How to Build Your Ezine List

How to Build Your Ezine List

by: Stacey Morris

How to Increase Your Ezine Subscriber List

Opt In

Out of respect to your mailing list, and the CANSPAM laws, only mail your ezine to those who have requested it, or optedin. Even if you have compiled a list of contacts, prospects, and clients that is 2000 strong, you can’t just start entering them on your list.

So how do you access your current list of ezine addresses?

Start With Your Friends

I’m using ขfriendsข liberally here, to mean all contacts with whom you’re on a first name basis, and who recognize you apart from your business card.

1.Send out an email announcing the launch of your ezine.

Make it simple, 2 paragraphs.

Make it lowhype. These are your friends—they don’t need a sales pitch, but they do need to know why they should join. So…

Make it benefitoriented. What’s in it for your reader? Does the ezine address specific problems of a target market? If it’s a general ขgood lifeข ezine, how is it unique? What makes it different from the thousands of other ezines like it?

Include a sample issue, or your launch issue.

Give crystalclear directions on how to sign up for future copies, and make it clear that your reader will be missing out on this great information if they don’t go to the site and sign up.

2. Develop a free report to give to all new subscribers.

The report could be a document, a short lesson series, an audio of a class or seminar you’ve given, a workbook of some kind, a top ten tips sheet, or a checklist related to your market.

Emphasize the report—not the ezine.

This report should be perceived as valuable enough to subscribe.

Make it less than ten pages. Don’t spend more than a few hours on this.

Develop a short salescopy of 23 paragraphs outlining why this report is so valuable.

3. Make it easy to sign up.

Your business card should have the address of the webpage with the ezine information.

Every page of your website should have an ezine signup box.

Develop a website page or even a website devoted just to your ezine.

Mention your ezine at every networking event you attend.

Every time you give a talk, have a signup sheet available for anyone who wants to sign up.

Use your emailSIG file to advertise your ezine, and place a link to the signup box.

4. Get your articles out there.

At the end of each article, put a blurb at the bottom giving permission to anyone to use the article, as long as they give you attribution.

Subscribe to a article distribution service that will send out your articles automatically to dozens of article databases.

Offer to exchange articles with a colleague who also has a ezine. Guest articles can be very effective.

If you belong to any discussion lists, let other forum members know that your site is a valuable resource.

Offer a free subscription to members of organizations related to your industry. The newsletter editor can place a notice of your site and ezine.

This article is not intended to address the technical issues involved in setting up an ezine. If this is a new area for you, you’re welcome to contact me for more information on resources and nextsteps. If you are able to update your own website, you may just want to sign up for a basic email distribution program (listserve) once you have over 50 subscribers. Until then, Microsoft Outlook or another email manager is the easiest way to start.

Copyright 2005 Stacey Morris

About The Author

Stacey Morris, Focus Coach

Download ก12 Steps to a Profitable Websiteก at http://www.ServiceBusinessCoaching.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 08

by Stacey Morris

Guaranteed Sign UpsWhat Are They?

Guaranteed Sign UpsWhat Are They?

by: Jane Mark Phil Basten

Every business needs customers thatกs axiomatic.
When you work on the net, the only way to get customers is to get them to your website.
There are many ways to do that.
You send send traffic to your site
You can link to other sites
You can exchange banners
You can adveritse by email
You can advertise by pop ups
you can advertise on Google
You can get listed in search engines
You can advertise off line
You can include your url on your business cards
You Can mail out flyers by snail mail
And on and on and on…
These are all proven methods of getting people to your site and, if you want business, you must get people to your site.
However, until you actually have a person reigster or sign up at your site, you do not have a customer, you simply have a visitor.
So…. How do you turn a visitor into a customer?
Well, there is a fascinating new service on the net that lets you do just that.
Itกs called Garanteed Sign ups.
These are not leads.
There are not coregistrations
This is not traffic.
These are actual people who come to your website and sign up to your list or your downline program and you can have them as a customer for life and you can keep selling your product or service to them day in and day out.
This kind of a service is what busy business people on the net have been waiting for. And, at last, it is here…
How does it work?
Itกs really quite simple.
You decide who your target audience is ie international, Us, Canada, Japan, Australia or whatever.
You decide how many people you want to sign up to your program anywhere from 50 to 5000 and you order them up.
We have found that within 7 to 14 days (on the average) you can have a brand new list of people to mail to and you can make them permanent customers.
This is a unique and exciting new way to build a database of real customers instead of just visitors.
We predict that this will be one of the most popular advertising innovations of 2004 going into 2005.
If you would like to know more about how it works, you can find the details at: http://www.jpeadvertising.com/signups/
Copyright Jane Mark and Phil Basten

