WHY THE DO NOTHING APPROACH TO MAKING

WHY THE DO NOTHING APPROACH TO MAKING

MONEY WITH YOUR WEB SITE WILL ALWAYS FAIL

By S. Hunter

Here's a common scenario. The young entrepreneur with dollars in his eyes places a web page on the Internet. He waits in anticipation for the 60 million Internet users to land on his site, join his opportunity and make him rich! After a few days he's surprised that he's had no response. He checks his web page to make sure its accessible and skims the headline, "Make $165,000 a week with no effort - Sign Up Today!" He thinks to himself, "I've got an eye-catching headline, that's not the problem". He scans down lower on the site, past the flashing graphics, and makes sure the phone number is correct, yes that's fine too. A few weeks and then a few months go by and still he's had no response. Frustrated he writes the Internet off as a load of hype and vows never to fall victim to such hype again. What's wrong here.

This individual, like many out there has convinced himself that making money with a web site on the Internet takes no effort. He has placed a site on a free web page service and expected to have his phone ring off the hook. When this didn't happen he blamed the Internet when the fault lay with himself and his lack of effort to make it a success.

Anyone who wants to make money with their web site must know the following critical elements.

1.To be successful your web site must be credible. Screaming out at visitors that they can make a very unbelievable $165,000 a week without effort will immediately turn off most smart people. With just that headline you've already caused visitors to lose interest. Make an effort to create a site that offers credibility and confidence to everyone who reads it. Your products and services should speak to each visitor and how they personally will benefit from them. Of course it goes without saying that what you offer must be of good quality and value to generate interest.

2.To be successful your web site must look professional. Flashing this and flashing that is annoying and the last thing you want to do is annoy a potential customer. Make an effort to ensure that your site is informative, sleek, classy, and graphics are quick to load. Amateur sites are easy to spot and a run-away web site address that just won't end is a dead giveaway. Domain addresses are best (www.yourbusinessname.com) as they convey stability and professionalism immediately to your visitors.

3.To be successful your web site must have a way to gather visitor information. Work at this by offering a Guest Book or Feedback form where visitors can request product or service information, offer you feedback on your site, tell you how they found out about your site, etc. Provide a form where visitors can leave their contact information so you can follow up with them in the future.

4.To be successful your web site must be compelling and interactive. A static one-page site that tells visitors about your company is not enough. Invest some labor in creating a multi-page site that motivates visitors to take action, to click here, to click there, to order today, to contact you today, to enter your contest, to request more information, to explore your site. Once you've got people to respond at your site make sure you work at effectively managing prompt responses to inquiries, order and customer service matters.

5.To be successful your web site must offer visitors easy ways to contact you and this means offering choices. Provide a phone number, fax number, e-mail address, toll free number, and mailing address and place this information in an easy to locate area on your web page. Ideally place it on your home page.

6.To be successful your web site must be promoted. This all-important success factor means that you MUST invest continuos sweat equity in making people aware that your site exists. How do you do this? Register your site with search engines, directories, with free classified sites, and web page indexes. Investigate link exchanges, e-zines, and consider purchasing links, banners or a web site in high traffic malls. You can pay services to do some of this promotion yourself but it's best to know how to do it yourself and continually be on the lookout for more places to promote your site. Afterall the person who cares most about the success of your site is you so accordingly invest in this with time and effort.

To make money with your web site requires ongoing effort on your part to improve it, update it and continually promote it. If you can't develop a site that is professional, if you can't promote it yourself or find ways to do so, then hire someone to assist you with this. Take ownership for the success of your site and be proactive!

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

WHY GETTING SOMETHING FOR FREE DOESN'T

WHY GETTING SOMETHING FOR FREE DOESN'T

ALWAYS BENEFITYOU BUT REALLY PADS

SOMEONE ELSE'S WALLET.

By Sandi Hunter

Today I received an email, a rather rudely worded email, where a prospect inquired about the services that my company, Worldprofit offers. I replied promptly and politely with detailed answers to his questions. Shortly he replied brushing me off, stating that he could get some of the same services for free and provided the URL where I could see what he was talking about.

Convinced of the good value of the sophisticated services offered to our customers, I went to the URL to see exactly what one got for free at this site.

Once there I was initially impressed with the layout of the site. In a professional manner the site highlighted the services they offered; free classified ad system, free postcard greeting systems and so on. To test the systems I pasted the code for each of these systems on to my site to see how it would function. This was easy to do and the systems worked immediately.

Once the free classified system was installed on my site, I clicked on the link on my homepage to see what would happen. My mouse click transported me to my "new Classified Ad System". But once there what did I see? Indeed, I had a classified ad system but it was like a billboard for the company that had provided me with the system! There was a large banner at the top of the site promoting and linking to some other company I'd never heard of. I noticed too, a large heading promoting the company that I had got the free system from, with a link to their site! My first positive impression began to crumble and it all became clear to me why this company was offering these free systems like the classified ad system. The more people who had the system on their site the more traffic THEY got, and the more banner sales THEY could generate! I was getting something for free while they got all the traffic and the profits from their own banner sales! I was starting to could see how someone unfamiliar with the web and Internet business would mistakenly think that this "Free System" was a good thing, all the while not realizing the motivation of the system provider and the lack of benefit to the user. This is one of the fundamental mistakes new web site owners make, they load up their site with links, and nifty free stuff that simply takes visitors away from their site and makes them NO money.

I returned to the site where I got the system from to see if it was possible to remove the offending banners. I found that is was only possible to change the text colours on the site, the background, and the heading on the page from the company's name to my name. I could not remove the very large banner at the top of the site that linked to someone else's site. I could not use that space to sell my own banners, nor could I promote or link to any of my own products and services on my own site. Really what this "free system" was offering me was a way to send people away from my site and on to someone else's! While getting the system for free I was really sabotaging any sales I could have made on my own site. Of course it's free so you can't really complain can you, but wise people will see the problem with this.

Bottom line: The companies that offer these free classified ad systems, and postcard sites and other similar systems that you can place on your site are doing it for one reason. No, its not simply to offer something free to you and me. If you think that's it you are naïve. They do it for their own personal profit! The more people who get those free systems on their site, the more traffic they get to their site! The more banners they can sell on it, the more money they make in promoting their own products and services. You are the mule in the traffic trade!

Now if you are so bold as to ask so what? I will tell you so what. Remember the old adage you get what you pay for? Well it applies here. If you are content to set up one of these free classified systems on your site and send people out the back door of your site on to someone else's please do.

I hope you will never complain about loss of traffic and lack of profit from your site. However, if you understand the basic premise of what I'm about to say you will become one of the smart folks who truly makes money on the web!

To make money you have to be the one selling the services instead of the one sending people out the back door of your site. You need to be the one who offers the system not the user of it! You need to be the one that offers the system on your own site, the one who sells the banners and pockets the profit yourself, the one who uses the systems to generate traffic to your own site! How do you do this? You buy a classified ad system, a postcard system, a magazine system, or a reminder system, that allows you to do the following:

1) Sell your own banners at the site, not only on the main page but on the categories and directories within the system. See examples at http://www.worldprofit.com/classifieds

http://www.worldprofit.com/reminder

http://www.worldprofit.com/postcards

http://www.worldprofit.com/magazine

2) Sell or promote your own products and services at the system site. Yes, that way when people come in to place and ad or browse the ads they see YOUR products, services, banners, not that of another company! Details here http://www.trafficcenter.com/service_classifieds.htm

3) Use the system on your own site or refer others to buy a system and earn a commission on the referral! Details on this here, http://www.trafficcenter.com It's not enough that you use systems like Free Postcards and Free Classifieds to bring traffic to your site, you also have to be selling banners, ads, links and so on at those sites so you make profit! You are NOT in the business of offering something for free; you are in business to make money! If you aren't doing the latter you will be out of business!

