Information The Art Of Selling

Information The Art Of Selling

by: Dave Collins

Money may well make the world go round, but facts, details and data oil the machine that beats at the heart of it. We supposedly live in the age of information, yet many of us seem unable to use it to its full, and allow ourselves to drift along on a sea of missed opportunities.

If we can take it for granted that you have a good product, it should be a safe assumption that the single most powerful marketing tool at your disposal is information the simple truth. You’re not selling a duff product, trying to convince punters that underneath the rusty exterior lies a power beast… nor are you trying to sell ice to the Eskimos. You’re trying to sell your software to people who either need it, or could use it to the point where they’re actually prepared to buy it. So how do we get them? With information tools.

Information Tools

An information tool is any kind of device that you can use to show yourself and/or your product. Like any other tool, its primary purpose is to make life easier and more efficient. In our line of work, the most commonly used is a signature file. Your signature file should be around four to six lines of simple text, to be used at the end of every single email, letter, report or newsgroup posting. No exceptions; in your business correspondence, to your friends, family, everything and everyone.

The text should contain all your critical contact data at the very least your full name, your company or product, URL of your website, email address, and some sort of slogan or catchphrase. If you have a work phone number, then make sure you include it. Ensure that you also include the email address in the signature having it hidden away in the ReplyTo part of the email client does little good if someone prints out your letter, or even cuts and pastes the content into a new document or file. Have it there for all to see. Have you ever clicked on a link in a signature, just out of interest? You’re not alone.

The next tool is the stock text. Chances are that you find yourself writing the same text time and time again the same phrases, features and pricing information. Write them out in full, so that you have them there for use as needed. As well as saving you time in the future, having them available will also ensure that you’re sending out a wellwritten version of the information, that includes all relevant details, without forgetting a thing. Never rely on your memory alone. When you try and describe your software at the end of a long, problem filled day, you won’t do it justice.

The actual content of the descriptions is critical here. Make sure you write the text in the first person either I or we. Thereกs nothing wrong with referring to yourself as either of the two but make sure you’re consistent. Make sure you also use positive phrasing, and keep it simple. Be as concise and precise as possible; an exact number looks far better than vagueisms such as loads, lots, many or heaps. If your writing skills aren’t so good, get someone to help. Chances are you’re going to use these texts many times, so itกs worth getting the content just right.

A newsletter is another useful information tool, and can be a great way of keeping in touch with your customers or anyone else who may interested in your product. They are fairly easy to setup and administer, but pay attention to a few dos and don’ts. Make sure that you include details of your own product but don’t let it be the main content of the newsletter. If all you’re sending is a longwinded advert, people will unsubscribe quicker than you can whisper กlost saleก.

Again, content is king. If you can provide some sort of tips or information that people either need or will find useful, theyกll want to receive your newsletter, but be careful not to drive them away. If you send out a mailing every week, some are bound to get fed up and unsubscribe. While you’re at it, make sure itกs easy for someone to subscribe and unsubscribe; itกs very bad form to make it difficult to do so. Some sort of stock text explaining how to do this is a very good idea.

Another golden rule is to stick to pure, clean ASCII text. You may like HTML in your mailings, but if the recipientกs email client doesn’t they’re gone. In brief, useful is good; short and sweet is even better. And before you announce your new mailing list, make sure that you have the time for it. You can end up looking awfully silly when you close before issue one even comes out.

Press releases are probably the most wellknown information tool of all. Iกm not going to go into the whatกs and howกs here take a look through past ASPects issues, and check out Al Harbergกs tutorial at www.dpdirectory.com. Once you have your press release, use it. Make it easily available onsite, and keep it updated when you have new versions or changes. Long after your press release has been sent, you can still be putting it to good use.

Take Advantage Of Your FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions are another golden information opportunity; chances are that youกve already read over a fair number of these yourself, and it may even be one of the first things you look for on a site. I know I do. Practically speaking, you can’t throw every bit of information you have on the front or main page of your website. It doesn’t look good, and will simply overwhelm most visitors. But when a person goes to read your FAQ, they already know the basics, and want to know more. Feed them.

Use your FAQ wisely. Don’t use it as a data dump, but do include the questions you get asked the most. If you can, also make it downloadable, as a PDF or HTML file. Make sure you also put your contact details at the end of the document, something along the lines of กWhat do I do if I have more questions?ก . Theyกve asked for the information, so don’t be shy to give it them. I list my email address, website URL, phone and fax numbers, mailing address and ICQ number as standard. All have been used on numerous occasions.

Many email clients also allow some sort of auto responder to be setup that can send out a stock text when a certain address or specific subject is received. Better still, many webhosts have this sort of feature.

We supposedly live in an age of information overload, where quality loses the battle to quantity on an ongoing basis. Don’t let your product become another casualty. Keep it short, keep it sharp, and use it wherever and whenever you can. Think of every opportunity to write an email or note as an opportunity to reach a customer; don’t waste it. Be seen, be sold.

Copyright 2004 Dave Collins

About The Author

Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UKbased company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com.

