Biz Web Marketing

I recently started a new job in a downtown office that’s right off the bus line. I decided to start commuting to save money on gas, since I live 18 miles away. I wanted a way to connect my laptop to the Internet so I could get some work done or catch up on email on the way.

To make things more interesting, the new company let me choose between a PC or a Mac. I chose the Mac so I’d get a chance to learn some new things, and they gave me a new Macbook that I’ve already fallen in love with. My wife has a PC laptop loaded with Windows Vista, and my Macbook is running Apple’s OS X.

I was able to connect both laptops to the Internet using my Bluetooth-enabled cell phone as a modem. I’ll break down the steps for both Mac and PC laptops, and you should be able to get up and running with these instructions in about 15 minutes.

Here’s what you’ll need for a tethered laptop-cell-phone:

• Bluetooth-enabled cell phone (mine is a Motorola Razr V3, but a 3G phone is much faster when it comes to Internet data transfers)
• Bluetooth-enabled laptop, or a laptop with a Bluetooth adapter.
• Internet data plan or a dial-up Internet account. I used the MediaNet internet plan with AT&T ($19.99 a month for unlimited internet). You can also use an EarthLink Dialup account ($9.95 a month for six months, and $21.95 after that).

Pair your Bluetooth phone with your laptop

Configure your phone’s BlueTooth settings to make it visible to your PC or Mac. On a Razr phone use the following menu options:

Settings –> Connection –> BlueTooth Link –> Setup –> Find Me

This will tell your Bluetooth phone to broadcast a Bluetooth signal to your laptop for about 60 seconds - plenty of time for your laptop to recognize the signal and “discover” the device.

For Windows Vista on a PC laptop, follow these steps:

1. Click the Start button, click Control Panel, click Printers and Other Hardware, and then click Bluetooth Devices.
2. Click Add, and then follow the instructions.

For OS X on a Macbook, follow these steps:

1. Open Applications –> Utilities –> Bluetooth Setup Assistant.
2. Select the “Mobile Phone” device type.
3. Complete the pairing process.

Your laptop will now be paired with your Bluetooth-enabled phone, and will be able to use the phone as a wireless internet modem. Once paired, you won’t have to go through the setup steps each time - it’ll remember your device for future connections.

If your PC doesn’t have a built-in Bluetooth adapter, I’ve seen them for about $25 on Amazon, such as the Motorola Bluetooth Adapter PC850.

Connect your laptop to the internet

Next you’ll connect to the internet using your cell phone as a modem. Bluetooth has a 30-foot range, so you can leave your cell phone in your pocket (or backpack in my case) and never have to touch it.

You’ll need to sign up for an EarthLink Dialup account, or an Internet data plan with AT&T.

For a PC running Windows Vista:

• Click the Start icon and then select the “Connect To” menu.

  You’ll see the “Connect to a network” screen where your phone should be listed. You can select “Dial-up and VPN” from the dropdown to only show your GSM cell phone in the list.

• Select your phone from the list, and click “Connect”. You’ll be prompted to enter your dial-up account user name, password, and phone number.
  
  
  

For a Mac running OS X:

Getting my Bluetooth phone connected was a little harder on the Mac, and involved loading some customized modem scripts that I found from Ross Barkman’s Home Page.

The scripts I used were the Motorola GPRS Scripts, which I saved to the /Library/Modem Scripts folder. The scripts download contains detailed instructions in the Read Me.rtf file that’s zipped up with the drivers - and they really work.

• Set up PPP:
  A. Open Network Preferences
  B. Optional: Create a new location - call it “Mobile” .
  C. Select “Show: ‘Bluetooth Modem Port’”
  D. Select the PPP tab and enter your network name in “Service Provider”.
  E. Enter in “Telephone Number” - the APN for your network or “None” (without the quotes)
  F. Enter the Account name & Password (if required)
• Set up the cell phone modem:
  A. Select the Bluetooth Modem tab in Network Preferences.
  B. Set ‘Modem: “Motorola GPRS “‘ - I used the Motorola GPRS CID3 script.
• Connect to the Internet:
  A. Open Internet Connect (in Applications)
  B. Select Bluetooth Modem Port (or the equivalent USB or IrDA port name)
  C. Click “Connect”

Please refer to the Read Me.rtf file contained in the zip file for more detailed instructions and some helpful trouble-shooting tips.

