma results?

Jim: กYes, we still have Direct Hit on HotBot, as well as BellSouth and InfoSpace. DirectHit.com is redirected to Teoma. But some partners still have the old DH กpopก (popularity) results. MSN still has the Direct Hit results.

กWe will be merging pop into the Teoma technology sometime in the near future, but some partners still want it as a กoneoff,ก and we are open to providing it.ก

Question: Teoma does crawl sites on its own? Is that correct?

Jim: กYes, thatกs correct. Its index is currently featured on both Ask.com and Teoma.com.ก

Question: A Web site with good link popularity then would not need the Ask Jeeves/Teoma paid inclusion program?

Jim: กFor a major site, that is probably true. However, for smaller sites, or sites that refresh their content frequently (or have many dynamic pages that are difficult for search engines to crawl), paid inclusion is still a great option if you really want the traffic. Paid inclusion sites are spidered weekly. Other sites are spidered monthly, currently.ก

Question: When paying for inclusion for Ask Jeeves and Teoma, are the results shared with other partners? If so who?

Jim: กCurrently, no. However, we’re aggressively pursuing partnerships that will extend our reach considerably. Not able to say who just yet, but the usual suspects.ก

Question: In your FAQกs for Ask Jeeves/Teomaกs pay inclusion program (http://ask.ineedhits.com/faq.asp), it states that you can’t change URLกs. Why?

Jim: กBecause itกs considered a new submission. We’re not able to put enough resources against it yet.ก

Question: So in the future, weกll have the ability to swap out URLs?

Jim: กWeกll see, but I hear you. We are aware of Inktomiกs program.ก

Question: Whatกs the difference in traffic between the premium listings and the ‘regularก search results?

Jim: กDo you mean between Premier Listings (Featured Sponsor) and Paid Inclusion? There are two differences: 1) You are guaranteed that your listing will show up; 2) You are guaranteed that it will show up in a specific location on our page.ก

Question: Are Premier Listings twice as likely to be clicked on, for example?

Jim: กPremier Listing is really just an ad. With Paid Inclusion, you aren’t paying for anything other than being included in the index and then being subjected to the same relevance algorithms that give us our other results, but with the other benefits that I mentioned earlier.

กIn terms of click ratio, I suppose it depends on how relevant your site is to a given query. The match rate of a site that buys ad space on our site is much more significant than one that purchases via paid inclusion for now.ก

For more information about Premier Listings, visit: http://static.wc.ask.com/docs/advertise/premier.html.

Question: Letกs say that I have a Web site: http://myownwebsite.com, and letกs say that my goal is for it to become an กauthoritativeก site in Teoma. Could you give us some tips on what we can do to try to be considered by Teoma as an authoritative or expert site on a particular subject?

Jim: กOur recommendations are as follows: 1) you allow people to link to you; 2) you offer quality content so that you become popular among other sites of the same subject (i.e., experts). Basically, thatกs it. None of our expert sites or authorities are manually decided. Itกs based on our algorithms.ก

Question: On Teoma, are Teoma and Ask Jeeves results combined?

Jim: กWell, there really is no such thing as an Ask Jeeves result. There are prefab, editorially selected `answersก to certain queries that may appear at the top of the page if we have a high level of confidence that we have the right answer. But as far as the actual search results go, itกs all Teoma…and weกll layer in the Direct Hit clickpop at some point soon.ก

Question: But Teoma results ARE being shown at Ask Jeeves?

Jim: ‘thatกs exactly right. The part of the AJ page that says, `You may find these search results helpfulก has the Teoma results. They were launched in January (and by no coincidence, we immediately saw a 30% increase in picks to those results.)ก

Question: The กFeatured Sponsorก section of Ask Jeeves, is that the Premier Listings?

Jim: กYes it is.ก

(End of interview/chat session)

Letกs take a longer look at Teoma

If you haven’t visited Teoma yet and performed a few searches, you need to do so (http://www.teoma.com/). Itกs a really cool engine with some very interesting and helpful features.

