So you got your website up and running. You hired an excellent web designer to craft a perfect home page and satellite pages that will really draw in the visitors and inspire them to buy.
You have a beautiful catalog of products with detailed descriptions. You have a section dedicated to the services you provide with praises from past customers.
And you have the best online shopping cart service out there so that you customers can buy from you with no hassles and next day shipping. That's great! Now where are your customers?
Driving traffic to your website is a much discussed and much misunderstood venture. There are a million theories out there that claim to drive tons of new visitors to your site daily.
There are services that say they will increase your traffic by an enormous percentage if you will only pay them their small fee over a period of fifty years.
There are so-called experts who will place your pages on all the best search engines on the net. They claim that with this kind of blanket exposure, your traffic numbers will explode within days. But the only sure-fire way to draw productive traffic to your website is through targeted marketing.
The important word to notice here is "productive." You can draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to your site every year by hosting a giveaway of some kind.
Services that search the internet for freebies will have people clicking a link to your site like crazy. But these people are not there to buy anything from you ... quite the opposite. They are empty clicks.
There is nothing productive about this kind of traffic. People looking for free stuff will rarely make you any kind of money. And that's what you're after, right?
So target your marketing to the people who really want to buy what you have to offer. How? Start by trying these basic steps...
* Hire an experienced copywriter.
The copy that is on your site makes a world of difference in the sales you garner from the internet. Most important to targeted marketing are the keywords found in your title and the metatags in the website's code.
An experienced copywriter will know how to determine the most effective keywords and place them strategically in your site's copy. If you cannot afford a copywriter, do some research and talk to your web designer about inserting metatags.
* You can enroll in pay per click search engines. Obviously, google.com is one of these, but most of the most popular keywords are already taken.
If you can think of some original phrases that people use to search for your products or services, you can post your ad next to the text that comes up when people search for that phrase. Every time someone clicks on your ad to go to your site, you pay google.com a nominal fee.
* Submit articles to free ezine sites. This is especially helpful if you are a service provider. You can write, or hire someone to write, an article for you about your area of expertise.
Give some free tips, offer your experience, and be accessible in the text. Then at the bottom of the article, you get a link to your website advertising your services. Every time someone publishes your article in their ezine or newsletter, they must use your web address at the bottom.
These are just a few of the many ways to ensure you get "productive" traffic. Empty clicks are just that ... empty... and your wallet will stay that way, too!
To Your Success!
About the Author
Michael Biehn, SEO Consultant.
Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services.com
Professional And Affordable Search Engine Optimization Services Trought Natural Search Engines Results.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
XsitePro Versus Site Build It (SBI), Which One Should You Choose?
When the often discussed debate between XsitePro and Site Build It surfaces in forums, it seems everybody has their own opinion and naturally only they are right. SBI'ers (as the Site-Build-It fans are called) are very, very passionate, and this is due to the "internal" focus they have. Everything is in one place for them and they stick together.
Nothing against the SBI club, they get good results and have a real community. They are loyal to the brand.
I don't own Site Build It, even though I gave it strong consideration, and I will outline why in just a moment.
I respect you need to make your own decision about what is the right website development tool for you, so I have outlined some of the important facts to consider based on my own opinion and the topics I have seen raised in other places, all of which helped me make my decision, (Buy XsitePro).
SiteBuild It - A summary
Site Build It (SBI) is an excellent product and has very good results for many users. Ken Evoy is a pioneer of the internet marketing revolution and produces some of the best and most sensible information available. His MYSS2002 ebook (make your site sell 2002) was extremely well priced and crammed full of excellent content. (the ebook is now free).
He teaches the vital marketing method of CTPM, Content, Traffic, Pre-sell then Monetize. This is golden information and worth considering for any website.
Site Build It is a total package. It includes (among other things) domain name, hosting, website interface (online), link exchange facility, research tools, "point and click" sales letters and forum support all for an annual fee (currently $299).
