SuperTips Ezine: Issue 30
IN THIS ISSUE
2. "Sign Your Way To Online Success!
3. Readers Forum 4. Special Report - Ken Evoy
5. More "Super" Tips 6. Contact Information
1. Greetings! Hello Folks, At last - I have succumbed. I decided that it was time to place a graphic image on my home page. With the ever increasing speed of our PCs and networks I don't think that a small icon should affect loading time. In my world-wide search for an icon to represent the SuperTips site there could only be one contender. Of course - it had to be Superman ! But before you rush off to my home page to see him - hold fire, because he also appears on some other pages in a way that provides you with a useful tip which you'll read about later. We're also featuring today a 'super' Internet marketeer who is about to do something very unusual. And if you want to know how to get a high ranking in the AltaVista search engine then we have expert advice - from the horse's mouth. Regards, Harvey
2. "Sign Your Way To Online Success! SIMPLE PUBLICITY. Create a stunning signature file for simple yet highly effective promotion. Most email programs allow you to attach a signature file to all your outgoing mail. Eudora Pro (http://www.eudora.com/) allows me to make as many signature files as I choose. THE RIGHT SIGN. I receive hundreds of emails on a daily basis. A pitiful 10% of these contain a signature file -and most of these are badly written. Perhaps as much as one signature file a day will catch my eye and I'll end up subscribing to yet another ezine. FREE PROMOTION. You may think that it's not worth the effort. After all, how many people will really take notice of your signature? Well, think how often you request free articles, free information, send off for an ezine, post a message on a bulletin board or newsgroup .... Just think of all the subscribers you could have by now. STICK TO ONE SUBJECT. You can write signature files for your website, an affiliate program, your products or services, and anything else you can think of. But the one thing you *should* be promoting is your ezine. Once you've grabbed your new subscriber - then you can rave on about your website, your affiliate programs, etc. But get their email address first! NICE 'N' EASY. Designing a signature that commands attention is pretty easy work. Keep it short, keep it simple, and stick to one theme. Use "power" words: free, easy, how, you, now, success, learn, create .... ¤§¤ EXAMPLES ¤§¤ ¤ LARGE. Under 50 words - can also be used for classified and ezine ads:
Y O U R E Z I N E T I T L E
Want to start your OWN home business? Don't jump in without
¤ MEDIUM. Under 35 words - can also be used for classified and ezine ads:
How do you get hold of the latest marketing articles, hot
Need advice on starting or building your OWN home business?
¤ SMALL. Under 15 words - can also be used for newsgroups and bulletin boards:
Want the latest marketing articles, hot biz tips and links?
Need advice on starting or building your OWN home business? COMMON MISTAKE. Many signature files just carry a name and website address. Well, what use is that! I've not been told *why* I need to pay a visit - so I won't bother. There is hardly a person alive who does not think along the lines of "what's in it for me?" If you don't tell, then don't expect any results. CHECK BEFORE YOU SIGN. Keep your signature file to a maximum of 60 characters per line. Any larger and some email clients will break up the text, making it a pain to read. Also ensure that you use a hard return at the end of each line - TextPad can be set to word wrap at the desired length. You can download TextPad here: http://www.textpad.com/ If in doubt, send yourself a copy of your signature to check that it looks okay. BE INVENTIVE TO BE SEEN. If you want people to read your signature, you have to learn to be inventive. I figured out a long time ago that, due to their positioning (way at the bottom of your message), signatures often get missed or simply go unread. So I designed a matching header and footer that works as a simple letter template. This ensures that people cannot fail to see my message. If you'd like to see an example of this, please send a blank email to marie@writead.com The header is not large enough to be offensive, and simply contains my ezine title and short and catchy slogan - you do have one don't you? This is enough to grab the attention of all who may be interested. It also works as a reminder to read through my signature file at the bottom. And this, of course, provides extra details and subscription information. This method works extremely well. Roughly 25% of my new members have joined in this manner. So before you simply dismiss your signature file, think again. By refusing to sign, you could be losing out big time.
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3. Readers Forum 3.1 Explain those logs I mentioned in the last issue how a proper web hosting service will provide you with tools to examine your website logs. One of our readers has asked which stats should be mandatory in the logs, which are useful and which are simply nice to know. Well here is an example of some of the information that is available: * Total number of pages requested per day or per week - also summarised by day of the week and by hour. * Domain report: which domains/countries are bringing you traffic (e.g .com, .net, .au, .ca, .uk) * Host report: which hosts are bringing you traffic * Directory report: accesses to your directories * Error code and redirection report * Web browsers and Operating systems
For me the most useful are the following: * Number of requests for individual pages e.g. 1000 visits to your index page 200 visits to abc.htm * Referring site report e.g. 100 visits from http://www.altavista.com/ * Search Engine Keywords e.g from AltaVista "how+to+make+money+on+the+net" There are tools which can provide further information such as Entry Pages, Exit Pages, Paths Through Site If our readers can recommend useful tools we'll feature them in the next issue.
Thanks to Cantu for submitting this question.
3.2 There's another SuperTips site ! Well two in fact. I've come across <www.super-tips.com> but these tips refer to airline wings so I don't think I have a rival there. And recently, Erik Onnes, the owner of <www.supertips.nl> contacted me to ask if I could mention his site which contains tips about Windows 98 and Office 2000. The snag though is that it's written in Dutch as you may gather from the domain 'nl' (Netherlands) - so this will only be useful to 0.75% of my web site traffic. Now how did I get that figure you may ask ? Of course it came from my web logs as explained in the previous section.
