Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Published: 2010
Categories(s): Non-Fiction, Business & economics, General, Internet
Marketing, Home-Based Businesses
Tag(s): "Starting a business online" "internet marketing" "making money
online"
1
How to Start & Market an Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
Contents
Introduction to GuruGrounds.com.. 17
About Gurugrounds.com and What We Teach. 17
Things You Should Know About GuruGrounds. 17
Who We Created GuruGrounds For. 18
Course 1: How to Start an Online Business. 20
Section 1: The Various Internet Business Models. 20
Why You Should Start An Online Business Now! 20
What Type of Online Business Is Right For You?. 21
The First Steps. 22
Section 2: Getting Started With Your Online Business. 22
How to Think Like an Entrepreneur. 23
Further Examination of Your Business Idea. 23
Identifying Your Target Market 28
Sizing Up Your Markets Competition. 29
Section 3: How to Make a Proper Business Plan. 29
The Importance of a Business Plan. 30
How a Business Plan Should Be Structured. 30
Getting Help with Writing the Business Plan. 31
Thinking Long Term When Writing a Business Plan. 32
Section 4: Funding Your Online Business. 32
The Low-Cost, Tight Budget Method. 33
Finding a Good Investor. 35
Alternative Financing Sources. 37
Buying an Existing Website. 37
Section 5: Serving Your Online Customers with Integrity. 38
The Customer Comes First 38
Policies, Policies, Policies. 39
Keeping Your Word. 41
Section 6: Setting Up Your Office and Workspace. 42
An Effective Floor Plan. 42
Office Equipment 42
Tools of the Trade. 43
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Internet Connection. 44
Course 2: Legal Issues and Managing Your Businesses Money. 46
Section 1: Keeping Your Internet Business Legal and Within the Law..
46
Maintaining A Legitimate Legal Business. 46
Zoning Laws And Restrictions For A Home Business. 48
Obtaining the All Mighty Business Licenses. 49
Section 2: Choosing the Best Business Structure For You. 50
Determining What Organization Will Work Best 50
Sole Proprietorship. 51
Partnerships. 52
Limited Liability Company. 52
Incorporating Your Business. 52
Changing the Legal Structure Down the Road. 54
Section 3: Trademarks and Copyrighting. 54
Why Trademarks and Copyrights Are Important 54
Making a Trademark. 55
Protecting IP’s With Copyrights. 55
Getting a Professional 56
Section 4: Accounting. 56
Paying Your Taxes. 56
Accounting 101. 58
QuickBooks and Accounting Software. 60
Hiring a Professional 61
Good Recordkeeping Habits. 63
Course 3: How to Design a Website for Your Internet Business. 65
Section 1: The Right Domain Name for Your Internet Business. 65
Carefully Choosing Your Domain Name. 65
Where to Register the Domain Name. 66
What You Should Do If Your Domain Name Is Already Taken. 66
Why Finding a Good Domain Name Is So Hard To Find. 67
Section 2: User Friendly Website Design. 68
Optimizing You Website for Profitability. 68
What Is Good Website Design?. 69
Flash Web Design. 71
Function, Function, Function. 71
Section 3: Building a Website on a Shoe String Budget 73
Planning For Success. 73
Building a Website On Your Own. 75
Hiring a Professional 76
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Section 4: Hosting Your Website. 79
The Terms You Need To Know When Seeking a Hosting Service. 79
Finding the Best Host 80
Section 5: Creating User and Search Engine Friendly Content 81
Effective Internet Writing. 81
Writing for the Internet 81
Motivating Your User to Take Action. 83
Search Engines Friendly Words. 85
Section 6: Launching Your Website. 85
Testing, Testing, Testing. 86
Course 4: How to Operate Your Online Business. 88
Section 1: Ways to Monetize Your Online Business. 88
Selling Physical Products. 88
Selling Your Skills and Services. 92
Information Products. 93
Selling Ad Space. 94
Affiliate Advertising. 95
Multiple Streams of Income. 96
Section 2: Marketing Affiliate Programs. 97
The Ins And Outs of Affiliate Programs. 97
Joining an Affiliate Network. 99
Avoiding Scams and Staying Legitimate. 100
Section 3: Selling Information/Digital Products for Your Online Busi-
ness. 101
Creating an Information Product 101. 102
EBooks. 103
Creating a Webinar. 105
Section 4: Payment Options for Your Internet Business. 105
Credit Cards and Merchant Accounts. 106
Alternative Payment Methods. 108
Protecting Yourself from Fraud. 108
Section 5: Shopping Carts and Ecommerce. 109
The Variety of Shopping Carts. 109
Hosted Shopping Carts. 111
Purchasing Shopping Cart Software. 111
Custom Made Shopping Cart 112
Section 6: Inventory. 112
Using EBay to Find Out What People Are Buying. 113
Doing Your Research. 113
How to Price Your Products. 114
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How to Handle Your Inventory. 115
Section 7: Keeping Up with Demand and Filling out Orders for Your
Online Business. 116
Systematizing the Process. 116
In-House Delivery. 117
Outsourcing Fulfillment 117
Shipping and Handling. 118
Keeping Things in Check on the Back End. 120
Course 5: How to Deal with Hackers and Fraud When Doing Business
Online. 122
Section 1: The Risks Associated With Internet Security And Doing
Business Online. 122
Your Legal Responsibility as the Merchant 122
Securing Your Website. 124
Seals of Approval and Displaying Certificates. 124
Section 2: Having Your Website Hacked and How to Protect Your
Data. 125
Denial of Service. 125
Protecting Yourself and Your Business. 125
Saving and Backing Up Data. 126
Course 6: Storefronts and How They Work. 129
Section 1: Using a Storefront for Your Online Business. 129
The Essential Features of a Storefront 129
Recommended Storefronts. 131
Section 2: Amazon aStore And Other Storefronts. 131
Marketplace. 131
Pro Merchant 132
Astores. 132
WebStores. 132
Section 3: Yahoo! E-Commerce Store. 133
Yahoo Store Functions. 133
Getting Started With Your Yahoo Store. 133
Yahoo Plans. 134
Yahoo Fees. 135
Section 4: Using EBay for Your Internet Business. 135
Starting Out On EBay. 136
The Benefits of Running an Auction. 137
EBay Store. 137
Course 7: Getting Your Brick and Mortar Business Online. 141
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Section 1: Deciding That the Time Is Right to Move Your Business On-
line. 141
Connecting Your Online and Offline Store. 142
Deciding On Inventory. 142
Section 2: Getting to Know Your Online and Offline Customers. 143
Comparing the Online and Offline Shopping Experience. 143
What the Online Shopper Will Expect From You. 144
Section 3: Common Problems with Getting Your Business Online. 144
Managing Your Inventory. 144
Dealing With Returned Products from Online Purchases. 145
Course 8: Selling To a Niche Market 148
Section 1: Finding an Untapped Niche to Sell To. 148
Finding a Niche. 148
Section 2: The Children and Elderly Niche Markets. 149
Marketing To the Younger Audiences. 149
The Over 50 Market 151
Section 3: Blogging about Niche Markets. 152
Getting People to Read Your Blog. 152
Earning Money. 154
Blog Platforms. 154
Course 9: How to Market Your Internet Business Online 101. 157
Section 1: Increasing the Number of Sales for Your Online Business.
157
Conversion Rates and Other Formulas. 157
The Basics to Marketing Your Website. 158
Section 2: Having a Good Reputation on the Internet 159
Writing Articles. 159
Interacting With Your Community. 162
Section 3: Marketing Your Internet Business Online. 162
Marketing Strategy. 163
Email Newsletters. 163
Automation and Creating Systems to Simplify Your Life. 165
Search Engine Advertising. 166
Marketing In the Offline World. 167
Section 4: Increasing Your Conversion Rates. 168
Getting Customers to Stay On Your Website. 168
Giving Customers What They Want Before They Know It 169
Making Your Website Buyer Friendly. 170
Simplifying Shopping Experience. 171
The Dangers of Assuming What Your Customers Want 171
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Converting Viewers into Buyers. 172
Section 5: Web Analytics and Tracking Your Customers. 173
Trends. 174
Using Your Data to Make Changes. 174
Section 6: Search Engine Optimization and Ranking High In Google.
175
How Search Engines Work. 175
The Most Important Aspects of SEO.. 176
Submitting You Website to the Search Engines. 177
Where to Place Keywords on Your Website. 177
Moving Up In the Rankings and Finding out Where You Stand. 178
Course 10: How to Build You Presence Online. 181
Section 1: Getting Your Brand Online and Spread Across the Net 181
Marketing Process. 181
Developing Your Site. 182
Section 2: Making Money on the Internet 183
Affiliates Assistance. 185
Joint Venturing. 186
Section 3: Branding and Marketing For Your Online Business. 187
Color Selection. 188
Site Layout 188
Section 4: Connecting and Integrating Your Multiple Sites. 189
Section 5: How to Write Excellent Web Copy. 190
Section 6: How to Find an Expert Marketer. 191
Course 11: Social Media Marketing. 194
Section 1: What Is Social Media?. 194
Understanding and Exploring Social Media. 194
Blogging. 195
Social Networks. 196
Bookmarking Sites. 197
Microblogging. 198
Media Sharing Sites. 199
Popularity Sites. 199
Aggregators. 200
Section 2: Creating Your Social Media Network. 200
What To Track. 200
Section 3: How to Set Up a Social Media Marketing Plan. 200
Research Your Target Readers. 201
Create Your Message. 202
Preparing Your Style. 203
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Developing Your Profile. 204
Selecting Your Sites. 204
Reviewing Your Content 205
Planning a Routine. 205
Section 4: Top Social Media Sites and How To Use Them.. 205
FaceBook Finesse. 206
Making MySpace Yours. 206
Linked In With LinkedIn. 207
Bookmark like a Pro! 207
Share through Multimedia. 208
Participate In a Discussion. 208
Microblog to Success. 208
Answer Questions. 209
Section 5: Networking Your Business Online. 209
Section 6: Non-Intrusive Internet Marketing. 210
Course 12: PPC and the Basics of Online Advertising. 213
Section 1: Understanding What PPC Advertising Is. 213
Search Engine Relevancy. 213
PPC Pros and Cons. 213
Section 2: The Big Players in PPC Advertising. 214
Comparing the Big Players. 214
Lesson 3: How to Create an Excellent PPC Keyword List 215
Google Keywords Tool 215
Choosing, Organizing and Working With Keywords. 215
Match Types. 216
Destination URLs. 216
Keyword Tracking and Changing Your Keyword List 217
Section 4: How to Write Ads That Convert and Make Money. 217
Structure of PPC Ads. 217
Writing A PPC Ad. 218
Test for Successful Ads. 218
Section 5: How to Budget and Bid for Keywords. 219
Having A PPC Budget 219
Keyword Bidding. 220
Schedule Bidding and Spending. 221
Section 6: Understanding the Law When It Comes To PPC. 221
Click Fraud. 222
Section 7: Tips, Tools, and Tricks of the Trade for PPC Advertising. 222
Managing Content Network Campaigns. 223
Course 13: Basic Guide to Blogging and Podcasting. 225
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Lesson 1: Choosing a Profitable Topic to Blog About 225
Choosing Your Blog Topic. 225
Find Your Competitors. 227
Section 2: Starting a Blog for Your Online Business. 227
Blogging Tools. 228
Other Blogging Options. 229
Setting Up Your Blog. 230
RSS Feeds. 231
Section 3: How to Write Like a Professional Blogger. 232
Avoiding Writers Block. 233
Section 4: Networking With Other Bloggers. 234
Lesson 5: Building Community and The World Of Blogging. 235
Lesson 6: How to Promote Your Blog Posts. 237
Posting On StumbleUpon. 238
Submit To Digg. 238
Other Social Marketing Sites. 239
Section 7: Basic Guide to Podcasting. 239
Preparing a Script and Recording Your Podcast 242
Encoding and Uploading. 243
Course 14: Effective Email Marketing. 246
Section 1: Setting Up an Email Marketing Strategy. 246
Section 2: How to Become a Trusted Email Sender. 247
Avoiding Spam Complaints. 249
Section 3: How to Build a Quality Email Subscriber List 251
Collecting Subscriber Information through Email 252
Collecting Subscriber Information through Website. 253
Collecting Subscriber Information Person. 254
Collecting Subscriber Information with Print 254
Incentives for Signups. 255
List Building with List Brokers. 255
Section 4: How to Create an Effective Marketing Email 257
Filling Out the From Line. 257
Completing a Subject Line. 259
Branding Emails. 260
Basics of Email Layout 261
Email and Images. 263
Emails and Text 264
Emails and Links. 265
Section 5: How to Create Valuable Email Content 268
Valuable Offers. 268
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Effective Calls to Action. 270
Section 6: Tracking Your Results with Email Marketing. 273
Section 7: Increasing Your Emails Deliverability. 277
Course 15: Guide to Web Analytics. 283
Section 1: Getting Started With Web Analytics. 283
Understanding What Can and Can’t Be Done With Web Analytics. 283
Privacy. 284
How Reporting Tools Work. 285
Deciding Which Reporting Tool to Go With. 286
Setting up Your Server for Log File Reporting. 286
Creating an Account with Google Analytics. 287
Section 2: Keeping Track Of Your Internet Businesses Traffic. 288
Hits Aren’t Everything. 289
The Most Important Traffic Metrics. 289
Keeping a Close Eye on Your Referrers. 291
Section 3: Referrer Metrics and Analytics. 292
Referrers. 292
Understanding the Referring Analytic Terms. 292
How to Use Referral Data. 293
Referring Keywords. 293
Section 4: Determining the Quality of Traffic with Analytics. 294
Determining and Applying Benchmarks. 294
Bounce Rates. 295
Key Performance Indicators. 295
Course 16: Ranking High In Google with Good SEO.. 298
Section 1: Increasing Sales with SEO.. 298
The Purpose of Search Engines. 298
How the Search Engines Determine Relevancy. 299
Black Hat SEO.. 300
Tools of the Trade. 300
Keeping a Tab on Your Results. 302
Section 2: SEO and Effectively Using Keywords. 302
Understanding Your Target Market 302
The Long Tail Theory. 303
Tools To Find the Best Keywords. 303
Picking Out the Best Keywords. 304
Inspect the Competition. 305
Section 3: Common Problems with Search Engines and SEO.. 305
Roadblocks to Getting Noticed By the Search Engines. 305
Making It Easy For the Search Engines to Crawl Your Website. 306
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The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar. 308
Duplicate Content 308
Broken Links. 309
Section 4: Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines. 309
Optimizing Your Site Structure for Search Engines. 310
Trust 311
Section 5: How to Capitalize On Blended Search Results. 311
The Other Stuff Google Will Blend In. 312
News. 313
Section 6: How to Write Quality Web Copy For SEO.. 314
Brainstorming Ideas. 315
Writing for the Web. 315
Title Tags. 316
Description Tags. 317
Headlines. 317
Write For Customers Not Search Engine. 317
Make Writing a Routine. 318
How to Find Writers. 318
Section 7: Techniques for Link Building and Getting Backlinks. 319
Link Votes. 319
Linkable Content 319
Easy Places and Ways To Get Backlinks. 320
Quality over Quantity. 323
What to Avoid. 323
Seeing What Your Competition Is Doing. 323
Section 9: SEO Experts and What They Can Do For You. 324
Finding the Right SEO Expert 324
Realistic Expectations. 326
Disclaimer
Whether you are looking to expand your knowledge base, or are start-
ing scratch, this book is sure to help you out. While the information
within is vast, and can be applied at various levels, this book in no way
guarantees that you will make millions.
The information is worth your time and money (even though this is
for free), and if was to be sold, we would charge $1 Billion dollars, but
we aren’t.
11
This book is packed with thousands of useful methods that can be ap-
plied to any niche, but success depends on your ability to apply the in-
formation to your specific topic.
In addition to reading this book, be sure to read additional content
which may be more targeted towards your specific market. The advice
and situations discussed within this book may not apply to every situ-
ation and any recommendations made by this book, is not to be held
accountable.
The information contained within including but not limited to all lo-
gos, tables, content and information is copyrighted by Carbon West Di-
gital, 2010.
Introduction to
GuruGrounds.com
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
Introduction to GuruGrounds.com
For 20 years the internet has consistently proven itself to be an effect-
ive place to conduct business. Due to the internet’s ability to constantly
change, more and more people have realized the viability of doing busi-
ness online.
While there have been many cases of fraud and negligence, with the
update of technology and security, the internet has become one of the to-
go methods in creating and running a successful business. This may
seem as a complicated process, but by reading this book, you are already
on your way to success.
12
About Gurugrounds.com and What We Teach
After witnessing firsthand the difficult process of starting and running
an online business, we felt that a guide was needed. While the internet
has adapted to the times, launching your business is still a fairly complic-
ated process. To help you with that, we decided to combine our years of
experience and create a guide that helps you with all aspects of starting
and marketing your online business.
While we are providing this content to help others make money, we
are also benefiting as well.
We made an effort to research, catalogue and bring together all the as-
pects of online business into one condensed package for learning. Be-
cause we try to cover every aspect of online business we encourage you
to first learn as much as possible and then with the information you’ve
gathered, narrow your focus on a specific type of business.
Use this information as a reference when creating your business.
Not only do we cover the ONLINE aspects of running a business but
we also talk about the OFFLINE experience such as basic accounting
principles, legal aspects, and managing physical products.
Of course learning only our material is not enough to get rich so you
will have to do your part and remember running an online business re-
quires persistence, a lot of learning and hard work.
13
any of these qualities, you should still understand the basics of web
browsing, email and navigating the internet.
For those of you looking to get started, this package of information
will definitely be the ultimate reference guide when looking to start and
expand a new or existing business venture.
Our ultimate goal is to provide you with the tools required for you to
succeed. But remember, we can only open the door for you; it is up to
you to walk through it.
Course #1
Starting an Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
14
Why You Should Start An Online Business Now!
The internet is maturing and becoming a more stable place. In the be-
ginning, conducting business online was risky and unpredictable. But
now, with more people online than ever before (and those numbers are
predicted to increase for many years to come), online business has be-
come safer and more productive. People are becoming more and more
comfortable purchasing online.
Online retail sales in the U.S. alone are expected to reach $335 billion
by the year 2012 (According to studies done by Forrester Research).
There are over 238 million internet users in the U.S. and in the online
world they aren’t limited by location.
The internet makes it easy for someone with no startup capital to start
a business and start making money. You can create a website for free
and the cost of hosting and maintaining it are getting cheaper and
cheaper.
There is very low overhead and with that there is the potential of
achieving financial freedom and making really good money. The great
thing about all this is that physical location is not an issue, so you can
work from home! You’re not limited to the people in your geographical
area. You can sell to virtually anyone on the planet. And because you’ll
be self employed, you can work when you want and as much as you
want.
Ecommerce applications are becoming more accessible and easier to
use, thereby allowing novices to compete with the bigger companies. In
regards to the tools required to start an online business, they are cheap
and easy to use so you can start right away.
The demand, still out ways the supply, for many niches. Even if your
niche has a lot of competition, there’s always room for more.
What Type of Online Business Is Right For You?
The next step after deciding if you want to start an online business is
to find out what kind of online business you want to run. You should
choose a business that you’re passionate about and be sure to choose
something that you’d be willing to stick with for a long time. Carefully
choosing your business, will pay off in the end.
15
reach their full potential for that market. By choosing a business that will
last into the long term, you’ll have the time to learn, develop and take
over in your chosen market. Think tortoise and the hare.
16
Consult family members and friends. After developing a clear vision
of exactly what you want, talk to your friends and family up about it.
Getting an outsider's opinion will help you work out kinks in your idea.
Further clarify your business idea. Now that you've figured out the
holes in your business idea it's time to further develop their bulletproof
business idea.
Make a timeline. Write down all the steps required to achieve your
goal and set a date to them. This will prevent you from getting over-
whelmed and it will keep you focused.
17
security concerns, and the technology and tools that are at your
disposal.
18
Applying the SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is a popular method used to determine the pros
and cons of any idea.
SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, meaning that they spe-
cifically contribute (good or bad) to the proposed business.
Opportunities and threats are considered external factors since they
deal with things outside of your control and factors that are influenced
by the environment.
Follow these steps to create your own SWOT chart:
1. On a sheet of paper, draw a large cross separating the page into
four quadrants.
2. The upper left quadrant should be labeled as STRENGTHS.
3. The upper right quadrant should be labeled as WEAKNESSES.
4. The lower left quadrant should be labeled as OPPORTUNITIES.
5. The lower right quadrant should be labeled as THREATS.
6. Go through each quadrant and fill out each category to the best of
your ability.
When filling out the STRENGTH category, ask yourself these
questions:
• What are the benefits of the product or service?
• Am I an expert in this industry?
• Can I get a patent or copyright to protect my idea?
• Are my skills applicable to this business?
When filling out the WEAKNESSES category, ask yourself these
questions:
• How much will it cost to produce or offer my product or service?
• Will it be difficult to get suppliers?
• Do I have enough experience in this industry?
When filling out the OPPORTUNITIES category, ask yourself these
questions:
• Is there a big demand my product or service?
• Is my idea a growing trend?
• Will I be able to take advantage of a new technology?
When filling out the THREATS category, ask yourself these questions:
• Will I be able to compete with my competitors?
• How big are my competitors?
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• Are my competitors able to provide the product or service at a
cheaper price?
• Will my product be in need five years from now?
Take a look at each quadrant; do the strengths and opportunities out-
weigh the threats and weaknesses?
Is there anything you can do to offset the disadvantages?
There'll always be a few weaknesses and threats on your SWOT ana-
lysis but the fewer the better.
Keep working on your idea until all the factors have been taken into
consideration.
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• Will people buy my product or service?
• How much will it cost to start my business?
• How much profit will my business make?
• Is my idea worth pursuing?
Go through this list of questions to complete the feasibility study:
Products and Services
• What is the product or service that I am trying to sell?
• How will the customers use it?
• Where will my customers be able to buy it?
• How will my product or service be delivered to my customers?
• How will I make my product?
• How will I test my product?
Management Experience
• Do I have any management experience?
• Who will manage my business?
• What specifically are my skills and credentials?
• What skills should I work on?
• How much time and when can I devote myself to my business?
The Marketplace
• How big of a demand is there for my product?
• Who exactly are my customers?
• What is my target market?
• How big is my target market?
• Is my market growing or getting smaller?
• What is the best way of reaching out to my target market?
The Competition
• Who exactly are my competitors?
• What makes me different from my competitors?
• How exactly to my competitors market their products and
services?
• Is my product or service easy to replicate? If so, how can I prevent
it?
The Costs of Business
• How much does my product or service cost me?
• How much money will I need to start my business?
• How much will I need to make in order to make profit?
• What other costs will my business have?
When you answer these questions make sure you back them up with
actual research. The more accurate your information is the better you'll
21
be able to run your business. If you can answer all these questions you
are ready to move to the next step.
22
The more you know about your market, competitors and the industry
the better off you’ll do.
Document a list of all your competitors and update it often, for each
competitor you should document information such as:
• Their website address
• The types of products and or services that they offer (details,
prices)
• Promotional work such as ads (brochures, flyers, posters,
commercials)
• How often they have sales, and how big they end up being.
The more information you have, the better. Subscribe to all the email
newsletters and promo offers, offered by your competitors, this will
make it much easier to keep up to date with them.
Knowledge is power so don’t let this information go to waste, use the
information you’ve gathered to strengthen your business strategy. Com-
pare the strengths and weaknesses of your business with that of your
competitors. Do they do a better job at a certain task? If so learn from
them and implement their strategy into yours. If your competitors have
a major flaw in their strategy, learn from it and avoid doing the same if
possible.
You can use the information you’ve gathered to define your business
and make it more unique in relation to your competitors. You don’t want
to be a copycat so try to stand out. Be strong where they’re weak.
Depending on the market, pricing your products for a lower price is
not always a good idea. Use your competitors pricing strategy as a
guide, take it into account but do what’s best for “your” business.
23
Your business plan is like a map. The more information it contains the
easier it will be to find the destination and goal you had in mind. Writ-
ing a business plan can be a lot of work depending on how detailed you
make it, but it will pay off tremendously in the end.
A business plan will you keep your finances in order and you’ll be
able to see what is priority and what isn’t.
If you’re planning on getting money from an investor, bank or other
outside source you’ll need a business plan to show them. This goes more
or less without exception. The investors want to see that you know what
you’re doing.
A business plan will change with time because it does not only explain
what your business is about and how it works but it also explains where
the business is going and how it will get there, all those will change and
you business plan will need to change accordingly.
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• Operating Plan: This is the section where you describe the physic-
al location, facilities and equipment of your business. You’ll also
want to describe the inventory requirements and suppliers, and
include a description of the manufacturing process (if any).
• Financial Plan: Here you should describe your funding require-
ments and how the money will all be used.
You can use this format for any business.
Check out Bplans (www.bplans.com) for samples of other business
plans. Find a business plan for a business similar to yours and see how
they’ve done it. It can be extremely useful.
25
• Chamber of Commerce www.uschamber.com
• SCORE www.score.org
If you do end up deciding to hire a professional be sure that they have
experience with your industry and online businesses. Read other busi-
ness plans written by the professional and ask for references.
As with all contracts, make sure that all the final terms are in a written
contract. With specifics of what each party member is responsible for.
26
One option is to work part-time to earn enough cash for the essentials
but devote the rest of your time to your business.
Some people will keep their day job and work on their business at
night.
The key thing is to be financially safe and secure and to cut down ex-
penses so that you won’t run into problems. It will take you longer to
start your business but you’ll be in a better financial position in the long
run.
Thinking frugally forces you to be smarter with your money and make
the most out of the least.
27
Bartering and trading are excellent ways to save money. Bartering and
trading is essentially getting something in exchange for one of your
products of services.
Southern Barter is an organization to help facilitate bartering and trad-
ing in your area. You can search online for similar organizations.
Don’t ever buy computer software before trying out the trial versions.
Most programs offer a 30 day trial period for free which may be long
enough to get your business off the ground. You can always buy the pro-
gram later.
Before going out and buying an expensive program, search for free-
ware (free software) that can do the same thing.
You can find freeware online from many websites. We recommend:
• Tucows.com www.tucows.com
• MajorGeeks.com www.majorgeeks.com
• Free-Downloadable-Software.com www.Free-Downloadable-
Software.com
28
Friends and Family
This should be your first source of investments since your friends and
family are going to be the most flexible when it comes to you paying
them back and simply just dealing with them.
Family members and friends will usually not charge you interest on
the loan and you won’t have to deal with bureaucracy that’s usually
found with a bank. You’ll get your money right away with your family
and friends.
Depending on the people you know, it’s possible to get a large amount
of money by asking for a little from everyone.
There are downsides to getting money from your family though.
Approaching family members and friends for money can lead to prob-
lems in the relationship.
You’ll have to be careful with how much company stock you give up
to your friends and family. You don’t want to give them too much own-
ership and then have the company succeed… it can lead to sticky
situations.
Be sure to have proper terms of agreement written that all parties un-
derstand to prevent misunderstandings.
Often time’s people who get loans and funding from family and
friends keep the terms of agreement unstructured and loose. This can
lead to many problems.
Investment Angels
Angel investors are people who are willing to fund small businesses
and young company start-ups.
They’re usually much more lenient then full on investors but they’ll
still require a good business plan and some evidence to prove to them
that they’ll get a return on their investment.
Angels usually avoid getting involved in the actual business. They just
want to provide you with the funding and they’ll let you run your
business.
Also, angels usually give you more time to return their investments,
anywhere up to 5 years.
Here’s a list of angel networks that you’ll find useful.
AngelInvestorNews.com www.angel-investor-news.com
Funding Universe www.fundinguniverse.com
Go Big Network www.gobignetwork.com
NBAI.net www.nbai.net
vFinance.com www.vfinance.com
29
Venture Capitalist
Getting a venture capitalist to fund your project will not be easy.
Venture capitalists will not give money to start-ups. They want to see
that you have a good track record and that you’re able to deal with big
loans. Venture capitalist often invest anywhere from $500,000 to
$10,000,000 or more.
If you want money from a venture capitalist you need to be in a good
industry that shows growth. You’ll need a proven track record with an
experienced management team. Venture capitalists are looking to make a
big return and so you should be ready to give up control and leave it in
their hands if need be.
