The Helpful Pointer

Years ago, I listened to Internet marketing “gurus” share
that they had lists in the hundreds of thousands, and I was
all ears. Up to that point, I had not managed to get my lists
above 60,000 (after many years of consistently working at it).

After a little further investigation, some of them shared
with me that they often purchased new list members in batches
of 25,000… 50,000… even several hundred thousand.
Knowing the value of each of my individual list members,
based upon how much each spent with me per year on average,
visions of riches started dancing in my head.

Then this little voice in the back of my head asked if this
wasn’t DANGEROUS! Wouldn’t I get spam complaints… or
something. How could I just buy email addresses and add them
to my list? Was this legal? why didn’t more people know
about this, and why weren’t more people doing it.

So I investigated further.

One of the first things I discovered was that lots of big name
marketers were using co-registration leads with great results.

Further investigation showed me that these leads were generated
in a variety of way, and that there was a wide range of
differences in quality AND methods of generating these lists.

What I now consider the best method of generating
co-registration lists is to have a service get people to sign
up SPECIFICALLY for your list. There are companies that allow
you to write up a description of your list, and this
description is displayed on an opt-in form on high traffic
websites. The sites’ visitors read the description of your list,
and based upon that description decide to subscribe. I consider
this the best method because the individuals are specifically
subscribing to YOUR list.

The service I’ve used most for generating the above-describe
type of subscriber is called Lead Factory. You can read about
them and their services here:
http://williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/tk.cgi?subs

Another type of subscriber, or lead, that you can purchase is
a lead who didn’t specifically subscribe to YOUR list, but did
request more information on your type of product. These
leads are often gathered by companies putting a form on high
traffic sites inviting people to request more information on
business opportunities… or other profitable topics.
Prospects fill in the form and are then added to lists that
are sold to people looking for leads or subscribers. This can
be where things get sticky…

The first place where things can get murky is that some sites
don’t make it clear to these individuals that they are going
to sell their information. They sometimes state this but not in
a very clear fashion. So they compile these lists and sell them
to people looking for leads interested in a specific topic.
If you buy one of these list, and it wasn’t made incredibly clear
that they were going to be contacted by a bunch of people
offering to “help them,” these people could get somewhat upset
when their email boxes start getting flooded.

The above problem stems largely from the fact that some firms
offering opt-in leads TRICK people into “agreeing” to receive
offers. They may use a statement as vague as that business
associates will also send them special offers. If you email
these people, they may get very upset since, in their opinion,
your email was uninvited… and unwelcome intrusion.

There are services that make it very clear that they will have
people who offer income opportunities or online business
opportunities contacting you. The better of these companies
build lists specifically for a given customer and they don’t
sell the lists to more than a few customers. One firm I’ve use
that’s like this is know as Nitro. These guys get an order and
they build a list specifically for that customer. Actually,
they allow one customer to buy a list that is only for their
use, or, for less of an investment, that customer can get a
custom-built list that’s shared with up to 3 other marketers.
You can check these guys out at:
http://therealsecrets.com/co-reg/

NOTE: I specifically mentioned the Nitro guys because I
know them personally, and have GRILLED them on their business
practices and HOW they generate leads. I believe that they
operate a very reputable and ethical business. I CAN’T make
that statement about all of the more than a dozen companies
that I have investigated.

One of the biggest dangers in using co-reg leads who didn’t
specifically subscribe to your list is of course the likelihood
of spam complaints. If a subscriber views your email as
unwelcome, then in their eyes you spammed them. There are
factors that increase the likelihood of this happening, and
there are ways of reducing or completely eliminating the
probability of these complaints.

One factor that increases the likelihood of complaints is the
age of the list. If you purchase an Old list, there’s a good
chance that dozens of people just like you also purchased that
list and have emailed these people. These people are now
simply tired of being offered more “help.” With a fresh list
… only a few days to a few weeks old, you’re less likely to
encounter this problem.

When someone fills in a form on a website requesting more
information, they are actually INTERESTED in receiving more
information. Why else would they fill in the form… except
in the instances previously mentioned where they are tricked
… or perhaps even incentivized to fill in the form in
exchange for a gift.

Given that an individual really is interested in receiving
more information on a given topic, the correct way to
approach them is to introduce yourself and allow them to warm
up to you BEFORE you try to sell them anything. You need to
send them a series of email that identify yourself, PROVE to
them that you are legitimate, and demonstrate to them that
you really do have their best interest at heart. This takes
time and effort. There is a lot of technique to this. I’ve
studied the topic of warming co-reg leads up to you…
extensively. The single best report I’ve ever read on the
topic is called “Co-Reg Secrets.” You can find it here:
http://www.profitautomation.com/app/adtrack.asp?AdID=69919

When using co-reg leads, I personally tell the person in my
first few emails why I’m emailing them, where I got their
contact information from, and I also tell them that if they
are no longer interested how they can get off of the list
with just a click. This has worked well for me although my
lists are now so HUGE that I rarely use co-reg leads. It’s
a fact that those who visit your site and then subscribe to
your list are more valuable… much more responsive!

