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' WEBSITE101: READING LIST
Reaching Great Minds Online
April 17, 2000 Issue #40
Mike Valentine, Editor, learn@website101.com
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By subscription only Welcome to the April 17, 2000 issue
"WEBSITE101: READING LIST".
You are receiving this issue because you subscribed or
because you requested our Free WebSite101 Short Course.
Unsubscribe by using the address at the bottom of page.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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=> Sponsor Ad: Vstore.com
=> Feature article: There's No Place Like My Home Page!
=> Our Guest Column: The Tragedy of the Lost Surfer
=> COOL TOOL! Reverse Lookup for Web Addresses!
=> Classifieds
=> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
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There's No Place Like My Home Page!
by Mike Banks Valentine
In operating WebSite101 I get one question *far* more often
than others. So I thought I'd address the single
question more frequently asked than any other online query,
"How Do I Get Lots of Traffic?"
The question is always a variation on the theme of the one
asked below. I wish that it were possible to answer with
something like,
"Put your feet together and click your heels three times, then
say, "There's no place like my home page", over and over.
Raul asked:
I've a Web Site that I made 3 weeks ago. After promoting it on:
- Search Engines
- Directories
- FFA
- E-mail
- Ezines
- etc.
I can only make about 100 visitors a day. Could you please
give me some advice on how to get more visitors. Where can
I promote my Site so I can have lots of visitors? I've a low
budget, but I would also like to know the best places where
someone can advertise a web site and have lots of visitors.
Thank you for your time,
Raul
My answer is frustrating to many beginning webmasters.
You are doing GREAT to have 100 visitors a day for just a
three week old site! It often takes that long just to be
spidered by the search engines. I'd presume that it's your
other efforts bringing the traffic, because I can't find
your site in *any* of the search engines, *yet*.
The thing that you need to accept is that it's a never-
ending task! You should NEVER stop promoting if you want
to continue to improve your traffic and your search engine
visibility.
You'll find differing opinions on the *best* places to
advertise, but my opinion is that the place to concen-
trate your energy is in writing articles for ezines and
establishing your own ezine.
Take a look at http://website101.com/ezine.html to review
places to advertise, write articles and how to get an
ezine of your own launched and listed in ezine directories.
Look at the book by Rick Beneteau called "Ezine Marketing
Machine" (It's subtitled, "How I make a fortune using
FREE
ezine advertising") there is a link to the book from the
page referenced above.
If you don't want to write your own material, there are
lots of authors willing to contribute to your ezine. Take
a look at http://www.egroups.com/group/Free-Content
where you can subscribe to a list and receive free articles
regularly from business writers about marketing on the web.
Use these articles in your ezine and write your own to
contribute to the list as well.
You include what's called a "resource-box" at the end
with
your web address and e-mail link so people can visit your
site. You make the articles available to others to use free
in their ezines and your articles (read, free advertising)
are accepted by others to run in *their* ezines. This is a
powerful traffic generator.
You should also re-submit your site to the search engines
each time you make a change to the page, so that they index
the new material and the "spiders" keep returning to your
site each time you've made a change. Don't overdo those
submissions though or you'll end up "banned" by the SE's!
It's a long process to rank well in the search engines. I
recommend subscribing to many of the excellent lists about
search engine optimization and submission. One of my
favorites is Danny Sullivans "Search Engine Watch" news-
letter ( http://www.searchenginewatch.com ), he keeps you
up to date on search engine news and changes.
A great discussion list for search engine discussion where
you can learn from the experts and ask questions about how
to improve your ranking. To subscribe, send an e-mail to
mailto:join-i-search@list.mmgco.com and you'll regularly
receive *great* information on how the pros accomplish the
difficult task of search engine optimization.
Of course you could also pay someone to do this for you,
but not if you have a small budget. As you can see, it's
quite a time consuming task to generate traffic unless
you can figure out what I've left out of that magic spell.
Maybe you have to wear ruby slippers or something?
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Join Free At: http://www.EzinePublisher.org
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************ COOL TOOL! ************
http://www.cse.bris.ac.uk/comms/ccrjh/nlu.html
Take a look at this interesting tool for looking up
IP addresses or getting a DNS number for a web site
domain name (that number you sometimes see as a web
address) Here's one to try: http://209.204.148.119/
I'll bet you recognize it instantly. ;-) MBV
While we're at it, how about a tool to find out who
owns the domain name you wanted for your business?
http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
This will give you the name and contact information
for the people that may sell you *your* name back!
************ COOL TOOL! ************
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The Tragedy of the Lost Surfer
"Why? Why?" you lament deeply disturbed that you're getting
the hits but not the sale. You had exactly what the customer wanted.
Your prices where competitive, (heck, you offered free shipping!).
You took the time to build a site that answered questions. You even
offered a free bonus that none of your competitors were offering.
So why did they leave? You fire up your html editor and decide to
add a few more eye-catching images.
Most web-sites focus on the close. Make the customer an offer
so good that they can't refuse. But what if the customer is
resistant to buying on the web in the first place? Suppose they
think that every web-site is just out to snare their credit card
and personal information. In this case the more animated and "buyer"
friendly your site, the more certain the surfer becomes that you
are
trying to trick them. For most customers, that's reason enough not
to buy.
So then, when does the idea of buying become appealing? Usually
before the surfer even decides which site to visit. There is some
sort of motivation to shop, so the customer follows through. When
you get into the picture, your primary objective is to add momentum
to the customer's desire to buy and to avoid doing anything that
causes them to resist buying.
At this stage of the game it is very important to remember that
most customers are resistant to being sold. That's why in a retail
environment they always say, "I'm just looking" when a
salesperson
says "Hello". So in order to maintain a customers buying
momentum
a good retail salesman must first melt away the customers resistance
to being sold. The easiest way to do that is to approach the customer
as a fellow human being instead of approaching as a salesperson.
A great retail person will never approach a client by saying, "may
I
help you?" An opening line that builds a person to person rapport
with a client is never business related and is one that will spark
a friendly conversation with the customer.
Now then, how do we apply this principle to a web-site?
Certainly we can't ask a surfer a non-business-related question
to
spark friendly conversation. We can however, add non-business-related
content which makes them more user friendly and since your showing
an
interest in the customer it will help melt away their resistance.
Use your imagination and create a site that will be received as
a "nice place to visit". There is no doubt that a pleasant
relationship
provides a sturdy foundation for a sale. When you have a good rapport
with your customer, the product-related portion of the selling process
is received with much more openness and trust.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Morrison
webmaster@the-missing-link.net
http://www.the-missing-link.net
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Copyright © 2000 Mike Valentine
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-------------------WebSite101: Reading List-------------------
ISSN: 1527-5094
Mike Valentine
WebSite 101
learn@website101.com
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June 9, 2001
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