SuperTips Ezine: Issue 24
IN THIS ISSUE 2. "Create Someone Else's Content " - by Hollis Thomases 3. Readers Forum
4. "Headlines Make The Difference
(and the Sale)!"
5. More "Super" Tips
6. Next Issue
1. Greetings! Hello Folks, Like most people the only place that I have ever viewed my website is .... from my own home PC. That is until last week when I stopped off at a motorway service station and came across my first Internet cafe. I couldn't resist typing in my website address, and when my home page appeared I was struck once again, just like any newcomer to the Internet, by the huge potential offered by the world of online marketing. For here I was, hundreds of miles from home, and my site was open to view just as it would be to anyone on the planet. That just leaves the small matter of getting people to your site and for a great example of creative thinking look no further than the following article by Hollis Thomases. Harvey
2. "Create Someone Else's Content " It is commonly known that one way that you can help build your site traffic is through the contribution of content to other sites, being sure to have hyperlinks in your content so that the reader can be led back to your site. Well, another twist on this is to take a more assertive stance. Instead of looking for sites that accept editorial contribution and then asking to contribute yours, how about looking for sites that don't? What kind of sense does this make, you ask? It makes perfect sense if the purpose of your efforts is to help add value to the site that you're now going to solicit. You're going to offer these sites a terrific service -creating free "custom" content for them! Many sites don't seek out editorial contribution because they hardly even understand the value of content on their site. Even more sites are lacking content altogether. With your offer, you're going to help improve the marketability of the site, making yourself a valuable resource to them, while at the same time, building your own credibility and site traffic. Don't just look for any old site, however. Look for ones that meet your own personal criteria for being a good site - are they clean-looking? User friendly? Easily navigated? And most importantly, DO THEY ATTRACT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE? Now, look to see how they can best put your content to use Do they have a newsletter? If they don't, put them on the list. Do they have date-sensitive content? If, they don't, they're a candidate, too. Be sure to note carefully all contact information - you'll want this to personalize your solicitation. Also, check to see if they're collecting email addresses on the site. That they have an emailing list is critical to part two of this strategy. Now, after you've got a healthy list together, begin your course of action. Send a personalized email to the appropriate contact person, letting them know how having good, fresh content would benefit their site immensely and help to generate loyal and frequent visitors. You can offer to provide them with free editorial copy for their site (provided that you can get a hyperlink, of course). Better still, if you've got the time, here's an even better idea I once read: propose to provide them with a newsletter free of charge. You'd take care of managing everything - the content, the frequency, and the distribution. Assure them that their list would be kept absolutely private and protected. What do you get from providing all of this free of charge? Tell them all you ask for is the opportunity to include up to three unobtrusive ads toward the bottom of the newsletter. Get this permission in writing! Ads that you don't use for yourself, you can sell and generate revenue! Plus, you've piggy-backed getting your name promoted through someone else's mailing list! The beautiful thing is that this newsletter does not have to be used for only one web site. If you can get your "clients" to add a few individual things to each of their own newsletters, you can then tweak the same newsletter and have it be unique for several different web sites. A word of caution, however. Creating regular editorial is a lot of hard work, and requires dedication as well as diligence. If you're ready and willing to take it on, however, you WILL see results from your efforts. P.S. Let this be an open invitation to all tip readers to utilize any of the Web Ad.vantage marketing tip material you have received or read in the site archives <http://www.webadvantage.net>. Please simply add the following when you do: (c) 1999 Hollis Thomases, Web Ad.vantage, Inc. Web Ad.vantage, Inc., (http://www.webadvantage.net) is a creative Internet marketing, promotions and public relations firm specializing in strategy building and implementation. Free weekly marketing tips available by email (http://www.webadvantage.net/tip.asp). Contact mailto:marketing@webadvantage.net for more information.
3. Readers Forum 3.1 Jack or Jim ? Reader Terry Chapman was one of several puzzled by a reference in last issue's article by Rick Beneteau '..Jack Daniels {not Jim}... ' I suppose it's a sign of fame when your name can be included in a quote without further explanation. Jim Daniels is one of the most well known names in Internet Marketing. The first newsletter that I ever subscribed to was his Bizweb Gazette. In his book "Insider Internet Marketing" he shows you step by step how he built his online business, even to the point of providing the exact wording used in his web page meta tags to get high rankings in the search engines. To read more about Jim's excellent book, which I am pleased to promote, click here.