I mentioned the danger of not using only FRESH lists. The
reason this is CRITICAL is that many people who purchase lists
turn around and sell them to recoup some of their costs. This
sort of makes sense. There’s a good chance that many of these
leads don’t see the majority of emails sent to them simply
due to filters, etc. It’s also possible that what you have to
offer may not be exactly right for them.

The PROBLEM comes when a list is resold over and over again!
“Buyer A” resells a list to 5 people, and 2 of them resell it
to 6 people each, and 3 of them resell it to 4 people each. By
this time, those “opt-in lead” are getting pretty frustrated
with having their personal email box flooded with JUNK email.
Then you buy one of these list, add them to your
autoresponders, and your ISP gets 20 complaints from irate
people in 20 minutes. On top of that you get 100 emails with
some “choice” words about your heritage and suggesting strange
things you can do to yourself. To protect themselves and
their other customers your web host or list host shuts you
down! Not a good day.

Done properly, with a quality list, or better yet, one built
specifically for you (with the opt-in actually subscribing to
YOUR list), using co-reg leads can be an excellent way to grow
a list incredibly fast. Done wrong, or if you’re just plain
unlucky, it can be a real disaster. I even know of one “big
name” Internet marketer who received a death threat after using
a co-reg list.

If you are considering using co-reg leads you want to check the
terms of service closely at your web host or list hosts. Many
prohibit you using co-reg leads to mail from their servers, or
even to promote domains hosted with them. They simply don’t want
to risk the potential adverse effects. Many autoresponder
services such as the one I operate at ProfitAutomation.com will
NOT allow you to mass import co-reg leads. However, there are
other autoresponder services that understand the nature of
using co-reg leads, and view it as a legitimate business model.
I can point you to some of those if you ask.

The purpose of this article is merely to educate. It’s not to
offer ANY advice. It’s just to make you aware of a common
practice and show you some things that you need to consider.
Another purpose of the article is to stimulate discussion. I
invite you to discuss this topic on my Internet marketing
discussion forum: http://WillieCrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author,
seminar speaker and host, tele-seminar speaker and host,
retired military officer, karate black belt, master network
marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He shows
people how to actually generate substantial income on-line
using very simple, easily modeled systems. An example of
such a system that you can study and duplicate is at:
http://HowToBeReallyHealthy.com

I’m so, so really bad at it. I mean, I’m purely awful. I receive so much e-mail a day that it’s basically just read, delete, read, file, read, delete, read, delete. I have e-mail from over a year ago that I should respond to. I usually wait so long that I just figure it’s been too long to reply now, and then I file it away.

Does this sound familiar? Thanks to a world-wide adoption of email by businesses and individuals, this is the sort of problem that ordinary people are facing everyday. Up until a few years ago, most of us did not have the added pressure of having to deal with incoming email on a continual basis during our work day, or of having to check it from home at least once a day. We could sit at our desks or computers and work on an urgent report with our phone taking voicemail or being redirected - and strangely enough the world didn’t collapse around our ears because we were not immediately responding to emails. I believe time management skills now need to also include managing email. While I am no expert in this area, I am able to keep my email under control using some of the following techniques, which I would like to share with you.

Schedule your email time: You could block off periods of time in your day that are ‘no email’ or reverse, block periods of time where email is acceptable. Personally I find that I can work better if I deliberately switch my email off while I have other work to handle, as I find that if I leave it running then email gets an automatic priority, often to the detriment of whatever task I was involved in at the time. I believe you must decide when to read email - this control should not rest with everyone out there who sends emails to you. For example, I will not log onto my email until I have completed one hour at my desk first thing in the morning; this means I can plan my day, deal with issues from the previous day, set up meetings and do necessary paperwork. Having set up the day to cater for my own needs, then I will log on and see what email awaits me.

I have found that if I log on first, hours can go by where I deal with often petty things, read and forward because the mail was not relevant to me, get engrossed in gossip, respond to personal greetings or jokes, or go off on a tangent with work I had no intention of dealing with on this particular day. If I have at least some chance to put my work priorities first, I find that I am not so tempted to spend great amounts of time with email that does not require my immediate attention.

Keep email quiet: If none of the above suggestions are possible, and you need to keep your email running while engrossed in other tasks, then at least consider muting the speaker on your computer so that you do not receive an audio notification of the email arriving.

Be realistic about answering your email: I allocate time when I need a break from a task to go and deal with my email, because even though you make think that it will only take five minutes to check your email, invariably something will require action from you - a reply, reading an attachment or supplying some information. This means you are then forced to work reactively, when perhaps you had other priorities over and above the 15 minutes you had allocated to email.

Sound the alarm: Employ an egg timer, a miniature clock alarm, a watch alarm or set a Microsoft Outlook Calendar reminder to jog your memory to when you have spent enough time with your email. If you have to leave your house or office at 10am for a meeting, set the alarm to buzz just prior to that time.

File it: Set up folders for your incoming work. I know this sounds obvious, but it is surprising how people many simply leave all their email in the Inbox. Go to File, choose New and then Folder. Make as many folders as you need, based on your work and the categories of emails you receive or based on who has sent them (you will know best how to categorise them). Making email folders is the same idea as labeling manila folders to put in a filing cabinet. When you need to keep an email drag and drop it with your mouse in the relevant folder.

