Top 5 Ways to Generate Qualified Leads for Your Sm

Top 5 Ways to Generate Qualified Leads for Your Small Business

by: Jeremy Cohen

Do you ever wonder if you could be doing a better job marketing your small business or professional service firm? Successfully marketing a small business is hard work. There are several key skills required to consistently develop new business that you, as a small business owner, must master in order to succeed.

The first skill you need to have is the ability to regularly generate qualified leads. You must consistently build your list of prospects if you are to grow your business. Your business will not grow if you market to the same, stagnant population over and over again. While there will be a certain percentage of people who choose to buy from you after repeated contact with your marketing material, the amount who buy will always be limited by the size of the list to which you market.

How often do you add to your list of qualified prospects?

Here are five steps you can take to improve your prospect building skills.

Focus On Client Needs

Whether you print a brochure, advertise in industry periodicals or use search engines to generate traffic to your web site the first thing your marketing materials must do is get noticed. One of the best ways to have your future clients notice you is to use words in your marketing materials that focus on their needs. By using such words your clients will immediately associate your ad with their problem or unmet need.

For example, if you are a patent attorney your ads will have a much better chance of being noticed and acted upon by those who need your service if you use the words, ขGet paid for your inventionข instead of ขPatent Attorneyข. Getting paid is what an inventor wants. You may be proud of your status as an attorney but your clients are interested in the results you provide that solve their problem.

Be sure you use words in your marketing material that focus on your clients’ needs. They will get noticed more often.

Eliminate Waste

Another step you can take to improve your ability to generate leads is to eliminate unproductive marketing methods. Marketing takes time, money and effort. If your tactics are not generating the results you want stop using them and try something new. Of course, in order to separate the good tactics from the bad you need to measure the effect of individual marketing efforts.

Perhaps you run the same ad in two different newspapers. If you don’t know that the ad in ขpaper number twoข is generating 95% of your prospects you will never know that it would be a smart move to reallocate the money you spend in ขpaper number oneข.

What steps can you take to measure the effect of individual marketing tactics?

Once you know which tactics are lead generators and which are not you can improve your ability to generate new leads simply by reallocating the resources from unproductive tactics to ones you know work.

Use Your Web Site Properly

Another way to maximize your ability to generate leads is to use your web site properly. The purpose of your web site is to generate leads. To maximize the number of leads your web site generates make sure your site has information your prospects want, is easy to navigate and maximizes the opportunity for your prospects to get in touch with you, either by calling you or by providing you with their contact information.

Clearly let your visitors know you’re there for them and they will be much more likely to reach out and get in touch, especially if your site’s content demonstrates that you understand and can solve their problems.

Cross Marketing

Cross marketing is the process of establishing marketing relationships with companies whose product or service complements what you sell. For example, a company that helps web site owners track the traffic to and through their site would do well to develop relationships with web hosting companies. There is a natural symbiosis here – anyone who has a new web site needs to (or should) measure their site’s traffic so they can make wellinformed decisions to guide the evolution of their site and any web hosting company wants their clients’ business to succeed so they can keep them as a customer. Companies don’t need web sites if they’re out of business. It therefore makes sense for web hosting companies to promote web statistics companies and vice versa as each can benefit from the other’s service.

What cross marketing tactics do you use to promote your business?

Ask Questions

Regardless of your favorite marketing mechanism the goal is the same: to generate interest in your products or services. Whether you use a web site, a brochure or newspaper ads to generate leads the first thing you must do is get your future prospects thinking about the problem that you solve and they have. A great method for invoking this type of thought is to use questions in your marketing materials.

If you are a dentist, questions like, ขDo you have tooth pain?ข or ขAre your teeth sensitive to heat or cold?ข will do a much better job of drawing in your prospects that marketing materials that say, ขDo you need a dentist?ข

What questions can you ask to get your prospects thinking about the problems that they have that you solve?

Move Your Marketing Forward

Take some time to examine your marketing efforts with respect to the notions outlined in this article. Is there room for you to improve your ability to generate leads? Most likely, there is.

Copyright 2005, Better Marketing Results and Jeremy Cohen. All rights reserved.

About The Author

The author, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners and professional service providers attract more clients, grow their business and be more successful with his marketing guides and coaching service. Get his free marketing guide: Jumpstart Marketing: More Profits, Clients and Success at: http://www.bettermarketingresults.com/marketingservices.asp

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 07

by Jeremy Cohen

A Lesson In Email: The Money Is In The List… Wit

A Lesson In Email: The Money Is In The List… With The BackEnd Sales

by: Anthony L Davenport

Firstly, backend sales is eMail Marketing at its best, so for this to work you need to already have a list of customers that have bought from you before.

The reason for this is because Backend sales, are the ultimate way to realize the true กlifetime valueก of your customers/list. Once someone buys from you, and if their experience with your product is good, then you will have no problems selling to them again and again.

Back end sales will equate to about 7585% of your overall income. This is how important and powerful this marketing method really is.

But first, to accommodate you if you are totally new to this whole internet marketing thing.

A backend sale is simply a sale you make from a customer who has purchased from you in the past. Meaning, lets say a first time buyer orders your new ebook. You find a way to collect their email address (through your newsletter, or have them fill out a form during the order process) so you can eMail them promos in the future. Now every time that same customer buys something from your eMail promotions that is a backend sale, and more profits in your pocket.