If you’re using the AT&T MediaNet account (a GPRS plan), then you’ll enter WAP.CINGULAR for the phone number. Here’s a comprehensive list of numbers to use for other GPRS internet service providers: http://home2.btconnect.com/Taniwha/gprs.html

Once you connect to the internet using your Bluetooth cell phone, you’ll be able to browse the web, chat, check email and do all the other things you do with a regular internet connection.

Download speed won’t be fast though unless you’re using a 3G phone. Internet browsing speed with my Motorola RAZR phone reminded me of about a 28.8k dial-up modem, which was fine for websites containing more text than images - and certainly fine for IM. And it made the bus commute home much more enjoyable.

If your phone is 3G-enabled, it will give you speeds similar to a DSL home network, which is much faster than a regular dial-up account.

Source: RickSays

What are the secrets of the super sites? Why do some sites succeed while the majority of others fail? More and more Internet business owners are asking themselves these questions. The answers are frequently more obvious than you may think. Below are 10 tips for better, more successful web sites.

1. Build It For Speed

It’s a fact of modern life - people are in a hurry. Nowhere is that more true than on the Internet. It seems that no matter how much the technology improves, nothing is ever fast enough. In fact, several studies indicate that the fast technology advances, the faster people expect things to be.

So what does this mean for your website design? It means that you have between 10 and 30 seconds to capture your potential customer’s attention. If they can not at least begin to read about your product in that much time, they will be headed e

lsewhere. To minimize your load time, keep graphics small. Compress them where possible. Use flashy technology (Javascript, Flash, Streaming Audio/Video, animation) sparingly and only if it is important to your presentation.

2. Target Your Market

Know who your market is and make certain that your site caters to their needs. It is critical that your site reflect the values of your potential customers. Is your market mostly business professionals? If so, the site must be clean and professional. Is your product aimed mostly a teenagers and young adults? Then your site could be more informal and relaxed. The key here is to know your market and build the site to their preferences.

3. Focus The Site

Make certain your web site is focused on the goal, selling your product or service. A site offering many unrelated products is not necessarily unfocused, but this is often the case. If your business does offer many products, dedicate a unique page for each instead of trying to sell them all from one page. Upselling or cross selling is vital but don’t dedicate so much to it that the customer feels caught in a bait and switch. Make mention of other products but do so subtly.

4. Credibility Is Crucial

The most professionally designed site won’t sell if your customers don’t believe in you. The impersonal nature of the Internet breeds a certain level of mistrust. For your web site to be successful you must overcome this tendency.

A clear privacy statement is one way to build your credibility. Every commercial web site should have a privacy statement posted on line. Provide a prominent link to your privacy statement from every page on the site as well as from any location that you are asking your visitors for personal information. Provide legitimate contact information on line. Your contact information should include an email address, mailing address, phone number and a fax number, if applicable. If you are unwilling to provide this information to your customers, how can they trust (or buy from) you?

5. Offer A Guarantee

Offer an ironclad, no exceptions money back guarantee. This item is really a credibility issue but it is important enough to warrant its own mention. What better way to establish your customer’s trust than to eliminate any risk for them? If the customer sees that your are willing to assume all of the risk, they will immediately be more inclined to trust you.

6. Make Payment Easy

Offer a variety of payment methods for your customer. If you don’t currently take credit cards, start immediately. You can either set up a merchant account or use one of the many credit card clearing houses. Take checks on line. Provide an address for those who prefer to pay by cash, check or money order. Make sure the payment process is clear, easy to access and intuitive to use. Eliminate as many steps as possible. Do not ask for any more information than is necessary to complete the transaction. Nothing frightens a customer off faster than feeling that their privacy is being invaded.

7. Simple Navigation

Make site navigation easy and intuitive. While it may be artistic to make your index page all black and hide the link to continue, will that generate business? If your customer can not navigate your site to find what they want, they will go elsewhere. Limit the choices and direct your customers through a sales process.

8. Consistency

Make sure the site is consistent in look, feel and design. Nothing is more jarring and disturbing to a customer than feeling as if they have just gone to another site. Keep colors and themes constant throughout the site.

9. Design for indexing

85% of all web users find what they are looking for via the top search engines. Make sure that your page is designed to maximize your placement. Focus on your keywords and keyword density but don’t sacrifice your message. Utilize the meta tags keywords, description and title. Use your keywords when naming your pages.

