The ML Editor

An idea to help increase your earnings from surveys would be to have a different email account for all the survey companies you work for. A separate email can keep your offers apart from your personal emails and prevent them from accidental deletion or losing sight of them. Getting Maltese Paid Surveys is simple. All you are getting is a worthless list of generic paid surveys websites and none of them pay you what they say they will pay you, read on more about Maltese Paid Surveys. Firstly you need some extra time as mentioned before but with a couple of hours at day you will be fine plus an internet connection then you need research for companies willing to pay you for your opinion the easy way is joining a membership site where you can find all those companies together. Also see Real Paid Surveys. Paying people to provide answers to survey questions is far less expensive than the alternative of releasing a product and then finding there are issues with the design or packaging that could have been prevented.

If we told you that it’s possible to make $250 an hour what would you say? Something like, “Yea, right.” Hey, it’s perfectly understandable and to be quite honest it was the first thing we thought of when the Get Cash For Surveys review came across our desk. Once you hit the website the very first thing you see is, “You can earn up to $250 an hour taking surveys online.” Read on to find out more about Maltese Paid Surveys. I would advise that before you start signing up consider the following facts and filter the ones that don’t pay well or send too few surveys etc. Find out more about Maltese Paid Surveys and Real Paid Surveys. So what can you do about this growing problem we have here? Well you will need a separate way to find paid surveys for teens.
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These are basically Paid Survays conducted in a group setting either in a real-world (office building) or online format. More about Maltese Paid Surveys and Real Paid Surveys at our website. Get all the info on Maltese Paid Surveys from our homepage. Realizing that online surveys pay you well is not something everybody gets to experience. Get paid survey network list absolutely FREE from our website! Absolutely no charge for joining the industry’s TOP 7 paying survey networks from www.top-paidsurveys.org

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“Virtual Real Estate Investing” is a relatively new concept. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

To separate fact from fiction, I asked Bryan Ellis for comments. He’s the man many consider to be the father of this new form of investing.

When I began using the term virtual real estate investing in the late 1990s, I did so because I saw clear parallels between the strategies used for profiting from physical real estate and those that would create income in the online world, said Ellis.

An example of the similar nature of “virtual” and “physical” real estate Bryan Ellis likes to point out is the methods of making a profit from domain names compared to physical real estate. “These types of assets - websites and physical real estate - can be monetized in very similar ways like buy lo/sell high, leasing/rental and advertising opportunities” he says.

The similarities really are obvious. After all, if you own a valuable piece of real estate, it’s “valuable” because other people are interested in that specific piece of property. Likewise, if you own a desirable domain name, others will find value in it because it serves their purposes. In either case, you could sell or lease the asset and turn it into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

The very old Chinese motto has a very strong gist; the proverb depicted the truth that each & every person recognises an event noticeably more when it is watched. Utilising video production or videography it’s possible to record a succession of occasions. Visit the Vidify website for cost-effective video production and distribution solutions.

Nowadays in lots of commercial presentations, video is frequently employed. By employing video production it is feasible to provide the necessary message to quite a lot of potential clientele to help allure them. Video production is these days employed for several different reasons; however, more than a few online promotional videos & brand associated productions are usually created in order to accomplish particular business objectives.

Audio video presentations are very much in vogue & are therefore used in almost any form of corporate activity. Digital media businesses at the outset generally work with a certain brand of client or a firm that looks to produce a short format video, a presentation or an assortment of video clips. The full occupation of video production is normally carried out by a couple of freelancers; although there are a few good creative agencies around at the moment.

The involvement of music composers, cameraman and script writers can also be very common when creating audio video productions. Furthermore, advertising firms & public relations companies have lately become involved with online video distribution.

Email marketing is directing your messages to targeted addresses. These addresses are either rented or gathered from your opt-in list. Don’t worry. This is not spamming. The people whom you send messages to want your information.

