Close your websites doors before someone gets in

On 23 July 2009 my website was hacked into.

The result was that some malware was put into the code of my theme of my website.  This activated links to hundreds of pornographic sites whenever I uploaded new material.

Recently I have been quite busy uploading new pages about my blogging beginners self-help e-courses, so all my activities had been blasting off all this pornographic stuff left right and centre throughout the net.

I do have a wonderful brother who is a wizard in website programming, and he worked his magic behind the scenes, locating and removing the malware. Let’s just hope it doesn’t have secondary programming to reappear again later.

Meanwhile I have tried to submit my website for reconsideration by Google. I have contacted my server and have closed all my FTP access (which I will have to temporarily open every time I want to upload something). That was the back door that was wide open and allowed the hacker in.

So check all the portals of your website to make sure they are secure. Change all your passwords to everything regularly and use combinations of letters, numbers and punctuation to make them stronger.

Keep an eye out for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary with your website. This malware was totally invisible on my website, so it was the fact that I couldn’t see my theme that alerted me that something was wrong, but only after all the damage had been done.

Pay per click works if performed properly

How sad it is when you see examples of online marketing failing to work, and sigh when you think of how much money is wasted.

I suppose this is the same for other forms of advertising, which brings to mind a local magazine that is delivered monthly through my letterbox full of hopeful advertisers actively publicising their services. But that is a subject for another post.

Let’s get back to online advertising. I wanted to get a galvanised metal watering can for my husband’s birthday, a big sturdy one rather than one of those delicate versions you daintily water your house plants with.

So I typed in ‘metal watering can’ into Google and surveyed the screen in front of me. (Please bear in mind that entries on Google continuously change, so if you do this you may see something different.) The top five links seemed likely possibilities.

How annoying! Amongst small dainty examples that I didn’t want, there were some sites that didn’t even have ordinary watering cans available. Eh? I didn’t want to buy discounted garden furniture or a 100 ft hose. And further investigation revealed the company didn’t sell watering cans because their search mechanisms didn’t bring any up.

So I looked at the paid for links in the shaded areas, and started to receive the same treatment – and this struck me: why did they compose these pay per click adverts that didn’t deliver what they said on the tin? Surely it would be a waste of money if the visitor ends up being confronted with something they didn’t ask for?

Pay per click advertising is only effective if it is properly targeted. If your ad mentions metal watering cans then you should be directed to a page with metal watering cans in it. The index page of the garden centre is not the answer, as it is not what the clicker wanted.  A webpage offering another special offer is a complete no-no! And if your company’s website doesn’t bring up watering cans via searching, then there is definitely something wrong with your search engine optimisation.

I did find a website that had the watering can I wanted. Their concisely written pay per click ad directed me straight to a page that offered three metal watering cans. I made my selection, paid through an efficient shopping cart system, and received confirmation of my purchase plus tracking information for my watering can’s delivery progress. The watering can arrived before the time specified, and I have a happy husband.

That’s the way to succeed through PPC.

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For more common-sense advice on online marketing, Alice Elliott offers a free half-hour health check for your business.

Websites and blogs: how are they different?

Actually a blog is a kind of website, as they have many similar attributes.

They both occupy a presence on the internet, use an URL or web address, need a host server to keep them online, contain information such as text content, pictures, links and keywords, both benefit from search engine optimisation and can be tracked through Google Analytics.

But why don’t we call blogs websites? What is it that makes them different?

The difference is in their programming, and how they make use of Web2.0. The are pre-runners of social networking before Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. They thrive on interaction, new content, feeds and optimisation.

Blogs are designed to be self-editable. This means you don’t to pay a web designer to make changes or add content. You can update them through very easy access (a username and password) from any computer in the world. The programming is self-contained, and if you can write in Word, you can update a blog.

They thrive on being updated frequently and regularly, their programming is designed to attract search engine spiders who are looking for new content all the time. This is very good for web optimisation which puts blogs higher up the search engines than websites. Another consideration is that blogs are visited by spiders hourly, whereas websites could wait for months.

Unlike websites, blogs only update new material each time it is posted. Every time a website is updated the new stuff supersedes the old content, whereas blogs store previous entries like a news-roll, each post dated accordingly and assigned it’s own URL for access at a later date.

Blogs are designed to encourage interactive communication between author and readers. Those who comment can link back to their own sites, and this content is also considered as new material by internet spiders. This concept is not available in ordinary websites, except through sign up forms, and then contributors cannot view afterwards what they have written.