10. Content is (still) king

Good content sells product. Ask yourself the following questions. Does your copy convey the message you wish to get across to your visitors? Is it compelling? Does it lead your visitor through the sales process? Have others review, critique and edit your copy to insure it is delivering the intended message. Always double check your spelling and grammar.

Implementing the ten steps above probably will not make your site as successful as Yahoo or Amazon overnight. If they are implemented correctly and integrated into an overall web site design and marketing campaign, you should see a marked improvement in the site’s traffic and sales.

—————————————————————————————–
Tony L. Callahan, is a successful Internet Promotions Consultant with more than twenty years of industry experience and is president of his own Internet marketing company, Link-Promote. He also publishes Web-Links Monthly, a newsletter full of tips, tricks, tools and techniques for successful web site promotions. To subscribe, send e-mail to: Web-Links- subscribe@topica.com.

Ten landing page tips to turn visitors into customers

There’s something about a ten-item list that makes us want to get all Hestonian on you and break out the archaic pronouns, especially when it comes to something like getting people who visit your site to actually buy from you. After all, you work hard to get clicks. What could be more important than turning those clicks into customers?

But we’re kind of a live-and-let-live bunch here, and we’re not so big on telling people what they have to do. So consider these a set of suggestions about how to help optimize your landing pages. That way, when people get to your site, they’ll be more likely to make a purchase.

1. Tell them why they should buy from you
Clarity of your value proposition is the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys from you or not. Ask yourself the question: “Why should I buy from this site?”

2. Keep ‘em with you
Protect your landing pages from the #1 threat to conversions: site flow disruption. After identifying a unique and compelling Value Proposition, you must ensure that you express it throughout your sales process in a clear, consistent and compelling way. Eliminate site flow disruption to help maximize conversions.

3. Don’t try to say too much
Don’t clutter your landing page with unnecessary details. Instead:
• Clearly state your key message using as few words as possible
• Use summary descriptions, sub-headings, bulleted lists and short paragraphs
• Adopt a standard one-column format for easy reading.

4. Make it simple
Improve the user experience with a site that is easy to navigate. A simple page layout that employs a clean visual and straightforward design is best. Here’s how:
• Design your site with a clear hierarchy with color and contrast for easily legible text
• Use meaningful and high-quality graphics (don’t clutter with too many)
• Use breadcrumbs to let visitors know where they are on your site
• Employ a clickable logo that takes the visitor to your homepage
• Use color to distinguish between visited and unvisited links.

Just as important, make sure you don’t:
• Employ horizontal scrolling
• Direct links to new browser windows
• Have flash-based content unless required.

5. Call them to action
Focus on one primary action per screen (don’t stuff too many products onto one screen). Make the call-to-action button clearly visible without having to scroll; don’t bury it under pages of information. Consider using tabs or a pop-up box to consolidate information.

6. Get specific
Provide product details and a large product image while displaying incentives—such as free shipping and warranty information—high on the page and close to the product. Don’t discourage visitors by requiring registration to your site.

7. Flaunt what you’ve got
What differentiates you from your competitors? Free shipping (both ways?), discounts, a 365-day warranty, price protection, privacy, customer service, etc.? If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

8. Search yourself
Make your site easy to navigate by helping potential customers find what they are looking for as quickly and easily as possible. A search feature box should be simple and visible with a type-in field, not a link. To help increase conversions, make sure your search results link to product pages.

9. Rally the believers
Credibility is a true testament: people don’t buy from websites, people buy from people. Thus, testimonials from devout customers—or even a letter from the CEO/Editor—persuades the unbelieving.

10. Let them make the choice
“Why should I buy this specific product?” Almost every e-tailer forgets about this, but it’s the question that’s key to Mr. or Ms. Customer’s mind. Prove to him or her why they should buy this over the competitive product by offering reviews, ratings and comparisons.

– Amy Borowicz

Google Adsense program is a popular web advertising program which provides a good income source for many websites. There are well defined terms of service to strictly adhere to when participating in the program.

On my visit through sites and forums, I daily notice several instances of misuse of Adsense ads. So here a few helpful Google Adsense tips, probably many you already know, and few you might gain by knowing now. These adsense faq are all picked from the Program Policies, Terms and Conditions and FAQ itself and presented in a simplified manner.