An Effective Email Marketing Campaign Will Help Your Business…

Target your customers

Build a good rapport with your potential customers

Lower your ad costs (email marketing is cost effective)

Increase return on investments (ROI)

“69 percent of U.S. e-mail users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based e-mail marketing, 59 percent have purchased in retail stores, 39 percent have purchased through catalogs, 34 percent through call centers and 20 percent through postal mail.”And, “78 percent of those surveyed say they want to receive e-mail from their favorite online merchants.” Source: DoubleClick

24 Tips to An Effective Email Marketing Campaign…

1.Own a proper domain name

If you are serious about your business, you need to own a proper domain name that will appear in your resource box in all your email marketing campaign. Free domain name like yoursite.xxx.com or www.xxx/yoursite.com will not be taken seriously. It gives people the impression that your business is a fly by night operation.

To build credibility you need to have your own proper domain name (www.yoursite.com) and professional web hosting.

2.Auto-responders

An auto-responder performs 2 important functions. It stores the names and email addresses of your visitors who opted to be on your mailing list, and automates your follow-up process. It can send a single message to thousands of subscribers in your opt-in list automatically.

You can have more than one auto-responder, each sending a different message. Without the effective use of auto-responders, an effective marketing campaign cannot be set in place. Imagine handling the tasks of a growing business without automation.

3.Offer Free Short Courses

The advantage of auto-responders is you can send out messages at preset intervals. You could utilize this capability to offer short email courses lasting from 5 to 7 days. For example I could offer for free a short course Five Days to Effective Email Marketing with this article. Offering short courses is one way to build up your opt-in list.

When your subscribers gain enough confidence in you through email courses, they would be more disposed to buy your products. Needless to say, your products must be related to the courses you offer.

Offering short courses also exposes your subscribers to your products or services.

4.Offer Free Ezines/Newsletters

Ezine is short form for electronic magazines. Share quality and useful information with your subscribers through ezines. Update your products and keep your subscribers posted of the latest developments in your business. This is good for building long-term relationships with them.

When you established your business as a reliable source of information, know-how and expertise, people will naturally be sold to it.

If you have a large subscriber base say 2000 - 4000, you can sell advertising space in your ezine.

5.Be Personal

Address your subscribers by name. You may write something like, Hi [First name] or [Last name], Thank you for your sign-up. People like to be address by name. It gives them a sense of importance. This is psychology 101.

Though your email will be read by thousands of subscribers each day, write as if you are talking to one person at a time. Use singular pronouns like ‘I’, ‘Me’, ‘You’, ‘Your’. This kind of approach is more personal.

6.Be Formal

Just because you are writing emails it does not mean that you do away with all the formality of offline letter writing. Maintain proper greetings, Hi [First name] of [Last name], and proper signing offs like to your success, best regards, etc.

7.Fill in the From Field properly

Fill in your name, not crony names, followed by your full email address so it does not pass off as junk mail. Delete and empty trash.

8.Fill in the Subject Field properly

It must be a clear statement that is relevant to content. Don’t leave your Subject Field blank.

9.Remind people how they got on your mailing list

This is good practice. Most people will not remember why, where and what they signed up. Remind them at the beginning of your email how they got on your mailing list.

10.Write as though you are speaking to your friend

Email writing is somewhat different from writing for print. Write as though you are talking to a friend. Don’t sound like a university professor or a kindergarten teacher.

11.Be Concise and get straight to the point

Your email text must be concise and get straight to the point. People don’t have all day to read your email. A good thumb of rule for an effective email marketing copy is 250 to 300 words. Don’t bombard your email marketing campaign with banner ads all over.

12.Use Short Sentences and Paragraphs

Avoid wordy sentences. Keep your sentences short and simple. Don’t clump your text together. Use plenty of paragraphs. It is easier to read the text that way. Paragraphs should be no longer than five lines.

13.Never Type your Text in Caps

Online this is interpreted as SHOUTING.

14.Check For Bad Grammar and Misspellings

An email with bad grammar and misspellings gives your subscribers the impression that you don’t take them seriously. So don’t expect them to take you seriously too. Check and recheck your email copy to correct bad grammar and misspellings.

The opening line is important. Bad grammar and misspelling from the start will get your email copy trashed fast.