And another consideration to note: blogs are much cheaper to create and maintain!

OK, so what else makes blogs better?

Blogs are created to help businesses to spread their expertise, explain what their business does in different ways, maintain a relationship with their visitors and customers, offer subscription services for regular contact, channel traffic back to relevant websites, and can be fed to other websites like social networking for a higher readership.

Most websites, especially ‘brochure style’ ones, are static and once created are rarely updated, and can’t provide an opportunity to explain everything as space is often limited. In fact, over cluttering your pages with too much information can be counter-productive. Visitors will not return for new content, websites are unlikely to get bookmarked, and only through a sign up form to a newsletter can the business maintain a relationship with potential customers.

But this is only my opinion, what do you think about this subject? Since this a blog, leave a comment in the box below to share your views.

New business? Want a website? My advice is: don’t!

You’re an entrepreneur and you want to start up a business. Great.

The first reaction to getting a slot on the internet is to get a website. Wrong!

Why wrong? This is because websites are notoriously expensive things! How much cash do you have? I suggest you should have a good think before you go throwing it away on unnecessary, inappropriate, uncostworthy things such as a website.

But surely everybody needs a website, or they won’t be taken seriously by prospective customers?

Of course you need a presence on the internet – it’s a requisite requirement nowadays. But not a website. What you need is a blog, and a good grasp of social networking. That’s how you get yourself known on the web. Only when you’ve made it, got a load of followers, built up your list of contacts, made some money, then you can go ahead and get yourself a website. By then you will know exactly what you want it for, and will build it with a proper purpose.

The trouble is, so many people get themselves a website, and it just sits there, looking pretty, and doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. They haven’t got the money to update it, because unless they have built it themselves they will have to pay a fortune to their webmaster to make any changes.

Now, if you have a blog, that’s exactly what you can, and should, do. This is because blogs are self-editable; they thrive on new material because they are designed for it. They are also little web magnets for internet traffic, as the search engine spiders are programmed to visit blogs extremely frequently, just in case there is something new for them to ‘read’. If they like what they find, and there are lots of keywords and key-phrases that match up to what is ‘hot’ at that moment, then you can get really high in the search engines!

And the other side of the coin is to get into social networking. The beauty of the web is that you can link and ‘feed’ all your blog content into social networking, so a lot more people can start reading about exactly what your business does – as long as you have written about it. And blogs are the place to write about your business: frequently, easily and regularly.

Don’t hide under a bushel – reach out and network. Tell the world about what you do. If people like what they read, you can start to make friends, contacts, business, liaisons, strategic alliances or whatever, all on the internet, through a relatively inexpensive blog – not by wasting your money on a website!

And does it work? There are plenty of businesses who are extremely successful today and have all started with just a blog, even before social networking got off the ground. Blogs are the beginnings of social networking, it’s just that the interactive side of the web (Web2.0) has developed a bit more recently…

Why is 2009 is the year of the question?

I’m going to put forward a concept that has revolutionalised the internet world during 2009.

Start thinking in questions!

Why? There’s a question. Google constantly researches into how it can provide a better service for its customers (in fact, how it can make more money), and it has found out that people are now thinking of the internet in questions.

When people search on Google, they don’t type in single words into the search fields any more, they type in questions. This is because there are so many websites now on the net (several billion), single keywords are not enough to find out what you want. Questions which contain lots of keywords achieve a better result, because it increases the chance of getting what you are looking for.

Therefore you need to adjust your way of thinking on your websites into questions. Change your headlines on your webpages into questions, it may just tally with a search request; this can become a very simple SEO (search engine optimisation) method.

Questions actually focus more succinctly with the needs and wants of the customer. They also strike a chord with the reader, especially if the response is ‘Yes!’. Adapt the headlines of your blog posts and articles too, it makes the subject more conversational and is more likely to be noticed and read. And this is important for RSS (the subscription feed service) reasons, because it will encourage a higher readership and therefore more exposure, especially within social networking sites.

Ask questions, strike a chord, create an affinity, understand your customer, start to succeed!

Would you like to learn how blogs aren't scary?

Live teleseminar: Thursday 14 May

• Have you been thinking about setting up a blog recently but have been putting it off?

• Do you want to know how a blog can help your business?

• Do you already have a blog but want some more tips on how to improve it?

Would having a blog help you market your business better?

Sometimes just having a website is not enough – you need to have somewhere where you can express yourself, providing on-going news about your business, educate your customers, promote new events or products – all in an environment that is publicly seen throughout the net.