If you’re thinking of eventually getting a venture capitalist it’s best to
make connections now. Attend seminars hosted by venture capitalist
and connect with them online.
Research the different venture capitalist firms and focus on the ones
that invest in your industry.
Check out these two resources to learn more about the venture capital-
ist industry:
• The directory of venture capital and private equity firms, 2008 edi-
tion
www.greyhouse.com/venture.html
• The money tree report
(www.pwcmoneytree.com
30
you apply for them. There are many organizations out there that offer
micro loans and we recommend you check out:
Count me in www.countmein.org
Accion USA www.accionusa.org
Grants and awards are another way to go. Many companies and or-
ganizations offer grants and financial awards to innovative entrepren-
eurs. You’ll have to do some research to find these though as there isn’t
any resource that keeps track of them all.
31
The customer comes first, even in an online business and that is the
most important asset in your business; your customer base. What you do
for the customer is more important then what they do for you.
This section will cover good business practice and how to treat your
customer right.
Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy will state how you’ll collect, use, and treat the in-
formation you collect from people.
The information you gather includes cookies and other tracking data.
You can find a sample privacy policy at:
www.bbbonline.org/Privacy/sample_privacy.asp
The sample privacy policy can be used if you live in the USA and
you’ll just need to go through and change a few details.
32
A privacy policy for your online business is required by law in the
USA and it’s mandated by the FTC. The privacy policy has to be prop-
erly labeled and easy to access on your website.
It should include information about what information you gather, how
you use it, and who you share it with.
Terms of Services
Also known as a “user agreement” or “terms and conditions”.
Many membership sites ,where you have to register, will include this
during the registration process (a TOS is important if you want to avoid
getting sued for actions taken by users).
The TOS should indicate how users can and cannot use the site, also
legal issues, who are allowed to use the site, and any other rule you may
require.
Shipping Policy
This section should indicate how and when customer orders will be
handled and shipped.
There are FTC rules to comply with in regards to shipping and hand-
ling. Here are the rules:
• You must ship the product as stated on your website.
• You must ship the product within 30 days after the order has been
received, unless an earlier timeframe is specified.
• You must notify the customer ASAP if you’re unable to fulfill the
order.
• You must allow the customer to agree to any delay or to be able to
cancel the order and specify the amount of time required to be
refunded.
• You must include a correct and revised shipping date if there is a
delay.
Return Policy
The return policy should be clear and specific as there are always a
few people who will take advantage of you. The return policy is made to
not only protect you, but also your customer.
The return policy should clearly state the conditions by which a cus-
tomer is allowed to return a product and how they will be refunded.
The return policy should state:
• The time limit in which the owner has before they’re no longer
able to return the product.
33
• You’re right to reject a returned item if it shows obvious signs of
use.
• The fees associated with returning and restocking the items.
• Exactly what can and cannot be returned.
• You should state who will pay for shipping and handling on the
returned item.
• Will the customer receive cash or store credit?
• If you sell other businesses products you must direct the custom-
ers to their return policy.
To avoid having people take advantage of your return policy, minim-
ize the days in which they can try the product.
34
If for whatever chance you are not able to meet the standards when
serving a customer: notify the customer ASAP, apologize, correct the is-
sue, and offer the customer a refund, credit, or discount.
Section 6: Setting Up Your Office and Workspace
Having a proper work space will save you a lot of time in the end, so
don’t take this lightly. You’ll be spending a lot of time in front of your
computer so make sure it’s comfortable.
This section will cover the essential equipment, hardware and layout
for an effective workspace.
Office Equipment
Long gone are the days of the $500 photocopiers, scanner, and
printers.
You can now get computer equipment for a very cheap price. Now
days you can get all in one device that can print, fax, copy, scan and
print DVD’s/CD’s for a very good price (around $150).
Even if you don’t need an all in one device, it’s still probably the most
practical purchase you can make.
Fortunately most online businesses can be entirely conducted online
without devices so unless you sell physical products and you have to
print out invoices, an all in one device is not necessary (but really good
to have).
If you’re selling physical products you should consider buying a digit-
al camera to display pictures on your website of your products.
If purchasing the equipment is out of the question due to finances you
can consider outsourcing that work and using a company like Kinko’s
35
(now FedEx) or Staples to do all you’re printing, faxing, and copying
work.
Email Management
Thunderbird ht-
tp://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/
36
Gmail www.mail.google.com/
Microsoft Outlook www.microsoft.com/outlook/
Miscellaneous
WinRAR http://www.rarlab.com/
Internet Connection
Depending on the region you live in, you’ll have a different internet
service provider (ISP).
Research your options and go for the most trustworthy and stable ISP.
You’ll also want either a DSL or Cable modem connection.
Don’t be lured in by cheap deals. You’ll want an ISP that’s stable and
provides fast service. There’s nothing worse than when your internet
goes down for a few days while you’re trying to do business.
The average going price for a good internet connection is about $20 -
$40 per month.
Course #2
Business Finance & Legal
Issues
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
37
Course 2: Legal Issues and Managing Your Businesses Money
Section 1: Keeping Your Internet Business Legal and Within the Law
There are many laws governing how you can run your business. An
online business not only has its own laws but also must also follow the
laws regarding a non-internet business.
The laws for online businesses change often so you must stay up to
date with the regulations. Also the laws are different state to state so be
mindful and consult a lawyer if you have any concerns.
38
Depending on the state you live in, you may have to pay and collect a
sales tax on every product you sell. If you are required to collect and pay
tax, you may have to get a resale certificate (you may also need one if
you’re going to buy or sell wholesale).
With so many exceptions and various rules you may want to consult a
certified public accountant.
39
• Form W-9: This form is given to independent contractors, consult-
ants, and free lancers.
• Form 1099: This form is filled out by you every time you hire
someone (not a contractor) to do $600 worth of work or less. This
form is also used if you barter or trade goods.
• Form W-4: This form is to be filled out by any employees you may
have. You’re responsible for withholding and taking out their
money for income tax, social security, Medicare, and FUTA
(federal unemployment taxes).
• FORM W-2: This form must be given to all your employees at the
end of January of each year. The W-2 indicates the total income
your employee made and how much you’ve held back for tax
reasons.
40
These rules are made to protect the property value of the homes
nearby. These rules are also there to protect neighbors.
If your business requires the storage of a large number of products
consider leasing an offsite storage facility to manage and ship your
products.
In some cities you may be required to get a “home occupational per-
mit”. Usually for online business they are given automatically to you but
in some instances you’ll have to meet a certain criteria and pay a fee of $1
to $75 (Home Occupational Permit is not the same as a business license).
If you belong to a home owners association contact them to see if there
are any restrictions in regards to conducting business from home.
If you rent out an apartment or home, double check with the rental
agreement to make sure that you’re allowed to conduct business on the
property.
Don’t take any of this lightly; if you’re caught breaking the law you
“may” have your business shut down.
41
Determining What Organization Will Work Best
Figuring out what system will work best isn’t hard but you will need
to know what you want.
A few questions to ask yourself are who will own and control your
business? Will there be multiple owners? Will you accept all the legal
consequences of your business? Or will you make a corporation to pro-
tect you from the liabilities?
While answering these questions be sure to understand that each busi-
ness structure is taxed differently. We suggest consulting a certified pub-
lic accountant, or tax attorney to figure out which option will work best
for you.
Another important factor to determine is funding. How you decide to
finance your company will effect which structure you choose. If you plan
on getting outside investors (angel investors or venture capitalist) you
must have a stock option. If you want other business to be able to invest
in your business your options for the business structure is limited.
Sole Proprietorship
Sole proprietorship is the cheapest, simplest and easiest business struc-
ture to form and operate. Only one person can own this type of business
and all you will need is a business license.
The problem with being a sole proprietor is that you’ll be legally re-
sponsible for everything that happens to the business and all legal mat-
ters. You and your personal assets will be liable under this structure for
the damages caused by your business
Also under this structure you’re responsible for all taxes. The profits
and losses of your business must be indicated on your personal tax re-
turns under Schedule C. You will have to pay Self-Employment taxes
(under Schedule SE) and your Self-Employment taxes will include your
Social Security and Medicare tax.
42
Sole Proprietorship with Your Spouse
Technically the IRS identifies a sole proprietorship as having one own-
er. According to the IRS if your spouse works for your business they
would be considered an employee in which case you’d have to withhold
taxes. If your spouse has an active role in the ownership of the business,
the IRS considers your business a partnership.
Some tax advisors suggest your spouse can still be involved in your
business since your business income will be indicated on your joint tax
returns under schedule C. According to the IRS your business is still
owned by one person.
One way to bypass paying payroll taxes is to consider your spouse a
volunteer but the downside is that they won’t get any credit for their so-
cial security.
The IRS considers a volunteer to be someone who does not work regu-
lar hours. Your spouse must meet the criteria of being a volunteer other-
wise the IRS will fine you.
Partnerships
Exactly the same as a sole proprietorship except a partnership can
have multiple owners. If you decided to use this structure, a good idea is
to have the terms of ownership written down and signed to prevent dis-
putes and legal issues.
If you decide to create a partnership, write a document indicating
what percentage is owned by each person, what each person is respons-
ible for, and how the profits and losses will be distributed among each
partner.
When going into a partnership there should be a clear idea of how
much money and time each partner will contribute. There should also be
a clear idea of how decisions will be made.
Before starting a business all partners should know exactly what’s at
stake if they don’t contribute and what will happen to each member’s
share of the business if they don’t do their part.
The partnerships that last the longest are the ones where all partners
openly discuss all the issues and agree upon a solid deal before
launching.
43
protection and having multiple partners. To get an LLC you’ll have to
apply with the state and although it is harder to get than a partnership,
they aren’t as difficult as filing for a corporation.
A great benefit of this structure is, you can fund your project by get-
ting investors (and corporations) as members.
Choosing To Incorporate
The great thing about incorporating is that you get legal protection
and is a good choice if you plan on getting outside investors.
Deciding to incorporate has many tax advantages that in other struc-
tures would not be provided. You can take the company public with an
IPO (initial public offer).
One disadvantage to incorporating is that applying for one requires a
lot of paperwork and information. When applying you’ll have to submit
articles and bylaws describing exactly how your business will be run and
it must be approved by your state.
One important requirement for maintaining a corporation is that on an
annual basis you must hold meetings and record minutes for these meet-
ings. This can all be daunting at first but it’s really not that difficult.
If you choose to incorporate, there will be separate tax forms which are
much more complex then the ordinary forms. If your corporation does
not file taxes or record the minutes of your meeting, the stockholders are
legally responsible and they are no longer legally protected.
44
For this type of structure, expect to pay upwards of $1000 for an attor-
ney to fill out the paper work.
If you decide to incorporate yourself you should still expect to pay a
few hundred dollars for the filing fees as well as paying an annual fee
with your state.
45
A patent is the ownership of an invention, granted by the government
that prevents others from using it. Once the invention has been patented,
it must be disclosed to the general public.
A trademark is a distinctive name, motto or symbol that legally identi-
fies a company, brand or product and legally prevents others from using
it. Protecting your IP’s will give you the legal ground to sue or stop any-
one someone unlawfully using your work.
While this all may sound very difficult it really is quite simple to
accomplish.
Making a Trademark
The surprising thing about a trademark is that you don’t technically
have to register it in order to have rights to it. The real benefit of it is to
assist you in court if you were ever to sue someone.
You can use the trademark symbol on your work whether you’ve re-
gistered it or not. A trademark is characterized by the “TM” and a re-
gistered trademark is represented by an R inside a small circle. The pre-
vention of people from using your registered trademarks is up to you.
If you decide to register your trademark, you may look at paying
about $325.
You can register your trademark at the United States Patent and
Trademark office:
• www.uspto.gov
46
For more information regarding copyrights of online work go here:
• www.copyrights.gov/circs/circs66.pdf
It would be advisable to consult an attorney if it’s important that you
protect your product.
You register a copyright at the US Copyright Office:
• www.copyright.gov
Getting a Professional
You should consider hiring a professional if protecting your IP’s is
critically important to your business. US copyright and trademark laws
are recognized in most countries but not all. Hiring a professional famili-
ar with international copyright right and trademark laws will help
tremendously.
A copyright and trademark professional will run you anywhere from
$175 to $300, not including the registration fees.
To find an IP’s professional check out:
• American Bar Association: www.abanet.org
• FindLaw: www.findlaw.com
Section 4: Accounting
For most business owners accounting is the least enjoyable part of run-
ning a business but unfortunately, proper accounting is the most import-
ant part of your business. In the end, you must have proper bookkeeping
if you want to run your business effectively.
The IRS doesn’t take fraudulent inaccurate accounting lightly; you’ll
want to pay your taxes properly otherwise face their wrath. Due to the
high importance of accounting, many business owners outsource their
accounting work to a professional as there is much to know.
Employment Tax
47
If your business has employees (including you) you are responsible for
paying taxes meant for your employees.
A payroll tax is the name given to the taxes you pay on behalf of your
employees. Payroll taxes include Medicare, social security, Federal in-
come tax withholding, and federal unemployment tax (FUTA).
Figuring out the withholding amount is pretty complicated if you
haven’t done it before (again, it’s best to hire an accountant to show you
exactly how to do calculate the taxes).
You must submit the payroll taxes every quarter and file Form 941 on
the last day of the month that comes after the end of the quarter.
Here is the payroll due dates:
Quarter End Due Date Extended Due Date
March 31 April 30 May 10
June 30 July 31 August 10
September 30 October 31 November 10
December 31 January 31 February 10
If you are unsure, the IRS website offers tools and learning material to
assist you with paying your taxes. The website also contains information
for people starting up a business and how best to deal with taxes.
If you are not filing taxes, then expect hefty fines. If your payroll taxes
are under $1000 you can get permission to submit your taxes annually.
You can file your taxes online (fastest and easiest way to go) but you’ll
need an EIN (employer identification number) and you’ll need an IRS
approved vendor to submit your work. Find From 4419 here:
• www.irs.gov/businesses/index.html
One highly important recommendation is to send you payroll taxes a
bit earlier if you’re going to do it online as there is a bit of turnaround
time.
Sales Tax
If you’re selling or manufacturing products you must collect, and keep
track of a sales tax from the customers and submit it to the local, state
agencies. Every state deals with the sales tax differently though so you’ll
need to keep up to date with the rules of your state.
Make sure your accountant is aware of all state sales tax laws espe-
cially as it applies to online businesses. There is still a lot of discussion
among state authorities as to how online businesses should be dealt with
so staying informed is a good idea.
The Federation of Tax administrators (FTA) website has links to the
tax agencies of each state. You can find it here:
48
• www.tax.admin.org/fta/link/defaults.html
Accounting 101
Proper and accurate accounting is essential if you want to run a suc-
cessful business. It’s not the most fun but you’ll be able to see how de-
cisions you have taken have affected your business.
You’ll want to keep accurate records to see how much profit or loss
you may have incurred during the month (P&L = profit and loss). Use
your financial statement as a guide to show you how well you’re doing.
Methods of Accounting
The accounting method is the way in which you figure out your in-
come and expenses. You must pick the method before you start business
and you’re expected to stick with it. You may be able to change methods
but only if the IRS approves it.
There are two common methods of accounting: Cash basis and Accru-
al basis.
Cash basis is a method where you report earnings and expenses as
they come in.
According to the IRS you cannot use the cash basis method if:
• Your business is a C corp. making more than $5 million annually.
• Your business is a partnership with a c corp. as a partner and you
business makes over $5 million annually.
• If your business is a tax shelter.
49
• Your business has inventory.
Accrual basis is when you report income when you earn it and you re-
port expenses when you owe them (as oppose to when you pay them).
The only restriction with using an accrual system is that you cannot be a
tax shelter.
Balance Sheets
A balance sheet is a detailed overview of your business financial
status. You will be using a balance sheet regardless of method of
accounting.
Here are a few concepts and terms you’ll need to know:
• Assets: Anything of value that is owned by your business.
◦ Cash: the amount of money you have in your bank account.
◦ Accounts Receivable: (A/R) The amount of money that’s
owed to you.
◦ Inventory: The total value of all the products you currently
have on hand.
◦ Fixed Assets: These would be things like land, building,
vehicles and equipment.
◦ Miscellaneous: Just as the item implies, anything that
doesn’t fit into the other categories.
◦ Liabilities: Any debt that the business has is a liability.
▪ Accounts Payable: (A/P) The total amount of money
that you owe to others.
▪ Accrued Expenses: These include wages and taxes
which are withheld and paid later.
▪ Net Worth: The amount of equity in your company.
▪ Revenue: The total amount of income your money
has made recorded over a period of time.
▪ Expenses: The total amount your company has spent
over a period of time.
If everything is done correctly your assets should equal the total
amount of liabilities plus your net worth.
Income Statement
This is also knows as a profit and loss statement (P&L). This statement
takes a look at all your revenue and expenses. It will show you how
much your business earned or lost for a specific period of time.
It uses line items (a list of items that affect you monetarily to show you
a total of both revenues and expenses).
50
You can create a P&L statement quarterly but we recommend doing it
monthly as you’ll better able to notice any problems.
A P&L statement looks exactly the same as your bank statement. It
shows you what came in and out of your business. With a P&L statement
you’ll be able to notice trends in your activities and how they affect your
business.
Hiring a Professional
You may hire a professional accountant at some point while your busi-
ness grows and by hiring a professional, you can save you millions; and
get set in the right direction.
Although they may be expensive, they can be more then worth it.
You have many types of accounting professionals.
• CPA: Certified public accountant. These are accountants certified
by the state who are recognized by the IRS as someone who can
file and submit your taxes. The generally deal with taxes but they
can also specialize in specific aspects of business.
• Accountant: Essentially the same as a CPA except for the fact that
they’re not certified or licensed by the state. Like a CPA they can
also file your taxes.
51
• Bookkeeper: A bookkeeper is someone who you can hire to man-
age the basic record keeping of your small business. They can also
manage the payroll, make deposits, deal with account payables/
receivables, and create balance sheets and income statements each
month.
• Tax Consultant: They can be an accountant or CPA or neither and
their skills can vary.
• Enrolled Agent: They are federally licensed and trained in state
and federal tax laws. They must pass a federal background check.
They are certified according to the IRS to file/submit taxes, repres-
ent you when dealing with the IRS, and you can consult them with
financial planning.
• Tax Attorney: They help you out when you’re dealing with com-
plex tax issues. They don’t do any general accounting activities.
Many large companies will hire one as an employee but for a
small business… rarely will you need one.
Only a CPA, attorney and enrolled agent can represent you with the
IRS and while bookkeepers are hired by most small businesses if you’re
comfortable doing your own accounting, feel free to. Hiring a bookkeep-
er is generally not expensive as their fees generally range from $8 to $20.
Use the free bookkeepers hiring test when hiring a bookkeeper. You
can find the test here:
• www.aipb.org/testrequest.php
52
Another option is to go to your local chamber of commerce and have
them help you find a professional. They don’t play favoritism but they
can direct you to one who’s familiar with businesses like yours.
The following websites are a great resource to help you find a good
accountant:
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants:
www.aicpa.org
• National Association of Enrolled Agents:
www.naea.org
• Association of Attorney-Certified Public Accountants:
www.attorney-cpa.com
• CPA associates International:
www.cpaai.com
• American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers:
www.aipb.org
• AGN North America:
www.agn-na.org
Aside from looking for proper accreditation and good rates, you
should also look for someone with lots of experience, especially with
your industry.
Naturally as with hiring anyone you should look for someone who has
a good work ethic and doesn’t cut corners. When it comes to taxes you
want someone who’s professional and detailed.
Paper Work
Even though your business is online, you will still be getting lots of pa-
perwork. It would be wise to get a small filing cabinet to keep everything
organized. You’ll also want to keep your paperwork organized in the
event you’re stuck with a legal issue. You’ll want as much proof as
possible.
Because more businesses are being created online, the IRS now con-
siders electronic versions of records legitimate. You’re allowed to scan
copies of your records and keep them on electronic devices, including
CD’s and DVD’s.
53
Be sure to make multiple copies of all your work and store them in dif-
ferent physical locations. If you have a large amount of files to scan and
copy, you can outsource it, as there are many companies who specialize
in it.
The general rule of thumb is to store all your records for up to 7 years
but at the very least 4 years. You’ll want to protect all your records in the
event of an audit, legal situation or lawsuit.
Course #3
Web Design for Your Online
Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
54
What Makes A Good Domain Name?
The most important point about a good domain name is it should be
easy to remember and spell (try avoiding words that are easy mis-
spelled). Also, the shorter the name, the easier it will be to remember.
Brevity packs a punch. A useful way to come up with a domain name is
to use keywords to identify what you do.
If you use keywords related to your business, search engines will rank
you higher which will make it easier for people to find you.
A final recommendation when choosing a name is to choose a unique
one. The name should be unique but related so that it’s not confused
with anything else. Avoid names that people search for often.
What name would be attractive to your market? Are you selling to an
edgy younger crowd or conservative older folks?
55
Exploring More Options
Hopefully your first choice of a domain name will be available. The
website in which you register your domain name will often give you al-
ternatives if the domain you wanted is taken (often time the suggested
alternatives can be quite good). If you don’t like the alternatives you ba-
sically have to start from square one. Keep trying out domain names un-
til you find one that you like and is available.
The internet is constantly allowing more and more domain name ex-
tensions so if you’re dead set on a certain domain name you may want to
just consider changing the extension from .com to something else.
56
Most of the simple and best domain names were taken during the ini-
tial .com explosion.
You’ll probably have to be creative when choosing a domain name be-
cause your initial choice will most likely have been taken.
You can try making you domain name extremely specific. Niche mar-
keters use this technique.
• Ex: www.howtostartanonlinebusiness.com
You can try thinking outside of the box and coming up with a clever
name. If nothing is working, don’t be afraid to create your own words or
use totally unrelated words for your domain name. (Think: Google,
FaceBook, Yahoo!, and MySpace.)
You can also try adding words like Inc, ltd, corp. at the end of your do-
main name.
57
What Is Good Website Design?
A good design will give your audience a good first impression.
What impression do you want to give to your audience?
You want them to think you’re professional of course but what im-
pressions do you want to give the audience aside from that?
The first impression will be made up within the first few seconds of
looking at your site.
58
Having audio and video of you site is a great way to add value to your
site but use it cautiously as it can also be annoying. Also try to avoid
video and audio that plays on its own; better to give users the choice to
play and stop the video.
59
used more to display artistry and for entertainment purposes. This being
the case, most professional web designers suggests not using it.
The benefit of a flash website is that it displays the same on everyone’s
browser and is good for product demonstrations. The ultimate benefit
for SEO improvement is flash content will show up in search engines.
You may be tempted to use flash to develop your website due to posit-
ive past experiences. If that’s the case just ask yourself if using flash will
contribute to an increase in sales.
User Experience
Based on initial impressions people will decide whether or not return
to your site and whether or not to buy something from you. Users will
make up their mind about your site within seconds of looking at it. Your
job is to impress them right away and continue to impress them if you
want them to return and buy.
The user experience is just as the name implies; how the user experi-
ences your site and how enjoyable or rewarding they find it.
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• All links work properly.
• Images and media work as intended.
• Your website should have a way for users to make orders
(shopping carts).
• Contact information (an email will do).
Interactive functions
• A search function that allows users to search for information on
your website.
• An option to download media and appropriate files (.pdf’s and
etc.).
• A way for users to comment on articles and posts and products.
• Forums and chat rooms. Difficult to make active at first but it’s
great if you can get them busy.
• Member registration option for more content and access to areas
of your websites (forums and chat rooms).
• RSS and email subscribing.
Enhancing functions
• Demos and tutorials for your products or services.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Store locations (if applicable).
• Language viewing options.
• New forms of media (i.e.; podcasts)
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before the foundation is creating the blueprints. Good sites take ample
time to plan exactly what it will look like.
Your site ultimately has one function: “to make money”. What func-
tions will you require in order for your site to make money?
Answer the following questions to help you decide what functions
you’ll need:
• How many types of products are being sold? If you have multiple
categories of products you may want multiple pages.
• Will there be a members section? If so you’ll need a log in and re-
gistration page.
• Will you use a shopping cart system? How will customers pay for
your items?
• Is there going to be a FAQ page to assist users with using your
website?
• Is there a forum?
• Will customers be able to comment on articles, products or other
items?
• Is there a search function?
• Will you create a contact form? Or will you just provide an email?
• Will there be media on your website?
Once you’ve figured out which functions you’ll need, you should start
working on a site map. A site map is like flow chart to show you how
each page connects to one another and what each page links to. Don’t
worry about how each page look yet. You first have to figure out pages
you’ll need.
If you have a large site you’ll have 1000’s of pages so when doing a site
map only map out the main pages.
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simplify the shopping experience as much as possible. This will increase
sales dramatically.
Make the navigation global. A user should be able to access all the
main parts of your website from every page.
Good web design is always evolving and can take a lot of time. Your
website will never fully be done because it can always be improved.
Don’t spend too much time working on your web design.
Once you get a functional design that works, get it up and improve it
from there otherwise you’ll never start business.
Realistic Expectations
If you’ve never made a website before it’s easy to get carried away and
create a grandiose plan. Remember that simplicity and ease of use for the
user should be your first priority.
Avoid implementing too many functions on one page.
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Fortunately making your website has never been easier. Long gone are
the days of using notepad to write html code. There are many tools out
there that make the process of building a website extremely easy.
Even if you’re a complete beginner and you’ve never made a website,
the tools out there are simple and easy to use.
HTML
HTML is a code that your browser uses to display a webpage and
primarily makes the base of all websites now days (and is also quite easy
to learn). But the great thing about it is, you don’t need to know html to
make a website as there are many tools that will create the html for you.
Although you don’t need to know html it’s recommended if you want
to have better control of your website. By learning the basics of html you
can save yourself a lot of money.
Entire books are written on html coding and since it’s not necessary
for you to know we won’t go into too much detail here.
Check out the following site to learn the basics of html code:
• http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/html_tutor.html
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One excellent place to get feedback for your website is at:
• http://forums.digitalpoint.com
Hiring a Professional
If you’d prefer to focus on the business and marketing and not the web
development you should outsource the work to a professional.
If making a website is too daunting a task and you’re unconfident in
your ability to make a professionally effective website, hire a
professional.
The benefit to hiring a professional is that you’ll save a lot of time. A
website may take a non professional a week to month to complete where
as a professional could get your site done in several days.
Another option more regularly taken is to hire a webmaster to make
changes as the website progresses.
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A freelance designer costs much less than a full firm. They usually
tend to work much faster and much more efficiently. The benefit of hir-
ing a good freelancer is they have personal shortcuts and ways to simpli-
fy their job and are much better for smaller simpler projects.
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Once the website is completed ask for a copy of the website on disk or
some other form of storage.
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E-commerce support: If your website is going to have a shopping cart
is sure that your host can support it. Also be sure that the host has a
shared SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer) to ensure that all data being
transferred is secure. If the SSL is not shared you’ll need to get an indi-
vidual SSL certificate from:
• www.verisgn.com
Operating System: Each server is run under a certain operating sys-
tem although this isn’t much of an issue except for certain technical
situations.
Backup’s service: You’ll want a hosting service that will backup your
website periodically (if not daily) otherwise it’s possible you can lose all
your information and essentially your business. Backing up your data-
bases and website is something you should periodically yourself as well.
Support: Don’t ever use a hosting service that doesn’t offer support.
This should be a no brainer. They should provide phone and email
support.
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Web copy is the written sales material used to motivate a user into tak-
ing action.
Search engines such as Google search your website for keywords and
then rank you into their search engine according to the words they find
on your website. If you want to rank up high in Google you’ll need to
know what they look for.
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You must answer the needs of your buyers.
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Deciding Which Action Takes Priority
There are many actions you’d like customers to take so you must de-
cide which action takes priority. You may want the user to subscribe to
your email newsletter first and then check out your product demo and
then buy the product. Make a list of all the actions your users can take
and rank each one.
Put focus on the actions with priority by placing them higher up on
your webpage. Your most important content should be front and center.