As Netrepreneurs, we all know that to acquire our FIRST TIME customers is where the majority of our marketing budget goes. We have to some how direct them to our website, persuade them to signup for our mailings and entice them with our sales copy to purchase one of our products.

With all this time, money and energy being spent drawing these first time customers to our website and sales copy itกs no wonder why you cannot over look the power of following up and backend salesif you want to make substantial profits.

You see when a prospect finally makes the conscious decision to buy from you, then you have succeeded in:

1) Establishing your Credibility to that person

2) Building a mutually beneficial relationship with him/her.

3) (obviously) Closing the FIRST sale.

Now after the first sale, IF your product or service:

1Comes with SUPERB customer service (from you)

2Lives up to your promises and their expectations

3Is of exceptional quality

4Offers them great value

Then…

This is the time to take ADVANTAGE of this relationship and offer this person more value.

Now since they have bought from you in the past and enjoyed the productselling to them again and again will be so much easier than acquiring a totally new FIRST TIME customers.

The reason for this, is because your customer base will already trust you and feel bonded with you on some level.

So if you want to really succeed online you MUST focus on your current customer base. Like I said earlier, they will make up the bulk of your profits (7585%).

How do you do this?

Well for starters you can simply offer them another product, related to their first purchase, at a กValued Customerข discount.

Try doing this for your attempted second sale from them..anythng for them to purchase from you again. And if that products lives up to The first one:

1Comes with SUPERB customer service (from you)

2Lives up to your promises and their expectations

3Is of exceptional quality

4Offers them great value

This will make the subsequent sales much, much easier to close..because you have:

1) Overcome the obstacles of the first sale.

2) Reinforced your Value to the customer with another excellent product.

Now…on to offers. Another important segment of backend sales is.. well, What are you going to sell them? (after you run out of your own products?)

Well after you sold them your featured product, your discounted product, your new product and so forth.

Where do you get more products to continue to capitalize on your customerกs กlife time valueก?

If you don’t want to go into the whole expenditure of developing another product: Time, Money, Research, Headaches, etc.

Just join an affiliate program. This is what I like to refer to as being the กultimate backend.ก

YOU WILL NEVER RUN OUT OF PRODUCTS. Only thing is, make sure the affiliate products are of the same great quality as yours. Also, make sure they are somehow related. If you need help finding affiliate programs to join and promote as backend product, contact me and I will give you some valuable recommendations for hot new products and services out there.

I truly hope you found this writing enjoyable and informative.

Remember:

You spend all your time and money on getting that first sale. Once you have overcome this, you have that personกs trustso they will be much more open to your recommendations.

Realize this. And then Profit from your customerกs กLife Time Valueก through your powerful backend products.

Thanks again for reading. I hope you see now that BackEnd Sales are the way to go for financial independence from your eBiz.

To your Success,

Anthony L. Davenport

Powerful, InDemand Resell ebooks/software for You to make 100% Pure Profit from each sale!! Plus Cutting Edge Web Applications to keep You ahead of all the ailments of eMarketing today Get PAID MONTHLY to build YOUR optin email list Fr~e 12 Volume eMarketing Success Library And MORE…. http://www.iczn.com

About The Author

I have been online for 2yrs and I will help you the best I can, just visit and email me.

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 26, 2003

by Anthony L Davenport

Stop Wasting Your Time….

Stop Wasting Your Time….

by: Richard Grady

One of the things that almost all online entrepreneurs are guilty of is wasting time. Running your own business on the Internet usually means you will be working from home. This means that you have no boss watching what you are up to and no staff seeing that you aren’t doing what you should be.

If you run any kind of Internet business from home, I can almost guarantee that you will be wasting time at some point during your working day. I am extremely guilty of this myself in fact, I have been doing it for years! For the last seven or so years of my กworking for someone elseก life, I worked from home. It was a bit like being selfemployed but I knew I was going to get paid at the end of each month. Boy could I waste time so many better things to do than work watching television, playing computer games, going out to lunch 🙂 Of course, when I was employed, it didn’t really matter as long as I got the job done. Nowadays my timewasting could be the difference between success or failure of a particular project and that could mean less money in my pocket 🙁

So here are a few tips that I hope will help you avoid wasting time online and that will, hopefully, help you run your Internet business more efficiently.

Stop checking your sales stats every five minutes! I know how tempting it is to login to Clickbank, Adsense, Paypal or your credit card processing account just to see how your sales are coming along and I also know that many people waste a huge amount of time doing it. When I first started out, I would sometimes login to Clickbank several times a day just to see the numbers growing! Remember, looking at your sales won’t make them increase a watched pot never boils (or was it a kettle?). Whatever, check your sales stats once a day. Nowadays I tot up my sales every morning for the previous day and thatกs it. Takes me about ten minutes but if I were doing this five times a day I would manage to waste nearly an hour!!

Same goes for your web stats don’t be checking to see how many visitors you have had to your site in the past hour, it won’t increase your sales. Once your site gets to a fairly constant level of visitors each day, I really don’t see much need to check your web stats any more regularly than once a month (unless sales start dropping off, in which case you might need to investigate the reasons).

One of the biggest timewasters for me and many of my colleagues is forums. Forums can be invaluable sources of free advice and if you find a good one like mine 🙂 they are great places to กhang outก with your online friends. However, if you do find a good forum, it is all too easy to spend half the day browsing through posts and chewing the fat with other forum members. This is nice to do from time to time but it won’t pay the bills. Therefore, try and limit your visits to forums to one or two a day. Spend fifteen or twenty minutes catching up with what is going on and then get back to work.