A ‘brochure style’ website is far more difficult to update, needs the use of a webmaster and is seldom visited by the internet spiders. It’s a space on the web that just sits there, looking pretty, but doesn’t encourage interaction from your customers.

So what is different about a blog?

A blog is self-editing, thrives on regular input and spiders visit blogs hourly. It also uses applications to spread your word around the web easily, efficiently and automatically.

It encourages and succeeds on feedback and input from your readers, and can also be used as an archive for your articles and other information, as each post is allocated its individual URL.

The free software provided by the blogging platform is excellent for search engine optimisation, too.

So if you are interested in finding out more about blogs, then join me live for an hour’s teleseminar class (or if you can’t make the day a recording will be available).

You will discover how to:

• publicise your business to a wider audience

• increase your expert status

• let customers check you out before they buy

• bring more traffic to your website

• interact with potential customers

• provide an archive for your newsletter material

• work better with search engine optimisation

• help link you to social networking sites

But above all I want you to realise that blogs aren’t difficult technology to master, and that everybody can and should have one!

I will reassure you how unscary blogs are, and there will be a chance for those on the call to ask questions and provide their own opinions.

When is it? Thursday 14 May

What time is it? 8pm – 9pm (GMT+1)

What happens if you’re not free at this time? Register, and you will be automatically sent a recording of the teleseminar for you to listen at your leisure. Don’t forget if you have any questions, you are welcome to email them to me before the event.

What else is included? I will also send a pdf of the teleseminar’s notes and resource information so you won’t have to write everything down.

How much is it? The initial cost of this seminar is £27 -

but wait – if you book before Friday 8 May at 8pm you can register for only £17!

You will also be eligible for a competition to win my first two blogging packages for free!

• Book before 8pm on Friday 8 May to get the call for only £17 plus the recording

• Enter your name into a draw to receive first two blogging packages f*ree!

Click here NOW to register and reserve your place – and begin your journey to blogging success!

I really look forward to hearing you on this call.

Alice

What's the similarity between blogging and twittering?

Hi Alice

I am new to all this twittering and blogging and I need some help. I have my business and have been told that blogging and twittering are a great form of marketing my business. So I have a blogger and twitter account but am unsure of how these work. I know that you post your little blurbs but how does that send people to my site? Can you help me please?

Kerry

–oo00oo–

Hi Kerry,

Blogging and twittering are similar that they are both a medium for you to express yourself, except that blogging allows a bit more than 140 characters to do so. Twitter is also called ‘microblogging’.

Twitter works on the question ‘what are you doing?’, and you shouldn’t tweet mundane things like what you had for breakfast, but snippets of information about your business that people will want to know more about. Your link in your bio should either lead to a special landing page all about you, or to a relevant page on your website or your blog. Each Twitter post can also link back to your website or whatever (use tinyurls for this purpose) so that your traffic will increase. If you tweet questions or leading statements this will also increase any interested parties.

If you’re starting out I suggest you get blogging under your belt, and then you progress to Twitter. But as you already have an account (mine’s @alicedesigns) you can feed each new post you make on your blog onto Twitter through the RSS feed I’ve been talking about. There are lots of applications to do this, but I expect Twitterfeed.com is the most well known.

Why do this? You want a many people as possible to read your posts, hence why you should also have a well publicised link from your website to your blog. Search engine optimisation thrives on links, and if you can create as many links as possible to both your blog, Twitter and website, your traffic will increase and so will your followers if they like what they see.

Alice

How to spruce up a free blog

Hi Alice

I’d welcome any feedback you could offer on my shop blog: http://kittyandpolly.wordpress.com/

Thanks, Paula

–oo00oo–

Hi Paula

What a fantastic blog! I love the pictures and the posts are really readable, well done!

I particularly like the links to specific pages on your website and that you’ve created some extra pages. You could have put your pages widget a bit higher on the side bar, but as you have links across the top this probably doesn’t matter.

What else can you do? I don’t want to spoil the overall effect, but you could move the comments widget below the recent posts widget – don’t hide your feedback, encourage it!

You could promote your newsletter on your side bar. As this is a free WordPress blog you aren’t allowed sign-up forms, but you could get around this by using a text widget with an image of your newsletter linked to a specific webpage with the newsletter sign-up form on it. This has worked for me! Place the text widget high up on the side bar to encourage action.

And why not move your blog icon further up your website to encourage more visitors from that end?

