Web Business Resource

by Jens du Plessis (Copyright Protected)

People often ask me to review their web sites and advise them on how to generate more sales. The mistakes made most often can be divided into three main categories and by fixing these you can dramatically change the success pattern of your web site.

While these three steps are simple they do involve a bit of work.

1. Targeted web pages:

People tend to regard their web sites as a unit instead of looking at each web page seperately as a mini web site. Many of the web sites I visit may have a semblance of search engine optimisation on their front page and nothing on the rest.

By targeting each of your web pages to specific keywords or phrases you are creating a net that will generate traffic from all over the place.

Each page should be optimised seperately for search engines using generally accepted search engine optimisation techniques:

focussing each page on up to three keywords or phrases
a targeted tag
using META keyword and description tags in the section
using headline tags ( to ) to highlight your headlines and sub headlines
using the image alt tag to add more keyword density
using descriptive text links
to name a few.

Treat each page as a mini web site.

2. Funnel your traffic to your sales pages:

Whether you want people to buy online, to request a quote, to make an enquiry or to subscribe to your newsletter the process is essentially the same.

Decide what is the most wanted response (MWR) you want from your web site and then each web page must be designed to achieve that response. Your most important web page is the web page where you will get your MWR, whether it is your shopping cart, your quote request form or subscription page.

Every page on your web site should channel visitors to this page - in effect you create a funnel with 5, 10 or 100 pages designed to funnel people to the pages where you get your MWR.

3. Build your mailing list:

When a vistor fulfills your MWR, i.e. buys your product, requests a quote, makes an enquiry, you have achieved your initial goal. However, what if they don’t? You’ve lost them. Unless you have an second best MWR in place.

This will normally be to get their email address legally so that you can follow up with them and promote your products or services. So have an alternative ready. This could be a free ebook about your business, your products or services. If you are in, say tourism, it could be a guide to your area. Whatever is suitable to your audience.

But get their email addresses!

As I said the steps are simple but it will take some work to impliment it

Success

Jens

About The Author: Jens du Plessis is an Internet marketing consultant and trainer, basd in South Africa. Visit http://www.webmarketingsa.co.za for a FREE basic web site review.

by James Bradley

If you own a web site yourself or know someone that does, you are probably familiar with the importance of internet marketing tools. The site may have a professional design, quality product or service, great content and functionality, but if the right internet marketing strategies are not utilized, your site may not be attracting the key to real success, highly targeted traffic. Getting a lot of consistent traffic has very little to do with the web site itself, but rather how the sites owner or webmaster choose to advertise the site. There are hundreds even thousands of sites competing on the web today, so you must use the most effective internet marketing tools to achieve targeted results.

There are many different internet marketing tools that can be used effectively, all of which are designed to increase your web sites traffic. Simply put, you must find a way to get people to your site. Put yourself in the “shoes” of your prospective visitors and clients. “Where do they go to do web searches?” is a key question that must be answered and can be quite simple to answer, the search engine. The webs most popular sites are search engines and portals, therefore, you should focus your internet marketing efforts to the search engine.

When surfers browse search engines, they will be more inclined to view a site placed high on the search engine, as opposed to a site with poor search engine placement. With that in mind, you must use the correct internet marketing tools to build a strong (high) search engine ranking. This is where the term Search Engine Optimization is derived from. SEO, as it is called commonly, is a set of methods and tactics aimed at improving your search engine ranking and the visibility of your site in search engine results.

Search engines index sites in several ways, one of which is by looking at the keyword density of the web site, or the sites content. Content alone, is one of the most valuable internet marketing tools to utilize. If your site has excellent relevant keywords aimed towards achieving a high search engine ranking, as well as providing valuable information, you can expect a high search engine position. But because of the high competition of web sites using the same internet marketing methods, you must continuously find new and better ways of attracting targeted traffic.

