You Don’t Have To Be Rich To Be A PC Gamer

You Don’t Have To Be Rich To Be A PC Gamer

by: Nathan Holsing

There is a common misconception that you have to take out a second mortgage on your house if you want to get a computer that will run all of the latest and greatest games. I don’t know who started the rumor that you need to spend $3000 to get a gaming computer. The truth is, if you are smart about it, you can easily afford to get a highend gaming computer. Here are a few simple rules to follow to put a gaming computer within reach.

Rule 1. Never buy the newest technology.

I know we all want to be the guy or girl with the newest toy, but you will never be able to keep up with technology. That topoftheline graphics card that came out today will be old news in just a couple of months and a new one will be released that is กso much betterก. Guess what happens to the price of the new graphics card you just broke the bank on? It dropped by about 50%. If you would have just been patient you could have purchased it for a fraction of the cost.

Rule 2. You only have to keep up with the software.

Rule 2 closely correlates to Rule 1. It usually takes software companies two years, give or take, to develop a new game. During this time there are new technology breakthroughs. If they went back and reengineered the game every time a new processor or a new graphics card came out, the game would never be released. Another important factor is that they want the game to be available to the largest number of consumers. For this reason they do their best to make sure the game can be played on a wide variety of systems. Check out the system requirements for some of the more popular games. A 1.8GHz processor and a Direct X 9 compatible graphics card will run just about everything out there. Granted you might have to turn some of the settings down but it will run it.

Once you reach a certain point the added performance of the new technology is noticeable. For example, the Athlon 64 chip has been out for more than a year, yet there are very few applications that require a 64 bit processor. If you check out benchmarks on the new PCI Express graphics cards you will see that they are running games at 300+ frames per second. When you watch a movie it runs at roughly 60 frames per second. A game will still run relatively smoothly at 20 frames per second. Basically anything over 60 frames per second likely will not be perceived while playing the game. You will only see the difference in your benchmark programs.

Rule 3. Build Your Own Computer

This is important for two reasons. First, you can be assured of better quality components when you pick everything out on your own. When you buy an offtheshelf system, chances are you are getting a big name CPU and everything else is most likely generic. Do you know what motherboard, power supply, or type of RAM you are getting? This of course, is my personal opinion, Iกm not saying every manufacturer builds sub standard machines, but from experience Iกve had greater longevity from the computers Iกve built myself. Iกve also noticed that you will often get little system memory, unless you pay a great deal more for it. You will often get 256MB of RAM with these base system. Windows XP will run, but likely with problems, on 256MB of RAM. It seems to be the most stable with 512MB or more. Other areas they cut costs is by using integrated graphics chips. This saves them having to put in a graphics card, but you will pay the price for it when you try to play a game.

The second reason to build your own computer is that you can cut your costs by stealing parts from your old computer. You can save hundreds of dollars by reusing the drives, case, monitor, keyboard and mouse. Plus, you don’t have to worry about calling a technician to install RAM or a new graphics card because youกll already know how to do it.

How Much Can You Build A Computer For?

I just checked out some pricing and you can build a very nice midrange gaming computer for around $600$700 using an AMD Athlon 64 3000+. If you can steal a DVD drive from your old computer and maybe the case, you can bring the cost down even more. You can build a highend machine for under $1000. The internet is full of useful websites about how to build computers. Look around and youกll find all the information you need. There are several books published about the topic as well. If you follow these simple rules and do a little research you can enjoy all of the best computer games even if you are on a shoestring budget.

About The Author

Nathan Holsing is the editor of GamingComputers.net a website that provides information regarding building computers, product reviews, and hardware buying guides.

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 13

by Nathan Holsing

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

by: Neil Moran

A StepByStep Guide for creating imaginative order pulling adverts for both on and offline marketing

OK, let’s get started!

Rule One The Headline

The headline is without doubt the most important part of your advert, that big chunky text at the top of your ad, if this doesn’t grab their attention then you’ve lost a potential customer/sale.

The sole function of your headline is to get the readers attention so that they will read the rest offer your offer, right? That’s obvious, but pick up any newspaper and take a look at the classified section and look at all those lousy headlines :

Increase Your Sales Today

Beat Inflation

The above headlines hardly make you want to read on, do they? In fact they’d be lucky to get a second glance.

Let’s say, for example, you was trying to promote a book about working from home on the Internet, what would be a good imaginative headline?

Learn How To Work From Home On The Internet

Yawn!…Boring! Not exactly imaginative is it?

Or

Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS!

Hhmm….No prizes for guessing which headline would get their attention!

Rule Two The Subheading

With the subheading you should just give the reader a couple of lines of text to draw them into the main body of your advert, such as:

Millions of people all over the world are making a fortune working in their underpants! Discover how YOU can do it too.

Now they’ve just got to read on, I haven’t even mentioned the Internet yet, I’m pretty sure they’ll want to know what I’m talking about.

Rule Three The Body Text

The body text of your advert is where you have the chance to ‘sell’ the reader your product, it’s time to make that sale!

This is where a lot of people blow it, instead of concentrating on what benefits the customer can gain from their product or service they just ramble on how good their company or product is.

For example, for the Internet book I could write:

กI’ve been marketing on the Internet for over 20 years, last year alone I made over £250,000 from selling just one product…ก

So what? Big deal! I’m not interested in how good you are, what can you do for ME, the customer?

Make a list of all the benefits people will get by buying your product and work them into your body text keeping the focus on your reader.

So, for the Internet book we could have:

Discover the free way to get thousands of people advertising your product and YOU keep all the profit!

Learn how to start your own Internet business for less than the price of a pizza.