1. Never click your own adsense ads or get them clicked for whatever reason. You know this one very well. This is a surefire way to close you Adsense account. Never tell your office associates or friends to click on them. Keep a check if your family or children are busy increasing your income by clicking your ads and indirectly trying to stop your income. Dont even think of offering incentives for clicks, using automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Adsense is very smart to detect fraudulent clicks. Check the ads which appear on your pages by the Google Preview tool if required.

2. Never change the Adsense code. There are enough means of adsense optimization & customizations available to change the colour, background or border to suit your needs. Do whatever you want to do outside the code, never fiddle within the ad or the search code. They know it when you do. The search code has more limitations to colour and placement, but you should adhere to the rules. The code may stop working and violates the TOS.

3. Do not place more than 3 ad units and 3 ad links or 2 adsense search boxes on any web page. Anyway, ads will not appear in those units even if you place more ad units. But this is the limit they set, so it is better to stick to it.

4. Do not run competitive contextual text ad or search services on the same site which offer Google Adsense competition in their field. Never try to create link structures resembling the adsense ads. Never use other competitive search tools on the same pages which have Adsense powered Google search. They do allow affiliate or limited-text links. Update: Google has allowed you to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika etc provided the ads do not resemble Adsense ads.

5. Do not disclose confidential information about your account like the CTR, CPM and income derived via individual ad units or any other confidential information they may reveal to you. However, you may reveal the total money you make as per recent updates to the TOS.

6. Label headings as “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only. Other labels are not allowed. I have seen many sites label ads with other titles. Dont make your site a target in a few seconds gaze.

7. Never launch a New Page for clicked ads by default. Adsense ads should open on the same page. You may be using a base target tag to open all links in a new window or frame by default. Correct it now as they do not want new pages opening from clicked ads.

8. One Account suffices for Multiple websites. You do not need to create 5 accounts for 5 different websites. One account will do. If you live in the fear that if one account is closed down for violation of TOS, believe me they will close all accounts when they find out. You can keep track of clicks by using channels with real time statistics. They will automatically detect the new site and display relevant ads.

9. Place ads only on Content Pages. Advertisers pay only for content based ads. Content drives relevant ads. Although you might manage some clicks from error, login, registration, “thank you” or welcome pages, parking pages or pop ups, it will get you out of the program.

10. Do not mask ad elements. Alteration of colours and border is a facility to blend or contrast ads as per your site requirements. I have seen many sites where the url part is of the same colour as the background. While blending the ad with your site is a good idea, hiding relevant components of the ads is not allowed. Also do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping images, pop ups, tables etc.

11. Do not send your ads by email. Html formatted emails look good and allow placement of these javascript ads. But it is not allowed as per TOS. You do not want impressions registering on their logs from any email even once. They are watching!

12. Keep track of your content. So Adsense is not allowed on several non content pages. But it is also not allowed on several content pages too. Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results. Also exclude any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content.

13. Do not alter the results after ad clicks or searches - Ensure you are not in any way altering the site which the user reaches to after clicking the ads. Do not frame, minimize, remove, redirect or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Advertiser Page or Search Results Page after the user clicks on any Ad or Search results.

14. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing - Although the definition of ‘excessive’ is a gray area and is subject to discretion, yet Google adsense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so excessive advertising is not required. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not required.

15. Ensure you Language is Supported - Adsense supports “Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, English, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian and Turkish”. In addition, AdSense for search is available in Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese. If your web pages language is not supported, do not use the code on such pages.

Update:
16. Maximum 2 referral button per product per page - With the launch of the google adsense referral program, you are allowed to put only 2 referral buttons for adsense referral, adwords referral, Google pack and Firefox with google toolbar referral.

17. Do not specify Google ads as your alternate ads. - Several services like Chitika eminimalls allow you to place alternate urls, when a targeted paying ad cannot be displayed. This involved creating an simple html page and putting the ad to be displayed instead. Even Adsense allows an alternate url feature instead of displaying public service ads. But never use Adsense ads as alternate urls.

18. Do not confuse with adjacent images - It was a common policy to increase CTR by placing same number of images as the number of text ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads is not allowed. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors.

Whenever in doubt, it is better to ask for adsense help from the learned staff of Google Adsense. They are very helpful!

Source: quickonlinetips.com

At last! A new site, Free-After-Rebate, lists all those great free after rebate deals that Circuit City, Office Depot, & Office Max run from time to time. I can’t tell you how many slim jewel cases I’ve gotten that way. As long as you’re willing to fill out some paperwork, xerox some stuff, and wait 6-8 weeks, it’s a great deal. This site goes on my Favorites list for sure.

