My Identity Crisis

My Identity Crisis

by: David Leonhardt

When we are young it is all so simple. We know exactly what I want to กbeก when we grow up.

You know what itกs like: กI want to be a fireman.ก I want to be a ballerina.ก กI want to be a movie star.ก กI want to be a nuclear physicist specializing in embryonic schisms in postmenopausal subatomic particles.ก

This aspect of growing up came back to haunt me recently when reading a magazine article by someone working in television who had always wanted to be a celebrity. To paraphrase her words, กIt never occurred to me that I might have to actually do anything.ก

Well, here I am, a fullygrown adult. Or perhaps I am no longer fully grown – Iกm not sure at what age we start shrinking! But I do have a confession to make; I never knew what I wanted to กbeก. I knew only what I wanted to do.

What I wanted to do was design cities, urban spaces, bus routes. No, thatกs not true. What I really wanted to do was design maps…but most map companies want map designers to simply mimic the cityกs existing design. Geesh, whereกs the creativity in that?

So I was led astray, falling in love with politics instead. For a while I worked as a political aide, plotting to become King of the World. Amazingly, it took only five years for reality to grind my idealistic innocence to sawdust and send me on a frantic search for a doityourself lobotomy kit. (I never did get to be King of the World, nor did I ever find that doityourself lobotomy kit.)

I spent the next decadeandahalf as a consumer advocate and lobbyist, doing media relations, government relations and industry relations none of which are technically verbs that one can actually กdoก.

At social events, the accountants and lawyers had it easy. กI am an accountant,ก says it all.

I was not so fortunate.

กI am a consumer advocate,ก I would say.

กSo what do you do?ก

กWell, I talk to the media and to the government and to industry,ก I would explain.

กAhaaa… and I talk to the tooth fairy. So what do you do?ก

Now, I have an even harder time when somebody asks what I do. Most people have no clue what search engine optimization is, which is my main กcareerก. Few people really understand what freelance writing is, except if they read a freelance writerกs article in a magazine . I don’t even try to mention that I run three websites and do affiliate marketing. But people do understand what it means to be an author.

กWow, you wrote a book on happiness? Congratulations. So whenกs your next book coming out?ก

Which is when I have to explain how a book really doesn’t feed a family, and if I took the time to write a second book, it would take time away from search engine optimization and affiliate marketing…

กHuh, whatกs that?ก

กNever mind,ก I answer. กIกm a stayathome dad.ก Which also is true. People might look at me weird, but at least they understand me. Or, so they think.

All of which brings me back to that question I never answered when I was young: what do I want to be when I grow up? I guess Iกll just have to wait a little longer to find out. Like when I grow up.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/Item.asp?Catalog=Books&Item=059517826X

Read more personal growth articles:

http://www.thehappyguy.com/selfactualizationarticles.html

Visit his liquid vitamins store:

http://www.vitaminsupplementsstore.net

Or his happiness website:

http://www.thehappyguy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 30

by David Leonhardt

Advertising And Generate New WebSite Traffic

Advertising And Generate New WebSite Traffic

by: Charles Kangethe

Hereกs a simple way to use กNo Results, No Payก radio advertising and build traffic for your website.

Step #1 Understanding กPIก Per Inquiry Advertising.

Radio has a unique advertising format known as กPIก or per inquiry advertising.

กPIกsก main benefit is that your commercial is aired and you ONLY PAY for inquiries phoned into the station from listeners !

Inquiries are in the form of callers asking for more information.

The radio station counts each caller, and redirects them to your web site address.

Step #2 How To Start a กPIก Campaign.

Find a good directory of all commercial radio stations where you intend to advertise.

Some sample Internet resources :

http://www.mediauk.com UK

http://www.webradio.fm USA

http://www.radiodirectory.com International

Other online resources can be found by searching for keywords like กRadio Directories.ก

Alternatively, visit your library and in the references section ask for the Yearbook of Independent Local Radio Stations.