JPE Advertising

About The Author

For further information mailto: [email protected]

Subscribe to the WebPro Times http://webprotimes.com

Where Professional marketers meet weekly.
Phil Basten and Jane Mark run a well known online ad agency http://jpeadvertising.com They have been helping people succeed on the net for more than 8 years.

This article was posted on July 15, 2004

by Jane Mark Phil Basten

Indoor LED Signs

Indoor LED Signs

by: Paula Jones

Indoor LED signs are most suited in internal controlling of financial trading company as well as the manufacturing firm. Many other areas like banks, sports control room, transport divisions also employ these equipments according to their need.

Large numbers of employees in production department of factories work among noisy working environment. To quickly and effectively give them important updates, circulars, notice, breaking information, and news, many companies installs indoor LED signs. Basic layouts with essential information represent an affordable solution.

Indoor LED signs conveys important information to the word very safely and efficiently. They are helpful in transmitting health and safety information, in the case where company requires safety laws or want to create safe working conditions. In case of busy schedule such sign boards are helpful to convey important information quickly with no halt of production and more disturbances.

Indoor LED signs are easily programmable and can be controlled with no expertise that uses relatively simple electronics. In the business services world, a number of users exists, One leading manufacturer of LED sings , Jayex Technology offers wide of Indoor LED signs which are manufactured considering the daily need of users in the industrial zone. These sign boards are also used in motivating employees, displaying financial figures. The products are available in different range and size with variety of color options.

Indoor LED signs can also be customized according to the need of the user. These equipments are connected to local power supply and can be controlled through local or remote locater, available with standard key pad and mounted accessories in addition too. Mounting is possible anywhere according to the use of the equipment and its size. In most of the cases, it is hanging on the wall, even though there are many choices. The main advantage is that you are able to display information from virtually any source.

Incremental improvement over many decades of development has insured a lasting display medium for use in affordable Indoor LED sign boards solutions.

About The Author

Paula Jones

Jayex Technology Limited, based in London specialise in advanced information display systems. Established in 1978 we have pioneered the development of the LED display market and now have over 18,000 customers worldwide. We offer, probably the largest range of models from small single line signs to big screen Megavision screens that can display live video and action replay in stadia.

jayex.co.uk

This article was posted on September 28, 2004

by Paula Jones

Hubris definition: Microsoftกs Passport

Hubris definition: Microsoftกs Passport

by: Stephen Bucaro

Before September of 1995, Microsoft ignored the Internet because their 16bit Windows 3.1 operating system couldn’t handle the 32bit Internet world. With the introduction of Windows 95, Microsoft decided they owned the Internet.

Instead of having separate accounts at dozens of websites, Microsoft decided that you will have one master account that you will use to log in everywhere. That account will contain your credit card number, bank account numbers, all your personal information and financial records, and Microsoft will own that account.

Well, Microsoft IS the United Stateกs government condoned monopoly, so 200 million Internet users, and 100 major web companies dutifully signed up for Microsoftกs Passport wallet service.

In 1999, Internet authorities discovered Microsoftกs passport service had numerous security holes, and hackers could steal your personal information. In 2001, the Federal Trade Commission admonished Microsoft for not adhering to their own privacy policy. In 2003, Microsoft purged all the financial records from its Passport servers.

Millions of users continue to sign up for Passport because of the convenience it offers. Nearly 100 websites use Passport as their authentication method. Users don’t need to remember separate usernames and passwords for each website. They can log in to all of them using a single email address. Some of the websites let you register without a Passport accont, but others, especially Microsoft owned websites, require you to have a Passport account.