How to get your hands on top selling Internet products free.

Get a systematic marketing system that works while you sleep.

Insider secrets to email marketing revealed.

How to TRIPLE your sales using one simple technique that doesn’t cost a dime!

How to advertise your product just once and keep on selling it for years to come automatically.

How to build websites which really pull in the money and that take less than an hour to build.

etc. etc.

That’s better, now we’ve got their interest peaked, they are surely intrigued by now, we still need some more body copy to go along with these bullet points, such as:

Discover how you can earn what you want, when you want without leaving home!

For the first time ever a top Internet marketer teaches you how to stake your claim on the Internet spending little to no money. You don’t need any Internet knowledge, business premises or employees, just a home computer and this powerful book. This stepbystep book will teach you how to….

Rule Four The Coupon / Order Form

The coupon or order form should ALWAYS restate the price and briefly describe what you are selling.

If the price is right for them, they will then read your entire advert before making a buying decision.

Keeping this in mind, it would be WRONG to have the coupon or order form say:

กPlease send me a copy of How To Work In Your Underpants, I enclose a cheque for £14.99 made payable to Joe Bloggs….ก

This is wrong because you haven’t resold the product, it should look something like this:

กYes, I would like the secret inside information on how to make money on the Internet, please send me a copy of the book How To Work In Your Underpants. I enclose a cheque/P.O. (Includes postage and packing) for £14.99 made payable to Joe Bloggs…..etcก

Now anyone who has just scanned your ad and gone straight to the order form will be intrigued enough to read the whole advert!

Don’t confuse your customers

You must be very clear as to how much your customer is going to pay, don’t confuse them, a confused customer won’t buy!

If your product costs £20 plus £5 postage and packing then your order form should say:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. for £25 (£20 plus £5 p&p) made payable to Joe Bloggsก

If you do not P&P then you should state this in on your order form:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. for £25 (price includes p&p) made payable to Joe Bloggsก

It is common practise to inflate the p&p price in order to deflate the product price, don’t go over the top though.

Whenever you see the word ‘handling’, as in ‘post, packing and handling’, you know that you are seeing an inflated p&p figure. The word ‘handling’ can be used to justify any amount of expense if someone queries the fact they have been charged £8 p&p and when they get the product it’s got a 50 pence stamp on it.

Rule Five The Guarantee

You’re selling a quality product, right? There shouldn’t be any reason why the customer will be unhappy with your product, is there? So you should be able to offer customers a full, no questions asked, money back guarantee.

Don’t put any conditions on your guarantee, i.e., ขif you’re not 100% happy with your product, just return it with it’s original packaging for a full refundข, with a guarantee like that the customer will think, ขOh, I see, if I actually take it out of the wrapping they won’t refund my money! sneaky !#@&*!ข. Keep it simple and put a time limit on your guarantee:

ขIf you’re not totally satisfied with the book Go To Work In Your UNDERPANTS! simply return it within 30 days of receipt for a full refund.ข

Rule Six Typefaces & Graphics

The purpose of your ad is to get the readers attention, there’s no need for fancy typefaces, colours or images (unless it’s a picture of your product).

Make it easy for the customer to read, there’s no need to give them a headache or eye strain when they read your advert.

Rule Seven Always ‘Close’ The Sale

Anyone who’s had any kind of training in sales will be able to tell you the importance of closing a sale which is basically a quick run down of the benefits of your product and then asking for the order.

No matter how good your advert is, if you don’t close the sale at the end of your advert, that’s another potential customer lost! You must evoke some kind of buying action, make them see that they’ve got nothing to lose by just trying your fantastic product, get that order! i.e.:

กOrder your copy of Go To Work In Your Underpants TODAY and try it out for 3 whole months, if the secrets of Internet success outlined in this incredible book don’t work for you just simply return it for a FULL, no questions asked, refund.ก

Rule Eight Make It Easy To Order

Offer as many different ways for them to pay as you can, cheque, postal order, credit card, egold, or paypal etc.

Try and offer a FREEPOST address for them to send the money, it’s bad enough trying to find an envelope in most households, never mind a stamp.

Make sure it’s clear EXACTLY how much they have to pay for your product, including postage and packing, i.e.:

กI enclose a cheque/P.O. (Includes postage and packing) for £14.99 made payable to…ก

Don’t expect people to calculate it for themselves.

If you don’t have a coupon or order form on your advert, let them know they don’t have to write you a letter explaining why they’ve sent you a cheque in the first place. For a no coupon advert you would write something like:

‘to order your book, write your NAME and ADDRESS on a piece of paper, enclose a cheque/P.O. for £14.99 (includes postage and packing) and send it to Joe Bloggs FREEPOST, 14 Anystreet, Sometown, England.ก

Rule Nine Know Your Target Audience & Market

It’s very important that you know who your target audience is and that you craft your adverts accordingly.

Don’t use long words that most people wouldn’t know the meaning of, keep your sentences short, simple, and to the point.

How would your product benefit your target audience? Why should they buy your product? What are it’s key features?

Never talk about ‘you’ in your adverts, the customer only cares about ‘themselves’ and how your product will enhance THEIR lives.

OK that concludes the rules for crafting order pulling adverts, you may not be able to sell ice to the Eskimos, but you’ll at least have a better chance than most!

About The Author

For the FULL version of this article and an example of how the finished advert will look, visit: http://www.forfreedom.ws/order_pulling_advert.htm

This article was posted on February 09, 2004

by Neil Moran

6 Critical Rules When Building An Affiliate Websit

6 Critical Rules When Building An Affiliate Website

by: Anik Singal

There are 6 rules you must use when building any affiliate website if you want the website to make you any money.