Finally sign up to feedburner.com or feedblitz.com to get your blog’s RSS URL, and place the code for a RSS button and new post subscription link in a text widget. This is to encourage more readers to follow your latest activities. And remember to place the widget at the very top of your side bar where it is really noticeable.

Other than that I think your blog is truly great!

Alice

How does a blog add value to your business?

To gather feedback on business blogging, I subscribed to a number of forums and asked how many people had a blog. This is one of the responses and my answer to it:

Hi Alice

I have just started my business and I’m still going through the process of designing a website, etc.

I am thinking about adding a blog to my site, but I want to know how to do this so that it adds value rather than potentially damaging my image when I am just starting out.

I have been in property for a number of years now so the business model is investment properties both commercial and residential in the UK and overseas. This is primarily targeted at pension fund managers, IFAs as well as largely investors. Obviously a great deal of negativity surrounds the property market currently.

What would you suggest?

Lindsey

–oo00oo–

Hi Lindsey

A blog is an essential piece of kit if you want to a) make yourself more visible to the outside world, b) communicate effectively with your existing customers, c) show your expertise to potentially new customers, and d) gain more followers and therefore a larger audience for your business.

Use a blog to counteract the negativity you speak of, punctuated with valuable advice and golden nuggets of information. Blog posts should be short and sweet, regular, relevant and of value, and focused on an end result like targeting your readers to your website or to a special landing pages to facilitate an economic response.

Increase your readership by adding RSS feeds (facilities that enable readers to follow your blog, and allows your posts to be automatically transferred to other social networking sites for a wider audience) to increase the visual exposure of your business.

Your blog could either become part of your website or stand alone with its own URL, and its special programming language assists with search engine optimisation and therefore increased traffic to wherever you want it.

Take a look at my blogging pages and join my newsletter to be the first to know of any new developments!

Alice

So how can you make money through a blog?

Think of your blog as another platform to advertise from. Call it promoting yourself, your product and your company. But you could write endless posts providing valuable insights and top tips about your business, and even though they would be interesting reading, they are missing a vital element.

Don’t forget to post with a purpose. Is there a motive for your blogging? As well as providing something of value, guide your readers to your website, especially specific pages of your website that relate to the subject of your posts, where they can find more information.

Blogging without a focus will not make money. Structure your posts into a series, culminating into a purpose, promotion, event or special deal. Get your readers to do something in return for all this wonderful information you’ve given them!

Just like advertising, take advantage of your post’s purpose and include a call to action. Make it incentive-laden and time-dependent, with clear links or buttons to enable your readers to sign up for more information or see where to pay.

Guide your readers to specific landing pages, or squeeze pages, on your website, which must be relevant to your blog posts. There you can convert your customers into achieving a sale or signing up to an event. You could also provide special codes to particular readers to gain access to protected squeeze pages in exchange for their email addresses, and then use these permission based details to send focused communications for specific projects culminating in a sale.

Use the advantages of a blog to write varied posts with alternative persuasive text in order to attract different audiences to your squeeze pages, so you can increase your customer base. And the practicality of RSS will feed these posts to various social networking sites, giving you access to different kinds of customers.

Ask your friends through social networking either to respond favourably, recommend, forward on or retweet your promotion to increase your exposure. Test and measure to find out which posts work on specific target markets, so you can improve your next marketing campaign.

Remember marketing works with multiple messages driven home over a period of time. Communicate your expertise to a wider audience to achieve recognition, as it takes anything from 7-21 times to get results. Hence why it’s good to blog frequently in order to promote your business in as many different ways as possible.

Want to know more? Read the blogging pages to find out more, and sign up to my blogging newsletter to keep yourself in the loop.

Does your business need a visual aid?

Would your business like more exposure?

Would it benefit from a wider audience?

Do you feel your existing website is too restricted in selling your company to potential customers?

I would like you to imagine your business as an iceberg. What is visible, what your customers get to see and understand, is like the area above the waterline: only a tiny proportion.

And under the water lies the remainder: the cogs and wheels, the inner workings, the nitty-gritty, what your business is really like. Packed full of examples, stories, good news, new ideas, all the things your website hasn’t the room to include.

And so it shouldn’t: a ‘brochure style’ like website should not be cluttered with all this extra stuff. In today’s busy world people haven’t the time and inclination to sit and read loads of text and description, they need quick-fire facts and figures, features and benefits, to show the appropriate impression of your business. In fact, each webpage has just three seconds to get their message across…

So how can you communicate the ‘other bits that we do?’ How do you invite customers below the waterline to view the remainder of your business?

