seoontheweb.com Search Engine Optimisation Stratagies

The world of Internet traffic revolves around two separate entities: the search engines and the social networks. It used to be that the only way to capture traffic was through search engine placement, however, now there is a great deal of debate in this area as social networking becomes the new strategy for increasing the traffic to sites. Here we will discuss the different skills you need for either strategy and some different places to research this highly important aspect of Internet marketing.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization deals with how search engines determine the ranking in search results when people go to search for a site based on particular words or phrases. There are a number of search engines and each of them has their own SEO algorithms. A great deal of research is carried out to determine what those algorithms might be by trial and error, even though the companies don’t necessarily disclose how they are ranking web pages. It’s become quite a science and businesses will pay big bucks if they think they can get their pages served first to a customer before their competitor’s in a search result. The reason is simple: most people using a search engine only look at the first two pages of results.

So, it stands to reason that the higher you place in the ranking, the more likelihood you will be found through random searches by people using search engines like Yahoo! or Google. How will you be able to compete with people who are shelling out tons of money on outwitting the search engines?

While you probably can learn some of the same strategies they are using like placing keywords in your web pages, you will find that search engines have gotten far more egalitarian in recent years. They’ve recognized that large companies have learned how to program their pages to cheat the algorithms so now the search engines are using other requirements. One of these is the scanning for original content on sites. Although you want to keep your content fresh, you don’t want to update your site every hour, as too frequent updating can also be penalized in the search engines.

To learn how some of the different SEO factors affect your page ranking, check out: http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm . Appropriate keywords are still a very important part of Internet marketing, but where you place them in your HTML coding also affects how you rank. You can get your own list of keywords by looking at the most popular searches for a typical keyword or phrase and finding out what people have searched in the last month through Overture. This is a free SEO tool that can be viewed here: http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-suggestions-overture/ .

Another Strategy - Social Networking

This strategy relies on the social networks which house millions of users and which can be mined for traffic. Examples of powerful social networks are Myspace.com and StumbleUpon (a search engine based on social ranking). Bulletin boards, web log (blog) communities, and other types of online communities are great places to establish a web presence and market your website URL. The idea is to develop a fan base in these areas that already have huge traffic and then pull those fans into your website via links.

This strategy requires time devoted to being a known contributor of social networking sites. It doesn’t work to just add a profile and leave. You have to engage discussions, set yourself up as an expert in your field, and then market your URL in such a way so as not to be perceived that you are spamming a site. Spamming a site with your web address and no actual feedback or community participation will only get you banned. So, you have to be willing to give of yourself and to market yourself in a discreet, but effective manner.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

If you are not selling your own products, but instead are focusing on affiliate marketing, you will still need some knowledge of HTML coding or experience with software packages like Frontpage or Dreamweaver. Both of these packages can be downloaded off the Internet for free trials to see if you feel confident using the product.

You can download free templates today from many sites that are easily installed on web servers, if you understand how to connect to a web host using FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This will provide you with a free design layout to use for your Internet presence, which can cut significant time off your development stage. You will need to upload these templates to your server and test them out and later tweak them by changing the HTML the way you want it.

If you don’t have any idea how to connect to your main server, you will not be able to upload web pages to your web site. You must have this capability if you are programming your own web pages. Both the newer versions of Dreamweaver and Frontpage have FTP capabilities. Reading the tutorials that come with these packages can help you learn how to use the feature.

If you are using Frontpage, a Microsoft product, you can search their online knowledgebase for articles on how to do certain things in Frontpage or to find out whether you’ve hit a bug within the product. The knowledgebase for all Microsoft products is located at http://support.microsoft.com/search/. If you are using Dreamweaver, they have a developer’s forum for people who are learning their products at: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/ . There is a great little HTML coding Free-ware that will allow you to build web pages like you would in a simple word processor. Go to:
http://nvudev.com/index.php to check it out.