Building Your Site Rule #1

Always have a strong headline.

No matter how great your sales copy is or how great your content and information is… no one will stick around long enough to read it unless you grab them with your headline.

Make sure you have a compelling enough headline to make the person want to stay and read your information.

Building Your Site Rule #2

Make your home page a strong sales letter that combines elements of an article and an endorsement.

The best way to have a sales letter that is not hyped up and can still do a good ขpresellข is to have a form of a product ขreviewข or ขendorsement.ข What most people are interested in is reading the pros and cons about a product. Spend some time and dedicate the home page to a good product, write a good ขendorsementข article.

Building Your Site Rule #3

Stop hiding your links. Let your visitors read your articles…

Some advocates of the old minisite strategy advised you to have NO other links on your site. There was supposed to be just one other link – the BUY NOW link. And I think this still works, but for merchant sites – not affiliate websites.

Remember, your job is to PRESELL, not sell. You’re not trying to corner your potential customer, you’re just trying to gain their trust. The best way to gain their trust is to offer them a bunch of useful advice and helpful content. That means you’ll need LINKS to all that good stuff on your site.

Now remember, the other articles on your site should also be ขpresellingข your readers – so one way or the other, you will be able to gain their trust and get the sale.

Building Your Site Rule #4

Offer lots and lots of articles – all with easy navigation.

As PPC gets more and more expensive, it’s getting harder and harder to get qualified leads from search engine advertising. It’s also getting tougher and tougher to find easy shortcuts to a #1 placement. A cheaper and more effective strategy is to patiently work WITH the search engines rather than trying to trick them or buy into them.

How do you work WITH the search engines? You offer content: articles, reviews, specs. If you can provide the search engines with what their users want, then the search engines will gladly send you free traffic. Affiliates are taking a strong turn towards doing search engine optimization and search engines want to see content.

Building Your Site Rule #5

Add some other services and products to your site.

Focus your site on one niche AREA; then introduce additional products or services in key spots throughout the site. These additions should ALWAYS be tightly related to your site theme. Your potential customers are introduced to additional choices in the CONTEXT of an article or a review. You’re giving them additional ways to spend money on you.

And by additional products, I mean products that you have potentially created yourself – high ticket products that can bring in a lot of money. Highticket affiliate products are OK as well.

Building Your Site Rule #6

Include an FAQ section – most critical!

Almost NO affiliate sites use this strategy. However, it’s one of the most powerful.

You’re probably very well aware of the most common questions people ask? Well, build them into your sales letter/endorsement/article. Use subheadlines to draw attention to them. The quicker your visitors can find their answers through your website, the quicker they will buy from you and the more they will return to your site.

The above 6 rules should be followed very closely for every affiliate site you ever launch. Together they optimize your website to be the most profitable.

Copyright 2005 Kurma Group

About The Author

This article is written by Anik Singal, founder of AffiliateClassroom.com. Anik Singal has developed his own affiliate system that helped him earn well over $10,466 in just 60 days. Now, heกs looking for a few students to train one step at a time.

http://www.AffiliateClassroom.com

This article was posted on April 20

by Anik Singal

SIX Golden rules of Pay per click marketing campai

SIX Golden rules of Pay per click marketing campaign.

by: Radhika Venkata

What are pay per click engines?

Pay per click engines as the name suggests, webmasters have to pay a fee for each click coming from search engine results. Depending on how much the person bids for a keyword over his competitor his website will be positioned in the search engine results.

How pay per click search engines work?

For example if a webmaster bids $0.07 on the term ‘tennis shoesก. If no other webmaster bids more than this, he will stay in 1st position. If second webmaster bids $0.08, then second one goes to 1st position. Basically this is like auction procedure for No.1 position.

So what are SIX Golden tips to work with Pay per click search engines?

RULE No. 1: Keywords:

Select your keywords carefully so that every keyword reflects your product. General keywords bring general public.

For example if you are offering search engine optimization service to webmasters, กsearch engineก will be a general keyword for you. กsearch engine optimizationก , กgood search engine rankingก etc,. will be your good target keywords.

Another thing you have to remember is targeting your keywords. Like any geographical locaton specific to your product or any specific language…Some search engines like Google offer this feature to target the keywords based on the countries and language.

RULE No. 2: Write a compelling ad:

Most of the times the pay per click search engine services limits your ad characters and length. So try to keep the keyword in the ad headline and the body.

By doing so, you will get higher click thrus for tha ads. This will be very useful with Google, which determines your position not only by your bidding amount but also click thru ratio. Google editors won’t allow you to use keyword more than once in your ad. It is to make use of your ad space more efficiently.

See the example below

กEbay ebook: Every thing about How to make money on ebay! An Easy to follow Guide!!ก

กEbay ebook that Stands in numder ONE position in Clickbank Market place as a Top Seller. See the Proof!ก

Certainly anybody can say that the second one pulls traffic than the first ad.

Try different ones and see what pulls more traffic for you. Check your spelling and grammer twice before submitting your ads.

RULE No. 3: Don’t enter in to Bidding war:

Keep an eye on your Return on Investment. (ROI) It is not that easy to resist the temptation of being number one on pay per click engine listings especially for the beginners. Always decide an amount how much you are going to spend on advertising campaigns. Depending on that devide certain percentage to PPCs.

With reasonable bidding amount you can get good amount of traffic from PPCs.

RULE No. 4: Monitor your bidding amount:

Most of the people bid once and don’t remember about it for weeks. Monitor your bid amount after logging in to your accounts. Do this atleast once in every 47 days.