Today, one of the most popular and effective internet marketing tools is the use of Pay Per Click advertising. This method involves bidding for a particular keyword in a specific search engine, the search engine then compares the bids of all the merchants for that specific keyword, and the highest bid gets the top placement for that specific keyword search. For example, if you bid $.75 and a competitor bids $.73, you will be awarded the higher position. This internet marketing tool is being utilized by thousands of web sites on hundreds of PPC search engines. Google Adwords, Yahoo Overture, and the new MSN Adcenter are the three most popular sites who offer pay per click ad services today.

Content and pay per click advertising are just two of many internet marketing tools that you can utilize to improve your search engine optimization and achieve high web site traffic. There are literally hundreds of other techniques and methods, both free and paid, that you can use successfully to increase your sites visitors and profits. Internet marketing tools are the true key to SEO and generating profits in the highly-competitive online business battlefront that we call the Internet.

http://www.supermoneymakingsecrets.com

By Anik Singal

Writing articles to promote your website is, hands-down, one of the best ways to get targeted traffic to your website. The best part is that this strategy builds itself over long-term.

One article you write today will continue to get you business for years and years!

Now, most people know that they need to submit that article to directories (or if you did not, you know it now). However, too many marketers miss the biggest golden nugget of them all!

Ezine publishers!

Others who publish newsletters NEED your content and are looking for it. They are looking for good material for their readers. This means that your article could get featured in a huge newsletter! Imagine having a newsletter of 50,000 subscribers or even more feature your article…

Can you imagine the kind of traffic that would bring you!

Besides the traffic generation, here are 6 critical reasons you need to start submitting to Ezines immediately if you really want to build your internet business.

1. You’ll brand your web site, business and yourself by submitting articles to E-zines. This is done through the resource box that is added at the end of your article – this resource box allows you to have a biography of yourself and a link back to your website.

2. You will become known as an expert on the topics you write about. This will give you and your business extra credibility which will help you compete against your competition. The more credibility you get, the more joint ventures and affiliates you can recruit to sell your products.

3. Your article might also be placed on the publisher’s home page. If they publish each issue on their home page this will give you some extra exposure. This will also help other websites find your article to re-publish.

4. You might get extra exposure if the e-zine publisher archives their e-zine on their site. People might want to read the back issues before they make the decision to subscribe. This can be great if their website is search engine optimized and your article starts to come up for good keywords!

5. It is possible that other e-zine publishers will publish your articles in their free e-books. Once your article is known as a re-printable article, it can start ending up everywhere!

6. Are you thinking about launching a second facet to your business of consulting? Consulting is a great way to add extra income to your online ventures. When you have your articles being spread around the internet, your credibility is huge and getting great consulting clients is easy.

These are all the benefits just from submitting articles to publishers. If you can combine that strategy with submitting your articles to article directories as well, then your articles will go much further!

The benefit of submitting to directories is that the publishers come find YOU. You don’t even have to beg them or “bother” them to publish your article.

Most publishers are actively looking for material for their newsletter, when they like what you write – most will contact you to let you know that they are about to publish your article.

This is the best time to reply to them and send them more of the previous articles you have written. It is not unlikely at all to have the same publisher feature you as an author multiple times a month!

So, if you have not started using articles yet – get to it! They are one of the best ways to build short-term AND long-term traffic to your websites.

About the author: This article is written by Anik Singal, Founder of MarketingSelfHelp.com. Anik Singal has developed his own industry leading 7 day course to starting your own internet business – The course is 100% FREE, just visit the link below and sign-up! http://www.MarketingSelfHelp.com

by Tiffany Sutton

I am a big believer in having several sources of income. (Not putting all your eggs in one basket.) Do not EVER depend on any one business to come through for you every month. Be smart about it. Do you know of an investor that only invests in one company or one thing? While one business you are involved in might be going through the roof, I think it is always wise to have more than one thing going on.

Some businesses will come and go due to trends. Sometimes they do so well, that the internet is saturated with too many people doing the same thing. They are canceling out each other’s advertising and no one wins but the company. Maybe Plan A, for whatever reason, might be slow because of upcoming holidays. Whereas, your Plan B might be the type of business to make money for you during that time. Think about it. It’s wise to keep informed as to what’s new, but never lose focus on other businesses that are a more permanent or steady source of income.