• Act now
• Affordable
• Amazing
• Breakthrough
• Clearance
• Discover
• Don’t be left out
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• Dramatically
• Easy
• Effective
• Fast
• Free
• Free trial
• Half off
• High-profit
• Improve
• Instantly
• Limited time only
• Listen
• Little-known
• Low-cost
• New
• No obligation
• Now
• Powerful
• Profitable
• Proven
• Quality
• Reduced
• Revealed
• Revolutionary
• Risk free
• Save
• Secret
• Stop
• Unleash
• While supplies last
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The goal is to make your website appealing to both the human users
and the search engines. Use commonly used keywords and phrases re-
lated to your product throughout the content of your website. Don’t
overly use keywords as human users may find it odd and distracting.
Search engines place extra value on the words that are in the header so
place keywords and phrases into those sections.
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looks like in each browser, under different resolutions and in different
operating systems:
• http://browsershots.org
Ask your friends and family to test out your website. Ask them to click
and use every button and function and ask them to report any problems.
You want your website to be displayed correctly and working for all
viewers otherwise you’ll lose sales.
Course #4
Operating An Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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How to Make Profit
Buy low, sell high.
If you can sell something for more than the cost of getting it, maintain-
ing it and distributing it… you’d make a profit. Finessing the system
though will decrease overhead costs and in turn increase profit.
You’ll have to take into account all the expenses required to acquire
and distribute the product and not just the buying price. You have to
look at fuel costs, time spent and etc.
For some products you’ll have a tough time selling because other com-
petitors have managed to find systems to bring down their overhead
costs which allow them to price their products at a more competitive
price.
To help you figure out how much you’ll be making on a certain
product, answer these questions:
• What much does it costs to purchase or produce your product?
• How much will the overhead costs? Take into account storage,
employee salaries, transportation, shipping/ handling, marketing
and etc.
• Will you be able to price your product in such a way that you’ll be
able to cover the overhead and product expenses while still being
competitive with the industry?
• How much profit would you like to make per month? How much
will you need to sell every month in order to reach that amount?
• How many visitors will you need to bring to your website in order
to make the desired amount of sales?
• How much will the marketing costs to bring in the desired amount
of sales?
Write down how much you’d like to make and then write down how
much you’ll need to spend in order to make that amount in profit.
There’s a little math involved but it pays off in the end. You don’t
want to go into business running blind… losing profit without knowing
why so do the math and create a fool proof plan.
Poor planning leads to poor performance… keep that in mind.
The profit margin is how much you make per product sold. If your
product costs you $7 to sell but the product is priced at $10, you have a
profit margin of $3 per sale.
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Creative items such fashionable clothing, fashion accessories, crafts,
paintings, sculptures, and art pieces can sell for a large amount if you
market it right.
If you have the skill, creativity and know how to make your own
product… you “can” make a good profit from them.
Naturally your products must be of a high quality and worth the price
tag.
Your products should be original and unique, this minimizes competi-
tion. People are always looking for unique items to set them apart from
others so having a unique product can definitely pay off.
Even if your product is just used by a small portion of the population
(such as nose ring jewelry) you’ll be able to tap that market without too
many competitors. This is called niche marketing. Even though your
product may be obscure and unique you can still make a good profit
since you are the only one selling that type of item.
There are many website out there that cater to the artist and allow you
to sell your products on their website. They market and you just have to
produce items. The only downside is that they take a small percentage of
each sale.
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If you decide that going to flea markets is not your thing you can try
buying wholesale.
When you buy wholesale you’re usually required to buy your
products in bulk.
When selling a physical product you’ll most likely need to devote one
area of your house to storage for inventory. If you’re buying a large
amount you may want to rent out a storage unit or warehouse.
The problem with selling physical products online is that you’ll have
to worry about shipping and handling, returns and exchanges and ware-
housing all from your home… and if not your home a workplace you’ll
have rent out which will cost extra.
To buy wholesale you’ll need a state-issued reseller’s certificate or a
Federal tax ID number.
Making profit buying and selling products can be extremely difficult
but if you have the right product and system in place it can be very
rewarding.
Drop Shipping
Drop shipping has come long way on the internet and it’s become a
system that is well developed and easy to use.
Drop shipping is when you sell a company’s products, but the items
are kept at the companies and warehouse and they deal with the ship-
ping and handling. So you’re basically just a storefront for the drop
shipper.
Drop shipping companies will only bill you once the item is sold and
the items are usually priced wholesale on your part… so the profit comes
from increasing the price to your customers.
The benefit of this system is that you don’t have to worry about ship-
ping or handling, warehousing inventory or storage; you just have to
worry about marketing and selling.
Only certain companies allow for drop shipping so you’re somewhat
limited with what products you can sell.
The most attractive benefit to drop shipping is that you don’t have to
pay anything until you’ve sold the item.
No down payment or startup capital required. You only pay once
you’ve made money.
The customer thinks the product came from you and so you’re the one
taking the credit.
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You’ll have to look around for a good drop shipping company, there
are many that have bad shipping and handling records so always check
their what their reputation is first… do your research
Another downside to selling for a drop shipper is that you don’t have
complete control. You have no say in how or when the products are
shipped.
Not all drop shippers have return policies so if you guarantee the cus-
tomer full money back return policy… the money is coming out of your
pocket!
Depending on the products you sell, the profit margin might be quite
small.
You can find reputable drop shippers by purchasing a product
sourcing membership with:
• www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_Products.asp
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multiple sources to find the truth. The bar is much higher for convincing
users of anything.
Here are few things you may want to include on your website to estab-
lish credibility with the users:
• Users want to see you on multiple websites throughout the net.
It’s recommended you social network, use YouTube and other
video sharing sites to promote yourself.
• They want to see your certifications and degrees on your website.
You should never lie but saying you’re a certified _____ makes
you automatically more credible.
• Users want to see that you’ve been around for a long time. They’d
have a tough time hiring the services of someone new to the
industry.
• Client testimonials are an excellent way to increase credibility.
• You should display a list of all your big clients. This is another
way to show you have experience.
• Stories and case studies that illustrate how you’ve helped
someone or a company helps.
• Be sure to indicate any awards you may have received.
• If you’ve been mentioned or appeared on another website,
magazine, TV show, or third party… show it off and let people
know!
When selling your services you should market yourself everywhere
applicable.
If you don’t have time to market yourself you can always hire a mar-
keting expert to do the work for you.
Consider yourself a brand and work on making yourself big. You
want to be seen.
Information Products
This is a method where you sell a digital product. Since its digital the
customers are only buying a copy of the original file and there’s no over-
head since there are no physical products to manage. Because there is no
overhead, this method makes the most profit.
With this method you’re selling information, a program, or media file
and your product only needs to be made once.
People are willing to pay a lot of money for this type of product;
whether it’s expert predictions on the stock market or a program that
will save your business 1000s of dollars.
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A paid membership site can also be considered an informational
product since the user is paying for the information found inside.
This is the most lucrative method to make money online since it re-
quires such little overhead and it’s the direction the internet is currently
moving in.
Most digital products come in the form of a PDF EBook, a media file,
or a program.
Selling Ad Space
This method has been around for a long time and is used in
magazines, newspapers, TV shows, and it’s pretty much seen every-
where you go.
If your website gets a lot of traffic you should consider putting up
some well placed appropriate ads to increase your revenue.
There are many ways to put ads on your site while not being annoy-
ing. There was a big trend for sites to have annoying banner ads and pop
ups to sell you stuff but that trend is waning and going out. The current
trend is to place ads that have value to the customer and make their ex-
perience more rewarding.
There’s still a time and place to be using banner ads but they should
only be used in specific situation.
The most common system is for you to join an ad network like Google
AdSense where you place a small code on a certain page of your website
and Google places relevant ads on that page of your website.
When using an ad network such as Google AdSense you make money
every time someone clicks on their ad
Ad networks typically place ads that are related to the content of your
website, so if you have a travel website the ads will be travel related and
of interest to the users.
Here are just a few ad networks that we recommend:
• http://burstmedia.com
• https://www.google.com/adsense/
• http://www.valueclickmedia.com
• http://www.casalemedia.com
It’s recommended that you use multiple ad networks in conjunction
for maximum revenue. There are limits to how many ads you can place
on a single page that is determined by the ad network so be sure to fol-
low their TOS (terms of service) closely.
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More ads do not necessarily mean more money. You need a large
amount of traffic if you want to make good money selling ad space, you
must also display the ads effectively if you want people to click on them.
PPC = Pay Per Click. When someone clicks on the ad on your webpage
you make a small portion of money (assuming you’re using an ad net-
work like AdSense). That money you get is the PPC of the ad.
CTR = Click Through Rate. This is the percentage of people that click
on your ads. A CTR of 3% is considered average.
Every ad has its own PPC. The PPC can vary from 1 cent to as high as
$60. The average PPC though is just a few cents.
Ads related to debt consolidation, money, health, fitness, travel usu-
ally pay more than any other niche.
If your average CTR is 2% and the average PPC is about $1, you make
$2 for every 100 hits. If you have 1000 hits a day you’d make $20. If you
wanted to make $200 per day you’d have to get 10 000 hits per day.
How much money would you like to make per month from ad reven-
ue? By calculating R (revenue) = (hits x CTR) x PPC you’d be able to fig-
ure out how many hits you’d need in order to make the desired revenue.
Affiliate Advertising
You can sign up to become an affiliate for a company, market their
product and make a commission on every sale.
An affiliate is someone is who advertises, markets, and directs custom-
ers to someone else’s product and if the user buys the product the affili-
ate get a commission.
Some affiliates programs offer commissions as high as 75%. If their
product is $100 you make 75$ for every sale that came from you.
You don’t deal with inventory or shipping and handling, you just mar-
ket the product and the other company deals with the rest.
Affiliate advertising is an excellent way to add value to your customer.
You can easily find an affiliate product that your customers would like
and then you can either send out a newsletter or write a review of the
product containing your affiliate link.
Naturally you should only place affiliate links that are appropriate to
your audience for maximum revenue.
Affiliate networks are places for you to easily sign up to other com-
panies affiliate program so you can sell their products.
There are many affiliate networks that simplify everything for you. We
suggest you check out the following sites.
• http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/
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• http://www.affiliatefuel.com
• http://www.linkshare.com
• http://www.cj.com
• http://www.primaryads.com
• http://www.valueclickmedia.com
• http://www.darkblue.com
• http://www.clickxchange.com
• http://www.primaryads.com
• http://www.clickbank.com
• http://www.azoogleads.com
Having an affiliate program is also an excellent way to market your
own product. The affiliate networks listed above allow you to add your
own product so that people can sign up to advertise your product.
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This section will clarify and help you get a footing with how affiliate
programs work and what you should know about them.
Even large brand names such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Best Buy use
affiliate programs to make money. They wouldn’t be doing it if wasn’t
working.
Most people’s initial experience with affiliate networking may be neg-
ative… there are a lot of scammy people out there doing bad sales but
when done right… it’s seamless and not visible.
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Tag: The part of a link given to the affiliate to keep track of the fact
that the user came from you.
Qualifying link: The link used to direct users to the affiliate pro-
gram so you can earn a commission.
Required URL: This is the affiliate location where you send your
users.
CPM: Cost per 1000 impressions.
CPC: Cost per click.
CPA: Cost-per-action. Some merchants will offer you a small amount
of money if you get someone to take an action that doesn’t involve a pur-
chase (signing up to a newsletter for instance).
EPC: Earnings per 100 clicks.
EPM: Earnings per 1,000 impressions.
CPL: Cost-per-lead. A lead is someone who joins the merchant’s
newsletter, or fills out a survey or takes some sort of action that could
possibly lead to a sale down the road.
PFP: Pay for performance.
PPA: Pay per action. Same as CPA.
PPI: Pay per impression.
PPL: Pay per lead.
PPS: Pay per sale.
RON: Run of network.
ROS: Run of site.
CR: Conversion ratio. The CR is the percentage of clicks or views
needed to achieve something like a sale or lead.
ROI: Return on investment. If you invested $500 and your earned
$1,000, your ROI would be 100%.
COOKIE: A file that is used to remember information about a website
user that is to be used at a later time.
InVue: Ads that are like pop-up ads but they appear in the front
blocking the content behind it. You can’t drag or move an InVue win-
dow. They are not separate windows but instead exist as a part of the
website being browsed.
Interstitial: This is a type of ad that’s displayed between the page
you’re on and the page you want to go on. There is usually a button that
the user has to click on to move to the next page or they must wait a few
seconds for the ad to forward them automatically.
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The signing up process is straight forward, just follow the directions
provided be the affiliate network.
There are several requirements you need to join an affiliate network.
You must have a website which will be reviewed by the network and
you usually will need an EIN or SSN.
Affiliate networks want to see that you’re legitimate and that you’re
not out there to scam people.
The process can take anywhere up to 10 days.
Illegal Affiliates
Just because it’s online doesn’t make it legal… duh! Check to see
which country the affiliate program is based out of. It might be legal in
their country but not yours.
You can check with the better business bureau at:
• www.bbbonline.org
If you do come across an illegal or fraudulent program you can report
it with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at:
• www.ic3.gov
You should always investigate the programs you sign up for by doing
research of them online. This isn’t fool proof of course but if their bad…
you’ll probably read about it.
Read the terms and conditions of the affiliate program carefully and
always know what you’re getting yourself into.
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Avoid:
• Avoid companies that don’t have contact information or are diffi-
cult to learn about. You want open trustworthy companies.
• Avoid companies that don’t offer support for their affiliates.
• Never sign up with an affiliate that requires a fee for you to join
them.
• The companies that have slack requirements are usually worth
avoiding. Go with companies that check your website and have
strict rules on how you’re allowed to promote them.
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Creating an information product can be fun and rewarding but time
consuming.
To create an information product you just need to:
• Find a topic that people are willing to pay money for and that
you’re interested in.
• Organize the information into a clear concise teachable manner.
• Distribute and market it.
• Make money.
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At the very least your information should be on par with the competi-
tion and obviously… make sure all your content is original.
EBooks
EBooks are digital books and with certain formats such as .pdf’s you
can create bookmarks at each chapter or heading to make it easier for
readers.
Although eBooks still sell well in this current day and age… it’s hav-
ing less and less of value as video media is taking over.
EBooks are preferable if you have scientific, legal, or financial docu-
ment as you’re able to show information in a more structured manner.
EBooks make great additions to any audio book or video you sell. It
can add a lot of value to the sale.
Creating an EBook
PDF = Portable Document Format.
EBooks are composed of images and text.
You can write your document in any word processing program al-
though it’s recommended that the final format is a PDF document. A
PDF is good because you can lock the content and prevent people from
editing your work.
PDF’s also give you the option to password protects your file which
will help slow down piracy.
PDF’s are supported by almost all computers and is the standard
format for businesses around the world.
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There are many programs out on the internet that will convert .txt,
.doc, and other formats into PDF. The most commonly used PDF creator
is Adobe Acrobat, sold by Adobe.
Adobe offers a website that can create PDF’s for you. It can be found
here:
• http://createpdf.adobe.com
Creating a Webinar
A webinar is essentially an online seminar. With a good webinar pro-
gram you can deliver video, audio, text, a PowerPoint presentation and
chat features to your audience.
Many people do not like to read, they prefer to watch and listen. Hav-
ing a webinar is a good way to increase value.
Not all topics need webinars but for some… they’re almost essential. If
you’re teaching martial arts or teaching how to apply makeup… a we-
binar is one avenue you should consider taking.
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Webinars are now possible due to the proliferation of broadband
which allows lots of information to be sent to the user simultaneously.
Ultimately the more you can give your customers the happier they’ll
be.
You can record webinars and provide them for download later on and
your webinars can be live or recorded.
Windows LiveMeeting and WebEx have excellent resources to assist
you in making a webinar. Check out the two following links:
• · http://office.microsoft.com/livemeeting
• · www.webex.com/go/demo
There are many programs and utilities coming out specifically for creating
webinars.
What most webinar creators do is market and advertises their we-
binars months in advance. Then on a certain day they do the webinar
live.
Once the webinar is recorded you can offer it to the webinar attendees
or sell it to new users.
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• Having a merchant account will cost you extra since the bank does
not process the credit cards (it works as a middle man with the
credit companies).
• Banks are very strict and rigid with approving accounts.
You can also get merchant accounts with the direct provider (the com-
pany that processes the credit cards). A direct provider will be a cheaper
option then the using the bank.
Here are a few direct providers that provide merchant accounts:
• www.cardservicesales.com
• www.merchantwarehouse.com
• www.merchantaccounts.networksolutions.com
Payment Gateways
The payment gateway is the process that communicates digitally with
the credit card company, your bank and your website. Your merchant ac-
count provider will most likely have a gateway ready for you.
If you’d like to choose a different gateway, find one that accepts all the
major credit cards:
• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
Make sure your gateway is compatible with your shopping cart soft-
ware. You don’t want to be spending money on something that you’ll
not be able to use… do your research and make sure it will all work in
the end.
Your gateway should:
• Be sure your gateway sends the money to your bank account often
and not once a month, a few days at most.
• Your gateway should provide 24/7 support.
• The gateway should allow you to view your transactions and
information.
There are many features your payment gateway can add to your ac-
count such as recurring billing and such. Check out what they have to
offer.
Here are the payment gateways we recommend:
• www.authorize.net
• www.paymentech.com
• www.firstdata.com/linkpoint
• www.onlinedatacorp.com/aboutonlineapp.asp
• www.verisign.com
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Merchant Account Fees
Unfortunately there’s no way to escape this… you’ll be charged a
small fee for every transaction among other things.
You’ll most likely be charged for:
• Processing your application.
• Setting up your account.
• Transaction fee which can be 2-4%.
• Sending you your statement.
• You get charged for not making a monthly minimum.
• Customer charge backs.
• Terminating your account.
Not all merchant account providers will charge you all the fees men-
tioned above.
Look around and check out your options. Decide what’s best for you.
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Stolen credit cards are an issue many owners will encounter. The cred-
it card companies are always taking more steps to protect both the con-
sumer and merchant from fraud but it’s a constant battle.
To minimize the risks of fraud you should use the following security
features:
• AVS: Address verification, the address associated with the credit
card must match the address given to you by the order.
• CCV: Card code verification, the user must enter the 3 numbers
seen on the back of your credit card.
• Filters: Filters can screen for suspicious order and block out IP ad-
dresses that have made a large amounts of credit card purchases
in a short amount of time.
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Front End
This is what the customer sees when viewing your site.
The most important thing for the customer is being able to go through
the process of purchasing your item quickly and easily.
The front end should have a good amount of options for the customer.
There should be buttons to view their order, review your product, leave
and read comments.
Test out the front end yourself and imagine being a customer. You
want to make it easy yet appealing.
Integration
Integration refers to the coding side of things. You want a shopping
cart that is compatible with your site and is easy to install.
The shopping cart should be stable and not have errors pop up and
your shopping cart should be able to connect with your accounting
software.
Find a shopping cart company that offers good customer support.
Dealing with money issues with clients can be a real head ache.
Marketing
A shopping cart that supports marketing functions is extremely im-
portant and makes a good bonus. Marketing functions for your shopping
cart include such items as:
• Coupons
• Recommending similar products to customers
• Data feeds that can communicate with websites like Froogle,
Shopping.com Yahoo shopping, Shop.com, and Shopzilla.com.
• Discounts
• Sales and Specials
• Send out email regarding sales to your email list.
• Gift certificates
• Search tool
• SEO friendly (SEO = Search Engine Optimization)
• Product ratings and reviews
• Product commenting
• Polls and surveys
• Social bookmarking/networking
• Incentives (buy one, get one free)
You want a shopping cart that fits your needs and then some. You
want options and control with your shopping cart.
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Hosted Shopping Carts
An alternative to hosting, installing and programming your own shop-
ping cart is to hire a company to host it and deal with it for you.
Outsourcing your shopping cart can be cost effective since you won’t
have to deal with the problems.
Although you’ll have to pay a small fee, you won’t have to deal with
the technical issues. You just have to worry about keeping the inventory
and store up to date.
If you decide to go down this route be sure to get an outsourced shop-
ping cart company that offers round the clock support.
Even thought the shopping cart is hosted on a different server you in-
tegrate it into your own website.
Here are the best hosting shopping cart companies we recommend:
• www.1shoppingcart.com/shopping-cart-features.asp
• www.goecart.com
Hosted shopping carts can be expensive so make sure it’s worth it for
you. They can run you $25 to $200 per month.
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This is not recommended as it would be very expensive. It can cost
you easily over $10,000.
Because it would be custom coded you’ll have problems with integrat-
ing it with your payment gateway and other programs.
A custom shopping cart should only be considered if absolutely neces-
sary or if the cost is not an issue for you.
Down the line when your company starts making large amount of
money, you can consider this as a viable option.
Not only is this approach expensive but it’s also time consuming. It
can take month or more to developed and test out.
Section 6: Inventory
This section is primarily made for those selling a wide range of
products but it can also apply to informational products and people
selling just a few primary products.
Your inventory is not just about the items you have for sale but also
the way you price them and what type of variety you have.
It’s often a good idea to have several varieties of the same product
(different colors, sizes, styles).
Fortunately this subject has been studied and researched greatly and
so finding out how to price your products is easy.
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Terapeak is another excellent tool offered by eBay but it has a monthly
fee of about $24.95. You can find it here:
• www.terapeak.com/signup
Terapeak offers a free trial and we highly recommend it.
97
You should calculate all the expenses incurred by your product (the
pricing floor). This is the lowest you can possibly go without losing
money.
You can price items based on the perceived value of the item (some
items, although cheap to make can be worth a fortune… like art)
Pricing your items can be a fine art but as long as you stay within a
certain acceptable range, people will buy the product from you.
The secret to maximum profit is finding that perfect number where
you don’t price it so high that you lose buyers but you don’t price it so
low that you make too little profit per items.
How to Handle Your Inventory
Depending on the type of business you plan to run, you’ll need a cer-
tain amount of inventory on hand.
There are many questions you need to be able to answer when it
comes to inventory.
• How many types of products do you plan to sell?
• How much of each item should you have on hand?
• Do you have enough room for all the merchandise?
The business with the largest array of products has no correlation to
how successful that company will be.
More is not always better.
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markets are usually willing to pay much more for an item since the item
is typically much rarer.
A niche market would be something like ladies perfume or Japanese
tea pots.
Try to find a niche that doesn’t have too much competition but has a
big following. With niche markets you should focus on acquiring the
highest quality and most unique items.
When dealing with a niche market people want to trust that you know
everything about the subject and that your items are the best out there.
Niche markets have small communities and usually have social net-
working groups. By joining these groups, you can make a name for your-
self very quickly.
Section 7: Keeping Up with Demand and Filling out Orders for Your
Online Business
Second to actually getting the sale, filling out the customer’s order is
the most important thing you’ll have to do.
Getting your first order can be very exciting as it validates your busi-
ness idea and is proof that your business works.
Keep in mind that no matter how good the user experience was, if the
item takes too long to be sent to the customer and not packaged the way
they expected it… you’ll most likely never see that customer again. You
should think about and plan how you’ll deliver the products before you
start business. If you have a bad, inefficient system for packaging and
sending items out… you’ll be in big trouble when the orders start com-
ing in.
This section will talk about way to simplify the job of filling out
orders.
If you expect a large amount of orders you may want to consider out-
sourcing your fulfillment orders to another company. If you expect 100
orders a month on the other hand… you can probably do it yourself
without too much trouble or time spent.
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needs to be taken on paper, it should be clear enough that others will be
able to understand it and run your business. Once you understand the
whole system, take a close look at how things are done and try to find
ways to simplify and automate it for maximum efficiency.
In-House Delivery
For small businesses this is the cheapest and most practical approach.
This approach is good for those people who like to have control over
how their items are shipped.
The space required to store your products depend on the product.
Items such as books, CD’s, DVD’s, naturally take up much less space and
storage should not be a problem. If your product is large and takes up a
lot of space, you may want to consider renting a storage space or
warehouse.
If you get a rental storage you can send your product orders directly to
the storage and the rental company can load the product in your storage
(expect an extra fee of course).
You’ll always want items on hand to ship and you’ll want to order a
new batch of product before your current batch runs out. If you have a
company that ships the products to you, check out how long it takes so
you know when to order a new batch without running out of product.
If you get a lot of orders and you’re doing business out of your
house… you can always hire an employee to assist you in doing the
work.
Outsourcing Fulfillment
If your website sells a lot of product you should consider outsourcing
your fulfillments to a company that specializes in doing so.
There are many companies that handle the shipping and handling for
small businesses and you don’t have to be a multimillion dollar com-
pany to be outsourcing this task. Since companies that specialize in large
fulfillment orders are efficient and effective… getting them to do it is
much cheaper then you developing your own system. These companies
that specialize in fulfilling orders are called “fulfillment houses”.
Many Fulfillment houses offer extra services such as customer service
and reporting.
Make sure you find out how the fulfillment house packages and deliv-
ers the products and check to see how often and how fast they ship out
their products.
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An alternative to big fulfillment houses is that you can also pay
someone to fulfill all the orders for you from their own home. Many stay
at home mothers do this since they can look after the kids while
working.
101
With the explosions of internet businesses came many advances in
web business technology. Many shopping carts systems can now create a
print ready shipping label for you to use on your packaging.
There are many companies that now allow you to create printable
postage. You usually have to give them your Visa number and they
charge you per postage. Here are some companies that offer printable
online postages:
• www.endicia.com
• www.pitneybowes.com
• www.stamps.com
• www.usps.com/shipping/label.htm
Most big shipping companies now allow you create your shipping la-
bels and postage. FedEx, UPS and the US postal service are just some of
the companies that do it. With the shipping companies you can create an
account and have access to forms so you can print your own labels.
As a side note, you’ll want to invest in an accurate weight scale as the
weight is a requirement with the shipping companies.
Delivery
Many shipping companies can now pick up your items. If you set up a
business account with the shipping company they’ll come by on a regu-
lar basis to pick up your items. Most shipping companies can pick up
your items in under 2 hours.
The only prerequisite of having a company picks up your items is that
they all need to be labeled with postage (which you can do online).
International Orders
There should be an option on your shopping cart for international
shipping. International shipping is somewhat expensive hence you
should charge your customers more during the customer buying
process.
When shipping internationally you’ll have to fill out a customs forms
and several other forms (for most shipping companies). When making
your labels online, most shipping companies will have the forms re-
quired for international destinations.
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The best way to keep a well functioning back end is to create systems
and develop good habits to prevent things from falling apart.
Shelving System
This is pretty straight forward and there isn’t any secret to this and if
you outsource your order fulfillment this won’t be issue for you.
The best technique is to place the most commonly bought items in the
most accessible location and do not place items that look identical next to
each other (16gig and 8 gig iPods for instance) as you might pick up the
wrong one.
Create shelving units and label the shelves accordingly.
Course #5
Security and Your Online
Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
Course 5: How to Deal with Hackers and Fraud When Doing Busi-
ness Online
103
As the merchant, you’re entirely responsible for securing your custom-
ers data. Credit card companies will more often make you pay for any
losses incurred by the customers. Protecting yourself and your custom-
ers can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Even though you may never be attacked or the victim of fraud, it only
has to happen once to put you out of business.
104
There are certain regulations and standards that need to be met when
protecting data. These policies are enforced if you’re a larger company
(more than 20,000 transactions per year). If you’re a small business the
policies are self regulated.
For information on the policies regarding privacy security check out
the FTC websites at:
• www.ftc.gov
Failure to comply with the security standard can leave you with a fine
as high as $500,000.
For more recourse on ways to protect your customer’s information
check out the following links:
• www.merchantriskcouncil.org
• www.merchant911.org
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The following companies and websites offer seals of approval and
certificates:
• www.bbbonline.org
• www.guardianecommerce.net
• www.truste.org
• www.privacysecure.com
Denial of Service
DoS = Denial of service
A DoS attack is when the hacker prevents your website from being
viewed or accessed by you and your customers. Just because your web-
site is small doesn’t mean hackers aren’t interested. Any random site can
be attacked and even though you may have the problem fixed within a
day or so, it will leave a bad impression to those trying to visit your site.
DoS attacking tools are now easy to come by.
Smaller business websites have a higher chance of being hacked since
small business owners put security at the bottom of their list of priorities.
A DoS attack occurs when the hackers put so much demand on the site
that no one else is able to use it.
If you get attacked report it to:
• www.ic3.gov
Computer Crime Research Center:
• www.crime-research.org
If you experience an attack contact your host service providers imme-
diately. They’ll have an expert deal with the issue right away.
