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Marketing strategies to overcome the current economic trend

no@spam.com (Michael D.) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 CET

When times get tough, most small business owners immediately look to cut costs...

The most "expensive" part of running a business is normally employees, so typically firing under-performing employees or external contractors is the first step most businesses take to reduce cost and therefore reduce risk.

Typically the second thing to go is the marketing budget. If you're small, this might mean reducing your Google AdWords budget or letting go of your outsourced public relations company...

In this month's newsletter I want to demonstrate practical examples of how you can survive (and even prosper) during a recession by putting various online marketing methods to work for you.

Yes, some of the ideas I'll discuss do involve our products, but when used correctly you'll generate an ROI significantly higher than what you've invested, and can continue to do so at will whenever you need more sales.

Think about it this way - if your competitors are reducing their marketing budget and you're not, who do you think will have more reach and a better shot at winning more customers?

Building Trust With Autoresponders

Product required - Interspire E-mail Marketer or other autoresponder software

If you're a small business then you might not be able to demonstrate the level of trust that your larger competitors can. What you can offer, however, is useful information which is relevant to your prospects - which will lead to an increased level of trust and therefore sales...

Most people will only buy from businesses they trust, so if you can't boast that you have thousands of customers or a best selling product, then you can build up trust over the period of a few short weeks using autoresponders.

To do this, you need to write a series of about 10 emails which will be sent out automatically to people on your email list over the period of about 2-3 weeks.

Your main focus with these emails is NOT to sell or promote your products or services. It's to provide your subscribers with practical, useful information which they can get immense value from.

Over the period of a few weeks they will use and hopefully implement the valuable information you're (automatically) sending them. The law of reciprocity will kick in, and they will want to "return the favor" by doing business with you.

Compare this to the way most companies go about trying to win new customers, and you'll see why it works. It's "selling without selling", and your prospects will be grateful that you've taken the time to provide them with useful information instead of simply pitching your products or services to them like everyone else does.

Here are the exact steps to take:

1. Come up with a compelling reason for people to join your list

In order to send emails to someone, they first have to join your list. You need to come up with a strong reason for them to do so, and the best way to do this is to ask yourself "what one thing can I offer to prospects that will bring them the most value?"

Use this one thing as the anchor for your "join my list" page, and try to evoke curiosity by mentioning the benefits they will receive when they join your email list.

2. Create your series of 10 or so autoresponder emails.

The emails can be short, but should be personalized with the subscriber's first name and include useful information which they can use. For example, if you sell web design services then you might send a series of emails with advice on how to build a professional web site affordably.

3. Talk about your products or services in the FINAL email only

Your subscriber has received 9 emails from you over the last 2-3 weeks, and the information you sent them is useful, so they look forward to hearing from you...

If you've done it correctly then they've started to trust you, because you've given them valuable advice for nothing - something 99% of businesses don't do because they don't understand the psychology of the buying process...

Your final email should still include a heap of useful, non-sales-pitchy information, but you should add a "P.S." after your signature which subtly mentions your products or services.

Over a 2-3 week period we've provided this subscriber with a wealth of useful information without mentioning ANYTHING about our products or services and without asking them to buy anything.

Diskeeper 2009 - The most intelligent real-time defragmenter

no@spam.com (Ranking Today) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 CET

Put the most intelligent real-time defragmenter ever built to work on your home computer!

It’s new, innovative technology. It's based on years of real-world application on some of the largest and busiest computers in the world. Now you can put this cutting edge performance solution on your home computer and achieve better than new speed and reliability – automatically!

The severe performance corrupting effects of fragmentation don’t go away with more RAM, a larger hard disk, more free space or the latest CPU. A built-in defragmenter barely scratches the surface. Only new Diskeeper 2009 eliminates fragmentation as it happens, using only idle system resources.

Restore speed and reliability to better-than-new levels, automatically.
No scheduling. No maintenance.
New InvisiTasking® technology allows real-time defrag using only idle system resources.
Extends productive computer life an extra 1–3 years.
Defrags disk volumes with less than 1% free space.
Quickly defrags volume sizes up to 1 terabyte.