Note details such as :

Ad managerกs names,

Telephone numbers,

email addresses

Programming and schedules

Listener profiles:

Age,

Income,

Sex,

Location.

Step #3 Decide on Strategy and กWanted Response.ก

Before you contact the radio stations, be clear on strategy, goals and have your draft commercials in outline.

* Are you advertising a product offer at your website ?

Specify product details fully to avoid paying for ‘tyre kickerก inquiries.

* Is your กWanted Responseก to build an optin list ?

Decide how you will entice visitors to your web site. Will you offer FREEBIES, or a competition of some sort ?

* Are you advertising for market research purposes ?

Tell listeners how and why they should participate.

* Decide how much you are prepared to pay per inquiry.

Step #4 Use Your Strategy To Build A กPIก Proposal

Two aims in this step :

Make it as easy as possible for the station to schedule your commercial.

Negotiate the lowest Per Inquiry cost during the best advertising time slots.

Keep in mind :

Listener profiles you want to reach.

Times you want your advert to go on air.

Which commercial will best deliver your กWanted Responseก.

Write to the ad manager by email or normal mail. In your letter :

Introduce yourself.

Inform them this is a กPIก Per Inquiry advertising proposal.

Inform them you of what you are trying to achieve, refer to your strategy.

Detail your product or service prices and how much you are considering paying for each inquiry.

Sidebar

If your กWanted Responseก is not selling a product, you must pay for inquiries out of your กown pocketก. Negotiate a keen cost per inquiry !!

* Explain how you will handle all the administration

For instance writing the commercial Outline, handling product fulfilment, dealing with refunds and product support questions.

Depending on your negotiation skills and size of Radio station you might be able to work a deal where you only pay for *Converted Inquiries*.

This is practically *FREE* advertising, because you only pay for referrals once a sale is made !

Step #5 How To Deal With Radio Ad Managers

If you do not hear back within a few days, call the station.

Commercial radio is a busy environment. Be prepared to explain yourself and answer questions quickly and clearly.

Radio ad managers are always looking for advertisers. That is their job and advertising fees are the lifeblood of Commercial Radio.

However, กPIก is not the only money earner for stations, so be prepared for a polite but cool reception.

If this happens, pick another station and start the process again.

The rewards of a successful กPIก campaign will pay back your effort many times over.

Step #6 The Commercial Ad

Write your commercialกs outline to maximise your กWanted Response.ก

Write the outlines for at least two 30 second, and two 60 second commercials.

Writing commercials for broadcasting is very different to writing ad copy for printed media. However, stations will help you by taking your outlines and turning them into finished commercials for a fee.

Alternatively, if your copy writing is good and you have time to tweak it for broadcasting, then do it yourself.

Listen to the stationกs ads, jingles, and catch phrases and prerecord your own following a similar model. Ask objective people to listen to your ad and give you critical feedback.

Sidebar

When recording for radio you may or may not want to use your own voice. Radio stations have กVoicesก to record your commercial for a fee before it goes on air.

They also have royalty free music to include with your ad.

Make your commercials memorable, with clear contact information for listeners to follow up on.

When such ads go on air during relevant programming, you cangenerate considerable traffic.

In closing, กjust do itก and learn more than I can show you in a brief article.

Radio is often overlooked by online advertisers, but it can bring good results depending on your กWanted Responseก and at a surprisingly low cost.

Ad Managers are tasked with maximising revenue for the broadcaster. They are flexible and as long as you demonstrate a financial benefit to the station, they will listen to your กPIก proposal actively.

This is good news for you because for minimal outlay and sometimes for free you can drive quality traffic to your site, product and services.

กPIก is the lowest cost form of broadcast advertising. Make this a new part of your overall advertising strategy.

Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading new wave Netpreneur and a published author from England. The กSimply Easierก brand name is your guarantee of high value, quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources

About The Author

Charles Kangethe has been involved in direct response marketing since 1982. He now lives in Suffolk County and spends his time working on new Online Marketing campaigns, with particular focus on helping new netpreneurs at http://www.simplyeasier.com

This article was posted on January 26, 2004

by Charles Kangethe

Simple Solution for Php Includes IFrames

Simple Solution for Php Includes IFrames

by: Michael J Medeiros

I have recently created my first Php program. I wanted to share with others some of the problems that I encountered, and how I finally overcame these obstacles.
My Reason for needing a Php Include
To start, my most recent website features a free classified advertising solution, a modified version of PhpBB stripped to function as an Article Bulletin Board (No replying), and a link directory. The business model of my Website offers free Classified Advertising, but charges a small fee for enhanced advertisements (Featured, Bolded, and Better Placement). The Classifieds were purchased from a developer, so I had little experience with the application. The link directory was a free resource of an old program that I modernized a bit. I choose the old link directory because the links are clean. They are not replaced with coding to count outbound traffic. I figured this would increase the value of links, to sites who exchanged links with me.
To increase revenue on the new site, I realized that I needed to increase the value of, ขFeatured Advertisementsข. To do this I wanted to randomly rotate featured advertisements, from the classifieds, across my Bulletin Board and Link Directory. Bare in mind, all three are run from a unique table, and I wanted to leave it that way. In addition, I had little experience with the development for all three applications.
I started reading tutorials and utilizing Forums to create a Php program for external pages on the site. The program would pull a random featured ad from the classified table. This program only took me about 32 hours to create, while performing research. I didn’t intend to get into the schematics of the program with this post, so forgive me if you are looking for a Random generator. But I would be more than happy to share my code upon request.
The code I created was simple, it worked just the way I wanted, but I ran into one cumbersome obstacle; how do I implement this easily across two unique table driven applications? The answer was to use a Php Include
I started reading tutorials on, กPhp includes and functions and classesก. I realized quickly that this was a bit more confusing than creating the actual coding. In addition, I ran into parsing errors if I included the new coding in only one application.
My solution to using the, กInclude (),ก Php function
I found that very few people were willing to provide any feedback for such a problem, even in the most resourceful forums for Php Coding and information resources. I fumbled with the coding for over 72 hours. I thought this was a bit ridiculous, as the code itself took less time to create.
I finally came across a helpful solution that may prove beneficial, if you are in the same situation with Php Includes. The code was uploaded onto my server as a file (something.php). I removed the standard, กPhp Include (),ก function from all links and the PhpBB coding. I then called the Php file (page) using an Iframe tag, on pages I wanted it to appear. This proved to be a successful replacement for the Php Include.
Search Engine Results Using Iframe for Php Include
I waited until Google came around to see how the Iframe affected my sites search rankings. Finally, the other day this happened. The conclusion, my search rankings still increased due to recent link exchanges. The code is working to my needs, and it is easily included on any page that I want, even externals outside my site can call on the code, which opens more doors for advancement.
Here is the simple Iframe code I used to replace the Php Include:
<iframe align=top valign=right width=600 height=105 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 hspace=0 vspace=0 frameborder=0 scrolling=no src="http://your.com/filetoinclude.php" width=600 height=105></iframe>
Using the Iframe tag for Php Include Conclusion
I have encountered no problems with including my PHP code on pages across external servers, using the iframe as a Php Include. As you can see, it is totally customizable. You can specify the width, height, alignment, border, scrolling, margins and more. The only obstacle that I have encountered, is the style sheet that the site, or page, with the, กPhp Include,ก is not utilized. The page that the code is on seems to need its own unique style sheet.
I hope this proves beneficial to anyone having trouble with running a กPhp Includeก across various unique online applications.

About The Author

Michael J. Medeiros is the owner of www.Mjmls.com. He has worked as an Independent Real Estate Agent for three years, in New Jersey. He has an extensive background in Business and Marketing. Michael’s latest research and attention has been devoted to online business development and the Internet.

This article was posted on June 27, 2004

by Michael J Medeiros

Cyber Love At First Sight

Cyber Love At First Sight

by: Elaine Currie, BA (Hons).

