SuperTips Ezine: Issue 22
IN THIS ISSUE
2. "Kill The Counter and Start Tracking!"
3. Readers Forum
4. "Secrets Of Effective Online Sales
Letters"
5. More "Super"
Tips 6. Publications of Interest 7. Next Issue
1. Greetings! Hello Folks, Did you know that we have a 94 year old lady who subscribes to SuperTips ? I have just paid a visit to the member centre for this ezine at Onelist and looked through the details of our subscribers. If you remember, when you joined, you just had to enter your Email address, but there were options to add your name, gender and age. About 1 in 10 add this extra information and that's how I came across this lady. Or maybe she is just having us on. If so she'll be blushing right now as she reads this. I bet that caught her attention ! Which leads me on to the point I want to make. How do you catch the attention of your readers with an Email message ? I would say there are 3 ways. First you must want them to open and read the message, so I suggest that you include their name in the subject. But don't make the mistake that you'll read about further on. Then there is the content of the message, but surprisingly I would put this in third place. More important I suggest is the appearance or layout of your message. Just look at the tips from Scott T Smith in today's article and you'll see a case of practising what you preach. Harvey
2. "Kill The Counter and Start Tracking!" You can invest huge amounts of money and time in promoting your web site, but you need to know where your traffic and sales are coming from to make it effective. Many webmasters just place a counter onto their web site. All this does is tell you how many people have seen your site. It doesn't tell you where they came from, what browsers they were using, what keywords they searched for at a search engine, etc. To be able to effectively market your web site and to receive the greatest amount of results, you must track your visitors. There are many ways this can be done. There are programs available like WebTrends, Web Site Reporter, etc. Many hosting providers have a program like this or something similar, but you are probably going to have to buy their higher service plans to receive it. If your hosting provider doesn't offer a statistics program that you like, or you just want to use something else, then there are many other ways to track your web site. There are many free services available online that will tell you a great detail of information. The catch is you have to place their banner on your web site so their software is able to track your visitors. This is one reason why I do not suggest this way of tracking your web site. It not only looks unprofessional, it also gives your visitors another chance to leave your web site. Why give someone else your business? If you would rather use an online service, then the one I suggest is: http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/ That one is probably the best one available and you only have to put a small button on your web site. The best and most cost effective way to track your web site is you can install a CGI script onto your web site's server. This is how I track my web site and the only way I recommend doing. You will need to have a CGI-BIN and to be able to add scripts to it. If you are not sure if you have full access to your CGI-BIN, then you need to ask your web hosting provider. There are many free CGI scripts available online that can do as many features as the top software programs that sell for 600 dollars. You can get access to over 50 CGI scripts here: http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Logg ing_Accesses_an d_Statistics/ The best script I have seen is the AXS. It is the very first script at the above web site. It will probable take you about 30 minutes to read all the information and to install the script, but it is well worth the time. Here are some of the features that this script tells you:
- Abbreviated Browser (Netscape 3.X) Now you can start tracking your web site and find out where your visitors are coming from and what is most effective. One thing you might want to do is ask your customers a few questions when they place an order. For example, you can ask them how they found your web site and what was their main decision for choosing you. This will also help you know what is most effective for your business and what exactly your customers want and expect.
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3. Readers Forum 3.1 No need for CGI experts In our last issue Carol Jensen asked for a CGI expert to show how to set up a form on a web page and have the information provided by the visitor sent to you in an Email.
We had a number of useful suggestions especially from William Bontrager
http://www.willmaster.com/possibilities/and John Councel
http://www.profitclinic.com but the one that Carol chose was a free service
called the EasyForm at http://www.netmaking.com/freebies/easyform.shtml
3.2 Pegasus problem My turn this week to ask our readers for help - one of the perks of having your own newsletter. Since installing a new version of Pegasus (3.12a) I find that when I minimise it it does not move down to the taskbar - it just disappears. When I re-open it the latest information is still there, just as if it had been minimised and not closed. All my other applications minimise correctly (I'm using Windows 98). Any ideas please ?