Sent mail: Think about making folders for your outgoing emails - have a folder structure under the sent folder based on who you are sending email to, and move the important ones you need to keep into those folders. The sent folder can also end up with an unmanageable amount of email in it, so consider doing this and make sure you include the Sent folder when you do an email clean up and delete.

Deal with the email, don’t just leave it all in the Inbox: There is nothing like a bit of extra stress from looking at an email inbox containing 300 - 400 emails, some opened, some not; have you replied, did you forward it, it all becomes too hard. Try and make it a practice to read it and deal with it - respond, delete it, forward it or file or it, but don’t just leave it sitting there in your inbox thinking you will come back later. It is the same principle that is applied to stacks of paper of your desk, once you leave the email without dealing with it, the next time you come back you will need to waste time and re-read the emails to work out what you need to do with them.

Clean out regularly: Try and go through your inbox and sent box say once a month (e.g. nominate the first or last date in the month), give it a limit of 15 minutes and start cleaning out old emails. This also ensures your system runs more efficiently as well as making it easier for you to find things that are really important.

Email Rules: why not set up a couple of rules for your incoming email where your weekly joke, or daily inspirational message or emails from particular people are immediately filed in a particular folder, that way you check the folders when you a ready to read the messages. I suggest you read about rules in Outlook’s help menus, but just to get started, you create a rule for a message by right clicking the message, then choosing ‘create rule’, and specifying the criteria for the rule. For example, you keep getting spam from a particular person, so you could create a rule and specify that when mail comes from that email account it is to immediately be deleted (deletion being one of the rules you can choose).

Delete email before it gets to Outlook: Go to your e-mail’s server first thing via their website (e.g. Telstra.com or Optusnet.com.au) and delete all the spam and rubbish email before it even arrives in your email outbox.

Good Subjects: Ask your email contacts (personal and business where possible) to utilize the subject lines. This will help you to ascertain whether your incoming mail is urgent, a follow-up or trivial, because knowing the urgency of a message will help you to determine how soon you need to read and respond to the contents.

Extra email addresses: Consider setting up additional email addresses for personal use, or work-specific use. Most internet service providers provide you with 5 email addresses otherwise use a free one at Hotmail or Yahoo. This has the added benefit of stopping some unsolicited email or advertising arriving in your work email inbox and allows you to use that secondary account when you visit websites that require an email address before you can use them and you do not necessarily wish to give out your legitimate email details.

Good luck in using these strategies to work more effectively with your email.

Angela is a workplace IT Educator, counsellor and social researcher. Her area of interest is in how technology intersects with human relations. She has recently finished her PhD in Education and expects to be awarded in April. She can be found at http://angelalewis.com.au

Why you need new website content.

Finding or creating good content for our websites is a chore. It is, though, a necessary chore, for the following reasons:

• Search engines want to provide quality content to their searchers. Your website is likely to get a higher ranking in the major search engines if you can help satisfy that need.

• If you can provide relevant content regularly, especially if you can update your website daily, then the search robots will be back often, maybe more than once a day, delving deep into your site.

• Your website visitors come in search of content relevant to their interest. If you can provide that content, in both quality and quantity, then you have a better chance of them returning in the future. If on their return there is fresh content, they are even more likely to become loyal visitors.

Using a ready made source of content.

There are a variety of sources of content for your website:

• From your own mind and hands.

• Custom written web copy or articles.

• Articles off the shelf in article directories.

• RSS feeds, yours or others who have syndicated their work.

It is possible, though, you already have some potential website content written and waiting for you, in your own attic. Your autoresponder attic, that is.

If you use an autoresponder for sales letter series, information series, newsletters or ezines, then it may be worth taking a fresh look at what you already have there, in the way of written copy. If there is anything that is relevant to your website, which is very likely, and you have not already put it on the website, then why not do so? It will give the material extra exposure, and may even bring you a few extra sales you would not otherwise have had.

Some tips in using your autoresponder letter series on your website.

Here are a few tips in using your autoresponder letter series:

• Use only series that are relevant to the website, and have appropriate keywords.

• Consider only copying one letter a day to your website. If you have a long series, doing them all at once may be daunting and become an unfinished job as you get bored with it. One a day will make it a small daily job of minutes rather than hours. More importantly, though, it will alert the search engine robots that there are frequent updates going on at your website. They will be back for more.

• If you would prefer the autoresponder content not to be read by your usual site visitors, just the robots, then make it unlikely that a human will find it by navigation. However, a keyword search through a search engine may still take a visitor there, and you never know, they may become a customer.

• While you are going about this task, why not create an RSS feed with this series of letters on? This is especially useful if it is a long series. So long as you have notified the RSS directories of your feed, you will get people viewing your autoresponder series spam free and cost free. With any luck, other people may even display it on their website. I recently discovered my RSS feed, of one of my autoresponder sales letter series, on a popular home business opportunity website, with an Alexa ranking in the top 100,000. That can’t be bad business. Even if only 30 people a day read that RSS feed, that’s close to a thousand a month. Imagine getting that number of leads through Google Adwords at $1 a time?