Don’t start a new project until you have finished the current one. I know how distracting the Internet can be and I know how great ideas can come along just when you are in the middle of doing something else. If that happens, write the idea down and come back to it later. If you just jump from one idea to the next without finishing anything, you will never get anywhere. On a similar note, don’t try and work on several projects at once stick to one thing at a time get one website/eBook/auction listing/whatever completed before moving on. Starting and stopping projects is not an efficient way of working and if you run your business in this way it will ultimately take you more time to complete whatever it is you are doing.

Most online marketers work from home and that will often mean that there are distractions around you in the form of family or friends that drop in for a cup of tea simply because they know you will be at home. You need to be strict with both friends and family and politely explain that if you are at your computer, then you are at work. If you had a กproperก job, you wouldn’t be stopping every five minutes for a tea and a chat so why do it when you are trying to run your own business?

Resist the desire to revamp your websites every month. I know how tempting it can be to give your site a brand new design you soon get bored of the sight of your site (if you see what I mean) if you are looking at it everyday. Just remember that most of your customers won’t be looking at your site everyday and therefore they won’t be bored. There was a time when I would redesign my sites every couple of months (mind you, back then they needed it!) but now that my sales have reached a consistent level and I know that the sites do what they are supposed to, I rarely give them a complete makeover. If they ain’t broke, why try to fix them? Note that I am not talking about updating content here adding new content to sites is key and should be part of your normal business practice but there is no need to change your logo or the site layout every couple of weeks.

Work smart and don’t try to do everything yourself. Many of the tasks that an Internet marketer has to do can be done by someone else programming, web design, copywriting, even writing an entire book. Utilize the services of freelancers on sites such as www.eLance.com and www.Scriptlance.com. You will often be very surprised at how little it costs to hire someone and it could be far more efficient (both in time and money) to pay someone else to do a job rather than doing it yourself.

Hope that helps and remember, TIME IS MONEY YOUR MONEY!

Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

About The Author

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts), visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html.

This article was posted on February 17

by Richard Grady

What Does Faith Have To Do With Marketing?

What Does Faith Have To Do With Marketing?

by: Danielle Sanders

No, this isn’t going to be a sermon or anything … don’t worry about that! Iกm no preacher, so I wouldn’t even think of trying; but what I do have is faith in myself and faith in the fact that I can be successful on the internet.

Now, Iกm not talking about your regular, everyday takeitforgrantedbecauseIcandoitก faith in yourself.

Iกm talking about the faith in yourself that comes from TRULY KNOWING that you absolutely can and will achieve a goal that you want!!

That kind of faith in yourself is necessary so that you can conquer all the negativity that comes your way in a day. And it doesn’t matter where the negativity comes from; it could be from your motherinlaw, your husband, it doesn’t matter…as long as you have faith in yourself, you can block that negative energy and divert the danger of it away from yourself.

How, you say?

O.K…. here it comes … the old cliché …

THINK POSITIVE THOUGHTS! : 0 )

It works; believe me, it works. There is so much negative energy in our world today, why would you even want to add to that kind of energy? Because when you add to that (negative) energy, you help to magnify it! Thatกs right, it grows! And why on earth would you want to make more negative energy?!!

That doesn’t make much sense, now does it?

Conversely, when you have positive energy flowing, and others around you are doing the same, it also magnifies itself!! Positive energy begets positive energy and in turn, creates lots more smiles. : 0 )

So letกs get back to the subject at hand. What does faith have to do with marketing?

Hmm … good question.

If you are going to market your product or service, here, on the internet, you had better have faith in what you are marketing because if you don’t, itกs going to show through in your website and advertising and how you are presenting yourself.

If you have faith in yourself, people will see that. They will, in turn, have faith in you also. Itกs all part of that positive energy begetting positive energy thing I was talking about earlier.

Don’t you agree that the person on the receiving end of your website/newsletter/advertisement has to have some faith in you, or they wouldn’t linger?

So you see, faith has lots to do with marketing and marketing has lots to do with faith. Pretty simple when you think about it, eh?

So go and think your positive thoughts for today, but don’t just think them. I want you to really believe those thoughts, so much so that they become reality for you.

Danielle Sanders (positive thinker extraordinaire) : O ) http://www.ebooksstore.com [email protected]

P.S. If you really want to accelerate the way you can create those positive thoughts and get want you want in life, then I can’t recommend this book enough ‘think and Grow Richก in ebook format. (If I could get the rights to GIVE this book away for free, I would give it out to everyone!!) Get it here: http://adtrack.trafficwave.net/t.pl/5515/31987

About The Author

Danielle Sanders is the author of กWhat Does Faith Have To Do With Marketing?ก and owner of http://www.ebooksstore.com. You can subscribe to Danielleกs Newsletter กUp To Date…ก mailto:[email protected]

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 20, 2003

by Danielle Sanders

Should You Get A Blog?

Should You Get A Blog?

by: Andrea J. Lee

A blog is a type of website. It allows the website owner to easily write messages that get posted to the site automatically, often in a journal or diarylike style. A particularly appealing thing about blogs is that your readers can comment back to your posts fairly easily, and a continuous stream of fresh conversations result. (This is a good thing.)

Here are three reasons to consider getting a blog:

1.To Replace Your Ezine

If you currently publish an ezine, you may wish to consider replacing it with a regularly published blog. This means using your blog to publish journal entries, and then when it comes time to communicate with your subscriber list, you excerpt some items from your blog, and send those out as your ezine.

