Affordable Online Business Strategies
Archive for August, 2009
How To Create Stunning Web Sites That Sell
Aug 22nd
What every online business needs is a web site. There are books you can read. There are online tutorials. There is free software. But at the end of the day, it’s still confusing for a lot of people who are getting started online. You need graphics, you need a sales letter, and you need a way to upload your site and set up your order taking and delivery system.
Marlon Sanders has the solution for you. It’s called the Design Dashboard, and it’s got a lot of killer information on how to create a web site that sells. The Design Dashboard is a point and click system where you are given 6 weekly steps. Each week is divided into 6 steps that each take under an hour to accomplish. You get detailed screen shots for each step, along with video demonstrations as needed.
The Design Dashboard will take you step by step through the process of creating a web site, writing order pulling sales pages, setting up your order page and your download page, setting up your payment processing, getting a domain name and hosting, and using FTP to upload your site. The Design Dashboard will walk you through all of the steps you need to start making sales.
For me the real power of the Design Dashboard is in the first two rows. Here is where you learn how to create your own header graphics, from scratch. I’m talking about header graphics that are professional and created by you for your web site. No templates here. Create a couple of header graphics yourself and you’ll have paid for the course.
But it gets even better. You’ll learn how to create ebook covers, magazine covers, create DVD box covers, and best of all is this – you’ll learn how to put your own custom picture on a computer monitor image, just like the one you see at the sales page for the Design Dashboard.
If all you got was the ability to create stunning graphics, it would be worth it. But now it’s time for week 3, which is learning how to use the free HTML software that Marlon uses in the Design Dashboard. Learn how to insert your graphics, use tables, format text and much more.
Week 4 is really cool. Marlon Sanders is a master at writing sales letters, and here he gives you the steps you need to create an effective sales page. You’ll learn how to write great headlines, how to use testimonials, use bullet points, and you get 4 powerful worksheets you can use to guide you.
Now that your sales letter is created and your graphics and web page are looking really good, it’s time to select a domain name and get hosting. You’ll learn how to use autoresponders, fly-in windows, and how to set up your order process.
Week 6 is when you upload your site, test it out to make sure everything is working okay, and put on the finishing touches. Marlon guides you through creating a privacy page and a contact page. Upload your site to your hosting account, set up tracking, and start promoting your new site.
The Design Dashboard has made my web sites much easier to create. I don’t have to spend money on graphics, and now I know how to create as many pages and as many sites as I want on my own. No need to pay someone to do it. The money you’ll save on graphics and web design adds up, especially if you plan on having several sites.
The Design Dashboard has been around for several months, and it has been updated as of August of 2009, so it’s as fresh and relevant as ever. It’s from Marlon Sanders, a man with a solid reputation for quality and a strong guarantee. Try out the Design Dashboard. If you don’t get the results that you expected, you’ll get yoru money back. Click here for more on The Design Dashboard…
The Free Graphic Header Solution
Aug 21st
You’ve probably noticed that most web sites have header graphics on all or at least most of their pages. They’re an important part of any web page design.
For a lot of us, it’s not an easy thing to get header graphics we can use on our own sites. There are a few options that you can use.
You can buy packages of headers that you can use on your site. You’re limited to what is included in the package unless you have the software to edit them.
You can buy graphics software and learn how to do it yourself. That can take a lot of time unless you’re already familiar with using graphics software.
You can pay someone to create header graphics for you. This is a good option if you are only working on one site. But if you’re setting up several mini sites, this can get expensive in a hurry.
There’s a better way that is easy to use and it won’t cost you a dime. It’s called Xheader, and it’s from the same company that created Xsitepro.
Xheader is software that gives you over 500 header graphics to choose from, and they are all high quality. Once you choose a header you like, you can edit it with text and special effects to customize it for your site. And you can create header graphics in any width you want so they’ll match your site with ease. It’s also great for creating a header that you can use on your blog.
This software is so easy to use that you can have your own professional header graphic created in just minutes. And you don’t have to have any previous graphics experience.
There are a couple of video tutorials that will walk you through how to use the software. So you’ll be up and running in no time.