If you don’t know how to upload pages to your website, you will need to look up FTP and understand how it works. What you will want to do is get a training manual for your software or checkout free trial FTP programs like WS_FTP (http://www.wsftp.com/) or Coffeecup (http://www.coffeecup.com/).

These programs are dedicated to FTP and can help you get started learning FTP, however, they are not necessary as standalone products if you have Dreamweaver or Frontpage. If you decide to use a different HTML editor than either Dreamweaver or Frontpage, you may need to load a separate FTP program to get this capability.

Whether you are selling your own or someone else’s goods, you want to be able to market your site to attract visitors and turn those visitors into paying customers. Unlike a brick-and-mortar store, your typical advertising campaigns relying on word-of-mouth, good customer service, and walk-ins won’t work.

If you have no visitors, you have not word-of-mouth and then it definitely won’t matter how good your customer service is. The primary goal of any online business is to attract and retain Internet traffic and convert visitors to paying customers. This takes a whole new set of skills that can combine technology with business savvy.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

If you have your finger on the pulse of your business and are working towards creating demand or interest in your product, you will need to start prioritizing which goals are more important than others. When you are first starting a business, keep your eye on the bottom line. Anything that brings in sales is going to have a high priority.

While it is nice to envision a site with a full discussion forum on it, if you haven’t the traffic and no interest, you shouldn’t prioritize it until later in the year when those factors increase. Otherwise, your visitors will show up and see only a few posts and realize they are the only people interested in your site.

Just like you have to set the priority of work hours being committed to working, you have to pick those tasks that will grow your business at a comfortable rate. You don’t want to spend a lot of money on an ad during the Super Bowl only to find out it doesn’t translate into sales.

Prioritizing Keep Things Organized

A large and completely avoidable time waster is a lack of organization. Prioritizing is part of organizing your business. You don’t want to spend time searching for valuable information that should be at your fingertips when a client calls. You need to know who your clients are, what their buying preferences are, and what future purchases they might have an interest in. Make being able to have the information you need quickly, easy to access quickly a priority.

Developing a mailing list is the keystone to great sales, and if you aren’t organized, you won’t be able to do this well.

Here is one way that technology can work for you. Include the automatic option to allow a visitor to add him or herself to your email list to receive a free newsletter. This builds your list quickly and also gives you the right to contact them without spamming them. It also automatically organizes it behind the scenes in your websites database.

Sign up for anti-spam filters to reduce the amount of garbage in your electronic in-box. Have a separate post office box if you are receiving snail mail for your business. This keeps out unwanted sales flyers and circulars.

You should have an area to process all incoming mail and immediately file it away for later, throw it out, or respond to it. Spend a few minutes every day at the end of the day tidying up your work area for the next day. This can help immensely to put you in a good frame of mind in the morning as well as to keep things from piling up around you.

Avoid clutter at all costs!

LEARN TO SAY “NO”

This one is obvious, but it’s also the one that people have the hardest time doing. If you want to run a successful business, you need to learn to say “no” to other people who are robbing you of the precious time in your day. You need to make it a priority to make sure potential time wasting people understand you can’t allow them to distract you from your business schedule. You need to be aware of the types of people who can innocently derail your boxcar in the middle of a successful startup.

You will want to find ways to say “no” in a fashion that doesn’t alienate anyone as they may end up being potential clients in the future. In this respect, you need to learn the art of politics while keeping your time free for your own agenda and plans.

Don’t let someone else hook you into projects that waste your energies with the promise of a future payoff that never happens. You are in business to make a profit for you, not for someone else. In that respect, you have to learn to be stingy with your time with others who want to steal your energy and drive and to focus all your attention on getting your own tasks done.

Learning to say “no” can be difficult for some people, especially women who have been conditioned to try to please others and put them first. If you want to be a successful businessperson, you will have to stop caring what other people think about you. If you really think that what other people say about you matters, than you shouldn’t be in business because 95% of businesses fail, according to statistics. Learn to take advice from people when it is constructive and to ignore it when it is meant to manipulate you into doing things that zap your own drive and ambition.