This saves you from creating special articles only for your ezine. In many cases it becomes easier for you to write in blog format (short and sweet) so you save time. Readers enjoy the practical, ‘reporterlikeก nature of blogs instead of ezines, and gradually come to feel that they are in conversation with you on a daily basis. You become part of their everyday circle of friends and associates, which leads to you becoming their natural resource on the topic of your expertise.

2. To Create a Quick and Dirty Learning Environment or eCampus

For those of you who offer TeleClasses or other programs that want to have a web page of learning resources, links, class notes and audio, etc., a blog can be a great way to bring together an eCampus.

If you offer a workshop, coaching/consulting, or even a software solution, and you want to instantly add value to your clients, create a กclient/student resource pageก using a blog. This becomes an environment that the students can play in, study more, and soak up your materials. Your clients continue to benefit from your expertise even though you’re not physically there; they do it at their pace, and at little cost to you.

Once again, because blogging makes it easy for you to continually update your website without mucking around with FrontPage or DreamWeaver, you will save time and energy publishing to the Internet.

3.) Just For Fun, And To Be Cool

Letกs face it, a large part of the reason you’re wondering about blogs is because it sounds cool, right? And new stuff is fun. So why not try it just because? Sometimes itกs enough to try something because it stretches you, keeps you limber and awake to possibilities. Thereกs nothing wrong with playing, UNLESS you fool yourself into thinking your business is improving, or you’re somehow paying the mortgage while you play.

Rest easy, thereกs no pressure to get a blog. Not getting one won’t negatively impact your bottom line. So although the technology can be entrancing, stay focused… what are you selling to who? How is it going? That said, do stay curious about new technology. Part of your chosen profession as an online biz owner means modeling for others by staying abreast of new things.

With that in mind, see some fun blogs at the blog search engine: http://www.blogsearchengine.com/

About The Author

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonardกs General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 04, 2004

by Andrea J. Lee

Keeping Your Email Box Organized & Ready for Busin

Keeping Your Email Box Organized & Ready for Business

by: Stone Evans

Learning how to get the most organization from your email software is very likely the most important skill you can learn to conduct a successful online home business.

There are three primary email applications on the market that folks use to manage their incoming POP3 email. Those three are:

Microsoft Outlook Express

Eudora

Netscape Mail

In order to get the most from your email software, there are three key processes that you should learn. These processes are concerned with data organization, saving time and email database management.

SET UP EMAIL FOLDERS

Organization is key to any emails that you intend to save. Having 2000 emails in one folder is a surefire road map to confusion and lost communications and information.

You are the best judge as to how to organize your email into topics that provide an easy method of retrieval of the information when you need it most.

Fortunately, the primary email browsers make it easy to organize your information. By allowing you to create folders within your email software, you can file specific emails into folders dedicated to the topic of the email.

To create new folders:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: 1. Click File Folders New alternatively, you may also right click an item in the Folder window and then type in the name of your new folder. Highlight the folder above where you would like your new folder to be placed, and then click OK.

EUDORA: Click on Mailbox New or right click on Eudora in the folders window and then click on New. When the window opens, type in the name of your new mailbox and click OK. If you want to create a folder to place other mailboxes into, click the checkbox before clicking OK.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click File New Folder. Then from the dropdown menu, select the folder that you wish to be the folder directly above your new folder, before clicking OK.

FILTERING EMAIL

Email filters are a tool to help you save time and frustration. Have you ever lost an incoming email under the deluge of email coming into your mailbox? With filters, you can direct the important email or notsoimportant email into certain preordained folders.

As part of the war against spam, most ISPกs use filters every day in an attempt to keep the spam out of your mailbox. In fact, I even use filters to sort my incoming mail trying to catch the spam my ISP missed.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need some special software to filter your email. Setting up filters is actually quite easy.

To setup email filters:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Tools Message Rules Mail. A wizard will open to help you create your new email filters. Just follow the instructions provided to direct mail based on certain criteria into certain folders.

EUDORA: Click on Special Make Filter. Once again, just follow the instructions in the Filter wizard.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on Edit Mail Filters. Then click on New in the wizard. Once you click on New, you will be taken to a new wizard window. Follow the instructions here, then when you are done, click on OK. This will return you to the first window where you will set up the sorting order of your filter.

CLEANING AND COMPRESSING YOUR MAIL DATA

This is an important part of your email management. When you no longer need an email, it should be deleted. When you first delete an email, your software will send the email to the Trash Bin. Your email is not actually deleted until you first empty your trash bin.

Emptying your trash bin compresses the mailboxes from where the email was originally filed. This is absolutely paramount to the protection of your email data. If you go too long between compressing your email data, then your email data could become corrupted and you might need assistance in recovering your email data.

Even after you have emptied your trash, Compressing Folders is a recommended step to prevent other data corruption. Once you understand that an email does not actually move from one folder to another until the folder is compressed, then you can better appreciate this advice.

As an example, when Email A comes into your main Inbox, the data connected to Email A appears in two files. One file contains the header and body of the email. The other file contains only the email header information.

When an email is moved from one folder to the other, only the header information is actually moved. The body information will not be deleted from the original folder until which time the original folder is compressed.

This explains the purpose of emptying the trash AND compressing folders. If the email was simply moved from the Inbox to another folder, then emptying the trash is not enough. The original placement of the email is not actually removed from the file that contains the body information until the message has been designated for compression.