This concludes Part 1 of 24 Tips to Set Up an Effective Email Campaign. For more tips, read Part 2.

Gerrick W - mailto:gw@1stinternetmarketingsolution.com
We provide information and software tools you need to
effectively market your online business.
Visit: http://www.1stinternetmarketingsolution.com

We all know the English language contains hundreds of thousands of words. But did you know that only 21 of them can easily sell your clients? Yes! It’s true. When you know what these proven words are and how to use them to your company’s benefit, you’ll save both time and money when selling to prospects. In fact, once you master the use of these 21 words, your business will quickly get the results it deserves. (Hint: this paragraph contains 10 of the 21 words. Did you spot them all?)

What’s in a Word?

The exact words you use in your company’s marketing materials can make the difference between success and failure. Choose the right words and your prospects will find you and your company irresistible. Choose the wrong words and you’ll spend most of your time convincing prospects to do business with you. Why waste your time selling prospects on your products or services when you can let strategically written marketing pieces do the work for you? When it comes to writing marketing pieces, your word choices do matter.
Following are the top 10 of the 21 words that sell. Use them wisely and watch your marketing response rates soar.

The Top 10 Words that Sell

1. You/your - “You” is the most powerful word in the English language. It’s more powerful than the word “money;” it’s more powerful than the word “sex.” Prospects want to feel as if you’re talking to them directly, and the word “you” accomplishes just that. So instead of writing, “Our clients report increased productivity as a result of using the Widget 2100,” write, “You will experience increased productivity as a result of using the Widget 2100.” Keep every sentence in your prospect’s perspective.

2. Money - Ask people what they wish they had more of, and chances are they’ll say “money.” People love to save money just as much as the love to earn it. So if a benefit of your product or service is that it saves people money or helps them earn more money, state it along with a monetary figure people can grasp. For example: “Using the Widget 2100 saves you money - over $5000 per year!”

3. Health/healthy - The second thing people wish they had more of is good health. People want products and services that are going to either improve their health or not negatively impact it. For example: “Vitamin X improves your health and well being by…” or “Pesticide Y has no known health implications,” or “Product Z is part of a healthy diet.”

4. Guarantee/guaranteed - By nature, most people are not risk takers. They want assurance that they’re not wasting their money and that your product or service can live up to its claims. By giving some sort of guarantee, you put prospects at ease and make them trust you. For example: “We’re so confident the Widget 2100 will work for you that we offer a full money-back guarantee.”

5. Easy/easily - Between 40+ hour workweeks and increasing demands at home, people want things that are easy. They don’t want products or services that are going to make their life more difficult. So always state how easy your company makes things. For example: “The Widget 2100 makes it easy for you to…” Or, “With the Widget 2100, you can easily remove spots from your carpet once and for all.”

6. Free - Everyone loves getting something for nothing. That’s why the word “free” continues to be one of the top selling words of all time. Realize that the free offer doesn’t have to have a high monetary value, just a high perceived value. Some freebies that work include: “Free consultation,” “Free estimate,” “Free report,” “Free shipping,” and “Buy one get one free.”

7. Yes - Face it, you love being told “yes,” don’t you? “Yes” means you have permission, you were right, or you can get what you want. “Yes” is one of the most pleasing words to the human ear. So tell your prospects “yes” often. For example, in your marketing materials, you can ask a series of positive yes/no questions, and then write, “If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then the Widget 2100 is what you’ve been searching for.”

8. Quick/quickly - In today’s microwave age society, people want things quickly. They don’t want to wait weeks or even days for the results you promote. They want to know they’ll see a quick return for their investment now. So while the perception of quick results may vary from person to person, as long as you know that your product or service is quicker than something else, state it. For example: “Lose weight quickly,” “Make money quickly,” and “Quick and tasty meals from your own kitchen.”

9. Benefit - Most written marketing pieces do state the benefit of the product or service; however, they neglect to actually use the word “benefit.” When people read the word “benefit,” they subconsciously perk up. They know they’re about to learn something that will impact their life, so they want to know more. For example, “As an added benefit to this product, you get (state the benefit).”