Is it really important that you be the one to bake 100 cupcakes for the PTA’s bake sale? Probably not. If they really want them, offer to donate a portion of the cost and have someone else pick them up at a discount at a warehouse club. If you have to make yourself look like a complete failure in the kitchen to get out of some bake sale graciously, do it. Just don’t forget to do it with an apologetic smile and a shrug for not being able to help.

Again, where will your priorities lie?

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

Even though hiring other folks to do things that you can delegate or are not an expert on can help free you to manage the business, you will also find you are spending a great deal of time interacting with other people who are working for you on a contract basis. There are programmers, distributors, buyers, bankers and more to deal with. You may even find the local government is interested in having your obtain a legal dba (doing business as) name. All this takes time and attention away from your focus on making sales.

When you start out learning how to establish your company, you will hopefully be modeled on other businesses that survived. However, there will not be anyone standing over your shoulder directly telling you what to do. If you do not learn how to efficiently plan your day, you may end up wasting time and effort aimlessly steering your boat in circles. You can avoid this trap by getting into the habit of doing “to do lists” and constantly managing your business based on your initial marketing plan.

PLANNING YOUR DAY

Just because you might be working out of a home office or from your garage doesn’t mean that you cannot work in a professional manner. The biggest mistake more people make when they decide to get in business for themselves is not realizing that they need to structure their days. It doesn’t pay to just do what you feel like, if what you feel like doesn’t haven any effect on the bottom line of your business.

For this reason, you should begin by sitting down each day, in the evening of the day before, and plan your subsequent day. You should expect to work at least 40 hours a week or more on your business, if you expect it to succeed. Many entrepreneurs work 60 hours or more, but they are doing what they love and that’s why it’s fun to them. Part-time businesses yield part-time results. Full-time businesses yield better results and more cash flow.

Take this list out the following morning and follow it to the letter. At the end of the day, look at your list and see how well you did. The tasks you didn’t accomplish, you move to the next day’s list until all your tasks are done. If you found an obstacle to achieving your task, it can become a subtask that needs to be completed so that the entire task can be checked off. Note it on your to do list and use it as a guideline for how well you are accomplishing in your day.

TWO TYPES OF LISTs

There are multiple ways to create a to do list. The two most common are to list everything and then put a priority next to each item, with the number one being the highest priority. Then, you follow the to do list by nature of priority. At the end of the day, you just use checks to determine whether a task was accomplished or not. Then you move it to the next day’s list.

The other way to do the to do list is to list the actions by order of importance for the following day. The first task would be done first the following day and the second task second and so on. Then, at the end of the day, you grade each task based on an old-fashioned letter grade system with an “A” being Excellent and an “F” being failure. This system can be a bit harsh but more motivating than the previous system. Whatever you don’t accomplish, or don’t accomplish well, can be put on the following day’s list.

The first system has the advantage of being a rotating, non-judgmental, form of organization. The second list is very hierarchal and is good for people who are more comfortable with grading themselves or into perfectionism. There is no right or wrong way to do a to do list. You may find your own unique style.

The point is not to follow someone else’s system perfectly, it’s to find a way to organize your day that works with your personality and daily habits to bring you to optimal use of the minutes you have in your work day.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

The most basic of skills you will need for an online web presence is understanding HyperText Markup Language (HTML). This is the standard code used to create static web pages (those that don’t have content that changes on the fly). Fortunately, HTML is very easy to learn and many community colleges have quick courses on it that can get you started. Or you can go to http://www.pagetutor.com/ where you’ll find a lot of free, step by step tutorials written in non-techie terms.

If you are the least bit technically savvy, you won’t have much problem picking up HTML programming, particularly because most of today’s packages don’t require you to know the ins and outs of programming.

Software packages like Frontpage and Dreamweaver can be learned by anyone who is familiar with Windows and other computer applications. Much of the programming is done behind the scenes while the user is only required to work on documents similar to a word processor for formatting web page articles.

