Yesterday

     Why is it that we always seem to think that “yesterday” was so much better than it is today?  Our minds seem to be wired to recall fond memories of the past and to “block out” those memories that produce pain or “bad” feelings.  This appears to be some type of safety mechanism that helps us to cope with things that have happened in our lives.

     I recall on one occasion how my father would complain about the cost of living today.  “Why can’t we go back when gasoline was ten to fifteen cents a gallon?  When you could buy a complete meal at a restaurant for a couple of bucks?”  He would usually say these things when he was having to pay for something that I wanted to have.

     Yet it’s not only a thing that your parents or grandparents might say.  I recall growing up as a young boy and receiving TWO dollars a week for an allowance.  With this money I would go to the Saturday matinee, purchase a large popcorn, a drink, a candy bar, and pay the admissions to the theatre and still have money left over from my funds.  Where have those days gone?

     However, we don’t bring to mind the fact that you had to work an eight hour day and made about $10 to $12 per day wages if you had an average job.  And you were probably really WORKING for those eight hour days!  We never want to put things into perspective.  Yes prices were lower, but wages were low also!

     Sadly, EVERYTHING seems to only go up and up and up!  That is everything except our moral standards!  When I was growing up and attending school you would have NEVER given a thought to the fact that a student may be sitting next to you with some type of weapon preparing to execute your fellow students.  Life has truly become “cheap” in the eyes of many today.    Your only concern in “Yesterday” was if “Mary Jane” was going to be in class so you might have a chance to talk to her.

     You RARELY heard talk about a teenage girl having a baby.  Now the school system makes concessions for those to bring their babies to class with them while they get their education.  And it was almost shameful for a kid to “drop out of school”!  They would only be ruining their future lives.  Now it is advertised that being in school is not that important.  You can “drop out” and become an internet success overnight!

     I guess when I look back the words of my father ring in my ears and they have been found true:  “The only thing good about the ‘good old days’ is that they are gone!”  Maybe we should spend less time looking back at yesterday and begin paying more attention to tomorrow!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"The greatest strength comes from a study of 

the past and using it to create a better tomorrow."

Image Optimization

    You have probably heard it said many times, but what does it mean?  The phrase a picture is worth a thousand words means a picture may be more easily used to convey an idea more quickly and effectively than the written word alone.  Writers of texts that describe concepts involving imagery or abstract thoughts need many words to get their points across. And you can readily imagine when you are shown a picture how more quickly the “light bulb” comes on in your mind.  This is because a photograph, artwork, drawing or graphic can often demonstrate an idea with one look, much more quickly than a narrative can explain things.  How many times have you tried to assembly an item by the instructions, but instead turned to the picture illustrations to figure out how it should be done?

     Even though more and more Internet users switch to broadband every year, a large portion of the web's population is still running on good old dialup connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you're designing your website, and a very major consideration we have to make for dialup users is the loading time of your website.  Let’s face the truth:  it simply takes a LOT longer to load graphics onto your web site than it does the text.  And if people have to wait TOO long (seconds) they will leave your site.

     Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not too many to bog down the overall loading time of your site.

     You should also go to a greater length and optimize every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your image without affecting its appearance. This will probably sound more difficult to you than it really is.

     If you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an image as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears and lets you choose the "quality" of the JPEG image -- normally a setting of 8 to 10 is good enough as it will preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size. If you do not have Photoshop, there are many free image compressors online that you can download and use to reduce your image's file size.  Just go on the web and do a Google search for these image compressors.

     On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format -- the image editing software clips away all the color information not used in your image, hence giving you the smallest file size possible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your image, so make your choice wisely!

     All this may sound like a lot of extra work on your part.  However, optimizing your site images may not only reduce your load time, but provide your next potential customer with a better experience.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"A picture captures but a moment in time,

but that 'frozen' moment can relate a lifetime."

Planning

     Are you the type of person who looks into the future and sees an opportunity that you would like to take advantage of and then you begin to plan how you are going to make it happen?