By using the above ideas, your autoresponder letters will be giving you extra value, and you will be giving extra food to the search engine robots, and maybe your human website visitors.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Roy Thomsitt is the owner, webmaster and author of http://www.change-direction.com. He has a background in offline advertising, with practical experience of working from home in marketing since 1995, plus 2 years of experience with online marketing. He has a substantial background in financial and project management, implementing new office, accounting, computer and management systems. He is an English expat, now resident in the Philippines.

There probably isn’t a business person alive who hasn’t at one time or another experienced total frustration along with an inability to resolve a difficult business situation via e-mail. Sometimes without giving it much thought an e-mail is sent in anger. But angry, rude communication is not the way to win your case. In fact, for the most part, people will turn away and won’t even hear what you’re saying.

Catch More Flies With Honey Than Vinegar!

I am in no way implying a Pollyanna attitude, for that is the furthest thing from my mind. What I am suggesting is that you still catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Trying to get the good stuff with nasty behavior will never win you the prize but will instead leave you feeling more frustrated and angry. If someone has behaved poorly and you want to try and resolve the situation, effective results will only come about with well thought out communication. Nasty or unkind comments just won’t cut it.

There Are Consequences to Rude Communication!

For the most part it’s challenging to create a specific tone in an e-mail communication so e-mail messages can be easily misinterpreted. Although the sender may think he or she is conveying the situation reasonably, the words can easily be misperceived. So before sending an outraged, nasty e-mail think about the fact that harsh words don’t mend fences. You may need to convey your anger but there is a way to do it effectively. Consider the following:

1. If a particular person or situation has upset you, start by taking a pause and silently counting to 10. Perhaps you could take a walk for a few minutes to cool down before addressing the situation.

2. When you respond, be professional in your communication. If you are unpleasant or rude, the person receiving the communication will turn off immediately and will have a hard time hearing what you’re saying. If you’re polite and honest you have a much better chance at being heard.

3. Try not to become defensive; pushing against will not result in resolution. If someone is expressing anger towards you, try to just receive it without defense. Later on when you’ve had a chance to calm down, you can respond with the appropriate words.

4. Be honest about your feelings but speak about you and your feelings and make every attempt not to blame the other person.

5. Writing is a wonderful tool for venting purposes so start by writing out your feelings but don’t send the e-mail just yet. After you’ve released all your bad feelings, rewrite the letter with some diplomacy and tact.

6. Read your message silently and aloud. Better yet, have a trusted friend review the message before sending it. An objective party can help you determine if it’s okay to send.

You can’t take back abusive language and you certainly can’t retrieve an e-mail once you’ve hit the send button so use caution. Just because you aren’t seen is no excuse for behaving badly. And remember, our computer keyboard was not meant as a weapon but as a valuable tool for communication. So when you get ready to send that e-mail make sure that if it were printed in a newspaper you would be proud of how it read.

Copyright © 2005

Charlene Rashkow brings 15 years of experience as a Writing Stylist and Author to her creative efforts as a freelance writer. She has successfully helped companies and individuals reach their objectives by writing outstanding press releases, bios, articles of interest, business plans, resumes, web site content and all other forms of personal, professional and marketing material. Contact Charlene at http://www.allyourwritingneeds.com

In light of the fact that Homeland Security agents in Toledo, Ohio have arrested and indicted three local Arab Muslims this past week on terrorism charges, making international news, this letter originally published October 1, 2001 in The Press (Millbury, Ohio) takes on even greater meaning:

Reality & peace

To the editor: I applaud Gov. Bob Taft for his efforts to dispel misguided animosity against every Arab or Muslims because of the vile terrorist acts of some who share their faith.

However, I would hope that many would take this opportunity to learn what Islam believes. We must face reality and not try and bury our heads in the sands of political correctness. In America, for the most part, it is still possible to agree to disagree on politics and religion without getting abused or killed.

I wonder if Gov. Taft realized that those same Muslims he was reassuring would not welcome him in their holiest city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

As a Christian, Gov. Taft would be forbidden to even enter the city! I wonder if those sincere Christians who recently circled the mosque in Perrysburg Township, praying for its protection, realize they would be second class citizens in Muslim countries, where their non-Muslim status, along with Jews, is known as dhimmi. Hindus and other “idolater” status is lower and is known as as kaffir/infidels.

I wonder if Gov. Taft has ever visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the site of Solomon and Zerubbabel’s temples and where Jesus and his disciples taught and prayed, where, as a Christian, the governor would violently be forbidden to pray or read the Bible because of the Muslims who occupy Judaism’s holiest site.

I wonder if those concerned Christians realize that the so-called Mosque of Omar, the Dome of the Rock, has quotes from the Koran mocking Christians for believing that Jesus is divine. Christians and Jews are forced to pay an entrance fee to the Muslims (to upkeep the beautiful abomination) if they want to see where our father Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

I’m also reminded of the time when I lived in Perrysburg Township and had “Palestinian” neighbors (from Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan) and we were like family, since we were in each others’ apartments all the time. Every time relatives came from overseas they would have me go with them to the country to find a lamb to buy and slaughter for a feast (and I was to keep quiet about their American girlfriends and hold their liquor for them). We even had a caravan of three carloads going to see the Sear’s Tower in Chicago, and I was the only blond American male amongst them wearing a Jewish star.