Very few people can just “retire” from participating in only one business. If they can, more power to them. For me, I prefer to spread out my advertising efforts and advertising dollars. I’ve learned over the years to not have your income depend on only one thing. I think most people who do internet marketing for a living will tell you this. While they may promote one thing more than others, you can bet they have other things going on, too. When you find something that works for you, let other people know about it! (This doesn’t mean email everyone you know.)

Internet marketers are always on the lookout for other businesses they can be a part of. Advertising in areas where they will find it is the smartest thing you can do to promote your business. I also recommend making some money in a business before recommending it to other people. If you don’t, you will ruin your credibility. Waiting until you have a good experience/income is just the right thing to do for other people’s sake. I personally choose products that people will continue to want, need, or reorder. I have found that my income is more “stable” this way.

In response to being asked about other businesses or programs I participate in, I’ve included information about some of them in this eBook and on my website. Just remember, it is smarter to have a few hundred dollars coming in each month from 10 sources, than to have one source you depend on. Each of those 10 businesses will continue to grow if you continue to promote them and establish your own organization. Rarely does anyone have a garden with only one type of vegetable. Maintain your businesses as if you were growing a garden and always have a variety of “vegetables.”

About The Author: Tiffany Sutton is the webmaster and owner of http://theworkplacesucks.com/. She has a successful Internet home business and ahe has helped several new online business owners get started. For a FREE Internet Home Business Ebook that tells The Truth About Working At Home, visit her website.

by Scott Hughes

The success of a webmaster’s internet business depends on traffic as much as anything else. The best way to get lots of people on your site, and to get them to stay, is to have interesting content. Content is to websites as printed words are to books. A wordless book won’t make many sales, and content-lacking website won’t get many visitors.

Specific content is what brings in search engine traffic. Search engines love content-packed websites with a clearly focused subject. Additionally, advertisers want their advertisements placed next to relevant content. For example, the way to get fishing-related advertisers to advertise on your website is to have fishing-related content on your website.

Unfortunately, producing quality content can be rather difficult. Luckily, the following tips should help you pack your website with content:

1. Publish Articles

Publishing articles is a great way to increase the traffic to your site, increase the value of your advertising space, increase your search engine ranking, and please your viewers. Articles don’t need to be long. In fact, the shorter your articles are is probably the better, because internet readers read quickly and don’t like to waste any time. Also, long articles may lose their focus, making it harder for advertisers and search engines to target your subject. The best way to publish articles is either to write them yourself or hire a ghostwriter. Don’t assume writing them yourself is the best option; If you’re either busy or not good at writing it is probably wiser to hire a ghostwriter. Ghostwriters and copywriters usually write articles for around $15 - $30 dollars each.

2. Start a Blog

A blog, short for web log, is a public journal updated daily. With a blog, you can tell your visitors anything they may want to know. You can give them links to other sites or articles. You can give them news about the subject of your site or about your site itself. The great thing about blogs is that they are easy to start, because you will be adding the content bit-by-bit, rather than in huge bulks. Both search engines and surfers love fresh content. A blog not only never gets old, but also it’s always fresh as can be.

3. Start a Forum or Message Board

An online forum or message board is a place where surfers can talk about a particular subject. On a forum or message board members can start the threads themselves, and the other members can respond. The great thing about a forum or message board is that the content writes and publishes itself. Although there is some maintenance involved, a message board or forum is probably the least time-consuming way to add relevant content to your site. Another great thing about a message board is that people viewing it will continuously return to follow discussions in progress.

There are many ways to add content to your website, but generally these three are the best and most prominent. Content is the key to getting and retaining traffic, and traffic is the key to raising website profits.

About The Author: Scott Hughes creates and runs many successful e-businesses. Read more articles like this on his website, Web Business Resource, at http://www.webbizresource.com/.

You may republish this article if you keep all links intact and keep this “About The Author” footer.

by Jens du Plessis

Are you targeting your web site to your visitors?

I have a question for you:

Are the visitors coming to your web site the visitors you want?

Many businesses on the Net are working in the dark.