For example, If you go to overture.com and search for some of the the keywords, you can find the first positions paying $0.87, $0.85, 0.35 for the first three rankings. Don’t you see who will be benefited by this? You can get the first and second position for $0.37 and $0.36 respectively.

So always keep an eye on your bidding amount.

RULE No. 5: Landing page:

After clicking on your link and coming to your website, don’t let them search for the product for which they came to your site. Directly landing on the product page is always a good idea and saves lot of your visitorกs time.

RULE No.6: Track your results:

Put some source code at the end of URL. Or submit different landing page for your product. So people coming to that URL can be tracked through a good weblogger. More on tracking your ad campaigns is at: http://www.webmasterscentral.com/wprofits/tracking.shtml

About The Author

Radhika Venkata

Subscribe to กEbookBiz Magazineก which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooksworld.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free!

http://www.webmasterscentral.com/

This article was posted on October 23, 2003

by Radhika Venkata

A Magic Number for Writing Sales Letters

A Magic Number for Writing Sales Letters

by: Matthew Cobb

When I write sales letters for my clients, one rule I always start with is The Rule of 7.

I learned about The Rule of 7 from one of my good friends who once ran for political office. In his campaign, he made certain that his name appeared seven times in all of his radio spots.

Why? Because that’s generally the number of times required before a name ขmagicallyข sticks in the mind of a prospect. The Rule of 7 is often used in radio and television advertising. But this isn’t an isolated occurrence—the number seven seems to be a bit magical in other areas, like prospecting and linguistics.

Do you know the average number of times experts say you need to make contact with a prospect before they will be ready to commit?

Seven.

Can you guess how many times linguists say a person must use a word before it becomes a true part of their vocabulary?

That’s right—seven.

This ขmagicข is the reason I try to repeat my client’s product name or business name seven times in the sales letters I write for them.

The truth is, we’re not really talking about magic, here. It’s really about generating recognition for a name or a concept. It’s about embedding something in a prospect’s subconscious mind. It’s about branding. I use The Rule of 7 to write sales letters, but the idea can be applied to other areas of marketing, too.

Every person and every thing has an identity—and branding is about more than just a logo. A brand identity is about who you are, what you offer and the benefits of choosing you over the competition. The name you choose to operate under—whether your personal name, your business name, your product name, or your website address—is a link to all of that information. Repetition, which is what makes The Rule of 7 work, strengthens the recognition and recollection of your brand.

Now, all the ขexpertsข may come back later and say that ขsevenข isn’t the right number after all. It’s nine. Or it’s five. Or it’s eightpointthree. But it doesn’t really matter, does it? Seven works well as a general rule. (Besides, it is a lucky number.)

Of course, I know that fulfilling The Rule of 7 is no guarantee a prospect will accept an offer. But I know using the rule increases the chance that a prospect will see my name or the name of one of my websites and think, ขOh, yeah, I remember Seductive Sales Lettersข or ขI remember Matthew Cobb.ข Recognition and recollection—that’s what The Rule of 7 is all about.

One word of warning, though. Just because seven times is good doesn’t mean that seventy times is even better. Repeating the same name over and over again can grow annoying and cause prospects to quit reading. And then, you may not even be able to fulfill The Rule of 1.

About The Author

Matthew Cobb is an independent copywriter/consultant who operates Seductive Sales Letters. Visit SeductiveSalesLetters.com and sign up for the official monthly publication, The Seductive Sales Letter Clinic.

This article was posted on March 11, 2003

by Matthew Cobb

Basic Rules on Page Layout and Color

Basic Rules on Page Layout and Color

by: Grannyกs Mettle

For one to be able to stand out from the rest, one needs to go out of the box, break the rules, and some other clichés that apply to breaking out from the traditional. But before breaking any rule, you have to understand first the basic and foundation of the rule itself.

First off, letกs talk about page layout.

The Rule – Too much boxes is bad for your health.

One designer said that a mark of a designer is when he or she starts to use boxes and rules in his or her pages. When you look at your page and realize the need to make something attractive and creative out of the boring stuff youกve just made, and then decide to throw around a box or two or place rules between columns, then thatกs the time when your creativity is getting out from confinement.

Before using all the box there is in your software, just remember to do it in moderation. Anything in excess is a bad thing. Sure, boxes and rules are a good way to highlight important information. But if you’re going to do it in all your pages, or put virtually everything in a box, then nothing will stand out from the crowd.

The Rule – Do not divide the page in halves.

The best way to infuse excitement and innovation in your documents is to divide the page into thirds. Afterwards, place the most important objects like the headings, photos, and visuals, at the top or bottom third.

Letกs go to color.

The Rule – Contrasting colors make for greater readability.

Any designer knows that enough contrast between the text and background makes for easy reading of text and material. Often, dark text is used on a light background. And vice versa.

Although light text on a dark background is easy to read, this technique should be used sparingly. Itกs proven fact that the eyes get more tired when reading large quantities of text on a dark background, than the other way around.

The Rule – Use color sparingly.

For impact, designers choose to create their design on more than a single color. But color thrown around everywhere also loses its impact. The rule of thumb: for maximum impact, use color on headings, and the most important words in headings.

The Rule – Do not use complementary colors.

Colors that can be found opposite each other in the color wheel are called complementary colors. For example, blue is opposite orange in the color wheel. When used side by side, the complementary colors can create havoc in our eyes because it would be difficult to focus on both at the same time. In addition, the colors may seem to vibrate when viewed together.

The Rule – Do not use color screened more than 40% with text.