One day they purposely showed me a newsletter from the Islamic Center in Perrysburg that had a story from the Haddith — saying attributed to Mohammad — that spoke of a war in the last days between Jews and Muslims, and how Jews would hide behind trees and the trees would say, “There’s a Jew behind me, kill him!” except for one tree that would shelter the Jews.

The next month the singles’ club of the Worldwide Church of God went to the mosque for a dinner-tour, followed by a question and answer session with the Egyptian imam/religious leader (who recently died and was praised as one who supposedly sought peace between different religions). I repeated the “spiritual lesson” to the imam and asked him if the Muslims had any such saying.

He replied that the Jews create such spurious sayings in order to discredit Islam and Arabs. I then shocked him, and the audience, when I asked: “If that’s not a Muslim story, and is spurious and created by the Jews, then why would you, as leader of this Islamic community permit that very story to be published in your newsletter last month?”

He was speechless. So I know, firsthand, how many people can profess that their religion is “peaceful” to a Western audience and whistle a totally different tune to their own masses. I’ve also lived in predominately Arab East Jerusalem, just outside the Damascus Gate, working for my great American-Israeli Jewish manager under our Muslim boss (who was exceptionally gracious). I know from a grassroots level what a farce the lying “peace” process is, and how such a false peace is based upon lies and delusions and is destined to crash and burn.

All this is not popular to say, nevertheless it is the plain truth. Time will surely reveal that peace is possible between Israel and Ishmael, Christians, Jews and Muslims — as the Jerusalem-based Root and Branch Islam-Israel Fellowship reveals — but it must be based upon the Bible and reality, not lying visions of false prophets of an empty peace.

We all DO judge a book by its cover, and the same
saying goes for Web sites. I’ve seen many
entrepreneurs offer great information on their Web
pages, but compromise their image dramatically with a
few amateur mistakes that can be VERY unforgiving.

If you want to attract high quality clients and
customers, and convey that you’re a legitimate,
credible, and sought-after business, these five points
are a great launching pad to give your site that “big
company” look and feel.

<< 1. Start with a high-quality LOGO. >>

The one your kid created for you doesn’t count! I’m
talking about paying a designer to do one for you, and
it doesn’t have to cost in the thousands. If you don’t
have much of a budget, consider the following options:

For my E-zine Queen site, I used an online logo
service called “1800MyLogo”
(http://www.1800mylogo.com). At the time they charged
only $199 to design a professional logo based on my
business, style, and personal preferences. The whole
process only took about two weeks and was conducted
entirely over the Web. (To see the final result, take
a quick peek at http://www.ezine-queen.com)

I’ve also heard good things about
http://www.gotlogos.com, where you can get a quick Web
site logo for only $25!

<< 2. Get your own business DOMAIN NAME. >>

It’s just a fact that folks will feel safer shopping
at a site with its own domain name.

For example, if you were shopping online for a
circular saw, would you be more likely to purchase
from a hardware site called “www.bobshardware.com” or
the one whose URL is
“www.geocities.com/3339/bobshardware?” (This is a
fictional example, by the way.)

Having your own domain name implies you’re a “real”
company, and not Uncle Bob working in his kitchen at
night (even though you my very well be ; )).

There are several “bargain basement” places to buy
domain names, but the two most popular and credible
are still:
http://www.register.com
http://www.networksolutions.com

<< 3. Get (and USE) a business E-MAIL ADDRESS. >>

Nothing screams “amateur” like sending out
professional e-mail from a handle like
“fuzzybear4u@hotmail.com.” Once you get a domain name
for your Web site, have your hosting company set up a
professional e-mail *alias* for you.

Let’s go back to Bob, for example. Suppose Bob’s
e-mail has always been “BobSmith0002@earthlink.net.”
Now that he has his own domain name, he can instead
use
“bob@bobshardware.com”. He still KEEPS his Earthlink
address, because that’s where he’ll actually receive
his mail. But he should only GIVE OUT the new one on
his Web site, business cards, etc.

If you use Outlook Express or a similar e-mail
program, you can set it up so that your e-mails ONLY
show your e-mail alias and NOT your personal e-mail
address. (To do this in Outlook Express, go under the
“Tools” menu. Then choose “Accounts.” Then select the
account you use, and click “Properties.” Enter your
e-mail alias in both the “e-mail address” and “reply
address” fields.)

<< 4. Get a professional-looking Web site DESIGN. >>

This can mean either hiring a designer to do a custom
site for you, OR designing it yourself. Unless you’re
both trained extensively in HTML and have a background
in design, it’s well worth the money to hire someone.

Find prospective designers who work with small
businesses, ask to see samples of their work, and be
upfront about your budget. If their rates are higher
than you can afford, ask them if they have any
pre-designed Web site templates they can just insert
your information in, cutting down tremendously on
design time and cost.

If you do want to put together your own site, check
out the “corporate” section of
http://www.freewebtemplates.com for several neat
designs you can use at no charge. (TIP: Avoid the ones
with colored backgrounds; they’ll make it more
complicated for you, and your text will be harder to
read.)