Restore the speed and reliability your computer was designed to deliver.

Easily rotate content on your sites

no@spam.com (Pit Schultz) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 CET

A problem with most article sites is that you need to constantly update the site with fresh content . . . so when search engines visit your site they see new content each time. Search engines LOVE new content, so when they see that your site constantly has new content, your site ranks higher.

So the obvious solution to this problem is to have tons of fresh, new content created for you so you can update your site on a regular basis. This can get expensive, especially if you have several sites that you need to update.

The best solution would be to have 20-30 pages of content ready, and just rotate that content each day. That way, every time the search engines visit your site, they see a different page than the last time.

If you're thinking, "Great, now I have to pay someone to write a script to make my sites do this . . ."

Well, the good news is that you don't have to worry about that, because I have a very easy solution (and very cheap): www.articlepagerandomizer.com

This program will handle all of this for you - you just need to tell it which pages to rotate, and when it is set up, every day a new page will show as your homepage.

Now, when the search engines visit your site, they'll see new content, and will rank your site higher because of this.

This is a heck of a lot cheaper, and a heck of a lot easier than either writing the content your self, or paying to have the content created for you. And I can tell you from experience that can get very expensive after a while.

So go and have a look at this program and see if it can help you out with your article pages. I'm sure you can see that something like this can save you some time and cash pretty quickly.

Get faster-than-new computer performance � automatically!

no@spam.com (Mani Singh) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 CET

Windows systems store data on the hard disk by breaking files into pieces all around the disk – tens, hundreds, even thousands of pieces per each file! The more you use your computer, the more it fragments. In fact, your computer was even fragmented when it was new. Every time you install a new program, you increase fragmentation enormously. Data access slows considerably as fragmentation accumulates and causes long boot ups, hangs, freezes and even crashes.

Diskeeper 2009 Home edition eliminates fragmentation nearly as fast as it happens, without the need to set a schedule and without hogging system resources while it’s working. The result? Maximum system performance and reliability – automatically without any additional effort on your part.

Here’s some of the advantages you’ll experience by downloading Diskeeper 2009 Home edition:

Peak system performance – your computer will perform better than new.
Extended computer life – up to an additional 3 years.
Completely automatic operation using only idle system resources. You do nothing!
Quickly handles even large disk volumes up to 1 terabyte.

Diskeeper is the #1 best selling performance enhancement tool, used by over 90% of the Fortune 1000 enterprises on their mission-critical networks. Now you can have the same advantages for your home system for only $29.95.

Internet speed testing with connection quality analysis

no@spam.com (Ranking Today) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 CEST

The new MySpeed Broadband online test accurately measures the data speed and flow between remote locations/users and the MCS server. Try here MySpeed connection speed test.

This tool is a component of the MyConnection Server framework recently released by VisualWaere Inc. To address the need to support and manage bandwidth hungry and time critical applications, MySpeed is designed to measure the data throughput performance, the data flow performance and the overall end-to-end route performance.

The Speed Test carefully analyzes TCP to identify and report inherent delays that affect data performance such as packet loss, duplicate packet transmissions and data recovery demands.

This Internet Speed Test enables you to accurately measure broadband speeds between your server and customers, and get detailed reports of connection performance.

Determine the cause of slow connection speeds, such as network regulation or congestion
Get precise measurements of download and upload broadband speeds to your server
See the level of broadband connection quality to your server
Benchmark network deployments and provide a self-branded connection testing portal for your customers

The standard version of the broadband speed test provides quick and easy solution for businesses looking to give speed test services on their website.

Site and Product Graphics

no@spam.com (Bruce Dickinson) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 CEST

I keep a daily to do list in a notebook on my desk, to help me keep track of what I need/want to get done each day, and to help me focus on the things that need to be done first.

I also find it great for looking back and seeing how much I have accomplished in a week, which can be a great motivator at times, but not this week, my "to do" list is now longer than it was at the start of the week!

Guess I'd better get on with it.

I've got a couple of things today, the first is about site and product graphics, the second is about a big launch going on today and what I think of the product...