Site Build It would suit a total beginner who has no wish or intention to learn each discipline beyond a standard level, therefore, whilst many Site Build It websites achieve high traffic and rankings based on the "content is king" mantra it does have user limitations.
If you intend to create more than one website and have maximum scope for flexibility you need to consider several important factors before you make a choice.
Your level of skill and likelihood of improving your competency level will determine if XsitePro is right for you
XsitePro (XSP) will allow you to do far more if you plan to develop your internet technical skills because you can start off using WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) functions then incorporate HTML and CSS disciplines later. SBI is more about making an online business and less about making websites.
Your financial situation and the amount of investment you are willing to commit to your online business is important to consider
XsitePro plus a domain name, plus hosting purchased separately will cost less than annual Site Build It fees. This is especially true when you create more and more websites. If you have one website, the annual cost of SBI might seem well priced at $299. To buy XsitePro and a domain name and hosting will cost about the same.
XsitePro $197 Domain name $9 Hosting $72 Total $278
However when you want multiple websites as part of your business model, things change.
For example, 50 websites would cost for one year using individual components:
XsitePro $197 Domain names $450 Reseller account hosting $348 Total $995
versus for 50 Site Build It websites.
($299 x 50) Total $14,950
Big difference right?
Assuming you get a special deal on SBI websites, even if it was half, $7475 would still be expensive.
Even if you went on a buying "rampage" and bought some highly effective "extra" tools such as expensive keyword research tools, graphics tools, Autoresponders etc, you would not meet the same expense level.
You might be able to make a great income with one site. Good luck if you can, I like to have different sites in different niches. Once you set one up, it is another income stream. I like lots of income streams so that when things change, you are protected.
XsitePro lends it self to the innovator and the creator. You will see why soon
SBI has the following tools included, so it is worth reviewing them here and we can see if XsitePro has an answer to it:
Brainstorming and researching tools - These can be found for free if you use well known keyword selection tools such as niche bot classic.
Web/html/graphic design - XsitePro has built in templates, and templates can be created using photoshop or you can buy them from membership site or have them designed from $80 - $450. (You would not need to spend $2000).
Hosting of your site - This can be sourced very cheaply in the USA from $6 per month will get you excellent bandwidth allowances.
Domain name annual renewal - you can get top level domain names for $9 per year at large domain name companies.
Submit unlimited URLs to Search Engines (includes Google Sitemaps, Yahoo! Mass-Submit, and MSN Graphic-Challenge) - You can submit your sites for free, or you can use a submission service, or you can use the submission features of programs like SEO Elite, Axandra IBP or Submit Equalizer. XSP comes with sitemap creator and is Google compatible with XML format. Some SEO experts suggest you should NOT submit your website, it is better to have it found using SEO techniques.
Ranking Reports for Search Engines - You can use free tools for this and get toolbars for the browser Firefox which have SEO features. Other paid programs have excellent features to do this.
Unique Keyword search reports for Search Engines - there are many free tools to do this, and also excellent paid ones.
Search engine optimization - this is built in to XsitePro with an SEO wizard and the way the site is structured.
Community Tips and Resources - XsitePro has an excellent forum with a good knowledge base. Some XsitePro users have even produced tips sheets such as the XSP Cheat Sheet.
4 Traffic HQs- There is plenty of free "how to build traffic" information on the internet. Look up articles at www.Goarticles.com.
Pay-per-click research and mass-bidding - Pay Per Click is one of the most essential skills to learn, you are best to learn from an expert like Perry Marshall and you will be glad you did.
Click-in and Click-through Analysis - Good web hosts have web statistics (webalizer and AW Stats in C Panel). You can also set up tracking for your campaigns by using AXROI or adminder.
E-zine Subscription and Delivery - I recommend any internet business consider using a professional service like Aweber for mail delivery and ezines. You get the autoresponder with excellent HTML templates and automated mail delivery with very high delivery rates.
(E-Newsletter, including SpamCheck and OpenRate) - Aweber covers this.
Value Exchange - there are many free forums to exchange with others (Warrior Forum).