This article was posted on December 09, 2004

by Dave Collins

Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective a

Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective as Wordtracker

by: Alexander Marlin

Many online marketers fail, because they just don’t realize that free keyword research tools only give very competitive keywords. You need wordtracker to strike it niche (RICH).

One of the most unanswered questions online today is, how to perform keyword research that gets free traffic from the search engines. Many SEO experts recommends using one keyword or keyword phrase per page, while others recommends using secondary keywords with your main keyword.

My philosophy is simple, you simply use both methods and check to see which method works best.

You will also have to draw the line and recognize which is working best and continue with that method.

For me, I love to use one keyword phrase for review pages and for content pages I use secondary keywords with my main keyword, making the theme of that page much more search engine friendly. Our job is to please the spiders as well as our visitors.

My advice for newcomers is to build our first page using only a free tool such as GoodKeywords. I did the same with my first site, which ranked very highly for my choosen keyword phrases, due to the fact that the competition wasn’t very high and I also didn’t use the highly targeted keywords found in the search results.

Now, I must admit that I wanted to take my keyword research to higher heights and even discover a niche of my own with very little competition, and that is where free keyword research tools fails. They don’t supply enough data for you to analyze if your keywords are actually worth while or highly competitive.

That is where, wordtracker and KRA comes into play.

Wordtracker is the number one keyword research tool online, has been for many years and still is. Those who generate five figure monthly commission checks with affiliate programs knows the importance of wordtracker and just can’t live without it.

KRA, is a tool by SEO expert Andy Williams that you can use to filter out secondary keywords and related phrases. If your into optimizing your pages for better search engines result, then I highly recommend you get yourself a copy.

You can reap the benefits of online keyword research by using these tools, and stop fiddling around with free tools. Free tools are for beginners who are testing the waters. It is now time for you to join the rank of professional marketers and stop hoping for success.

The best feeling you can get from your online marketing is when you make that first sale, and it doesn’t matter how big it is.

Stop targeting the wrong keywords and start building much more profitable content pages that only the smart marketers are targeting.

My final words: If a keyword research tool is so good, then why would you create a tool with an import possibility for wordtracker data?

About The Author

Alexander Marlin, Ebenezer St. Maarten A.N. Has been actively marketing on the Internet for over 3 years. One of his many keyword research websites can be found at http://howtobuildwebsite.com/keywordresearch.html.

This article was posted on September 12

by Alexander Marlin

How to Achieve a Perfect Color Scheme

How to Achieve a Perfect Color Scheme

by: Maricon Williams

Your choice of colors reflects you and your business. Color expresses intention, emotion and character. You must be cautious when choosing your color scheme because it will reflect the message you want to convey to the viewers. Wrong choice of the same may spell danger and loss on your part. Color plays a pivotal role in a websiteกs impact, thus, it must be considered warily.

There is a way to have an effective – actually a perfect color scheme. You can use Adobe PhotoShop however, this technique is also compatible with any graphic creation or editing program that has the ability to open an image file. The first step is to find an image. You can search anywhere – especially on the web where you can find visually appealing colors. Do not be bothered by the copyright because you will not be copying any part of it. If you’re perplexed if it is the design or the color that makes it attractive, blur the image in your imagination. If the color remained appealing, use it.

The second step is to save the original image and open it in your image editing application. After that, you open a new document in the same work area. We will call it palette image. From the original image, establish the color that occupies most of the area. Use the eyedropper tool to get that color. Use the paint bucket tool in your palette image to set it as a background color.

With the use of the eyedropper tool, select another color from your original image. Be cautious of the image overall proportion. In your palette image, use the rectangular selection tool to generate an area that has approximately identical proportion to the whole palette image and the source color has to the original image. Use the paint bucket tool to set the new rectangle to the new color. Continue transferring colors in the approximate identical proportions until you already achieved four to five palette image colors aside from the background. If you have an able imaging application, convert the image to web safe colors then save your new color palette. After that, write down the hex codes for your colors. Finally, decide on the relative proportion each Web page element has to the overall page. Next is to assign the corresponding palette image colors to each of them. After these steps, there is still a need for you to tweak your colors a little bit. Nonetheless, you are already saved from the tedious process of trial and error.

When choosing colors for your image choose wisely this is because colors have superior impact on viewers. In addition to the color scheme, the proportion of those colors is also critical to the overall look of your image. Try to master it all and you will never go astray.

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 comments, questions and additional information about web development, visit http://www.webdevelopmentpros.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on April 15

by Maricon Williams

Creating Painted Effects with illustrator 7.0

Creating Painted Effects with illustrator 7.0

by: Carla Ballatan

Newer versions of the software program Illustrator gave us useful features to dig in. Still, no matter how happy we are about the new features, time after time, in the process of making our designs more creative and innovative, we turn on old tricks of the program. Creating painted effects using Illustrator is an old trick. Now and again, you’ll find this trick useful.

So, we give you some tips and directions on creating your very own painted image with Illustrator. If some of you have newer or older versions than the Illustrator version 7.0, you might find that some paths in the directions here have been slightly altered. So here we go…

First, type out a letter of your choice, let’s say a letter E, and create some polygon shapes to fit behind it. Try out small squares for the letter E and make sure the shapes would fit behind the letter. To send out the four squares at the back of the letter E, select the squares with your ขblack arrowข selection tool and click OBJECTARRANGESEND TO BACK and voila! You have now four boxes behind your letter E.