Having professional looking graphics for your site can make a real difference to your bottom line as it gives a better impression to your visitors, but it can be a bit expensive to get them done if you're constantly launching new sites and blogs, like me.

Well there's a new site that I've found that makes getting real cool looking graphics for your site a LOT CHEAPER!

Jeff Dedrick has released a product called Hidden Sales Project today which you will no doubt be receiving a lot of promotional emails about, but is it just another over hyped product that you don't really need?

I've got a copy and have been reading through it over the last few hours and I have to say they wasn't really a lot in there for me, but that may simply be beacuse I already know (and do) most of the stuff he covers...

Is it right for you?

Well, the heart of the book is about how to increase the value of every one of your customers, which is pretty important stuff for making money online. If you have one or more product of your own, then the info in here could double, triple (or more) your customer value.

It covers all sorts of tactics to get extra value out of each subscriber or customer you have by using Upsells, downsells, backends, cross sells etc. etc. Upsells can also be useful when promoting other peoples products as
an affiliate and this will show you how to do this.

If you haven't got your own products or email list yet, then this is probably not going to help you much until you do. There are also a LOT of interviews with some very switched on internet marketers, including Jason James, Tim Knox, Michael Cheney, Mike Long, Liz Tomey, Keith Wellman, Harris Fellman, Dr Mike Woo-Ming, Mike Steup, Robert Puddy, Paulie Sabol, Chris McNeeney, Ben Shaffer and others, so it's pretty cheap at just $47.

If it sounds like something you could use in your online business today then check out the link below, if not then go spend your time on something useful to your business today instead.

HTML Meta Tag Ruler

no@spam.com (Bruce Dickinson) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 00:00:00 CEST

Tired of using word-count to comply with varying search engine character limits when you build your pages and compile your html meta tag title and description tags?

This handy meta tag optimization ruler helps you out. Includes free rulers for Google, Alta Vista, HotBot and Lycos.

Create Search Engine Meta Tags in three easy steps with no knowledge of Html. Create using the most critical Tags for high Search Engine placement. The meta tag rule will show you the correct lenght of each tag. Meta Tag Creator will create AND insert your Tags for you using the proper syntax that Robots recognize. Analyze a web page from your PC or the Internet for existing/missing tags or improper syntax. Extract relevant Keywords from a local file, your web site or any other site on the Internet. These can be saved and added to your Keyword Tag. Choose what type and how often Robots visit your site to update your keywords. Includes option to save as Meta tag only te HTML Page ready for your editing. Enter only a few pieces of information and Meta Tag will do the rest.

For more information visit http://www.rankingeasy.com

Did you forget your password?

no@spam.com (Michael Grant) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:00 CEST

It wouldn't be for the first time if you would try to log into a secure area and your password is rejected. What would you do next? Probably try another one. And another one... because, if you are like me, you use the same dozen of passwords for all your accounts across the net. Was it your first name and the last three digits of your street address? And what about your pet's name when you were a child? Your mother's maiden name spelled backwards?

Security experts tell you to come up with 'strong' passwords and to not repeat them. That's great advice, but sometimes it's impractical -- and hard as heck to remember.

Well, here are some other common password problems. . . and some advice on how to solve them:

1) You use the same password for all of the sites you log into.

Using the same password opens up your whole online life -- from your reunion website to your shopping cart to your bank account -- the moment someone discovers just one of your passwords. Never do this. It's a very quick path to big trouble.

2) You log into dozens of websites a day, and spend upwards of 30 minutes a day on login screens.

This is a real problem for me, too. I log into websites well over 50 to 60 times a day, and some sites I log into several times a day. It's a real time waster. A common solution is to try to keep multiple browser windows open with your logged-in sites, but many websites expire automatically so you can't do this very long.

3) You work at Internet Cafe's and other public Wi-Fi hotspots.

Be very careful. Never let anyone watch you log-in, especially at a public place. If you ever log-in in a public place, watch the people who are watching you log-in. They may be watching you type, and recording your usernames and
passwords as you type them. It's not a password, but your credit card information is just as spy-able.