Whatever design you choose, make it CONSISTENT on
every page of your site, by using the same design
elements such as borders, fonts, and colors.

<< 5. Tell us WHO YOU ARE and HOW TO REACH YOU. >>

Most of us (and rightfully so) are leery of purchasing

online from a company we’ve never heard of before. To
alleviate our fears, put contact information on every
page if you can, with a physical mailing address,
phone number, and e-mail address.

If you’re uncomfortable posting your home address,
lease a box at a mailing and shipping center and use
that address. Avoid using “P.O. box” in your address
if possible, which can appear suspicious. Real
companies have real addresses!

Also, get a *toll-free* number if you can it really
says “big company.” I got mine from my long distance
provider, 1Com (http://www.1cominc.com), because they
charge no setup fee or monthly fees I only pay for
the incoming calls at my usual great long distance
rates.

About the Author

Copywriter and consultant Alexandria Brown’s FREE
biweekly e-zine, “AKB MarCom Tips,” gives how-to tips
on creating compelling Web sites, brochures, and
e-zines. Learn easy ways to “write to sell” and
attract new customers today! Subscribe now at
http://www.akbwriting.com or via
mailto:AKBMarCom-On@lists.webvalence.com

Do you have a list of e-mail addresses of your customers or prospects? Do you have a list of e-zine subscribers? If you have their permission, send them an e-mail survey to conduct market research. See if customers are satisfied with your products or services, or see if they enjoyed their visit at your web site.

You can learn things you didn’t know about your business by surveying. Maybe your customers buy your main product just to get the free gifts. Your visitors may think it’s to hard to navigate through your web site. You may find out that most of your customers make over $100,000 a year. By knowing this type of important information you can improve your web site, products/services, advertising, and marketing.

3 Popular Types Online Business Surveys

Customer Satisfaction Surveys - what did you like or dislike about our product or service, what can we improve or add, how satisfied are you with our customer service, etc.

Web Site Feedback Surveys - did you find it to easy navigate through our site, did you find the information you wanted, what did you like or dislike about the site, how did you find our site, etc.

Demographic Surveys - what’s your gender, age, income, occupation, marital status, etc.

Sometimes people don’t want to take the time to fill out a survey. To encourage them to fill out the survey offer them a freebie if they fill it out. Some ideas are free ebooks, free advertising, free reports, free internet services or a free e-zine. Hold a free online contest or sweepstakes and ask visitors to fill out a survey before they enter.

If you don’t yet have an e-mail address list you could post your survey on appropriate newsgroups, forums and e-mail discussion lists. You could also upload survey software to your web site or use a free survey service on the internet. To find such services just type in the keyword “survey” in your search engine of choice.

———————————————————
Julia Tang publishes “Smart Online Business Tips”, a fresh
and informative newsletter dedicated to supporting people
like you. To find out the best online business opportunities,
to discover hundreds more proven and practical internet
marketing secrets, plus FREE internet marketing products
worth over $200, visit: http://www.best-internet-businesses.com
———————————————————-

Dear Satan By C. R. Hamilton

Dear Satan, I know who you are. I know how you think and I know what your plan is and how you will carry it out. The fact that you are a liar is no secret, but the methods in which you tell your lies are deceitful. You do not have to tell a lie in its direct form (although you do) you can lie by simply not telling the whole truth.

You know the words of God almost as good as God does; only the power of the word does not work for you as it does for him. You do not have the slightest idea what many of His words mean, you just say you do. Moreover, you never do what the words says do.

You put on shows with antics in mockery of God in front of those that are ignorant to God’s word, and tell them only what you assume the words mean. You walk the fine line of truth and lie but you can never cross over because God will not let you, you have already chosen your destiny. You are angry for that so you tell lies, all lies. You quote what the word says but you really don’t believe it, and you fill innocent and gullible minds with what you think you know, but you do not know anything.

Your whole plan is to trick people using your enemy’s word. You do not like God; in fact, you despise him because he is much more powerful than you are. He has all power, and you have none, and you are jealous. You may have more people on your side but the ones God has on his side will never be yours. You think you can have them but you really know you can’t. You may even deceive many of them but you do not own them anymore.

You tell people that God does not love them and that he does not care, but the truth is he does only not about you. You play childish games so well. You are mean and hatred is deep down inside you. You are angry all the time and always depressed. You act like you love someone and they may even believe you, but in the end, they soon realize you don’t. Moreover, you hate it when they find you out. Nevertheless, I also know that you do not care if they find out that you do not care. The only reason you get mad is that you were found out.

So you move on to your next victim and start off real nice and sweet, like you want to help them or teach them or care. And you do it very well, but remember, I know who you are, you can not fool me.

You take God’s word and use it to hurt people by giving them scriptures of correction all the time and never a word of encouragement. You do not even know how to encourage people; you only pretend so you can gain their trust. You kill people spiritually with words and wound them with scriptures, making them think that it is God doing it. I know your game.

You only pick on people smaller than you or feeble minded, or sick. You pick on little children, old ladies, and handicapped people. You start vicious rumors and lies about people and withhold the truth and any compliments about them. You never give anyone a positive report, only evil lies. You are nosy and a gossip; you are confused about your sexuality and you do drugs. You abuse children and molest them; you also steal from people, especially the trusting ones, or little old ladies on the sly. I know you.