Unlike a lot of software, this is not a “Lite” version of the software, where you can use it for free, but you’ll have to pay for the full version. This is the one and only version of this software. You’ll never be asked to pay for it, and you can create as many header as you want for as long as you want.
If you need header graphics for your web sites and you have been looking for an affordable way to get great quality graphics without having to pay a fortune, Xheader is it. Click here to go to the Xheader web site and get your copy today.
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An Easy Way To Keep Informed About Your Niche
Aug 15th
One thing that is a reality in almost any market or niche is that things change. What people are buying changes, the technology changes, and new products are coming to market.
When you enter a market, it takes a bit of tedious work to get started. You need to do market research to see if there are people spending money in your niche. You have to see who your competitors are. Then comes keyword research and competition research. And on it goes.
After you start marketing, it’s important to keep up with what’s happening in your niche. You can do it all yourself. You could regularly visit blogs related to your market. You could enter your keywords into the search engines and visit the sites that come up. You could search article directories to see what articles are being written on your niche.
There’s an easier way, and it’s from Google itself, and it won’t cost you a single cent. It’s called Google Alerts.
Google alerts are updates from Google using the keyword or keyword phrase you select delivered to your email inbox.
Google Alerts allow you to keep up with the news, blogs, groups, video and search results that come up for your keyword. And you can have as many as you want. You can choose to target one of the results, or all of them. You can get the results every day, once a week, or as they happen.
The best way to use this tool is to enter a few keywords related to your niche and see what results you’re getting. Sometimes you’ll get a lot of unrelated stuff, so you can delete that Alert, and try another keyword.
Instead of having to go to several blogs, news sites, and web sites to keep up with your niche, Google will make it easy for you by sending you the important items to your inbox. It’s a great way to save a lot of time, effort, and frustration so you can spend your time on doing the things that will make you money.
Getting Relevant Keywords In Any Market
Aug 9th
Yesterday I was having trouble with my keyword research. I have just gotten my copy of Market Samurai and was doing some basic keyword research. But I kept getting error messages, and couldn’t get any search or competition numbers.
I spent over an hour going over the support videos, and still couldn’t get any numbers. So I went to my Nichebot X account, and did Google LSI keyword research on 7 different keywords.
I went back an hour later, and found out that the searches had failed. Thinking that there must be something wrong with Market Samurai and Nichebot X, I decided to do some digging.
I went to the Market Samurai forum, and to my surprise, I found out that I wasn’t the only one having problems. Apparently Google was doing maintenance and the site wasn’t returning any numbers.
Hard to believe that Google would ever be less than perfect! If you had any trouble yesterday, now you know why.
Speaking of keyword research, I want to share something about keywords that has made my life easier.
The problem I have with keywords in a new market is that I’m just guessing what terms people are searching for. I need seed keywords so I can start digging deeper into a market. But if the niche is new to me, I’m not sure what most people are searching on. So I have to give it my best guess.
There is a really useful feature on the Google search page that takes the guesswork out of it. Almost every time I enter a search term, at the bottom of the results are a list of clickable related links.
You can do two things with this list. You can copy the list and then go to a research tool and plug each keyword in. Or you can click on the link and see the related sites, along with more suggestions at the bottom of the page.
It’s better to do both. This way you can get a list of related keywords right from Google. And you can keep drilling down until there are no more suggestions.
This is a quick and easy way to get a relevant set of related keyword in any market you’re interested in. It’s information from the biggest search engine, and it’s free.
Learn How To Blog Before You Pay For Hosting
Aug 8th
If you’ve been online for any time at all, you know how popular blogs are. If you have a hosting account with Cpanel and Fantastico, you can easily get a WordPress blog set up.
If you’ve never blogged before, and it’s all new to you, getting used to how your blog works can be a challenge. The default themes are pretty dull, so you’ll probably want to install a different theme. And there are a lot of plugins available that can further add to the effectiveness of your blog.
It can be kind of confusing at first. If you already have hosting, then I will repeat myself and tell you to set up a “test” blog so you can learn how it works.
If you don’t have a hosting account, then you can still get started with blogging by signing up for a free account at blogger.com or wordpress.com. There’s no reason to spend money on hosting until you’re ready for it. And with these free blogs, you can learn a lot.