Summary: I want to thank the obnoxious gentleman who let me know about these "Free Services" so that I could investigate them thoroughly. It reminded me that misinformed people don't always compare apples to apples. I've now completely restored my confidence that the systems Worldprofit offers, provide our customers with both traffic generating tools AND profit-making tools!

Yes, customers have to pay for these systems. However, the sophistication of the systems, their ability to be customized, the tech support, and the profit generation centers they offer the customer are not matched by anyone else in the industry. If you'd like free information on these systems so you can judge for yourself go to http://www.trafficcenter.com or contact Sandi Hunter, Director of Web Site Development for Worldprofit at mailto:sandi@worldprofit.com

Sandi Hunter is the Director of Web Site Development for Worldprofit an Internet Service Provider. Get free newsletters, free report and traffic generating tools at http://www.worldprofit.com E-mail Sandi at sandi@worldprofit.com

THE PERILS OF SPAM

THE PERILS OF SPAM

By S. Hunter

Spam, what is it? Spam is an Internet term that refers to the sending of unsolicited e-mail. The formal term is UCE - unsolicited commercial e-mail. In basic terms it means if you send an e-mail message with sales/marketing material to someone who has not asked to receive it, you have just committed spam. If you pay money to a service to send out your message to a list of e-mail addresses, then you have also committed spam.

This week I received 3 more calls from people who had paid money to a provider to send their marketing sales pitch out to 10 million people who "wanted to receive the information" - or so they were led to believe. What happened? One person made the mistake of running an 800 number in the spam ad. The 800 number was besieged with calls - not from prospects, but rather from irritated recipients of the spam message who had called to complain. The person had to have their 800 number disconnected, but not before paying the $1500 phone bill that had been run up - plus the $800 paid to the spam provider. Total sales ZERO, out of pocket expense $2300.

The other 2 people I heard from this week had spent $200 each on a spam mailing, received an average of $25 in sales and had their Internet connections terminated by their provider resulting in additional expense as they changed providers.

These are not isolated incidents, I hear from people every week who've had similar experiences. I have never heard from anyone who has made money marketing their product or service through spam. But why is spam so bad?

#1 - Most spam providers sell you a pitch that they will send your message out to "hand-picked" or "opt-in" lists, or will otherwise convince you these people want to receive your message. In most cases this is not true. The e-mail addresses have been harvested from newsgroup postings or stripped from web sites, and have been sold time and time again to e-mail list brokers. The unknowing buyer (you) falls for the pitch and is soon in trouble with their Internet provider for being a "spammer" and so too, money out of pocket.

#2 - Most spam providers are unscrupulous folks at best. They change Internet providers often, go to great lengths to hide their identity and their physical address, and have been in and out of court for their deviant practices which often involve faking return/reply e-mail addresses and using the mail servers of unsuspecting providers as relay stations.

#3 - Spam slows down the entire Internet network and increases operating expenses meaning higher consumer fees. It is not as some people think, just a matter of "trashing" unwanted e-mail messages you receive. This is seeing the spam problem as an individual problem rather then the larger global problem that it really is. You see, the Internet is a network and spamming effects all users at some level, starting from the many global networks that the messages pass along to get to their destination, all the way down to the recipient.

Time, money and resources are used up trying to catch and prevent spammers who infiltrate mail servers to end their spam messages out. The result is higher cost to you the consumer as providers are forced to add more security to their servers and hire more staff to manage and prevent the problem.

#4 - Finally, spam sent from you the advertiser, is a sure fire sign to the recipient that you are NOT a legitimate company because you are relying on this widely unaccepted practice to get your message out.

Bottom line. Do not use spam to market your product or service, rely on tried, tested and acceptable methods of marketing your products online. For ideas visit www.trafficcenter.com. If you receive e-mail messages that are unsolicited simply deposit them in your e-mail program's "trash bin."

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

KNOW YOUR WEBMASTER BEFORE YOU GET

KNOW YOUR WEBMASTER BEFORE YOU GET

LEFT OUT IN THE COLD

by George Kosch, MSc.

It happens so often you'll be amazed; a new domain goes up and another webmaster is called upon. And you can bet that this means trouble if you're not careful. When you decide to purchase a domain you need to be sure that the person who designs and more importantly, maintains your site knows what he or she is doing.

Remember this is the person who will be designing your store with the paramount responsibility of creating a profitable site that is exciting, motivating, and customer oriented. Choosing the wrong webmaster can mean the difference between a site that generates ongoing sales and leads, and one that just sits blankly on the screen begging for some attention. There are thousands of "wanna-be" webmasters out there, here is a checklist of things you MUST confirm before turning over your million-dollar domain storefront.

1. The most important thing to check is previous work. If your prospective webmaster doesn't have any proven previous experience, then move on to the next prospect. Too many people turn the creation of their Internet storefront over to an amateur. An amateur part time webmaster is going to give you a part time amateur site.Is this what you want? Remember, getting sales and leads isn't going to happen with a web page that any 10 year old could create. These amateurs tend to want to dazzle. They create graphic intense sites that blink, flash, and annoy. Concerned with the latest gadgetry they think nothing about the most important reason for the site; you getting sales and prospects! If a site doesn't work right, if it doesn't capture lead information, if it doesn't give folks a reason to visit and come back again, if it doesn't motivate some action by the visitor, then the site is useless and you're wasting your money. The bottom line is to check the previous work of your prospective webmaster.

Have a look at sites they've designed. Do the sites appeal to you as a viewer? Are the sites attractive, easy to navigate, customer centered, quick to load, and generally appealing. Be sure too, to get customer referrals and call them to find out what kind of service these people received and that you can expect.

2. Qualifications in hand and a few nice demo sites later you must watch for the hours of business. Is the webmaster full time with a reasonable amount of clients or is he/she at school, working part-time and doing this as a sort of hobby. The worst thing in the world is having something wrong with your site and none available to repair it. Be sure that the webmaster is a professional and open for business by phone during the day and access able at least by email on the weekends. As your site grows there will be errors here and there. This is normal and should be expected but the key to managing this is the ability to make corrections asap and not be held up for days waiting to see if the webmaster exists anymore.

3. Cost. Here is an interesting question. Do you consider the webmaster who charges $40 an hour or the one who charges $400 an hour? Take points 1 and 2 into account here and be aware that the Internet and webmasters are not regulated. I still can't find a listing for "webmaster" in my phone book, but I can find accountants, lawyers etc. Webmasters don't follow any pay table but there is a way to assess that will never fail; common sense. I know some excellent webmaster's who charge by page and by hour. Look for page rates between $90 to $250. Be sure that includes graphics, fonts and complete navigation throughout the site. Hourly rates are around $65 - $99.

4. Last but not least. Watch for the prospective webmaster that says:"Yeah, this web stuff is easy. Did you know I'm a database mainframe cobol guy? This web html is sooooo easy I'm sure I can handle it."or the tech talker

"You know I specialize in activeX and dbase front ends like Access. I will make you a chat room, web board, moving video, and streaming audio. Oh, by the way, what did you say your site was going to be about?"

These people can mean the death of a site. I have personally worked with a dozen or so of them in my time on the web. Where are they now? Back in the basements of their houses getting Alex9000 to come back to life. Or they are the ones that have created the sites that crash your browser every time you try to access the site.