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There are many free firewalls and antivirus programs out there and of-
ten times they work just as well as the expensive ones. We recommend
the free version of AVG internet security.
For Firefox you can also get an add-on that prevents scripts from run-
ning in your browser. We highly recommend you use the following add-
on:
• http://noscript.net
Always be careful with your emails.
Hackers often create fake emails (pretending to be sent from a legitim-
ate source like Amazon or PayPal) and they try to get you to click on a
link and enter your visa number.
Protecting your computer is more or less common knowledge
nowadays but if you’re new to the internet you can find many resources
online. Check out the website:
• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/
honeycutt_spyware.mspx
• http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-protect-
your-computer-from-hackers-spyware-and-viruses/
107
• DVD
• The cloud (the internet).
There are many online services offering online data storage. The ad-
vantage of storing data online is that it’s accessible globally and it’s
stored offsite.
The following websites offer good online storage:
• · https://www.sugarsync.com
• · www.box.net
• · http://mozy.com
• · www.adrive.com
• · https://www.elephantdrive.com
• · www.onlinestoragesolution.com
• · www.flipdrive.com
• · www.allmydata.com
• · www.carbonite.com
• www.storegate.com
Course #6
Setting Up an Online Store
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
108
Although you’ll more than likely stick to the 3 main storefronts
(Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo) you may decide to use a smaller one be-
cause it better suits your business.
If you decide to go with a smaller, less known storefront, make sure
they have the following elements:
• Shopping cart
• Payment processing
• Free hosting
• Reliable
• Tools to assist you in marketing.
• An administrative back end that offers you a good amount of
control.
Storefront Reliability
Reliability is made up of many elements and is perhaps one of the
most overlooked aspects when choosing a storefront. If your storefront
isn’t reliable you can be in for a lot of frustration and wasted time.
Before using a storefront you should thoroughly check out their web-
site and make sure they have and offer:
• Fast loading speed
• Fast Payment processing speed
• A high amount of data storage
• Data security
• A high limit on how many products you can sell.
• Digital product delivery support (customers are able to access the
digital files upon payment).
• Import and export tools (so you can upload large amount of
inventory).
• 24/7 support
• Editable templates, styles, and themes to make your storefront
unique.
Marketing Tools
When looking for a storefront, be sure that they have proper market-
ing tools. Since storefront providers get a cut out of the sales they’ll usu-
ally have a lot of tools available for you; USE THEM!
The following tools are the main ones you want to look out for:
• Option to display multiple product images
• Forms and tools to allow users to customize their purchase (not
just shipping options but also color, style and etc.).
109
• Cross-selling/up selling tools that automatically recommend sim-
ilar items to the customer when purchasing a product.
• The tools to support coupons, gift certificates and promotions.
• Email subscriptions, newsletters, and auto responders.
• Utilities to control the SEO aspects of your storefront.
• RSS feeds
• Affiliate support
Administrative Back-End
The back end is the part you (the business owner) see. This is where
you set up the website and have control of all its features.
The best storefronts give you oversight and features like:
• An inventory management system
• QuickBooks integrations (so you can upload all your accounting
data to QuickBooks).
• Payment system with various payment gateways (PayPal, Visa,
MasterCard, etc.).
• Integrated delivery systems to communicate with UPS, FedEx or
DHL.
• Analytics software so you can keep track of users.
Recommended Storefronts
The following links are the most recommended storefront, they vary in
price and we suggest you check them all out:
• http://www.ebay.com/
• http://www.shopify.com/
• http://www.prestashop.com/
• http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
• · http://checkout.google.com
• · http://www.e-junkie.com/
• · http://www.yabdab.com/payloom/
• · http://storefront.paypallabs.com
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• Pro Merchant
• WebStore
• aStore
Marketplace
This is the fastest way to make money with Amazon and this option is
preferable if you plan on only selling a few items. There is no start up
costs with Amazon marketplace and once registered you can immedi-
ately display and sell your products.
Amazon allows you to sell new and used products but whenever a
user purchases your items, that individual will pay Amazon and
Amazon will transfer money to you to ship the product.
Amazon allows you to list your products but they will get a small cut,
out of each sale. The amount Amazon keeps from each sale can range
from 6% to 20% depending on the product. It’s important to know how
much Amazon will take away so you can better price your product. (The
Amazon website will have information on what percentage they take de-
pending on the product).
With a normal account your items will be kept up for 60 days after
which Amazon will remove the product. There is no fee if your item
doesn’t sell.
Pro Merchant
Pro merchant accounts are much like the EBay Power Seller program.
A Pro Merchant is essentially an enhanced version of the normal mer-
chant account. This account is ideal if you’re selling more than 40 items a
month. One benefits of having a Pro Merchant account is that Amazon
will not charge you transaction fees upon selling an item.
Aside from waiving the transaction fee the other benefits include:
• Mass listing importer and exporter that allows you to post 1000s
of items quickly.
• Your postings won’t expire after 60 days.
• View reports on how much you’re selling and other account
activity.
• Better security and fraud protection.
A Pro Merchant account costs $39.99 a month. But remember, Amazon
may review you depending on the type of item you sell in order for your
business to be approved.
Astores
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aStores are entirely free. With an aStore, you don’t need you own
products; instead you sell amazons pre-existing products. You can add
the aStore to a website you already have or you can create a website en-
tire for the aStore.
With an aStore you only make about 15% per sale. You can make a liv-
ing with an aStore but don’t count on it; expect it to be secondary and
supplemental to your main business.
WebStores
The Amazon WebStore is essentially the storefront that is based off of
the platform that Amazon uses and is extremely powerful. You can sell
your own products or you can sell products found on Amazon.
Having a WebStore will cost you about $59.99 a month but Amazon
will still receive 7% per transaction.
One of the greatest benefits of the Amazon WebStore is that it’s well
known, secure and it comes with automatic trust and security.
112
• Store manager
• Webhosting control panel
• Domain control panel
• Email control panel
The store manager section deals with how your website will be viewed
and how it will function for users.
Once logged into your account you’ll also see a catalogue manager.
This is the page where you enter all your products and product details.
The catalogue manager allows you to upload and export your entire
catalogue of items all at once.
Yahoo Plans
Yahoo! has made plans for every level of business. Whether you’re just
starting your business or you’re making a million a month, Yahoo has
something for everyone.
Yahoo is also great because you can start with the simplest plan and
work your way up to the better plans as your business grows.
Yahoo! has the following plans:
• Starter Package
• Standard Package
• Professional Package
The basic Yahoo! Starter Package is ideal for people starting a new
business and while it says “starter package”, it is actually loaded with
great tools. The Starter Package has all the basic features except for the
advanced tracking, and reporting tools which a small business doesn’t
even need.
The Yahoo! Standard Package is for those businesses that are already
established. The great thing about Yahoo, is it has structured all their
packages in accordance to what a business will need depending on how
big or small it is.
With the Standard Package you’ll not only get all the features of the
Starter Package but you’ll also be able to:
• Receive orders by Fax in addition to just email.
• Automatically send your order information to your databases and
applications.
• Export your orders to your UPS software.
• See what searches are most popular among your customers.
• Have track able links for affiliates.
• Support gift certificates and coupons.
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The Professional Package is an excellent option once your business is
established and already receiving some success. If you’re making over a
million in sales a year, Yahoo! Professional Package will be able to
handle all of your customers and their specific demands
Yahoo Fees
A Yahoo! store can be somewhat pricy but it’s well worth it. There’s an
initial start up fee of $50.00 but a good tip is to look for promotions and
deals from other websites like PayPal.com, as there are often good dis-
counts being provided.
Aside from the initial start up fee Yahoo! charges you on a recurring
basis as follows:
• Starter package: $39.95 per month.
• Standard package: 129.95 per month.
• Professional package: $299.95 per month.
There are also transaction fees that vary depending on the type of ac-
count that you have. It’s important you do the math as upgrading your
account can save you money despite the monthly recurring fees:
• Starter package: 1.5%
• Standard package: 1.0%
• Professional package: 0.75%
Yahoo! has other services that you can use to enhance your business.
Yahoo provides Who Is protection which prevents people from finding
out that you own the website. It costs about $0.75 per month. For an ad-
ditional $10, you can get an extra 20 email accounts.
Yahoo! also provides a search engine advertising program but the
price varies depending on the advertising campaign.
114
users not wanting to bid. Setting a set price and selling your items in the
traditional sense requires a special account.
When you first start out in EBay, you’ll have to sell your items like an
auction. Once you have sold some products, EBay will offer a store ac-
count, but this has a monthly recurring fee. Your best bet is to use an
auction type store as it costs very little money and there are no monthly
fees.
115
• Collectors items
The benefits of running an auction are:
• It’s more interesting to people (it gets noticed more).
• Auctions sell items faster because it creates a sense of scarcity.
• Auctions only costs you a small initial fee as oppose to a monthly
fee.
• Having an auction is a great way to test the waters and lets you
see how much people are willing to pay for such an item.
Feedback
EBay uses a feedback system that’s used to represent how trustworthy
every user is. Both sellers and buyers have feedback scores, the better
score the more trustworthy you’ll be considered. If you want to have a
successful EBay business your feedback score must be as high as
possible.
Feedback scores are given after the transaction, the buyer fills out a
form scoring your service and you, the seller, leave feedback to the buy-
er. Other sellers and buyers will see the comments and feedback score, so
they know that they’re business will be good.
EBay Store
An EBay store is a storefront and you may see that many EBay auc-
tioneers will also have a store to sell their goods. An EBay store is great
for those selling large quantities of items. (If you’re going to have an
eBay store it’s recommended you focus on a niche and not sell a wide
variety of products).
With an EBay store you can sell your items at a fixed price. Unlike an
auction which expires after a certain amount of time, the products you
sell in you store can remain up forever.
With an EBay Store there is a function that allows you to export all
your sales information from PayPal and EBay into QuickBooks.
If you advertise your products from outside of the EBay website you
can earn extra cash by referring the users to EBay.
By using an EBay store, you’ll have access to various templates which
will assist you in marketing your EBay Store. Also you will have access
to an email newsletter function. To help you will statistical information,
EBay Stores have built in analytics that allow you to see which pages are
viewed most and other user information.
116
An EBay Store can cost anywhere between $15.95 and $299.95 and so
we recommend it’s always best to get the basic plan and move up as
your business grows.
While you are paying to acquire an EBay Store, getting it isn’t as
simple as just giving them your credit card and purchasing the account.
In order to get an EBay Store you must have a feedback score of 20 or a
PayPal account with a good history.
Power Seller
Power sellers are EBay users who sell a steady amount of items on a
recurring basis. They’ve earned a high feedback score and are in good
standing order.
To become a power seller you must sell a minimum of $1,000 per
month for the bronze status (there are many different levels each with
their own benefits).
The greatest status you can have is that of the Titanium status which
requires your total sales to be above $150,000. Being a power seller has
its benefits and best of all it’s free!
EBay normally incurs a fee from you posting but these fees are re-
duced with a power seller’s account.
There are several third party tools you should check out. If you be-
come a power seller these tools will help assist you in making more
sales:
• www.auctiva.com
• www.channeladvisor.com
• www.marketworks.com
117
• http://solutions.ebay.com
Once you become a power seller you’ll have access to the Resellers
Marketplace. The Resellers Marketplace is a market that allows you to
buy items in bulk directly from manufacturers, wholesalers or even
liquidators.
Course #7
Setting Up Your Business
Online
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
118
high quality. Making a quick website is not enough; you want to look
professional on and off the internet.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter when you decide to launch your website.
Once deciding to have a website expect about a month for the website to
be up and running properly.
Having a special launch for your website is not essential and can be
counterproductive as indicating that your website is new is often times
less appealing then a website that has been around for a long time.
Once your website is up and running be sure to add the URL to your
marketing materials.
Deciding On Inventory
If you’ve been running a traditional brick and mortar business for
some time you’re probably well aware of what sells and what doesn’t.
You probably have a good idea of what your customers are looking for
and who your primary market is.
When moving your business online, be sure to create a complete list of
your entire inventory along with descriptions and details. Also speak to
119
your suppliers as they may be able to ship your products from their
warehouse.
The selling price of your product will probably be different from the
price you have in your store. Be sure to check out your competitors on-
line and see how they price similar products.
You don’t have to sell all your products online but you may want to
sell just the highest selling products. Some products are easier to sell in
the real world then online (since the user can’t interact and test the item
out). Be sure to indicate and present the information the users want to
see. Also, just because a product sells well offline doesn’t mean it will
sell well online.
When selling online, it’s best to have a picture of your product for the
users to see. The suppliers of those products will often have photos but if
they don’t, you’ll need to get a photographer to come in. There are many
photographers that specialize in product photography and the cost of
their services can vary.
120
• Compare prices with competitors.
• Check customer comments and reviews.
• Tap a global market for hard to find items (they’re not limited by
geography).
• The convenience of never leaving their home.
• Saving time and travel expenses to acquire the product.
• 24/7 shopping
• Variety of payment methods.
121
• www.epicor.com
• www.vcommerce.com
• www.netsuite.com
Fulfilling Orders
Does your store have enough room to deal with packaging and
delivery?
Will you need to train your employees to handle online orders?
Will you need to hire a full time employee to deal with online orders?
Initially fulfilling orders can be done entirely in house but as your on-
line presence grows you’ll have to consider and create solutions to deal
with this part of your business. More than likely, you’ll be selling more
products because of your online presence and you’ll therefore need to
taking into consideration stockings and sending out more orders to
suppliers.
Outsourcing the fulfillment process is one solution to deal with this
problem.
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required. Remember to attach a receipt and a form indicating your re-
turn policy.
To simplify your business you may choose to have a no return policy,
expect to have the occasional angry customer but expect a much easier
time not having to deal with the training, systems, and procedures re-
quired to deal with it.
Course #8
Targeting Your Audience
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
123
less competition focusing on that tight market. You’ll have a smaller cus-
tomer base but you’ll have less competition.
Niche markets exist in every industry and they aren’t hard to find,
there are many niches that still haven’t been tapped.
If you decide to go into a niche market you’ll have the benefit of
having:
• Defined customer base.
• It’s easier to market.
• If the niche is good, there will usually be a community for it, in
which case you can expect a lot of word of mouth marketing.
The disadvantages of going into a niche market are:
• Smaller customer base.
• Less suppliers of your niche product.
• Bad service can lead to bad word of mouth.
Finding a Niche
Niche customers are extremely knowledgeable of their niche. Even if
you’re not passionate about a niche you can still study it and demon-
strate your knowledge to customers. Being passionate about the niche
you pick will help greatly.
When looking for a niche, go through the NICHE process:
• Notice: Niche markets exist in every industry and for the most
part, they exist right in front of us. Pay attention to trends, fads,
and look for the next big thing to a segment of society.
• Investigate: Check out the competition, industry trends, annual
sales, and see if it’s a viable idea.
• Customers: Research the competition thoroughly and find out ex-
actly who they are. Are they big spenders? What do they want and
how do they want it?
• Hypothesize: Before you go all out on storefronts and purchasing
products for resale… test, test, and test some more! Try selling a
few items on EBay to see what people are willing to pay.
• Execute: After you’ve thoroughly tested and found it to be viable,
you’re ready to go all out. Plan and plan some more then execute
your plan.
The following sites are helpful when looking for a niche market:
• www.ecommerce-guide.com/news
• www.iconoculture.com
• www.thestylephile.com/blog/330000033.html
• www.smallbiztrends.com
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• www.trendwatching.com
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time and not all at once, you want to sustain their interest for as long as
possible
Try adding new products often but spaced out long enough that it
keeps interest. Also try to create accessories and things to go with your
other products. Making small changes to your website often keeps it
fresh and stops it from getting stale. For your website have polls, sur-
veys, and other interactive features.
School is essentially a place for kids to interact and socialize, if you
have a good product, word of it will spread around quickly.
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• Brand is not as important to them, if your product works and does
the job… that’s all that matters.
• They like deals, promotions, coupons and getting the best bang for
their buck.
• They want to know they’re getting their money’s worth.
• Peer influence makes up a big factor in their buying decisions.
• They like to research and investigate the products before they buy
them, customer testimonials, and research papers should be ac-
cessible to them.
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Blogs are excellent ways to expand your reach, by letting people con-
nect with you on a more personal level. Blogs can be personal journals, a
place for you to share your knowledge with readers, a hub of links to in-
teresting sites on the web and much more.
With blogging, your product is information, entertainment, or media.
There are blogs that charge people for the information contained with-
in but for the most part their free. The way you make money through
blogging is by getting a ton of traffic and advertising.
Your “Schtik”
Before writing anything you should develop the persona that you
want to present on your blog. It’s important to be honest and “real” but
how you really talk is not always what other people want to hear. Set out
a vision of how you want to be seen and write from that perspective.
Blogs can be very formal and professional but the ones that do the best
are the ones that are casual, friendly, inviting, and informative. When
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you write, think of it as having a conversation 1 on 1 with someone. Also
be sure to write grammatically and always use spell check.
Content
Most blogs only have one writer administrating the whole site; the
best and biggest blogs though typically have multiple contributors.
Try to get the readers involved by asking questions and getting them
to comment and add feedback. Write new posts on a consistent and often
basis, the more the merrier.
Each post should be no more than 500 words, people have low atten-
tion spans and if they see it’s a big post, they won’t read it. Pack each
post with nothing but information, refrain from long sidetrack stories.
Providing links to support your post is often a good idea, just doesn’t
jam pack your posts with them. When providing a link, try linking back
to another post on your website. Internal linking is good SEO.
Earning Money
The most common method to earn money from a blog is by using
Google Ad Sense. With Google Ad Sense you earn money every time
someone clicks on one of the ads provided by Google.
Google is just one way to monetize your site, a successful site utilizes
multiple methods to make money, but they all general involve advert-
ising. Another effective way to make money blogging is by writing
product reviews.
Blog Platforms
There are about 10 big blogging platforms but only 2 are worth talking
about; Blogger and WordPress.
We personally recommend using wordpress.org but depending on
what you want and need, blogger and wordpress.com are both excellent.
We suggest creating an account with both Blogger and WordPress so
you can see what they’re all about.
Blogger.Com
Blogger is owned by Google so it’s well integrated with the other
Google applications. You’ll be in full control over the design of your blog
theme.
It’s well supported online and so if you have any problems it should
be easy to fix. This platform is very easy to use and excellent for
beginners.
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WordPress
There is a wordpress.com and a wordpress.org. WordPress.com hosts
your blog for free but your blog URL with be like this:
www.yourblogname.wordpress.com. Wordpress.org provides the en-
gine and platform to run your blog on your own hosting service; it’s
much more powerful and has many more features.
You can have a wordpress.com blog with a normal URL name by pur-
chasing a domain name and forwarding it to your blog. So when people
go to www.yourblog.com they’ll end up at
www.yourblog.wordpress.com.
Wordpress.org is extremely powerful and is highly recommended by
us. It supports powerful tools and features to help you get more traffic
and run certain functions. It’s by far the most supported and feature rich
blog platform out there.
There are thousands of themes and layouts you can choose from but
requires a bit more tech savvy skills for full utilization but it’s still good
for beginners.
Course #9
Marketing Your Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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Course 9: How to Market Your Internet Business Online 101
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• Trust, the user want to see that your website is professional and
secure.
• Multiple payment options. People have a preferred method of
payment and if you don’t give them their preferred option they
probably won’t buy from you.
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Offering a lot of value to your markets community will let people
know that you’re a congruent, trustworthy person but be aware of the
image you’re presenting and actually showing people.
If you don’t participate in your markets community you’ll have no
“web cred” and you’ll just be another website. If people in your com-
munity see that a lot of people are saying good things about you and that
the information you give out is solid and accurate, your trustworthiness
will go through the roof.
The most popular websites and individuals are the ones that offer the
most value to customers and other people.
Also for those of you that think bad publicity is always bad, you may
be missing out on some benefits. Bad publicity is bad, but can help if
you’re selling something controversial and in certain situations, other-
wise for 99.99% of all businesses, bad publicity is not a good thing.
Writing Articles
Demonstrating your knowledge of a product or niche is a great way to
boost trust and your value. There are many websites out there that you
can use to share and post your articles.
If you’re selling a product you should consider writing product re-
views for your market. If you decided to write a review, be sure to try
and mention your name and website (without trying to sell the reader
something).
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Writing Reviews
The great benefit of writing for the web is that you don’t need to be a
world famous writer. People like to read user friendly, simple writing
that’s easy to understand. Think the easier the better!
When writing a review, be sure to include these elements:
• First impressions
• Pros
• Cons
• Personal experience
• Rating
• Recommendation
• Website address or link to your website.
Writing Articles
People are always looking for useful and valuable information. Just as
with writing a review you should always include your name and a link
to your website. If you are providing something of use, why not get the
credit for it.
When writing, be sure to write articles that your market would be in-
terested in and once it is completed, you can submit the same article to
multiple article websites. There are forums on the internet for just about
every subject so be sure to submit and become a member of as many for-
ums as possible.
Articles can vary in types. Lists (Don’t go over 10) are popular and
step by step guides almost always do well.
Articles should be no longer then 500 words. Web users have short at-
tention spans and they prefer to have their information super condensed
and to the point (avoid unimportant knowledge or side stories stick to
the subject). If a user really wants more in-depth information, direct
them to supplementary content on your site or another’s site.
Here’s a really important tip to keep in mind: Always check for
spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
Articles should have:
• Introduction
• Summary of what the article will be about
• The information
• Summary of what the article was about
• Conclusion
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Once an article is finished, you’ll want to submit it to as many direct-
ories as you can. By including your link at the bottom of the article you’ll
increase your rankings among the search engines and while you may not
get too many visitors directly from the articles your ultimate goal is just
to get your name out there.
If you have created some really good content, blog writers and other
websites will use their article or link to your article. If the blog or other
website gets a lot of traffic, they can send a lot of traffic your way.
Also always be sure you understand the terms and conditions associ-
ated with submitting your articles to a website. Some article directories
take ownership of the article once submitted.
The following websites are excellent places to submit your articles:
• www.amazines.com/register.cfm
• www.articlesbase.com/submit-articles.php
• www.articlemarketer.com/submit.php
• www.ezinearticles.com/submit
• www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html
• www.isnare.com/members.php
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Unlike traditional forms of marketing, marketing online can be much
cheaper (practically free) and you’re able to target your market much
more effectively. Even if you’re a small business, if you market yourself
right you can become a huge business overnight.
With the prevalence of social networking and fast communication
your marketing can go viral and you can become a hit overnight.
The secret to online marketing is leveraging and making a little bit go
a long way. As in the physical world, word of mouth is a huge factor in
digital marketing.
The true secret here is, marketing your site requires steady commit-
ment over a long period of time. You must be persistent.
Marketing Strategy
Having a marketing strategy and sticking to it is essential. Although
there may be a chance of becoming an overnight success, don’t count on
it. A steady commitment and continuous persistence will eventually get
you where you want to be.
If you stay consistent and committed long enough you may reach that
tipping point where the popularity of your site explodes through the
roof. To truly reach that point, your marketing strategy should encom-
pass all the major parts of online marketing.
Email Newsletters
We have all heard about newsletters and know that they have been
around for a long time, and while many may argue that they are on their
way out, they are the best tool to keeping in touch with your audience.
Newsletters are not only an effective way to keep people coming back to
your site but you can also make a lot of money through newsletters.
Newsletters can be used to share tips, advice, coupons, promotions,
articles and many other things.
If you find a good affiliate program you can write a review of it and
send it out to your email list. Lots of money can be made this way if your
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readers trust you (people have gotten really good at detecting advert-
ising so don’t ever make anything you do look like an advertisement).
Your emails should be of value to the customer, always ask yourself,
would I read it?
By including a subscribe button on the front page of your website you
can hook the users into hopefully becoming customers down the road.
You’d think that there isn’t much to email newsletter but entire books
have been devoted to the subject. There are many guidelines and rules
when sending out newsletters, be sure not to break any laws.
If your business is such that people want your personnel expertise,
you should personally write the newsletter, since people really just want
to know what you’re saying.
If you are exceptionally busy or just terrible at writing, you don’t have
to be the only writer of your newsletter. You can get anyone you trust to
write the emails
You can send out your emails daily, weekly or monthly, just make
sure the content stays fresh and that you’re not annoying people with
your newsletter.
A great way to avoid readers considering your content as spam is to
express how often you’ll send out an email before the user subscribes.
People get a ton of spam emails and they don’t want anything of non
value being in their inbox.
Also, your emails should be sent out consistently at the same time all
the time. If you’re sending it out weekly or monthly it should be sent on
the same day at the same time every time.
Newsletter Formats
Emails can either be sent in the plain text format or HTML format.
Plain text emails can be viewed by all email programs and spam filters
are less likely to junk mail them. Plain text emails can also have links but
they can’t have images.
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HTML format can have images, videos and links and are much more
visually stimulating but they should be avoided since they don’t always
display correctly to the user.
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used to send out emails in response to different requests but don’t over-
use it. Customers will find it very annoying.
Another great option is having a FAQ page (this can save you a lot of
time). If you find yourself getting asked a lot of questions, you should
add that question to the FAQ with an answer.
Also try having premade emails that are ready to copy and paste. If
you find that you’re getting a lot of similar emails you should write an
email that can be used every time you encounter it.
There are many free programs out there that can automate just about
any routine tasks. There are program that can:
• Submit your articles automatically to article directories.
• Add friends automatically on FaceBook, MySpace, and twitter.
• Open up all the programs and web pages you use with the click of
a button.
• Automatically send out newsletters for you on a timed basis.
Work smart not hard. If there’s a routine task that’s commonly done
by most people there’s probably a program to do it for you.
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You should only use search engine advertising if your conversation ra-
tio and profit margin is high enough to make your profit when deduct-
ing the pay per click costs.
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• Flyers
• Invoices and Shipping orders
• Brochures
• Company vehicle
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you realize that you have run out of things to provide, you should cycle
your information.
If you have changed various site features and have no other ideas, try
and change special sales and promotions and add/replace new items to
the front page.
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If customers are going to one product page often but not buying, it
may indicate that the product is priced too high, code malfunction, or the
review and sales pitch is weak.
You may notice that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your
products. This is often the case in most businesses. Focus on those
products and push them harder.
If you find that the customers are only buying a select few items you
may consider offering more products like that.
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To get more buyers considering taking the following actions:
• Make the buttons clear and easy to find.
• Make it obvious what the next step is for the customer.
• Allow the user to access their shopping cart from any page.
• Allow customer to add or remove items to their shopping cart.
• Offer FAQ page and make it easy for users to find.
• Use an SSL socket to protect their data and make it obvious to the
customer that you use it.
• If you use a third party to handle the credit cards an SSL socket is
not important.
• Let customers know you protect their data.
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Your store is not about what you want; it’s about the customers and
what they want.
If you’re passionate about your type of business and the product you
sell, you may know a lot about what good and what’s not, but the cus-
tomers may feel differently and they’d rather go for the inferior product.
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• Geographic conversion rate (what geographic location buys the
most).
• What website they came from.
• What keywords in Google lead them to you.
There are many programs out there on the internet that can track your
users for you and some programs will even track where the user’s mouse
cursor went.
By understanding what your customers are doing, you’ll better be able
to market and sell to them.
Trends
By understanding and seeing the trends of your website, you’ll better
be able to focus your marketing efforts.
With many businesses there is an annual trend where the majority of
the business occurs during a certain season or time of the year. If you
know your business has more traffic during the winter season you may
consider putting more effort into marketing during those seasons since
there will be more people seeing your ads.
If you see that your customers are avoiding certain products that were
once best sellers, you may consider replacing that item with another
product.
Trends are accurate representations of what the customers want. It’s
more accurate than any focus group or customer feedback that you may
get.
Following the trends on your website are essential to running a good
business and our recommendation is Google analytics for following
those trends.
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Section 6: Search Engine Optimization and Ranking High In Google
SEO = Search engine optimization
SEO simply put is optimizing your site so your ranking increases and
ranking high in the search engines will get you a lot of traffic.
People now days are using search engine more and more to find what
they’re looking for.
Typing in a search into Google can yield you 100s of thousands of res-
ults and for the most part people will never look beyond the second
page.
Ranking high in search engine will not only get you’re a lot of traffic
but it will increase your reputation and trust to those who found you
through them.
The section is all about looking good for the search engines so you
rank higher and in turn get more traffic.