They say it’s the login page to your account? Make them prove it

At some point, there’s a chance you may receive an e-mail that looks like it came from Yahoo!, taking you to something that looks like a Yahoo! Search Marketing login page, but something’s…not quite right. It could be a “phishing” attack from someone who is trying to duplicate a Yahoo! page in order to get your user name and password to hijack your account.

To help combat these phishing scams, we have installed what’s called a “sign-in seal” on our log-in page. Already in use by many financial institutions, a sign-in seal is a cookie-based secret message or image that is displayed on your computer(s) only. (That is, the machine(s) you use to log in to your account.) If you use more than one computer, you’ll need to set up your seal for each. You can create your own custom text message to use as a seal, or upload your own image.

If you do not see your custom seal—and you haven’t cleared your cookies on your browser—when signing into your account, the site you’re on may be a “spoof” site designed to hoodwink you into giving up your valuable personal information. We encourage you to create a customized sign-in seal for your Yahoo! Search Marketing account today, then look for it every time you log in. You can set up your seal from your Yahoo! Search marketing log-in page (the real one).

—The Team at Yahoo Search Marketing

What to do when you get an unexpected traffic surge

There you are, reviewing your account from last week, when you notice a jump in your clicks. Before you call us to find out what’s going on with your account, keep in mind that unexpected traffic is not necessarily a cause for alarm. Consider the following three questions:

First: Have you changed anything in your account recently?

A broad question, to be sure, but try to recall: Have you added keywords or changed your bids? Either of these actions can affect your traffic.

Second: Are you noticing abnormal click activity, or just traffic that’s not converting?

Examine your account and your web logs. Are your ads appearing on sites that are not meeting your business needs? If so, we offer tools to help you control your traffic. Find out more about Blocked Domains, Geo-targeting and Continent Blocking in your Search Marketing Help Section, and get to know your traffic by visiting the Traffic Quality Center.

Third: Have you set a daily spending limit?

Your traffic may fluctuate from day to day. But by setting a Daily Spending Limit, you help control the amount you spend. For example, if you average $250 in clicks per day and set your Daily Spending Limit at $350, you can capitalize on the extra clicks that result from a spike, without breaking the bank.

Submitting a Click Review Request

If you feel you have explored everything above and still have questions, or would like us to investigate your traffic further, our Traffic Quality Center provides simple instructions for submitting a Click Review Request.

After you submit the request, we will perform a series of diagnostic tests and analyses to attempt to identify potential issues that may have affected your traffic. We take all inquiries seriously, and though the length of investigations may vary, we work to achieve a resolution within 10 business days of your request.

Remember, keep an eye on your account, monitor your traffic regularly, and if you do spot something suspicious, let us know—we’re happy to help.

— Kastle Waserman, Communications Manager, Customer Solutions, Yahoo

Recently, I helped a relative get started with an online marketing strategy. Here’s a copy of what I emailed her, hopefully useful for others who may wander here.

1. Start with a User Traffic Monitoring Service To Establish a Baseline

Before you do any of the items listed below, follow this important step. Go to Google Analytics, sign up for a free account. Then you’ll be asked to insert special Web page code into your existing Web site (the code is not visible by people visiting your site) that allows Google to track who is visiting your Web site, where are they coming from, what keywords are they typing (if coming from a search engine), and other interesting trends. Any Web developer should be able to do this for you. Google provides a slick Web-based interface that you will then use to view data as it’s collected on a daily basis. [Phil's note: If you want to see a cool desktop version of Google Analytics, check out Google Analytics AIR].

2. Be sure your Web site is indexed by the major search engines.

Go to each search engine and enter “site:www.yoursite.com” — the “site” keyword “tells” the search engine to look for results just on the subsequent Web address. [Phil's note: this works for Google, Yahoo, MSN as above; for Ask, you'll need to enter another keyword before the query, followed by a space, to make it work properly.]

If you do not see your site come up, then go to each site submission page:
Google
Yahoo
MSN

3. Sign up for one or more “Pay per click” advertising programs.

These work on a keyword bidding basis. You choose specific keywords, you’ll see their “market rates” (per click), set your target bid price (the higher, the more likely your ad will be in a more prominent spot), and a monthly budget, and then run your campaign. Google also provides useful tools which allow you to estimate costs and potential click-through rates.