Don’t worry about making your blog look professional, or worry that your posts won’t be very good. What you’re after is the experience of posting to a blog, so that when you set up your own site and blog, you’ll be ready.
They don’t have to be long. 300 words is plenty. If you want to use PLR articles, that’s okay too. This is just practice for now. (Don’t use PLR articles on a blog you’re trying to get traffic for).
Try writing reviews of products from ClickBank or Amazon. You can get an account for free. This way, you can practice putting links into your posts. And you can add images to your post as well.
Again, don’t worry if your posts don’t come out right the first time. This is for training. If you get it right, who knows, you might make a few dollars in commission while you’re learning.
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List Building – How To Provide Useful Information And Make Profits Too
Aug 7th
One of the challenges of building a list is providing content that your subscribers will look forward to reading. On the one hand, you are building a list to make money, so you’ll probably want to make a lot of offers.
On the other hand, if all you do is push products, your subscribers may get tired of that and quit reading your messages. You’ll see your conversions go down and see your unsubscribe rate go up.
You can do both – provide useful information and also promote a product or service, all in the same message.
Here’s an example of how NOT to do it. I recently purchased a product that had to do with getting a lot of one way backlinks. In one of the videos, the author pointed out that researching sites that would be good candidates to get links from was a time consuming process.
He pointed out that you could do it yourself, but immediately launched into a pitch for a product that would make it a lot easier. The product was over $100, and while it may be a good product, not everyone could afford it right now, especially if they were just starting out.
The bulk of the video was a demonstration of the product, with no information on how to do the research for free, as promised.
The way to provide information and promote a product in the same email is really quite simple. Select a product that makes a person’s life easier, one that saves them time and/or money.
Then write an article that shows how to do it, with a recommendation for a product that makes the process a lot easier.
Take keyword research for example. A lot of new marketers are confused by the subject, and don’t know what to do, or which product or service to buy. They want to know how to do it.
You write an article on how to use WordTracker’s free keyword tool, or Google’s free tool. Explain how to enter a keyword, and how interpret the results. Explain how in the case of Google they can save their results to their computer.
You’ve just given them some really good information on how they can do basic keyword research for free. Now it’s time to make your offer.
So now you explain how they can speed up the process and make a lot easier to sort and use their keywords by buying the related product that you’re promoting.
Whether they decide to buy or not, the message was valuable. You provided good information, you didn’t try to convince them to buy anything. All you did was teach them and refer them to something that could take your information to the next level.
No hard sell. No worries about sending too many promotional emails. And a great way to stand out from most of the lsits out there. Most of the lists I sign up for are nothing more than a series of pure advertisements. Your emails will be more useful, more likely to be read, and more likely to keep your subscribers happy.
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Are Your Sites Ready For Christmas?
Aug 1st
I know that it’s still summer here in the US, but it’s time for me to start creating my marketing plans for Christmas. Why?
What I discovered last year was that there was a lot of money to be made selling products as an Amazon.com affiliate. I came across Info Product Killer, and bought it in late October.
I registered 11 domain names on November 6, and the sites were up in less than 2 weeks. I started getting traffic around the first of December, and I made a whopping $100 in commissions.
That isn’t much, but it proved to me that I could get sites indexed and getting free traffic in a couple of weeks. And if I had started sooner, I would have made a lot more money.
What’s been really encouraging is that all of the sites that I set up last November have been steadily getting more free traffic every month. And that’s with little to no work on my part. Since my traffic is growing without any effort on my part, I’ll build on the momentum I have.
What I’m going to do is to build out the sites I already have, add about 10 more product sites promoting Amazon.com products, and start getting traffic to them. I’m going to do everything that I learned with Info Product Killer to build SEO friendly sites and start driving traffic.
I’ll cross link the sites, put up a few blogs and link to my sites, optimize each page for the keywords I am targeting, and getting a lot of backlinks. I’ll add in a few articles on my blogs, sites, and submit a few articles to article directories. Put up a Squidoo lens or two, and see what happens.
This is the start of what I expect to be a very profitable Christmas. I’m going to update my progress on this quest, and tell you what I’ve found that works to get free traffic and sales. Stay Tuned…