How I Found My Home Based Business Niche.

By: Elaine Currie, BA (Hons) © The Hunting Venus Group

I found myself suddenly and unexpectedly unemployed after more than twentyfive years in the same job. Prior to this I had no ambition to own my own business. I had previously had vague thoughts that it would be very nice to be able to work from home, but I never had any idea of what I could actually work at. I have a computer, I am literate and can type at a pretty fast rate. Apart from these, I have no skills which I can see as the basis for a home based business. I like reading and I grow all manner of plants from beans to cacti, but I couldn’t see anybody paying me to stay home and do any of these things.

If you had told me then where I would be today, and what I would be doing, I would have thought you were crazy. I would not have believed that I would own some websites (my own domain actually), be working from home and have published articles which I had written myself.

I searched for work, both on and off the internet and the more I searched, the more downhearted I became. Sure, there were jobs about but they all required things I lacked: some wanted experience, some wanted much younger people, the worst ones wanted people who were prepared to work long hours for peanuts.

I was regularly searching on the Internet for opportunities for home work. I joined forums and read posts from women who were desperate to work from home, most of them had children and were unable to find suitable jobs to fit in with their schedules. It began to seem as if there is a great army of people all wanting to work but unable to find the right opportunity to suit them.

I signed up with a couple of companies to get paid for reading emails, but reading a couple of emails each day is not the way to make a fortune. I still read emails for these companies, but only out of sentiment (you will understand what I mean by this when you get to the end of this story).

I picked up a couple of ideas which seemed promising and I tried them out. The first thing was mystery shopping, which sounded simple enough, and potentially enjoyable – well, getting paid to go shopping sounds good to me. I found many companies through searching the internet and I applied to dozens of them; I wanted a full time job, not just the odd shopping trip. Months went by and I heard nothing from any of these companies.

Fortunately, I had not been just sitting back and waiting for the mystery shopping jobs to come pouring in. I saw advertisements for paid surveys, and it seemed that you could make a fulltime income filling in surveys on line. There were many websites which advised that you should never pay a fee to join a survey company, and these sites displayed the web addresses of various survey companies. At the same time, I saw a lot of advertising by a company which promised access to an enormous database of the best paying survey companies for a fee of only $35, which you would be bound to recover within a few days. Against my better judgement, I paid over the $35 and was disappointed to find that many of the companies in this database would accept US and Canada residents only. Nothing wrong with that, apart from the fact that I live in the UK. Of the companies which would accept international residents, I had already signed up to most of them. I got precisely nothing back for my $35. The only money I earned came from two paid survey companies which I did not join through that database. To date I have received a total payment of £12. I have earned another £21 which is in an account which would only pay out if my total reached £50.

My work search turned into a research project. I started looking at home based businesses rather than jobs. No shortage of possibilities here, but how to choose? I saw some attractive websites aimed at selling all kinds of goods but I had no idea where I would obtain stock, or even what I should try to sell, let alone how to set up a website, and my budget was limited. I tried searching for turnkey businesses. I looked at affiliate programme opportunities, and they seemed a good idea, no stock to buy or handle, but what should I sell? There were also different grades of memberships. I hardly knew what most of it meant to start with, but I was learning, and I was getting a pretty good feel for what I didn’t want.

I would like to say that I found my niche as a result of my own genius, hard work and perseverance. Actually, it was an accident. I opened one of my paid to read emails, clicked on the link and had my first view of a Plugin Profit SiteÔ. I try to avoid clichés but this truly was a sight for sore eyes, eyes which felt as if they were ready to bulge out of my head after hours of staring at a computer screen. If it is possible to fall in love with a website, I did just that; I knew absolutely without a doubt that I wanted a Plugin Profit Site of my own, it was everything I needed and more besides.