If you sign up for Microsoft Network (MSN) or for a free Hotmail email account, you will be forced to sign up for Microsoftกs Passport wallet service. You can sign up for a Passport account with a nonMicrosoft email account at Microsoftกs Passport website.

To sign up, you need only an email address and a password. After you sign up, you can choose to add personal information to your profile. Then you can indicate if you want to share your information with companies that use Passport. If you choose to share your personal information, be aware that Microsoft shares it with every passport website you visit, and those websites are not required to adhere to Microsoftกs privacy policy.

The Internet does not need a master account repository for users personal information. Users don’t need to remember separate usernames and passwords for each website. Every Internet user has memorized two or three different email addresses and half a dozen different passwords that they use everywhere.

If an Internet master account repositiory is desired, it should NOT be owned or operated by Microsoft. A repository of personal account information must be operated by an honest, independant company.

Note: In April 2000, U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated two sections of the 1890 Sherman Act. He concluded that Microsoft was an illegal monopoly that used anticompetitive means to maintain its dominance in Intelbased operating systems.

Copyright(C) Bucaro TecHelp.

Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp

This article was posted on September 24, 2004

by Stephen Bucaro

10 Prominent Website Mistakes

10 Prominent Website Mistakes

by: Maricon Williams

Nowadays, sites are getting better. With minimal design and highly maintained archives they continue to offer comprehensive services. However, prominent mistakes on several websites are still apparent.

Here is a list of the website mistakes that scares visitors away and ruins the business reputation.

1. The under construction sign. Putting an กunder constructionก sign on your website marks you as a struggling beginner. Websites are supposed to grow in time. If your site is not yet ready to be shown in public, then don’t publish it.

2. Visitor counters. Visitors generally are not bothered by the fact that many other people have visited your site. However, if the visitor counter shows a low number, that can be a psychological turnoff to people, if itกs too high, people might think that it’s fictitious. The best way to do is not to include in your website. If you really want to know how many visitors you have had, check your statistics.

3. Lack of copyright statements. Everything you write and create on the including your website is copyrightable. Make certain that you include copyright statements on every page, and appropriately update the copyright year.

4. Overuse of technology. There are some really great and cool new technologies available today but they can tend to distract the visitors. In times that you have to choose between new technology and simplicity. Choose the latter for it is anchored on the website’s functionality.

5. Passive verbs. Use active verbs and active sentences when writing your siteกs copy. Active verbs are powerful and lend energy to your site. The more conversational the website is the better.

6. Long sentences. Long sentences are tedious to read. Better keep it short and simple so that it can easily be retained.

7. Lengthy pages. Keep your pages brief and concise. People are easily bored of reading, so you have to adjust to their attention span. If you have a lot to say, you can create a series of pages with good navigation to explain your topics.

8. Not identifying the benefits of your products or services. There are two reasons why people make purchases. First is to get rid of pain and second is to get pleasure. They want to discern how your products and services will help them with their definite pain/pleasure situation.

9. Neglecting to ask the visitor to do something. In marketing, this is known as a Call To Action. There should be a space designated to tell your visitors what you want them to do next. Sign up for my newsletter. Order now.

10. Accepting as true the maxim build it and they will come. Once youกve built your website you have to let people know about it. If you don’t deliver them to people, then your website is not worth the money you spent to create them!

About The Author

Maricon Williams

I love reading. Give me a book and Iกll finish it in one sitting. Reading is the chance to be transported to a different world and so is writing. Iกm more enthusiastic about writing however, since you can relay your ideas to someone else. I can only imagine that feeling when I hear a complete stranger talking about my ideas which read on an article somewhere. To relay my message to as many people is the same as touching people with music. Only mineกs less harmonic. I try to make up for it with the color I bring with words. And most of the time, it’s more than enough.

For Inquiries and Comments about the article and for additional information about web designs, log on to http://www.webdesignsprovider.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 06

by Maricon Williams

A Mentor Can Make You a Smashing Success!

A Mentor Can Make You a Smashing Success!

by: Kathryn Beach

Thinking about a home business? Suddenly you’re immersed in a whole new language: affiliate programs, residual income, leveraged income, pyramid scams, html, gateway websites. Itกs really not all that difficult, and a mentor can be a trusted guide through the home business labyrinth.