The answer is: a blog.

Imagine somewhere that could archive additional relevant information about your company.

A medium that can be regularly updated with the latest news, stories, testimonials, special offers, new ventures or whatever.

Another space on the net that can be edited without a webmaster, so anyone can easily make regular contributions.

Like an on-line newspaper (or diary if you wish), a blog provides continuous material for its readers, both present and past. This also contributes to search engine optimisation, assisted by links to your website, to and from commenters providing feedback, and to other resource material – in fact, the key is to get as many links included as possible.

And don’t forget that spiders visit blogs far more frequently than websites.

Don’t just create your blog and neglect it. Use RSS (really simple syndication) to feed into other locations on the net, such as social networking sites, search engine reader pages, Twitter (which feed into Facebook and other similar sites), and application widgets that provide links of past and present posts on your and other websites/blogs. All valuable towards attracting a passing audience as well as keeping your existing followers informed.

Visit our blogging pages to find out more >>>

How social networking can help with your marketing

The power of Web2.0, the interactive side of the internet, opens up a huge potential to publicise and expose your business to a larger audience than ever before. No longer is the world a huge place, with the rise of social networking it seems like it’s just outside your back door!

Social networking for business began with blogging, a medium which enabled organisations to write about their business in other ways, to advertise their expertise, explore new concepts, ask their audience, invite feedback and responses, and publicise their events and activities; and because it was open to all who wanted to view it, especially through the search engines, good blogs could command a wide readership, and using RSS could be followed on a regular basis without unnecessary researching.

Then there were social networking sites, with the ability to collect and make friends and communicate with them in a relaxed and convivial style, even from the other side of the world. My friend in China would be lost without Facebook! There are now a myriad of different websites, each communicating, emulating, competing and evolving as technology moves continuously and rapidly forwards.

Certain sites, such as LinkedIn, Plaxo, FriendsFeed and Ecademy (to name but a few) have adapted their services for the business world by seizing this opportunity for business networking, whereas Facebook provides for all kinds of social networkers, and indeed some applicants use their profiles for many different activities. In fact for Facebook it is suggested that you apply as an individual, rather than for other sites in which you would join as your business name. Twitter, the ‘micro-blogger’, has taken the world by storm because it appeals to the quick-fire responses of 140 characters combined with a desire to know what everybody else is doing in ‘real time’.

The need to network for business using Web2.0 should not be seen merely as a trend. Although it may be seen by many as a ‘time waster’, I think it does depend on ‘how you use your time’ to achieve results. Social networking is about increasing your following (aka collecting friends) to find other like-minded or interesting people, learn what each other is doing (this is certainly come to the fore in Twitter), a place to express and publicise your activities, form groups and forums for more interaction, ask questions and receive answers (LinkedIn has excellent facilities for this), publish your blogs and advertise through marketplaces (using Ecademy’s extensive SEO properties), republish your articles for a wider readership (though there are sites designed for this), and learn much more quickly about what’s going on in this ever-increasingly fast world.  If your business is one of the first to hear of a particular subject and is then able to rapidly respond to it, what difference would that be against your competitors?

It is also the concept of RSS and feedburning that has contributed to wide social networking use. Think of the implications if your posts could be automatically reproduced in other social networking sites just by pressing one button, combined with the ability to enable your blog posts, articles, weblinks and other relevant material instantly accessible to a potential huge readership throughout the world. Many businesses have benefited from an increased traffic to their websites and blogs, plus other media such as audio and video, with the chance to explain, educate, publicise, inform, request material, gather information, become established as an expert in your field, and achieve more sales – surely this is a phenomenon of the 21st century we cannot ignore.

How many websites do you own?

A sales person rang me up today to tout his web-hosting company. He began with the usual spiel ‘We’ve looked at your website and we think we can provide some improvements for it’…

Further questioning on my part revealed his company was offering hosting at £49 a month, and my bombshell was that I was receiving perfectly adequate hosting per website for £1.50 a month. Ummm. His offer included hosting all my websites under one roof for his price. ‘How many websites do you think I have?’ I asked. ‘Oh, several, at least 100.’

Imagine my astonishment! I asked him how could I spend the time managing 100 websites: updating, reworking, adding new material, working at the SEO… ‘Oh, we’ll do all of that’ was his cheerful reply.