If you are looking to create an online store on your website, then you will need to learn how to either program links to products on other sites that have the inventory (affiliate marketing) or links to products you are shipping. You will need to use some sort of commercial online cart program, like Paypal online cart options or an off-the-shelf software package that can be added to your website, if you are selling your own inventory.

NECESSARY TECHNICAL SKILLS

The skills and packages you need will be determined by the types of sales you are trying to achieve. If you are seeking affiliate sales, you don’t need any technical training other HTML.

If you are seeking to sell your own products, you will have to learn how to create a shopping cart for your products or find a third-party venue who will allow you the use of their system for receiving orders online and collecting payments.

Of course if you are marketing just one product to start with, www.PayPal.com can be a good way to take payment without have to go to the expense of getting a merchant bank account set up or an Internet gateway to authorize credit cards.

Once you know what it is you want to sell, you can check to see what technical skills might be needed to create your online store.

DIRECT INTERNET SALES

There are a number of people who have hobbies or create crafts who want to sell them online. Or maybe, you are a collector who wants to put your business online. The biggest obstacle for these people is that they often don’t have the technical skills to make their own website. They have two choices: 1. Use someone else’s site and give them a cut or 2. Learn how to set up their own site.

If they choose to use someone else’s site, like eBay or a craft consortium, no doubt they will pay to list their items. Those items may or may not sell. While there was no expense for learning how to program, there is time spent understanding how to market on eBay successfully. There are no online opportunities that don’t require some degree of technical know-how. The question is: How much do you want to learn?

If you decide you want your own site, you will need to either hire a web developer or you will have to learn how to program your own. Learning to program your own site can be very time consuming, if you are not technically savvy.

Even understanding the mechanics of how to program a website, there is a body of knowledge you will not have access to in terms of understanding how to make it search engine friendly.

There is a great deal to setting up an effective online store, not the least of which is attracting customers and being able to take orders, receive payment, and fulfill them quickly. In addition to this, without visitors to the site you have no sales, so if your pages are not programmed to be search engine friendly, odds are you will have difficulty attracting people to your site.

When you are considering doing your own site, think about hiring knowledgeable people to create it for you. This can leave more time for you to refine your marketing plan and develop your product and your market base better.

If, however, you choose to use a third-party to market your wares, like eBay, Amazon, or Cafepress then you don’t have to worry about building a checkout cart, setting up credit payments, or establishing a full e-commerce site. You can simply use their interface and list your products with them. This takes less initial programming efforts, but you will be charged listing and commission fees.

You will have to have some expertise in digital photography, to help capture the inventory you are listing for visitors to the third-party site. You will need to have a camera with at least 3 megapixels or more and the ability to upload and download pictures to your computer, which should be Internet-enabled.

A final option for listing your own products on your own site is Paypal. They offer a very simple to learn system for sellers using their checkout cart program and “Buy” buttons that are easily programmed into web pages using HTML code. The code is generated by their system based on values you set for your item and it can then be cut and pasted into your existing web pages. This makes it very easy to set up your pages to collect Paypal payments for orders on your site with only knowledge of HTML coding.

So don’t let the technical issues of starting an Internet Marketing business make you shy away from what can turn into a very lucrative business venture.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

If you are just starting out with your Internet Marketing Business, you are probably wondering how you will design and create a marketing plan, a product or service, a website, an online shopping cart with related inventory listed, and market your site to attract visitors too.

You might also wonder how you can manage all that and the basics of running a business too like managing financials, taxes, loans, income, and expenditures all while keeping a close eye on the competition. It won’t be easy if you are going it alone.

The best thing to do is to find qualified people who can help you in the areas that are easily delegated while you maintain control of your business and make it your priority to grow it.

If there’s one lesson that the business managers did learn after all the upheaval of the dot com years, it’s that outsourcing technology is a way to keep costs down.

There are plenty of skilled workers in other countries who can program a website for far less than it would cost to hire someone in the United States to do it, due to the difference in wages.