Anything darker than 40% color against a text can make it harder to read. However, you can vary this rule somewhat by calculating how dark the color will be. For example, green can be screened darker than blue to make the text stand out.

For best results, use a Pantone book for tints to show you different screens for every color. In addition, the Pantone book will help you see what is readable and what is not with both text and reversed text on the screens.

About Color Printing Wholesale

Color Printing Wholesale is a company that offers a wide range of quality digital printing services from brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards and posters, to digital, inkjet and web solutions, as well as laminating services. For further information, visit their website at http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 04

by Grannyกs Mettle

3Levels of Successful Selling

3Levels of Successful Selling

by: Paul Shearstone

Any selling approach that lacks a proven strategy, a practiced proficiency for its application and most significantly, a full understanding of its psychological, human behavioral import – is at best, a wishful endeavor. …Paul Shearstone 2003

…………………………………………………………………………..

No one ever questions the fact there are born athletes who, when compared to others, make what they do look effortless. For these athletes, instinct seems to guide them like a good road map. That is their gift.

Exceptional though they may be, even athletes like Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, would never rise to their true potential without one integral ingredient Coaching.

Although I’ve written many articles on Coaching, this isn’t one of them. I mention it only to point out that the aspect of coaching, is Mental. That is to say, gifted athletes already possess the physical skills necessary to excel. Nevertheless, it is only one aspect of their sporting expertise.

Who among us hasn’t heard a professional coach say things like: ขI only want players with a good head on their shouldersข or, ขI only want players with Heart!ข

What are they saying? They [Coaches] are saying there is more than one key discipline for success in sports and that what’s in the heart and head is more important than most all other attributes. The right knowledge and the right attitude, compensates for, often usurps, things like natural talent.

Can the same thing be said for Natural Born Sales People and the Discipline of Selling? Bet on it!

The Rule:

Renowned sales guru, Dale Carnegie, is known to be the architect of the ‘Five Steps to a Sale’ selling process. Over the years, his successful program has stood the test of time and spawned many other successful interpretations upon his theme. ขUp Your Income! Solution Selling for Profitabilityข by Paul Shearstone [available at all fine book stores and on the Net], is just one of them. 🙂

The reason for the success of Carnegie’s strategy is largely due to its simplicity. In short, five clearly defined, easy to understand Laws or Rules that apply to almost all products or services. For example:

Step #1: ขTalk to your customer Briefly regarding something that interests Themข.

Easy to say but what does it mean? Simply put, when salespeople meet customers for the first time, they must say or do things to help with the initial GetTaKnowYa bonding process. Dale said, in your opening meeting with customers, the best way to get them to like you is to engage them in brief conversations about things they find most interesting. I could go on to elaborate further but the fact is, it works.

The real lesson here is, now knowing this Rule, those without natural born sales abilities can integrate it into their selling approach and be guaranteed better results in the introduction stage of the sale. Incorporating the four remaining steps can unquestionably level the playing field with other competitive seasoned selling professionals – but only if the steps are applied Correctly!

The Application:

Home Depot may have every tool we could imagine but if you don’t know how to use them, what good are they? In professional selling, RULES are TOOLS. Use them right and they work.

One need only look at the home libraries of most mediocre salespeople to find plenty of books and tapes filled with timetested and proven rules designed to garner more sales, profit and success. The courses have been taken and the rules have been learned but sadly, NEVER PRACTICED!

Tiger Woods / Michael Jordan / Wayne Gretzky – pick any one you like. At the top of their game, they still practice/d the basics [the Rules]. Name any professional discipline; would a surgeon be allowed operate on someone without first having benefit of exhaustive practice? I sure hope not!

The irony is, selling is the only professional discipline that allows someone to start with no experience and learn on the job. Even a professional laborer has to apprentice first.

The point? Knowing what to say is only part of the successformula in selling. Much like any Academy AwardWinning actor, his or her part is honed and made convincing [awardwinning] only through rehearsal and practice.

In Sales: To the degree a salespitch appears natural and spontaneous, is in direct proportion to the practice put in it! …Paul Shearstone 2000 [from the book Up Your Income!]

The Psychological Import:

Independent, confident personalities may make great leaders – not always great believers. My policy in life has always been to be guarded in what information I’ll take in or believe. I am not a skeptic but since: [According to Albert Einstein] ขWe become what we believeข, and, [According to Abraham Mazlow] ขMost people live lives of quiet desperationข, my reluctance to accept the realityinterpretations of others has served me well. It hasn’t, however, stopped me from asking the question, ขWhy?ข

Anyone looking for the one defining ingredient that separates top sellers from the rest can find it here. Much like the runner who wins gold by 1/100th of a second, the difference is subtle – but dramatic.

In selling, knowing the Rule and learning to deliver the Rule, still pales in comparison to the importance of knowing WHY the Rule is so integrally important to the success of the process.

How much more successful, more convincing could one be if they knew the answers to: ขWhy is it so vital the Rule be done at this time, this way and not another? What is the psychological, humanbehavioral importance of such a rule and why are my chances of success predictably diminished should the rule be overlooked or poorly articulated? How does this Rule psychologically embolden my interaction with the customer resulting in mutual respect, rapport and better communication?ข – and so on.

At the risk of diluting this point, consider this. The worlds best Landscape Architects concentrate their designs more on the artistic value or utilitarian purposes of the open spaces – where nothing is – giving lesser importance and an academic expectation to the fact, the flora and fauna appeal is a given.

Comparing that to elite salespeople, their methodology is focused at a higher level, gravitating more toward the natural laws of human interaction and psychology – the esoteric – the essence for which the Rules of Selling were written and in which they find credibility. Their delivery appears effortless albeit transparently deliberate. What they do and the success they achieve is not by accident!