Excuse me, I’m not letting any old riff-raff near any of my websites. I’ve done enough research to know his company won’t have a clue in how I work, how to promote my new projects, my style and presentation – OK, maybe they will have time for SEO and other areas like that, but I certainly won’t let them do any web-writing.

And how many websites to I have? Two. I’d rather pay £3 a month to look after them myself, thank you. Rash, maybe, but sometimes I like to be in control, and I would rather vet my own SEO expert before commissioning one.

He obviously hadn’t looked at my main website or he would have realised I wasn’t the kind of organisation to have 100 websites. OK, there are some trains of thought that suggest each marketing campaign should have its own URL for the landing page. There are obvious good reasons for this, and this practice could easily result in a large collection of squeeze websites that need to be hosted collectively somewhere.

Unfortunately for him I was not in the market for that service at that time, and having told him he was barking up the wrong tree ‘big time’, the poor man was cruelly sent on his way with a flea in his ear.

How blogging and article writing help market businesses

One way to get attention is to make a big noise. Any child will tell (or show) you that. And making big noises in business are one of the ways of getting your customers to look your way, and finding a method of getting more traffic to your website will certainly be welcome.

But making a big noise without any content is a waste of time. You have to set yourself up as an expert in your particular field. Analyse all the elements of your business that you know: what makes you successful, what special features do you possess, what little bits of information can you share with your customers that demonstrates your expertise?

Forming relationships in business (ie marketing) is all about giving stuff away, as long as it leads towards the ultimate persuasion of getting customers to buy from you. There are easily things you could tell your customers that would be of benefit to them, but would cost you practically nothing. Think of the baker’s dozen idea, when providing that bit extra results in good will and an increased awareness of the provider.

Of course one way of providing information is through writing a business blog.  This versatile piece of software is virtually free to set up, totally self-editable (you don’t need a web-designer), loved by the search engines (they are visited hourly by the spiders), and can be adapted to reflect your corporate image (including creating more pages that contain further information).  Anybody with permission can add content, and all readers are encouraged to provide feedback, which also helps with search engine optimisation.

Another concept of promotion is through links to your website. Blogs are a superb medium for linking back within every post. In fact, why not comment on other people’s blog posts to increase the linkage back to your own blog or website? This will provide more exposure to a wider audience as well as helping the internet spiders.

Ideally a blog post should be short and concise. Blogs are for quick-fire expertise statements, providing the readership with a concept to grasp, information to process or to provide details of an event with a call to action. Some are over-lengthy, but really a blog isn’t the correct medium for essays. In fact once you get more accomplished at writing about your expertise then you should submit your examples as on-line articles, and there are a number of websites that can host your pieces to aid towards further exposure.

And then there’s the added advantage of linking your blog and on-line articles to the social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, FriendsFeed and the like. All this can be automated through RSS feeds, and again this increases your audience, which in turn is passed on virally through the complexities of their RSS feeds, plus referral and recommendation. The more people who read about how good you are and what you company does, the more likely they are to visit your website and be persuaded to make a sale.

If anybody is interested in setting up a blog but want to know how, including personalising it, then I am creating a series of packages “How to Beautify your Blog”, in which customers can pick and choose certain elements to create the perfect blog for their marketing purposes.  Click on the link for more details, or watch this space for further announcements!

How to use autoresponders within marketing campaigns

When putting together an on-line marketing campaign it is vital to get the process automated. You cannot be sitting there 24/7 waiting for any responses, and then be able to process them immediately. Wouldn’t you rather it be done for you while you are elsewhere doing business, making money, asleep or even relaxing on holiday?

You can automate the gathering of contact details from interested customers into a safe and secure database. You can use that database to send out automated emails that are in response to their enquiries. You can automate the process of sending out on-line goods such as special reports and e-books, and if the customer needs to make a purchase, you can use shopping carts to automate receiving the money and organising the delivery process of these items, whether they are electronic/printed books or other goods.

Then, because you have created a database of your customers’ details, you are able to communicate with them about future promotions and products, made all the more successful because they have already bought from you and are more likely to be interested.  It’s much easier to deal with past customers than to coax the unknown into buying.

There are a variety of autoresponders available, depending on their function. If all you want to do is to communicate with your prospective customers on a regular basis, then an electronic newsletter system is appropriate like ConstantContact.com and iContact.com. These provide databases with a series of templates that can be adapted to suit your corporate image, and their self-editing system is very easy to use.