For example, itกs a nononsense engine like Google with one purpose only: search.

When you search at Teoma, you’re given three sets of results:

Results, which are relevant Web pages from the Teoma index;

Refine, which are suggestions for narrowing your search;

Resources, which are link collections from experts and enthusiasts.

So with Teoma, if your search results are too broad, you can immediately narrow them down by choosing one of the suggestions in the Refine section.

And, in the Resources area, youกll find กexpertsก in that particular focus area. This is an excellent place to find related and important sites that might be good candidates to contact about swapping links.

More on Ask Jeeves

Ask Jeeves is the กquestion answeringก search engine, which puts it into a class of its own. (http://www.askjeeves.com)

At the top of the search results, youกll see a กfeatured sponsorก section, which is their Premier Listing advertisement that weกve discussed previously.

With some searches, youกll see a กsponsored linksก section, which are results currently being provided by Overture. However, on September 3, Ask Jeeves will be switching to Google for their paid listings.

Then, youกll find search results from Teoma, followed by a section called, กOther people with your search have also asked:ก In that section, youกll see additional questions that may help answer your initial question, with results coming from Ask.com.

Like at Teoma, you can narrow your search down by choosing one of the search terms on the righthand side of the page.

Ask Jeeves recently entered into an agreement with Google to display their Google AdWords in Ask Jeeves results effective September 3, 2002. Those results will be shown at both Ask Jeeves and Teoma as กsponsored links.ก For more information, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/APAskJeevesGoogle.html

In Conclusion

Teoma has taken over the old Direct Hit site, and I believe weกll see some big things out of this fascinating engine in the future.

Ask Jeeves is as itกs always been: unique a place where you can go and ask a question and be presented with several possible answers.

If you haven’t submitted your site to Ask Jeeves/Teoma, and if your site isn’t found in the Teoma index, I strongly suggest that you consider their pay inclusion program and become a part of their index.

About The Author

Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, (http://www.academywebspecialists.com) has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing courses (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com) and is the content provider for (GRSeo) Search Engine Optimizer software (http://www.seoptimizer.com). She also teaches 4day hands on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 24, 2002

by Robin Nobles

Review: eBook Secrets Exposed

Review: eBook Secrets Exposed

by: Michael Southon

If you want to make a lot of money with your own eBook and you only read one book on the subject in the next 12 months, I strongly recommend that itกs กeBook Secrets Exposedก by Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel.

The authors are both well qualified in this area. Jim Edwards has written five bestselling eBooks (including ‘the Lazy Manกs Guide to Online Businessก and ก33 Days To Online Successก).

David Garfinkel is considered by many to be the worldกs greatest copyrighting coach. Heกs an awardwinning business journalist and is also the author of several bestselling eBooks, such as กAdvertising Headlines That Make You Richก and กKiller Copy Tacticsก.

There have been so many books on this subject that I really couldn’t imagine how this book could add anything new.

But I have never before seen an eBook that explains so clearly how to do it. I got the feeling that you could literally walk in Jim Edwardsก footsteps and get the same results he did (over 4,500 eBook sales in 9 months).

What makes this book very readable and enjoyable is that itกs simply a long interview David Garfinkel asks the questions and Jim Edwards gives the answers.

The book is packed with so many กinsider tipsก thatกs itกs difficult to know where to begin, but one of the most valuable tips is how to find out before you write your book if thereกs a market for it.

You do this by following Jim Edwardsก 5Step กUltimate eBook Success Formulaก. The formula allows you to find out if thereกs a target audience that is already actively looking for the information you’re about to sell online. And if so, if they are prepared to pay for it.

One of the interesting things youกll discover in this book is that competition is actually good for your eBook.

If you come up with an idea for an eBook and you find that there are no competing books, you need to get worried it means thereกs probably no market for that idea.

But if there are books competing with yours, you’re on safe ground you know you have a market.