Take a cue from companies that have moved many of their services overseas and start to locate able-bodied workers in other countries to help you build your business for less. If you don’t know where to find them, take a look at freelance sites for software solution buyers and contract programmers like elance.com, guru.com, and rentacoder.com.

To establish a good network of people who can help you get your business launched, you will want to look for a variety of skilled professionals. These can be accountants who specialize in businesses, financial connections, programmers, virtual assistants, and content writers.

Anytime you have a need that you can charge out at an hourly rate that is less than what you bring in, then you are making money delegating and hiring others to do your work for you. If you can hire them to directly contribute to your bottom line too, you make not only the difference in your hourly rates, but whatever their product brings in too. This is something you should seriously start considering now for the long term.

LONG-RANGE PLANNING

You do want to do lists for every day that you will be working. They should not include routine items like answering your email or brushing your teeth. Anything that is not specifically related to pushing the progress of your company forward should not be listed on your to do list. Some people get so analytical that they list every little detail of their day on their to do lists. This defeats the purpose of the to do list, which is to organize your business activities.

If contacting a specific person is the one thing keeping you from getting a great deal on hosting or design, then this can be part of your list. But, if your kids need to be picked up at 3 pm from school, avoid including that on your business to do list. Keep separate lists for home chores, if you really must do that sort of thing.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that one should have monthly and yearly task lists. These can be activities that you would like to get done during the month or the year, but that are not essential to the every day working operation of the business. Some of these can be wish list items.

If you find you have completed all your activities for a particular day on your to do list, then pick up a monthly list and see if you can make progress there. There’s always something to do when you are working for yourself. There’s no limit to what you can accomplish, if you keep your mind focused on the tasks ahead. But without a plan it’s kind of hard to know what to focus on.

Dwayne Garrett is the author of several eBooks and popular software
applications, he also offers an affordable Shopping Resource that will save you
a ton of money on some of todays popular ebooks, softwares and videos.
http://www.BumRushMedia.com

Popularity: unranked [?]

One the biggest challenges of making it successful in your online business is to design e-book cover and matching banners, buttons and sales pages. This is also an essential part of creating a professional impression that will actually have a high conversion rate. Words tell but images sell.

The choice of creating these e-covers is always left to you, you can either hire a professional to design your e-book cover or use a package of ’stock’ covers that you can then alter or you can design them on your own.

Designing your own e-book requires software Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or GIMP to name a few, and stock images, which you should carefully check the license of. If you’re a photographer and have professional quality photos, or know one, they might be a good person to contact, otherwise look for sites that deal in royalty free images.

Now comes the major and crucial part of creating a e-book, e-book design involves checking perspectives, and matching up edges so that your binding, and front and back covers don’t seem to have got overlapped, some graphics of e-books show them looking like REAL books, which is an illusion created in order to have huge ’sell’ from a market perspective.

It’s always human tendency to go behind the looks, so it is important to have attractive cover and packaging, you’ll find that it’s the single biggest ‘make or break’ for initial impressions. You can indeed find many packages out there that provide Photoshop action scripts and more to aid in the design of your E book these action scripts allow you to generate a cover without much complication in matching up edges and other tasks such as a perspective view that you might want for your e-book or stylized box design.

If you still feel the cover created is not up to the mark, you can hire a professional there are groups of skilled designers who design covers for very reasonable fees. Regardless of the niche you’re launching into, professional and appealing e-book covers are a must if you expect to sell and sell well.

However, I suggest you to check out Photoshop actions scripts because you buy them once and you can whip out unlimited number of eCovers for all your websites. The scripts are easy to use and not only that, usually, you will also get a set of action scripts to design Software Boxes, CDs, DVDs, DVD Covers, Membership Cards, Ezines, Paperback Books, Hardback Books and Spiral Bound Reports.

Ranju from traffic-sales-profits would like to announce the launch of the new website 3DeCovers. Visit the website now and grab the sample action scripts given out for FREE.

Popularity: unranked [?]