Form Building software - form software can be downloaded for free, or pay $10 for standard form building software.
(Automated Forms and Sequential Autoresponders) - see above
Link Fix It! (No more bad links!) - Xenu link sleauth does this for free.
Full E-mail/webmail With Spam 'n Virus Blast It! - Your hosting interface C Panel has an easy mail creation function. As many emails as you like. Pop 3 them into your mail client (outlook) or use webmail.
Monetize - You can find affiliate programs yourself. Type your keyword + Affiliate into your search engine to find your own products.
Private Forums - Try Warrior Forum and the XsitePro Forum instead
Action Guide/Video Guide/"Guru-in-your-ear" help - There is plenty of information available on the internet, there are enough Gurus out there.
Next up you need to consider your creativity and desire to control your own projects
XsitePro is clearly far more flexible for long-term project choice and you have a support network for ongoing assistance.
Both XsitePro and SBI have forums and support including passionate users.
The supplier of your chosen "system" and their level of competency.
I recommend you buy from an enthusiastic and competent affiliate who offers bonuses of value with integrity. Both SBI and XsitePro have enthusiastic affiliates who focus on selling the product.
Some of the main advantages of XsitePro
XsitePro is a stand-alone software program for building (marketing oriented) websites. It is desktop based so you can have an offline back-up, and make changes offline for easy upload (speed). This especially suits dial-up operators.
XsitePro is particularly fast to learn and use compared to more expensive web building programs such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage.
The advantages of XsitePro are not just speed and ease of use. XsitePro allows a novice web marketer the ability to build in SEO oriented content by prompting certain disciplines. The result is, XsitePro websites tend to produce more Search Engine friendly pages (which brings traffic once indexed in major search engines) than free website builder programs.
The other major advantage of XsitePro for an internet marketer is the ability to store affiliate details (including login and password storage), create Adsense blocks and make redirect pages with ease. This drastically reduces web set-up time and means changes "on the fly" are possible as affiliate programs change and pages are added.
XsitePro allows you to copy an entire website and change main keywords, colours, page layout and publishing details so that you can quickly create an entirely new website for another market within hours. The advantage of this is you can move into any market as soon as you need to and catch the benefit of being in the right market at the right time.
XsitePro users are able to share templates with each other and export into other web programs such as Dreamweaver. Many very experienced webmasters still create websites in XsitePro first then export to Dreamweaver later for very advanced changes because XsitePro is so much faster. This is better than SBI because of the compatibility with professional design standards.
XsitePro owners are able to build websites for anyone either free or paid and then upload to any server once the FTP details are known. As many businesses are recognizing the opportunity of being online as print media becomes less utilized by consumers almost every small business, consultant, medium business and service provider is a potential customer for your website creation services.
XsitePro at $197 is by far the most cost-effective tool in a web marketers tool kit
So in summary, if you are prepared to roll up the sleeves a little and commit to learning some of the core disciplines of the internet marketing skill set, you will be better off doing it yourself and building up your business with specialized components rather than the "all in one" approach.
About the Author
James Schramko publishes a FREE monthly XsitePro Newsletter, including tips bonus mini course. Get an exclusive bonus when you buy del.icio.us |
Furl | 
Technorati |
Nothing against the SBI club, they get good results and have a real community. They are loyal to the brand.
I don't own Site Build It, even though I gave it strong consideration, and I will outline why in just a moment.
I respect you need to make your own decision about what is the right website development tool for you, so I have outlined some of the important facts to consider based on my own opinion and the topics I have seen raised in other places, all of which helped me make my decision, (Buy XsitePro).
SiteBuild It - A summary
Site Build It (SBI) is an excellent product and has very good results for many users. Ken Evoy is a pioneer of the internet marketing revolution and produces some of the best and most sensible information available. His MYSS2002 ebook (make your site sell 2002) was extremely well priced and crammed full of excellent content. (the ebook is now free).
He teaches the vital marketing method of CTPM, Content, Traffic, Pre-sell then Monetize. This is golden information and worth considering for any website.