     This is not really a bad thing.  You have personal aspirations that show you want to improve not only your personal life, but perhaps that of your family as well.  You see if things could be changed you would become more productive, more secure, and perhaps advance to what looks like a better position in your life.

     However the problem comes in when PLANNING is all you do.  You become so concerned with EVERY detail that you continually fail to take the action needed to put your plan into operation.

     First, let me temper my explanation with the following comment:  PLANNING is absolutely necessary!  You will never know how you want to get from point “A” to point “B” unless you have a plan to follow.  The plan can be very useful in guiding you within the boundaries of your journey, within the constraints of your financial limits, or perhaps within the safety net that you have set up for yourself.  However, after a reasonable amount of planning is done, action must follow.

     Consider a road trip from Los Angeles, California to New York City.  You may want to sit down and decide:  Are there any particular places that I want to visit on the way?  What would I need to make sure there were no problems along the way?  You may want to locate yourself a current road map and actually DRAW out your route so that you may sure you get to stop by all those places you have considered.

     However, if you never packed your clothes and got yourself into your vehicle, HOW far would you get on the trip?  How much time would you actually be spending in New York City?  Could you ever say that you had really been determined to make this trip a successful reality?

     Now, it’s true as with any trip that we might plan:  There are going to be detours.  There are going to be things that put a “snag” in the plan and you’re going to need to make some adjustments.  But, if you try to PLAN for all these possibilities prior to your starting the trip, you will NEVER get started!

     Now this doesn’t only apply to a literal trip that we may be considering taking.  It applies to many various aspects of our lives.  Have you ever wanted to live in another city, or perhaps another country?  It will never happen if you only plan for it but never take any action. You will only be left with the stark reality of “WHAT” could have been!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Plan your Work and

Work your Plan.

You can't go wrong!"

Avoid Web Template Mistakes

     We are a very “lazy” bunch of people when you get right down it.  We are always looking for an easier way to do ANYTHING!  This is true within our business operations also.  So why should it be any different when it comes to preparing our websites?  Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

     The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbors.  You’ve seen those “cookie cutter” home communities that were most popular many years ago.  Every home on the block looked like the ones beside it.  Today people want their home to be more unique and “stand-out” from the rest.  The same should be true with your website.

     To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you're done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognition. While that may be good in the sense that you're creating a unique graphic, you're undermining your very purpose of using a web template – that is saving time and effort.

     However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site's theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, only make the necessary changes and don't redesign the whole template.

     In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they look “cute”; choose them because they serve your purpose.  Templates may be just the help you are seeking, but take the time to make sure it get “exactly” the one you need to create YOUR amazing website!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Be original.  Be unique.

But be better than yourself!"

Make Purchasing from your Site EASY!

     Have you ever tried to work yourself through a maze?  Perhaps it was within a corn field or some other location.  You know there is a way to get to the end but you are totally confused about how to get there!  It can be the same for your customers when they are trying to make a purchase on your website.  You’re making your sells suffer and you are making it more difficult for your customers if your website is confusing and not easy to use.  Why “shoot yourself in the foot?”

     Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is already a hard job, but you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced to buy but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome or overly time consuming.

     First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site. Don’t forget those “buy now” buttons!

     Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a check. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method. After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.  It may also be a good marketing strategy to offer acceptance of various currencies, especially if you are dealing with international sales.

     On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?  There are many questions which need to be considered in making your website an easy, customer friendly site for making purchases.

     Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

     As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!  Constantly check to make sure your shopping cart service is easy to use.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why over complicate the simple?"

NOW!

     I stood over the lifeless body that lay in the casket in front of me.  Here was my best friend.  A buddy that I had grown up with.  Now he lay motionless in this glorified box.  All the mourners standing around trying to cope with the present situation, as was I.

     Maybe I should have sent flowers before I had arrived.  Maybe at least a card to his family with some remarks about how I was feeling.  Or maybe some words that would have made them feel better.  Now is probably not the time to be thinking of what I should have done!