Web sites are designed and published. Traffic is generated. But sales are not happening.

Why?

Because the visitors they get may be the wrong visitors!

Let me tell you what happened to me.

Some years ago I set up a web site that sold pewter pendants of Celtic and Egyptian designs.

Within a few weeks the site was generating 10,000 visitors a week. Great!

Not so great! I wasn’t getting any sales.

When I went checking my stats I found that the majority of people came to the site looking for information on Celtic symbols. they were not coming there looking to buy Celtic symbol jewelry.

When last did you check and really analyse your web site stats?

Your stats can be very revealing, you know?

What keywords and key phrases are visitors using to find you?

If they do not find you through your main keywords, either you must change the focus of your web site, or you must go back to the drawing board with your search engine optimisation.

Where do your visitors come from?

This one is easy. If the majority of your visitors are from outside your targeted geographical area a large part of your efforts are wasted.

Alternatively, look at how you can offer products to accommodate these people, either through affiliate programmes and drop ship arrangements, or by adding a payment sytem in their currency.

What screen resolutions are your visitors using?

Are you designing in 800×600 when the majority of your visitors use 1024×800? if so you are wasting 25% of your screen space!

Which day of the week are you getting your most traffic?
This would be the time to put up your special offers, your new products, etc. This is the time you will probably get the best results the quickest.

How long does your visitors stay on your web site? And how many pages does a visitor look at on average?

Which pages are they visiting? And if they visit your sales pages are they clicking through to the order page? And if they are clicking through to the order page, why aren’t they buying?

Which pages are not loading, giving 404 errors?

By working your stats you can probably increase your sales by 20% to 40% with very little effort.

Go check you stats!

Jens

******************************************************
Jens du Plessis is an Internet marketing consultant and webmaster of a number of marketing web sites. Visit http://www.webmarketingsa.co.za

by Scott Hughes

Make a good website layout by keeping it simple.

Many webmasters seem to think that flashiness, complexity, and uniqueness make a good website. They couldn’t be more wrong. The key to designing a good website is simplicity.

The customers want simplicity:

Customers and surfers do NOT surf websites to see webmasters flex their ability at making flashy sites. Customers and surfers search the web to find information, products, & services. These surfers want convenience, speed and quality. They do not want to be bothered with pointless showoffs. Keep the layout simple so the customers can find what they’re looking for. Keep the delivery simple and direct, or else your customers will get it elsewhere.

The search engines want simplicity:

I’ve often seen webmasters who have websites filled with animations, videos, audio, and flash. Perhaps these methods can be used sparingly to increase the quality of the surfers’ experiences, but search engines can’t read movies, audio, and other multimedia. For example, if a webmaster builds a site in only Flash, that site will probably never receive traffic from search engines. You not only will waste your customers’ time with too much showiness, but you’ll lose traffic.

Web Browsers want simplicity:

Another huge downfall to using complex programming, showiness, and multimedia is browser incompatibility. Many customers with older browsers, higher security, or slower connections cannot watch or hear animations, audio, and video. Even out of the customers with compatible browsers, many will not wait for your multimedia to load. As a webmaster, you’re greatest fear should be the browser back button. A slow loading page due to complex flashiness is a great way to cause surfers to click that back button.

Although in moderation a special object such as a complex program, audio file or video may make surfers experience a little better, generally it causes more harm than good. Make your site a little snazzy, but keep most of the site focused on the actual point of your website.

About The Author: Scott Hughes creates and runs many successful e-businesses. Read more articles like this on his website, Web Business Resource, at http://www.webbizresource.com/.

You may republish this article if you keep all links intact and keep this “About The Author” footer.

by Jeff Schuman

An email automatic responder or autoresponder is the second most important marketing tool I have to make money online. The first would be my hosting company. Without these 2 tools my internet marketing business is dead in the water.

In the world of internet marketing, millions of sites are fiercely competing with each other to gain new clients. For any ecommerce site to succeed, it must capture the interest and the trust of its visitors. It is not enough that your site is perfectly designed or has the latest in animation of content.