Google AdSense
http://www.google.com/adwords/

Yahoo Sponsored Search
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_ss.php

Microsoft AdCenter
http://joinadcenter.com

A great website to find Search Engine Promo’s (PPC promo codes) try SearchEnginePromos.com. They have up to date promo codes to get credits towards free PPC advertising.

Which one works best for you is a trial by error effort. Run a campaign for a month or so. You can see which ones perform best.

If you want to know about other advertising systems, check out this resource.

[Phil's note: at the time of writing, both Yahoo and Microsoft are offering $75 credits to get started.]

4. Maintain a Corporate Blog.

Create a corporate blog and use it for marketing opportunities. You can discuss trends in your industry, how you’re tackling major issues, summarize what you learned at a recent conference you attended, even mention your competition. The goal is to maintain a following of readers, even if they are not necessarily customers. Why? This is one of the most powerful ways to leverage word-of-mouth marketing. Someone reading your blog may recommend it to someone they know when a related need comes up during a conversation or email. Or they may reference your blog in their own blog, which inherently gives you even more readers.

You can sign up for a free blogging tool such as Blogger.com (also owned by Google) and either use their pre-built template or hire a Web designer to make it look like your existing Web site for a more integrated approach. You can even setup something like http://blog.mywebsite.com and have it point to the blog (even though Blogger.com is hosting it) and then add a link to the address from your existing Web site.

The drawback is that a high quality blog can be a considerable time investment. If you have an existing marketing resource on your team, maintaining the blog should be something they own.

How to Track Your Blog
Use Google Analytics, Technorati, FeedBurner. The latter two include other value-add features.

5. Participate in Industry-Specific Online Discussions to Get Your Name Out There.

Find all the blogs and message boards related to the industry you’re in. Spend time reading to figure out which ones seem to be a good fit and sound legitimate. Become involved by responding to posts (most blogs these days allow anyone to “comment” on them). Be sure in every post you have a signature line that includes your Web site address. But be genuine when you participate. People can usually tell when you’re simply posting a message for the sake of advertising your business (”spamming”).

How to find blogs:
Google Blog Search
Technorati

How to subscribe to blogs:
1. Sign up for a Web-based “feed reader” (aka “RSS reader”) - my favorite one is Google Reader. Or use a desktop feed reader (Windows’ Outlook 2007 and Mac Leopard’s Mail have it built-in). The advantage of a Web reader (vs. desktop version) is that you can then go back to pull up items using any computer, mobile device, etc. Either way, a reader pulls in feeds from different places, analogous to receiving emails from different people in your inbox. Think of it as a way to get stuff “delivered” to you instead of you going to dozens of Web sites and finding if new information has been posted.

2. When you visit a blog, look for the “RSS” icon in the browser’s Web address box. It means the Web page has a “feed” you can subscribe to. Click on the icon and it should give you a choice to “subscribe” to it. BTW, if you happen to have the Google toolbar installed in your browser, it can be setup to automatically subscribe to feeds using Google Reader.

From Webficient

9 Tips to Help Optimize Your Landing Pages

For obvious reasons we tend to focus a lot on keywords and ad copy. They’re vital to getting search users to click on your ads. But once they have clicked, then what? Hopefully, they’re A) in a buyin’ mood and B) they’ve actually come to the right place.

You can help promote both of these results by optimizing your landing pages. Here are nine tips to help get your leads to stick around and buy from you:

1. Connect the search experience to the landing page experience.
Wherever possible, use the same language on your landing pages as you do in your ads. It’s a real disconnect when you click on an ad that reads, “Online Conversion Rate Counter” only to land on a page selling a “Conversion Calculating Service.”

2. Integrate your landing page into your site.
Some advertisers make the mistake of building stand-alone landing pages for certain keywords that are more-or-less “divorced” from the rest of their sites. This can make your business seem sketchy to potential customers, who you want to be able to trust you with their credit card info. A consistent experience across all of your pages and product offerings can help create a more convincing experience. (More on this below.)

3. Gain their trust.
Use trusted, third-party security providers and make sure their badges and icons are clearly visible.

4. Offer tips and suggestions.
How can potential customers best use the product? If you’re selling steaks, offer a steak au poivre recipe. There’s a potential for up- and cross-sell here, as well. Perhaps monsieur would enjoy a nice bottle of cabernet sauvignon with his tender, juicy filet mignon, oui? Just don’t go crazy with it, mon ami. (See 5 and 6, below.)