Site Build It is a total package. It includes (among other things) domain name, hosting, website interface (online), link exchange facility, research tools, "point and click" sales letters and forum support all for an annual fee (currently $299).
Site Build It would suit a total beginner who has no wish or intention to learn each discipline beyond a standard level, therefore, whilst many Site Build It websites achieve high traffic and rankings based on the "content is king" mantra it does have user limitations.
If you intend to create more than one website and have maximum scope for flexibility you need to consider several important factors before you make a choice.
Your level of skill and likelihood of improving your competency level will determine if XsitePro is right for you
XsitePro (XSP) will allow you to do far more if you plan to develop your internet technical skills because you can start off using WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) functions then incorporate HTML and CSS disciplines later. SBI is more about making an online business and less about making websites.
Your financial situation and the amount of investment you are willing to commit to your online business is important to consider
XsitePro plus a domain name, plus hosting purchased separately will cost less than annual Site Build It fees. This is especially true when you create more and more websites. If you have one website, the annual cost of SBI might seem well priced at $299. To buy XsitePro and a domain name and hosting will cost about the same.
XsitePro $197 Domain name $9 Hosting $72 Total $278
However when you want multiple websites as part of your business model, things change.
For example, 50 websites would cost for one year using individual components:
XsitePro $197 Domain names $450 Reseller account hosting $348 Total $995
versus for 50 Site Build It websites.
($299 x 50) Total $14,950
Big difference right?
Assuming you get a special deal on SBI websites, even if it was half, $7475 would still be expensive.
Even if you went on a buying "rampage" and bought some highly effective "extra" tools such as expensive keyword research tools, graphics tools, Autoresponders etc, you would not meet the same expense level.
You might be able to make a great income with one site. Good luck if you can, I like to have different sites in different niches. Once you set one up, it is another income stream. I like lots of income streams so that when things change, you are protected.
XsitePro lends it self to the innovator and the creator. You will see why soon
SBI has the following tools included, so it is worth reviewing them here and we can see if XsitePro has an answer to it:
Brainstorming and researching tools - These can be found for free if you use well known keyword selection tools such as niche bot classic.
Web/html/graphic design - XsitePro has built in templates, and templates can be created using photoshop or you can buy them from membership site or have them designed from $80 - $450. (You would not need to spend $2000).
Hosting of your site - This can be sourced very cheaply in the USA from $6 per month will get you excellent bandwidth allowances.
Domain name annual renewal - you can get top level domain names for $9 per year at large domain name companies.
Submit unlimited URLs to Search Engines (includes Google Sitemaps, Yahoo! Mass-Submit, and MSN Graphic-Challenge) - You can submit your sites for free, or you can use a submission service, or you can use the submission features of programs like SEO Elite, Axandra IBP or Submit Equalizer. XSP comes with sitemap creator and is Google compatible with XML format. Some SEO experts suggest you should NOT submit your website, it is better to have it found using SEO techniques.
Ranking Reports for Search Engines - You can use free tools for this and get toolbars for the browser Firefox which have SEO features. Other paid programs have excellent features to do this.
Unique Keyword search reports for Search Engines - there are many free tools to do this, and also excellent paid ones.
Search engine optimization - this is built in to XsitePro with an SEO wizard and the way the site is structured.
Community Tips and Resources - XsitePro has an excellent forum with a good knowledge base. Some XsitePro users have even produced tips sheets such as the XSP Cheat Sheet.
4 Traffic HQs- There is plenty of free "how to build traffic" information on the internet. Look up articles at www.Goarticles.com.
Pay-per-click research and mass-bidding - Pay Per Click is one of the most essential skills to learn, you are best to learn from an expert like Perry Marshall and you will be glad you did.
Click-in and Click-through Analysis - Good web hosts have web statistics (webalizer and AW Stats in C Panel). You can also set up tracking for your campaigns by using AXROI or adminder.
E-zine Subscription and Delivery - I recommend any internet business consider using a professional service like Aweber for mail delivery and ezines. You get the autoresponder with excellent HTML templates and automated mail delivery with very high delivery rates.