4) Your passwords are weak

Do you use plain words, your first name, the digits 123456, the same number over and over again, numbers from your address, or other easily-knowable or easily guessable words and numbers in your passwords? It's not a problem, until you get hacked just once.

Then you feel incredibly vulnerable, like nothing is secret any more.

About two years ago, I confronted all of these problems head on.

I found a program that made my online life much simpler: Roboform.

This program memorizes all of your passwords and logs you in automatically to any website you want. Just pick from your list, and boom, you're in.
Roboform keeps your passwords 100% secure and encrypted on your computer.
Roboform will remember and enter your credit card info for you (and keep it safe from prying eyes, too).
Roboform can create strong passwords for you automatically, to keep your data safe.

You can even get a trial version for Roboform at RoboformFreeTrial.com.

When To Buy A Business For Sale

no@spam.com (Michael Grant) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 CEST

There is a lot of ego that goes into any effort to start your own business. In some ways this is necessary. It can even be a good thing. You see, you need to be driven to succeed. You need to want success more than anything. Above all, you need to want to make a lot of money to run a successful business. In other ways, however, it can be a real problem.

People are so set on starting their own business to gratify their own personal vision that they never contemplate more feasible options. Nine times out of ten, it is better to buy existing businesses for sale and work on making them more profitable than to start your own business. Whether you are talking about franchises for sale or small local businesses, it is always better to not have to start from scratch.

When you buy a business for sale, you see, you are to have something to work with. Businesses for sale usually have a pretty well-developed working infrastructure. Even if the businesses for sale are only up on the market because they have been mismanaged, you still may be able to learn from their mistakes. A lot of the time, businesses for sale already employ quite a few workers.

You can talk to the people who've been there for years, find out how things have worked in the past, what has succeeded and what has not. Businesses for sale often also have clientèle already developed. They even may have name recognition in a community.

The one risk with businesses for sale is that they can sometimes have quite negative reputations. This can hurt you more than help you. Nonetheless, there is some truth to the idea that there is no such thing as bad publicity. People are more likely, for example, to try what was once a bad restaurant that has now gone under new management than to try one that is brand-new. I don't really know why this is, but it seems to be the case in the restaurant industry. Businesses for sale, even if they have been run badly before, still have some kind of past. People like both the new and the traditional. When you buy businesses for sale, you can capitalize on both of these factors. A business for sale has tradition, yet it also has new management. Both of these can be an asset to your new business.

Affordable Search Engine Optimization

no@spam.com (Verbeke Lieve) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 CEST

The most important thing to remember when using a search engine optimization service is that you can do it all yourself. You are not paying for something that is beyond your ability to understand. On the contrary, the principles behind SEO are pretty simple.
The thing that you are paying for when you buy affordable search engine optimization is convenience. The best way to get web page optimization is by making your own content yourself, but this is so time consuming that it might not be the most practical solution. When you hire an affordable search engine optimizer, you are paying for convenience.

All this may sound obvious, but it does have some ramifications that you may not have thought about before. The thing is, when you look for affordable search engine optimization, the more convenience, the higher the price. If you only want to buy web site optimization content yourself, for example, and then implement it to increase web traffic, you do not have to pay a lot of money. It can cost less than a hundred dollars a month to get all of the affordable search engine optimization articles that you need.

On the other hand, if you are looking for affordable search engine optimization to handle every aspect of your web traffic, you will have to pay a lot more. This may save you a lot of time, and they may have a better idea of how to handle SEO optimization than you do, but it will also cost quite a bit. You need to think about how much you need from your affordable search engine optimization service. If you only have to optimize a few websites, you should probably buy the content and do the rest by yourself. The amount of money that it costs to have them optimize web content for you is just too high. If, however, you have a high traffic web design business, it might make sense to farm out all of your affordable search engine optimization needs. Otherwise, you will not have the time to do it all yourself.

The most important thing to remember about affordable search engine optimization is that it is easy to test how good a job the service that you hire is doing. It is easy to monitor your web traffic, as well as your results in Google web searches. You should keep track of how well your affordable search engine optimization works. It is important to demand results!