10. Person’s name - People love to hear the sound of their own name and they love to read their name in print. That’s why so many souvenir shops sell personalized itemsfrom magnets to coffee mugs. Including the prospect’s name in a marketing piece, especially in the middle of the sentence, boosts attention levels. For example, “As you can see, Steve, the Widget 2100 makes perfect sense for your needs.”

The Remaining 11

The other eleven words that sell are: 1) Love, 2) Results, 3) Safe/safely, 4) Proven, 5) Fun, 6) New, 7) Save, Now, 9) How-to, 10) Solution, and 11) More. While synonyms to these 21 words are acceptable, synonyms are not as powerful as the actual word itself. So in order to not appear redundant in your marketing piece, use the appropriate word wisely, and don’t overdo it.

As your marketing writing prowess increases, consider combining words that sell in the same sentence. For example, maybe your product works “quickly, safely, and easily.” Or, perhaps your service makes cooking “easy and fun.” Or, are your “proven results guaranteed”? You get the idea. Since short marketing pieces are more powerful than long one, make sure every sentence packs a punch.

When you use these 21 words in every marketing piece, you quickly increase your prospect’s interest in what you write, which ultimately leads to more money for you. So master the use of these proven words now. Doing so, dear reader, gives you the easy solution to achieve high marketing response rates you’ve been waiting for.

Can you do it? Yes! And you’re going to love the results. Guaranteed!

Dawn Josephson, the Master Writing Coach, is President and founder of Cameo Publications, LLC, an editorial and publishing services firm located in Hilton Head Island, SC. Dawn empowers leaders to master the printed word for enhanced credibility, positioning, and profits. She is also the author of the book Putting It On Paper: The Ground Rules for Creating Promotional Pieces that Sell Books and the co-author(with Lauren Hidden) of the new book Write It Right: The Ground Rules for Self-Editing Like the Pros… Contact her at dawn@cameopublications.com or at 1-866-372-2636.

The marketing function in any business has a high expense profile. This is
due in large part to the need for an array of marketing materialsknown in
“marketing speak” as collaterals. The purpose of collateralsbrochures, white papers, newsletters, web sites, and other printed or electronic informationis to increase awareness, recognition, and interest about a company (or particular product or service) in its target market.

Service firms must rely almost wholly upon collaterals to attract and interest
customers. With no tangible product to see, touch, or try out before buying,
these companies need to convey their quality, reliability, and value by
proxyand collaterals play a major role here. Collaterals are “service samples”
for potential customers. They represent their companies symbolically through the
quality and value of their content, the appeal of their graphic design and color
schemes, and even, in the case of printed materials, their texture.

So, we have materials that 1) must successfully represent the company and its
services and 2) take up a significant portion of the marketing budget. Add in
the fact that the preparation and production of collaterals call for specialized
skillscopy writing, graphic design, web design, printing, to name a fewthat
require outside contractors, and we have a program that needs good management to
achieve the highest return on investment.

Managing contractors to get the best collaterals for the best value is often a
major challenge for small and medium service firms. The array of skills needed
and the choices for final output can cause the cost pendulum to swing wildly:

– Pay too little and you end up with stuff that doesn’t represent you or,
worse, is detrimental to your image.

– Pay too much and you aren’t getting anywhere near the best value for your
investment, or, worse, your materials end up being held hostage by your
contractors because they are too complex for you or anybody else to take over.

How can you avoid “collateral” damage to your company’s image and/or your bank
account? Here are six strategies, in reverse order of importance, that will
stack the deck in your favor.

7. Resist the DIY impulse.

Unless you or a member of your staff really do have the skills needed to
turn out good (= results producing) materials, don’t try doing it yourself.
Better to have no brochure than one that looks “homemade” by someone who doesn’t
know a font from a hole in the ground or who thinks that white space is a
snow-covered field in Minnesota.