Alternatively you could use an autoresponder like Aweber.com which also provides multiple databases and allows automated email responses, newsletter templates and the delivery of non-paid-for e-goods. It can be used in conjunction with payment systems like Paypal for simple automated delivery of paid goods, but it’s not as functional as a shopping cart.

Shopping carts like 1shoppingcart.com and e-junkie.com tend to be quite complicated to set up, but once achieved make it much easier for the customers to complete the purchasing process, for you to collect what you need from them, such as their contact and payment details, and even organising the necessary information sent to other parties who are part of the processing system, such as distribution houses and manufacturers. They also include an e-newsletter system for regular communications, as well as other automated money-making facilities such as affiliates.

There are a huge number of factors that need to come into play to make any automated system functional, practical and successful. All the marketing ploys need to be applied: attraction, interest, desire, action; focus, minimalism, uncomplicated, persuasion; customer first, market research, validity, affordable; visible, compelling, obvious, proactive. And above all, planning; as Graham Jones the Internet Psychologist said, a lot of on-line marketing systems fail because they just haven’t been thought through properly.

Create a call to action on every webpage

I really don’t mind giving my opinion on website design. And it’s always so nice to comment on a really good one for a change.

A photographer friend of mine asked for my reaction to his new website design while it was being renovated. My first reaction was very positive, with its clean, clear, crisp lines providing a very professional layout. It was the grey words and logo on the white background that did it for me – how nice to see an uncluttered presentation with plenty of white space and light!

But I felt compelled to provide some comments to increase his website efficiency:

The index page should work to the three second rule. Three seconds to make up their minds that this is the right website and what they should then do. Getting the visitors to do something is paramount; they should be encouraged to go further into the site to learn more, or sign up to something with a suitable incentive (this is to gather their details for future communications). The last thing you want is for them to leave!

Also, don’t overload other pages with detailed content. My friend’s grey text may have looked elegant and contributed to the spatial atmosphere that was so pleasing, but it did make it very difficult to read in large quantities. Websites are not like books. People don’t find it easy to sit down and read through webpages with a cup of tea. Also if they are surfing they usually do not have the time to plough through densely packed paragraphs.

Your accompanying webpages should act like little landing pages for specific subjects. This means they should contain the same structure and marketing elements as the index page, because spiders direct surfers to the most relevant page to their search, and this may not be the index page of the website. Allow for drop-in visitors for that particular subject, and adapt the page for the three second rule too.

Design your webpages with the initial concept of getting your customers to make contact. Once you’ve got them across your threshold then you can give them all the necessary detail to seal your capture. Your content should be delivered quickly and concisely with poignant and relevant information. Separate each benefit with bullet points or paragraphs. This allows the eye to rapidly choose what it wants to read and then enables the reader to digest and take action.

How to effectively combine on-line and leaflet marketing campaigns

Adapt your marketing campaign to collect customers’ contact details, either to buy from you immediately, or to communicate, educate and persuade towards a purchase in the future. Use forward planning to understand how your customers think in relation to what you are offering them.

Leaflets campaigns use headlines to attract attention, which need to be extremely relevant and empathise with your customers’ problems. The same applies to advertising in magazines and other publications, and also on-line, such as pay per click, banner advertising, article writing, commenting on forums and social networking. Concentrate on your customers’ needs and wants and how you can help them, and do market research to find out suitable keywords for your headlines, or what is being typed into search engines.

Focus on one particular scenario and publicise it: create a perfect customer, give them a troublesome problem and provide a fantastic solution, and then market only that. Your customers will find it much easier to relate and adjust their way of thinking towards your perfect customer, rather than you relating to all of them.  Use the marketing techniques outlined in Parts I to IV.

Once you’ve got your customers’ attention, it’s important to collect their contact details before they disappear. Create a compelling call to action, such as an introductory discount, an explanatory video or audio, a ‘special report’ or an offer of free time or consultancy, and direct your customers to a telephone number allocated for this campaign, or to a special landing page on your website.

Website landing pages should have one function only: to get warm leads to sign up. Only use persuasive text to lead up to the sign up form, and delete any other links as distractions. Collect names, email addresses and other relevant data, but limit the number of fields to encourage a response. Set up an autoresponder behind your landing page to collect these details into a safe and secure database, to immediately deliver your call to action, and to create email messages to act as follow-ups. These will help to reinforce your message, provide necessary additional information, remind customers to act upon your special offer and allow links to other aspects of your business.