The Bottom Line:

The discipline of the Professional Sell is both an art and a science. As such and in keeping with all other disciplines, mastery finds bedrock in the academic understanding of its Laws, its Applications and its Rationales.

About The Author

Paul Shearstone aka The ‘Pragmatic Persuasionist’ is one of North America’s foremost experts on Sales and Persuasion. An International Keynote Speaker, Author, Writer, Motivation, Corporate Ethics, / Time & Stress Management Specialist, Paul enlightens and challenges audiences as he informs, motivates and entertains. To comment on this article or to book the Pragmatic Persuasionist for your next successful event we invite to contact Paul Shearstone directly @ 4167285556 or 18668554590.

www.success150.com or [email protected].

This article was posted on March 17, 2003

by Paul Shearstone

The 8 กMust Doก Rules For Effective Website Design

The 8 กMust Doก Rules For Effective Website Design

by: Rudi Ashdown

To succeed at your online business (whether you are selling your own product/service or are selling for other merchants as an affiliate), you need a Web design must be just for that a simple, focused site. One that is easy to build, maintenancefree, low cost, credible, and a powerful trafficbuilder and customerconverter.

Having the right tool and the right product alone doesn’t insure the success of your website. There are many factors to be considered in effective website design. Unfortunately, most of these are overlooked by offline business owners using the internet to promote their business.

Web Design Rule #1 Build It for Speed

Itกs a fact of modern life people are in a hurry. This means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customerกs attention. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (JavaScript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

Web Design Rule #2 Target your Market

Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

Web Design Rule #3 Focus the Site

Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page.

Web Design Rule #4 Credibility Is Crucial

The most professionally designed site won’t sell if your customers don’t believe in you. A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line.

Web Design Rule #5 Navigation should be simple

Make site navigation easy and intuitive. Simple and smooth navigation adds to the convenience of the visitors. Add powerful search and catalog features. Many times a lot of visitors do not have the patience to navigate through the whole website to find what they are looking for.

Web Design Rule #6 Consistency is the key

Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

Web Design Rule #7 Make your site interactive

Make your website interactive. Add feedback forms as well as email forms that allow your prospective customers to ask you any questions they might have pertaining to a product.

Personalization of your website is another key element that can lead to customer delight and can increase your sales. Personalization technology provides you the analytic tools to facilitate crossselling and upselling when the customer is buying online. It would give you an idea of what products to crosssell and upsell. For example, when a person buys a CD player, a disc cleaner can also be offered.

Web Design Rule #8 Content is King

Good content sells a product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

These eight, simple rules will go a long way toward an effective website design, and most importantly, turning visitors into customers.

About The Author

Article written by Rudi Ashdown and first posted at http://www.whywebsiteswork.com.

This is article 1 of 10 get the other nine free at http://www.whywebsiteswork.com.

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 12

by Rudi Ashdown

How Toyota Captured the #1 Market Share

How Toyota Captured the #1 Market Share

by: Marney Kaye

How Toyota Captured the #1 Market Share . . . Through Solid DecisionMaking!

Toyota is arguably one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. Toyota captured the Number 1 spot in automotive sales, by creating high standards for quality, reliability and customer acceptance.

In short, the name Toyota has become synonymous with the standard of excellence to which many aspire.

Reaching this standard didn’t happen by accident. It was accomplished by having a consistent and effective decisionmaking process at every stage of their marketing and product delivery process.

Toyota recently launched a marketing campaign appealing to buyers’ personal aspirations. The previous campaign, ขGet the Feelingข gives way to ขMoving Forwardข, a series of ads proclaiming Toyota vehicles will be there as drivers hit milestones in life. The company felt they needed a change because customer mindsets have changed, and their business needed to follow the market.

This shift in direction came about because their marketing strategy was able to identify the strategic keys to the company’s future growth and make customer centric decisions. While Toyota may not have used the exact process we are recommending, it is clear by looking at their strategy, they used a concise decision making process.

Seven Keys to Optimal DecisionMaking

In the long range goal to achieve a solid market presence, all people in key positions can achieve incredible levels of effectiveness by acting purposefully – by knowing what has to be done – and in getting work done as efficiently and expediently as possible.

Management in most all businesses, lament they have no time to do what they feel they need to do. For example, there are too many emails, priorities that seem to change daily, nanosecond reaction to last minute requests, dealing with politics, and much, much more. Guess what? It’s not going away. No silver bullets. No magic spells. This is what you have. Get over it.

We are going to describe what you can to do to get your arms around making decisions that obtain optimal results.

Question. Are you certain your decisions will successfully accomplish your vision in the shortest amount of time?

Here are seven key elements that will give clarity to the many decisions you will want to make, for an effective business growth strategy to emerge.

Rule #1: Define the over all purpose in specific – not conceptual – terms.

Why It Is Important: To prevent decision overlap.

Ramifications if You Don’t: You can’t measure progress or verify when progress is being made.

How To Do It: Develop measurable results in time, dollars and numbers.

Rule #2: Determine specific discussion topics.

Why It Is Important: Be certain the decisions made in the session are grounded in reality and moves you toward your longterm purpose.

Ramifications if You Don’t: You can go down a wrong path and waste everyone’s time.

How To Do It: Determine that each discussion session has clear identifiable expectations.

Rule #3: Identify subjects NOT related to specific discussion topic.

Why It Is Important: It keeps the discussion focused on the specific topic.

Ramifications if You Don’t: Time and energy is wasted on unrelated issues and are possible landmines upsetting the specific outcome of the session.