(E-Newsletter, including SpamCheck and OpenRate) - Aweber covers this.
Value Exchange - there are many free forums to exchange with others (Warrior Forum).
Form Building software - form software can be downloaded for free, or pay $10 for standard form building software.
(Automated Forms and Sequential Autoresponders) - see above
Link Fix It! (No more bad links!) - Xenu link sleauth does this for free.
Full E-mail/webmail With Spam 'n Virus Blast It! - Your hosting interface C Panel has an easy mail creation function. As many emails as you like. Pop 3 them into your mail client (outlook) or use webmail.
Monetize - You can find affiliate programs yourself. Type your keyword + Affiliate into your search engine to find your own products.
Private Forums - Try Warrior Forum and the XsitePro Forum instead
Action Guide/Video Guide/"Guru-in-your-ear" help - There is plenty of information available on the internet, there are enough Gurus out there.
Next up you need to consider your creativity and desire to control your own projects
XsitePro is clearly far more flexible for long-term project choice and you have a support network for ongoing assistance.
Both XsitePro and SBI have forums and support including passionate users.
The supplier of your chosen "system" and their level of competency.
I recommend you buy from an enthusiastic and competent affiliate who offers bonuses of value with integrity. Both SBI and XsitePro have enthusiastic affiliates who focus on selling the product.
Some of the main advantages of XsitePro
XsitePro is a stand-alone software program for building (marketing oriented) websites. It is desktop based so you can have an offline back-up, and make changes offline for easy upload (speed). This especially suits dial-up operators.
XsitePro is particularly fast to learn and use compared to more expensive web building programs such as Dreamweaver and Frontpage.
The advantages of XsitePro are not just speed and ease of use. XsitePro allows a novice web marketer the ability to build in SEO oriented content by prompting certain disciplines. The result is, XsitePro websites tend to produce more Search Engine friendly pages (which brings traffic once indexed in major search engines) than free website builder programs.
The other major advantage of XsitePro for an internet marketer is the ability to store affiliate details (including login and password storage), create Adsense blocks and make redirect pages with ease. This drastically reduces web set-up time and means changes "on the fly" are possible as affiliate programs change and pages are added.
XsitePro allows you to copy an entire website and change main keywords, colours, page layout and publishing details so that you can quickly create an entirely new website for another market within hours. The advantage of this is you can move into any market as soon as you need to and catch the benefit of being in the right market at the right time.
XsitePro users are able to share templates with each other and export into other web programs such as Dreamweaver. Many very experienced webmasters still create websites in XsitePro first then export to Dreamweaver later for very advanced changes because XsitePro is so much faster. This is better than SBI because of the compatibility with professional design standards.
XsitePro owners are able to build websites for anyone either free or paid and then upload to any server once the FTP details are known. As many businesses are recognizing the opportunity of being online as print media becomes less utilized by consumers almost every small business, consultant, medium business and service provider is a potential customer for your website creation services.
XsitePro at $197 is by far the most cost-effective tool in a web marketers tool kit
So in summary, if you are prepared to roll up the sleeves a little and commit to learning some of the core disciplines of the internet marketing skill set, you will be better off doing it yourself and building up your business with specialized components rather than the "all in one" approach.
About the Author
James Schramko publishes a FREE monthly XsitePro Newsletter, including tips bonus mini course. Get an exclusive bonus when you buy del.icio.us |
Furl | Technorati |
Careers In Affiliate Marketing: Work at Home
Affiliate Marketing - a Great Way To Earn
Radical changes in many facets of human endeavors, including commerce, have become possible with the aid of the Internet. Its fast-growing popularity in recent years has made it a viable resource for business growth, one being affiliate marketing. In this form of marketing, the merchant shares the revenue from the sale of the product with the affiliate, who promotes the product or services. It is cost-efficient, and offers opportunities of earning high profits to the merchant and the affiliate, as well as other players involved, like the affiliate solution provider or the affiliate network.