6. Get the most skills that you can from one person.

Any creative contractor you hire should be multitalented. For example, last year
I worked with a graphic designer who was excellent in both web design and hard
copy designand understood the differences between the two. For the cost of his
design time, I was able to apply his output to multiple items and have hard copy
pieces that matched the web site.

5. Only hire team players.

Your creative contractors need to be more interested in your business objectives
and results than in art for art’s sake. When you are reviewing proposed designs
or creative solutions, ask what, why, how. What business benefit will this
provide? Why a 6-color brochure rather than a 4-color one? How is a Flash
animation going to attract more business from the web site? There may be valid
business answers to these and other questions; if so, go for it. If not, pass by
the artsy stuff and concentrate on more practical items.

4. Keep up with output technologies.

Printing technology has drastically changed over the two decades I’ve dealt with
it, and it continues to do so. Make sure that you are using the best technology
fit for your hard copy materials. Assuming that you have hired multitalented
team players, you have built-in advisors who will match you up with the most
effective (quality and cost) output medium for your needs.

3. Strive for as much self sufficiency as possible.

While you do not want to go the DIY route for your collaterals, you still want
to maintain control of them and do as much as is feasible yourself. For example,
have your designer create templates for repeating pieces such as newsletters or
proposals, then prepare these documents in house. Another element of self
sufficiency is obtaining and storing electronic copies of all artwork, in
original format as well as any derived versions. You own the art, so don’t brook
any refusals to provide it.

2. Practice good project management.

Any project must be managed, and creative projects must be managed even more
carefully. Plan any collateral preparation with a timeline, milestones, and
resources, then manage your contractors according to the plan. Depending on the
scope of the work and its business criticality, you might consider building in
incentive bonuses to key contractors based on criteria such as early delivery,
adherence to design specs, or other performance indicator.

1. Clarify your objectives before you start looking for contractors.

To get the best possible return on investment from your collaterals, you need to
clearly understand what you want to achieve from them. The results your
collaterals produce should tie in to your marketing and business objectives; if
you aren’t clear what those objectives are, attend to those first before
attempting to create materials. The first contractor you hire, in fact, may be a
marketing consultant who can work with you to clarify your objectives and
identify means to measure the ability of your entire marketing program
(including collaterals) to support their achievement.

Pursuing these strategies will help keep your collaterals on track in terms of
their effectiveness as your representative, and will ensure that you are getting
the most bang for your buck from the “artistic” side of your marketing equation.

Trish Lambert, president of 4-R Marketing LLC (http://www.4rmarketing.com), is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model for service businesses. Very much a “non-conformist” in the marketing world, Trish creates campaigns and programs that make sense for her clients, that can be clearly measured, and that produce the targeted results.

Is internet marketing and the potential for it saturated? I have wondered this many times but pure logic wins me over. It has at many times caused me to give up on an idea or marketing plan based on the belief that there were so many other people doing it my offer would never be considered. But after reading the following article you can get an idea that the internet is like a new city that crops up everyday, under a new sun, with all kinds of possibilities before you. You just need to see them and then take the reins and hold on.

This is how I view internet marketing.

Somebody owns a large plot of land. They put out an ad that welcomes 100,000 people to come build a home and a business on this land all for free. The first thing everyone needs is a place to live. So they must first build a home. “But how do we build a home without lumber?” They ask. Many of the people having the spirit of an entrepreneur see an opportunity to make money ,so 1,000 of these 100,000 people open up a lumber company. And all 1,000 of these people end up making a good profit. “That’s great, but how are we going to build our homes without the tools and hardware?” they asked. So 1,000 more people open up a hardware store. And all 1,000 of these people end up making a good profit.

“I don’t know how to build a house!” many of them said. So 1,000 people offer to build their house for them and another 1,000 write books on how to build a house. And all 2,000 of these people end up making good profits. “How can we continue to work when we have noting to eat?” They all asked. So 1,000 people open up restuarants, another 1,000 open up catering services, and another thousand open up grocery stores. And all 3,000 end up making good profits. “How am I going to see my friends on the other side of town. It’s to far to walk!” They whinned. So 1,000 people open up automoble manufacturing plants and each employs 10 people to work for them. All 1,000 plants end up making good profits.