3.2 An alternative to affiliate programs Gareth Hutchison visited my collection of affiliate programs at this page and asked ..Harvey, is there an in-between idea where you don't have to create your own product yet you have complete control over selling, such as setting your own price ? Well Gareth I do have one such business opportunity at my site, featuring what I think is the most in-demand product on the Net - Information. Take a look here.
4. "Headlines Make The Difference (and the
Sale)!" Are you one of the millions of marketers out there who thinks that it is their sterling copy that induces a customer to buy the product? If so, have I got news for you. The results of my own research, conducted over the past thirty six months, involving scores of ads in hundreds of publications, indicates otherwise. Utilizing the same body copy, effectively written headlines produced fifteen times more sales than poorly written headlines. Don't believe me? Then read what David Ogilvy, of Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency fame has to say about it: "On the average, five times as many people read the headlines as read the body copy. It follows that, unless your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90 percent of your money." Clearly all of us, professional copywriters, marketing gurus and home business people alike, need to become better at writing headlines. Unfortunately, there is a wealth of misinformation out there on this subject. Let me begin by stating that I do not believe there are any "experts" in this field. I am not an expert, merely a student. I am writing this article because I believe that many of you out there may benefit from my experience in the school of hard knocks. First, we need to define the true purpose of a headline. An effective headline will do many things at once. It will attract the readers attention, convey benefit by appealing to the readers self interest and it will set the expectation for what is to come. An effective headline will also serve as a filter, selecting the correct audience for the copy that follows. So what are the characteristics of a good headline? First and foremost, an effective headline must be believable. Most people believe that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If your product really can make me: irresistibly attractive to the opposite sex, a millionaire in ten minutes, or cause my hair to return overnight, save those claims for the copy. In the headline, they will most likely scare your potential customer away before you have had the chance to explain why these miracles will occur. Effective headlines are short. Politicians have learned this lesson very well, they refer to these short "headlines" as sound bites. They use them because peoples attention span is generally short, sound bites are memorable. A good headline is like a good sound bite, short and memorable. Two rules to make your headlines more memorable: 1) Never use more than fifteen words. 2) Use quotation marks. To shorten your headlines, eliminate adverbs and adjectives, save them for the ad copy where they can be justified. This will also help eliminate some of the sensationalism, making your headline more believable. Effective headlines are easy to read. When typesetting your headlines don't use flowery fonts, reverse type, all caps or italics. Many people find these difficult to read and will skip them entirely. Again, you don't have to believe me, look at your local newspaper. Chance are good they utilize a simple, easy to read type style such as Times Roman. Headlines that stir the emotions will make more sales. Emotions motivate people into action, the stronger the emotion, the more prompt the action. Therefore, headlines that make the reader curious, fearful, excited or protective will produce the best results. Use the first or second person in your headlines and make sure that all verbs are in the present tense. This will make you headlines more imperative, motivating more people to take immediate action. Now that we have covered the presentation issues, we are ready to look at the details of the headline copy. I said earlier that the first purpose of a headline is to grab the readers attention. To accomplish this, use strong action words and phrases. Below I have listed just a few of the words and phrases I have found to be very effective at grabbing the readers attention.
After grabbing your readers attention, you want to further entice them by spelling out, in a few words, what it is your product will do for them. To do this, you must know a little about your target audience. What are they interested in? What are their priorities? What makes them take action? Craft your headlines to use words and phrases that will pique your potential buyers interest. If you are targeting entrepreneurs, try phrases such as "Lower Your Taxes" or "Increase Profits". If your product happens to be diet aids, try "Lose 20 Pounds In 20 Days". Be careful here. This is the point where headlines tend to get unbelievable. Make sure that your claims are truthful and that your copy supports their truthfulness. Once you have a grasp of these basics, write as many headlines as you can think of. Write variations of the same headline until you have exhausted all the ideas you can come up with. This will be difficult at first, but it will become easier with practice. After you have your list of headlines, test each one against the criteria set for a good headline. Is it truthful? Does it grab the readers attention? Does it convey a benefit that the reader will be interested in? If a potential headline does not meet these three criteria, rework it or eliminate it from your list. After you have a short list of headlines, test market them using a trusted family member, friend or associate. Eliminate those headlines that they feel don't make the grade. Once you have your revised short list, try some test marketing. Use the free classifieds to see which headlines draw the most interest. Keep track of which ones make the most sales. After all, it is sales, not just traffic that you are after. After a few weeks, you should have a couple of real gems that you can start to seriously promote. By following the steps I have outlined, you will not become a headline writing guru overnight. Additionally, a good headline will not sell an undesirable or overpriced product. However, if you integrate these steps into your headline writing process, practice and put forth the effort required, you will improve the quality of your headlines. And there is no doubt that better quality headlines will result in more drawing power and interest in your product.