Then, select the letter E and create outlines for it by clicking TYPECREATE OUTLINES. To change the shapes into compound paths, Select CTRLA and then OBJECTPATHFINDERDIVIDE. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The CTRL Z command will take you back to every step you took.

Now, it’s time to select parts of your shape, change its colors and pull the individual shapes apart from one another. You can do all of this by using directselection tool. After pulling the shapes apart, rotate some slightly by selecting your rotate tool. After doing that, add some effects that would make the shape’s paths slightly roughened. Choose FILTERDISTORTROUGHEN to create this effect.

Not satisfied, yet? Use your TWIRL tool and twirl the shapes around. Ooops…no twirl tool on your old Illustrator version? Try using FILTER, then. Twirl the shapes around as much to your satisfaction, but make sure it’s still recognizable and readable especially if you’re using text. Want to see the shapes without the selected paths? Hit CTRL H and be gone with the blue select marks, though the paths are still selected. To make the blue select marks reappear, hit CTRL H again!

Finally, use OBJECTPATHFINDERSOFT with a value of 100%, to blend the colors and give you the painterly effect. It’s best to select an appropriate color format, aside from the default CMYK. You may see a rasterized image by selecting OBJECTRASTERIZE.

A word of caution, though, go back one step by hitting CTRL Z since once you saved the image rasterized and closed, you won’t be able to edit it anymore. You can also copy/paste your creation into a new document inside the Photoshop and if you need to print from Illustrator for spot colors, select Split Along Path option in the Document Set Up, first. Keep on painting!

About The Author

Lala B. is a 26 yearold Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a nongovernment organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.

Book reading has always been her greatest passion mysteries, horrors, psychothrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.

Her writing prowess began as early as she was 10 years old in girlish diaries. With writing, she felt freedom – to express her viewpoints and assert it, to bring out all concerns imagined and observed, to bear witness.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 03

by Carla Ballatan

Online Trade Winds

Online Trade Winds

by: Nicholas Dixon

A few bends ago on the online marketing road, I registered and got paid hosting for a website I have been marketing for years. Now some people may say that is minor step, but for someone who lives on a rock in the Caribbean Sea that is a privilege.

I happen to live in a society that is still grappling with technology but is slowly catching on. The average man on the street feels that you are a geek once you are into computers when in fact you were in the same mindset as him before you first started out.

Being on online marketer sets you up for a roller coaster ride which if you are not prepared for, can leave you throwing up before the ride ends. Online marketing is not a gokart race but is more akin to the Dayonta 500, so you better dig in for a long ride.

I built and ran my first website on someone else’s computer for years because I could not afford one. I did this using free hosting services until I could pay for hosting and upgrade my website. That made me feel so vulnerable at times of placing my best interests in the hand of another, but business is a gamble and I took my chances.

Instead of feeling disheartened, I used this as a catalyst for my growth. Here I was hearing complaints from others about the lack of opportunities, yet there was a goldmine right on the playground of the young the internet.

Online marketing is a great teacher for all. It forces you to forget about me and start thinking about us. It is not a game where you hide behind a computer screen and shoot off emails to thousands hoping that you will get rich. It is all about building relationships which will determine if you sink or float.

Personality is a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. It is an under used strategy that much has not been written about. Mark you though, just because you have a Brad Pitt personality that means you are already successful, instead it should compliment your other strengths.

The internet is a very powerful communicating and marketing tool that has changed several aspects of our lives. You can shoot off an email to someone halfway around the globe and it arrives quicker than an elevator ride to the first floor.

It pains me daily that persons who want a cheap business tool don’t know about it and some who have access to the net use it only to read emails and play Yahoo games. I happen to work at a computer lab and many of the persons who I have recommend the internet to as a business tool never even tried it once. Nothing baffling about that though.

Online marketing moreso the Net are fairly young when compared to most offline businesses and there is still plenty of time and space to hop on board. It will take you some amount of time, strength, courage and persistence to achieve your set goals. But at the end of the day you have something you can call your own.

Though I have not earned my first five figure check, these thoughts are what inspire me daily to help further the growth of the net. Strange huh, the net grows, my business grows, my bank balance grows, your business grows……..

Copyright © Nicholas Dixon

About The Author

Nicholas Dixon is the creator of Jamaica’s first article directory. Free content and information about a cool island town. Visit http://WWW.Oceanroc.com to learn more…

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 12, 2004

by Nicholas Dixon

Purchasing Spyware Software—Avoid the Scams

Purchasing Spyware Software—Avoid the Scams

by: Mitch Johnson

With the demand for antispyware tools continuously on the rise because of the constant release of new and more invasive spyware scams, computer users may find themselves falling victim to malicious software downloads while searching for the right spyware removal tool. Several spyware removal software programs have been identified as fakes, but not before many computer users were drawn into the trap.