As more house’s are completed lumber becomes less in demand, so 995 lumber yards go out of business leaving those 5 with the best marketing strategy. Because everyone has all the tools and hardware they need 995 hardware stores go out of business leaving those 5 with the best marketing plan. Because people can cook and grow their own food, 995 each of the restuarants, catering businesses, and grocery stores go out of business leaving those 15 businesses with the best marketing plan. And because everyone has a car and/or has found alternate means of transportation 999 auto plants go out of business leaving the 1 with the best marketing plan.

As time goes on all 100,000 people are having their needs met by different businesses which eventually level out the market so their is a healthy competition between all the existing businesses. But there is no need for any more businesses because the market is saturated. That is until 100,000 new people come to town. Then the cycle repeats itself.

The point of the story is this. All towns and cities started out like this with a surplus of goods and services. When a particular service or product was no longer in high demand only the businesses with the best plans survived. Only when the population of the city went up did someone consider opening up another business to meet the need of those people. But even though there was enough businesses to meet the needs of the people, many businesses and people wanted to find out ways to do things smarter, cheaper, faster. So opens up a whole new area of enterprise. And just like a new city the process starts over.

Internet marketing is similar to this. When it started to catch on many saw the opportunity to make money. Some offered tools to make websites while others offered to make a website for those unable. Some offered avenues to market that website, others will market it for you, while others write books to teach you how to do it yourself. There is though one big difference. There is still a large number of people who don’t own computers, while many of the ones who do are still unaware of internet marketing.

Every hour of the day people are coming of age. Every hour of the day people who never looked before are looking for ways to earn more money, have a business of their own, find new products or information that aren’t offered in retail stores. Think of the internet as a new city that has 100,000 people everyday entering in looking for something. Some will buy a product or use a service. Some will set up a business of their own. Some will give up their business only to come back to try something else. So, is internet marketing saturated? No way. The future of internet marketing looks better than ever.

Article by Jerry Lunsford. Go to my website http://www.quityourcrummyjob.com to find this and other articles to help with your success as an affiliate, and with the success of those affiliates under you. Use these articles on your website, ezine, or wherever they can be helpful. Copyright (c) 2004

Tactical marketing processes are once again undergoing fundamental shifts from traditional to web-based processes. Many traditional marketing firms/agencies are still touting the tried and true to their clients; i.e. Tradeshow attendance, Print, Traditional PR, TV and Radio. However, these conventional marketing processes work best for broad market awareness and/or branding, especially for a Fortune 1K company with significant resources to spend on demographic analysis, test marketing and more test marketing. It’s much more difficult for a smaller company (startup to $50M per annum) to leverage the economies of scale that are typically available for a larger company for the media buy and operational efficiencies.

It’s obvious that lifestyle and business processes are shifting towards a much greater dependence on digital media - people are traveling less due to cost issues and the ever-increasing speed of business is underscoring the usage of the Internet for information and research. If you’re a small to medium sized business the chances are that you’ve probably cut your marketing budget significantly - by eliminating or scaling back tradeshow attendance, trade magazine advertising and/or direct mail in favor of response driven marketing on the web that can be deployed faster and more cost-effectively than traditional marketing methods.

Capturing leads from a web site generated by opt-in e-mail, newsletter inserts, text link advertising and/or other forms of pay per click marketing is still the absolute best way to generate leads that are quantifiable as soon as they are generated. You have the ability to easily track where the lead came from and via what interactive advertising process; assuming this has been setup for you by your interactive ad agency or with the online publisher. And, there are typically no lead times like more traditional marketing processes - we’ve created and deployed campaigns (creative, media buy, testing, ROI analysis, etc.) for our clients in 3-5 working days in some cases.

There are some pitfalls to web-based lead generation and follow through that you need to be aware of as you deploy an interactive campaign. Here are five of the most important “gotchas” that you need to think about as you build an interactive lead generation program around your web site:

1) Don’t make it difficult for people to contact your company - make sure your web site really communicates with your prospects - by “communicating” I mean by providing telephone contacts, e-mail address and/or a lead capture form that is short. Note: this form has to be supported by a published Privacy Policy (”we won’t divulge your info to a third party under any circumstances”) and it absolutely must be short; i.e. don’t request any more than baseline information, name, phone, e-mail and address, augmented with a comment box.