To empty your trash:

OUTLOOK EXPRESS: Click on Edit Empty กDeleted Itemsก Folder. To compress the remaining folders, click on Tools Options, then click on the tab for Maintenance. Then click the button that says, กClean Up Nowก. Once the compression is completed, click OK.

EUDORA: Click Special Empty Trash. To compress the remaining items that need compression, then click on Special Compact Mailboxes.

NETSCAPE MAIL: Click on File Empty Trash Folder. To compress the mailboxes, click on File Compress Folders.

I cannot stress enough how important it is that you utilize the tools for emptying the trash and compressing the mail folders. Protecting your email data on a regular basis is good practice for avoiding disaster in your mailbox.

So many of us rely upon our email software to keep our online business running smoothly. Once you master the tools provided in your email software, your online business will run smoothly also.

Let me share one important lesson I lกve learned about computer software. One should never be afraid to try new things. Learning how to get the most out of your software relies upon your willingness to dig in and learn how to use it.

Once you learn how to use your software to its full potential, then your life will be greatly simplified and your effectiveness will be dramatically improved.

About The Author

Stone Evans owns the Home Business Resource Directory where you can find everything youกll ever need to start, run and grow a home based business at: http://www.HomeBusiness.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 19, 2004

by Stone Evans

Boost Your Online Sales with Audio and Video Suppo

Boost Your Online Sales with Audio and Video Support

by: Natalie Aranda

Have you ever noticed when you are shopping at most any retail store there is background music being played and if you need help understanding how a product works or need aid in purchasing the correct equipment there is always a person near by to help you?

This is what your ecommerce or online sales website needs to achieve that comfortable atmosphere where visitors to your online store will enjoy shopping. When you make your store online comfortable with audio or video your customers are apt to stay longer on your website and that means a better chance of a sale.

Using audio in the form of quiet listening music will aid in keeping your customers online and enjoying shopping at your ecommerce store. They will feel comfortable and at ease which will allow them to browse your store and buy.

Another way in which audio on your website can aid in getting you more sales is when you can personally talk about a certain product and how it works, what it does, and just how the item can make their life easier. You will then be transforming your website into the feel of a retail store, with salesmen that offer their help to customers. Your customers will appreciate this extra feature and will also be able to learn about the products through listening instead of just seeing a product on a page.

Go the next step, add a video of how to use the product, how to install, or construct the product and show the many uses on the video of what the product can do for your customers. Now, you not only have a salesperson explaining the product, but you also have a technician showing how to use the product.

People are more apt to purchase products if they can tell that your website has real people behind the pages. Using audio and video will give your website that extra touch and your trustworthiness will go up as well. You will be providing your customers with a nice setting for shopping, a salesperson that can aid them with their purchase and a technician that guide them through the installation process.

Getting started with video editing is very simple. The basic items you need are a video capture card, video capture software, the software to edit, your computer, storage space on your computer and a camcorder, VCR, or you can display your movie on your computer screen.

You may also need MP3 Converter, MP3 Encoder, CD Ripper, and MPEG Encoder.

Using audio and video on your ecommerce website to increase sales is a must. You will be giving the consumer what they want and deserve in our high tech world and they will not have to go to a retail store to have their needs met.

Copyright © 2005, 4th Media Corporation

You have permission to publish this article electronically free of charge, as long as the bylines and links in the body of the article and the bylines are included

About The Author

Natalie Aranda is a freelance writer. Sheกs been experinenting Audio & Video Editing with MP3 Converter http://www.blazemp.com and Video Capture Software href=กhttp://www.blazemp.com/video_capture_software.htm

This article was posted on August 09

by Natalie Aranda

How To Blog, And Why You Should!

How To Blog, And Why You Should!

by: Stuart Reid

First, a quick definition for those who do not know what a Blog is. Quite simply, itกs a Web Log. In other words, a regularly updated page of your thoughts, ideas, links whatever.

Itกs very easy to publish a Blog these days and today Iกm going to show you how in a few easy steps. Don’t worry all the sites, services and tools involved are frกee.

Before we go ahead I should first explain why a Blog is so usefull. A Blog provides a number of benefits to you and your site and all for very little effort.

1. A Blog will add valuable content to your site. This in turn increases repeat visitors and increases the frequency the Google Page Bot (and therefore how often your site listings are updated) will visit.

2. A Blog can be updated very quickly (especially using the technique I show you below). Itกs much faster to update than editing your Web Page or sending out an email.

3. Blogs can be delivered as RSS Feeds and this means a user can download software to have your Blog delivered direct to their desktop as and when itกs updated. You DO NOT have to pay for sites such as Quikonnex or the new Cory Rudl software. RSS Feeds are NOT new and you shouldn’t have to pay for what is essentially a frกee technology!

Do you now believe you should publish a Blog? If you do, just read on, and see how easy it is!

First join Blogger.Com this is a popular Blog service (there are others) that makes the whole process as simple as possible. You just register your details and a title for your Blog.

Why choose Blogger? First, the Google Toolbar has a กBlog Thisก button that makes updating your Blog childs play. Click the button, and you can publish direct into your Blog immediately including a link to the website you’re currently on!

Second, Blogger will add you itกs directory and to a notification service AND they will let you publish to their site, though you can set FTP settings to publish to a page at your own domain. For now weกll publish to Bloggers host service กBlogSpotก since they are fast and the only thing they add is one banner at the top. You may also get featured as one of Bloggers daily blogs and gain massive traffic.