Spyware Assassin claimed to be a spyware removal tool released by MaxTheater but underneath the claims to remove malicious spyware, the program was found to be a fake. The tool offered users a free scan that of course detected spyware, whether it was there or not because there was actually no real scan taking place. Once the results from the scam scan were presented to the user it was advised that they immediately purchase the entire program to rid their computer of the malicious ขspyware.ข Recently, however, the Federal Trade Commission uncovered their scam to make money off of false spyware tools.

An even sneakier spyware scam was put on by Seismic Entertainment Productions who used tactics to infect user’s computers with actual spyware and then advised those users to purchase Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter to remove the spyware. Any of these fake software programs are obvious reasons why computer users must learn to research the credibility and background of a program before purchasing or downloading.

If a company bombards you with aggressive advertising for their product or pushes you to take immediate action by offering scare tactics, it is best for users to steer clear of that product. Any company, especially new or young companies that claim perfect results or all around protection is something to look at with caution. No spyware tool can offer users complete protection and any one that claims they can is using irresponsible advertising.

Computer users should also remember not to purchase or download a spyware program based on their name. The name is not a depiction of what the product offer.

When searching for a legitimate spyware tool spend time researching the program and company’s background and avoid believing everything the advertisements tell you.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/, a site that focuses exclusively on spyware removal software, as well as tips on how to prevent spyware from popping up on your computer. This site articles on has spyware guard, http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/spyware_guard.htm as well as spyware scanner, http://www.spywareremovalmadeeasy.com/spyware_scanner.htm.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 12

by Mitch Johnson

10 Great Search Engine Optimization Tools for Your

10 Great Search Engine Optimization Tools for Your Online Success

by: Milena Sotirova

The Internet promotion of every company is related to the search engine positioning of the site. The positioning is important for your books, products and services to be easily found online.

Search engine position is the place which a site takes in the search results for every search engine after performing search. The searches often are results of one or more words entered in the search bar. It seems simple to find where your site is by searching with the related keywords. For the search engine optimization being effective you need these keywords in your meta tags. If you want to check how it works, type for example กpromotionก in Google and Yahoo to find that http://www.promotionworld.com/ is on 2. and 1. position respectively (this may change at the time you read this).

Meta Tags How to create your meta tags

Meta tags are specific HTML tags that exceed their กwhat you see is what you getก functions to display content and serve as a mediator between the site page and the search engines, performed by their crawling robots.

The Title Tag is, as it can be assumed by its name, the site or page title that best describes the site content and purpose and contains of short phrase that can include the site name. It can be separated or not by colons but must include the words that describe the main functions of your site. When you write it, you can consider that the search engines will select your site in the search results more successfully if the metas contain the keywords you are going after in the search engine optimization.

MySite: MySite functions

Meta tags are easy to create with the PromotionWorldกs Meta tag generator that makes this task an easy one step effort to get the entire code the way it should be in the siteกs HTML code immediately after the tag.

To be sure that your meta tags contain the appropriate keywords that will lead you to the top of the search list you can try a little research using the Keyword suggestion tool. Here you can find what are the most searchable keywords related to your content and to include them in your meta tags. You can go back again and again to check and update your keyword list according to the search trends.

Search Engines How to submit your site

After your site is dressed with the meta tags, you are ready to go and submit it to the search engines. The Free Search Engine Submission tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=submit will automatically submit your site to more than 60 search engines, including the best known. Just follow the easy steps and you will get your site submitted and a detailed report about the submission process results displayed and send to you.

Search Position Where You Are

The positions of your site is easy to find using the Keyword Ranking Monitor http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=kwrank. This handy tool will quickly tell you the site ranking on Google. You can check the competitorsก sites as well to see where you are. To find out where your competitorกs sites are located you can look at the WebSite Location Tool.

The effective optimization is based on statistics and you can check up how your results change thru the time using the secure help of PromotionWorldกs Keyword Ranking Monitor. Your keywords and URLs are stored easily accessible with your user name and you can check the trends of any keyword search results displayed in well designed graphics. You can even select a keyword from the keyword suggestion list and import it into your keyword result table just by one click.

The most advanced search at all Google Datacenters can provide you with information about how your ranking is moving depending to which server the search inquiry is sent. This Google DataCenter Watch tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=dance can allow you to predict your keyword optimization efforts.

Links The secret of traffic

The links that are going to your site by other sites are important for your Traffic and Google PageRank. You can permanently check up your link status with this Backlink Tracker Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=bklinks. Your link history will be stored and here you can find how effective your link exchanges with other sites are a technique of vital importance for your site online success. To check your Google PR now just go to the Google PR Tool http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=grank enter the URL and get the result.

Extras Convert your site traffic into money

There is a good advertising program that gains more and more popularity and becomes a materialized developer dream of earning just from the user traffic to the site. Google AdSense is designed to provide you the opportunity to provide to your users fresh related to your content links and to make you benefit from it without any effort. Using Google AdSense Tool you can see from here how the Google Adsense ads will appear on your site. Try this simple and attractive free tool to see the Google AdSense program diversity designed for your content.

If you already have a Google AdSense account you can easily monitor your AdSense data http://www.promotionworld.com/seotools/index.php?rdt=adsense_charts displayed in graphics and charts to get you an easy visual access to your campaign.