And don’t be put off by competition: anyone who is serious about a particular subject will buy at least 4 or 5 books on that topic.

Many eBook authors who make big money quickly with their eBooks do resale rights. Instead of making $29 per sale, they’re making $99 per sale. As you can see, resale rights can get you into serious money very fast.

But there are definite pitfalls with resale rights (such as finding out a few months later that your cherished information product has become a free eBook). If you want to avoid these pitfalls, you need to read Section 2 carefully.

You might think that bestselling eBook authors don’t bother with affiliate programs. Wrong!

Jim Edwards shows you that one of secrets to making money with your eBook is to load it up with backend affiliate links. But thereกs a right way to do this and a wrong way (more about this in Section 5).

But the real secret to how Jim Edwards made over $40,000 in one month from a single eBook is joint ventures finding people with lists of 10,000 or even 100,000 and getting them to do a personal recommendation to their readers.

On the Internet itกs not products that make money, itกs lists (products don’t sell, lists do). Or as Jim Edwards puts it: ‘the power is in the pipes, in the distributionก.

Letกs say your eBook is priced at $29 and you find someone with a list of 10,000 and they do a mailing that results in 3000 people turning up at your website.

And letกs say that those 3000 visits result in 90 to 180 sales you and your joint venture partner are suddenly making thousands of dollars in a few days.

Jim Edwards shows you exactly, stepbystep, how to set up a joint venture. He even shows you the exact same letter that he used to set up joint ventures for his book กHow To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in a little as 7 Daysก.

One of the keys to making joint ventures work is what Jim Edwards calls ‘the Santa Claus techniqueก (more on that in Section 2).

A question many people have is how to price their eBook. And itกs crucial that you get this right. In Section 4 Jim Edwards reveals his กpricing formulaก a very clever way to find your eBookกs กbreakpointก or equilibrium.

Thereกs another very valuable tip in Section 17 กMy Secret Method For Slashing Refundsก (this tip on itกs own could be worth the price of the whole book).

This is the best book on eBook publishing Iกve read in the last 18 months in fact, while reading it, I came up with the idea for my next eBook!

You can get your copy of กeBook Secrets Exposedก at: http://www.freezineweb.com/ese.html

(c) 2002 by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

Blogs and RSS Feeds are Great for Affiliate Market

Blogs and RSS Feeds are Great for Affiliate Marketing

by: Craig Desorcy

Work ethic is an ingrained characteristic that pushes the hardworking people of today’s society to overextend themselves in order to achieve success. Now let me tell you a little secret…working hard isn’t always the key to success. In fact, the key to success is working smart. No, I’m not suggesting that we get lazy, but hey who wouldn’t want to enjoy success with just a little bit less sweat?

So what’s the catch? Absolutely none! Working smart simply means using the right materials for the job. Even fairy tales have that truth incorporated into them. Remember The Three Little Pigs? They all worked hard to build their houses (though one worked harder than the others), but remember that only the house of brick was a success. It was the material that made the difference, not the amount of sweat.

We’re not talking about fairy tales now, we’re talking about financial success and freedom the big bucks. We’re talking about the real world the computer age. What is the material that will bring success to your virtual house? …RSS feeds and blogs.

Jim and Tim were brothers, twins in fact. Tim was the hardworking fellow, while Jim seemed to be the one with the all the luck. Now, both Tim and Jim set out to become affiliate marketers about the same time. Tim set out with his normal diligent, all consuming style, and began posting links everywhere he surfed. Daily, he set goals, and crossed them off with a satisfied smile. Deep inside, he knew that he would come out on top of his ขlazyข brother this time!

Jim on the other hand, began posting short daily blogs and incorporating quick and easy RSS feeds into his work. At the end of the month, when all sales were accounted for…you guessed it, Jim was the winner. He easily topped his hardworking twin’s income by $5000, and with only a fraction of the effort involved.