Blogger also has a range of templates and you can even edit these directly to personalise your Blog, right down to adding ads or links to your own site (Tip: include a navigation bar). Blogger will also archive your Blog and insert links to your archived months.

Blogger will create a Blog for you in a few steps. At the Blogger.Com main page click on กStart Nowก at the top. Enter your Username, Password and Name and away you go.

Once you have your account validated log in and create a new Blog. This is just as simple as creating a user account. Enter a Title and Description, and leave it as a กPublicก Blog. Then select host at BlogSpot. Create a subdomain for your BlogSpot then select a template. You can create your own templates but that requires extensive HTML knowledge.

Thatกs it! You have an account and a Blog setup. There are other settings to explore. You can set กPing Weblogsก to YES in the Settings/Publishing option to notify Weblogs whenever you publish. You can also set กShow Title Fieldก and กEmailก options to provide Titles to your Blog Entries and email a copy of your entries to you. Everything else is OK at as it is.

With your Blog at BlogSpot and your Google Toolbar installed

Go to > http://toolbar.google.com snipsnip http://www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/index.php?c=5

Thatกs a big list, so just use the program selected below if you want to get started with a quick and easy client right away.

Tristana Reader > http://www.charlwood.com/tristana http://netpreneurnow.blogspot.com/atom.xml snipsnipBlogger itself has a lot of help if you need it, so itกs time for me to sign off. Happy Blogging!

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About The Author

Stuart Reid publishes Netpreneur News and itกs Blog. Visit the main site to join the Email Ezine or to view the Blog at: http://www.netpreneurnow.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on May 08, 2004

by Stuart Reid

How To Choose A Fire Wall Software Program

How To Choose A Fire Wall Software Program

by: Cavyl Stewart

In the real world a กfire wallก is a fireproof wall that is built to stop the spread of fire from one part of a building to others. In the Internet world a firewall has a similar purpose in that it stops the spread of harmful viruses and attacks from entering your home or office network.

Because of the everincreasing threats that are appearing on the Internet you no longer have to be in business to need the protection of a fire wall. In fact, every computer that is connected to the internet should have one installed. Youกll be a lot happier once you know that you have protected your personal files, information, and financial data, such as credit cards and bank account numbers, from being shared with every crook on the internet.

Here are some questions that you should consider before you choose a fire wall for your PC:

What features do I need?

Do I want to be protected from viruses, Trojan horses and worms?

Am I at risk because I use programs that access the Internet automatically?

How much am I willing to spend on a firewall solution?

Here are the common features that are available in almost any softwarebased fire wall program:

Inbound filtering protects unknown users or programs from accessing your PC

Outbound filtering Protects your PC from sending information to the Internet without your permission

Application integrity verification Verifies that any program you are running aren’t sneaking around behind your back and doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.

Data encryption Automatically scrambles any sensitive data that you do allow to be transmitted.

Stealth mode Hides that fact that your PC is even connected to the Internet so that hackers can’t see you.

Popup ad blocking Stops those annoying ads.

Cookie blocking prevents web sites from sending you cookies without your permission Spyware protection Blocks dangerous spyware from operating on your PC

There are many softwarebased firewall programs that can be downloaded from the internet. Most of them come with free trials so you can test each one and choose whatกs best for you. Although you won’t have to be King Geek to install and set up your firewall, there are some adjustments and settings that will have to be tweaked. All of the better firewall programs come with decent instructions and many of the products have help available at their web site.

If you notice that some program that used to work stops working after you install a fire wall then youกll have to make a change in the fire wallกs configuration that will enable the program to operate freely. If you find that there is no way to let your previously operating program pass through the firewall then that might be a good indication that you need to try a different fire wall. Be sure to check with the makers of both the software program and the firewall before you give up and change.

About The Author

Copyright © 2004 Cavyl Stewart. Discover 52 Ways To Do More With Software by signing up for my exclusive Free ecourse. Get tutorials, tips, reviews and recommendations you can use right now to help you achieve more, easier, and cheaper! 100% Original content. Visit: http://www.findsmallbusinesssoftware.com/52ways.html.

This article was posted on December 11, 2004

by Cavyl Stewart

How to Create a Links Page and Build Page Rank

How to Create a Links Page and Build Page Rank

by: James R. Morrison

One of the hardest achievements for a webmaster to obtain is a solid links page and great web site page rank. You know as well as I do that it is very difficult to obtain well page ranked reciprocal links. Especially when your actual links page is PR 1 or 2! There are ways to construct a links page with good page rank and reach a great page ranked web site.

The first step to take would be to add your links page link to all your pages and site map page, if your web site has one. This ensures the search engine spiders view your links page as important to your site. Many webmasters just place a link on their homepage. No Good

It is always good to have some outbound links from your web pages so you will want to do this on your links page. Choose 4 or 5 relating กauthoritative sitesก to link to. Write a good optimized description for them using keywords geared to your web site. You could simply write what the site is about and how it relates to your web site. Include any special offers or services from your web site into your links page. You want to have content besides just links on the page. Make sure there are specific instructions on how to link to your site on the page for prospected partners. Oh and one more thing …don’t name it กlinks pageก. You should use something like กmore resourcesก, ‘respected web sitesก etc. Companies will take your link request more seriously if they see the word ‘resourcesก instead of กlinksก page.

Now for a little trick I use to find good page rank link traders. Go to http://www.webmasterbrain.com/prog/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&q=. Type in your main keyword or phrase and search. Find a competitive web site with a through the roof page rank. Click กinbound linksก right under the title and there ya go. Find the sites with high page ranks and visit them. Gather the email addresses to contact them.