WebSite Gifts Count your visitors and make them happy

Your site content will be more accessible if you provide the users an option to search free thru your site pages. You can get this Free search for your site.

A good gift for your site is the Free Counter displaying the number of visits for your pages. Get this tool and set it on your site. If you have an idea of some different image you can send that or if you feel, you can prepare an image and send this to be included in the tool set. Be creative and make the other users appreciate your talent.

I hope that you enjoyed our touring thru the amazing tool land and you get even more ideas about how can you promote your site.

About The Author

Milena Sotirova is Editor of DevStart, Inc. She has publications on web promotion, search engine optimization and web hosting industry news coverage and analyses. PromotionWorld.com is one of the most popular sites for web promotion and contains tutorials, tools, articles and search engine news. Subscribe for DevStart Channel http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/

Send your feedback to [email protected]

You can reproduce this article on your website, or in your Newsletter provided that you include the resource box.

This article was posted on November 26, 2004

by Milena Sotirova

The Unavoidable Spyware Threats

The Unavoidable Spyware Threats

by: Mitch Johnson

Spyware and adware are used for advertising purposes for companies to collect data about users and send out annoying advertisements. Adware is used on banner ads in exchange for part of the revenue from sales but often time, along with adware, spyware is also installed. The downloads that allow spyware to be installed do so by notifying users in the long user agreement that most everyone ignores.

Once on your computer it is nearly impossible for users to control what information spyware sends out. Usually much more information than internet users would like is sent to intruders and used for various purposes. To eliminate spyware and adware download and install an effective spyware and adware scan and removal tool. These tools work by deeply scanning your system, identifying spyware and adware, then removes the malicious applications.

Alertspy is spyware tool that performs a scan for free then will remove the detected applications for a minimal cost. With this tool you can also update your system and protect your privacy from future spyware threats.

About The Author

Mitch Johnson is a successful freelance author that writes regularly for http://www.1stinremovespyware.com/, a site that focuses primarily on spyware detection software, as well as tips on how to avoid spyware from popping up on your computer. His articles have also been featured on related spyware sites such as, http://www.bestinspywaredetection.com/ as well as http://www.bestsypwareremovalreviews.com/.

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 30

by Mitch Johnson

Youกve Got a Mailing List. Now What?

Youกve Got a Mailing List. Now What?

by: Scott Foreman

You thought that if you could just get people on your emailing list, you’d be on Easy Street. Part of that thought is right because without a mailing list your email marketing strategy is irrelevant. If you’ve got a mailing list, my hat is off to you. But now that you’ve got them, how do you keep track of them?

In this second (of three) part series, we will discuss integrated marketing tools. Namely, we are talking about socalled Complete Marketing Tools (or just, Tools) that come in many shapes and sizes, but are mostly applications that combine Ad Trackers, Autoresponders, and Shopping Carts. If you missed part 1 of this series, please check it out at: http://www.buildpassiveincome.com/cmd.php?ad=122106

What comes with the privilege of having a large marketing list, is the responsibility of keeping up with it. Complete Marketing Tools are set up just for that purpose, among many others. The Tool effortlessly integrates signing up new prospects as well as erasing list members who opt out of your publications.

Additionally, the Tool can manage rejected email messages without you ever having to deal with them. Whether the email you send is rejected due to Hard Bounces, Soft Bounces, or SPAM, the Tool is smart enough to either continue trying to send a message or remove the name from you list altogether.

Also, with just a few mouse clicks, you can manage your prospects between different mailing lists, autoresponders, and broadcasts. Such flexibility in a mailing list is hard to appreciate until you have to spend your precious time manually removing prospects with bad email addresses or some other tedious task.

If managing your mailing list isn’t enough for you, Complete Marketing Tools offer comprehensive affiliate management systems as well. From multi tier programs to commission payment scheduling to tutorials for new members, your affiliates will be better prepared because of the Tool. Likewise, you will be better equipped to manage your growing affiliate army.

If you want to set limits on your payout threshold, the Tool will do that in less than 30 seconds. You can also choose to pay your affiliates for whatever result you are looking; from pay per sale to pay per lead and more. If you’re looking for a one or two tier affiliate program, a Complete Marketing Tool is exactly what you need to save time and effort of your part.

Whether managing prospects or managing affiliates, the Complete Marketing Tool can give you a flexibility and ease of use that you may not have known even existed. In the meantime, next week we’ll discuss the Tool’s ability to handle Autoresponder and Broadcast messages.

Take a tour of our favorite Tool and see if won’t pay for itself many times over in time saved. http://www.buildpassiveincome.com/cmp.php?ad=120452

Remember, be good to yourself and never underestimate the power associated with the intensity of your passion.

Copyright 2005 Foreman Enterprises

by Scott Foreman BuildPassiveIncome.com

mailto:[email protected]

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First, we will pay you up to $25 for every person who visits our site and purchases a product as a result of you running or posting this article.

PLUS, once you confirm we will give you a FREE DISPLAY AD in our Internet Success Newsletter (thatกs how much we appreciate it)!