An attractive young man (young enough to be my son, I am afraid) was offering to build for me free of charge a website, complete with five free to join affiliate programmes selling a wide range of items, to provide multiple ways of earning money. He was also offering me, free of charge, my own prewritten newsletter, his own guide to setting up and running my business and many other free things which I came to appreciate even though I didn’t know what they were at the time (remember, I did not know a mailing list from a grocery list at this time, and I thought a lead was just something you needed to walk your dog). I could take delivery of all this within 24 hours, thank goodness; I don’t think I could have waited a minute longer. I did not resist this temptation for even a second and within 24 hours, I was a website owner all ready to trade.

The learning curve started here but I’ll save that for another story. I’ll just tell you one thing that I learned: I found out that I had, once again, been extremely lucky. I joined a couple of forums and read many posts from people who had struggled for years to find a decent home based internet business. These people told harrowing tales of failure, money lost, mounting debts, years of hard work and worry. In a strange way, I feel almost guilty that I found my niche by accident.

About The Author

This is one of a series of articles published by the author, Elaine Currie, BA(Hons) at http://www.huntingvenus.com The author’s monthly newsletter is available free from mailto:[email protected].

This article was posted on January 04

by Elaine Currie, BA (Hons).

What is Your Websiteกs Most Wanted Response?

What is Your Websiteกs Most Wanted Response?

by: Steve Nash

You spend time and money promoting your website; but what do you want to achieve (apart from more page views)? Is it more sales of Blue Widgets? Is it more subscribers on your mailing list? To be exact, what is your siteกs Most Wanted Response?
I ask this question because in the excitement of creating your very own website, it is easy to forget (or not even consider) the main purpose of your site! Alas, I talk from experience!
In late 1999 I created Shop Tour UK (http://www.shoptour.co.uk): "a unique way to surf secure UK shopping sites." (Well, thatกs what I thought, anyway! 🙂 ) The site started out life as a hobby site no problems there! but quickly started to take hours and hours of updating each day. (With no clear, measurable objectives itกs very easy to continually change and กimproveก a site!)
Shop Tour UK wasn’t making any money, either well, it was a hobby site! So I decided to redesign the site, join lots of affiliate programs, find the best affiliate programs, and focus the site on promoting those programs!

sidebar

Affiliate marketing really does provide a great opportunity for ALL site owners to make extra income. But choose your affiliate programs wisely; otherwise, youกll still be working hard but for very little reward. To learn more about the pros and cons of affiliate marketing, visit http://www.associateprograms.com

sidebar

Yes! It took months to signup to affiliate programs and seek out the best of them. Yes! It took a couple of site redesigns. And yes! It is better to have clear, and measurable objectives right from the start! (That is, to know your siteกs Most Wanted Response!)
But hey! Now I spend much less time updating my site (because I only concentrate on promoting the most profitable aspects of it), AND it is now starting to earn money!
So how does this affect you?

Well, does your site sell goods? Then which goods in particular do you most want to sell? Or which goods are easiest to sell, easiest to convert a visitor into a customer (allowing you to followup)?
Does your site offer content, supported by affiliate programs (like my own site)? Then which affiliate programs are most relevant to your site? Which offer the best rates of commission, with the best chance of a sale?
Does your site simply operate a newsletter? Then do you make it easy for people to subscribe, from *any* page on your website? And do you sell the benefits of your free newsletter, make people WANT to subscribe?

Dr Ken Evoy introduced the Most Wanted Response (MWR) in his กnetselling bibleก Make Your Site Sell. Itกs probably the most important lesson in all of Make Your Site Sell. In essence, the MWR is what you most want your visitor to do after reviewing your content. And it should always:

be reasonable
be measurable
be a good fit
qualify the visitor

Some techniques of getting your most wanted response include using the word YOU often in sentences, using commands, making sentences active (rather than passive) and creating powerful headlines.
These are just a few ways to achieve your siteกs most wanted response (there are more).
Whatกs MOST IMPORTANT, however, is that you understand the concept of a Most Wanted Response for your website, and you set about trying to achieve it. Then, and only then, will all the effort you make in generating traffic to your website be worth it!
Happy promoting!
PS My siteกs most wanted response is *not* what you might think it should be. None of the shopping sites listed on Shop Tour UK run affiliate programs as good as those I now actively promote!