There are only three main ways to work for yourself: sell your own product or service and keep all the profits; buy the rights to sell someone elseกs product and keep all the profits; and sell someone elseกs products and keep a commission. This article is all about the third way, which is affiliate marketing.

Residual Income is income that keeps coming in month after month, year after year, from work you do just ONE TIME. You sell a membership or a customer places a standing order for monthly shipment of a product and you receive a commission every month thereafter.

Leveraged income is earning money through other peopleกs efforts. We choose to be affiliates because when we sign someone up under us to sell, we profit from their sales too.

There are many reasons why you may be interested in starting your own affiliate home business. Are you having difficulty finding a job? Afraid of being laid off? Worried about your retirement savings? Wanting to stay home to care for a loved one? Wishing you could say goodbye to your boss forever?

Whatever the reason, and whatever your financial situation, a mentor can help you build an online income over time. It won’t happen overnight, and it will take hard work.

How do you know if being your own boss and working on the internet is for you? How do you choose what kind of business to start? Hereกs an article that can help you decide: http://www.7affiliatecentral.com/povertytoriches.html

A mentor can help you decide if an internet home business is for you. And if you’re new to computers and the internet, she can suggest some great resources for learning the basics: http://www.7affiliatecentral.com/beginners.html

How do you choose which affiliate programs to join? I only recommend those I have joined myself, and therefore know from the inside out. I made my choices based on products in which I have personal interest, the programsก track records, and recommendations from entrepreneurs I respect. Careful research is the key. Knowing a scam when you see one is helpful: http://www.7affiliatecentral.com/scams.html

Once you have signed up for affiliate programs, you may want to start out simply promoting the affiliate gateway websites you are given within each program. Gateway websites are personalized websites given to you by an affiliate program. They are the same for every affiliate, and you are not able to change them in any way. They include code that attributes all sales to you, and they allow for your contact information to be included. A mentor will show you how to promote these websites. Directing visitors to them is how you make your sales.

Eventually you will want your own domain name and website. I unequivocally recommend the PlugIn Profit sites:

http://www.pluginprofitsite.com/main5000

and would strongly suggest that you get a personal website right from the start if you can. When you sign up for a PIP site, you also sign up for 5 affiliate income programs, so be sure to check out this free website setup before you sign up for anything else.

When you are the proud owner of your own website, you can add your own product pages, articles, testimonials… you’re only limited by your imagination. A mentor can set you in the right direction and get your business profitable sooner than you might believe possible.

About The Author

Kathryn Beach is a writer and home entrepreneur in Nova Scotia, Canada.

กBuilding my business by helping you build yours.ก

http://www.7affiliatecentral.com

This article was posted on December 11, 2004

by Kathryn Beach

Some Things in Life ARE Guaranteed

Some Things in Life ARE Guaranteed

by: Jane Mark and Phil Basten

Some Things in Life ARE Guaranteed.

Thereกs an old expression that says, ‘the only things certain in life are death and taxes.ก

Well that is not entirely true.

Now thereกs a new kid on the block…

Guaranteed Signups.

Guaranteed Signups provide new opportunities for marketers to get direct sign ups to their programs without the time consuming task of having to advertise or recruit new members themselves.

Here are some of the benefits:

You get a built in downline quickly and easily.

You can build a contact list and mail to them as long as the back office of your program allows you to do this.

You can develop a lead capture or splash page and create your own mailing list without little or no extra effort on your part.

There are many different kinds of guaranteed signups.

For instance, you can purchase…

World Wide signups

US signups

Country targeted signups

Incentivized signups

Non incentivized signups

Phone surveyed signups

Non incentivized, phone surveyed signups give you more bang for your buck and usually produce good results.

US signups are high demand primarily because these people tend to purchase more.

The best of the bunch are phone surveyed signups, they cost a bit more, but they are well worth the extra outlay.

Using Guaranteed Signups for Your Members.

If you own a program with a large downline or database, you can purchase large blocks of signups. This is a great way to provide instant downlines for your members. It helps motivate and excite them.