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This article may be reprinted for use in newsletters and websites provided that the information box is kept intact. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: [email protected]

About The Author

Wayne and Scott Foreman are coowners of

http://www.buildpassiveincome.com

This Secret Book Made Terry Dean Rich! You Can Get it Free IF you click below now (you won’t believe the simple techniques it reveals that ANYONE can use)

http://www.BuildPassiveIncome.com/secret

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 09

by Scott Foreman

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website Step 10: T

Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website Step 10: The Extras

by: Dave Davies

Welcome to part ten in this search engine positioning series. Over the past nine weeks we have covered the nine fundamental steps to a proper search engine positioning campaign. From choosing keywords and writing content to optimizing your pages and building quality links we have covered the required steps to attaining solid rankings that will last. In part ten we will cover the extras.

The extras consist of tips, tools and resources that you will want to use to keep you on the cutting edge of who’s who and what’s what in the search engine positioning arena.

Over this series we have covered the ten key aspects to a solid search engine positioning campaign.

The Ten Steps We Have Gone Through Are:

Keyword Selection (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/keywords.htm)

Content Creation (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/content.htm)

Site Structure (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/structure.htm)

Optimization (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/optimization.htm)

Internal Linking (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/internallinking.htm)

Human Testing (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/humantesting.htm)

Submissions (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/submissions.htm)

Link Building (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/linkbuilding/linkbuilding.htm)

Monitoring (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/articles/searchenginepositioning/monitoring.htm)

The Extras

Step Ten – The Extras

The first nine steps in this series cover the true nutsandbolts of a solid SEO campaign. These are the crucial steps you need to take to attain top rankings that will stick. That said … there are ขthe extrasข, the icing on the SEOcake sotospeak. Those little things that will bump you up from number 4 to number 2, or help you hold your positioning through an algorithm change.

Some of these things have been touched on in previous articles while others are completely new. Either way, these are the things that will give you that little oneup over other ethical SEO’s who know their stuff.

Tools

One of the most important advantages you can gain over your competition comes from the tools you use and more importantly, how you use them. Some people blindly follow the advice given to them from socalled ขSEOsoftwareข. This is never the right decision. Taking the information these good tools can provide, and knowing how to turn that information into advantage is the key.

Here are the tools that many successful SEOs use to build solid rankings for their clients and why:

Top Optimizer Pro (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/resources/recommended/top.htm)

I’ve noted this one in the article on link building and it’s definitely worth mentioning again. Never before have I found a tool that can tear apart your competition so thoroughly for such an affordable price and in such an easytounderstand manner.

This tool with take a look at the top 10 for a search phrase, and give you:

their position

their PageRank

their Alexa rank

the total number of backlinks to their site as seen by Google

the number of their site pages indexed by Google

their keyword density for the targeted phrase

their title

their H1 tag

This is the overview it gives you. You can then select one of the sites and view more detail including:

the backlink URL

the backlink domain

the IP address of the backlink

the PageRank of the backlink from that page

the specific anchor text use for that backlink (or a note whether it was an image)

the title of the page linking back

the Alexa rating of the page linking back

the top three keyword focusก of the page linking back

the number of links pointing to that page

the number of outbound links from that page

Right below that there is access to a breakdown of the sites backlink’s that gives a summary of:

the specific anchor text, the number of times that anchor text was used, and the percentage this represents of the total backlinks counted

where these links come from. This will give you great information as to how many of these links are coming from the same domain, which is generally accepted in the SEO community as holding less weight than the same number of links from different domains

a PageRank breakdown of all the links

At $247 from TopNet Solutions it’s a bit pricey but worth every penny if you only use it on one campaign.

PR Prowler (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/resources/recommended/prprowler.htm)

A necessity for any search engine positioning campaign that requires link building. This tool, also developed by TopNet Solutions, doesn’t do all the fancy things that Top Optimizer Pro does however it does do one thing VERY well – it’s seeks out quality relevant link partners with high PageRanks.

If you’re not in a competitive industry and you just want to save time on link building (and I do mean a LOT of time) this tool will do it for you. You simply set it to find links based on specified search phrase(s) and with a minimum PageRank. You can search for up to 1000 links at a time. Simply start the tool and continue on with other work or go to bed while it’s working for you. Come back and you’ve got some great leads and the best part is, it’s weeded out all the duds so your efforts are focused only on the links that will most benefit your site.

This tool has taken campaigns that would have required many hundreds of links to a point where the same effect can often be realized with 50 and in a fraction of the time spent.

FireFox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/)

While this isn’t exactly an SEO tool perse it makes researching and optimizing much faster and more convenient. FireFox is a browser (read: Internet Explorer replacement) that has MANY features that make it more convenient.

I like the tabbed browsing (moving between multiple pages through the use of tabs on one browser screen), the username and password ability is far better and more advanced than Internet Explorer’s and it’s far more secure than the more popular Microsoft product. It blocks popups and spyware just isn’t written for it.

I will admit that for the first few hours I was trying it out I found it a bit more difficult to use but once you realize how much more powerful it can be and that the difficult arises from the instinct to make the task more difficult by doing it the way you would have with IE, you’ll never want to switch back. The next time you’ve got 5 IE windows open to various search engines, another for WordTracker and a couple more to various other pages think of FireFox and you’re world will be made easier. It’s a free download.