The webmaster you choose needs to be focused on making YOUR site appeal to the majority, to bring you business, and not be only for the technically enabled. Many a successful techhead has learned this little gem of knowledge the hard way. Be sure you quiz your webmaster on their view of the web as a marketing tool. Armed with this checklist you should be better able to assess your future webmaster and develop a profit making web site.

George Kosch is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com.

To get your FREE Banner on websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com.

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com.

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com.

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

E-MAIL ETIQUETTE 101 BY SANDI HUNTER

E-MAIL ETIQUETTE 101 BY SANDI HUNTER

If you routinely use e-mail to communicate with friends, family, and business associates. Sit up and take notice of these 10 important lessons about using e-mail effectively and considerately.

1. Organize your thoughts and the message you wish to communicate. Sounds simple right? Surprisingly many people do not do this very simple step when composing an e-mail message. Regrettably, I feel like my 9th grade English teacher preaching about organization, paragraph structure, grammar and the like. No, Mrs. Davidson's lecture wasn't about e-mail at the time but some of the same lessons of good writing apply.

If the intent of your e-mail message is to inquire about something or to get certain information, then be sure to compose a message that is going to be clearly understood by the recipient. If your message is vague, incomplete or poorly worded the recipient will have to send you back a message to get clarification which uses up time and is unnecessary had your message been clear from the beginning. If you are asking several questions then number them or use paragraphs or formatting so the reader can easily respond to each question or issue within the text of the message.

2. If you respond to a message with a question, retain the original question/message when you reply. This way the person will be able to view and recall the original content. This is especially helpful if considerable time has passed before you've responded to the message. In this case by the time the sender receives your reply they've long forgotten what the original message is about. Including the original message in your reply avoids this problem.

3. Be brief and to the point. Nobody likes to receive e-mail messages that ramble on and never get to the point. Anyone who gets a lot of e-mail dislikes receiving messages that are long and poorly organized. It wastes the reader's time trying to decipher what your message is about so please be considerate of this and you will get a more effective reply.

4.. Check your spelling. People are human; we make typos and we make mistakes. Don't get overly hung up on the odd error in your e-mail communications. However, if you have a chronic problem with spelling, invest in an e-mail program that has a "Spell Check" feature. Eudora is an excellent program. The "lite" version is free at www.eudora.com

5. When using e-mail, be polite and courteous. I am shocked at how bold and rude people can be when using e-mail when I know for a fact they wouldn't be so on the phone or in person. Without the facial and body expression that accompanies oral communication, the written word does not provide these clues so be aware of this when composing your messages. Be aware of styles of e-mail that help convey emotion. Commonly used expression symbols are:

;-) Used as a wink.

:-) Conveys a happy face or smile

:-( Conveys sadness or displeasure

:-0 Conveys surprise

Finally the use of all capitals within an e-mail message indicates SHOUTING and is considered RUDE. Many new users of e-mail will type in all upper case for some reason. To the reader this is interpreted as the sender YELLING at them. Try to avoid doing this.

6. Always, always "sign" your e-mail messages. This means that you should always at the conclusion of your e-mail communication have either a signature file or some form of identification or contact information. Within most e-mail programs you can create what are called "signatures." Your signature should include your complete name and contact information. Don't assume that you will be recognized by your first name or just your e-mail address. Within your e-mail program you should also configure your full name to show up in the reply field or include a "real name" in addition to your e-mail address.

7. As a general rule do not send attached files or executable files unless someone has specifically asked to receive them. If you inadvertently send a large file it will slow down or in some cases, actually jam the recipients e-mail and they will not be happy with you. Most people are wary of receiving executable files (file.exe) as they may contain viruses.

8. Don't send unnecessary e-mail carbon copies. Cross copying, or carbon copying or c/cing is a tool that allows you to send a copy of a message to several people at one time. Generally do not do this unless absolutely necessary as it adds to the pile of incoming mail that people have to sort through and may not really have any relevance to the c/ced parties. In short, be considerate of other people's time.

9. Don't send out or buy bulk e-mail (spam lists) as they are largely ineffective. Spam slows down the Internet network and eventually results in increased cost to all consumers.

10. If you receive unsolicited e-mail (known as spam), simply deposit it in your e-mail program's trash box as it does little good to reply or complain. In fact by replying you often alert the spammer that you are a "live e-mail address" and your e-mail address is then sold over and over again to other spammers.

Lesson # 1. For heaven's sake check your e-mail often and respond to e-mail quickly. People love the convenience of e-mail but this works only if you use the system for what it is and reply to messages in a prompt, timely manner. In short, get used to using e-mail because it's here for a long time.

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

20 EASY WAYS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC TO YOUR

20 EASY WAYS TO INCREASE TRAFFIC TO YOUR

WEB SITE TODAY

By Sandi Hunter

Everyone with a web site knows the importance of traffic. If you don't have ways of continually generating new and repeat traffic to your site, you might as well be selling sand boxes in the middle of a remote desert. You can do several things to increase traffic to your web site, many of which are free and some which are extremely cost effective.

1.Use effective, descriptive titles on all your web pages. Make sure your web pages have descriptive titles that include both your company name and the page content. Some web page editor programs will name your pages automatically "home page" unless you change or insert a new title. The benefit of doing this is to assist search engines to better index your web site and therefore make it easier for people to find your site. For example, if your company name is Joe's Athletic Wear, make sure your pages all have your company name and each page has proper titles identifying the content of that page. Example, your home page could be titled, "Joe's Athletic Wear: Athletic Supplies, Equipment and Sports Store." Your product pricing page could be titled "Joe's Athletic Wear - Sports Product List." Your Athletic Wear Section - "Joe's Athletic Wear - Hiking Equipment." Your Sports Equipment page titled, "Joe's Athletic Wear - Sports Wear Equipment." Get the idea. Think about what words people would logically search for in a search engine if they were looking for what you have to offer. Consider that they may or may not know your company name, so although they might not search under "Joe's Athletic Wear", they might search using the words athletics, sports equipment, hiking gear etc.

2.Insert key word and description meta tags on all of your web pages. Metatags are simply lines of text entered into the HTML code of your pages and are used by search engines spiders to index your web pages more effectively. Some, not all search engines use this method to catalog your site in their index. Most web page editors offer you the option of inserting metatags into your web pages without having to know anything about HTML. Microsoft's FrontPageÒ for example allows you to insert the metatags using the page properties option and doesn't involve any manipulation of the HTML code itself. If your site is sparse in descriptive text and heavy in graphics it is especially helpful to use the metatags. When entering your key words metatag you should select words that would logically be used by someone searching for what is offered at your site. Pluralize these words when possible and separate by commas. Example, for Joe's Athletic Wear, logical key words would be; athletics, sports, equipment, hiking, skis, surfboards, hats, boots, shoes, skates, inline skates, rollerblades, golf, golfing, etc. Your description tag should be a few sentences that summarizes what your site is about and includes as many key words as possible avoiding non-helpful "fluff" that contributes nothing to your site's findability. A good metatag description example; Joe's Athletic Wear offers a complete inventory of athletic and sports equipment including, shoes, boots, surfboards, ski equipment, golf equipment, hiking gear and supplies, rollerblades and sports accessories. 10 percent discount for frequent purchasers!

3.Register your site with search engines, directories, and web page indexes. Some visitors to your site will find you through a search engine. Alta Vista is an example of a search engine and Yahoo is an example of a search directory. It's a good idea to register your web site address with the major engines and directories. This includes Alta Vista, Yahoo, Excite, Hot Bot, Webcrawler, Info Seek, and Lycos. Roughly 80% of your traffic from search engines will come from these "biggies" so be sure to register with them. As for the other smaller directories they will help contribute to your overall traffic so take the time to register there as well. There are several one stop shops where you can do this yourself, such as http://www.mmgco.com/top100.html or you can pay for a service to do this for you, such as http://www.incor.com or you can purchase automated software for doing this, the Exploit Submission Wizard is an example of such a product.