5. Stay on target.
If your ad specifies John Deere tractors, make sure all of your tractors for sale on that page are John Deere tractors. In other words, if I had been looking for Caterpillar bulldozers I’d have clicked on an ad for them instead.

6. Cut the clutter.
Your landing page should not be too generic and cluttered. This ties in with the tip above. If your ad is for discount wholesale 7Up, don’t clutter the page up with other un-colas. This helps keep the lead focused.

7. Ban the bling.
Your landing page should be cleanly and attractively designed, but avoid distractions like music or other audio, animations and revolving logos. These can distract prospective customers from their purpose, which is to buy the product or service that they need, hopefully from you. Again, keep ‘em focused on the task.

8. Give them something to do.
A little interactivity can help keep people engaged. For some products, especially big-ticket items, things like video testimonials and 360-degree tours may be good sales aids. Just let customers decide whether or not they want to view them by giving them control. And remember Tip 7: Keep the bling to a minimum.

9. Write right.
Language counts. Think of your landing page as a salesperson in a showroom. What would a salesperson say to a prospect to help “get to yes?” Here are a few classic pointers:

• Make sure that your headers and subheads are clear and direct.
• Deliver your value proposition right away.
• Offer a persuasive message near the call-to-action—You know: “Don’t be left out of this amazing offer,” etc.
• Be nice with your call-to-action copy—”Submit” and “Buy Now” can sound like orders and put some people off. “Try it Now” sounds nicer.

—Michael Mattis, Conversion Tipster

Bloggers who are interested in building high traffic to their blog and maintaining a successful blog should pay particular attention to Search Engine Optimization techniques which can help them improve the search engine rankings of their blogs. All search engines employ some type of algorithm that brings up the resulting links when a user searches for something. No, all search engines don’t use the same algorithm. But that’s not what this discussion is all about. I’m sure all of you are interested in getting your website/blog listed in the topmost search results. Am I not ? Well, listed below are 5 simple tweaks that can greatly influence your ranking in the search results.

1. Keyword Optimization -:

The use of relevant keywords in blog posts is one of the most common and also one of the simplest ways to optimize search engine ranking. It will increase your ranking if you use commonly searched words like for example: If you have a gardening site, you might want to use the word “Home gardening” or maybe even “House-keeping” more in your posts. As a result, when people actually type those phrases in the search box, your website is shown earlier because of the use of it in your web page is higher than the rest.

TIP : Don’t ever overdo it.

2. Get Link Love -:

Many search engines (almost all) rank your site on basis of the number of back links that lead to your site. Now basically you could do link-exchange. But search engines will rank you even higher if you get one-way links. It’s simple: The more back links one has, the more earlier is his page displayed in the search results.

TIP: Try and get as many as One-way links . It’s always more effective than link exchange.

3. Use Image Tags to your Advantage

Bloggers should also be aware that any pictures used on their blog can be used to improve search engine rankings with some search engines. This aspect of search engine optimization is often overlooked because many bloggers believe the pictures are not viewed by search engines. While this is true the search engines do crawl the code of the blog in addition to the content on the blog. This means the search engine will view the information provided in the image tags. Bloggers can take advantage of this by using the image tags to provide relevant keywords which can bolster search engine rankings. However, care should be taken to ensure the keywords used in these tags also accurately describe the image because blog visitors will often see the text included in these tags when they scroll over a picture on the blog.

TIP: Make sure that the tag is applicable to the picture.

4. Sitemaps are Necessary

All websites need sitemaps. Why? Well, every sitemap has links to all the pages in a website and it helps search engine spiders gain even more easier access to your content. And it’s obvious that if more content is tracked by the SE spiders, the more results appear.

TIP: Well, try and go for a more simpler design for your sitemap and don’t go making it too difficult to access your previously posted content.

5. Search Engine Friendly URL’s

Using Search Engine friendly URL’s like http://www.yourdomain.com/category/SEO will be more effective than the long ones. Why? Well long URLs are most likely to be considered as spam by search engines and users. Keep it brief. Don’t be under the impression that longer URLs will impress your visitors. Users generally despise those kind of addresses. It’s not tough to make the change, and frankly the faster you shift to Search Engine friendly URL’s the better.

TIP: To make the URL change, I’d generally recommend Permalinks Migration Plugin.

Let me know if this has helped your search engine ranking by leaving me a comment