Youกll want to tell linking prospects you’re a brand new site when you email them. Mention that you are aggressively campaigning for reliable link partners and high search engine rankings. Throw in a service, gift or other offer as a way to thank them for the new linking partnership as follows: กIf you would like to trade links, weกll give you an (service) as a symbol of thanks.ก If you have some good(PR5+) new links, let them know it. This will ensure them that you mean business and that your web siteกs overall page rank is on the increase. Lastly, add your site to as many directories (large & small) as possible using keyword text as your title. If you do this and keep at it, you won’t be sorry!

About The Author

James R. Morrison

[email protected]

http://www.yapsnap.com/gifts

This article may be used for reprint if the author, email and links are not removed.

This article was posted on August 01, 2004

by James R. Morrison

Internet marketing and Public Speaking: Ten Tips f

Internet marketing and Public Speaking: Ten Tips for When the Twain Shall meet

by: Larry Tracy

Internet marketing and public speaking? Not quite ham and eggs, is it?

Those two phrases are rarely found in the same sentence. After all, many people decide to do their marketing in cyberspace so they’ll never be required to deliver a sales presentation or a speech.

If you are one of these people, you are making big mistake by not developing your speaking skills, because you are cutting yourself off from the vast offline market.

Why should internet marketers seek to improve their public speaking? For the simple reason that by so doing, they and their products can become known to people who are are uncomfortable buying online. They prefer to know their is a human being at the other end.

In this brief article, I’ll give you a กshortcut systemก that will enable you to package your substantive knowledge so it can be delivered in an interesting, engaging manner. It is a distilled version of what I provide business people in my workshops who are almost universally in the offline world.

To whom can your presentations be delivered ? How about Rotary Clubs and other civic organizations who are always looking for speakers?; What about fellow internet marketers at seminars?; And remember high schools and colleges, where your audience is likely to be more computer literate than the general population, experienced in buying online but eager to go eyeballtoeyeball with the internet marketer who has a great product.

Keep in mind that an effective speaker is one who concentrates on satisfying the needs of the audience members, so that these people conclude that what you are proposing (selling) is in their best interest—for your purposes, buying your product, Ebook or service.

The Ten Tips outlined below are not classroom theory, but instead evolve from the real world lessons I have learned in almost 3000 presentations, and in my workshops for offline marketers. They have worked for me, they have worked for my clients, and they’ll work for you.

1. Have a specific objective

If you don’t know what you wish to accomplish with your presentation, your audience certainly won’t know either. Your objective may be as limited as making sure your audience will remember your URL, or a full understanding of the benefits they will gain by buying your product.

Remember that giving a great speech or presentation should never be your goal; it is merely a means to an end, and that end is what you want your audience to do with the information presented.

Be specific, and in preparing your presentation, spell out your objective in no more than a sentence or two. Print it out and tape it to your computer monitor. This will keep your preparation focused and on target as you progress throughthe drafting of your presentation.

2. Know your audienceกs problems, needs and concerns

To be a successful marketer, your presentation must be audiencecentered. You must know the problems of the people to whom you are speaking, because your objective is to offer them a solution. This requires indepthresearch about your audience.

Keep in mind that the prime motivation for people to listen to you is their perception that your presentation will benefit them. กWhatกs in it for me?ก is the classic question of all audiences, online or offline

3. Structure backwards

We have learned to write and speak in a 123 structure: (1) Introduction (2) Body (3) Conclusion. For oral presentations, this is highly counterproductive: In contrast to reading a memo, people do not have the luxury of going back and reading again what was missed the first time.You want your audience to hear and understand the bottom line message ‘this product iwill solve your problem.ก

Initiate your draft with your conclusion, focusing on merging your objective with your audienceกs problems, interests and concerns.

Place your conclusion on a card marked (3), then develop an introduction that signals the audience that you know its problems and will be offering a solution. Place this on a card marked (1).

Finally, place your supporting arguments on a series of cards marked (2A), (2B), etc. This 312 System provides focus, structure, and thematic unity, and is the heart of my training workshops.

4. Practice solo with taperecorder or videocamera

After completing the presentation draft, practice by yourself with a taperecorder or videocamera. You will be at your weakest in this initial practice, hence the advice to have nobody present whose comments could seriously hurt your confidence.

Listen to your presentation, note the rhythm and cadence, the กuhกsก, กyกknowsก, and check your mastery of the subject.

If videotaping, note your mannerisms and body language, and coordinate your gestures with your vocal inflection.

5. Practice with colleague, friend or spouse

After completing the solo practice session, you are ready to practice in front of another person. Choose this person carefully, as you do not want a hypercritic who will find excessive faults with your presenting style. Neither, however, do you want the type of person who finds no faults whatsoever, and praises you to the skies. You need honest and constructive criticism aimed at ‘tweakingก your presentation.

6. Convene a กMurder Boardก practice session

The กMurder Board, a term I bring to my training workshops from my military background,ก is a rigorous practice session. It is the speakers equivalent of the flight simulator used for training pilots how to deal with inflight emergencies, or the moot court readying lawyers for courtroom combat.

Select no more than four people to be your simulated audience, and share with them all the intelligence you have gained on your prospective audience. These four people will then role play your audience.

Their comments, questions and criticism help you correct your style of delivery, find the gaps in your knowledge, and anticipate questions and objections.