4.Create web pages that are rich in content and offer value to your visitors.You will get better ranking in the search engines, better feedback from your visitors, more referral visits and more sales if your site is full of solid useful information. Consider the purpose of your site and its value from the visitor's perspective. Your site should be about the visitors and what you offer them more than about your company. Every visitor to your site is a prospect and a potential customer so cater to each of them with information of value, compelling sales offers, ease of use and order/service convenience.

5.Use headers or section titles within your web pages. A site that is easy to navigate is good for your customers, good for your sales and helpful for search engine indexing. Create your site so that you have main headings or at least easy to find and navigate buttons and directional aids.

6.Avoid the problems of marketing spam (unsolicited bulk e-mail), by creating and publishing your own "opt-in" subscriber based e-zine or e-mail newsletter. If you are annoyed and frustrated by spam, chances are your customers and prospects are too. The way to build a solid e-mail mailing list is what is known as "opt-in" or subscriber based e-mail list publishing. This simply means that you offer your site visitors the choice, (the key word here is choice) of receiving your newsletter or publication. Then on a regular basis, perhaps once a week or once a month you send to your list of subscribers a free newsletter or service/product update. It does take some time to create the newsletter, but publishing to a list of 10,000 subscribers takes literally minutes and even a computer novice can do it using a tool called a listserver. Visit http://www.worldprofit.com for information on listservers and a free article on how you can use them in your business. Listservers allow you to publish your newsletter or e-zine cost effectively and is a great way to maintain contact and establish trust with prospects and customers.

7.Update your site often. Remember, if you have an effective site, chances are that you will have return visits so it's important to update your site on a regular basis. This doesn't mean you have to change the entire look every week it just means that you should be creative and change your offers, your specials etc., to keep your site fresh and as an effort to continually improve your site. The advantage of web publishing is being able to change your site fairly easily and inexpensively.

8.Create motivating copy in your site. Contests, special offers, discounts, limited time offers, and frequent buyer discounts are all examples of motivational sales tactics. If a specific offer isn't working or generating the response you want changes it until you get it working for you. As mentioned in the last point, some of your visitors will be new and some will be repeat customers. If your site is effective you will likely get some referrals from visitors so make sure that your site speaks to the visitor and clearly states what your site is about and what they are going to get there. Remember we all like to feel important and appreciated. Create wording and copy in the site that makes the visitor think the site was designed just with their needs in mind. Offer the benefits of your products and services and what's in it for them if they buy them and why they need to buy them today!

9.Consider various methods for encouraging visitors to contact you so you can capture the e-mail addresses of interested parties. Think of every single visitor to your site as a potential customer. If they've come to your site they are interested in what you have to offer. But if they merely browse then click off your site, they are lost prospects and possibly your competitors' newest customer. Knowing this should emphasize to you the importance of capturing the e-mail or contact information of every single visitor to your site. You can do this by offering a free newsletter subscription, as mentioned earlier. You can do this by offering an incentive of some type. For example if visitors fill in your guest book or an information request form with their contact information you will e-mail a valuable 5 page free report on your product or service. Get the idea? Get the e-mail address or contact information of your visitors and you increase your chances of making the sale. Just make sure you offer your visitors something of good value for taking the time to provide you with their contact information. It helps too, if you offer assurance of privacy and that the information they enter will be kept confidential and not be resold.

10.Include a signature file on all your outgoing e-mail messages. When you receive a request for information on your product or services, make sure that your e-mail reply is sent out with a signature file. Configure your signature file using your e-mail software tools. An effective signature file includes your company name, your name, your web site address, e-mail address, phone, fax number, and most importantly some type of incentive for people to contact you or visit your site today. Essentially it's a free promotion tool. Remember that free newsletter I mentioned in an earlier point, here's a perfect place to plug your site with a free offer for a newsletter, free report, time limited offer, etc.

11.Consider traffic generation tools. You may have noticed while surfing on the web that a number of large sites are offering features like free classified advertising and free postcard greetings. Why are they doing this? To generate traffic of course! People come to their site to place a free ad or send or receive a free postcard greeting and this creates free promotion for the site owner. You can do this to create traffic to your site. Go to http://www.trafficcenter.com and you will see these kinds of programs and others too that you can have installed on your site to create more traffic. An example of some of the goodies you can offer are a Free Fortune Cookie service that allows your site visitors to send a Fortune Cookie to a friend, colleague or family member. The Updater System is another nifty tool that allows visitors to subscribe to a service that sends out an automated e-mail message whenever your site is updated. While there have a look a the Reminder Service that allows visitors to enter dates of events they wish to be reminded about, when that date approaches they receive an e-mail message reminder. (No more forgotten anniversaries, birthdays or deadlines). You've probably heard of the popular Link Exchange program that allows you to participate in a banner advertising exchange program, well you can have a similar system on your site too! Information on this and the other traffic generating systems I've mentioned are all at http://www.trafficcenter.com

12.Promote your web site address on all of your print marketing materials including business cards, letterhead, radio and television ads. But don't stop there! Give people a reason to go to your web site by offering them something of value for doing so such as a free newsletter, 20% off sale, or some other incentive. Change your offers periodically to keep them fresh and exciting.

13.Use free promotional vehicles on the web such as free classified advertising. There are all kinds of free ways to promote your site on the Internet for free. Enter "free advertising" in just about any search engine and you will find thousands of places to list either a classified ad, a link or a brief promotional blurb about your site, product or service.

14.Join a link exchange program (or consider setting up your own). There are a variety of link exchange programs available that allow you to exchange banner advertising with another site of similar theme. These programs are free for the most part and do contribute some traffic to your site, but why not offer your own banner advertising exchange program. Get the details on how to do this at http://www.trafficcenter.com

15.Purchase low cost banners, featured ad positions or sponsorships in high traffic malls or target web sites. Find sites that have high traffic that can be confirmed (meaning they can prove their traffic) and purchase banner advertising, featured advertisers and links that can bring traffic to your site. Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com is a good place to start for low cost high traffic advertising.

16.Run low cost classified ads in newsletters that reach your target market. Many site owners offer free newsletters to a subscriber list and include a classified advertising section. The cost to run an ad in an e-zine or newsletter is reasonable usually about $25 - $50 per insertion. Just be sure before placing an ad to confirm that it is indeed an "opt-in" subscriber based newsletter (not a spam list) with a guaranteed circulation of at least 5,000 and up. Expect to pay more for an ad in a newsletter with a larger circulation.

17.Learn how to barter. Make deals with other site owners, run free ads, links or sponsorships for non-competing equitable sites in exchange for running yours in their site or newsletter. Or consider offering something for free at your site with every product or service purchase. This doesn't have to cost you anything and can be as simple as running a free ad or link for your customer if they order from you. Be creative here and it will help increase traffic and sales.

18.Make your site into an "expert" or niche site. Too many site owners try to be all things to all people. It's more effective to offer specialized services and create the sense that your site is THE site to go to for information on your specific product or service. Example, have a look at http://www.heintzmanfarms.com. This site is about flax seed and the health effects of flax. It offers specific information all related to the product, the benefits of the products, the sale of the product and information related to its use. You will not find the weather forecast at this site, or a world atlas, or a dining directory but if you are a health conscience individual or a diabetic you will certainly find lots of information of good value about this specific product.

19.Spend time on the web researching what other sites are doing that is successful. You don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to generating new ideas for traffic generation. The Internet is a wealth of information. Look at what your competitors are doing, adapt (not steal) good ideas for your own purposes, and stay current on new developments in technology.