How To Do It: Prior to meeting, identify important issues and nonissues relating specifically to the topic.

Rule #4: Use permission meter.

Why It Is Important: Encourages participants to challenge assumptions, resulting in bold fresh new ideas.

Ramifications if You Don’t: Participants are analyzed not ideas.

How To Do It: Establish a new dynamic style of thinking on a 1 – 10 scale from brainstorming to analytical to planning styles.

Rule #5 Invite only essential personnel in strategy discussions.

Why It Is Important: Gets issues on the table fast and encourages the crossfunctional teams to find solutions at the outset.

Ramifications if You Don’t: Avoids ขsiloข decisionmaking as well as loading the session with nonessential personnel.

How To Do It: Know how the company works and who is responsible for what.

Rule #6: Compile Background Information.

Why It Is Important: Gets all participants on the same page without using valuable meeting time.

Ramifications if You Don’t: The stated purpose is not fulfilled because time is wasted bringing everyone up to speed.

How To Do It: Before meeting, distribute background information necessary to move discussion forward with velocity.

Rule #7: Develop a well thoughtout communication plan.

Why It Is Important: It ensures all essential personnel have the information they need to be successful.

Ramifications if You Don’t: All personnel not properly informed will not be in sync with the original decisions.

How To Do It: Determine what specific messages are delivered to whom; who needs to know; who will tell them; how they will be told; and by when.

Take a careful look at how your company is making decisions!

When effective decisionmaking flourishes you get on track towards successfully and effectively achieving your company’s vision.

In conclusion, if you follow these 7 golden rules, you will achieve success in ways you never dreamed possible. The key is to instill a reliable and consistent corporate decisionmaking process to get results like Toyota.

About The Author

Marney Kaye is a Business Growth Specialist and provides a systematic, stepbystep process designed to develop growth strategies leading clients to take their rightful place in a dynamic and demanding marketplace. Clients who have shown interest in this process include marketers, analysts, heads of startups, management consultants, researchers, VCs, journalists, business development directors, trend watchers, and anyone else interested in staying on top of optimal decisionmaking. With offices outside Toronto, ON and Orlando, FL, Ms. Kaye can be reached at 9058736240 or 3212149231 www.busgrowth.com; [email protected].

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 05

by Marney Kaye

Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customer

Rules of Thumb for Marketing to Your Past Customers

by: Joy Gendusa

Keeping in touch can dramatically increase business, when done properly.

It’s a fact that your customers are your best leads. This means that the most likely people to purchase your products and/or services are the ones who have paid for them before. It’s also a fact that it costs far less money to keep a customer than it does to go out and get a new one. These are the two reasons that using direct mail to keep in touch with your customer database is a must. There are a few principles to follow when marketing to contacts in your company database that can maximize your bottom line.

Rule #1 Collect all of their information. It sounds like a nobrainer but you would be surprised. The more information that you have on your customers, the more likely it is that you will be able to get in touch with them to let them know about specials or to remind them it’s time for their next service. Also, don’t neglect to ask for your customersก email addresses, most everyone has one and most will give it up pretty easily.

Rule #2 – Don’t treat your customers like prospects. Make sure when you collect the information in your database you differentiate between people who have placed an order in the past and people who have not. Customers want to feel like you are paying attention to them and when they have placed a few orders with you and are still getting your ก10% for First Time Buyersก postcards they tend to feel unappreciated. Bottom line, if they don’t qualify for an offer you are sending out, don’t send it to them.

Rule #3 – Don’t let your designs get stagnant. When you are mailing to databases of people that you have never spoken to before, it is OK to send them the same postcard multiple times. It helps to increase recognition and will eventually increase your response rate. Dealing with customers and prospects that you have already spoken to (meaning they already know most or all of the details of your business) you need to mix things up a bit. Your mailings should be attention getting and informative. If you have started offering a new service recently, a piece designed to let your database know about it would be a smart move. The main point is to keep your company in the front of their mind and to keep them reading your promotion.

Being great at what you do is not always enough to keep the customers that you have earned. With all of the competition out there today you need to be constantly reminding your customers that you are the best at what you do. Direct mail is the best way to give them that reminder.

Always remember to keep mailings that you send to your database informative, attractive and most of all current. Personalize everything that you can and make sure that what you are sending to a past client actually pertains to them or their company. Anything less and your customer may start to drift, and the only people that are going to be happy when that happens are your competitors.

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets to others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com

This article was posted on February 11

by Joy Gendusa

The Golden Rule Of Website Building

The Golden Rule Of Website Building

by: Robert Evans

Setting yourself up to earn a steady monthly income has to be a prerequisite to your success online. There is no doubt that large sums of money can be made (and indeed are being made) from selling products or services online.

With over 500,000,000 internet users (and that figure is already obsolete even as I write this) the potential for long term wealth is very high indeed.

This fantastic new medium has brought untold possibilities for the small trader operating in a niche market. In fact the internet is made for just that type of marketer. It therefore goes without saying that anyone with the desire, knowledge or ability to market just about any kind of product or service online is a potential millionaire in the making!

You are probably already aware of the importance of having a website to use as a focal point for any products or services you are selling.

But do you know the golden rule you should always keep in mind when building your site and making it ready to welcome all those potential buyers? This rule is keep it simple!

When I started out with my first web site I broke this rule of simplicity by filling every inch of my Home Page with all manner of graphics and fonts. This slowed down the loading time. There were also a number of links to other web sites that took my visitors away from my site and almost certainly they never came back.

It took me a whole eighteen months to realise that what I was doing was never going to work. When I now look at the websites I was promoting a year and a half ago I cringe. What possessed me to put so much effort into them! Because I really did work hard at putting them together.