One the biggest challenges of making it successful in your online business is to design e-book cover and matching banners, buttons and sales pages. This is also an essential part of creating a professional impression that will actually have a high conversion rate. Words tell but images sell.

The choice of creating these e-covers is always left to you, you can either hire a professional to design your e-book cover or use a package of ’stock’ covers that you can then alter or you can design them on your own.

Designing your own e-book requires software Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, or GIMP to name a few, and stock images, which you should carefully check the license of. If you’re a photographer and have professional quality photos, or know one, they might be a good person to contact, otherwise look for sites that deal in royalty free images.

Now comes the major and crucial part of creating a e-book, e-book design involves checking perspectives, and matching up edges so that your binding, and front and back covers don’t seem to have got overlapped, some graphics of e-books show them looking like REAL books, which is an illusion created in order to have huge ’sell’ from a market perspective.

It’s always human tendency to go behind the looks, so it is important to have attractive cover and packaging, you’ll find that it’s the single biggest ‘make or break’ for initial impressions. You can indeed find many packages out there that provide Photoshop action scripts and more to aid in the design of your E book these action scripts allow you to generate a cover without much complication in matching up edges and other tasks such as a perspective view that you might want for your e-book or stylized box design.

If you still feel the cover created is not up to the mark, you can hire a professional there are groups of skilled designers who design covers for very reasonable fees. Regardless of the niche you’re launching into, professional and appealing e-book covers are a must if you expect to sell and sell well.

However, I suggest you to check out Photoshop actions scripts because you buy them once and you can whip out unlimited number of eCovers for all your websites. The scripts are easy to use and not only that, usually, you will also get a set of action scripts to design Software Boxes, CDs, DVDs, DVD Covers, Membership Cards, Ezines, Paperback Books, Hardback Books and Spiral Bound Reports.

Ranju the editor of Trffic-Sales-Profits.com would like to hereby announce the action scripts which do not even shrink or contract on changes also. For more information just log on to the website 3DeCovers

Popularity: unranked [?]

How would your website look on a hand held device? Is it easy to navigate? Is the most important information readily available to your visitors? Is your website “mobile Web” ready?

Ten years ago most small business owners didn’t have a website and probably didn’t see the need for one. Now, a business without a website is considered second rate at best. A website is a necessity for doing business in the 21st century. Also a necessity in the 21st century is a website that can be easily viewed on a hand held device.

According to the latest statistics, only 11% of Americans are getting their news and information using the browser in their mobile phone. That doesn’t seem too impressive until you look at the enormous popularity of Apple’s new iPhone and realize that “the times, they are a changing.” In the next few years, the popularity of surfing the net on your mobile Web is going to skyrocket.

Hand Held Devices Are the Future

Mobile devices are the future of the Internet. According to a November 27, 2007 article in the New York Times, “More than 30 companies have signed up for the Open Handset Alliance from Google, which aims to bring the wide-open development environment of the Internet to mobile devices.” If Google is getting involved in this effort to broaden the use of the Internet on hand held devices, you can be sure that this is not just a passing trend.

The incredible popularity of the iPhone is leading the way to a new website platform for businesses. As the Web technologies for mobile devices continue to improve, more and more people are going to be using their iPhone or Blackberry to connect to the Internet. However, even though the improved Internet navigation capabilities of the iPhone make it easier for users to connect to the Internet, there is still one big problem with mobile devices. Small screens make for difficult viewing.

Most Websites Look Terrible on a Mobile Device

Unfortunately, shrinking a website to fit on the screen of an iPhone or a Blackberry usually leads to difficulty viewing and finding information. A smart business owner will make sure their website can be viewed easily on both a desktop and a mobile device.

Here are some pointers in getting your website mobile ready:

*Don’t use flash. The screen is too small and flash is just plain annoying. Besides, the iPhone browser doesn’t support flash.

*Get a .mobi extension for your website. Available since September 2006, over 500,000 .mobi domains have been registered. Go Daddy and Network Solutions both offer .mobi registration (and mobile specific site building tools).