     What words could I have said?  Here lay my best friend, her husband, their father.  Now only a shell of the man he used to be.

     How many times had I enjoyed riding around in his car after school and seeing if we could pick up some girls?  I don’t recall if I had ever thanked him for that since I didn’t own a vehicle and was rarely able to even provide some money for gas.  But we kept going on these rides and he never complained that I was merely “along for the ride”.

     We graduated from High School and went our separate ways:  Me to a job in Washington, DC and him into the military.  I was so concerned about all the adjustments that I was having to make so I could keep my apartment and have some food on the table.  I never gave any thought about how he was spending many sleepless, cold, wet nights in a muddy marshland, just trying to keep himself alive.  Maybe I should have written to him and let him know how I felt about our friendship.  How sometimes when I was trying to get through one of my work nights I would think of how we had laughed together at the drive-in on a Friday night watching a movie that neither one of us really wanted to watch.  Or how on some other nights we would lay out by the lake and just stare up to into the starry night.

     I could hardly believe that both of us found ourselves married with families after only a few years.  Things had really changed for us both, but we seemed to be dealing with these changes the best we could.  I had found studying the Bible and growing closer to God with my family was making it possible for me to cope with various trials that I had to face.  He had turned to drugs and crime to try to hold together the ever dicey pieces of his life.  Maybe if I had taken the time to rekindle our friendship it would have made an opportunity possible for him to find a better to deal with the crisis that continued to plague him?

     Life seems to play with us in this fashion.  Now I stood before the lifeless body of my friend.  Why couldn’t I have been a better friend in his times of NOW when he really needed someone?  Someone to help him to improve his conditions, someone to help him make better decisions!  Why could I have not had these thoughts THEN when I could have perhaps provided that helping hand that was so desperately needed by my friend?  Yet, now I stand before this lifeless body and ponder all these thoughts NOW!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"NO ONE can get through life on their own!"

It's EASY to make your own website--- RIGHT!

     Wouldn’t it be a lot easier for me to pay someone thousands of dollars to make sure my website it done correctly instead of trying to spend countless hours doing it myself?  Creating a website is not so much a feat, if we compare it to the education of other technical skills. Most people tend to give up and pack their bags as soon as they hear the word “programming” and “technical”. They think it`s too much of a hassle to actually learn a whole computer “language”. HTML, the most basic computer language in building websites, is actually pretty simple to understand, as long as we have the interest in learning new things.

What is HTML?

     HTML is the acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. For learning purposes, just think of it as a language that the computer understands. For example, as humans, we were taught different languages; i.e. HTML as a language, is mostly and specifically used to create a website. The web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, will then decipher and interpret the code or rather, language(HTML), and display it in a way we can understand it, just like in a basic webpage.

Coding.

     Coding the HTML language might be a bit tough for some people, so we can actually purchase programs, such as Dreamweaver, or some other web design program. These programs are solely created to help individuals in designing professional web pages or websites.

     Furthermore, one could also gain access to online web-builders, website builders that are inbuilt and can be directly controlled from the net. There are many different and specific builders online.  For a modestly priced site that provides an enormous amount of “bells & whistles” visit www.jamarbizbuilder.com.

     There are also many books and magazines that contain guides that can help in offering tutorials and ways to put up our own websites. Even online tutorials are credible, as in the modern world, information technology is the best and most cost efficient way in retaining knowledge, especially in this particular field.

     So, you could start and build your site right away. If you enjoy coding, it might even become a favorable past-time.  However, you don’t need to be a code master to build a fantastic site all by yourself!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Plant your dreams in the clouds.

Now build your ladders to reach them."

Is Your Website Useable?

     You’ve spent time.  You’ve spent money.  You feel you have designed the best looking website for your business that could ever be imagined!  However, no matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

     The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

     Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.  It will also make them more receptive to returning to your site for more information.

     Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn't load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.  I may have been a bit generous with that 15 second time frame.  Some individuals won’t be around you site if it takes longer than 10 seconds!

     Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.  After about one or two tries to reach information on your site by means of a link that fails, your potential customer is gone!  Make sure you check these links twice --- three times --- maybe even more!

     If you are providing your visitors with great content in an easy to reach fashion, they will not only enjoy using your site, but they will send their friends to your site also!  Now you’re talking about some great exposure.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If you only live in a throw-away society,

be careful you're not next to go!"

Get a Grip!

    Let’s take a moment and venture to a side thought that I have been considering for some time now.  A point of thought so we can get more to the positive side and leave all the negativity behind.

     There comes a time in a person’s life when you begin to think back on all the things you used to do and you can no longer do them.  This may be a many variety of things and I am not about to try and list what YOUR list may consist of.  However, I think you know what I’m talking about.

     Get a Grip!  These are the times when we need to stop looking at all the things we can no longer do and become more concentrated on the things we CAN DO!  Of course, I’m not talking about circumstances that may come about due to accidents, or disease, or other things over which we do not have very much control.  I’m talking about the everyday things that become more difficult or impossible merely because we are getting older.

     Most people don’t realize that there are many places in their local communities where they can volunteer for a few hours each week in a great many locations.  You may be surprised at the places that may be available for you to spend a few hours helping others with their needs.  By doing this you not only help them, but you help yourself as well.

     Now before you get the idea that it is only older people who have this problem with finding what they can do instead of what they can’t, listen to me for a few more moments.  You know that there are many of a younger age that begin to feel that they can no longer do the things they once could.  This may be because they have moved to a new location, maybe there has been a change in their family situation: their parents have divorced or perhaps there is a new baby in the family that now takes more time from their parents.  Again there can be wide range of such things that may be the cause of their feelings.

     Have you ever had to start a new school in a new city?  Perhaps it wasn’t you who moved but your friends have moved to other cities and now you need to “start over” as it were to get a new set of “buds” at your school.  Maybe you’ve enjoyed stopping at Grandmas after school for cookies or pie and now Grandma is no longer to do this activity with you.

     WHATEVER your changed circumstances, continue to look at what you can do and not at what is no longer available for you.  You may learn a secret about yourself:  You enjoy helping other people!  It makes you feel good!  You may ever learn that you enjoy doing those new things as much (or maybe more) than you enjoyed the former things.  So, get a grip!  Start enjoying new things in your life everyday.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Wake up each day with love in your heart,

then spread it around during the day."

If You Build It ---

    No one but YOU really knows how you want your website to look or what “feel” you want it to have.  However, you think you don’t have the time to put together a great site yourself?  You may even wonder if you are able to conceive how you want the site to look or have the ability to relate this mental vision to someone else.

     You also realize that if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars or maybe even a few thousand!  All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here's a brief guide for you to consider:

     First, you must understand that in many cases it is a rip off to get companies to design a website for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer's wages, advertising costs and so on. It may also be that you are paying for some “basic” features and then when you explain what you want your site to do --- the cost starts going up --- and up --- and UP!

     Therefore, it would be wise to find a freelance designer who works from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of the larger company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it's a "no-brainer" choice.

     However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for the money you will spend is secured.

     Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You'll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs.  There are also many on-line programs that help you in your designs.  Some, like www.jamarbizbuilder.com will allow you to build your own site FREE!  You only have to pay the hosting fees (which run about $18 per month).  Don’t be too hasty to write yourself off as being unable to design your own site.  Like I said at the beginning:  NOONE knows how your site should be better than YOU!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"When you can't be in the place you enjoy ---

enjoy the place you're in!"

Good Digital Design

    You’ve spent some time giving thought to your new business office layout: Where each item will go and how it will “fit” into the scheme of your overall décor.  You have also laid out a set of “office procedures” that will guide your operations in the direction that you want the business to function in an orderly fashion.  Have you thought of everything?

     Your website is where your business resides in the digital world -- it's like the digital headquarters of your offline company. Hence, it is important to practice good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible. And that it reflects the overall ‘décor” of your business functions.

     Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.  You wouldn’t want to invite people to your “brick n mortar” store and not have them figure out how to walk from your reception area into your private office, would you?  You want the same “mobility” to your digital office on your website.

     Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size. If people can’t get your site to download in a few seconds --- they are GONE!

     Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into several individual paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.  Keep this in mind even if your information is vitally necessary for the customer to read and understand your business operations.

     Make sure your website complies to web standards found at https://www.w3.org/standards/ and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox, Chrome, or Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors. This means losing out on a lot of prospective profits!

     Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.  Your purpose is to make a “universal” website that can be accessed by as many people as possible.

     Use CSS to style your page content because they save a lot of work by styling all elements on your website in one go. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language like HTML.  CSS is a cornerstone technology of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript.

     You want your site to be beautiful and draw the attention of your visitors; however, your site must also be functional and operate on the best possible levels with whatever browser your potential customer is using.  In this way your digital office will function at its optimum and will continue to provide you with new customers and growing revenues.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Why do you not have time to do it right,

but you have time to do it over?"

Good Planning

    In today’s business environment you MUST have a website to successfully compete with others within your marketing niche.  However, just because you build it doesn’t mean that “they will come.”   

     For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact the opposite is also true, many websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace.

     The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a "food" section, an "accommodations" section and an "entertainment" section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for further information.

     When you have a broader, better-defined scope of themes for your website, you can sell space on your pages to people interested in advertising on your site. You can also earn from programs like Google's Adsense and Yahoo! Search Marketing if people surf to those themed pages and click on the ads. For this very reason, the advertisement blocks on your pages need to be relevant to your content, so a themed page fits that criteria perfectly.

     As the Internet continues to grow in its ever reaching expanse, advertising on the Internet will bear more results than within magazines or other offline media. Hence, start tapping in on this lucrative stream of profit right away!

     This will come about with good initial planning of your site.  Don’t be satisfied with your site today, but consider what you will be doing with it five years down the road, or maybe ten years into the future.  Allow your site the opportunity to grow and expand as does your entire business.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"There is no greater defeat 

than to look behind and think

what could have been!"

Build Your List to Survive

     When you operate a “brick ‘n mortar” type store you are always seeking ways to get more customers to come in and hopefully make a purchase.  When you operate an online business the same is pretty much true.  However, people cannot usually “walk by” your online store and find you.  You will need to make great efforts to get them to know that you exist and realize where you are located on the vast web.  One of the key ways in doing this is by building your online store with a productive mailing list of potential customers.  Your mailing list is the lifeblood of your online business. The old adage "the money is in the list" cannot be true enough.  If you had a targeted list of prospects to contact each time you have a new product, you will be able to save a lot of effort by marketing it to your existing list of targeted prospects.

     You can actually build up a targeted list of prospects that are interested in your products by offering a relevant download on your website. For example, let's take a look at a very good example: Apple.com. When you download the free iTunes and Quicktime software from their site, they will ask you to fill in an optional name and email form so that they can send you offers on songs that you can purchase via -- guess where -- iTunes!

     In reality, you do not need to offer such a "heavyweight" download such as a full-feature software like iTunes.  You can attract prospects equally well with some quality freebies such as a simple report, a free wallpaper, and so on. The important thing is that your download offers enough value for the prospect to be willing to give away his/her own email address to get it.

     However, slapping together a simple download and putting a link on your website won't be enough to attract qualified prospects. You will have to do some homework in order for your lead-generating mechanism to work well for you.

     First of all, you must place your download form prominently on your website. Preferably, dedicate a page to it and link to that page from every other page of your website. That way, there is no way your visitors cannot find the download page, and when they do, you'll get some of them converted into your prospects!  This is the ultimate goal of your download page.