You should focus your efforts not only in attracting visitors but also in leading them to make a purchase. There are dozens of marketing strategies you can use to attract more buyers and pump up your sales. One of them is by establishing an excellent and professional reputation for prompt and efficient response.

As more potential customers visit your site, you should expect a flood of inquiries and requests for information. This is an excellent opportunity for you to capture more clients and lead them to buying from your site. Thus, it is important that you carry out an efficient and prompt response to every email you receive. The fastest and most effective way to do this is by utilizing an email automatic responder.

Autoresponder services use a computer program that automatically return a prewritten message to anyone who sends an email to your site. It is widely used for responding to consumer inquiries and visitor comments and suggestions.

Follow up automatic responders are also used by e-zines in responding to people who subscribe or unsubscribe to their online magazines. Companies, who send out their e-newsletter regularly, also use utoresponders.

How can effective autoresponder services help boost your business? The answer lies in its ability to return a prompt response to any e-mail the site receives. By responding rapidly and efficiently, you create a very good impression on your potential customer. Good email autorespondrs help you get important information back to these customers immediately. An effective autoresponder service helps you communicate your message promptly, creating a sense of professionalism and efficiency that your clients will definitely appreciate.

Another very important advantage of email automatic responders is that it saves time with multiple marketing tasks. Certainly, you do not have enough time to personally make and send all correspondence. Autoresponder services allows you to send thank you letters, newsletters, product information, brochures, orders etc. to hundreds of clients almost immediately and simultaneously. Autoresponder services are also indispensable in any email marketing campaign.

Choosing the right autoresponder is very important. What makes the best automatic responder? First, you should pick an autoresponder that is reliable and can give you 24/7 service. You cannot afford to lose a customer because your autoresponder failed to answer his query or request for information. The ability to respond promptly is the first thing you must look for in any automatic responder.

Another key factor you should consider when choosing Autoresponder servcies is flexibility. Good autoresponders allow you to customize unique responses that will have maximum effect on the customer. You should avoid creating an impression that the customer is communicating with a machine instead of a real human being.

An excellent email automatic responder lets you provide the information that is specifically targeted for what the potential customers are looking for. Because any email from potential customers essentially represent the customer’s intent on getting more information about your product, which can ultimately lead to direct sales, all emails are important. Thus, a top Autoresponder servcie must fulfill all these duties to help you boost your business.

For all of our autoresponder needs we prefer Aweber. They are very reasonably priced and have proved to be reliable and easy to use.

About The Author: Jeff Schuman’s website, Team-Schuman.Com, contains the best make money online and make money websites available today. If you want to make money check us out here: http://www.team-schuman.com/email-automatic-responder.html

by Scott Hughes

by Joyce Oladipo

Is it worth keeping in touch with clients via ezine?

Yes, Yes, Yes and it does work.

Ezines are a great way to keeping in touch with your clients and an effective way to promote additional products and service to your clients. Clients will appreciate your efforts to keep in touch with them on a regular basis as well.

I am amazed by the amount of small businesses that are not using this method to build a relationship with their prospects. Some even try sending and giving up because there is no response from their subscribers.

Isn’t it hard for you to get a sales person into the home of a client sweet talking for you?

A campaign is a sustained attack on something. So in other words if we keep sending we will build out list incredibly.

Here are some things you need to know before starting your own ezine.

1. Patience and perseverance

It takes sometime to get a responsive list. Most small business owners give up after sending a few ezines or they don’t email their list often. As long as they are still on your list they are still interested in what you have to say. Do you respond to all ezines that arrives in your mail box? You may be interested in the product they are promoting but it could take six months for you to realize that getting the product could be of great benefits to you. So keep sending your ezines and keep it interesting and make sure it contains relevant information for your prospects.

2. Ezine Objective

Your ezine can have a variety of objectives depending on your goals. For instance, your ezine could be used for:

• Establishing your name and reputation
• Selling your products and services
• Keeping in touch with clients
• Driving traffic to your website
• Announcing new products and service.

3. Good Content

Your ezine needs to content good information relevant to your target market. It also needs to be in sync with your objectives. If it’s to build relationship you might consider using personally written articles with an interactive question and answer section and if it’s for advertising you can add an advertising section to your ezine.