About The Author

Steve Nash is webmaster at http://www.shoptour.co.uk He discovered the Most Wanted Response concept by visiting Site Sell at http://www.sitesell.com/shopping101.html And now heกs excited because Site Build It! now does it ALL for you! From site concept to site creation to site promotion to site profit. Marvellous! Site Build It! http://buildit.sitesell.com/shopping101.html

This article was posted on January 20, 2002

by Steve Nash

A Lesson From ขThe Apprenticeข That Can Make You A

A Lesson From ขThe Apprenticeข That Can Make You A Master

by: Karon Thackston

I have to admit, I was curious. When I saw previews of a new show called ขThe Apprentice,ข it made me want to at least watch the premiere to see what was going on. Immediately, I was hooked. The whole idea of candidates from all walks of life, not just college grads fresh from their commencement ceremonies vying for a position in one of Donald Trump’s organizations piqued my interest. What kept my interest were the reallife advertising lessons every business owner needs to be reminded of.

Take, for instance, one episode where the teams were challenged to create an ad campaign. I was, needlesstosay, on the edge of my seat for the entire show. One team immediately decided to phone the client and setup an appointment to find out about the product, the end user, and other aspects that would make a big difference in creating the campaign. (Smart move!)

The other team, however, said they didn’t have time to talk with the client. They were running behind schedule. Meeting with the client in their opinion would just waste an hour or two that could have been spent on more important tasks. (Excuse me?)

What happened? First of all, my husband came charging into the living room asking, ขDo you believe that? Even *I* know you have to talk to the customer first!ข Yes, he had been listening to me after all.

In the end, the campaign from the team who did speak with the client won the challenge. Once the losing team arrived in the boardroom, the project leader, Jason (Mr. ขWe Don’t Have Time To Talk With the Clientข), really got it from all sides.

Donald Trump’s assistants, George and Carolyn, made a point of bringing up the fact that the client was not contacted. Jason’s own teammates made a point of bringing up that the client was never contacted. And Donald? To quote, Donald said, ขThat was a HUGE mistake… you’re fired!ข

This was fairly early in the show so you would have thought the other contestants would have learned from Jason’s mistake. Not so. There was yet another episode where an Apprentice put what they wanted over what the client wanted/needed.

In this task, the teams were charged with selling Donald’s new product, Trump Ice (bottled water). The winner was simply the team who sold the most in a given period of time. Nick, a salesman by trade, was immediately confident his team would win if they would just step aside and let him work his magic.

Ereka, the project manager for Nick’s team, urged Nick to sit with her at the computer and research the market and the customer base for bottled water. Nick wouldn’t even hear of it. To quote, ขTelling me how to sell is like someone telling the Pope how to pray.ก So off went Nick using his same ขhigh energyข sales pitch on every customer and focusing on what Nick wanted to sell instead of finding the best benefits for the clients.

What happened? Nick flopped time and time again. A teammate (Bill) jumped in during one sales meeting and helped the client to understand the benefits of buying Trump Ice. Bill made the sale.

In the boardroom, George immediately noted his disappointment in how little the team seemed to know about their prospective customers. And Donald chimed in by saying he had no idea why Nick thought his sales skills were so great when he had no clue about the customers he was selling to. Ouch!

The bottom line? The team lost. Why? Because Nick was busy trying to sell what he wanted to sell, and in the way he wanted to sell it, with no regard for the customer whatsoever.

The moral of the story? Know your customers. They are the ones with the money. It doesn’t matter what you like. If *they* aren’t happy with your site, your copy, your graphics, your product, or your service… they’ll abandon you cold.

When you’re creating a business plan, when you’re writing copy, when you’re creating a website, or developing a brochure. It’s not about you… it’s all about them. If one of the richest and most profitable businessmen in the world tells you target market research is vital to success, you can bet it is a wise strategy to follow.