     Also, you have to put little effort into promoting your download. Explain and elaborate on the values of the download, and why your visitors should download it. You might think why would anyone want to pass on a freebie, but most of your visitors will be too lazy to make the effort to download it because most of what they have downloaded just sits on their hard disk collecting virtual dust.  It is hence important to show your visitors why they should download your freebie.

     With a successful, informative, and valuable download available to your visitors you will soon see an increase in your potential customer list.  This list will, in time, become a gold mine for your business success!  We want you to receive all our wonderful gems.  Join our list by using our "Let's Get Connected" box right below the news feeds!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You may have much to sale.

It may be good.  It may even be the greatest!

However, if you have no one to purchase it,

your inventory is only a dust catcher!"

Keep 'Um Coming Back!

    Let’s face it:  MOST businesses would NEVER survive if all their customers were only ONE time purchasers!  A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. They know you and they have come to trust you and what you have to offer on your site.  Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1)       Start a forum, chatroom, or shoutbox

     When you start a forum, chatroom, or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2)       Start a web log (blog)

     Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

      3)   Carry out polls or surveys

     Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

      4)   Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

     Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

      5)  Update frequently with fresh content

     Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

     Make sure you use the above and various other methods to get people coming back to your site.  If they do and your offer is of good quality they will eventually become your customers.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"You should never forget:

There is only ONE boss in your business,

The CUSTOMER!"

Keep Your Business Growing!

    Your business cannot succeed or move forward without profits!  They are what make the wheels of your business operations continue to turn.  In actuality you will not stay in business very long if you fail to make profits – and make them on a regular basis.

     One of the most important ways to sustain profits in your niche-related business is to create new products and services that your targeted audience will be eager to buy. How can this be done?  You can accomplish this in a number of ways.

     The most obvious is the new product launch. If you know your niche well, chances are you should have a pretty good idea of what they really need and how much they are willing to pay for it.  In other words, you will only create products that you are certain will sell. You don’t want to be spending your time, energy, and money on ideas that you are not certain are going to be profitable.

     If you are not sure, take the time to survey the people on your email lists or poll them on Facebook to ask which options they would find most useful.  Let them pick from a range of choices. The answers may surprise you. They will certain stop you from wasting a lot of time and effort and perhaps money creating product A when they are really eager to get their hands on product E.

     In terms of launching the product, have a soft launch and a hard launch. The soft launch should be to those in your inner circle. They can get a first look at it for a substantial discount. Ask upfront for testimonials and give them an easy way to contact you to deliver them, send in reviews, and ask questions.

     Let your Joint Venture partners know that the new product has arrived and let them have first look as well.  Ask them for feedback so your product will be attractive to their audience as well.

     Once you are sure your product is as good as it can be at the correct price point for your niche audience you can widen your audience through your hard launch. Offer a free webinar, guest blog, have your JV partners interview you and promote the product, and more. 

     Webinars can prove very useful for product creation. Record each session and offer it as paid product or promotional item. Have a transcript made to sell as is. Turn it into a free ecourse, special report, or an e-book of insider secrets.  If you interact with the audience by allowing them to ask questions, take note of their queries and see if any of them are worth creating a product for.

     If you have a lot of content at your site or blog, consider putting e-books together by topics. How to titles are extremely attractive to most audiences.  Consider different levels of learners in your niche, such as beginners, intermediates, and advanced students. You can present information in a sequential way, or go into more depth for those beyond beginner level.

     Look at what your competitors are selling, and at what price points. In this case you have 2 choices. Charge less and give the same type of information, or charge more due to your expertise and the excellent bundle you will be offering. 

     Bundling works for all paid products. Again, you have 2 choices. You can sell one main product and bundle a range of very attractive bonuses together, such as worksheets, hand-outs, templates, infographics and more.  Or you can group 2 of your most popular products and services together to create an all new offer that your niche market will be eager to buy.  Add some fabulous bonuses on top of that and see how much profit you can make from your niche-related products and services.

     Remember to survive your business must grow.  To grow your business must have a continuous supply of new products and services.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"To advance forward is to grow.

To stand still is to stagnate and die!"