20.Subscribe to free resource information on the web. Visit web sites that offer current information and news in the field of web marketing. Make use of free information articles discussing Internet commerce and marketing strategy available at many sites. You can start by subscribing to the Worldprofit Worldgram weekly free newsletter at http://www.worldprofit.com/fmcatalg.htm and reading the free web site building report library at http://www.incor.com

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com To get your FREE Banner on websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

10 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO INCREASE

10 THINGS YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW TO INCREASE

THE NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS ON YOUR EZINE

OR NEWLETTER LIST AND 10 WAYS TO KEEP

THEM ON YOUR LIST.

By Sandi Hunter

1. Make the most of FREE Promotion Sites! There are lost of places on the web where you can list and promote your ezine free, one example is John Labowitz' listing at http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/submit.html

2. If you are a Worldprofit customer you can add your ezine at no cost, to the directory listing at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines/listezines.htm

3. Every email you send out should include a Signature File. You can customize this Signature File using the options in your email program to include your web site address, contact information, and the fact that you offer a free newsletter detailing briefly how people will benefit by receiving it.

4. Get as much exposure for your newsletter as you can by placing the subscribe area for your ezine throughout your site. Place it in a very prominent position on your web site, close to the top of the page is most effective. Repetition in the web site will help increase your subscriber list.

5. On your business cards always include not only your URL (web site address) but also give a reason for people to visit your site by promoting that they can get a free ezine just for visiting your web site.

6. When dealing with customers and prospects by phone, email, and in person ask if they'd like to receive your free newsletter and then tell them how to get it. If they give you express permission to add their email address to your list then do so but always remember to give people a choice, don't automatically add them as this would be spam. Spam is sending Unsolicited Commercial Email to people.

7. Submit the URL of your ezine subscription page by hand for best results to the major search engines.

http://www.yahoo.com

http://www.lycos.com

http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

http://www.infoseek.com

http://www.hotbot.com

http://www.altavista.com

http://www.webcrawler.com

http://www.looksmart.com

For the other smaller search directories you may want to consider purchasing an automated submission program or hire a service such as Incor Enterprises Search Registration, details at http://www.incor.com

8. If you are a Worldprofit dealer use the DealerSwap area to let other dealers know about your ezine and what they will get if they subscribe. The Worldprofit dealer network is an excellent place to get started and share resources while building your subscriber list.

9. Use free classified ad sites to post a promotional ad for your newsletter. Make sure you tell people the benefits of getting your ezine or newsletter. Build in the value, the exclusivity, the special offers etc. It's not enough to say "our newsletter is great". Tell people exactly what they will get when they subscribe and how they will benefit.

To find free classified sites, go to any search engine and do a search, but here are a few to get you started. http://classifieds.yahoo.com/ http://www.incor.com/classifieds

http://www.classifieds2000.com/

http://www.cashquest.com

http://www.worldprofit.com/classifieds

10. Run ad swaps with other ezine publishers you know. Here is how to do this, tell them you will run a 35 word ad in your ezine promoting their site or ezine if they will do the same for you. Both of you then benefit from their readership.Now, that you have some ways to build up your subscriber base, let's look at some ways to keep subscribers on your ezine list.

Rule # 1 - Don't send junk! Send information that will benefit the viewer and that they will want to continue to receive. If your ezine is about how to improve your health make sure that you are providing that to your readers. If your newsletter is about increasing site traffic, make sure you offer that. If you send information that is of little value, that is not of benefit and is readily available in other places, people will no longer want to receive your ezine.

Rule # 2 - Create excitement and keep reader interest. Here' one idea on how to do this. Run a series of articles, where you run Part 1 today, Part 2 next week, Part 3 the following week etc. If the information is of good value people will watch for the next issue so they can get the next part of the series. Always state, "Next week we will be looking at 10 things you can do for FREE to increase your ranking at search engines - you won't want to miss this critical information!

Rule # 3 - Always honor remove requests promptly! Make removal instructions very clear and easy to follow unless you like getting hate mail. Don't get frustrated if people ask to be removed it may have less to do with your ezine and more to do with them. Some people change email addresses, they get too much email and are trying to reduce the volume etc. The bottom line is that for every removal you should get some new subscribers if you are following my suggestions.

Rule # 4 - If you are using an automated mail program like a listserve to send out your ezine, it will likely have a removal message that you can customize. Within this message, you should state something like this as an effort to remind people of what they will miss out on by unsubscribing.

"We have received and honored your request for Removal from the Traffic Tips Newsletter. However you should know that you will be missing out on ways to increase your traffic, increase your ranking at search engines, how to create banners that get 50% more clicks, how to double your newsletter list subscribers and more. If you wish to change your mind please go to http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines and you can add your address again or leave at any time! "

Rule # 5 - NEVER add email addresses to your newsletter list unless they have specifically told you they would like to receive it, to avoid problems it is often best to tell people the address to go to to subscribe so there is no confusion. Ezines and newsletters are a voluntary service you are offering and spam is never a solution for increasing the size of your subscriber list.

Rule # 6 - Make offers to your readers to build in exclusivity. Similar to frequent buyer programs or buyer loyalty programs, make sure your subscribers get some perks for being on your mailing list. M,ake them aware first of new products, special introductory offers, etc. Unlike print advertising where it is very difficult and often expensive to test offers, you can do this quickly and easily be email. Write an offer, make it available for a limited time. Do this, get this now to motivate action. If you don't get a good response, rewrite the offer, strengthen it, change it, polish it so it is more appealing, run the offer again in your ezine and wait for the result.

Rule # 7 - Keep your content fresh! There are tens of thousands of articles on the web by authors that are most willing to let you reprint them provided they are given credit. Always ask permission before reprinting. Consider too, writing your own articles. If you are a physician who's specialty is holistic health care, share your knowledge, it adds to your credibility, helps your readers, and will be free promotion for your own business. If you know other physicians or health care providers who have similar information to share ask them if they would like to be a guest author! If you'd like to run some of my articles and those of my colleagues, email, mailto:sandi@worldprofit.com

Rule # 8 - Organize your ezine in a manner that allows readers to parse the information. Remember that people often get volumes of information by email, if you overwhelm them, and pack to much information in that can not be absorbed, readers may pass on continuing to receive your publication.

Instead, focus on one or two topics per issue, make a few offers, run some ads, promotion for your own business and services etc. But keep it neat, simple, and easy to read. Make sure your contact information, web site address is easy to find.

Rule # 9 - Subscribe to other popular ezines to see how they structure their ezine, the kind of content they send, and analyze what you like about them and what you don't like. If there are ezines that you like to receive ask yourself why you like to receive them. Consider how you may use similar ideas within your own publication. Start by subscribing to the free ezines listed at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines for ideas.

Rule # 10 - Have fun writing your ezine! Afterall you are a publisher now reaching out to other countries all over the world! Keep your newsletter fun, informative and helpful and your readers will appreciate your enthusiasm often moving from being a reader to a lifetime customer. Add your own personality and pizazz!

About the Author: Sandi Hunter, is the Director of Web Site Development for Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

Get "DesignProfit" a weekly ezine devoted to helping you create a profitable web site based on proven marketing strategies. Subscribe FREE at http://www.worldprofit.com/ezines

Let our experts review your site and give you a 10 point checklist on exactly what you can do to improve your results, email, customerservice@worldprofit.com

10 FEARLESS INTERNET PREDICTIONS FOR 1998

10 FEARLESS INTERNET PREDICTIONS FOR 1998

By George Kosch, Sandi Hunter, and Dr. Jeffrey Lant

As the new year opens it's time to predict what will happen on the Internet in the next 365 days with a view towards positioning you for maximum profit as quickly as possible. Our predictions fall into three categories: technical, web site development, and marketing.