What Guaranteed Signups Can and Cannot Do

All guaranteed signup programs work on the following basis…

1. Your program must have an option to join free, with the ability to upgrade to paid status.

2. Signups will be sent directly to your site and, if the person is interested, they sign up as a free member.

3. For this point on itกs up to you. You need to do the work of following these people up and give them reasons and incentives to upgrade

Do not expect a sign up to upgrade automatically. This won’t happen unless you work your new contacts and nurture them. Let them know the benefits of your product and give them heaps of free information.

Sign ups to do not happen by magic.

A site that offers you sign ups is essentially doing the hard work of advertising for you and that takes time. So be patient.

Benefits of guaranteed signups…

You can share them with downline members

Do JVกs with the suppliers and resell them

Fill you own program downline and work them to get new upgrades.

And the best part, the companies that supply them do all the work for you.

About The Author

Phil Basten and Jane Mark run their own AdAgency online. They provide marketing services to online marketers and small business owners including Guaranteed Signups, Phone surveyed leads, Ultra Fresh Autoresponder leads and much more. You get more info here…

http://jpeadvertising.com/leadmagnet/

http://jpeadvertising.com/signups/

http://jpeadvertising.com/yourlist/

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 06, 2004

by Jane Mark and Phil Basten

What Your Website REALLY Says About You And Why It

What Your Website REALLY Says About You And Why It Matters

by: Peter Simmons

Everything you say and do says something about you. This has never been more true than in a text based environment like the Internet. You only have one chance to put across what you want to say. Use it wisely.

Getting a website right does take work and commitment. If you want it to succeed you must spend time to get it right and present the right impression to your potential customers.

During any conversation you can pick up extra clues from tone of voice, the choice of words used, the way it is said, pauses, etc. They provide emotion and meaning over and above the actual words being spoken. The same is true of text and other website content. There are extra clues of emotion and meaning and what you choose to write and how you say it can say a lot about you, your organisation and your priorities. These priorities are often clearly visible to every potential customer that visits your site and can therefore reveal a great deal about you.

It can reveal:

your business priorities,

how your organisation is structured and run,

whether you focus on your customers,

how you deal with things,

if you are easy to deal with,

your attitudes,

whether you pay attention to detail

if you are trustworthy

and more…

So, what is your website really saying about you? Are you sending out a positive and useful กmessageก to your potential customers or practically posting a great big sign that says something far less desirable?

How do you know? There are some key things to look for on your website or any other website. Bear in mind also that there could be a combination of one or more of these together:

Weak text/sales copy text that lacks direction and order. If you decide to buy our products, fine. If you dont buy our products, fine. Big sign would read: กWe’re not really serious about this new web thingก

Text heavily focused on you/your products The message is clear. You are only interested in yourself and therefore your site is too. Big sign would read: กWe are great. Customer? Who?ก

No/wrong website focus website either not focused on the customers needs or focused on the wrong things. The potential customer doesnt receive a positive and clear message about who you are, how you do business, etc. Big sign would read: กWe either dont know or dont care about what our customers wantก. See also กNot easy to useก

Poor layout poorly organised webpage/website. No clear sense of order. Lack of clear prioritising and decision making, probably a reflection of the organisation. กWe cant identify and meet objectivesก See also กNot easy to useก

Not easy to use difficult to use website and website functions. Often these technical functions have the most sophisticated software known to man to do a particular function like buying a train ticket. Unfortunately they didnt consider how real people actually want to use the website or website functions. Big sign would read: กOops! We were so busy enjoying doing the great software bit we love, we forgot the userก

Too much text we absolutely love to tell you how great we are/our product is. Weกll try and bore you into buying our products with loads of text. Big sign would read: กJust buy our product you fool, we know bestก

กBrochurewareก existing brochure has been moved online. Token website. Does little for anyone. Looks great doesnt it?… (Not really a question, more a statement). We thought we should get a website because everyone else has one. Big sign would read: กLOOK weกve got a website too!ก

Too much animation/other extra stuff that doesnt serve any real purpose apart from distraction. We absolutely love flashing things/gadgets/buttons/scrolls/colours/fonts… the more the better. More an experiment than a business. Big sign would read: กOur web designer is great isnt he/she? or i should have been a programmerก