Search engines aren’t only limited to Google, and Yahoo, websites like
YouTube can also be considered a search engine.
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• Meta tags
• The first few paragraphs of your content
• Meta tags associates with images and videos
Because search engines place high value on certain areas of your web-
site it’s best to place your keywords in those locations.
To optimize your website for a search engine you want to use
keywords and phrases that people would search for. There by getting the
search engines to associate you with those words and phrases.
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Waiting for a spider to crawl and search your site can take several
weeks. Submitting your website to the search engines is the fastest way
to get yourself ranked in the search engines.
The most important search engines you should submit too are:
• Google
• Yahoo!
• MSN search
Often times the search engine will request that you submit a site map
for easier crawling.
Although Google controls the market on search engines in North
America, Yahoo Is still king in Japan and several other countries.
Meta Tags
Meta tags are hidden html codes used specifically for the search en-
gines and while search engines are putting less and less value on them
but you should still use them.
Meta tags indicate to the search engine what your website is about,
what keywords you associate your website with, and how often you’d
like the search engine to crawl your site.
Meta tags are place right below the <head> tag of your website.
Use the following tags and place them in your html code:
• <META name = “keywords” content = “PLACE YOU
KEYWORDS HERE”>
• <META name = “description” content = “PLACE YOUR
DESCRIPTION HERE”>
Visible Keywords
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The most important places to insert your keywords and phrases on
your website are in the following locations:
• Page title
• Page headings
• First sentence
• Hyperlinks
Bold, italic, underlined text is also considered to be of value to the
search engines so be sure highlight your keywords.
While having strong keywords in your content is very important, hav-
ing too many keywords is detrimental. You content should be created
with the users in mind first and then the search engines.
If you place the keywords so many times in the text that it’s not enjoy-
able to read, it won’t matter how much traffic you get, because people
won’t like it.
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Course #10
Building Your Online Presence
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
Section 1: Getting Your Brand Online and Spread Across the Net
Marketing Process
This section we will take a look at the process involved in getting
yourself prepared for spreading the word about you and your products/
services.
• Phase 1: Organization: You will first need to get your information
in order. If you have someone in charge of running and maintain-
ing your website, you will want to get all the materials pertaining
to your site (you need to be in charge in case your designer is sick
or is fired). This means getting all information such as photos,
passwords, backups, everything! You will also want to determine
whether you have anything to sell or provide. More information
on this will be discussed in following sections
• Phase 2: Get Attention: Although this is easier to say than do, you
will need to get yourself out to the public. Provide answers to
problems, discuss concerns, become the expert. You need to show
that you have a purpose on the internet and in turn this will help
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increase your customer base, increase traffic to your site, and help
you become recognized as someone to “follow”.
• Phase 3: Expand: Once you have become known on the internet
and are making money, you may want to consider adding a sales
team or even acquiring a partner; both of which can dramatically
increase your sales numbers.
This may seem simple enough but remember this isn’t a get rich quick
scheme. These sections are designed to help guide you along, and the
process discussed earlier, is going to be shown in a more detailed man-
ner as we continue throughout the sections.
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• Consider whether you’ll be able to do all the work or if you will
need to hire someone to help you.
• Consider future options regarding an expansion or the amount of
income you will need to generate.
• Determine what type of sales you will need to have.
If your goal is to achieve $1 million, and your product sells for $100,
you will need to determine how many you will need to sell before
achieving that goal (10,000 units).
While having a website already up and running may provide you with
information on traffic and sales generated, you will need to estimate how
many of your customers are going to purchase your product.
Those that take the next step and purchase something with you may
be very little (1%), which provides you with insight as to how much
more traffic you’ll need to increase your sales to achieve your target goal.
If you’re having difficulty seeing yourself do the previously men-
tioned tasks, then this would be a perfect time to discuss your abilities. If
you are a tech savvy individual, you may already see yourself perform-
ing the tasks easily. If your background is highly unrelated to computers,
then you may want to begin considering your abilities and where you
will need to hire others to help you out. If you require assistance with
your new internet business venture, you’ll need to consider how much
more money your website will need to generate.
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you are a little lost, you may want to get some assistance from a web
designer.
If you are able to already generate a large amount of traffic, you may
as well start making some money of it. You can turn that traffic in money
by setting up some ads. There are a few methods you can use, and we
have listed them in the following section:
• Google AdSense: This is the most popular method to use. For
many this is the only type of ads they may use as it is easy to set
up. Although it doesn’t generate large amounts of revenue, it still
is a great starting point. It’s also important to remember that you
are showing ads for other peoples products. If you are selling an
item, you may not want to send your customers to competitors!
• Banner Ads: This has you presenting a banner ad for someone
else’s product, and you will get paid according to a specific
method.
◦ Your first is a cost-per-click (CPC), where whenever a cus-
tomer clicks the ad, you charge it to the advertisements
owner. You will have to keep track of how many people
click by using a statistics tracking tool such as Google Ana-
lytics. Note: There is also the method of pay-per-click this is
done automatically through the program you use and is
easier of the two.
◦ There is also cost-per-page-views (CPM), this method is a
payment per 1000 views and can range typically between $4
- $10 but depending on your niche can result in higher
amounts.
◦ Finally we have cost-per-action (CPA) with this type of ad-
vertising, the advertiser only pays when there is a sale or
lead made.
Another useful method is to sell your own products and services on
your website. Although this is a great way to keep all the profit and get
your name and brand across, it may be one of the more difficult methods
to use. If possible try to create your product in an easy to sell format.
This can range from information products such as books or PDF files, to
podcasts, videos, or webinars. For those of you with more niche variety,
you may be interested in creating a whole product line, or even starting
an online program.
Once you have your site up and running and you’ve created one or
more products, your next step is to start selling (of course, there are
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several other steps, but these will be discussed in upcoming sections).
There are a few key essentials when setting up the shopping process.
• Purchase Page: this is the page where a customer picks their
products to purchase. It may be a regular shopping cart or even a
form, where the customer enters the product info.
• Sales Account: prior to making any purchases you will want to set
up an account with a company that is able to accept payment in-
formation. This can range from PayPal accounts to credit card
accounts.
• Order Form: if you have ever purchased something online, then
you’ll know that this is the place where you enter all of your in-
formation in to make the transaction.
It is important to remember that the easier a shopping experience is,
the higher the likelihood that a customer will make a purchase. This may
include adding a shopping cart feature, but also being able to make the
page look like the rest of your site; several payment options; coupons;
extra product information to grow revenue; support; or even a page that
thanks customers for making a purchase.
Another important aspect of the shopping experience is to answer all
the questions a customer has prior to making that purchase. If a custom-
er knows how they have to pay for a product, how long it will take to
ship, the security of their information, support questions or just making
a right decision, they will be more inclined to give you their payment in-
formation. (Remember, the customer is taking the final step with you,
making a purchase. Put yourself in their shoes, and see what other con-
cerns you may need to answer for them).
Once a customer has decided that they are going to continue making a
purchase with you, you may want to try selling them additional or sup-
plementary products through up-selling a better product; trying to sell
them another product by providing a discount; or selling them
something after they have made an initial purchase.
For those who lack the traffic they need to be able to generate a good
conversion rate, there are a few options that you can look into using.
There are a variety of ways in getting your message across, but your ba-
sics should include the following:
• Free listings on the major search engine sites such as Google and
Msn.
• Paid searches for promoting a product or service.
• Writing content on topics through your blog or on other sites.
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• External resources and offline options are also available to in-
crease awareness
• References and testimonials always go a long way
All this talk about traffic and sales is great if it comes easy, but to some
if may come only after weeks and months of work. A great way to get
your product and service out quicker is to think about creating your own
affiliate program.
Affiliates Assistance
Your first step is to create an environment where affiliates can create
an account, connect and share your product with the rest of the internet
and also allow them to track how their sales are doing. Creating a place
such as this may sound complicated and difficult, but luckily there is
1ShoppingCart which offers all this! Just check them out and learn as
much as you can, it will be one of your most essential tools.
Now that you affiliate centre is all complete, you will want to get your
message out that you are looking for affiliates. You will want to write an
attractive letter, mentioning your program and where they can get more
information on becoming an affiliate. Of course you will also want to
mention the way in which the affiliates will be compensated. Note: if an
affiliate is very good at promoting your products, you may look at mak-
ing a much better offer to that specific individual.
Lastly, once you have your centre and affiliates, you are going to want
to train each individual. This will sound even more complicated as it is
important to have 10 affiliates for each member that is producing any
sales. So you can imagine how large of a team you will need. Here are a
few tips in helping you with your training:
• Weekly calls are great ways to touch base with your affiliates. Set-
ting up a conference call with an agenda is great to get some inter-
action from your affiliates. Note: you may want to record the con-
versation as it may come in handy at a later time.
• One-on-one help is useful for those who are struggling or those
new to promoting your products.
• Give incentives you may think about providing additional incent-
ives or increasing pay to those who are able to make the most sales
or even to those who can recommend a great affiliate.
Joint Venturing
While using affiliates to promote your product may be a great way to
let others do the work for you, it also has you spending most of the
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income on your affiliates. A great way to reduce this is to partner up
with someone who may already have a large following. Now this
doesn’t necessarily mean a true business partner, but a partner during a
particular event. This could be someone who may provide you with a
conference room and refreshments or someone willing to promote your
product to their email list (possibly even to a million people). Before you
can approach someone at a networking event, on forum or speaking to
affiliates or clients, you are going to want to have everything in order.
This means that you will need to have your sales proof, showing your
product is worth their time and effort. You will also want to have in-
formation regarding your visitation and conversion rates (viewers
turned buyers). Finally you will want to be able to show your affiliates
performances. A last bit of useful information is to show that you can
fulfill the orders. Nothing worse than having several hundred or several
thousand orders, which can’t be fulfilled (you will embarrass yourself
and your partner).
Once you have found a venture partner or host, you will want to gath-
er a collection of materials for a presentation. You may be required to
make a presentation to the host and/or group of staff. You will want to
assemble a binder with information regarding sales, affiliates, visitation
information, testimonials and sales letter copy. It is also important to re-
member that you may have information regarding your partnership such
as:
• Profit sharing and what amount each will receive
• Expectations of all parties involved
• Dispute resolution and how a formal dispute will be dealt with
• Confidentiality and how company specific information is to be
dealt with. You may have a confidentiality agreement for your
partner/host to sign.
Keep in mind that your host is your ticket to big money, but it is also
their ticket too! You are going to have to do extra work, because he/she
has all the connections. Remember, you will need to bend over back-
wards for your partner/host and demonstrate how they will benefit out
of the experience.
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pictures poorly, it may convey the message that your company has no
idea what you are doing. People want to buy from leaders not followers.
Before starting to create a brand or logo or anything, you need to
know what your company stands for. Is it looking to be an innovator or
leader in the industry? Are you looking to be funny, silly or exciting? Is
there something that you can do better than anyone else? Questions such
as these help determine what your company stands for and helps you
determine what your slogan or taglines will be. You will want to devel-
op a tagline for your site that matches you company, but also that won’t
change frequently.
Once you have determined your tagline, your next step is to looking
into a logo. Many may say that a logo is not important but let me ask
you this. When I say golden arches, what do you picture? What do you
associate this with? The same applies to your company. A logo will help
readers remember you, your company, and your products. Also as we
mentioned for your taglines, your logo needs to match the company’s
persona and appearance. A quick way to get some help on logo creation
is search through Google for logo creation or a great recommendation is
to use 99designs.com
Another equally important piece of information has to do with the lay-
out of your website. Not all users have the same shape monitor or even
same internet browser. So you will want to make sure that your website
will be seen by all viewers in the best way possible. To do this, you will
want to make sure there is consistency among all your web pages. This
includes text, color, logo and information layout.
Color Selection
It is important to speak to your web designer when choosing a color
scheme for your website. People vary in feelings depending on colours
presented to them. For example, blue suggests honesty and loyalty,
while black suggests sophistication and elegance. Each colour is inter-
preted differently and needs to match what your company stands for.
You will also need to determine what type of font you will be using for
your site. For example, Arial is traditionally used for headings, while
Trebuchet is good for essentially anything. It all depends on the message
you are trying to convey
While this may seem as a difficult task, web designers are usually
pretty accustomed to designing great looking sites. If you have the
budget, look at hiring a professional branding company.
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Site Layout
Just because your page includes audio, text, pictures and video on a
single page, doesn’t mean it will generate traffic. Your site needs to en-
tice viewers to remain on your site as long as possible. You will need
them to read and learn about you, and of course most importantly, make
a purchase!
A great way to determine how viewers are looking at your site is to
employ the use of a heat map application. This is a tool which searches
through your site and assessing where readers are focusing their atten-
tion. Performing a search on heat map applications in Google will
provide you with a great assortment of tools. This will show you where
readers are looking and where they aren’t, helping you rearrange and re-
focus your content.
Another important point of interest is in regards to the use of horizont-
al and vertical navigation bars. Users hate having to scroll, in any direc-
tion. Minimize the use of navigation bars by placing important informa-
tion within one page. If there is additional information don’t hesitate to
add a vertical navigation bar.
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continuously updated website. With a blog you are able to post informa-
tion or articles, which are added to the top of the page. Thus you are able
to present that latest content without having your readers search for the
information. This also allows readers the ability to make comments or
suggestions on the information you have posted.
To create a blog, there are several different tools that you can use such
as WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad. These are the mostly commonly
used tools and of course require that you register an account. When us-
ing the various blogging platforms, you may also look at adding various
plug-ins to customize the use of your site.
Another great option is to create a membership site. This allows users
to create a username and password and access content that otherwise
would not be accessed. This type of site is great if there is a high amount
of traffic which will entice users to return on a weekly basis. While this
method may be useful to create recurring revenue, it may not always be
the case.
Using a paid membership site may get you excited but there are some
questions you will need to ask yourself before you get started. Your first
question should be how much will it cost users to become a member of
your site? If it’s too expensive they may not register, but if it is too cheap,
then it may not be cost effective for you. Also you will need to look at
amount of time you will need to spend on running and maintaining the
site. Again, if there is too much time being spent on the site, and there
isn’t a great enough return, you are wasting your time. Remember time
is money!
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passionate about your product and show viewers how they will benefit
from it.
When writing about your product or service, make sure that what you
say a product or service does actually happens in real life. For example,
if your product promises users the ability to speak fluent French in 5
hours, then that is what needs to be given. There’s nothing worse than
purchasing a product that doesn’t do what it says it will.
Other great methods are to include testimonials, letters of recommend-
ation, or demonstrating where other products fail. While using these
various techniques is crucial, none is more important than providing a
call to action.
A call to action is where you ask the customer to take the next step
with your company. That may be as simple as registering for a free
newsletter or making that $500 purchase. You may look at testing vari-
ous words for a call to action or use pictures and video. It is important to
remember, a call to action requires the reader to take the next step, but
before they can do that, they need to trust you and your service.
One largely missed but highly important point to remember is that
every single page needs to have a purpose and a call to action. While this
may not apply to About Us pages or your Sitemap, it does apply to where
there are new posts. For example, when writing a new post, you may
make reference to readers subscribing to your feed or purchasing your
product, which is better than the competitions. A page without purpose
will be skipped over by readers and may make you lose a sale.
Once a customer is interested in making a purchase, they will be taken
to a sales page. Here a customer is to be educated on the product and
service, answering any questions they may have about the product or
purchasing procedures, and helping to initiate the purchase. If a custom-
er is not necessarily interested in purchasing you may be trying to get
their email, but in either situation, enough information needs to be
provided before they proceed with the action.
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budget these individuals may be completely dedicated to your project or
more on a hobby basis. These technicians are able to assist you with es-
sentially all tasks you may have, but remember its only one individual.
You can expect them to be there whenever there is an emergency, and
will know the business exceptionally well as it is their form of income.
The other option is to hire a hobbyist who will be paid less but may not
be dedicated and involve themselves in other complications. It all de-
pends on your budget and level of assistance.
Once you have determined the level of assistance required, your next
step is to find one. A few recommended places are Elance, RentACoder
or even Craigslist. The first two require you to set up an account and
pick someone to help you, while Craigslist doesn’t and just lets your sift
through individuals looking for work. Again each method has its pros
and cons, but it all comes down to the interviewing and filtering process.
Before hiring someone you will want to go through the usual steps,
such as getting a resume, information on past jobs/wages. You may also
want to ask what the typical turnaround time is for projects that you
may have as well as any extra services they may provide. You essentially
want to find out as much as you can about the person you are interview-
ing. Also remember interviewing doesn’t necessarily have to be in per-
son, it can be over the phone, but depends on your level of comfort. You
may also look at outsourcing work to other countries, but again it de-
pends on how comfortable you are with sending out work overseas.
Once you have someone onboard to help with your various tasks, you
will want to keep things in order by setting some ground rules. For ex-
ample, you may expect progress reports, or scheduled communications.
While this may work for you, don’t forget to encourage and use repeti-
tion when speaking with your employee. A little praise goes a long way!
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Course #11
Social Media Marketing
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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make a post, add a friend, or add a bookmark, you are slowly building
up your profile. Doing this provides you with a great way to:
• Product Announcements: great way to let people know about a
new product.
• Feedback: asking your connections to provide some feedback on
your new idea or post.
• Building Buzz: building some momentum or getting others talk-
ing about you and your company.
There are a few different types of social media websites, each offering
their own unique abilities. Some websites are able to provide additional
options that some are not able to, while others have the ability to link to
each other. Listed below are some of the websites available and a little
bit of information about each.
Social Media Descriptive Information Examples
Allows the ability to enter data, provid-
Blogger
Blogs ing content to readers about your
WordPress
business
Social Able to connect and interact with other FaceBook
Networks users MySpace
Delicious
Bookmarking Save you bookmarks in your browser but
Ma.gnolia
Sites also on a website
StumbleUpon
Microblogging Allows you to blog on a smaller scale. Twitter
Sites Such as one or two sentences at a time Plurk
Media Sharing Provides you with the ability to upload YouTube
Sites video, audio and pictures Flickr
Popularity Adding your bookmarks to a site and Digg
Sites having others vote on them Reddit
Help connected individuals keep up with
Aggregators FriendFeed
everything
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To better explain each category, the next section will take a look at
these social media sites separately.
Blogging
Blogging is a set of regularly published content by one or several au-
thors that allows users to comment on the entry. There are many things
that the word blog may refer to such as a program used, or the writing
style or even something as simple as the entries.
For our purposes here, we will refer to the aforementioned statement
about a blog in regards to regularly published entries, where comments
can be made.
Blogs are a great way to get your message out, on your own website,
letting readers know all sorts of information about yourself, your
product, or just discussing random subjects. This is probably going to be
the first step you will take when creating a website for yourself or
product and key to funneling users to you.
A few key benefits of blogging are:
• Talking to customers: this will allow you to talk directly to your
readers and allows them to comment on what you are
writing.
• Explain your business: here you can provide them with informa-
tion on your business, your mission statements and philosophy. A
great way to just let readers see what your company is all about.
• Demonstrate expertise: if you are an expert in your field, then this
is a great way to let others know what you know.
• Get more customers: if customers see you have a blog, providing
them with information on the products and services you provide,
this may incline them to do business with you.
Blogs are powerful tools for social marketing and a great place to start
in building your social networks. It is also important to remember that
the more content you are adding to your blog, the more traffic you will
drive as it will increase your search engine ranking.
Creating and running a successful blog is not something you do
overnight.
Social Networks
Social networks should be your next step in connecting with other
users on the internet. Your blog will be a place where you can provide
information about a service or product you offer and your social
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networks will be where you can connect with those interested in what
you are providing.
Here you can create a profile, find and connect with other users and
talk to your friends. You can also do other things such as post pictures,
videos and audio as well as other pieces of information for your circle of
friends to see.
Using this type of service has some clear benefits such as getting to
know your customers, getting advice from colleagues and of course, and
this is just a little ego boost, demonstrate your expertise.
For those of you who are already very familiar with social networks,
you can look at distributing custom tools and create discussion groups
that target a particular topic.
A few websites you may be interested to take a look into are listed
below:
• FaceBook: we’re pretty sure that if you have some previous exper-
ience using the internet you may have already heard of this dom-
inant website. FaceBook (www.facebook.com) was originally de-
veloped to be used at a university campus but then expanded to
include, well just about everyone. You can create a profile, send
messages, add friends, create discussion groups, and use a variety
of applications such as quizzes, games, and utilities.
• MySpace: another highly used website is MySpace
(www.myspace.com). This site has been around much longer than
FaceBook and provides very similar features. This site has also
been seen as a place where many up and coming performers strut
their stuff.
• LinkedIn: this site is a pay-for-use website, which is more directed
towards business people. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) allows
you to create a profile and provides you with the ability to connect
to others based on similar interests.
• Yahoo! Answers: this website is a great place to get answers to
your burning questions. This website is quite simple to use, and of
course free. There are many helpful members that are able to
provide answers to pretty much any questions you may have.
(http://www.answers.yahoo.com)
• Discussion Forums: for those of you thinking that discussion for-
ums have disappeared, think again. You can perform a search in
Google or Yahoo! for your topic. You can also take a look at sites
such as Webmaster World (www.webmasterworld.com), and
Google Groups (http://groups.google.com). Most discussion
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forums are free to join, and those that you do have to pay for may
just be providing you similar information as those that are free.
The key here is that using social networks is great in spreading the
word about yourself, your company and your services. Don’t overlook
these websites as they can really put some money in your pocket if used
properly.
Bookmarking Sites
Bookmarking sites provide you with the ability to move your book-
marks from your computer to the particular website. By doing this, a
user is able to access his or her bookmarks from anywhere that has a
computer with an internet connection.
Using a website to maintain your bookmarks is a great way to share
with others, review others bookmark choices, and discuss the book-
marked topics. Some websites available are below:
• StumbleUpon: is a program installed on your computer and
through the click of a button are, taken to sites that are positively
rated by other users. This little application is quite useful in find-
ing similar sites related to the topic you are viewing.
(www.stumbleupon.com)
• Delicious: using Delicious (www.delicious.com) is very similar to
using StumbleUpon, but instead of saving the bookmarks on your
computer, you are saving them on the website server.
As you may see, this is a great tool to drive traffic to your website. If
many users rate your website as useful, then your content will be spread
to other users, and essentially driving thousands of viewers to your
website.
It is also important to remember that with this drive of traffic, your
website will be crawled on by search engines, and increase your ranking.
Also by having many individuals rate your website positively, it
provides a benefit for your search engine optimization.
Microblogging
If you have an idea of what blogging is all about, think smaller. Mi-
croblogs allow you to make many short blog like posts. Microblogs are
useful when you are on the go or only have small amounts of informa-
tion to post (and when we say small, we mean up to 140 characters long).
Using a microblogging service is very similar to a messaging service,
where some users make posts every few minutes. This type of social me-
dia is very instant and in “real time”.
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Another benefit of using such a service, is the ability to follow other
microbloggers. Communities can be built based upon interests. This in
turn relates to others subscribing to your microblog. You will essentially
become a leader of your microblogging pack.
Here are a few sites you can check out for your microblogging
purposes:
• Twitter: before we get into too much detail, we would like to cau-
tion you that Twitter (www.twitter.com) can become quite addict-
ive. Now that we have warned you, Twitter is a microblogging
tool in which you can enter messages up to 140 characters long.
You will be able to follow other Twitterers and you will receive
their messages. This service is free to join and like other social me-
dia, you are able to create your own profile.
• Plurk: this is another great microblogging tool, but a few user in-
terface differences. Signing up with this website is also free.
Popularity Sites
Popularity sites have combined the best of two different worlds; book-
marking and social networking. This allows you the ability to submit
new websites that then get voted on by other internet users. Those voted
on more often are moved up in the ratings and seen by more users. Here
are a few sites to take a look at:
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• Digg: Digg is a great way to get users to your website, and if it is
voted as number one, be sure to have a large server, or expect to
be offline almost instantly. Digg has many users resulting in a
large amount of traffic to your site; so beware!
• Reddit: this is very similar to Digg, but its focus is more towards
news, while Digg is targeted towards the funny and weird. Again,
having a number one post, will drive many users to your page,
but remember this does require some work on your behalf.
Posting on these types of sites can drive large amounts of traffic to
your page, but it isn’t a guarantee and does require you to do some edit-
ing and possibly re-editing.
Aggregators
An aggregator is a tool that provides you with the ability to manage all
of your connections, such as the photo-sharing site, social network, and
bookmarking site. Posting on one of the following FriendFeed.com or Se-
condbrain.com, will upload the content to all of your other connections.
This is a great way to keep track of all your social networking sites,
and still be able to update everything, without missing on any websites.
While most aggregators are free, some do require a minimal fee, and ex-
pect that you perform some managing. This is perfect as you don’t have
to worry about missing out on anything, but also reducing the amount of
work you have to do.
What To Track
You can add blog results from all sorts of websites based on your
interests.
It is also important to keep in mind that subscribing to all sorts of in-
formation, will only lead to more work later. After you have gotten a fair
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amount of subscriptions, you will want to go through and be critical of
what and who you are following.
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• How often are the users participating?
• How many members are in groups?
• How are posts received by other audience members?
• How many are writing about a similar topic?
• How many questions are being asked and unresolved?
• What concerns are being focused on?
Researching your audience is critical in understanding what your
readers are looking for, ultimately providing you with insight in ways
for you to provide answers to questions or concerns that are not being
answered.
Once you have explored the online communities you may want to use
some additional services such as AdCenter Labs and Quantcast. These
resources are free to use, but of course are only experimental and can
provide useful or useless information. Although the data is useable, it
does change and while some searches are useful at one time, it may not
be at a later time.
AdCenter Labs is a good tool to use if you are:
• Running an online store.
• You target audience uses Hotmail or Microsoft related websites.
• Your audience is easily identifiable by keyword searches.
• If you have a tight budget
Finally, you may be interested in using a paid data service for gather-
ing data. This method of course should be used if you have a flexible
budget, which can be used to gather research. Below are a few sites you
can check out for some research help.
• Neilson Online (www.neilson-online.com): you can create reports
based on demographics and online usage. Highly detailed reports
can be used for comparison study.
• Hitwise (www.hitwise.com): this site provides highly informative
reporting on industries, categories or even specific sites.
• Compete (www.compete.com): provides information regarding
searches and usage of specific websites.
• ComScore (www.comscore.com): this site provides you with the
ability to research advertising and usage patterns on specific sites.
Using the above mentioned sites are for those looking to spend a few
dollars performing research, are on a time strain, require this type of
data, or have the training or interest to go through all of the data.
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This section is going to be fairly short as it will be combined with the
following sections to really get your message across to your viewers.
First, think about your company and what it means to you. Then on a
piece of paper, write down a few words that you will want associated
with your company. Now those words will become your message and
whenever you make a post, remember to stay within those words.
If you have performed some research, you may want to compare your
words to the data you have collected. Does your message fit with re-
search and does it meet the needs of your audience? You can use the re-
search to provide you with assistance to narrow your words and focus
your efforts.
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Developing Your Profile
Each social media site that your register to, allows you to create a pro-
file, detailing some information about yourself. It is important that you
write down some information about yourself, as it provides you with the
ability to connect with other users in a more intimate manner (something
which is very hard to do on computers).
Some of the things you will want to make sure you provide in the pro-
file is the avatar or picture representing you, a short description of your-
self, some random information regarding your interests, and some basic
contact information.
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Reviewing Your Content
Alright, now that you have determined your sites to get your message
across, you are going to have to review your site and the content within.
Before initiating a social media campaign, here are a few things to keep
an eye out for:
• Grab an audience: if you don’t have an audience, your message
may not be heard by anyone. You will want to grab their attention
somehow. To do this try answering questions, write out top 10
lists, use other ways of communicating such as audio, video and
graphics. You may also want to write about things that invoke
some type of emotion in your readers.
• Ease of contact: nowadays internet users may have several main
websites they view for information on a particular subject. What
many users don’t realize is that information may be delivered dir-
ectly to those readers. The use of an RSS feed, will bring all new
content to the subscriber, and reduces the amount of internet
“travel”. Using an RSS feed will bring all of your new content dir-
ectly to the reader without any use of the internet (minus the read-
er downloading the content).
• Share your information: allowing users to share your content to
other sites can increase the amount of traffic your site may gener-
ate. Make sure you have buttons that can quickly bookmark or
share your content. You will also want to make sure that your
website address and contact info will be easy to remember.