Affiliate marketing is also beneficial because it offers the merchant an opportunity to reach a larger customer base, which results in larger sales volumes, and consequently greater profits. This is directly proportional to the number of hard working affiliates that he gets, as he saves time, effort and money in looking for customers. When a client makes a purchase by clicking on the link in the affiliate website, the merchant earns a profit from the sale. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer, according to his arrangements with the merchant, earns from the clicks on the link of his website, which result in a sale. The earnings of the affiliate can either be as per sales commission, a fixed amount or a fixed percentage.
How to Start as an Affiliate Marketer
There are three basic steps to initiate an effective program in affiliate marketing: The first step would be to identify a product, which you find interesting, and which would have a good conversion rate. Since this would be an area about which you would be knowledgeable, it would decrease your risk and effort, allowing you to give a personal touch to your website. Thus, visitors to your site will be impressed and view you as an expert. Once you win their trust, it will encourage them to purchase the products you endorse.
The next step is to find good paying merchants, and services or products, which are in your line of interest. You can source this information from affiliate networks and solution providers
Next is to create your own new website with a top-level domain name and reliable hosting.
Promoting the product
Your real work, that is promotion, begins now. This is vital for increasing traffic to the merchant's website, eventually leading to increased sales and profits. If the products you are promoting are high priced, you can make huge profits in a short time, by affiliate marketing. Usually, expensive products are quite difficult to sell, but by using effective marketing strategies, you can induce visitors of the business site to make purchases. Therefore, the real art is to promote the product that you have chosen for affiliate marketing. You can gain an insight into marketing strategies and advertising techniques by reading books on the topics, or through online articles.
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn profits through the Internet while working at home. However, you should be knowledgeable about marketing and advertising techniques in order to be successful.
About the Author
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
Radical changes in many facets of human endeavors, including commerce, have become possible with the aid of the Internet. Its fast-growing popularity in recent years has made it a viable resource for business growth, one being affiliate marketing. In this form of marketing, the merchant shares the revenue from the sale of the product with the affiliate, who promotes the product or services. It is cost-efficient, and offers opportunities of earning high profits to the merchant and the affiliate, as well as other players involved, like the affiliate solution provider or the affiliate network.
Affiliate marketing is also beneficial because it offers the merchant an opportunity to reach a larger customer base, which results in larger sales volumes, and consequently greater profits. This is directly proportional to the number of hard working affiliates that he gets, as he saves time, effort and money in looking for customers. When a client makes a purchase by clicking on the link in the affiliate website, the merchant earns a profit from the sale. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer, according to his arrangements with the merchant, earns from the clicks on the link of his website, which result in a sale. The earnings of the affiliate can either be as per sales commission, a fixed amount or a fixed percentage.
How to Start as an Affiliate Marketer
There are three basic steps to initiate an effective program in affiliate marketing: The first step would be to identify a product, which you find interesting, and which would have a good conversion rate. Since this would be an area about which you would be knowledgeable, it would decrease your risk and effort, allowing you to give a personal touch to your website. Thus, visitors to your site will be impressed and view you as an expert. Once you win their trust, it will encourage them to purchase the products you endorse.
The next step is to find good paying merchants, and services or products, which are in your line of interest. You can source this information from affiliate networks and solution providers
Next is to create your own new website with a top-level domain name and reliable hosting.
Promoting the product
Your real work, that is promotion, begins now. This is vital for increasing traffic to the merchant's website, eventually leading to increased sales and profits. If the products you are promoting are high priced, you can make huge profits in a short time, by affiliate marketing. Usually, expensive products are quite difficult to sell, but by using effective marketing strategies, you can induce visitors of the business site to make purchases. Therefore, the real art is to promote the product that you have chosen for affiliate marketing. You can gain an insight into marketing strategies and advertising techniques by reading books on the topics, or through online articles.
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn profits through the Internet while working at home. However, you should be knowledgeable about marketing and advertising techniques in order to be successful.
About the Author
Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.
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