Difficult to contact anyone the online equivalent to an electric fence. Typically employed by big corporations. Theyve gone to great lengths to make sure its very, very difficult to actually email anyone within the organisation. Big sign would read: กWe are far too big and rich to speak to ‘the little peopleก who actually buy and use our products. Go away!ก

Did you recognise any of these from your virtual travels on the Internet? They are all present to some degree in businesses of all sizes and industries. Does your site have any of them? If so, the message you are sending out to your potential customers is unlikely to help you succeed online. More likely it will have a harmful affect and direct influence on your image and reputation, customer visits and repeat visits, sales and repeat sales, company results, customer goodwill and contact, etc.

Make your site the best it can be. Work at it. Ask for constructive feedback. Make a commitment to getting your website to say the right things about you. It will still be paying you back long after youve done it.

Good luck!

About The Author

Need to get your business online? contact me now to find out how you can do it for less mailto:[email protected] You can see more of my articles to help you get results online at www.dynamiq.co.uk/ezine.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 28, 2002

by Peter Simmons

How To Use Viral Marketing To Grow Your Opt In Ema

How To Use Viral Marketing To Grow Your Opt In Email List

by: Stephen Warren

If you have read my article called กWhat is Viral Marketingก you should already have a fairly good idea of itกs potential.

In this article Iกm going to discuss how it can be used to grow your all essential, opt in mailing list.

As you already know, Viral Marketing is a great way to get the word out about your product or service, so you can see a huge surge in sales.

But what about subscriptions to your newsletter? Can they too be effected by this type of Marketing?

YES they can.

But how? This depends on how difficult and successful you want to make it. Not that these two factors necessarily go hand in hand.

The most basic form of using viral marketing automatically, is probably a tellafriend script. Iกm sure youกve seen them, youกve probably used them as well.

All you have to do is type in someoneกs email address into a form, and the website will usually have text pre inserted into the form telling the person how great you think the website is, but you could always add your own instead.

Your friend receives an email which to them looks like you are telling them about this fantastic new website and hopefully he will sign up to the newsletter to find out more.

This can be manipulated in other ways. For example what if you did a questionnaire, then, to get the results of the questionnaire, not only does the person have to sign up to your newsletter, but they have to fill out a tellafriend script for three friends, telling them about this questionnaire. Then, those three friends sign up, take the questionnaire, and oh look, they have to sign up to the newsletter to find out the results, oh well, lets tell three more friends each.

This has a huge snowball effect, and should see you exponentially growing your optin mailing list.

This isn’t too hard to create either. Just go down to elance.com and ask a programmer how much he would charge for such a thing.

However, you must remember that you must start your marketing efforts with some fuel, and that fuel is people. You have to start with at least a few people filling out this questionnaire for this to even begin. 0 people telling 3 friends each still equals 0.

Another way to grow your mailing list, is to pay people for every subscriber they send your way. This isn’t exactly the type of marketing Iกve been discussing throughout this article, but it will grow your optin list quite well if you pay enough and enough people start doing it. I think that 10 cents per subscriber is fair.

If people start sending you more subscribers than you can afford to pay, then you can always stop it for a while. But remember this, is you treat your subscribers well, then you have a life time value of them, which is worth far more than 10 cents.

Hotmail.com used this form of marketing in a small way that produced big results. At the bottom of each of the emails sent, they included a small line that said something like กGet your free email account with hotmail.comก. This meant that every time an email was sent from hotmail the recipient would read this and perhaps think, กHmm free email account huh? Better check this out. This resulted in hotmailกs huge growth in a relatively short period of time. Eventually Microsoft brought hotmail.com for an obscene amount of money.

About The Author

Stephen Warren is the creator and webmaster of http://www.marketershandbook.com, a completely free business and marketing resource which anyone may use.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 23, 2004

by Stephen Warren

20 Extra Hous Per Week: What Would You Do?

20 Extra Hous Per Week: What Would You Do?

by: Daniel Tangredi

While I was in college, if you would have asked me what I would do if I had an extra 20 hours to spend in a week, the first thing I would have told you is that I would definitely NOT spend it studying. I actually would have gone down a long list of hobbies and activities I would like to do if I had the time. So when my coworkers asked me to find out what owners/managers of sign companies would do if they had an extra 20 hours per week, I was very interested in hearing the responses. What types of activities are sign shop owners doing with their spare time? Was there a common activity or hobby in the sign & graphics industry? Or would I hear several different responses?