You hate happy people and love misery. You especially love money, teach about it, and ask for it all the time. You package God’s words and sale them for profit; you threaten people with curses and death and hell if they do not give. That is another reason I know you are no good. You lust after women who have no man and use and confuse them like you did Eve in the garden.

Nevertheless, when it comes to a true disciple or apostle of Christ, you had your last laugh when you tricked Judas. The rest of us know who you are. You go to church, pray, and testify in the isles; you sing in the choir and even preach in the pulpit. But I see you anywhere you are. You even have the nerve to call yourself an apostle. Saying you’ve been through this and you’ve been through that but you are lying your head off. You are afraid to suffer for Christ sake let alone even wanting to.

You look good and sound good but I know who you are. Soon I will let you know I know, face-to-face. I also know that you are afraid of me because I know and tell the truth and you hate me for that. So what, I’m letting everyone know. The main way I know you is because you have no love in you. I know love, God is love, and you are not. Love covers a multitude of sins and forgives them. You remind people of their sin everyday and never forgive them. Then you go and tell other people about someone else’s sins. That is where you slipped.

You went and told God that I was being bad and he looked at you and said “you are a liar, he is good”. So you went and told others that I was no good, you tried to twist God’s words so that they would be misunderstood. Many people believed you but that is OK, as long as God knows where my soul will end up. As for you and those you own See you all on Judgment Day.

Love, The Preacher

Do you know how to feed it, so that it helps you to earn the money you deserve! Building your own profit pulling list is EASY when you know how!

One common misconception about having a mailing list of your own
is that it has to be very large before you can make any money with it.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Your list members could almost be regarded as a friend, this may sound hard to believe, and it probably is to a degree, as you can’t get to know all off your list members on a personal basis.
BUT, you can come across in your email messages as a warm sincere person, with an important message about a product recommendation, be it either a physical, or a digital download product.

You can deliver your message to your list in the same personable
way as you would to a close friend.

If you tell your friend about a wonderful widget that you’ve just
discovered, and suggest, “You should really use this widget,
because it saves you time, money” etc. don’t you think that your
friend would go out and buy the widget.

Your personal recommendation is the most powerful sales message
you can convey to any member of your mail list. The same technique could be used by an affiliate marketer to sell all kinds of product.

How will you choose to build your list?

I know, I can hear you say, I’ll just go spend a few bucks and buy a ready-made list with thousands of names from one of the bulk email companies out there on the net.

Well, you can do that but will “the bulk email list” provide
true targeted prospects, and will they remain loyal to you?
How many of the “bulk harvested” names do you expect will actually make the effort to subscribe to your list?

My guess is, NOT Many.

Building a loyal list in this manner could prove to be an expensive way to find customers who may NEVER buy your products.
There is a much easier, low cost way for you to profit from a
solid targeted list of buyers.

A new report that has just hit the Internet will provide many of the answers you’re looking for.

This new report will show you exactly how to make big profits
from a small mail list The Charlie Page big profits report, which has just been released, outlines the actions required, and the methods you can employ to successfully find and keep loyal, profitable customers on your mail list.

You’ll learn how to get to know your audience, how to get personal without getting too personal, if you know what I mean.

Tens of thousands of people are looking for information on the net,in the big profits report, there are dozens of tried and proven methods you can use, which will entice people into a call to action, i.e. too buy, or to ask you, even beg you, for your information.

As an Internet marketer, and a personal user of many of the methods outlined in the big profits report, I can highly recommend it. I have sold many ebooks to a niche market list with less than one thousand names.

The methods outlined provide powerful ways for any businessperson
on or off line, to build and profit from a small mail list, no matter what kind of product you sell.

If you are seriously looking for effective ways to profit from your small mail list, then feel free to visit the website link below to learn more about how to work & profit from your small mail list.

The money really is in the list.

Article supplied by: Col Croucher. Australian ebook author & internet marketer. Victoria Australia.
Learn more about: The Big Profits From a Small Mail List at:
http://www.myhomefoundry.com/bigprofitsindx2.htm

One of the underlying benefits of smart autoresponders is that you can use your autoresponder for mailing list management.

It’s like putting permission marketing into overdrive!

In other words, you can use it to build a database of opt-in email addresses for publishing an ezine, delivering courses or making announcements… Including special backend offers!

Smart autoresponders allow you to promote to a growing base of email addresses that you establish over time. But before starting the process, you need to start capturing emails!

The Dynamics of Lead Generation

Traditional ways of lead generation is a costly endeavor. For example, if you were to use direct mail to scoop up prospects, you have to pay for the “3 P’s” of direct mail…

Printing,
Paper
And postage.

And that’s a bare minimum, because it doesn’t account for the list you must either rent or buy, the labels you must peal and stick, and the time it takes to stuff it all into envelopes.

Plus, they may or may not be targeted!

If you want to find quality leads, first you do a blind mailing (even though you may think the audience is targeted, they’re only suspects at this point… Not prospects!).

Then, once they come forward and ask for more information, the mailing process repeats itself! So, chasing down quality leads can become agonizingly slow and expensive!