Tony L. Callahan is president of his own Internet marketing company,
Link-Promote <http://www.link-promote.com>. He also publishes Web-Links
Monthly, a newsletter full of tips, tricks, tools and techniques for successful
web site promotions. To subscribe, send e-mail to:
<Web.Links-subscribe@listbot.com>.
5. More "Super" Tips 5.1 Control that mouse ! Well no one has come up yet with an answer to my recent mouse problem. If you recall - it's a mouse with a wheel which lets you scroll easily through documents. When I restart my PC after it has been on standby the scroll never works - I have to wait for a proper reboot. But here's a problem that has been solved. Have you ever found that your mouse had a mind of it's own ? It fails to point where you want it to, you struggle to select items of text for copying or cutting. Very frustrating - but the solution is simple. Just unscrew the base and you will see a few rollers which surround the tracking ball. They will probably be coated with deposit which you need to scrape off. And then, as if by magic, you will have a perfectly behaved mouse.
5.2 When spelling mistakes are OK One of the suggested tactics for getting hits from search engines is to anticipate incorrect spellings. I accidentally stumbled on a real example of this. One of my minor web pages had the word 'business' wrongly spelled as 'buisness'.
And sure enough, when studying my web site logs, I came across a few cases
where visitors had entered the incorrect spelling in their search criteria,
for example "Online+Buisness+ideas"
So there's an idea for you to consider. 5.3 Is your PC slowing down ? Back on Sep 1st I posed a problem I was having with my PC: viz, when working my way up and down through the various folders and subfolders of My Documents they all appear instantly, but after a while the speed continually degrades. Finally I end up trying to access a sub-folder say and it can take 10 or 20 seconds. The problem is not due to disc fragmentation as it occurred when the PC was new. I posted the question to the PCSOFT discussion list at <http://nospin.com> as mentioned in the last issue. There was a big response to the question as several others had experienced a similar problem , for example - I had this exact problem while trying to run a CD writer (Smart & Friendly). I uninstalled it and all was well. - I've had a similar problem while running a "corrupted" version of Sonique (the MP3 player). Take a look at your memory-resident programs (by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL..once!) and if "SqStart" is in the list, you've found it! Uninstall it and then re-install a newer version (1.20) There was also concern that leaving your PC on all day can cause problems, - Due to all kind of internal registers windows 98 keeps (they are slowly filling up) and because most memory chips are "leaking" information slowly not rebooting your computer at least once a day can not only slow down your computer but even can cause error messages as far as i know. - I too have found my computer slows down after long use. I can barely close things down, even the clock shows the wrong time. But all I have to do is close down or restart and everything is back to normal. This all started when Win98 and Norton Anti Virus was installed on computer. Although the problem is not yet solved these discussions proved invaluable as I have picked up some useful advice and of course found a forum where I can raise future software questions. (There's also PCBUILD at the same address for hardware issues). One reader pointed out that pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del as mentioned above only lets you view 'visual' resident programs. There is a free tool PrcView at http://www.teamcti.com which shows both visual and non-visual programs. I used PrcView to list all the programs I was using, and this revealed some unnecessary programs being loaded at startup.Although I did not actively place these in the start up folder somehow they had crept in. So it's worth checking out Start/Programs/StartUp to see what it contains And here's two tips about the Quick Launch taskbar - seemingly trivial, but anything that assists you in using your PC is a help. * I have a number of icons representing commonly used programs but it's hard to see which are which. Clicking with the right hand mouse button reveals - a 'Show Text' button which provides icon descriptions - a 'View' button which enlarges the icon * And further down, below the Cascade and Tile windows which I often use, there's a really useful button that somehow I've always managed to overlook -'minimise all windows'.
6. Next Issue SuperTips Ezine will be with you again on December 8th. 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.
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