The Results

The results were unexpected to say the least. By my fourth call I started to hear a common trend forming among sign shop owners. None were used to having leisure time, or so it seemed. In fact Marion Ward, the owner of AWC Signs, told me he hasn’t had 20 extra hours in twenty years. ขI wouldn’t know what to doข he said about having time off from the shop. Marion explained that he has been in this industry for quite a long time, and was soon going to retire. Just the thought of having extra time on his hands was completely foreign to him. Does Marion represent sign shop owners as a whole? Is the sign & graphics industry really so busy that owners/managers don’t even have time to think about leisure activities? Or, are shop owners unaware of how easy it is in this day and age to save time?

The next person I talked with was also surprised by the question. Randy from Bama Signs told me he ขnever thought about itข. Never thought about saving time I asked ขCan you think about it now and tell me what you would do?ข After a little probing and a little time to think about the question, Randy said he would most likely ขspend the time fixing up housesข which he liked to do on the side to make a little extra money. This was getting interesting. Already two people who never thought about having a couple extra hours or even the ability to save time for that matter. Two people who were surprised simply by the question itself.

Increasing Productivity

Being the GenXer and fresh out of college guy that I am, I have always looked for ways to make things easier. Isn’t that what we do in college, look for ways to spend less time but get the same or even better results? At one time, my goal was to figure out how to work less but get paid more (I hope my boss isn’t reading this) without cheating of course. This is what most owners or business graduates call ขIncreasing Productivityข. Well, in this day and age with so many advances in technology, there is always a way to work less and get paid more, therefore increasing your productivity. In fact I now work for a company that helps shops do just that.

Software – It’s amazing!

SOFTWARE! The amazing world of mouse clicks, GUI interfaces, pricing screens and automation. A brain, or what techies call a processor, that thinks even when the power is turned off, or so some of us think. A world where you don’t have to be the only one estimating jobs, because your pricing is built into the software. Where you can fill out customer information one time and never have to reenter it again. Where you have the ability to duplicate information and go from estimates to orders, easily and effectively by simply converting and cloning. A world where you can set automatic reminders that tell you who needs to be called, what needs to be done, and when to do it. Where it’s possible to truly, never again be in ขmanagement overloadข, so you can actually relax and enjoy your cup of coffee in the morning. A world where you can search through hundreds, thousands, even millions of customer records/information in a matter of seconds, rather then hours or days. Imagine the p!

ower and control given to you in this world. This is the world I have come to know and this is the world I have come to love. The world where we all can work less, take advantage of technology, and still increase revenue and productivity.

The Scared Stigma

So why aren’t more business owners jumping onto the ขsoftware trainข. Could it be that computer software and new technology scares them? It seemed to scare Marion Ward when I spoke with him. Is there some stigma behind software that leaves the nonGen Xer’s afraid? If so, to those people I say ขDo not be afraidข. These advancements in technology will make it easier for people such as Karen Bouknight of A Plus Signs & Graphix to ขRelax and just chillข as she easily put it when I spoke with her. It will give Mike Bayliss of Bayliss Signs Plus more time to ขPlay Golfข as he stated he would like to do more. It will give us all a chance to ขTake a vacation and take offข along side of Bill from Grafx Sign & Design.

Whether it be estimating and business management software like Cyrious Software, or some other software package that helps you save time, my only question is what would you do if you had an extra 20 hours per week?

About The Author

Daniel Tangredi

For more infomation on Cyrious Software go to http://www.cyrious.net or call 18005521418

This article was posted on November 22, 2004

by Daniel Tangredi

Out door Sign

Out door Sign

by: Paula Jones

Many business organizations that needs to disseminate latebreaking information to a large number of people. Out door sign boards are the perfect solution for them that command the attention of all who pass underneath.

