WEBSITE101: READING LIST
Reaching Great Minds Online
January 24, 2000 Issue #29
Mike Valentine, Editor, learn@website101.com
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"WEBSITE101: READING LIST".
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IN THIS ISSUE
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=> Sponsor Ad: INTERNET BOOT CAMP!
=> Feature article: Go Get 'Em
=> Our Guest Column: Yours Truly, Anonymous
=> HOT TIP! Emmersion at Internet Boot Camp
=> Classifieds
=> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
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SPONSOR of this issue
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Who Ya Gonna Call? Web Marketing Tips
by Mike Banks Valentine
I market a client that offers hypnotherapy training for healthcare
professionals. He belongs to a banner exchange program that promotes
him rather randomly to the public. He is extremely well placed
in the
search engines and directories but couldn't figure out why he
wasn't
selling books and tapes online.
My first visit to his site answered the question immediately.
He had
no secure order form which accepted credit cards or any other
method
of online payment. We got him set up with a free service called
ccNow.com that takes a small percentage of every sale until we
can
justify a paid service. We're also setting up an online check
service
from iCheck.com for additional sales to those unwilling or unable
to
use credit cards online.
The major healthcare sites for professionals (his target audience)
proved to be beyond his budget for banner advertising or e-mail
newsletter advertising. I asked him what the next largest market
was
for him and learned that it was the "Self-Improvement"
market. People
looking for personal transformation through self-help programs.
We set up a contest for him that will generate increased traffic
and
interest in his programs. We promote that contest to a targeted
list
35,000 Self-Improvement newsletter readers at SelfGrowth.com .
The
contest attracts submissions for a newsletter that we set up for
him.
His concerns about spending time creating newsletter content are
now
handled by his own readers and promoted through the contest. It's
become a self-feeding loop attracting more interest, more traffic,
more sales and more subscribers. Take a look at
http://alchemyinstitute.com/win.html
Obviously this routine will vary depending on your product or
service,
but a good marketer will research your market and find ways to
create
that self-feeding loop for you.
As to where to find marketers, there are many sources for great
talent
that show resumes of members. You can search by category for
copywriters, marketing, promotion, development.
http://www.elance.com freelance directory of online professionals
http://www.guru.com more technical in nature but similar
http://www.freeagent.com another similar service
http://www.respond.com shopping service with web categories
http://www.mediatalent.net Select group of freelance web talent
http://www.consultlink.com Consultants (including web development)
http://www.jobswarm.com Freelance marketplace
I have registered with each of these services and more to attract
business. Many marketers, developers, coaches, consultants and
designers do the same. You are also able to post your projects
at
several of these places. Some charge a fee to match you up with
freelancers to handle your online needs. Most have additional
resources you can use too.
Go get 'em!
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************ HOT TIP! ************
Want to Do Well While Doing Good?
This week we discovered a great service to include
on your site so you can contribute to a worthy cause
by placing an HTML fragment which allows visitors at
your site to donate right from your home page!
The current sponsored fund is for Carol Guscott
a woman that was violently attacked by two men.
You can make a difference in her life by
placing a small banner on your site. Take a look:
http://www.clickshot.com/pledgelet/
************ HOT TIP! ************
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Yours Truly, Anonymous
by Joe Reinbold
How many times today have you gotten an email message with an
offer in it for a money making deal or some type of service?
Probably many times! And, how many of those messages had no
individuals name or contact information, just a web site URL?
Again, probably many!
I received one a couple of hours ago that had a pretty good
offer in it, one that I a least was willing to check out further.
It was a network marketing program that was in Pre-Launch and
I had not heard of it before, so it appeared to be pretty new.
The email had no name on it either in the body or in the "From"
line. All it had was a URL to the web site.
So off I went to the web site. The home page was well done and
it described a typical network marketing program. There was no
identification on the home page as to who the sponsor was nor
was there any specific information about the company other than
its name. I spotted a link entitled "About Us" and clicked
on
that.
Nothing there either in respect to the name of the individuals
running the business, where it was located or how to contact
them. You would think that on a page titled "About Us"
you would
see that type of information. But all this page had on it was
a
description of a network marketing company, in generic terms.
So I checked out the page "Terms of Membership" and
that page
was also void of any contact information. I did note that the
company was probably in Texas since part of the agreement
indicated that ......would be governed by the laws of the State
of Texas.
I checked out every page and they were all void of any
identification of the people running the program. Even the
"Contact Us" page had a input form to send them a message
rather
than listing an actual email address.
One of the first things I want, and you should want, before doing
business with a company is to know who they are, where they are
and whether I would be able to contact them by email and telephone
if necessary. I want to be able to have some trust in the people
I do business with just as I want to create that trust with my
customers. I want to know that there is a real live person there
to talk to.
It worries me that some people doing business online are afraid
to identify themselves fully or even partially in some cases.
It worries me that some people will surf up to that site and
other sites like it, read it, like it, charge a considerable
amount of money to their credit card and they don't know anything
about the company.
It also bothers me that people try to market products by email
without identifying themselves (other than their email address
and sometimes that is false) and expect to be successful. It
reminds me of when I used to do a lot of snail mailings and
the response mailings would be very similar. No return address,
no name and address inside the envelope other than the
promotion company's address and an ID number on a circular.
I know a lot of you have gotten those! And in most cases they
went right in the circular file. Well now you have a button
that you can use to put them in the circular file!
The company you should want to deal with is the one that makes
full disclosure of who they are, has a privacy statement that
spells out what they are going to do or not do with your personal
information, and provides accurate information about their
products and services. You don't want to deal with someone who
appears to be hiding behind a web page, they may be here today
but gone tomorrow!
Do you use "Yours truly, Anonymous" as your signature
file?
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Joe Reinbold, owner of The Entrepreneur's Home Business
Link publishes a free weekly email newsletter "Home Income
Quarterly E-dition" which is dedicated to assisting online
marketers. For a free subscription just
mailto:subscribe@homebizlink.com or visit his site at
http://www.homebizlink.com
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Copyright © 2000 Mike Valentine
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ISSN: 1527-5094
Mike Valentine
WebSite 101
learn@website101.com