*Use easy to read fonts. Make sure your website uses Verdana or Ariel fonts. Also use black fonts on a white background; the greater contrast makes for easier viewing.

*Keep it vertical. On a mobile device the user can only move up and down, not sideways. Your website content needs to be set up so that most important information is centered within the website.

*Keep the costs down. Unfortunately, using a mobile Web is not a flat rate in most situations, so users are looking for information quickly. Help them out by using informative headlines, subheadings and bulleted lists. Don’t make them go deeper into your website to get answers.

*Design for simplicity. A small screen is difficult to read, so you may need to reconsider the look of your website. A graphic dominant website is probably not a good choice for a small screen. Streamline the look of your website and concentrate on the message. Zero in on what specific information your customers need and give it to them.

*No second chances. On a regular website, you can move around with a back or forward button. On a hand held device you only have a stop button. So, you need to get it right the first time and make sure your website has the right answers.

Conclusion

Getting a website mobile Web ready may include redesigning the current site or completely building another site just for the mobile devices. Each business owner needs to evaluate the situation and make choices depending on what they want to accomplish. But whether you make changes or not, the Internet is moving off the desktop into the hands of your customer. Now is the time to get a jump on the competition.

Michelle Howe, MBA, president of Internet Word Magic, specializes in writing irresistible copy for websites. Transform the way you do business. Visit her website at http://www.InternetWordMagic.com for a FR^EE chapter download of her new book “Turn Browsers into Buyers”.

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You’ve written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right price is essential to the success of your product.

If you charge too little, people will think it’s of little value, and they won’t purchase it, or even it they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands of copies to get to the point where you can begin to see a profit.

If you price it too high when compared with your competition, you will find yourself steadily lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of new problems in the future. For example, if you sell your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to $24.95, don’t you think the people who bought it for $39.99 are going to be PISSED?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the most critical parts of the marketing process. The first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice. Determine the highest price your audience can afford, and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can always reduce the price.

Before you take that step, make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on the Internet and on websites. The price should be aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never forget that price is one of the factors that people use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they buy it. So always start with the highest price, and then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the understanding of what digital actually is to the average layperson. This means that we must look at ebooks in a different light in order to determine their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let’s look at the difference between a book in print and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down to the next generation. It is priced on factors such as paper stock, design and production costs, and marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in these books that have the ability to change, or possibly transform, people’s lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for determining the correct price for your ebook. Let’s begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing customers to your business or service, or to establishing the credibility of your reputation. If this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on the low side. Some authors have even priced their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of new customers. The key is to find a price that maximizes your profits and the number of books you sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable ? and more importantly NEW information, references, or techniques ? then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out what your audience’s need is for your ebook.

For example, does your book solve a particular problem? If it does, and solves it in a way that hasn’t been written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your book solves a problem or answers questions in a new and unique way, you should price your book as high as you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way, but bring in fewer customers.

Just make sure the question or problem that your book solves is one that is important and relevant to the majority of your market audience. If your ideas are not common knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new technique, you will be able to sell books at a high price. Just be prepared for your competition to undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at this high price. So figure out in advance how long you plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw, aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions to their problems at a low price. If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the highest price the market will bear to bring in the largest profits, and plan to discount the book a number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling handle. This sentence states what question or problem your book answers and the benefits your ebook can provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every piece of sales and promotional material, and every time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there are several other strategies that can help you sell more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book, such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to send out a survey to your current customers. If these customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by creating a sales page for the new book, but don’t include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of links to survey questions that ask pointed questions to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a number of duplicate sales pages with different prices on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the same on every page, and includes your selling-handle sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you’ve written a book that solves a problem or presents a new technique, your book will bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem your book solves and what the benefits of your book will be to the customers who purchase it. And then watch your market come to you!

AL MENDOZA has been doing Internet Marketing since 1998 and earns his living 100% online. Mr. Mendoza has authored several publications and ecourses. He is the CEO of MarketingThinkbox.com

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