Each of us will make our fearless predictions in our own special area of expertise. To start our crystal gazing here's our webmeister extraordinaire - George Kosch.

Internet Technical Predications for 1998

Worldprofit's Webmaster George Kosch, MSc.

The number one technical development of 1998 will be a more efficient and organized Internet backbone. More money than ever will be invested to improve and expand the bandwidth capability of the Internet. What this means for you is faster access, less waiting time, better connectivity and the ability to move information faster. Despite the fact that in 1998 millions more people worldwide will access the Internet you won't have to wait any longer than you have to now.

Looking into my crystal ball, my second prediction is that the Microsoft Explorer browser will clearly dominate the Internet as a whole. This will bring to a halt the multi-year browser war between Microsoft and Netscape with a clear cut Microsoft victory. Translation? If you own Netscape stock sell now!

My third prediction is that in late 1998 technical developments will have progressed to the point where 30 second streaming video clips and video conferencing will become commercially viable for the first time. This means that you can arrange and participate in video conferencing right from your office and that you can introduce your products in a brief (30 second) video clip from your site. These developments are only possible because of the improved bandwidth.

Web Site Development Predictions for 1998

Worldprofit Director of Web Site Development Sandi Hunter weighs in with her insightful predications Prediction number one. The current drop in web site prices will continue in 1998. Over the last several years he cost of developing a web site has continued to decline despite the enormous increase in potential visitors. Just 1000 days ago, with traffic on the Internet worldwide a tiny fraction of what it is today, ridiculously high prices were being charged to advertisers. Net result? Big losses and disappointment. Right now we're in a new phase whereby newcomers to the Internet, including enormous numbers of new businesses, will get more space, more services and technically superior sites for lots less money.

Prediction number two. Fancy is out in 1998. What people will want for their web site and what savvy Internet designers will deliver is client-centered value information. Klunky graphics are passe. Sites which are difficult to navigate and filled with non-functioning applets will clearly indicate that both owner and designer are old fashioned and out of touch with the latest in advances.

Prediction number three. Do it yourself is out. In the early days of the Internet many people decided they could design a fabulous site all by themselves. As a result lots of putrid sites were created and lots of blue language filled the air.

In 1998 more and more smart people will come to the conclusion about the Internet that they long to ago came to in regard to accounting, taxes and legal problems: get professional assistance! Over the last few years webmasters and web designers have got smarter, better and more professional about creating cutting edge sites. No longer can people sitting at home in their living rooms without experience expect to produce web sites that challenge the technical and design proficiency of the professionals. Creating your own amateur hodge-podge site with lots of bits and pieces will not enable you to compete successfully or meet your profit objectives.

Marketing Predictions for 1998

Worldprofit Co-founder and internationally syndicated columnist Dr. Jeffrey Lant projects these three marketing developments. Prediction number one. More people with web sites will upgrade to their own domain. People with web experience, particularly small and medium sized businesses will recognize that having their own domain makes more economic sense and is both easy to develop and keep up to date. Hitherto, lots of non-technical people have avoided getting their own domain because they thought it would be "hard." Domains, however are now a household word and not having one will definitely put a business at a competitive disadvantage.

Marketing prediction number two. More businesses will realize that they can maximize customer and prospect contact with a listserver. Smart businesses have now proven that regular email contact with prospects and customers makes money and outdistances their competitors who use traditional marketing. They know that with an inexpensive listserver program they can send unlimited non-spam subscription email and that the more they send, the lower the cost. This is exactly opposite to traditional mail and telephone marketing where the more you use the more you pay. Thus, businesses will rush to acquire one or more listservers.

Prediction number three. Traffic development is king. Not so long ago, the big thing was just being on the web. In 1998 the key element will be traffic development. Traffic development equals profit! Smart businesses will carefully evaluate and select traffic generating tools including: links from high traffic sites, banners within high traffic sites and other high visibility positions within high traffic sites. Smart businesses will do everything possible to link and be associated with high traffic entities.

Prediction number ten from all three experts. The Worldprofit Malls at http://www.worldprofit.com will attract well over 50 million visitors in 1998!

Dr. Jeffrey Lant, Sandi Hunter and George Kosch are Co-Founders of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

TRENDS IN WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT

TRENDS IN WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT

By S. Hunter

Many years ago when I first logged onto the Internet it was a much different picture then what viewers see today. Back then the web was primarily information based, at the time there were no flashing "Click Me" advertising banners, few graphics, java wasn't yet developed and corporations, including software giant Bill Gates' company Microsoft weren't even looking at the Internet as a serious growth industry or advertising vehicle. And WebTV, what was that?

WHAM, the rapid growth of the Internet has shocked everyone. Today advertisers are scrambling to get a web site, they're booking banners in high traffic sites, and purchasing key words in the search engines to get an edge over competitors, and on and on. But like any "new" discovery, the Internet has undergone, and will continue to undergo many many changes.

What I find most interesting is the evolution that has taken place in a matter of a few short years with respect to web site design. Some years ago, if you were one of those early pioneers who had a home page, chances are it had a standard cold gray background. The text was sure to be black, you may have had one graphic on your site, and of course there was no Active X, Java, shock wave or video stream. Then with the flood of software development and a revitalizing flow of corporate dollars being pumped in to the Internet; change was rapid!

Web Sites have gone from offering basic information to resembling a cheap Las Vegas act complete with bright gaudy colours, annoying flashing text, scrolling marquees, animated graphics endlessly flashing "click me." Then there came frames, Active X, Java, Shock Wave and a variety of other "cool things" sure to crash the browsers of many and plunge others into an endless waiting game for such programs to load. Inexperienced programmers hoping to dazzle their high paying advertisers created web sites that no longer provided easy to find useful information but instead annoyed, frustrated and turned off viewers.

So what kind of site do you find on the web now? Oh you will still find plenty of flashing this and flashing that. If you are using an outdated browser, chances are that some sites will just not work for you, but more and more you will see a trend in web site development that goes back to what we saw in early sites - sleek simplicity. Take an example from one of the granddaddy web sites - Yahoo. From day one, Yahoo has maintained a site that does what it is intended to do. Yahoo is a search directory. What do you want to do at Yahoo? Yes, search. So that's what the smart people at Yahoo have done. They have never forgotten the initial purpose of their site; to provide information. They've sacrificed "flash effects" for what really matters to folks searching for information; ease of use and quick results. Of course, Yahoo has made changes to their site over the years but everything they've added has served to enhance their central purpose - not detract from it. Take a look at your own site or the sites you've developed. Is your site trying to dazzle more than it is to inform and sell products? Do visitors to your site have to "interpret" or read between the lines to determine what your site is offering them? Remember, ultimately your site is for the visitor. Yes, your site contains information on your products and services but must be presented in a manner that is for the benefit of the viewer (your customers.)

Surf around the web and you will notice an interesting change has taken place. Flashy, glitzy, tech wizardry is being replaced with sites that are sleek; sites that are easy to use; and sites that have a definite purpose and intent. Many web site designers reading this can learn a good lesson from sites like Yahoo and that is, always consider the following;

Who will be using the site and for what purpose?

What does the advertiser hope to accomplish with their web site?

Craft your site around the answers to these questions from a viewers perspective, and I guarantee your site will see better results. Each time you revamp a site or make additions, make sure you are on the same path by asking the questions again and again.