2) Your marketing objectives have to be supported by your sales team - the sales team has to be incentivized to respond to inbound e-mails and requests for information via a contact form in a timely manner, within 24 hours or sooner. If you have a geographically dispersed sales team then make this clear on the web site by providing specific contact points for states, regions and countries.

3) Make sure you IT person/department attends your marketing planning meetings with your sales team - your web site will need some type of a lead capture setup that redistributes leads based on function and/or geographical responsibility. Your IT staff has to create a database solution that captures, stores and distributes leads - this does not need to be done in-house, products like Act (the market leader in contact management software) are now web-enabled, you can capture leads via a web server and share leads with others via a browser and very inexpensively.

4) We don’t advocate popup advertising for most of our client’s advertising campaigns. But, we have “crossed over to the other side” and we do (highly) recommend using popups on our clients’ web sites to present opportunities that in turn capture leads. Studies have shown effective popup lead captures increase lead generation by 40-85% depending on the market segment. Popups can be set so they only launch on a frequency basis per session (visit to a web site) or a number of times for a specific visitor - they don’t have to setup so they are intrusive and annoying.

5) Last but not least (drum roll) - make the customer’s usability experience the most important aspect of your web site. Create a user interface (”experience”) that is pleasant for your visitors; i.e. use standard universal (top of page and local page left) menus, utilize 2-3 sentence paragraphs with lots of white space, don’t overload your pages with graphics that slow down load times and make sure your contact points (phone, e-mail) are readily available from every page.

So, to summarize; advertising is shifting from traditional to web-based or interactive if you will - so, to get on board this tsunami build a web site that communicates with your prospects/customers, provide contact points via telephone and e-mail via the site, involve your IT and Sales staff with the lead capture process so they are all stakeholders and utilize popups to accelerate your lead capturing.

About The Author

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is an internationally recognized e-business strategist. Check out her free tipsheet “Beyond the Search Engines” for 17 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com.

Most business owners fully understand that not advertising is the surest way to kill your business.

However they are also bombarded by so much information and so many choices they quickly lose track of what options are available to them.

There are a number of cheap and easy online advertising options available to you.

1. Ezine Advertising

Ezine advertising is one of the best ways to reach your future customers because it is often inexpensive and flexible as well as offering you the option to match the ezine audience with your product and ad. It also often offers a double benefit–your initial ad plus longevity in the ezine archives.

2. Text Links

This simple tool is often overlooked by many. It is simply one of the least expensive and yet most powerful advertising option available. You can often buy text links for under $10 and the link will not only promote the specific site or page you choose but also connect it with the specific key words that will benefit you the most.

Text links also provide a double bonus. You can attract immediate traffic from the host site as well as achieve better search engine ranking which will further increase traffic.

3. Pay per click advertising

Just like it sounds pay per click advertising is simply paying for specifically targeted traffic. You can monitor and control these advertising programs very closely and tweak your ad copy and the key words that you are sponsoring. This can be a very expensive option but doesn’t have to be if you plan carefully and watch closely.

4. Email marketing

Despite ever-increasing vigilant attempts to stop spam, we all know that email marketing is still alive and well. While it is foolish in the extreme to risk your business, web host, or internet connection, by sending out spam you can still use email marketing as a way to reach out and touch your customers and your future customers.

You just need to make sure that no one receives mail except the people who ask for it. People are still willing to sign up for mailing lists–especially if you have something to offer them in return for sharing their email address. Sponsor a contest; give away an article, ebook, or tutorial; or offer a discount and you will have people sign up willingly.

Then if you don’t abuse the mailing list you will have the opportunity to reach them again and again!

5. Banner Ads

Banner ads have a bad reputation. In part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.

Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don’t forget that you don’t have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.

It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.

Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.