The Internet changes all that! Unlike the “3 P’s” of direct mail, email has “3 F’s.” In other words, delivery of email is free, fast and focused. Why did I say “focused?” Here’s what I mean…

With permission marketing and NOT spam (i.e., where people opt in and voluntarily come forward to ask for your information FIRST before you mail them), email is highly targeted!

Your email is focused on the customer from the get “go!”

How to Start Capturing Email Addresses…

Developing an opt-in list is done by compiling email addresses of recipients that have given you permission to email them with information that pertains to what they opted for.

People subscribing not only get an instant reply or a series of follow-ups thereafter, but they can also get, say, newsletter issues, product announcements, special offers and so on.

Building a quality, “targeted” list of prospects is the most important thing you can do for your business. How many times have you let your visitors slip away, never to return?

The best way to generate repeat visitors to your site is to ask (and capture) their email addresses. The easiest way is by offering an opt-in subscription to some kind of publication.

At minimum, you should publish a periodic email newsletter to inform visitors of new product updates or website changes.

Nevertheless, you must build your opt-in list right away, and do whatever you can to capture people’s email addresses and their permission to email them… And avoid SPAM!

Why is it so important? Realize that the money is not in the one-time sale (as it is with spam) but in the lifetime value of a customer. People who buy can do so again and again…

If you keep them informed, interested and persuaded!

Several of the following techniques may seem obvious to you, but sometimes they are overlooked. My advice to you is to use them all or as many as you can to build your lists!

First, remember that your autoresponder’s database may be comprised of several types of people. For example, it may include one or several opt-in lists consisting of…

Current and new customers;
Prospects (people asking for more information);
Subscribers (to a newsletter, for example);
And other people’s customers.

Let’s take a quick at each one. Shall we?

1. Customers

Unless your business is completely new, you probably have a list of customers right now. Your customers’ names and email addresses will create the first and best list you will ever own.

Once they buy from you, their defenses are down. A trust has been built and a relationship has been established. Current customers are poised to buying from you again in the future.

Never abandon your “existing” customer base!

You spent money, time and energy on acquiring these new customers… But if you try to sell them again, those expenses are virtually non-existent! Acquisition costs are near ZERO!

If you don’t have the email addresses of your customers, then you need to start compiling them. First, you should ask all your new customers’ email addresses from this point on.

With your current customers, try to collect email addresses as much as you can. For instance, next time you send a mailer or flyer, offer something for free if they respond by email!

A contest or draw,
A survey or poll,
An electronic book (or “ebook”),
A email-only discount,
A gift certificate,
A free report,
A new unreleased product,
A free email newsletter,
A special offer,
An open house,
An affiliate program,
Etc, etc, etc.

2. Prospects

From now on, you should start compiling the email addresses of your “hot” prospects, too! If they want more information, they’re identifying themselves as interested and motivated!

Your eager prospects received not only an instant reply with the information they asked for and a series of follow-ups, but they, too, should be placed into an opt-in list.

Remember, these prospects may not buy after the first or even the seventh exposure. And the possible reasons are many… Such as no interest, no time, no money, etc.

(Or they just found a more appropriate offer elsewhere.)

But these now “warm” prospects may be in a better position to buy in the future, or may be interested in something else you offer. Or they may become great referral sources!

In fact, whether they are interested or not, or they ask for more information or not, they should also become…

3. Subscribers

In addition to your customers, non-customers and prospects, you can also start building a list of opt-in subscribers! They can join your list in return for getting something free…

But if you don’t, your visitors are slipping away!

For instance, place a form on your website or an email link pointing to your autoresponder, offering visitors to subscribe to your mailing list. In return, offer them something for free.

It might be a free report, an email newsletter (or “ezine”), an extra discount, a coupon, a course (with lessons delivered incrementally, like this one!) and so on… Anything free!

Visitors may not buy from you the first time. They may even be targeted, eager and interested in your offering, but fail to buy because of a lack of time, funds, trust or information!

You spent all that money and effort in getting them to visit your website in the first place… Why not capitalize on your investment and get the most “mileage” out of your visitors?

If you DON’T try to capture your visitors’ emails while they’re at your website, you will lose these prospects forever. You want to keep them coming back or stay in touch with them!

Once you collect email addresses from your autoresponder, add them to your prospect list and send them updates, news and, of course, product offers. Your list is your goldmine!

3. Other People’s Customers

Let’s say you don’t have a customer list, a prospect list or a subscriber list. What do you do? Of course, common sense tells you that you must start collecting those right away.

BUT, if you want to start building a list quickly, here’s one technique that works. Basically, what you do is piggy-back on other people’s lists through setting up joint ventures.

First, find an established business by that I mean one with an established opt-in email list of their own that sells a non-competing yet related product or service to yours.

Here’s an example: if you sell used cars, you might want to find and team up with, say, a car insurance company, a car parts dealer, or a car accessories distributor or whatever.

For example, you may offer an exclusive commission for any cars sold to their lists, or you may offer a free report exclusively to their subscribers, prospects or customers.

Learn more about internet marketing, search engine marketing, email marketing go to internet marketing and website promotion.