Sandi Hunter and George Kosch are Co-Founders of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR FREE OR VERY LITTLE COST-HERE'S HOW!-PART 3

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR FREE OR VERY LITTLE COST-HERE'S HOW!-PART 3

by S. Hunter

In this, Part 3 of our ongoing series on web site promotion, we are looking at e-mail; specifically e-mail lists. An e-mail list is simply a list of e-mail addresses of people requesting information on a certain subject on a regular basis. One of the most common forms is a newsletter or an electronic publication of some type. A house e-mail list can be compiled and sent out as often is warranted. It is a strategy often employed by publishers and businesses to send out e-mail to customers or prospects. E-mail lists provide the advantage of involving very little time and labor but are an excellent vehicle for free promotion. Tell everyone that you are offering a FREE newsletter [briefly describe whatever it's about to indicate value and it will help increase traffic to your site too!

We DO NOT suggest that you purchase a bulk list of e-mail addresses simply because despite assurances from the seller, the names are NOT people who want to receive your information. The names and e-mails addresses are sold and resold having been stripped off newsgroup postings and generated by software programs that strip off e-mail addresses from web. In fact, in Internet circles, this practice is called spamming and is frowned upon, discouraged and some have lost their connection for abusing the Internet. We have received reports from many people who have paid an "e-mail blast" service to send their message out to 10,000 e-mail addresses. What they got was a lot of headache; the e-mail responses received were bogus and the results were clearly not worth the expense. Better and more effective is to create your own subscriber based e-mail list from your web site.

This allows you to distribute useful information to people who VOLUNTARILY ask to receive it. To create your own e-mail list here is what you will need to do.

1)You will need software to manage your house e-mail list. We recommend using a listserver program that automates the management and distribution of your list. You can get details on an excellent listserver program at ww.incor.com. The cost is under $400 and saves you both time and money, especially if you are used to the post office emptying your pockets each time you send product/service information out by regular mail. Once you've purchased your list server you can e-mail your information, as much as you want, as often as you want, to those who've requested it without paying a dime more!

2) Next, set up a structure or overview of what you are going to send to people on your e-mail list. Determine how often you will send it, how long it will be, what you will include that will be useful to people, and other pertinent information. Make sure that what you are going to send out is of some value to the recipients with a combination of ads, information, tips, special offers, opportunity information etc. Let your own purpose and creativity be your guide, but do put some thought into it. Afterall, if you don't offer people valuable information they will simply unsubscribe from your list.

3) Start creating a list of e-mail addresses that you will send your electronic newsletter or message to. You can place a "subscription" area on your web site where people who would like to receive your newsletter subscribe by simply entering their e-mail address. You will need to compile a list of e-mail address of people who have expressed an interest in receiving your information. Whenever you are talking to a customer ask if they would like to receive your free newsletter. If they would tell them where to go on your web site to subscribe.

Warning: if you routinely add e-mail addresses of people who have NOT asked to be put on your e-mail list, be prepared for a lot of responses from people who will demand politely (sometimes not politely) to be removed from your list. This is definite misuse of what a listserver is intended for, that is: to offer subscribers a choice of whether or not to receive.

Note: The newsletter that you reading right now is sent out using a listserver. We compile the content of our newsletter and then publish to our list. Total time, about 1 hr to put together the newsletter and about 10 minutes to send it out. Total cost to send the newsletter out to 5000+ subscribers - Zero! Use our newsletter as an example to give you some ideas for publishing your own online newsletter.

4) Now announce your free newsletter everywhere you advertise, in print, in free classifieds on the Internet... everywhere. Tell people what they will get in your newsletter and why they MUST have it. Too, you can offer FREE publicity in your newsletter. This might be a free ad, a site review, anything you can think of. Tell interested prospects to visit your site for instructions on receiving this free offer. This is also a good traffic draw. Aside from the traffic you generate to your site, you'll be on your way to creating a house e-mail list allowing you to keep in touch with customers and prospects alike. (You didn't think that we publish this newsletter just for the fun of it did you?) We obviously have some business interest or we wouldn't do it. We publish it as a web site traffic generation tool; so we can maintain contact with visitors to our site; and to keep customers and prospective customers alert to the fact that we are still here. You can do this too with your own newsletter!

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR

FREE OR VERY LITTLE COST-HERE'S HOW!-PART 2

by S. Hunter

Newsgroups have been around for much longer than the World Wide Web of the Internet. Think of newsgroups as an older more established branch of the Internet.

Newsgroups allow people with a common interest in a topic "post" messages that can be read by others around the world and that can also be responded to. It's an interactive kind of bulletin board. Posting to an appropriate newsgroup related to the subject of your home page is a useful way to promote your site for free.

With over 15,000 newsgroups it's easy to get confused about how to go about making a posting. Internet browser software such as Netscape or the Microsoft Newsreader makes the task of navigating through these thousands of newsgroups a snap.

However, once you've mastered the technical part of getting to the newsgroups it's important to understand some points about netiquette before you make a posting to promote your web site for free.

Netiquette is a common sense form of etiquette which applies to communication practices on the Internet. With regard to newgroups its safe to say that posting ads in newsgroups is not allowed. That doesn't mean that people don't post ads it simply means the people reading the articles and postings will most likely "flame" (this means; insult, ridicule, trash, discard) the ads or not open them in the first place. You never want to get into a flaming match with some of the die hards in some newsgroups. These people prey on "newbies" who post ads and they delight in filling your day with posting nightmares. On the other hand there is nothing wrong with posting helpful articles, announcements or making comments about other postings made to a newsgroups. If in doubt, each newsgroup usually has a charter, which explains the do's and don'ts of postings. You can request this by placing a posting "please send me charter for this new group.") Once you have received this you will know exactly what is and is not allowed in the newsgroup you are interested in posting to. Also read your ISP's terms of service since some ISP's restrict the number of postings you can make or have standards that their users must abide.

Here is an example of an announcement posting that would be acceptable in most newsgroups. Free 5 Page Report "How to Generate Continuous Prospects To Keep Your Business Booming" available by e-mail at the newly launched "Business Zone Web Site." If you've got a business this Free Report will help increase your profits - check it out!

Remember your purpose is not to blatantly advertise, instead you want to provide people on these newsgroups with a reason to visit your web site, leave their e-mail address etc. You want to dangle a carrot so you can maximize your results.

You can of course have many more lines in your posting than in the example provided. The key is to use your own creativity to give people a reason to read your posting and then visit your site and leave contact information. You can then follow up with these prospects as you choose.

You should prepare files for posting to the newsgroups from time to time. You can have a file for announcing your site on the Internet with a listings of the items that can be found there. Another file could be used to update people regarding changes or special articles that you are posting to your web site.

You can also offer a free electronic newsletter to all who visit your site. This serves as ammunition for the newsgroups. Be creative and make sure to check the groups you are posting to regularly for things of interest. Sometimes people will post a reply to your posting and open the door for you to explain your business or offer and of course let everyone see that signature file one more time. Use every opportunity you can do to do a little free promotion.

In most email programs there is an option to add your signature file to the bottom of your e-mail messages and postings. You should notice that the signature file is really a small classified ad and is permitted in all newsgroups. Below is an example of a signature file which we add to the bottom of our newsgroup postings.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sandi Hunter, BST., BSW., BA

"MAKE MONEY ON THE NET SEMINARS" http//www.worldprofit.com/conference.htm for details

FREE Promotion for Your Site http//www.worldsearchcenter.com

Money Making Opportunities http//www.trafficcenter.com

Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com

For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com

To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com

For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com

For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR

PROMOTE YOUR WEB SITE ON THE INTERNET FOR

FREE OR VERY LITTLE COST- HERE'S HOW!-PART1

by S. Hunter

A home page on the Internet is a great way to promote your business, products or income opportunity, but it won't bring you any results if nobody knows your site exists. With an estimated 30 million+ home pages on the Internet you must make your site known and visible if you are going to get any kind of payback. In short you need to broadcast the existence of your home page or web site wherever and whenever possible. Fortunately there are ways to do this for free or for a very low cost, right on the Internet - so let's look at how you can do this.