Here are a few ideas for contents that you might consider for your own ezine:

• How-To tips, hints and articles
• Your answers to readers questions
• Reader testimonials, opinions, and feedbacks
• Guest experts corners
• Recommend website resources
• Contest
• Product reviews (books, tool etc.)

And if you think you can’t write an ezine you can go to www.elance.com and have someone write one for you. You can also visit free reprint right directories and use their articles. Here are a few www.ezinearticles.com, www.marketing-seek.com and www.ideamarketers.com

4. Your List

You can dramatically expand your response rate by positioning your ezine to a particular group. Try marketing your ezine on directories of your target market. You might also call a list broker to get a list for your target clients, or run ads that attracts the attention of your clients offering them free information.

5. Your Frequency

How often you send your ezine is important. There are six choices for you to decide to send your ezine.

• Daily ezine requires some commitment unless they are short. Normally this type of ezine consists of tips, quotes, or news.
• Weekly ezine are sent weekly
• Bi-weekly is an ezine sent every 2 weeks
• Monthly of just beyond the forgetting point.
• Quarterly ezine are simply a waste of time. It’s not useful if you are going to be keeping in touch with clients every 90 days. People will forget who you are and just delete your message when it arrives.
• Whenever ezine is the worst way of keeping in touch with your clients

Choose which frequency you want and stick to it.

6. Follow Ups

Follow up on everything properly. You can have your subscribers get messages in a certain way. Let them know they are dealing with a real person. Let them know you care.

7. Automated the system

Once you have decided on your objective, content, and frequency you’ll use for your ezine. It’s time to actually set up a system like:

• Gathering target clients email addresses
• Installing and setting up your email management system
• Having a subscription form on your website

The bottom line is this… if you don’t mail out to your clients you are losing or missing out on increased takings? We all need reminding of everything these days, life is busy. Your clients are no different. Keep in touch with them, set up a system where you mail them at least every six weeks and it will pay of big time for you.

Finally if you start it, never give it will pay off.

Online entrepreneur Joyce O. Oladipo, “The Home Business Sistah,” publishes the award-winning ‘Home Business Success’ ezine with 750 subscribers. To Learn to Recession Proof Your Business and Rapidly Attract More Clients, Sell More to Existing Clients, and Bring Back Your Clients More Frequently, without Pushing So Hard — No Matter What Product or Service You Sell sign up for FREE how-to articles and FREE audio class, at http://www.TheHomeBusinessSistah.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joyce_Oladipo

by Kevin Nobleman

If you want to acquire products to drop ship or wholesale, where do you look? There are all kinds of wholesale and drop ship list for sale on eBay. There’s likely to be lots of decent companies right?

Not true, according to Chris Malta, the Product Sourcing Editor for eBay Radio:

When you see all these “Incredible” lists and books and packages of wholesaler suppliers and drop shippers for sale on eBay and the rest of the Internet, for anywhere from $5 to $50 or more, what you’re seeing 99% junk.

There are thousands of scammers, snake oil salesmen and con artists on the Internet who are just lying around waiting to AMBUSH you when you begin looking for REAL wholesale suppliers to do business with. Believe it or not, there is a whole niche industry built up on the Net around this kind of scamming! The folks who run these scams have all the moral fiber of a box of hair, and the only reason they even recognize the word ‘Scruples’ is from the TV ad for the party game.

You may have even fallen prey to one of these con artists, selling you their “insider” wholesale/drop ship list of suppliers. Me too. I’ve purchased so many lists that I can’t even recollect how many. I don’t know why, but I tend to find the “good” in people, and I was “sold” by these marketing schemes time and time again, even after being scammed by the latest one. Finally, after so many disappointments, I had HAD ENOUGH. I decided to get to the bottom of this appeal we all have with wholesale/drop ship companies, and find out if there really were any LEGITMATE drop shippers for purchasing “hot” consumer goods at great prices.