Karon Thackston © 2004

http://www.copywritingcourse.com

About The Author

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to check out Karon’s latest ereport ขHow To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy)ข at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.

This article was posted on April 27, 2004

by Karon Thackston

Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connecti

Copywriting Makeover: Making An Emotional Connection Part 1 of 2

by: Karon Thackston

One statistic shows that over 80% of all buying decisions are emotional. That means your copywriting should be, too. This is something I firmly believe in and have preached for most of my copywriting career. However, all too often, I find people skipping the vital step of making an emotional connection with their customers. That can be a tragic, and costly, mistake.
Thats why I was excited when I had the opportunity to rewrite the homepage copy for a vacation cruise service. While the copy they used previously gave all the details and got them a good number of bookings, it just didnt have what it takes to make me start daydreaming about my next cruise. It didnt but it was about to!
The Problems
The previous copy on the Cruise Vacation Center home page faced a couple of challenges. (You can view the original copy at this link: http://www.copywritingcourse.com/CruiseVacationCenterOriginal.pdf.) The copy was very companyoriented instead of customeroriented. It talked about who Cruise Vacation Center (CVC) is, why the visitor should buy from them, and some wonderful benefits CVC offers its clients including excellent bargain rates and extra discounts. However, all the verbiage was geared toward the company. The customer was left out.
The home page copy also lacked emotion. It was very matteroffact. In addition to making visitors aware of the wonderful prices and deals CVC offered, I wanted to create a vision for the site visitors. I wanted to give them what they needed in order to float off into a daydream about fabulous portsofcall; warm, gentle breezes; and thrilling adventures.
While I was painting a picture of the vacation of a lifetime, I also had to be sure to include a vital fact. CVCs business plan was set up to be most affordable for the customer when s/he booked online. Without sounding rude, I had to do everything in my power to get the site visitor to book their cruise vacation while at the site. This was an extremely important issue and a point that needed to be woven throughout the copy.
Lastly, the page had to uphold Cruise Vacation Centers excellent search engine rankings. They were ranked at the top of several major engines, and the rewritten copy couldnt jeopardize their positioning.
The Solutions
The first step was, without question, to woo the site visitors with delightful fantasies about their next vacation. My goal was to conjure up all sorts of visions in the minds of Cruise Vacation Centers visitors. I wanted the visitors to be dreaming of exotic places with lots of fun things to do, interesting sights to see, and 24/7 access to gourmet meals that rival any fivestar restaurant. I wanted their blood pressure to drop 10 points just from reading about the onboard staff of hundreds who would pamper them with VIP treatment. After reading this copy, I wanted them ready to leave on vacation today! However, I also had to persuade them to book online rather than calling CVCs office.
During the rewrite, I had to carefully plan the use of their primary keyphrase, cruise vacation, so as not to disrupt their most reliable source of business the search engines. After all, there is a delicate balance between pleasing the search engines and appealing to site visitors.
If I leaned too much toward the search engine side of the equation, the conversion ratio of the home page would suffer. In other words, Cruise Vacation Center would get lots of visitors, but few of them would book cruises.
If I leaned too much toward the customer side of the equation, CVCs rankings would plummet, and they would need to find a new way to drive qualified traffic to their site. As is normally the case with SEO copywriting, balance was going to be vital.
In the conclusion to this twopart series, youll see how I handled the rewrite and what the end results of all the work were. Curious to see the new copy? Youll find it on CVCs site: You can see the new copy on CVCs site at http://www.cruisevacationcenter.com.
by Karon Thackston © 2004

http://www.copywritingcourse.com

About The Author

Copy not getting results? Learn to write SEO copy that impresses the engines and your visitors at http://www.copywritingcourse.com. Be sure to also check out Karons latest ereport How To Increase Keyword Saturation (Without Destroying the Flow of Your Copy) at http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keyword.
IF PUBLISHING ON A WEBSITE, USE THIS RESOURCE BOX:
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This article was posted on July 30, 2004

by Karon Thackston