Planning a Routine
Having chosen your social media sites, your next task is to keep on top
of your communication. You will need to develop a posting style wheth-
er it’s posting every hour, a few times a day, or once a day. It’s all about
how aggressive you want to be and how much information you have to
post.
Once you have a daily routine planned, you may want to figure out a
few long term options as well. This may include stand-ins while you are
away, ease and enjoyment of posting and finally a way to keep track of
the results of your postings.
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FaceBook Finesse
FaceBook is a great way to meet millions of users from around the
world and excellent in keeping your friends up to date with any and all
of your updates.
This site is excellent in providing users with the ability to keep your
friends up to date with your current statuses and events. Highly useful
in networking with your friends as well as discovering other friends you
may have forgotten about.
FaceBook also allows you to create groups, where your friends can join
and talk about an endless array of topics. This is a perfect way to meet
people and make new friends and contacts. (You may also join other
groups too!) Also for those looking to just unwind, there is an array of
games, quizzes and activities you can do while on FaceBook.
Other great functions FaceBook provides you with are things like
branding and creating applications. While this may require some addi-
tional knowledge or skill on your behalf, it is a great way to get yourself
out to your friends, and their connections.
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If you are a business and serious about getting work done, then be
sure to sign up to LinkedIn. This site is exceptionally useful for compan-
ies looking to provide a service, create connections with other compan-
ies, are providing some form of consultation, or looking to find quality
connections.
It is also important to remember that unlike FaceBook or MySpace, the
connections you make must be in some way related to you otherwise
you will be unable to friend that individual. For this reason, all of the
connections you make will be quality contacts.
Think of this as the site where the connections you make are worth
gold. All the other sites are much easier to friend someone than
LinkedIn.
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If you are looking at getting your message across or just looking to
connect, using various forms of media will help increase your rate of suc-
cess. The first site you will want to take a look at using is Flickr.
Flickr is a photo-sharing site, where you and others can comment on
photos you or other people post. While this may be a great way to find
others with similar tastes, you need to be wary of the pictures you post.
While you may want to make a statement, you will also want others to
get involved in a positive and useful manner.
Another excellent service to know is YouTube. It is very similar to
Flickr, but Youtube deals with videos. Anyone can setup a free account,
upload videos, add a brief description and let other viewers make com-
ments. While this is useful in getting video content out to your viewers,
remember to personalize your profile and keep your videos short (no
one likes watching 10 min long videos). Also think about providing a
good brief description as well as an eye catching title. Finally, comment-
ing on what others have written is expected if you want to develop your
connections.
Participate In a Discussion
While discussion forums may seem old and out of date, many users
still participate extensively in their favourite forums. They have been
around for a long time, and many still feel more comfortable using this
type of networking. If you decide to use this type of networking, be sure
to choose forums which are relevant to your niche. When posting com-
ments or suggestions, do so in a respectable manner, and don’t try to
spam, as the administrators will kick you out. Using a forum is also great
to advertise your expertise and of course your site or social media tools.
Microblog to Success
Microblogging is the progression of blogging. In a blog, you are able to
post an article pretty much as long as you like, Microblogging on the
other hand, only lets you post up to 140-character posts. This means that
you need to know exactly what you want to say, using targeted words.
Using microblogging is beneficial in keeping your followers up to date
with what you are doing. One of the top microblogging sites is Twitter
but there is also Plurk, FriendFeed and Identi. While this may seem as
too simple or time wasting, it really has potential for spreading the word
about your content.
A few things to keep in mind about microblogging is:
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• Profile. Profile. Profile: just like all other sites, setting up a com-
plete and well developed profile is crucial.
• To Follow or Not: while there are many different approaches to
following, you need to see what the best method is for your niche.
While reciprocating a follower may be useful it may just come off
as spammy.
• Participate: if you find something interesting and related to your
topic, post about it. Also if someone makes a post that is interest-
ing, make sure to pass the word.
• Spam: you get in the mail and you hate it, so don’t do the same
with the posts you make. Think about posting at proper intervals
and not a ten posts in ten seconds.
Answer Questions
Ever have a question that you needed answered but none of your im-
mediately family or friends could answer it? Well unless you want to do
your own research, then your next best step is to ask a question on Ya-
hoo! Answers.
This site is useful for asking or answering questions and helps your
search rankings. By answering others questions, you are able to demon-
strate your expertise and of course get your name out there.
Remember out of all of the information provided, there is a continuing
trend. That trend is getting yourself, your brand, and your company out
to the rest of the world. The methods mentioned above, not only helps
you do that, but also helps you practice what we preach. While this may
seem repetitive or dull, it really is the key to your success. Keep it up and
you will soon be on your way to the top of your niche.
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depends on how well connected and in touch you are with those friends.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when acquiring friends:
• Search your interests: finding friends interested in your interests
is always a good place to start.
• Content is king: you’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but
it really is true. People like to follow and friend people who post
interesting content.
• Joining others: if there is a following or groups already created on
your niche, join in. Then show others what you know (but remem-
ber don’t repeat what others have said).
• Be original: just as we’ve mentioned above, don’t repeat other
people. Be the expert you want people to see you for. If you can’t
say something from a different perspective or angle, don’t say it.
• Answer and ask: if you aren’t sure how to get more friends, then
start searching FaceBook, Yahoo! Answers, Youtube, Twitter, or
any other sites for questions. Then answer them! If you don’t have
an answer, then ask a question. The more involved you are, the
more your name will come up, when people perform a search!
Once you have friends, remember to keep them. Nothing is worse than
making friends, and then having them leave you. Besides, if they make
some other friends, they may recommend staying away from you be-
cause you don’t post enough, or aren’t a leader in your niche. (Good
news travels much slower than bad news, but everyone seems to always
remember bad news more often).
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of a leader. You will be seen as someone who is able to keep up to date
with latest trends, but also a reliable source for information.
For some, advertising may seem as intrusive in any way you do it.
While this may be true, a great way to ease people into a product or ser-
vice, is do present it in an entertaining way. Whether it’s with a small an-
imation, or audio intro, something that entertains a reader will always
grasp their attention much easier. Also be sure to avoid misleading or
rude behavior when advertising or presenting your content. While it
may quickly grab their attention, they will be less inclined to continue
following you, if you are seen to be untruthful. If you are ever not sure,
just think of whether you would try it in person, if you wouldn’t then
don’t do it on the internet.
Course #12
Advertising Online
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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Course 12: PPC and the Basics of Online Advertising
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There are issues though that many may encounter, some of those may
be:
• Not enough budget to spend for your industry: advertising needs
budgeting correlated to cost of product.
• Poorly designed site: update your site and make the navigating
easier (this relates to conversion)
• Slow page loads: don’t fill the site with all sorts of flash apps, not
all computers are up to date, and can make you lose many poten-
tial customers.
• Not enough volume: Are your search words the right words for
your niche? Or are you being too specific?
• No analytics: you need an analytic program if you want to know
what’s happening with your site
• Setting it and forgetting it: this is a big no-no. Your ad campaigns
and site both need to be maintained on a set schedule (2-3 times a
week). There’s no such thing as a solve all problems solution; you
need to stay on top of your business.
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One other factor in choosing your PPC provider is your market.
FaceBook for instance has its own PPC advertising system so if you’re
going for the FaceBook crowd, the FaceBook advertising system is the
obvious choice.
The smaller PPC providers are only really needed in specific situations
and recommended to more advanced users, Google and Yahoo! are your
best bets otherwise.
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The reason you need to be so exact is that using general words will
bring in too much low value traffic. If you’re selling cars and you use the
term “car”, the traffic received for that term is likely to be low.
If you use specifics, you’ll get less traffic but the quality will be much
higher.
Match Types
“Match types” are kind of hard to explain but essentially they’re what
you use to tell the search engines in what situation you want your ads to
be displayed. It’s basically linking other words/phrases to your
AdWords. This helps generate more results.
Here are is an explanation of the match types:
• Broad: long-tailed words (3 or more), misspelled, and uses a vari-
ety of words and synonyms.
• Phrase: uses the word in plural form and in the exact order; will
add other words in front or after your main keyword.
• Exact: the ad only shows up in searches that use the exact same
words; no plurals or misspelling.
• Negative: basically these are words you don’t want your ads to
appear with.
Destination URLs
Once you’ve organized your keywords by “match types” and ad
groups you can help further categorize your information by setting up a
destination URL. Basically the URL leads to a specific webpage.
If you’re using keywords like “pink iPods” it makes sense to link the
ad to the exact page of that product instead of the more general products
page.
Adding most exact destination URLs will improve user experience and
they’ll be more likely to convert.
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In this section we’ll take a look at what makes a good PPC ad. We’ll
look at such things as the structure of the ad, how to write a compelling
ad, and how to test your campaigns.
Writing A PPC Ad
Writing this ad is not going to be an easy task, there is no point in us
telling you it is easy. But if you follow these guidelines, it will make
things a lot easier (and you won’t have to get someone to help you (save
your money).
Firstly, make sure your ad is providing a benefit and a feature. This
means that you will have something saying free shipping, on sale, in
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stock. Then provide the feature such as colors, sizes, quality. This works
much better than having just information on your product.
Secondly, put in some urgency/aggression or call to action. Buy Now!
Or Order Now! Exclamations help to make you stand out and make
users want to take the next step.
Note: Two types of action, aggressive call to action targets an immedi-
ate response while the information call to action is for research and
browsing.
Don’t forget your grammar. Just because it’s the internet and its fast
and easy, doesn’t mean you can forget how to speak. Remember this is
your ad to the world, if you can’t spell, don’t expect business to flow.
Make sure you use your keywords, but don’t jam pack it in there. Be
direct and specific but don’t try and tell them everything, because you
won’t have enough space.
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Make sure to also keep a tab on your ads, some say once a week, but if
you are in a very targeted niche and have lots of viewers, a couple times
a week may be your required level of involvement.
Finally, remember to check conversion rates. This will tell you where
the money is at and hopefully with these tips, there will be more money
in your pocket, than in your competitors.
The secret to PPC ads is that the cost of the advertising is less than the
revenue it generates. Once you know the conversion rate you’ll know ex-
actly how much money to invest in ads in order to make specific
revenue.
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Stick to your budget! If you are getting the clicks required and making
the sales, then don’t change anything. If you aren’t making the sales then
its time to redraw the plans and figure out what course of action is best
for you.
Make sure you have enough money for your campaigns. Some words
may be more expensive than others. One key rule to remember here is
that the more generic and broad the terms are the more traffic and times
your ads will show up but the quality of traffic will be much lower.
Keyword Bidding
This is going to be the most complex aspect of PPC advertising. Bid-
ding on keywords of which there are two levels.
• Ad-group Level: must set a maximum bid, the largest amount you
are willing to pay for a single click, but you may not pay that
amount (but be ready if you have to).
• Keyword Level: maximum CPC you are willing to pay per word.
Cost per click (CPC) is based on the search engines calculations. We
are sorry to say but we can’t provide you with the exact calculations per-
formed as those are kept hidden and secret only to their own companies
(Google, MSN, Yahoo!).
We can tell you that there are known factors that play into this, such
as:
• Relevancy of the keyword to your ad
• Relevancy of the search term to your keyword
• Destination URL (where the ad takes the searcher)
• Daily Budget
• Keyword Bid Amount
• Amount of Competition
• Relevancy of competitors words to yours
One thing to keep in mind is if possible, set the maximum amount for
an ad group as a start. Then lower as you receive results. This will give
you more results and allows you to adjust better than going from bottom
up.
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You need to make sure that your ads are visible to your customers
when you need them to be.
Setting up your budget will also depend, as mentioned before, on
your market. Those selling low cost per conversion and short buying
cycle tend to fare better than those with complex and long buying cycles.
It’s all about attracting the right customers, for the lowest cost for ad-
vertising and making enough sales to keep you in business.
Click Fraud
Click fraud is where an individual or programs go onto a site and con-
tinually click an ad without ever having intention of buying or using
your service.
The search engines have their own ways of dealing with click fraud
and if detected will reimburse you for the cost.
You can keep track of click fraud by checking your server logs and
studying the ip addresses. If you see a large number coming from one ip
address, then you could be experiencing click fraud.
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Also check to see where the clicks are originating from. If you are
selling a product only for American residents and you are receiving
clicks from Russia that may be a warning sign.
You may also look into a click fraud prevention program, but make
sure to do your research and know what you are getting into.
If you are experiencing click fraud, make sure you contact your cus-
tomer service department. Be ready to show them your server logs and
information.
Section 7: Tips, Tools, and Tricks of the Trade for PPC Advertising
Offline editors allow you to see your entire account, campaigns, ad
groups and keywords without having to load pages. It basically allows
you to make PPC edits quickly and easily.
You load your account, go offline, make the necessary changes and
then get back online and update the account. EASY!
Use a keyword traffic tool to expand and develop which keywords to
add. Tells you the rate and information needed for each keyword
Use geotargeting to target a specific area. People in a specific are that
you chose will see your ads while others won’t. Using your budget to
market to those that would use your product. If you sell snowboards,
then your ads will be targeted towards those who live close to mountain
ranges instead of those living in sunny/beachy areas.
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• Bid lower on the content network than on the search network.
• KEEP TRACK OF THE NETWORK SITES
Finally the ultimate tip for all websites and this should be a given is
USE ANALYTICS PROGRAMS! These programs will help you keep
track of everything you will need to run and maintain a successful busi-
ness. The question should not be “Do I need an analytics program?” or
“Why should I use an analytics program?”, the question should be
“Which program should I use?”, and “How can I use it efficiently?”.
Course #13
Basic Blogging & Podcasting
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
191
out what to write about is to look at what you involve yourself with.
Take a look at your hobbies and see whether this would be of some in-
terest to someone on the internet.
If you are trying to expand your business online, then make sure it is
something you are passionate about. If you aren’t happy with what you
are doing, it will come out in your writing. Before you do get started
there are a few things to keep in mind.
• Set it and forget it: this is the last thing a blog is. A blog requires
dedication, hard work, and long term commitment. It will require
you to update your blog on a regular schedule and you must stick
to it, otherwise, readers will not bother to view your content.
• Watch for mistakes: if you provide some information on the inter-
net and it’s wrong, be ready to be called out on it. You will want to
make sure what your are saying is correct, or it can lead to users
questioning your information and credibility.
• Be passionate: you need to be passionate about your topic. As
mentioned if you aren’t passionate about what you are doing,
your readers will see it right away.
• Familiarity is key: writing about a topic you are unfamiliar with,
is going to be boring and tedious. You will have to research
everything and get the information you need to work on your
blog. This will only become more difficult as you begin getting in-
to more complicated content and hitting road blocks.
• Make it your own: if your topic is not the most interesting subject,
then add a little bit of your own touch to the mix. This could be
putting a funny spin on things, or adding the newest information
on the topic. You could add pictures or videos, making the content
more appealing.
There are a million different topics you can choose from and all have
ways in creating the content to attract the attention of readers. All you
have to do is figure out what you are interested in, and market it to the
world.
Now once you have decided on your topic, you need to decide what
goals you have planned for your blog. If you are looking for a way to es-
cape your 9-5 job or make millions from inception of your blog, then this
is not for you. Here are a few pointers that will help determine if your
goals are proper for blogging.
• Blogs need time to succeed: blogs will not explode with new
users within the first day and some don’t explode at all. What you
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want to do is give yourself a time frame. A good time frame for
blogging is 6 to 12 months and this is for realistic goals.
• Are you ready to be unheard?: usually the first 6 months of your
blog is spent speaking or rather typing and posting to an empty
room. You aren’t well known on the internet just yet, we are going
to have to work on that.
• Money is not going to be flowing in: you may be in the land of
milk and honey, but it is not just going to come streaming in. Only
a certain amount of websites truly generate a large amount of in-
come from advertising on their site. If you are looking to make a
lot of money, be sure to use the blog as a supplement to your actu-
al products and/or services.
With these in mind, setting goals needs to be done realistically. If you
are posting on a bi-weekly schedule to your blog and expect to make a
million dollars in a year, then you will need to rethink what you are
selling. Here are few examples of realistic goals that you can set for you
and your blog to achieve in about 6 months time:
• Answering questions: you will begin to have users read your con-
tent and what you will want to do is determine what questions are
being asked most frequently. Then you will want to answer those
in the 6 month time frame.
• Write a set amount of posts: this will depend on your business or
blog and how often you will post. Having approximately 60 posts
by 6 months is a good target.
• Find and send customers to blog: You can expect some people to
start taking a look at your blog. They either came to you through
search engines or your marketing efforts.
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are right on time and provide exceptional content, you can become
one of the internet success stories. But also remember that the like-
lihood of this is based on what you are providing.
• General search engines: this is the easiest way to determine com-
petitors. Go to the search engine you are most familiar with and
search for your topic. Once searched, you will want to research
what they are providing and what they aren’t. This will provide
you with ways in providing readers with something they aren’t
receiving with other blogs. Make notes on what bloggers are talk-
ing about, how many other bloggers there are on your subject.
These are questions that need to be asked.
Note: if there is an overflow of content on the internet and many blog-
gers talking about the same topic, it will make it more difficult for you to
make a space of your own, that will get more attention than the rest. You
need to stand out and provide something other bloggers are not
providing.
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talk about how you can customize your blogging in upcoming
sections)
• SEO limitability: if you are hoping to increase your SEO, this type
of blogging will not provide you with options to increase visibility
for your website.
• Slow updates: All of the coding is managed by their IT profession-
als, so you get what they give you.
There are other options for online blogging. TypePad is another solu-
tion and provides similar qualities as Blogger and Wordpress.com but it
does require payment for use.
For those looking for more options and the ability to customize your
blog as you see fit there are two options. WordPress.org and Moveable
Type. If you decide to go with an installed version of a blogging plat-
form, we recommend that you have some knowledge with web servers.
If you do not then you will want to speak to a Web host or web de-
veloper to have you all set up.
WordPress is a great way to get set up with Blogging. We would re-
commend this platform over the rest as it provides you with the ability
to customizing options and is also free to install. The basics of Word-
press.org are similar to that of Wordpress.com but with a few extra ad-
ded features:
• Customizability: having the software installed allows you to
really make the blog look the way you want it to. You can use free
templates off the internet and then redesign them to meet your
needs. You also add plug-ins which can make running your blog
more effective and run more efficiently. Installing WordPress will
also allow you the ability to make it part of your website.
• SEO expandability: due to its customizing nature, you can also
look at a range of SEO options. Using plug-ins and other market-
ing techniques, you can turn your blog into a real money maker.
Although there are some great benefits, WordPress does present its
own challenges such as:
• Maintenance: if you need any updating or changes made to your
blog, you are going to have to do it all yourself (or of course, hire
someone to do all the work for you).
• Software knowledge: you will be installing all the necessary pro-
grams required to run your blog. If you aren’t sure what needs to
be done, again you can hire the services of a specialist.
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If you having issues with this, then you will want to speak to an IT
specialist or web host. They can manage all the installing and set-up
parts of your blog, while you worry about the content and posting.
If you decide to go with Moveable Type, then you are looking at a few
differences such as cost and level of difficulty. Basically you are looking at
the same features that are within Wordpress.org, except with additional
features such as ability to manage more than one blog at a time. We re-
commend this route only if you have a greater understanding of how to
use blogging platforms.
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• Do not allow them to post comments as they please. You don’t
want links to porn sites or the like being posted for comments.
• Do not refuse people from posting at all. You want people to come
to your blog to interact with the information you have provided.
• Do not get mad at what people comment. They have a right to
their opinions and on the internet; anyone can become a critic or a
fan.
• Do review comments before allowing them to be published on-
line. You want to make sure that you users are commenting on
your information appropriately.
• Do allow registered or trusted users to post without moderation.
The individuals posting are regulars to your site and you do want
to keep any eye on what they say but not completely review
everything they say. A form of trust needs to be built on you blog.
Another critical customization you will want to make is in regards to
pinging. Pinging is where your blogging software sends out a notification
to search engines and directories, letting them know of your updated
content. This is a great way to generate traffic and requires no further ac-
tion from you.
Within the settings of your blogging software, you will want to add
these websites to help you get started in pinging the internet with your
content.
• http://rpc.pingomatic.com
• http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
• http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
• http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
• http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
• http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
• http://ping.blo.gs
• http://ping.feedburner.com
• http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
• http://weblogalot.com/rpc.php
If your blogging software doesn’t have a pinging feature, you can go
to www.pingomatic.com and you can send out your pings using a single
form.
RSS Feeds
One essential component required to run a successful blog is to have
an RSS feed. If you are unsure what RSS stands for it means, really
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simple syndication. It is a format which is able to provide the headings
and a brief summary or the entire contents of your post.
Readers can subscribe to your RSS feeds, using one or more of hun-
dreds of feeds readers. There are many RSS feed readers that a user may
have, but you’ll need to set up an RSS feed for them to view your
content.
This is a great way to allow your readers to keep track of what content
you might have recently published without having to come to your web-
site. The feed reader will provide the reader with your latest content in a
simple and easy to read format. Below are the steps required to setup an
account and get you information sent to your readers.
1. Go to www.feedburner.com
2. Setup an account.
3. Verify blog documentation for blog’s feed address.
4. Paste address into the Burn a Feed Right This Instant field and se-
lect Next.
5. Replace old feed address with the new FeedBurner address in
your blog.
Once that is all set up you are all done, except for your first post. Just
get onto your blog and type away. It doesn’t necessarily have to be
something perfect and doesn’t have to make the most sense. Just write
up an introduction about your blog and what you hope to do with your
blog. Make it simple, conversational, and from the heart.
The important step here is to make that first post, get your work out
there, and getting the hang of how to write a post. Also try and avoid
writing things like, “I don’t know what to write about”. If you are having
writers block, take a break and then come back. No need to tell people
about it as everyone experiences it one time or another.
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So to avoid any further confusion, we are going to provide you with
some pointers. Take them into consideration when working on your
posts, but only apply as necessary.
Two ways to keep your blog on track and concise is to follow two
simple rules. Simplicity and scanability.
Simplicity: you are getting to the point of your sentence and doing so
clearly. There is no need to start getting fancy with words. Just spit it out
(well not literally). Blogs allow writers to get their message across, in a
professional manner yet in a semi-professional tone. Here are some tips
to help you keep it simple.
• avoid the thesaurus like the plague or at the very least do not use
it. If you can use simple words to explain something, then use
them.
• write, analyze and revise. This is self explanatory, write
something down and if it doesn’t make sense then revise it
• use shorter sentences instead of a large compound sentence. They
are much easier to read.
• avoid filler words as it will only increase your sentences. For ex-
ample, “really,” “extremely,” “totally,” and “like”.
• use confidence when writing, it helps get your message across
better and shows that you are knowledgeable about your topic.
• make lists. Everyone loves to read a list and it is always simple to
understand.
• using too many exclamation points can get annoying, try and use
this in limited quantities.
• practice. It will help you develop your writing style and after a
while, thoughts will come more naturally.
Scanability: as we discussed in our email sections, users tend to scan
their emails. Readers also scan content that they are reading. If content is
all mashed together users will have a hard time reading what you
have to say and may stop coming back to your blog. Take a look at some
of the suggestions below to try and help with making your blog easier to
scan.
• Your paragraphs should be kept to a minimum. A good recom-
mended length is about four or five lines.
• Any lists that you may create should be bulleted or numbered
• Structure your blog so customers know what to expect next
• Major points to be broken apart by headlines. Don’t jumble it all
together
• Use line spacing of 1.5 or greater
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• Use images to help relieve the stress on the eyes
• Allow for one idea per paragraph. Again, jumbling ideas together
can get confusing and strenuous on the readers eyes
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Try not to find a guest blogger that is doing the exact same niche
as you, because he or she may then promote their own blog or
website.
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In this section we are going to look at ways to connect with other blog-
gers and also look at ways to communicate effectively with them.
Your first step is to find out who you need to connect with in your
field. You may have already done this using email marketing, but if you
haven’t then this is what you need to do. Once you have determined
who you need to speak with, your next step is to make contact. The only
problem is, no one is aware of you. For example, think of approaching an
unknown blogger like approaching a stranger on the street. If you just
start asking questions one of two things can happen:
1. He or she thinks you’re crazy and completely ignores you
2. He or she tells you to politely, buzz off.
So your next question should be, how do I communicate with those
top bloggers without seeming like a weirdo? Good job my friends, here
are a few pointers on starting a relationship.
Leave comments: now we don’t mean going onto a site and just saying
something like “awesome post dude”. There needs to be a response
worth the blogger reading it. For example:
• Read the full post and then reply. Nothing like looking unin-
formed than making a comment straight out of left field.
• Read other peoples comments and see whether it’s worth your
time making a post.
• Don’t repeat the same comment. If someone has said something
you want to say, don’t try and repeat it. Try using a different
angle.
• Make a conflicting statement. You can make a conflicting state-
ment but make it in a way that makes a person think. Don’t just go
onto bloggers sites and post random conflicting questions that will
irritate people.
• Linking without relevance. This is a big one to remember. If the in-
formation is not important or relevant to what your blog is about,
don’t link to them. It’s just a waste of your time and the blogger’s.
Comment Tracking: For those of you looking to keep track of all your
replies, which can get quite complicated if you are posting on several dif-
ferent blogs, more than once, take a look at a service called Commentful.
This service can be accessed through www.blogflux.com.
Avoiding conflict: using the internet is easy to have message misun-
derstood. When talking to someone face to face, you will use your body
language, tone and pitch of voice and facial expressions to get your mes-
sage across. On the internet, all you have are your words. You need to
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make sure that you are careful in the way you type your messages so as
not come off as a jerk. Here are some things to avoid:
• The use of sarcasm. It’s hard to show sarcasm in text as it is all in
the sound of your voice . Text cannot do this, so avoid it. It will
save you a lot of trouble.
• Do not be nasty. Try to avoid being nasty. Remember you are rep-
resenting your company and you don’t want to come off as unre-
spectable. If you don’t have something nice or informative to say,
it’s better not to say anything at all.
• Avoiding jokes will also keep you out of the line of fire. Unless
you can be completely clear with the joke, best to avoid making
them.
Link to bloggers: if you want to gather attention for your work, you
can link other bloggers content to your postings. To use someone else’s
content, here are a few ways to avoid any problems.
• Creating a link list where you would discuss a few links which
provide good content that relates to your topic. You would of
course have a link back to their blog.
• Citing for support for an argument you are making in your post is
another great way to link up.
• Citing for additional resources can help expand your resources list
and connections
It is important to remember that the bloggers that own the content you
are posting, will be checking their analytics program to see where their
users are coming from. If they see that you are contributing to their in-
crease in traffic, they may link back to you to help you out.
Guest posting: just as we mentioned that you invite others to post on
your blog, you may be able to do the same on another bloggers website.
You will need to get in touch with them and let them know of your in-
tentions. You may not be accepted to just write content for them, but you
can offer an exchange. Here are some things to pointers to remember
when you are guest posting:
• Blog owner gets final say. If your writing isn’t up to his or hers
standard or are contradicting their values or beliefs, they may de-
cide not to post your content. He or she may also have suggestions
for how you may change it. Remember it’s his/hers website.
• Take some extra time when writing the post, as its your introduc-
tion to new audience members and can increase your traffic.
• Determine if linking back to your blog is alright. You want to
make sure they are comfortable with linking back to your website.
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• Write about yourself. This is the perfect time to let readers know a
little bit about yourself.
Ask politely: sometimes just asking a blogger politely might work.
• create an introduction of yourself and about your blog
• ask politely if they would be interested in linking up. Don`t ask
more than once as you may irritate the blogger.
• say please and thank you. Use a little bit of common sense. Man-
ners will get you further in your progress.
• finally make sure to reciprocate your linking. If they link to you,
you should do the same for them.
Posting On StumbleUpon
One website you may have heard of while doing some internet re-
search or browsing is StumbleUpon. This websites/service requires that
an app is installed onto a person’s browser toolbar and whenever the
user clicks on the StumbleUpon icon, they’ll be taken to a website based
on members thumbs-up or thumbs-down preferences.
You also submit new content to the site, which is then circulated
among StumbleUpon users. If more users select thumbs-up, your in-
formation will have a higher likelihood of being stumbled upon.