If you have not come across log information at your website - you do have
a website don't you ? - it sounds that you need a proper web hosting service
with a domain name site.
4. Special Report - Ken Evoy There's only ever been one 'special feature' in our newsletter - and that was back in June 99 Issue 13. It featured a new book called MYSS (Make Your Site Sell) by Ken Evoy. Well it's time for another special - and it's that man again. First, as a reminder, if you want to read the original article click here but I can probably sum up my views on this book with one quote from that article - where one top book reviewer told his readers that he was not going to bother to review the book - he just said 'go and buy it'. And yes - if you are wondering - I am an affiliate for Ken and get commission on sales. Am I biased ? Well regular readers will know that I never inundate you with sales ploys or try to part you with your hard earned cash - although I doubt if a mere $17 can be called hard-earned. Besides try it out for yourself and get a free download of over 100 pages here. And be sure to get Ken's newsletters - I've archived mine and regularly refer to them for advice. Now Ken has come up with another epic work MYKS (Make your Knowledge Sell). You can get a free 5-day Email course on creating, producing, and selling your very own information product online. Just send an Email with the subject "MASTERS" to supertipstims@sitesell.net Ken's affiliate program has been chosen "best on the Net" by two affiliate gurus (out of thousands and thousands of programs). But he has made a declaration almost unique in the world of affiliate programs. He is soon going to close his program and not allow further affiliates. This will ensure that existing affiliates don't feel that they are competing with thousands of others. Ken plans to introduce one product a month which is great news for current affiliates so I would advise you to get in as soon as possible. Now do I hear a doubting voice saying that this is another ruse to part you from your money ? Well I have news for you. Ken's program is completely free to join. And you'll receive a free 224 page book which will tell you everything you need to know about promoting any affiliate opportunity. Full details and simple joining instructions here. Even if you don't join there is a free 5-Day Email course on how to become a high-earning affiliate champion. Just send an Email with the subject "MASTERS" to supertipstams@sitesell.net for the Affiliate Masters course. 5. More "Super" Tips 5.1 AltaVista tells you how AltaVista have produced an extensive guide to how their search engine works. They stress that the best method to obtain a high ranking is to have keywords in the title tag and in the first few lines of text. One surprising fact is that keywords in the Metatag are no more important than those in other parts of the text. Apparently the purpose of the "keyword" Metatag is simply to allow you to add synonyms - words that describe your page but that do not actually appear. An example would be to put foreign translations of the main words on your page in the "keyword" Metatag so that it can be found by someone searching in another language. You can read the guide at http://doc.altavista.com/adv_search/ast_haw_index.shtml
5.2 How to highlight your star offers Here's an idea you may wish to copy or adapt. If you look at this page you will see a list of affiliate programs that I recommend. I've put them in a table format so it's easy to compare the features. Similarly, on this page there is a list of recommended Internet marketing experts and their products, again in tabular form. Now I wanted a way of highlighting the top sellers and first thought of putting a number of stars -like this *** - against the items.
But then up popped a better idea. Superman to the rescue.
5.3 Why you need a web based E-mail account As an owner of a domain name web site I retrieve my Email from a POP mailbox using Email software (Pegasus). Now if I am away from my home PC and need to get at my Email there is no guarantee that another PC will contain such software. So how can I check my mail ? The answer is to use a web based Email account. I use a Yahoo account - it's free from www.yahoo.com
The initial setup of my account involved selecting a Yahoo account name
and password. Now I can retrieve my mail from ANY PC just by visiting the Yahoo site and entering my Yahoo account name and password. The mail appears in web format. I use the option to keep mail that has been read so that I can process it properly when I return to my home PC. There are other good reasons for having a separate Email account such as Yahoo: * If you have a problem with your regular email account you can still email requests for help from your Yahoo account and can test your main account by sending it mail from Yahoo * If you publish a newsletter you can subscribe your Yahoo address to your list to check delivery speeds and verify that your list mailings have been delivered.
5.4 A new way to offer a free gift Here's another idea you may want to utilise. One of the affiliate programs I belong to is FutureWorld who provide a fascinating collection of information and how-to products on topics ranging from Personal Development, Business Success, through to Internet Marketing. They have an impressive, but easy to navigate, site here and visitors to my web site are encouraged to pay a visit in order to get a free gift (although I supply the gift even if they don't). Now rather than put up a long list of Future World's products I hit on the idea of simply showing the item numbers without any description and letting visitors take a lucky dip, explaining that they may find a new hobby, new interest, new discovery or new idea. This has got a great response (my website logs tell me this of course) as people seem unable to resist clicking on one item after another. To see how I've done this visit my home page , say hello to Superman as he comes flying onto your PC screen, and near the end of the page click where it says "Don't forget to collect: Your FREE FUN Gift" And if you decide to make a purchase do let me know and I'll send a special bonus gift (worth $20).
6. Contact Information Thanks for reading "SuperTips Ezine". I always like to hear your feedback, suggestions, comments, and questions. If you have your own article or tip please feel free to contribute it, with your bio information, and you will receive full credit if it gets published.
Thanks,
To SUBSCRIBE to the SuperTips Ezine:Click here ARCHIVES: Click here Copyright (C) 2000 by Harvey Segal, SuperTips
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