( Fast and Easy Way To Get Blogging and Using RSS Feeds Click here> http://www.effectiveinfo.com/blogsrss.html )

Fair? Of course not, but blogs and RSS feeds are exceptional advantages to affiliate marketers who crave higher web traffic. Yahoo! search engines love blogs, and the best thing about them is that they save you money while making money. Blogs will get you listed in Yahoo! directories without paying the inclusion fees. What a great deal!

There are many of these little bonuses that come with blogging and using RSS feeds. Use your time wisely. Instead of spending hours typing at your keyboard to create the perfectly worded newsletter that will most likely be gobbled up by spam filters, spend a few minutes to jot down a few thoughts in a blog and post the latest updates. Watch an increase in the results, and join the rest of us workaholics who are scratching our heads in wonder!

About The Author

Fast and Easy Way To Get Blogging and Using RSS Feeds

Click here> http://www.effectiveinfo.com/blogsrss.html

This article is copyright © Craig Desorcy

Craig Desorcy is an Internet enthusiast who Lives and works in Japan, spending most of his free time on the internet running his blog and websites of interest.

Craig(at)effectiveinfo.com

This article was posted on February 05

by Craig Desorcy

Can You Survive In An Online World?

Can You Survive In An Online World?

by: Jim Edwards

Do you have the skills to make it in a computer driven, increasingly online world?

Your immediate, kneejerk reaction may be กYes! Of course I have the skills.

I know how to send and receive email and surf the web.

I can even download and install files.ก

Well, three or four years ago, email, Web surfing and downloading files qualified you as กelectronically literate,ก but not any more! Computer and online survival skills now encompass much more than that.

Surviving in an online world involves maintaining a high degree of กelectronic literacy,ก which means focusing on and developing skills in the following areas:

** Personal Computer skills **

In the old days of 1998, the ability to use a computer, keyboard and mouse rated anyone as computerliterate.

In fact, you were a real pro if you could burn a CD, scan documents and manipulate digital pictures.

Fast forward to today and กpersonal computer skillsก carries a whole new meaning. You must know how to maintain and update not only antivirus, but กantispyware,ก and firewall software too.

You also need to understand how operating with Windows ME, or 2000, or XP will affect your ability to use certain software along with specific security precautions to avoid trouble from hackers.

** Internet Skills **

In the bygone era of 1998, friends considered you an online genius if you possessed basic surfing and navigation skills.

They watched in awe as you used search engines like InfoSeek.com (a longdefunct search engine) to find and download programs, pictures, and information on specific topics.

Now electronic literacy means the ability to set up, upload, and maintain basic web pages and blogs.

It also means understanding terms such as กRSSก and กnews aggregatorก because thatกs the next generation of how information will get disseminated online (and it arrives for the masses this year).

** Email Skills **

Perhaps the most deceptively simple of all the areas of electronic literacy, email actually presents the most challenges for keeping up with the times.

Previously, clicking the กsend and receiveก button meant you were proficient at using email.

Now, because of spam, viruses and กphishing scamsก (identity theft schemes delivered through email), email requires a whole new set of skills, กstreet smartsก and software just to survive.

You must understand how to use an email กpreviewก program such as MailWasher.net to eliminate spam and virus email messages before they ever reach your computer.

You also must learn to protect your identity and avoid กphishing scamsก by learning to recognize and defend against online conartist tactics.

** Buy or Borrow Expertise **

Though you should constantly upgrade your skills through personal education, nobody can do or know it all (except maybe your knowitall bother in law).

The good news is that you can always buy or borrow someone elseกs expertise to solve any online challenge.

A prime example of outsourcing in the consumer market is all the little stores popping up in strip malls to help you sell your stuff on eBay.

Through outsourcing, online survival skills can also mean taking what was previously the exclusive realm of computer geeks and making it as easy as dropping off the dry cleaning.

(c) Jim Edwards All Rights reserved

http://www.TheNetReporter.com

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the coauthor of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Simple ‘traffic Machineก brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months… without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

This article was posted on August 23

by Jim Edwards