I literally contacted the administrator of every wholesale drop shipping website I could find. Posing as an investor, I managed to persuade the owners that I was seriously interested in purchasing their entire website and business. That way, once the cartoonish money bags flashed in their minds, they would grant me free access to their member’s areas to examine what I would be “buying”. Well, I was appalled with 99% of what I found. Many of the owners actually bragged about how many people purchased their useless subscriptions. I repeatedly found:

*outdated lists

*non-working links

*links leading to other sites that asked for more money

*no help section

*no real email support

*no refunds

I quickly realized that these so-called wholesale/drop ship lists were totally pointless. And the owners knew it, yet they were laughing all the way to the ATM machine! Needless to say, I didn’t respond when they asked if I was still interested in purchasing their websites. Surprisingly, while sitting through all of the scam artist’s websites, I was able to locate a group of individuals that actually ran legitimate programs.

The owners were common folk like you and me that found a way to earn extra money working from home on their computers. Their membership areas were impressive, with an impressive amount of quality information on how to make $100-$200 per day on your computer doing very little work. I even chatted with a few of their customers in several online forums, and they confirmed that they were earning extra money using the information that the websites had provided them with. It was like I found a few diamonds in the rough. But don’t take my word for it, you can drop by the over two dozen sites I found. See what you think.

They do charge a minimal fee for access to their program, which is to be expected for any legitimate enterprise that actually has people on staff who are dedicated to helping you get earning online. What a warm group of people! Anyway, if you do decide you are interested in any of the two dozen companies, I advise you to join poste-haste, as the owners have informed me that they are getting so many new members by word of mouth referrals, that they will be blocking off membership completely by month’s end. (By the way, you didn’t get this news from me!) They don’t have a large enough staff to welcome many more people, and they are driven to providing excellent service to each person. Well, my quest to find legitimate Dropship companies has come to an end. I have to mention I was thoroughly disappointed with most of what I found, and I strongly urge you not to take any chances doing business with any companies other than the twenty four I will share with you.

Whatever you do, I hope for you and everyone you love a healthy and prosperous year.

Take care and I wish you all the best.

by Scott Hughes

I’ve heard many people say, it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Despite that old cliché, business is inherently superficial. Appearances count more importantly than anything. In fact, any confidence man can tell you that in business it is no exaggeration to say appearances are everything.

Offline, you always see successful business-people that are clean, well-groomed, and well-dressed, usually in suits and ties. These successful business-people ensure to keep good posture and a kind, trustworthy expression. You never see successful business-people who look scruffy & shambled that wear old dirty clothes. Customers judge a business and a business-person by their superficial appearance.

On the internet this is even more the case. On the internet customers only have your impersonal website to judge you, and they can do that judging in a matter of seconds.

Here’s some tips for increasing your aesthetic appeal on the web:

1. The first and foremost feature a viewer of your website will judge your business on is page loading. A page that loads slowly or is offline will instantly ruin your potential customer’s opinion. Many times, a potential customer won’t have the patience to wait for a long page load; the surfer will close your slow-loading website and never return. A page that fails to load is even worse. What reason could a surfer have to come back to a website that they never even saw in the first? None, the surfer won’t come back. Make sure your page loads quickly by working with a quality web-host and keeping the file-sizes of your website to a minimum.

2. The layout of a website is the online equivalent of a business-person’s dress, clothing, and hygiene. Surfers won’t do business with a sloppy website that’s full of errors. Demonstrate your professionalism to your potential customers by designing a sleek and attractive website that doesn’t have errors.

3. Order your own domain-name (e.g. www.yourdomain.com), make it simple and memorable. Don’t put your website up on a free or cheap host, especially one without your own domain-name. Firstly, people won’t be able to remember your website’s address if it’s just some folder on someone else’s website (e.g. www.someotherdomain.com/freewebsites/yoursite/). More importantly, potential customers will assume that you and your business are cheap and unprofessional too.4. Display contact information on your website. Give potential customers a phone number and/or mailing address where they can reach you or your business. Would you do business with a business-person who didn’t give you their full name, phone number, address, business-card, etc.? Of course not. Similarly, a website without contact information seems sleazy.