It is a great little tool but don`t expect to set it and forget it, you`ll want
to continue spreading the word about you posts.
Here are few basic suggestions for completing a good submission:
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• Descriptive title: you should have a title that can explain what the
post is about.
• Description: if your title is descriptive, don`t forget to write a
good description about your content as well.
• Good tag usage: remember to tag your article properly. Keywords
to explain your post.
• Send to friends: send your post to StumbleUpon friends if you
think they would be interested in your post.
Submit To Digg
Another website you may be interested in using is Digg. Digg is a
great site because if your article is of high quality and of great import-
ance, your post may make it to the front page and if it does that, expect
server crashing traffic.
The only problem is, if your content is mediocre or only above par,
you may only make it to pages 2,3 and beyond, which would decrease
the traffic rate, drastically.
The find out if your post is Digg-worthy, take a look at these
suggestions:
• Interesting topic: does your topic have something to do with a
current trend, something bizarre or strange, or is it a funny
post?
• High-quality productions: make sure that your post is easily
read. Quick and easy, because your readers may be surfing the in-
ternet looking for good content and you want to be one of those
pages they view.
• Geek alert: if it appeals to those that you may consider “geeky” or
“nerdy” you have good content. If it doesn’t appeal to them, then
you might want to rethink using Digg.
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Other recommendations we can make to get your blog out there, is to
connect with bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, Digg, and Ma.gnolia.
They are similar to StumbleUpon and are great ways to get more
attention.
You can again as noted in our other sections, send polite emails to
bloggers, subscribers and other contacts that you may know about your
new posts. It is all about spreading the word about your information and
getting people to notice and remember you.
Our final suggestion is to get onto online communities such as
FaceBook or microblogging sites such as Twitter. These are great ways to
pass on information quickly to those that are already part of your com-
munity. This allows users to gain quick and easy access to your content.
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• Broadcasting source: getting your content to your viewers will
have to be done using FeedBurner, iTunes or some other service.
Now that you have an idea of the tools you will require for getting
your podcasts completed, we will look at each component separately.
First, the microphone.
The microphone is the way that sound will be transferred into a digital
format which will be what your viewers are listening to. If you already
have a microphone and are comfortable with the quality it is providing
then you’re already ahead of the game. For those of you who don’t
already have a microphone and aren’t sure which to purchase, we will
look at a few options below:
• Built In: this microphone is built in, and is seen on a laptop. It is
easy to use, it may even have proper software already installed. Its
great if you are going to be recording while sitting in front of your
laptop but if you need to move around or get things done, it may
make it a bit challenging to drag your laptop around.
• Headset: this type of microphone fits around your head and is
plugged into your laptop or desktop computer. Great way to cap-
ture all the sound from your voice, but it doesn’t allow for more
than one user to make comments.
• Microphone stand: this is the type of microphone that is usually
made of plastic and has its own support that holds it up. Great
tool for multiple individuals to record their voices all at once.
When it comes down to microphones, our recommendation is to do
some online searches and see what the best for your needs is and budget.
We could make recommendations for $30 microphones to $400 micro-
phones and beyond, but if it doesn’t meet your needs and budget, then it
would be pointless. There are a few brand names that we can refer you
to:
• Blue Microphones: (www.bluemic.com)
• Logitech: (www.logitech.com)
• Samsontech: (www.samsontech.com)
Once you have determined your microphone, you will want to de-
termine what type of program to use. Once again your needs and budget
should be taken into consideration. Here are a few options for programs:
Windows PC programs:
• Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
• Podproducer (www.podproducer.net)
• Adobe Audition(http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/)
Max OS X:
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• GarageBand(www.apple.com/ilife/garageband)
• Ubercaster (www.ubercaster.com)
• Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
• Logic Studio Pro (http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/)
There are quite a few options here, as you can see Audacity is avail-
able on both Mac and PC, and out of all of them, this will be your best
choice. And its free! You can’t go wrong with free.
Now that we have found our microphone and installed all our soft-
ware, we are going to need to find a place to set up for recording. The
key here is quiet. You need a room where there aren’t any appliances
running or sounds of people walking upstairs or any other types of
noise. You need a place with complete quietness and if you are trying to
do your recordings at home, just have the family go out for a bit, while
you complete your recordings.
Other issues to look out for are echoes. If you are in a large room or
sound carries through your recording area quite easily, you can stick up
some blankets on the walls. If you have a dedicated area to perform your
recordings, egg cartons are also excellent in reducing the echo effect.
Below we have listed a few tips for setting up your quiet recording
area:
• Windows: these need to be closed as you may begin to notice, cars
driving by, birds chirping, neighbors talking, and those sounds
will be heard on the recording.
• Appliances: in a quiet area you will begin to hear the low buzzing
sound of the appliance. Try an avoid rooms with appliances
completely.
• Turn off phones: this refers to cell phones and home phones. We
have heard many podcasts where in the middle of the conversa-
tion, a phone goes off in the background. This is not very profes-
sional and can be very distracting for listeners and for yourself.
• Turn off other programs: if you use any instant messaging pro-
grams or programs that have sound effects.
• Microphone placement: you will want to move the microphone as
far away from the computer as possible and you also want to keep
the microphone at eye level for directing your voice directly at the
microphone.
Excellent, now that we have the equipment, the location and
everything set up we can begin podcasting. Well not just yet. What you
want to do is run some tests with the microphone in different positions.
Read a few sentences of any document with the microphone at different
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levels of sound and height. Once you have done that, encode the data
and play it back. This will help you determine which combination
sounds best.
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outweigh the minor quality loss. This compression makes it easier and
quicker to upload the file to your blog or website.
To upload your file, you may have to download a transfer application
such as an FTP client. There are many applications out there and any one
of them will suffice, we use Filezilla but others such as CuteFTP or
SmartFTP are useful.
For those of you using Firefox, we suggest using the add-on FireFTP.
It’s an FTP program built into the browser… very useful!
Now that you have your podcast uploaded onto the internet you are
going to want to promote it. To do this, you will follow the same
guidelines provided to promote your blog posts, but some additional
ways are:
• iTunes: you will want to visit iTunes Store and find “Submit Pod-
casts to iTunes Directory”.
• PodcastDirectory.com: uploading your content to this will get you
more views.
• Other websites: try finding other sites that allow you to upload
your podcast online such as PodcastAlley.com.
With all this information, you are ready to start blogging and podcast-
ing. With all this information, you are ready to get your written and vo-
cal content out there for all your viewers to see.
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Course #14
Email Marketing
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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• Include company name in all marketing: email from lines, email
addresses, email signature, online directories, your blog.
• Format message consistently across media: fonts, layouts, images,
headlines, contact information, calls to action.
It used to be alright to send emails to anyone you knew and lots of
people you didn’t know, but nowadays there is protection against that
such as spam filters, fire walls and junk folders. To avoid such a situ-
ation, acquiring the service of email providers will reduce the loss of
emails. Some benefits of an ESP (email service provider) are:
• Improved email deliverability
• Database and list management
• Email template design
• Email message and content creation
• Tracking reports
• Advice and consulting
There are a few providers that can provide excellent email marketing,
templates and service:
• Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com)
• Microsoft Office 2007 (http://office.microsoft.com)
• Vertical Response (www.verticalresponse.com)
• 1ShoppingCart (www.1shoppingcart.com)
• ExactTarget (www.exacttarget.com)
• Aweber (www.aweber.com)
• MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com)
Some benefits of ESP’s:
• Professional Look: Can provide professionally looking newslet-
ters, templates, promotions announcements, greeting cards, busi-
ness letters.
• Keep Marketing Legal: One-click unsubscribe links, privacy state-
ments, physical addresses added to emails, sending from a veri-
fied email address.
• Help With Logistics and Reporting: Storage and retrieval of sub-
scriber information, reports on deliverability, automated subscribe
and unsubscribe requests, tracking on blocked and bounced
emails.
• Help with Content: Online communities, webinars, tutorials,
classroom-style tutorials, consultation.
• Teach You Best Practices: Best times to send, improve open rates,
avoid spam complaints, what to do when email is blocked or
filtered, how to design and layout.
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Section 2: How to Become a Trusted Email Sender
Due to the bothersome nature of spam, laws have been created to
avoid such situations. Lawmakers have enacted the CAN-SPAM Act
(Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing).
This legislation separates the two types a person may receive and
email for:
• Commercial Email: email containing an ad, promo or business
content
• Transactional/Relationship Email: anything other than a com-
mercial email
Make sure that the emails you do send out are CAN-SPAM compliant.
Collecting emails has to be done legally and while some email collec-
tion is illegal they aren’t always easy to spot. Here are some tips to keep
you on the legal side of email collection:
• Never purchase an email list from a company that lets you keep as
a data file.
• Never collect email addresses from websites and other online
directories.
• Don’t use an email address collection service.
• Don’t borrow an email lists and send emails to other businesses
email list.
• Don’t rent email lists unless the rental company practices are legal.
Sending out email content to people requires you to have some re-
quired information. That includes:
• Provide a way for subscribers to opt-out of receiving future
emails.
• Your email includes your physical address (website address).
• Clear email header identifies business and is not misleading.
• Email subject line isn’t misleading.
• Email clearly states the email is a solicitation.
• Email complies with any applicable guidelines for sexually ori-
ented content.
Collecting people’s information nowadays can be quite an endeavor. It
may be easy to use sneaky tactics to gather information, but this will
only lead to mistrust and loss of business.
If you are looking at gathering and using someone’s email address, be
sure to get permission, otherwise it may lead to hesitation for any future
business. There are three levels of permission you can receive.
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• Level 1: Implied Permission: this form of permission happens
when someone is in the course of performing normal business
communication. An example would be when someone is provid-
ing you an email as part of receiving a quote or further specific in-
formation. This does not mean that they will agree to further
routine emails. (If you do want to continue sending emails, add a
discretionary note advising of possible further emails and ability
to opt-out)
• Level 2: Explicit Permission: this form of permission happens
when you disclose to the subscriber what your plans are for the
use of their email address. If a customer is aware of the decision
they are making such as in a “Sign-up to receive a weekly newslet-
ter” or requests to be added to email list.
◦ Note: This can be verbal (they share email wiht you and
you request to add them to your list); written (they email
you and you reply by asking for permission); physical (add
their email to a guest book or signup via paper form); incid-
ental (online shoppers can select a box to receive additional
information after purchase).
◦ Level 3: Confirmed Permission: this type of permission
happens when someone implicitly or explicitly signs up for
an email service, at which point you respond with an addi-
tional email, confirming their registration.
There are pros and cons for each level of permission, it really is up to
you to determine which one works best or whether a combination of the
three is key to your success. As all things in this line of work, it requires
tweaking to really meet your business model and requirements.
If you have developed or gathered emails either by using low permis-
sion levels, through the purchase of another business, or just having a
long list and loosing track of what levels of permission belong to which
email, here are a few steps in deterring permission status:
1. Sort your list by source: where have the emails originated from
and are the sources still used. If you are unsure, then it is best to
discard the email
2. a. Note: If you are unsure about all emails, continue reading
below.
1. Sort by date: check orders and match to email, if purchase
made over a year ago, its time to discard the email.
2. Discard ambiguously named emails: if you aren’t sure who
it goes to, discard it. These emails might look like
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webmaster@ or info@ and aren’t sure who it actually gets
sent to.
3. Sort by category: determine if a prospect or a return cus-
tomer. Depending on this fact will determine how you pro-
ceed. But remember, always be cautious, you don’t want to
come off as a spammer.
4. Confirm permission to send email: Obtaining emails from
subscribers is something you should be proud of. Once a list
has been obtained you will want to protect that data as mis-
using the email will be misusing the subscribers trust.
If you see the above steps as a laborious process then you might be
better off in discarding your list and starting off fresh.
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• Send reminder letter: send a periodical letter (with their permis-
sion) similar to email reminders.
• Make Valuable Email Content: nobody likes to receive boring
and useless emails, make sure you have something important to
say, or wait until you have more information.
• Easy signup and clear identity: don’t make signups hard (you’ll
lose potentials); and make your emails easy and comprehendible
(don’t make them work more than clicking open).
• Get reviews: find out why people have unsubscribed (they may
not want to give you any information but it doesn’t hurt to ask
politely)
• Use ESP authentication: if you can get an ESP to authentic your
emails, you just avoided a lot of people sending you to the junk
mail inbox.
• Include email and signup process: when a new subscriber is in-
terested in receiving emails, let them know what the process in-
cludes and what they will receive.
• Send useful information: don’t abuse the permission. If they al-
lowed you to use their email, make sure you send them relevant
content that they approved (no sending cartoons to your sub-
scribers, if you’re in the business of funeral homes or tombstone
masonry)
• Allow customization: if you send out more than one type of
email, allow users to subscribe to the email content they want. If
you are sending all your emails to someone who only wants one,
they will spam block you.
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• Process and track unsubscribers: this will show you a trend; dat-
ing will assist in showing you how long they stay with you or
unsubscribe.
• Look into your list and extract: take the most useful information
and reports.
A few things to remember when creating an email database:
• More bang for your buck: you don’t need to have the most fancy
database out there. If a simple database with a few features will
suffice then great, but don’t go spending more money on features
that are going to cost you more time and money (remember the
old saying, mo money, mo problems).
• Applications galore: if you aren’t sure where to start, first place
would be a simple database application (Microsoft Access has a
great set of tools available) or through your Email Service Pro-
vider (ESP).
• Synchronization: if you decide to stick with your own program or
use an external providers program, make sure you can transfer or
sync your data with your ESP.
• Backups: always keep a copy of your database in a few private
places. Nothing like getting your hard earned work disappearing
in seconds.
• Exportation: finally, remember to make sure that whatever pro-
gram you are using will export the database to other programs.
You definitely do not want to work on a project and realize it will
be useless.
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Reveals important
Gender, marital
Personal info about person Used to send more
status, family
Information you are sending relevant info.
info, preferences
info to.
You can try to gather all this information at the start but more than
likely this will not be the case, to do so you can do the following:
• Send short relevant email surveys.
• Ask for info in regular emails.
• Use forms or links to site where they can browse or make
purchases.
• Use other medias for marketing as trust develops.
In an effort to get to know your subscribers a little better, you will
need to provide them with a variety of questions, each with its own spe-
cific benefit so you can better understand your customers’ needs.
You can ask them open ended questions which may take them longer
to answer, which would quickly decrease their rate of answering or you
can ask them questions and provide them with answers that would give
you a more targeted response.
To better explain this we have provided an example below:
• Open-ended question: “Why do you use our service?”
• Closed-ended/Categoric-specific question: Which answer best
describes your willingness to do business with us? Good Savings,
Excellent Customer Service, Knowledgeable Staff, Ease of
Understanding?
Some subscribers may only provide information if there is preferential
treatment or a prize for providing you with information that others
wouldn’t provide. In these situations you can, if able to, provide them
with:
• Priority
• Reserved tickets
• Early bird access
• First-to-know product information
• Member-only discounts
You need to provide them with an added benefit as they are providing
more insight into themselves. This way everybody wins even though
you may get additional winnings in the near future.
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If you have a list already built up from users that have used your ser-
vice but are looking for more, another approach is to essentially swap
your readers with opportunities on your website. Now we aren’t saying
that every other button or link has to be an opportunity, but close to that.
A few options you can look at increasing email subscription is listed
below:
• Text boxes: those little boxes that have the words “Enter your
email” and have submit underneath the area where you enter
your email address. Those can either lead to a thank you page, or
a page requiring more information. Simple, easy and highly
effective.
• Buttons: a button placed alongside your other buttons, may be un-
der “Contact Us” or “About Us” or even your last button. You will
want to fiddle around with its location to determine, which gets
you the most subscriptions. You will also want to make this visible
and easy to follow through, but don’t make it stand out like a
clown at a funeral.
• Text links: this type can be added to the bottom of each page or it
can be added as part of your email signature. This is also a very
simple way to get subscriptions, the only issue with this is that it
doesn’t stand out as much as the others, but it can be incorporated
in less dramatic places.
• Check boxes: this type of subscription method is usually added as
a buffer. A person who is in the process of purchasing a product
can select this check box and begin to receive emails. Remember as
discussed in the previous information, that when a customer is go-
ing to receive emails, let them know the frequency and the inform-
ation contained within.
These types of subscriptions can be employed pretty much anywhere,
here is a list of a few places:
• Every page of your website
• Email signature
• Blog/personal website
• Banner ads or online advertising
• Other websites
• Non-competing friends emails
• Online directories
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There are rules out there when it comes down to collecting informa-
tion from potential subscribers in person, but our recommendation is do
it with finesse. You don’t want to walk into a room and just start advert-
ising yourself (although is has worked before and should only be done if
appropriate). Here are a few ideas in helping you shine bright and not
look out of place.
• Swap business cards: ask if their email address is on the business
card they give you.
• Place a guestbook: this can be done at your store or office; keep
one in the car just in case.
• Business card basket: if you’re at a trade show or convention set
up a basket, and add a note letting potential subscribers, know
what information they will receive.
• Train employees: if you have employees working for you then
have them take down clientele information. You’re paying their
wages, and it only takes a few moments to do.
220
those remaining loyal to you. Using an incentive provides you with two
basic benefits:
• Increased signups: if individuals feel they are going to get a bene-
fit they will more likely give you information than if you weren’t
giving them anything in return.
• Increased loyalty: incentive rewards provides a benefit to sub-
scribers and can cause loyalty, repeat buyers and referral increase.
These incentives can also be provided to subscribers in two formats:
• Immediate: free trials, discounts, reward points, VIP access,
member-only info.
• Future: event access that only a member would have to already be
subscribed to. The subscriber would only get this information that
you would provide advertising for after they have been with you
for a time. (ex. Customer would get access to a 24-hour sale that
would be upcoming in 6 months).
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• Permission confirmed: determine when permission was provided
and how much time had passed from the date of confirmation and
any other emails send to relate further info.
• Subscriber interests: finding out how the interests of the sub-
scribers was determined is also very important. If an email was
gathered through the individual selecting a interest to car tuning
is more useful than using an email from a person that bought a car
part online (the purchase may have been bought as a gift).
These questions are essential in determining whether the list you are
buying is going to be useful for you or whether its going to be just a
waste of money.
Finally you will want to know whether the emails that you are looking
at purchasing are emails you will get to see or not. Quality confirmed
permission emails are hard to attain and thus, email lists may be on sale
only as a rental. This means that you will be buying the use of the emails
but you will never actually see the emails. You will create an email and
then send it to the broker, who then formats the email and then sends it
to the list.
If this is the case, make sure that your email provides a few options for
signing up to receive more of your emails. Also be sure to have a link
that will relate back to your website. This will generate traffic and can
further help you with signups and website development.
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• Subject line: this is where you will enter your information regard-
ing the email details
• Email server address: this is the Internet protocol (IP) address,
which is unique number that provides information from the server
you are sending the information from. You will definitely want to
be associated with a good ESP as this will impact your reputation
as well.
As you can see, there is already quite a bit of information presented to
the subscriber. To better understand this part of the email, we will ana-
lyze each segment in more depth.
223
uses abbreviations, initials or alternate spelling, then you’re still
best off using your business full name for clarity.
• Email address: in addition to using your name and business
name, you may be able to use your email address in the From line.
Here are some examples of different emails for different
situations.
◦ If you are sending newsletters and are recognized by your
name you may send an email from
“newsletters@yourname.com”
◦ If you are sending coupons and that recognizes you better
from your company name then you may be able to send
them from “coupons@youcompanyname.com”.
◦ If you are sending and event invitation and your customers
recognize you by a personal representative then your email
should look like “event_invitation@repname.business.com”.
◦ If you are sending an announcement and users recognize
your website domain name then your best option may be
“announcement@yourdomain.com”.
There are a few options that you can follow through with but of course
it is all dependent on how users associate with you best. These are great
ways for readers to recognize you, but if you have other ways that are
successful then by all means stick with that route.
Also when placing information, make sure that the information
therein is honest and relevant to your business as it does need to be
CAN-SPAM compliant. Any issues with the honesty of your emails may
come back to you and end up in further issues.
224
examples of how a subject line may look like, and what you can do to
make it sound more urgent.
• Poor: What you need to know about investing
• Better: What you need to know now about investing
225
Branding Emails
This is probably going to be the most fun part of your email develop-
ment as you will be using graphic elements to give your business a
unique and consistent identity.
Branding helps your readers recognize you immediately and help dif-
ferentiate your emails from the unfamiliar emails they receive.
To brand your email you are going to need to know how to use
HTML. If you are unsure on how to use HTML you will want to direct
your concerns to your ESP. If that does not work then you will want to
speak to a Web designer and have them create a custom look and feel for
your emails.
All your communications that you send will need to convey your
brand and provide readers with confidence in what you provide. You
also want to make sure that the design is memorable enough so that cus-
tomers will not forget you even if you send less than frequent emails.
To really get the right design of email for your brand, here are a few
things to keep in mind:
• Logo: make sure you have a logo added to your email. Have it po-
sitioned in the upper left or top centre of your email. In the posi-
tion where readers are most likely to see it
• Logo and email colors: be sure to use colors from your logo with-
in your email. This will keep a more consistency throughout your
email. If you aren’t sure which colors go well together then do a
quick search on the internet for keyword “color-matching tools”.
• Website and email colors: another way to determine which colors
to use in your email is to look at the color patterns within your
website. This provides a further integration within a subscriber’s
mind of your company and brand by reiterating the color scheme.
• Website and email offers: if your email includes an offer with a
specific design, be sure that your website has a similar if not exact
design. Again, this will keep the person focused on what was in
the offer and will be easier to recognize it, once they are on your
website.
• Print and emails: if you are sending out offers via print sources,
you will want to make sure that your communications match your
emails.
• Fonts and brand: consistent use of fonts throughout your email
and separate communications will provide visual anchors. Using
more than two or three types of fonts will only further confuse a
reader.
226
• Emails and business personality: your emails look and feel also
needs to be consistent with the type of language you will be using.
For example if you are a seller of party supplies your email text
may look childish or exciting something like this: “Party Sup-
plies”. If you aren’t very good at writing, look at using a copy-
writer. Once you’ve selected someone to write your emails for
you, let them know what type of feel you are striving for whether
it be:
◦ Serious or comedic
◦ Formal or friendly
◦ Professional or casual.
The main point you will want to keep in mind when creating your
brand and developing your look and feel is consistency. Readers will be
able to associate and remember you better if the emails they receive have
emails with a consistent layout and design. For those of you with mul-
tiple formats of emails, be sure to only make slight changes to the differ-
ent topics. You don’t want to stray too far from the main design but
don’t want to have all the information with one design template.
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24
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Images can help make your message stand out loud and clear. This
will also be your way in providing customers with strong visual cues
and help communicate your message better.
It is important to remember that although adding pictures is essential
to a well-designed email, it does need to be added in proper format so as
to allow for all computers with different email browsers to view the
content.
When adding pictures to your emails you need to make sure that the
file you will be using is email compliant. If you are using your personal
pictures or ones you have paid for online, you will want to make sure
that the file can be read by email browsers.
Some key elements you will want to make sure that your picture con-
tains is the following:
• Browser compliant pictures: an image will be created in a format
of which will determine the amount of space that picture will take.
There are three formats that are the best for most email browsers.
◦ JPG or JPEG (Joint Pictures Expert Group): is the standard
for internet and email pictures.
◦ GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): this is well suited for
images with few colors.
◦ PNG (Portable Network Graphics): similar to GIF but dis-
plays colors more efficiently.
◦ File size: the size of the file refers to the amount of data
your image will use. This information is determined by a
number and measured in kilobytes (K). Images of less than
50K will be easier to view and load much faster. To use pic-
tures effectively, you will want to:
▪ Reduce dimension: smaller picture equals less space
and less load time.
▪ Reduce resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch) or ppi
(pixels per inch) is the best for quality while propor-
tionate to loading time. More dots per inch means a
higher quality image. If your readers are going to be
viewing the material online, then this resolution is
perfect. If they are likely to print the material then
300 dpi or higher is better.
It is also important when adding pictures to remember not to embed
or add the pictures as attachments. This will usually send your email to
the junk folder. A solution for this is to use an image reference point,
which directs images stored on a public folder.
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This will require some minor HTML work, if you are unsure, you will
want to speak to your ESP or acquire the assistance of a web designer.
230
• Skipping: users can skip through the different pages in your email
without having to scroll through all the content available.
The first type of links we will look at are text links. These are clickable
words or phrases, which results in a particular action when a user clicks
on them. Of course we are using computers, so be ready to use a little bit
of HTML. A simple link to a website will look something like the
following:
• <a href=http://www.mywebsite.com>Insert Link Text Here</a>
Most ESP’s and email applications have the user-friendly ability of se-
lecting particular text and adding a link to the text. Doing this would
only require you to enter such basic information as the website address
and the name of the link.
One critical part of text links that is mostly overlooked is choosing the
appropriate words for the link. To assess this we are going to provide
you with a few pointers in creating proper names for the links.
• Name links naturally: name the link in a way that will tell users
what they will get.
◦ if the link is going to download a file then add the type of
file in parentheses: “More Information on Our Services
(PDF)”.
◦ if the link is taking a user to your website and they have to
scroll through the information, let them know what to ex-
pect: “Details on website/blog (scroll to bottom of page)”.
◦ if you are going to have a link that requires customers to
perform additional clicks or actions after their initial selec-
tion, then you will want to name the link providing the first
step: “Read step 2 for submitting ticket purchases”.
◦ if your link is going to link to an email address then you
will want to make sure to include your email in the link
such as: “Contact Us at sup-
port@yourcompanydomain.com”.
◦ Name links from content: use links that are contained with-
in your body text. If your information provides renewal op-
tions for car insurance, then making that text the link will
provide you with better results than “Click Here” text.
◦ Name links for analysis: you will want to create links that
provide you with some feedback as to what the reader is in-
terested in. If your email provides information on car repair
of classic cars, then having a “Click for More” link won’t
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provide any further information on the reader. Here is
something how your link should look like:
▪ Restoring your 1967 Mustang? Discover more effi-
cient alternatives to fiberglass.
▪ Name links with benefits: telling the user that there
will be some sort of benefit for clicking your link, will
make the reader that much more interested. Having a
“Go to Site” link doesn’t provide a benefit and re-
duces interest. Here’s an example of a better way:
▪ Shop at our site and receive free shipping, 15%
off and a complimentary company mug.
Another great way to set up links in your emails is to have image
links. Customers can click on a picture and it will bring them to your de-
sired location. There is some additional programming required and so
you’re lost as to how to do that, you’ll want to speak to a web designer.
Here are some key elements to help make your image links more
effective:
• Make image links naturally: When a user sees the picture, they
should have an idea as to where they are going to be directed to.
• Logos to website: this should be a given as many websites are de-
signed this way as well. Clicking the logo will bring you to the
main page of the website. Go ahead, try out other websites and see
how their logo brings you to the homepage of their website.
• Link to images: if you are trying to conserve space and load time
by having smaller pictures, you can link the picture so that it takes
you to the original size image. Remember to let users know that
they will be directed to a better or larger copy of the image.
Another form of link you can have is navigation links. These allow
users to click a link which takes them to a part of the email that they
can’t see immediately and also provides them with a way of skipping
through the email instead of scrolling.
You may also be interested in adding a table of contents. This is a
group of links, usually at the top of the email and contains the headlines
of your content. A user can click one of the links and be directed to the
specific information.
Although these may be a great way to organize your information, try
and avoid a table of contents if at all possible. Try to only use it when
you have a lot of information. If you need to add a table of contents,
make sure the information you are providing to users is useful and not
just rambling.
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Some tips in helping you create a table of contents is below:
• Heading: just like your body texts have headlines, so should your
table of contents.
• Short headlines: keep the headlines short but to the point. You
can add the same headline from the body text but just truncate the
information if it is too long.
• Clear headlines: links should provide users with clear informa-
tion as to what they will see. Try and avoid being clever with
headlines as they may only confuse your readers. If your headline
for your paragraph is “Top 10 ways in dealing with stress and
anxiety” can be added to a table of contents as “Top 10 ways…”.
• Keep above scroll line: your table of contents should be kept
above the scroll line, or the point where the user needs to scroll
down to continue reading your content. Table of contents should
help you viewers read your content, not distract them.
Email has the opportunity to provide readers with extensive informa-
tion, although sending emails with attachments can result in having it
sent to the junk folder. To avoid such situations you can create links
within the content of your emails.