Take a good look at your own site. Pay very close attention to the following points:

page design navigation should be easy

HTML use of keywords in title and description meta tags

use of graphics minimum number should be used relevant to the theme of the site

use of text/fonts black text on a white background works best

hyperlinks use the ‘target_blankก tag to ensure external pages open in a new window

reason for existence is the purpose of the site clear?

Believe me, when it comes to setting up a website that SELLS, you do not need stunning graphics, dynamic HTML or Java Script. These things could spell the end of your business! Especially when it comes to getting ranked on the major Search Engines. (Don’t ignore these, they could be responsible for up to 80% of traffic to your site!)

So, here is a summary of how your Home Page should be made up:

a maximum of 2 graphics and these must be central to the theme of the site

about 800 words of text, including a list of benefits and a good description of what you offer

a clear navigation bar

a colour scheme that is consistent but not กglaringก

any links to external sites should open in a new window

try to avoid placing a graphic at the top of the page

use Meta Tags that include one or two keywords in the title and three or four in the description

try to keep the page under 20 kbs 10 would be ideal

And all other pages should follow the same basic design. Keep these points in mind and you will be well on the way to creating a fast loading page that will be pleasing on the eye and will also be acceptable to the major Search Engines. And when it comes to submitting your site there is no real need to do this, just keep updating your pages on a regular basis. This is better than submitting your site because in any case the search engine spiders ill find your site if it is worth finding.

Copyright 2005 Robert Evans

About The Author

Robert Evans has been doing business online since October 2000. He runs a resource center and provides dozens of free and low cost marketing techniques: http://www.market4profit.net.

This article was posted on August 04

by Robert Evans

5 Basic Rules on Typography

5 Basic Rules on Typography

by: Grannyกs Mettle

Whenever you get projects for designing graphics for different media materials, there are certain rules you need to know before venturing to the complexities and elaborate world of graphic design.

One of the elements considered in graphic design is typography. This is how you utilize and create your text to come out with a result that complements your images and design of the whole media material, whether itกs for print or web.

For typography, here are five of the basic rules to follow (or to break, whichever suits your creativity at the moment):

Rule No. 1 DO NOT use all the fonts in one document.

Every designer has his or her own collection of fonts, which he or she uses for each design project. As one designer would say: กIf you’re a designer, it almost goes without saying that you own fonts Lots of fonts.ก

Aside from the existing fonts in the software program being used, most designers have their own lists that were added to the already existing list. And because of the availability of so many fonts, one may be tempted to use as many, if not all of the fonts that he or she owns.

Always remember that simplicity is more attractive than disarray and confusion. When you start using many fonts in one document, the message most often get lost in the jumble. In addition, too many fonts can distract the reader from the original intent of the design to get a message across. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that you have to be dull and boring by sticking to the conventional ‘twofont ruleก, which states that you had to have one font for headings and another for text. So whereกs the creativity in that? Just make sure to have a reason why you want to deviate from the rule and chose to use the fonts.

Rule No. 2 กSerif type is easier to the eyes than sans serif.ก

Thereกs an old principle in the graphics world that goes กSerif type is easier to read because the serifs draws your eye from character to character.ก Hence, sans serif type is oftentimes used for headings and short quantities of text.

Truth to tell, all fonts can be made readable (except, well, maybe for Wingdings) with the ideal design. With sans serif, although it needs more leading than serif type, it can give your documents a very modern look, and is the popular body text in Europe.

Rule No. 3 Putting two spaces after a period is a nono.

In the olden times, when typewriters are the thingamajigs for writers, two spaces after a period was the rule to indicate the end of a sentence.

With the onset of technology, fonts have characters of their own, with different widths, that putting two spaces after a period is no longer needed. Sometimes, this rule can create a rather annoying flaw that creates a stop rather than help you pinpoint the end of every sentence.

Rule No. 4 DO NOT use all capital letters.

One designer said that when using all capitals in the text, there are no ascenders or descenders. The two are what makes it easy to identify the shape of a word. ‘the shape of almost every word becomes a rectangle, and itกs harder to read.ก

But this doesn’t also mean that you cannot use capital letters. Where can you use capital letters? Short phrases or headings do look attractive in all caps. Sans serif also works better in all caps.

Rule No. 5 DO NOT center large quantities of text.

The eyes go from left to right when reading. Itกs the way to go. It rapidly scans one line, then goes from the right side of the page back to the left side of the page. When text is centered, it makes it harder for the eyes to be told to find where the next text begins again on the left side of the page, and makes it easy for the reader to skip down lines of text.

This time, itกs not too easy to bend the rules. The best way is still to save centering to headings that don’t run more than several lines deep.

About Color Printing Wholesale

Color Printing Wholesale is a company that offers a wide range of quality digital printing services from brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards and posters, to digital, inkjet and web solutions, as well as laminating services. For further information, visit their website at http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html.

About The Author

Grannyกs Mettle is a 30something, professional web content writer. She has created various web content on a diverse range of topics, which includes digital printing topics, medical news, as well as legal issues. Her articles are composed of reviews, suggestions, tips and more for the printing and designing industry.

Her thoughts on writing: กWriting gives me pleasure… pleasure and excitement that you have created something to share with others. And with the wide world of the Internet, it gives me great satisfaction that my articles reach more people in the quickest time you could imagine.ก

On her spare time, she loves to stay at home, reading books on just about any topic she fancies, cooking a great meal, and taking care of her husband and kids.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com/category/BROCHURE/BrochurePrintingServices.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 04

by Grannyกs Mettle