There are six major ways to promote your home page within the Internet.

1) Search engines

2) Newgroups

3) E-mail lists (your own, not spam lists)

4) Classified ads

5) Banner Advertising

6) Leverage

1) Search Engine Registration

Search engines allow Internet users to effectively sift through the millions of pages available and look for a particular subject anywhere on the web by typing in key search words. The search computers are really huge databases of indexed web sites. When a search is initiated these computers churn out site addresses that are related to the search parameters used.

Registering with search engines is by far the simplest way to promote a home page or web site. Currently there are well over 5,000 places to register a home page with the number increasing on a daily basis. In reality only about 25 of these search engines will produce 90% of your traffic generated from search engines. Large search engines like Yahoo, Lycos, InfoSeek, Excite and about 8 more, are visited millions of times a week and offer the most comprehensive types of search to Internet surfers. The new and smaller search engines are plentiful and registration can add to your cumulative total of places where you are "known" on the web and have the potential to glean traffic.

Our recommendation is that you register your site with as many of the major search engines as you can. This will allow someone looking for what you have to offer the ability to find your site quickly and easily. Some services will register your site and charge you for the labour but it really is easy to do it yourself and you save some money too.

Here are Internet addresses of some of the search computers you will want to register your home page or web site address with:

Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com

Excite http://www.excite.com

Web Crawler http://webcrawler.com

Lycos http://www.lycos.com

Open Text http://www.opentext.com

Alta Vista http://altavista.digital.com

InfoSeek Guide http://guide.infoseek.com

Hot Bot http://www.hotbot.com

You can also visit a site at: http://www.submit-it.com At this site you can fill out one registration form and submit it to several search engines, including most of those above. This is a very convenient "one stop registration shop" provided by Scott Banister. Some of the search computers listed at this site are free and some charge, so make sure you only submit to those that are free if you aren't prepared to pay.

Another one stop registration site is called "Submit-All" here you can register your site free of charge with 33 of the major search engines. The address is: http://www.hometeam.com/addurl/

Follow the instructions provided at the site. Most of those listed there as are we said, free. However some offer a basic free listing and a more advanced listing at cost. Take the free one, the more advanced service is in most cases not worth the money.

There is also a site where you are reported to be able to register for free with over 1,000 sites. The address is: http://www.strutyourstuff.com Entity also offers free web site promotion and registration with 100 sites by filling out only one form. http://www.henge.com/superpage/entity

And check out Web Step's Top 100 for free site registration at: http://www.mmgco.com/top100.html You can also nominate your site for an award with some search engines if you really want to, but the practice is becoming passé. Really what they want is for you to put a link to their site on your page and in exchange you get a token graphic that can be placed at your site. An example is the "Top 5% Award" that just about everyone and their dog has on their home page. In reality this "award" deal is that the company gets you to promote their site for free by giving you the award, and you get a good feeling.

Another idea to find free promotion sites is to do a search at Yahoo with the key words "free site promotion" or "site registration" or " free classifieds" or "announcement services". Try a number of the search engines and a number of key words and you will find hundreds of free promotion sites; some better than others.

Cruising around the Internet you may also see reference on some sites to "The Internet Link Exchange."(http://www.linkexchange.com) This is a program where sites, usually related in some way, mutually agree to exchange banner links at no cost. If you find a site that is related to your site and has the "Link Exchange" logo present on their site, you may want to inquire if they will exchange a banner link with you. If you find a site related in topic to yours you can always inquire even if the Link Exchange logo doesn't appear.

They may be willing to consider it so give it a shot. What's involved in registering your home page or web site? Each of the search engines vary slightly in how they accept your registration, how they index it, and what information they need to take your registration. If you are using the one stop registration sites (Submit-it or Submit-all, addresses above) you only have to enter your information into a form once then just click on each search engine you want to submit to. If you choose to go to each of the search computer sites individually, you will have to reinput the data each time.

The actual indexing of your site by these search engines takes anywhere from 3 hours to 6 weeks so be patient. Some of the computers send out a "spider" to visit your site and then index it, some actually have a human index your page, others use just the words in your document title, some the text within your page, etc. The method and manner is which this is done varies so this is one more reason to register with as many of the major search engines as possible.

In general when you get to each search site look for the following words or links where you can click with your mouse to start the process of registering your home page.

"Add URL"

"Suggest Site"

"Register URL"

"Add Site"

Once you have clicked on the appropriate link, each search engine will tell you what is required to proceed. Usually you will be instructed to give your URL, and some or all of the items below.

To register your home page you will need the following:

1) The exact URL (address) of your web site. For example: http://www.worldprofit.com

2) Some key words so that when someone does a search for a particular topic, title, or subject, the search computers can zero in on your page. Use specific words not general terms.

3) A brief description of your home page no more than about 25 words that summarizes what is contained in your site.

4) Your exact e-mail address (if you have one)

5) A title for your home page.

6) Contact name and address.

Tips for getting better rankings with the various search engines. A number of the major search engines, such as Alta Vista have online information to help you increase the search result rankings when a search is initiated. To learn more about this visit the various search sites and review their help files. The following will help to improve your results, they won't work in all cases but in general these tips will help.

1) Make sure your web site page(s) includes a title and "meta tags" (your web page developer will know about this) that include site title, key words and a web page description. This will help to control what information the search engine robots retrieve when they visit your page to index it.

2) Try to weave within your page the main words related to the topic of your page that people may use when searching for that information. For example if your web site is a about a home business opportunity, integrate those words and related words within the text content of your site. Some experts suggest making sure that your main key words appear a minimum of three times within the text of your pages.

3) When submitting a title for your web site URL use something explanatory. ABC Accounting Services: Income Tax Specialists will yield better results then, ABC Inc.

4) Whenever you can title your site with a letter early in the alphabet (this will only help at sites that offer long list search results).

5) Use critical words as key words or integrate them into your site description. For example "Kates' Pet World offers pet supplies, pet food and a selection of gerbils, spiders, cats, dogs, ferrets and snakes. Also pet boarding and pet grooming in the Toronto area." This is better than "Visit Kate's Pet World web site to find out about our large line of great pet supplies."

6) Pluralize key words when possible. For example someone is more likely to do a search with the words "legal services" then legal

7) If you have more than one page in your web site. Register each URL separately. So in essence, you register your web site address (example www.yourname.com) and then register each of your pages linked off your home page. (example www.yourname.com/otherfilenames.htm)

If after reading this you aren't convinced you want to do the registration yourself, Incor Enterprises provides an advanced search registration service with 250 - 1,000 search engines. You pay only for the labour required for doing your registrations for you. Email sandi@incor.com .

That concludes Part 1 of our series, "Promote Your Web Site On the Internet for FREE or very little cost - Here's How! Get part 2 here.

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Sandi Hunter is Co-Founder of Worldprofit at http://www.worldprofit.com For all your on and offline design needs, go to World Design Services at http://www.worlddesignservices.com. To get your FREE Banner on 200,000 websites worldwide, go to http://www.worldbannerexchange.com. To get your own Banner Exchange, go to http://www.trafficcenter.com. For unlimited FREE promotion for your website, register it in the World Search Center Search Engine at http://www.worldsearchcenter.com. For a FREE subscription to Worldprofit's Weekly Business and Traffic Building Worldgram e-zine, subscribe here.