7. Arrive early to meet and greet

Personal contact and interpersonal skills are important for the success of any presentation, but they are absolutely vital when you attempt to persuade people to buy the product you are selling. We tend to accept information from people we like, but reject it from people we don’t like.

When you arrive early, you can get to know members of the audience and let them relate to you as a human being. If it appears appropriate, mention names during your presentation of people you have had the occasion to meet prior to the presentation. Nothing is so sweet to the human ear as the sound of oneกs name being mentioned positively by a speaker.

8. Use visuals to support, not to impress

Visual aids, including the ubiquitous PowerPoint, can make or break a presentation. The advantage of using them is that most people are visual and can more readily absorb information that is graphically presented.The danger is that visuals can bore an audience, setting them off into daydreaming, not listening.

Be careful in word choice in your visuals—and, of course, in your delivery—to avoid Geekspeak, unless you are speaking to an audience as familiar with this unique form of jargon as you are.

Bottom line ion visuals: Don’t have the wonders of PowerPoint remembered, but the substance of your presentation forgotten.

9. Employ rhetorical devices

Repetition of key concepts, the careful use of the strategic pause, and parallel construction are just a few of the devices you can use to add spice and cadence to your presentation.

Two examples of such techniques will illustrate this important tactic. Winston Churchill, instead of saying กWe in Britain owe a great debt to the pilots of the Royal Air Force,ก expressed this thought with the memorable words กNever in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.ก

President John F. Kennedy used a classic device of parallelism when he said, กWe must never negotiate out of fear, but we must never fear to negotiate.ก

Use your imagination to see how you can arrange words to create such cadence and rhythm.

10. Conduct immediate postpresentation analysis

Your instinct after completing a challenging presentation is to breath a sigh of relief and relax. Big mistake.

Within minutes, sit down with a note pad or tape recorder and record the questions asked, the reaction of the audience to your presentation, your impression of your own performance, etc.

Don’t wait until the next day. Short term memory is precisely that, and you will remember only generalities. The immediate analysis will provide specifics.

Transfer this specific information to your data base, and you have an excellent head start to use in the Murder Board leading to your next presentation..

Use these tips, and the next time you leave your keyboard, you’ll find you are now as eloquent in front of a group of potential customers as you are behind your computer.

Copyright 2005 Larry Tracy

About The Author

This article is excerpted from Larry Tracy’s book, The Shortcut to Persuasive Presentations. Larry, a retired Army colonel, was hailed by President Ronald Reagan as ขan extraordinarily effective speaker.ข He is one of the top presentation skills trainers in the US. His website is at the top of Google for กpersuasive presentations.ก

http://www.tracypresentation.com

This article was posted on April 07, 2005

by Larry Tracy

Who needs T.V. News, Newspapers and Radio News?

Who needs T.V. News, Newspapers and Radio News?

by: Jesse S. Somer

T.V. and radio News got you down? Online current events and News blogs make being informed a much more enjoyable experience. For many the News on television has become a trying time of the day. Focused mainly on negative events, you may have to wait through the whole program just to hear the one story you were waiting for. If you miss the 6:00 p.m. show, waiting until the late night segment can be a real drag, especially if you’ve got a lot to do, or have to wake up early the next morning.

My friends, there is an answer to this problem: News blogs or online current events. You can find all of your favorite broadcasters (E.g.: CNN, BBC) on the Internet, getting uptodate information at any time of the day or night. You can even read personal journal entries written by multiple correspondents out in the field reporting on several different stories down to the current minute. Instead of hearing all News from one voice (often an irritating one), now you can read different human opinions straight from the scene of interest.

Often News online has a section called ขthemesข which allows the reader to only hear about the specific areas that interest them. No more waiting through several wars to get to the positive story about the current medical breakthrough that could mean a cure for disease, or the technological idea that might mean the end to extreme pollution levels. Like a newspaper, you can go straight to the ขjobsข theme and search through all the current employment vacancies available. If you are obsessed with the negative, themes such as ขDisaster and Tragedyข and ขCrime and Punishment are still readily accessible.

As the News is now on the Internet it has also become an interactive experience in numerous ways. First of all now you can send News stories straight to the News companies yourself! If the story is deemed worthwhile and verifiable, you may even be published. This is also the case with photographers who have pictures of important events. It really means anyone can become a part of the action as a freelance consultant. Some News online have ขwitnessข sections where you can tell your story if you happen to have been in the right place at the right time. This option means that we can hear many different views on contentious issues giving a wider perspective to the ‘big picture’.

Some News sites also have interactive sites within. For example, on the BBC News Blog there is a learning site (BBCi Learning) that involves interactive activities and over half a million pages of factual information and resources available for children, adolescents, and adults. There are competitions and all sorts of games to help educate people in any and every area of interest imaginable.

Another great aspect of these online News sites is the ability to access archival information. You can watch video and listen to audio recordings of famous historical stories right on the computer. If the day is Feb.3, you can read articles from Feb.3’s from fifty years ago. Looking up any date and year recorded is as easy as pushing a few buttons.

Some services have subscriptions where instead of looking up the website, the News you want is sent straight to your email. Being in the know, and being in the now, has never been such an objective, enjoyable, and simplistic experience as in the 21st century. Partaking in a new perspective on life is what online current events and News Blogs are all about.

About The Author

Jesse S. Somer

M6.Net

http://www.m6.net

Jesse S. Somer is a human hoping to help other novices like him see the magic of the world of the Internet.

This article was posted on September 09, 2004

by Jesse S. Somer