You can read more on the advantages of the FireFox browser in a search engine positioning article written by ISEDB Editor Jim Hedger at http://www.isedb.com/news/article/1062.

Search Status (http://quirk.co.za/searchstatus/)

A tool developed for FireFox users giving them access to the Google Toolbar and Alexa Rankings. It can be downloaded and installed free of charge.

A big thanks to developer Craig Raw for a great tool, free of charge, for those of us who want to use something that isn’t powered by Microsoft and that has all the advantages of the FireFox browser.

WebAlerts (https://www.google.com/alerts/signin?hl=en)

You’re doing your linkbuilding, you’re writing articles, or you just want to see what others’ are saying about you. Do you really want to run searches for yourself and for your articles every few days?

Set up a Google WebAlert for a phrase from an article you’ve written, for your company name, for your competitors and/or for a phrase from the description you’re using in your link exchanges and let the most powerful servers in the world do the work for you.

Beanstalk On Tools …

There are definitely some very useful tools out there as noted above. What must be understood is that these tools alone won’t get you the top rankings any more than a map will guarantee you a good vacation if you don’t know how to read it and you don’t know where you want to go.

The single most important thing anyone hoping to attain (and maintain) top positioning on the search engines can do is to keep himself or herself educated. While we noted a few great resources in the last article on monitoring here are some of the key resources I uses to keep uptodate on what’s going on the in SEO world.

Search Engines

This is definitely the most obvious. Run periodic if not daily searches on your keyword phrases and a few others. Don’t just look for your rankings but look at who’s in the top positions and look at their sites and who’s linking to them. Watch for changes and look for what’s different in the sites that are now on top.

Don’t kill yourself trying to figure out every single engine. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are the three biggest and just following these three is more than enough work. Generally I’ve found that meeting the requirements of these three will generally result in solid rankings on most of the other ขsecondaryข engines.

Forums

I can’t speak highly enough about forums. When you’re looking for uptodate information this is where to go. The challenge on forums however is in deciding who knows what they’re talking about and who doesn’t. Further, you’ll need to be able to figure out which members follow your code of ethics when it comes to SEO. Business owners seeking longterm rankings with minimal maintenance should not be taking advice from Blackhat SEOs.

I mentioned a few forums on the last article. A few additional forums worth watching are:

Search Engine Watch Forums (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/) – There’s not much to say about this one except that it’s a mustsee. Tons of great information, many members so a wide variety of opinions to draw from.

IHelpYou Forums (http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/) – Managed by SEO Doug Heil this is an interesting one. While I can’t say I agree with everything Doug has to say I will give him credit for ethics. If you want to make sure your tactics are squeakyclean then here’s where to get advice. My recommendation: take the info with a grain of salt. Doug tends to occasionally make blanket rulings on tactics that have their place however if you go in knowing this he can be a great source of some solid information.

High Rankings Forums (http://www.highrankings.com/forum/) – Managed by SEO Jill Whalen, this one has some great discussions. Sticking with my belief in giving credit where it’s due I have to advise to pay attention to what Jill says. She knows her stuff and while she definitely falls into the category of whitehat SEOs, she’s willing to discuss a variety of tactics, their merits, and judge them based on their use and worth. Open and honest discussion – that’s what forums are about. Mentioned last week but worth mentioning twice.

The other forums mentioned last week were:

Web Pro World (http://www.webproworld.com/forum.php)

SEO Chat (http://forums.seochat.com/)

Search Guild (http://www.searchguild.com/)

Li’l Engine (http://forums.lilengine.com/)

Conclusion

So here we are, the end of it all. 17,000 words read (thank you) and, if you’ve been following the program, many MANY hours spent optimizing your website.

Will it be worth it? If you have followed these steps, keep yourself updated on changes, and keep working on building your links, creating quality content, and insuring that you’re always putting in 10% more than your competitors then it certainly should be.

I would like to take a moment to thank those of you who have worked through these past ten articles and to wish you the very best of luck in your online promotions. As always, you are welcome to contact me with any questions you might have. Our goal in this series has been to provide you with the information and the resources to do it. I hope we have done just that.

About The Author

Dave Davies and Beanstalk (http://www.beanstalkinc.com/) offer guaranteed search engine positioning. He has been optimizing and ranking websites for over three years and has a solid history of success. Dave is available to answer any questions that you may have about your website and how to get it into the top positions on the major search engines.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 30, 2004

by Dave Davies

Blogging whatกs it all about?

Blogging whatกs it all about?

by: InkaMaria Kunz

A blog usually is a web page that contains brief, discrete hunks of information called posts. These posts are arranged in reversechronological order (the most recent come first) and each is uniquely identified by an anchor tag which is marked with a permanent link that can be referred to by others who wish to link to it.

A blog is a means of communication and there are many different types of messages carried by blogs. Some are nothing but pointers to other web sites, while others run long essays, some are personal diaries, others feature technology, and some are edited by one person, others by teams.

There are hundreds of thousands of blogs on the Internet, and new blogs are created every day. Can anybody and more importantly can you blog? Yes, there are bloggers of all types, equipped with all levels of technical skills. Bloggers approach their sites with as much variety and passion as the general Net public approaches the Web itself.