Some companies use e-newsletters or e-zines for more leisurely communication with their warm leads once the autoresponder emails have finished. (You could also send out paper newsletters if it’s more suitable for your customer base.) They have the advantage of being more visual, information based and provide long-term persuasion tactics through further education and exploration on the many parts of your business. After all, you may have used only one specific area to capture their interest, but by revealing the remainder of your business it may encourage them and their colleagues to learn more about other products or future offers and be persuaded to buy again.

How to make your clicks more effective

A website owner was moaning to me about how much he had spent on pay per click (PPC) advertising and had got very little in return. This is probably because he had entered into the venture by himself, so obviously there were some concepts he was not using correctly.

To start with I would advise you to go see a Google Adwords expert, because this is the area they work in every day, so they understand how to effectively use this system and will get the best deal for you.

But if you don’t, then here are some things to consider. First, each PPC advert works on the effective use of keywords. You can find these out through sites like Wordtracker.com where you will see which keywords surfers on the net are using the most. But this means the most popular words cost more to use, so it is worth looking further afield or thinking outside the box to find more cost efficient versions.

Second, where are you sending your clickers? You may have produced an effective ad which get lots of clicks at a reasonable cost, but how can you maximise on converting them into paying customers? Consider the subject of your advert, and then look at the landing webpage. Is it relevant?

It’s no good having an advert on one particular subject, let’s say baked beans, and your advert’s URL directs your customers to the index page of Heinz. Your customers are looking only for baked beans, so give them a landing page which is solely about baked beans. Going to a more general page will not only put off your customers, they may get diverted onto another subject or leave through another link. Your landing page needs to be totally focused on the subject at hand.

Third, what is the objective to your PPC advertising? Your landing page should have one aim and that is to get your customers to do something: contact you for more information, sign up for a free gift or special report, fill in a questionnaire or whatever. Don’t expect people to respond to an unfocused or cryptic message, or just the index page of your website which doesn’t have the advert’s subject immediately available.

You need to effectively guide your customers to do what you want them to do, but without being condescending in your approach. Explain concisely and coherently the purpose of the advert, and limit the number of choices to achieve a more positive response.

Contextual Connections

Just a quick post to emphasise the importance of using contextual links for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) purposes.

This is when the reader sees a relevant word or phrase which is a link going to a particular webpage. The URL for this link isn’t the same as the word or phrase that is visible, the information or instructions behind what the reader sees takes the link to its destination.

For example, visit my website to find out more about Alice Designs isn’t my website’s URL, nor is it immediately visible, but if you were to mouse over that link above and look below where that URL is shown at the bottom of your web browser, you would see it. And if you were to click on it, it would go to my website.

Contextual links are excellent food for spiders (SEO bots), especially if the link phrase itself is stuffed full of keywords or relevant words to the URL in question. If the information in front of them matches up with what they find at the other end of the link, then that earns you extra brownie-points.

You can also use contextual links to help towards disguising your email link against spammers. OK, this won’t necessarily deter the sophisticated versions, but usually simple bots won’t recognise a cleverly constructed contextual link as a email address, thus reducing your susceptability for spam. Something like Want to know more? Then ask me a question doesn’t gjve the impression of being an email link to an ordinary spider because it doesn’t contain the ‘@’.

And for goodness sake avoid using ‘click here’ everywhere, this is a totally useless form of contextual link. Be far more imaginative!

My 2009 blogsites and newsletters

There are several new ventures I will be undertaking in 2009, and one of them will be my new blogsite.

A blogsite is a hosted blog. A blogsite is not free like this blog, it has an individual URL and has to be web-hosted. One difference between a blogsite and a website is not only the special programming used, but the way it is treated by the search engines. Spiders are trained to visit websites depending on how frequently the content is updated, and visits can range from days to weeks. But a blogsite, which looks like a website, is treated like a blog, so the spiders visit hourly or even less, especially if there is lots of new stuff for them to feed on.

Another reason why I want to create a blogsite is because I believe in visitor interaction. Using Web2.0, I want to create a social network within my blogsite, with comments in the blog section, suggestions in the forum, submissions into the directory, and lots of valuable information to help you in your businesses.

Now none of you will know of my developments and how they are coming along unless you join up to my newsletter. As part of my community, you will be the first to know of the birth of my new ventures, be offered discounts on my marketing packages and special deals if you find new followers or clients, as well as keeping one step ahead of everybody else.

Interested? Then join up now to my newsletter from my website, to find out the best way to combine design with marketing to make your promotional literature start to make you money! Go on, join up now!