Out door sign boards utilize LED lights, which is immensely more efficient and brighter than standard incandescent lighting. Fluorescent lamps give off heat as a waster byproduct, while out door sign boards do not. In fact, they are considered a ขcold lightข technology, which means that all of the energy going to the lamp is directed to making light, without any wasted heat. Out door sign boards are thus very energy efficient as well as very bright.

Traffic management system, passenger information system, advertising, public notices, health and safety, time and temperature displays, company promotion are some the areas where outdoor sign boards are used most efficiently.

The out door sign boards come in multilingual and in one line, biline or multiline versions up to around 40 characters per line, which one colour, two colours or multi colours options and full colours in addition.

Out door sign boards are connected to local power supply and can switch on and off automatically at preprogrammed times. The specially used ขantireflective acrylicข allows the displays to be read clearly by passersby, even through a shop window on a sunny day. These sign boards can be mounted anywhere and manufacturing department of Jayex Technology also takes very much attention on the buyers need for mounting the sign board and its related accessories.

These out door sign boards are easy to set up and operate as they can be operated remotely, they allow the outlet to simply and clearly present the content; these contents are changeable and/or updateable.

Dynamic presentation of information, effective public communications, rapid and easy updating of information, enhancing company image, low maintenance are the features provided by the leading manufacturer of Outdoor sign boards – Jayex Technology, a pioneer company in manufacturing LED signs even offers customized options all along having large range of out door signs.

About The Author

Paula Jones

Jayex Technology Limited, based in London specialise in advanced information display systems. Established in 1978 we have pioneered the development of the LED display market and now have over 18,000 customers worldwide. We offer, probably the largest range of models from small single line signs to big screen Megavision screens that can display live video and action replay in stadia.

jayex.co.uk

This article was posted on September 28, 2004

by Paula Jones

Some Things in Life ARE Guaranteed

Some Things in Life ARE Guaranteed

by: Jane Mark and Phil Basten

Thereกs an old expression that says, ‘the only things certain in life are death and taxes.ก

Well that is not entirely true.

Now thereกs a new kid on the block…

Guaranteed Signups.

Guaranteed Signups provide new opportunities for marketers to get direct sign ups to their programs without the time consuming task of having to advertise or recruit new members themselves.

Here are some of the benefits:

1) You get a built in downline quickly and easily.

2) You can build a contact list and mail to them as long as the back office of your program allows you to do this.

3) You can develop a lead capture or splash page and create your own mailing list without little or no extra effort on your part.

There are many different kinds of guaranteed signups.

For instance, you can purchase…

World Wide signups

US signups

Country targeted signups

Incentivized signups

Non incentivized signups

Phone surveyed signups

Non incentivized, phone surveyed signups give you more bang for your buck and usually produce good results.

US signups are high demand primarily because these people tend to purchase more.

The best of the bunch are phone surveyed signups, they cost a bit more, but they are well worth the extra outlay.

Using Guaranteed Signups for Your Members.

If you own a program with a large downline or database, you can purchase large blocks of signups. This is a great way to provide instant downlines for your members. It helps motivate and excite them.

What Guaranteed Signups Can and Cannot Do

All guaranteed signup programs work on the following basis…

Your program must have an option to join free, with the ability to upgrade to paid status.

Signups will be sent directly to your site and, if the person is interested, they sign up as a free member.

For this point on itกs up to you. You need to do the work of following these people up and give them reasons and incentives to upgrade

Do not expect a sign up to upgrade automatically. This won’t happen unless you work your new contacts and nurture them. Let them know the benefits of your product and give them heaps of free information.

Sign ups to do not happen by magic.

A site that offers you sign ups is essentially doing the hard work of advertising for you and that takes time. So be patient.

Benefits of guaranteed signups…

You can share them with downline members

Do JVกs with the suppliers and resell them

Fill you own program downline and work them to get new upgrades.

And the best part, the companies that supply them do all the work for you.

About The Author

Phil Basten and Jane Mark run their own AdAgency online. They provide marketing services to online marketers and small business owners including Guaranteed Signups, Phone surveyed leads, Ultra Fresh Autoresponder leads and much more. You get more info here…

http://jpeadvertising.com/signups/

http://www.jpeadvertising.com/leadmagnet/pesignups.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 04, 2004

by Jane Mark and Phil Basten