The most commonly used blogging tool is Blogger. It requires the least amount of commitment in time or resources, allowing you to go from wanting a blog to having one in about five minutes and at no cost. The Blogger software is the property of Pyra Labs (www.pyra.com). Blogger is often credited as the reason for the explosion of blogging that’s occurred in the last couple of years. It is a webbased tool, requiring no installation of software on your personal computer or on your server if you happen to have a web site. You access the tool through the Blogger web site (http://blogger.com) and the blog pages are posted to your web site or to Pyra’s BlogSpot (http://blogspot.com) community blog server. For more detailed information on this see O’Reilly’s Essential Blogging.

Reread anything before you publish. Electronic text can expose unintended meaning easily and it will also make what you say a lot more focused. If nothing else, it should help you catch spelling mistakes! Blogging is a way to share your opinions and thoughts to the rest of the world. If you post interesting things, share links with other bloggers and post comments on other blogs. Linking is the way of the Web that is the key of successful blogging.

In order to keep your blogs really fresh, invite a group of your friends / colleagues and give them blogging access. That way you will have several reporters blogging information and you won’t end up killing yourself, trying to keep your blog populated with good information. If you use Blogger, upgrade to Blogger Pro. You can have your team post to the blog from email, create and syndicate your blog as an RSS feed, and a whole lot more! Adding the ability to post comments on your blog extends interactivity and usefulness to the blog itself. Blogs are about community and information, and commenting is a real way to gauge your viewer’s blogging efforts. Blogging is one of the quickest ways to update your site. Syndicating others’ blogs into your own site is another. There is a wealth of information out there – just tap into it!

About The Author

This article was written by InkaMaria Kunz, CEO of a flourishing multilingual translations agency with offices in Germany and New Zealand. This article may be printed or used in its entirety with full author contacts and details. For more information, translations or purchases of a new website/ebusiness, contact the author thru the official website www.linguatransl.co.nz or the blog www.linguatransl.blogspot.com.

This article was posted on February 04

by InkaMaria Kunz

Search Engine Keywords What Do People Search For

Search Engine Keywords What Do People Search For?

by: Bryan Brandenburg

Do you ever wonder how people search for things on the Internet? What if you knew exactly what words they typed when using a search engine? If you’re marketing a product or service itกs extremely insightful to know what are the most popular search terms relating to whatever you’re marketing.

The Overture Company

Overture.com is a Yahoo! company that supplies the Pay Per Click infrastructure for Yahoo! and other websites on the Internet. If you do a search on Yahoo! youกll see anywhere from 13 paid promotions appear at the top of the search page and then others at the end. These are paid advertiser listings and they come from Overture.

The Overture Search Tool

In order to maximize the number of clicks on their network, Overture supplies a keyword tool so that their customers know which are the most popular keywords relating to their product of service. This way when an Overture customer selects keywords to advertise on, they can pick the ones that are most popular or the ones that most precisely relate to their product or service. This generates more revenue for Overture and more clicks for advertisers.

Anyone Can Use the Search Tool

Fortunately you don’t have to be a customer of Overture to use the search tool. Click Here (http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/) to find the search tool; itกs at the bottom of the page.

How to Use the Search Tool

The best way to get started is to type in a major word associated with your business. For example if you’re in the marketing business, hereกs the top 10 search terms and their search count.

Search Count Term

1253354 direct marketing

460115 internet marketing

380450 marketing

76542 business marketing small

48494 email marketing

44160 marketing web site

43064 advertising marketing

42613 network marketing

42414 business marketing

31484 health care marketing

This search count number represents about 20% of the Internet so multiply it by 5 to get an approximate number of searches for the entire web, i.e. the total searches for email marketing are 48494*5=242470 searches across the Internet every month.

How to Use the Data

The value of this search tool goes far beyond just determining popular search terms. Hereกs a few ways to use the tool for market research:

Type in your state or city to find out the most popular searches

Compare the number of searches for your product compared to those of your competitors

Use the most popular search terms relating to your business for your web site domain names to increase their visibility in search engines.

Use it to brainstorm new products or services, especially if something is being searched for but is not widely available

Considering a celebrity endorsement or joint venture partner for your next Internet promotion, compare the various candidates and make an informed decision.

Use it for determining market size or segmentation information for your business plan.

Use it to drive all your web content, from web page titles to Meta Tag keywords and descriptions.

Use it to determine which categories to list your business, from Internet to Yellow Page listings.

Use it to determine important searches relative to your business in foreign cultures and countries that you are unfamiliar with.

Make Informed Decisions from Now On

The Overture Search tool takes the guesswork out of many of your marketing decisions, from choosing Pay Per Click keywords, to determining the next market your company should pursue. Take a look today and youกll be amazed at the wealth of information that is available. You can try the search tool now on the Overture website at the following URL http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/ays/.

About The Author

Bryan Brandenburg has published 5 books as well as a number of articles both in print and on the internet. He has published almost 30 software programs both for consumers and business. More information can be found at www.vmmg.net.

This article was posted on October 26, 2004

by Bryan Brandenburg