4. "Secrets Of Effective Online Sales Letters"
Here are a few key secrets of highly effective sales letters. You will find them being used over and over again, because they really work. According to Bill Myers, one of America's leading direct mail experts, when people receive a printed offer through the mail or by email, they read it in this order: 1. The Headline 2. Any Captions For Photos Or Drawings 3. Any Large Text Subheads 4. The PS 5. The Order Card 6. The Actual Text Itself Customers actually placed orders for Bill's products without ever reading the text (and his products range from the $100¹s up into the $1000¹s)! Which means attention paid to the elements listed above is of prime importance. Here are some key format elements that will keep your prospects reading so that you can close the sale o Break the copy up into short copy paragraphs. A single-sentence paragraph can make a striking point. o Use headlines and sub-headlines. o Use bullets (o), numbers, and dashes () to further break up copy, allowing plenty of white space to make reading your offer even easier on the eye. o Use arrows (>), boxes, color or shading, indentations, bold lettering, CAPITAL LETTERS, italics, and punctuation!! o Give customers premiums. Over-deliver on the offer which first interested your prospective customer in any way you can. Premiums can add tremendous value to your offer without substantially increasing your cost of delivery. o Emphasize the word FREE wherever it applies. o Use graphics if you have them. o Provide testimonials if you have them. o Urge Immediate Action. State a time limit to your offer (note: many marketers offer their premiums only if prospective customers buy within a window of 7-14 days). o In the words of master marketer Jeffrey Lant, "Know how badly your customers hurt, and what they want to achieve."
... 'Make Profit Happen' .....
5. More "Super" Tips 5.1 If you publish an Ezine... Tip 1: If you want to exchange ads for your Ezine with another publisher you can get lots of useful feedback by simply adding this one sentence at the end of your submission: "If you can improve on my ad and I can do the same for you let's give it a try."
Tip 2: I've recently come across some lists where you can announce your EZine
ezinestoday-subscribe@onelist.com
5.2 Improvements at Sendfree I know that many of you use the free autoresponders supplied by Sendfree. I use them to send out the archives of this newsletter as well as for my articles.
They have recently added some new features These autoresponders earn me credit for free ads every time someone requests one. If you wish to see the article I wrote about Sendfree in the issue of April 21st just click here. Full details at here where I have also included a simple tip which can help MULTIPLY your response.
5.3 Making your site sell Ken Evoy, author of the hit marketing book "Make Your Site Sell", recently visited the legendary Beverly Hills Hotel and raved about the experience, but when he visited it on the Net - it was a different story. Their web site was a poor attempt at selling their product. So he decided to analyse just where they were failing. The principles he used can apply to any site - even to yours - and his report makes fascinating reading. Take a look here.
5.4 Using personalised mail - properly Do you ever receive ezines addressed with your own name ? Some people think this is a good idea - that it gives a personal touch, others seem to be put off by it. I don't see the need for it, I realise that ezines have to go out to hundreds or thousands of subscribers so there's no need to try to disguise the fact. But it doesn't bother me either way. But where you do need to use personalised mail is when you are communicating a similar message to many people but you want them to think that it is unique to them; an example could be if you contribute an article to several publishers. I recently received an Email from someone who wanted me to link with him as a partner. He said that he had found great information at my site, he quoted the site name correctly (www.supertips.com) BUT ... he gave the game away with a huge blunder. His message had started off with the words "To whom it may concern " What does this tell you ? If had indeed taken the trouble to visit my site he would have immediately seen my name on the main page. So it was just the same message that he was sending out to everyone and his Email was quickly despatched to the bin. If he had quoted my name would I have shown interest ? Possibly, but there was still an element of the standard message there. Now if he had just included one or two snippets from my site, to prove he had really visited, then that would have made the world of difference.
Something like, 'Harvey, I enjoyed your article about xxxx'.
6. Publications of Interest A change from our usual marketing type Ezines. Bargain Dog is a free newsletter which reports on the best deals available on the Net on a diverse range of products in categories such as
Books You can choose which categories you wish to be notified about and also the frequency of the newsletter, eg daily, weekly.
Within these categories you can select further. For example with Books
& Magazines: Subscribe to Bargain Dog for free here.
7. Next Issue SuperTips Ezine will be with you again on November 11th. If you have any suggestions to improve this newsletter so that we can make it a great resource for all our readers please drop me a line.
Thanks,
To SUBSCRIBE to the SuperTips Ezine:Click here ARCHIVES: Click here Copyright (C) 1999 by Harvey Segal, SuperTips
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