The general concept involves copying the link of the website with the
content and then adding that link within the email.
You can provide links to video content which enables a visual element
for better selling techniques. Although there are great benefits of video, it
becomes difficult to email a full video. As an alternative you can embed
a screen-short picture of the video.
Another method to deliver your message is through audio or sound
files. These can be great tools for providing content while the customer is
running errands or performing other duties. This information can also be
hosted on your website as a podcast.
Finally you can also provide links to Portable Document Format files
(PDFs). A link is added to your email and provides a direct link to your
website and content. Also by providing the link, remember to provide
information to the readers as to what they should expect on clicking the
link.
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Repetitive emails providing nothing of importance will begin to bore
the subscriber which translates to low levels of emails being opened, loss
of clicks and ultimately leading to unsubscribing requests.
Two types of values need to be given to a customer when sending an
email. One of which is an offer that is valuable with the proper actions
taken and the second of which is an inherent value or value in and of it-
self. But as good as these values may be, there still needs to be a strong
call to action, which prompts the reader to help meet your goals.
A strong call to action does not mean that an individual will make a
purchase, a call to action can be a request for the customer to consider a
product or become aware of a new service. To help subscribers become
interested in a product or service you may have, you will need to
provide some value offers.
Valuable Offers
Offers can range from promotional emails to gather interest, to
giveaways of complimentary products or services to entice the individu-
al to make a purchase. To better demonstrate sending valuable offers,
take a look at some of steps you can take to make your sales.
• Promotional content: this type of email would be sent as a way of
promoting a new product or service. Here are a few key elements
that will assist when creating this type of email.
◦ manufacturers content for your products can provide you
with descriptions, images and headlines.
◦ digital photos can be taken using a digital camera and can
demonstrate your services to customers.
◦ customers descriptions can be provided from those who
are using your products or services.
◦ testimonials can also be productive in the sense that you
can allow customers to provide you with stories of their ex-
periences. This can be very useful as it is a powerful tool for
motivating customers to take action. Also make sure that
you have permission to use the testimonials.
◦ check emails for clues as to what customers are interested
in seeing from you. As you provide answers to customers,
keep track of your responses as they can be used to help
promote your products and services.
◦ Coupon cashing: coupons have usually come in print form
and redeemed in person. Today’s coupons are also
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provided online. Here are a few formats in which coupons
may be seen:
▪ HTML designed and printable these can be seen on
websites and through emails for a real, in-person
type store.
▪ codes are entered when using an online store to pur-
chase a product or service
▪ links that are included special codes which would
apply a discount to a product once added to the
shopping cart.
▪ NOTE: you may also be able to add a dotted line bor-
der to the coupon which can later be printed of and
used in store. If you don’t have a store then it can
give the feeling of a coupon which can motivate pur-
chases to be made.
▪ NOTE: this is especially important as you may not
realize how quickly a coupon can spread. Even if you
have a few subscribers, the readers you do have may
pass the coupon on to their friends who may be inter-
ested in your products. If you are truly content on
keeping your coupon usage to a limit amount of
readers, make sure to add a coupon number or a dis-
claimer, making your readers aware of the one
coupon per person rule. Even with the disclaimer,
you may want to take a look at the financial loss you
may incur if someone does try and abuse your offer.
Dates and codes can help lower your occurrence of
any issues.
▪ Incentives and giveaways: incentives are used as a
way to try and gather information as to what custom-
ers are interested in and what they are willing to pur-
chase. An example of an incentive would be a savings
or some type of additional privilege. A giveaway on
the other hand would be provided to a select amount
of individuals and entice the customer to do the
following:
▪ share information with you such as more per-
sonal information and interests
▪ respond to questionnaires and surveys you
may have
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▪ forward your information and emails to
friends or family. (word of mouth marketing.
Easiest and cheapest form of marketing)
▪ Loss leaders and urgent offers: a loss leader or
bait-and-catch design is where you are dis-
counting your product or service substantially
to gain new customers or sales that is more
profitable. This is a great way to acquire cus-
tomers that are interested in your product but
not ready to invest just yet. Another method is
to instill a sense of urgency in your readers.
Customers are going to be more perceptive to
offers that are only available for a limited
amount of time. It is also important to remem-
ber that when used sparingly it is more effect-
ive than used on a frequent basis.
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• Purchase this item
• Call for information
• Forward your email
• Find us now
• Make an appointment
• Order product now
• Call us now
• Purchase product now
• Register for information
• Call for service
This gives you a sort of idea as to what you want to your readers to
do. As you can see we have our action words and our information
words. You are asking the customer to act in a particular way.
To create your own call to action, try and think of what you want your
customer to do. Then combine an action word with the event that you
want to happen. The examples provided above are just your starting
point. From there you can add words to provide the location, a sense of
urgency and an adjective. Here is an example:
• Purchase this great item online before Thursday and receive a
20% discount.
This can be difficult but with practice and knowing what you want
customers to do before hand will help make things easier.
Providing readers with content that is inherently valuable is simple if
you have something worth saying. Readers are more appreciative of
emails with information based on your knowledge and experience rather
than emails with offers. There has to be a benefit of opening your email
in the first place. The next portions of information will detail how to cre-
ate inherent material or how to combine it with various offers.
• Informative content: when you are looking to provide readers
with educational material then naturally you will be looking at
adding direct facts and data possibly combined with expert opin-
ions. Here are some ideas for you to use when creating an inform-
ative email.
◦ Aggregating information is the process by which one col-
lects information. There is such an array of information
available on the internet that having your users find exactly
what you what them to find, will be very difficult. By ag-
gregating information, you are gathering stories or reports
from others and providing that knowledge to your readers.
(Make sure you have permission to use the information
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before posting to your site. Providing a link back to that
persons website will reduce any issues with using that
content).
◦ Provide opinions to your readers. This way you don’t have
to gather evidence and permission from other websites. You
are summarizing content from other websites or magazines
in your own words with your opinion.
◦ Interviewing an expert in your field is a great way to
provide some relevant and motivating content. You can
find someone within your field that is recognized as an ex-
pert, and provide that content through your emails.
◦ Story telling is another great way to provide content. You
can have one of your customers provide information about
your product or service.
◦ Tips, tricks and advice: providing some form of guidance is
a great way to develop trust with you clients. Here are some
ideas for your tips, tricks and advice content:
▪ Start a newsletter that provides information content
in a fun and easy to read format. For example, an ex-
perienced mechanic may provide information on
how to extend the life of your tires, or provide in-
formation on how to change your oil.
▪ Try adding one tip or trick in your promotional
emails. You can also add a link to your archives
where the remainder of your tips are stored. This is
also a great way in increasing the amount of views to
your website. Increases length of time spent on the
website as well.
▪ Don’t be afraid to share your opinions with custom-
ers. If your readers are aware of your concerns and
have similar beliefs, this will increase the likelihood
of developing loyalty.
▪ Also do not be afraid of sharing others opinions. If
you are considered as just another website, present-
ing the opinions of an expert can again draw further
attention to your email and website. You will of
course have to ask for permission but experts from
the field are sure ways in gathering attention.
▪ Answering customer questions or concerns is another
great way to develop loyalty with your readers.
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Within your email, dedicate an area where readers
can ask you questions.
▪ Instructions and directions: if your products require
customers to follow certain steps, then including this
information within your emails is another great way
to provide useful content.
▪ Having customers submit tips or tricks can be
used as a section in your email. You can call it
“Reader Submitted Tips” or “Tips by Readers”.
▪ As mentioned above, you can add one step
within your emails.
▪ If there are steps that may be used for refer-
ence, make sure to add them to your emails
and remind readers to save them.
▪ Entertaining content: if your readers value a
good laugh or enjoy a good story then adding
some of this content will help make readers in-
terested in your emails.
▪ Telling a story of a customer’s experi-
ence may make the reader laugh and
also helps remember your products or
services. (Remember to get permission
to use their stories in your emails).
▪ Including links in your emails to videos
or other similar content. (Remember
again to get permission from website or
video owners)
▪ Writing your own stories is also a great
way to convey a message to your read-
ers. If you are a food critic, you may add
stories of your travels abroad.
▪ Fact and research: you can perform your
own research and present that informa-
tion in your emails. You may also be in-
terested in adding facts or research from
other sources such as the internet or
books and magazines.
These are great ways in developing great content for your emails, if
you require further assistance, then you may want to speak to marketing
239
companies or content providers. This may be a great way to get things
done if you are on a tight schedule or if you are just looking for help.
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as opened, then the amount of received emails is 0.41
or 41%.
▪ Note: for those that are sending out text-only emails,
you will not get these emails tracked until the reader
replies. You want to make sure that your ESP adds a
blank image in every email, to ensure that open track-
ing is possible.
▪ Click-through rate: this is the number that is from
unique individuals clicking on the links within your
email. To determine this figure, this requires a few
additional steps listed below:
▪ To find out this number, the amount of clicks
in your email are divided by the number of
emails opened. If your email contains 4 links
and received multiple clicks from 20 users
user, you want to subtract 20 from the total
amount of clicks.
Next you want to take the number of tracked opens and divide by
total unique clicks. For example, if you have 50 tracked as open and 6
unique clicks, your email received 0.12 or 12% click-through rate per
open.
• Note: your number of click-through rate will never exceed the
number of tracked opens. Customers can’t click links if not
opened. Also this only present your with unique clicks, but most
email tracking reports do provide reports on how many clicks
each user selected and which links were clicked.
Some information cannot be tracked through click rates but requires a
different form of tracking. This might be used to determine sales, attend-
ance or responses. Below we will take a look at a few examples that don’t
require tracking of clicking.
• In-store purchases: if you are looking at converting internet users
into in-store purchasers then you will need to somehow track
those individuals. Here are a few ways to do this:
◦ Have the email audience print the email and bring it along
with them if they decide to come to your location. Try to do
a monthly count as a daily count may be too minor.
◦ Ask your email recipients to mention your email when they
visit your location. You can keep a booklet set aside to keep
track of the mentions. You can also provide an incentive or
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gift to mention your email. This can be done even if they
aren’t purchasing anything.
◦ When customers enter your store, you may ask about the
email. This can be done by you or your employees and kept
be kept track of in your booklet.
◦ Promoting products or services can also be used to track
customers. If a customer enters your store in search of that
particular offer then your know they have received your
email.
◦ Phone calls: if you are looking at increasing your telephone
traffic, then here are some useful ways in keeping track of
those callers.
▪ Just like those trying to generate in –store purchases
have callers mention your email, and count each call
related to a promotion or service.
▪ Setting up a special phone number for calls related
directly to your emails.
▪ You may add a note within the email regarding who
recipients should speak with. Whenever a call comes
in for say Mr. Smith, then you will know that is a call
related to your email.
▪ You can also ask customers how they found your
number. If they reply from the email, then you will
want to make sure to note that information down.
▪ Event attendance: if you are trying to determine how
many email recipients you will have at your event,
here are few ways to help you keep track of them:
▪ Ask subscribers to bring the email invitation to
the event. You will want to count the emails
after the event.
▪ If the invitees do not want to bring the email,
then have them mention the email to you at the
event.
▪ If you are looking at a way to count the num-
ber of people attending prior to the event, you
can have guests preregister or reply to your
email.
▪ Email replies: the easiest way to track emails is
well through your email. If you sent out an
email regarding “Registration due today” and
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received an email back with “RE: Registration
due today” in the subject line of the email, then
you can clearly see what they are responding
to. There are two components here that you
want to keep track of here.
▪ Keep track of the reply. This will help
you determine why they are replying
and whether there were any concerns or
questions they may have had.
▪ Keep track of your reply and any further
replies thereafter. You may also want to
keep track of the result or solution for
the reply.
Once you have sent out information to the readers, you will begin to
accumulate usage data through your link-tracking codes. There are dif-
ferent ways in which you can use this data to help determine what steps
you will need to take next. The list below is an example of how you can
use click-through data for email development.
• Targeted email offers: if someone were to own a car parts store
and from their email, received 150 link clicks for hot rod parts,
they would be safe to assume those individuals are interested in
hot rod parts. Using this form of data you may be able to:
◦ Create a database for those individuals. You will then send
more targeted email information to those specifically inter-
ested in a particular segment in your business.
◦ You will be able to create interest targeted emails to groups
of viewers. For example, if the car parts store knew that
they had viewers interested in hot rods parts and other in-
terested in import car parts, they would create a generic
email and make minor adjustments for the two different
categories.
◦ Once you have discovered the different categories of in-
terests, you can change your offers specific to the group.
Your offers may be different, while one group receives a
coupon the other receives a discount, you want to make
sure that your call to action remains the same.
◦ Follow ups: following up with your clients is a great way to
develop your understanding of how users interpret your
email and provide you with more personal information.
This will be a great opportunity to speak to the customer
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and collect information such as telephone numbers and
home mailing addresses. Here are some pieces of informa-
tion regarding follow ups with your customers.
▪ This will be a great way to make a second offer to
customers that may have clicked your purchase link
but didn’t continue with the transaction. You can also
find out why they may have decided not to go
through with the purchase.
▪ For those that did click your link, you can send a
thank you card which makes a perfect transition to
another offer for an alternative product.
▪ This can allow you an opportunity to call and speak
to the customer. Find out more about your clients
and provide any answers for questions they may
have.
▪ Following up with customers can provide you with
an opportunity to send a survey. This can help gather
vital data in their experience with your email.
▪ You can thank your subscribers who may have
helped gain you leads or new subscribers.
▪ Finally you can use the follow up to get in touch with
your clients that may have unsubscribed. Determine
what reasons they had for leaving your business.
▪ Testing: this will be essential in providing you with
insight to clients reaction of your email layout and
content. Here are a few ways to run testing with your
subscribers and you don’t even have to tell them that
you’re doing anything.
▪ To run a successful test, you will want to ran-
domly select a percent of your email sub-
scribers (10 to 15%) and separate them into a
new category in your database.
▪ Then you will want to create two editions of
your email and send it out to your subscribers.
▪ You will want to wait approximately 48 hours
or until you are sure your clients have received
the email. Then you will want to record the
amount of link clicks and usage.
▪ Once you have determined the email with the
highest rate of return (clicks, purchases, etc.),
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send that email to the remainder of your email
list.
▪ Final step is to wait for results. If you are doing
this properly and often, you will begin to see a
dramatic increase in activity and will provide
you further information about your subscribers
usage. After several tests, you will also become
better at designing your links and proper
wording to attract attention. (Remember prac-
tice does not make perfection but it does bring
you closer to your clients needs).
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not something that can be controlled by the sender. A few
examples of soft bounces are:
▪ Recipients’ mailbox is full.
▪ A server that is performing the transaction of emails
is currently down.
▪ The software used by the recipient cannot accept the
email.
These are all issues that are out of the senders hands. The best option
is to wait until the matter is resolved or until you are to send out your
next email campaign.
Emails that are not being received by the sender and not due to any of
the reasons mentioned above are due to blocking. These reasons may be
temporary or fixed in nature and is a response done by the server or ap-
plication. To avoid these situations, here are a few things that you may
encounter and ways to avoid getting blocked.
• Challenge response authentication: this is an application thats
generated by a third-party that works alongside the email applica-
tion. The application returns unrecognized emails to the sender
who then needs to authenticate that they are human. At this point
the sender would authenticate the email, allowing it to be passed
onto the recipient. This is used to avoid inbox’s being flooded by
programs designed to send out spam.
• Avoiding spam lists: this is a list that all senders should try and
avoid. It is also known as the blacklist. If you are sending out
emails that are receiving spam complaints on a continual basis
your email may be added to that list.
• Spam traps: spam traps are essentially email addresses that are
trapped and sent to a block list. If you send an email to any of the
spam trap address you ability to send any further emails to any-
one will be nonexistent. A few things to remember when avoiding
these spam traps are:
◦ Don’t steal or collect emails of the internet. Browsing the
web is not a good way to get more clients.
◦ Try to avoid purchasing a list of emails. Usually these lists
of emails are gathered without consent and may con-
tain spam traps.
◦ If you have just gathered a list of new subscribers, try send-
ing a introduction email to your readers. If you receive an
email back from particular emails, remove them from your
database (it is most likely a spam trap).
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◦ Firewalls: are applications which are designed to filter out
spam emails to a high degree. Trying to bypass these ap-
plications are very tricky as anyone using one can set the
parameters to block any emails with a certain type of con-
tent or words in subject headings or any other settings they
desire. You will have to change the way you deliver your
email to these individuals. Here are some ways that may
help your emails get around these firewalls:
▪ Having your subscribers add you to their contacts list
may improve your rate of deliverability. Even though
your email may be considered spam, if you are listed
as a contact person, your email just may get through.
▪ Speak to your subscribers and determine if there is an
alternate email address that you could send informa-
tion to. It may be that one email is blocked by fire-
wall, while the other is not. If that email is unblocked,
you just got one more person to read your content.
▪ This next step might prove a bit difficult but if pos-
sible it will allow your readers access to your content
even at work. Speaking to the IT professional at your
subscriber’s place of work and having them add you
to their allowed sender list will provide you with ac-
cess to their work email.
Now that we have taken a look at bounced and blocked emails, we
will take a look at another program which stops a recipient from receiv-
ing your emails. This program is called an email filter. The difference
here is that an email filter does not send an email back to the sender, no-
tifying them that the email has not been sent.
An email filter is designed by the system administrators of the email
programs. An email may be filtered due to words that are contained
within the email or even done so by mistake. There are spam emails that
are created to look like real emails and if your email has similar qualities,
may be blocked like the rest.
To understand and avoid your emails being filtered we will take a
more in-depth look at email filtering.
• Establish a reputation: having a reputable name behind your
email address will increase the likelihood of your email being de-
livered. Because your email server is mostly unknown, you will
want to deliver your emails through a respected and well-known
ESP. Here are some things to look for when choosing your ESP:
247
◦ make sure they can provide you with authentication for
your email. This will enable servers to identify you as the
sender.
◦ ESPs should allow you to remove customers with high
spam complaints. If a complaint is made, the ESP should as-
sess the situation and determine the necessary action that
needs to be taken
◦ ESP will require quality email lists before sending out
emails. They will want to make sure that your contacts are
valid and have provided your permission to send them
emails.
◦ ESPs that control their content being sent out by customers
is also necessary. This shows that they are interested in
keeping a good name for their company and at the same
time providing you with a quality name provider.
◦ Automatic filtering: there is the possibility that emails may
be filtered due to system administrators. Global parameters
are set in place and if affected there isn’t much you can do
for this unless of course you know the IT professional. It is
safe to say that there is only a small percentage of individu-
als that are affected, so best thing to do is hope you aren’t
part of that small percentage.
◦ User controlled filtering: this is a setting that is controlled
by the user. There are certain specifications that a user can
control in a means to provide additional filtering control.
Listed below are a few ways to avoid being considered as
spam:
▪ Watch what you use for information entered in the
subject line. Using the subscribers name in the subject
line is a sure fire way to get you filtered. If they don’t
know you and you have their first name, they will
consider your email as spam
▪ Place some information in the from line. Most filters
will block your email if there is no from information.
Here you can add your company name, email ad-
dress or first and last name, whichever the subscriber
identifies most with.
▪ Try not to use excessive symbols and punctuations.
This can range from exclamation marks (!!!!!) or
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dollar symbols ($$$) or any other types such as those
mentioned. It is easy misunderstood as spam.
▪ The use of ALL CAPITALS is another great way to be
filtered as spam. There is no need to use all capitals
as it will draw attention, but will either be interpreted
as yelling, which is never good, or just plain old
spam.
▪ Emails that have attachments and are considered for
marketing use will also scare the reader. They are un-
familiar with the email address and the content, there
is a high likelihood of deletion or filtering.
▪ Self-learning filters: these are the type of filters that
are set at a broad parameter and are self updated as
the user interacts with his email. This is a great tool
for users to filter content but not so great for your
emails. If the application considers a certain word to
be associated with spam, and your email contains
that word, unfortunately your email will be filtered
out.
It is important to keep authentication in mind when sending emails to
your subscribers. The ultimate goal is to get your email content out to
your readers and provide you with additional benefits such as sales,
clicks or additional subscriptions. A few things to keep in mind that
technology is constantly changing and updating and can prove beneficial
for your needs.
You will want to keep updating yourself with new technologies that
ESPs are providing, which in turn results in more of your emails either
getting through the filters or running into road blocks.
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Course #15
The Essentials of Web Analytics
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
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Google analytics can provide you with the following information and
much more:
• The most popular pages on your website.
• The number of people that visit your site.
• Which websites your visitors are coming from.
• The average amount of time a person spends on your website.
• The keywords that a visitor used in Google to find you.
• E-commerce sales tracking.
• Tracking conversion goals.
• Knowing which of your ads, emails, and other marketing pieces
brought in the most traffic.
From the information you get with Google analytics, you’ll be able to:
• Understand what your visitors are interested in by knowing
which pages are most viewed.
• Better focus your advertising efforts since your know which
sources are driving the most traffic.
• Figure out where users are leaving your site during the shopping
cart process. If you see that people are leaving at the registration
page… you’ll want to either remove it or make it easier for users.
• By understanding what paid ads (like Google AdWords) had the
best ROI, you’ll have a better understanding of what keywords to
focus on.
Privacy
There are many ways to learn more about your users, but only with
the user’s permission.
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FaceBook users can add lots of information to their profiles which is
then used for better ad placement on the part of FaceBook. The informa-
tion provided by the users was consensual.
If you decide to collect more information on your users, you must let
the users know about it and get their consent before you do it.
Collecting information such as demographics, interests and habit can
be extremely valuable since you’ll better be able to place ads for them. It
must be done with permission.
There are strict laws regarding internet privacy and the penalties can
be steep. Always ask before collecting sensitive data.
To avoid any problems with the law:
• Provide a clear privacy policy on your site that explains what in-
formation you collect and what you do with it.
• You must be able to protect the information you collect from
users. The information must be kept private unless permission is
granted from the users.
• Sharing analytics data is only allowed if you have permission
from the user.
Log Files
Log files are made by your websites server, typically to deal with any
problems that may arise.
Log files collect information such as:
• When the visitor arrived.
• Where they went on your website.
• Where they came from.
• Sometimes they provide info on when the user left the website.
The tools that use the log file information have to go through thou-
sands of lines of code to retrieve and make sense of the useful data.
Log files tend to sometimes provide faulty information since not all
analytic tools are able to understand some aspect of the log files.
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If you don’t own the server you won’t have access to the server and
therefore won’t have permission to control what information the log files
record.
JavaScript
Analytic tools that use JavaScript to retrieve data require that you
place the code on every page of your website.
If you use CSS and PHP codes… just place the JavaScript code in the
footer.php of your website and it will end up on every page of your
website.
One problem with using JavaScript code is that it can slow down the
load times of your website.
Some people have JavaScript disabled on their browsers; if this is the
case the JavaScript will not retrieve the data.
JavaScript based analytic tool typically collect much more useful in-
formation and it’s much more accurate.
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• IP addresses
• Referring cookie file info
• HTTP status code
At the very least your server should be recording the basic
information.
Servers can be set up to record more data but it requires a technical ex-
pertise that we won’t go into here.
Tracking Searches
While you’re setting up your Google Analytics account, you might as
well set up the extra features they have.
One such feature is the search tracking tool that will allow you to see
what’s being searched for on your site and when it’s being done.
To set up your site search function in Google do the following:
1. Log into your Google Analytics account.
2. Click the edit button next to your website.
3. Click the edit button at the very top of the page. It should be next
to the Main Website Profile Information button.
4. Select the “Do Track Site Search radio” button.
5. Go to your website in a separate browser window or tab.
6. Do a search for “pickaword” in the search field on your website.
7. Find the search query attribute in the address bar of your website
(typically q= or search=). It will probably look like this:
• (http://www.yourwebsite.com/(random string of numbers and
letters)&q=pickaword&(more random letters and numbers)
1. Copy the search query attribute and place it into the Query Para-
meter field in Google Analytics.
2. Save Changes.
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If you’re working on your website often, your own traffic will screw
the results of your analytics tools.
It’s important that you exclude your IP address and the other com-
puters who work on your site from Google Analytics.
To do this you need to add a filter to your website in Google Analytics
that will ignore traffic coming from your computer.
Follow these steps to add a filter:
1. Log into your Google Analytics Account.
2. Click the Edit button next to your Website.
3. Click the “Add Filter” button under “Filters Applied to Profile”.
4. Select the “Add Filter for Profile” option.
5. Name the filter and under “Filter Type”, select “Exclude All
Traffic from an IP Address”.
6. Enter the IPs that needs to be filtered.
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There are 5 important metrics that you should know. In order of im-
portance they are:
• Sessions
• Unique Visitors
• Page views
• Time on Site
• Referrers
These 5 metrics should be tracked regardless of what tool you use.
Google Analytics places these 5 metrics on the front page when you
log in. They are vital.
All of these metrics don’t mean much on their own.
By knowing the relationship between each metric and what they could
mean… you’ll get much more information than if you were to just look
at each metric individually.
Sessions
Sessions (aka visits) indicate how many times your website as a whole
was viewed.
Every time someone goes to your website (regardless of how many
pages they went to) it’s regarded as a session.
They are a good measure of traffic but they don’t necessarily indicate
audience size since a lot of visits can be created by a few people.
If a person goes to your site many times a day… each time they go on
will be considered a session.
Sessions are a good indicator of how interested people are in your site.
If you have lots of visits but only a few unique visitors… you know that
those people like going back to your site on a regular basis. You’ll see
this sort of trend with forums and news related sites.
Knowing the number of visits is needed to know your conversion rate
since the conversion rate is based on sales per traffic.
Some Analytics experts pay less attention to sessions and put more fo-
cus on unique visitors… but it all depends on the type of website that
you have and what your goals are.
Google Analytics has a great feature that allows you to see the peak
visit time throughout times of the day, month, or year. This information
can come in handy when used right.
Activity is an indicator of activity of the users already there; it’s not an
indicator of new users coming in.
Unique Visitors
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Unique visitors indicate how many individuals have been visiting
your site, regardless of how many times they’ve been on.
It will let you know how big your audience size is. You may get a lot
of visits but if you only have a few visitors you may want to focus on
getting new people.
By knowing how many new people are coming to your site, you’ll
have a better understanding of how well your ad campaign is working.
The better your external ads… the more new people your website gets.
By taking a look at the sessions per uniques ratio, you’ll get a good
idea of user loyalty. If the number is high, you know you’re doing well.
Page Views
Page views have multiple ways to be examined.
Google Analytics offer several ways to look at page views. They can
show you the average number of pages viewed per session, the number
of views each page received, and they can also show you the total
amount of pages viewed on your site.
Page views are a good way to determine what pages are most popular
on your site. You’ll have a better idea of what your users are into.
Some visitors may view a single page several hundred times so don’t
confuse more page views with more traffic.
The average amount of pages viewed per visit is a good measure of
how interested users are in your site. Users who look at a lot of pages on
your site are probably more interested in your site then users who just
look at a few pages.
Time on Site
The average time spent on your website combined with page views
and traffic is extremely useful and powerful.
The time spent on your site is the metric that brings everything
together.
The average amount of page views can be high (let's say 10) but if the
time spent on your site is low (1 minute) then your users are just clicking
through a few links but not spending the time reading anything (only 6
seconds per page).
Ultimately what you want is a high time spent on your site per page
views. The higher, the better.
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Referrer data is incredibly important, especially when combined with
the other metrics that Google Analytics offers.
By knowing which website has sent you traffic, you’ll better be able to
advertise and know which one of your campaigns have worked.
Referrals to your site can come in 3 different forms:
• Search engines
• Links from non search engine websites
• Links in emails
It’s paramount that your tracking program is able to detect where a
user has come from.
If you get a huge spike in traffic from a certain site but the average
time on your site has gone down, you can safely assume that those visit-
ors were not as interested in your content.
Don’t assume that just because you received a lot of traffic from a cer-
tain site that those people were interested in your site. Take everything
into consideration.
Referrers
Referrers are essentially the websites, emails, ads, search engines that
have links heading to your website.
When a user clicks on a link heading to your website, your analytics
program will make requests to the user’s browser as to what website
they just came from.
The website the user came from will be logged in your analytics
program
The feature in your browser that provides referral information can be
turned off if you choose to.
Your privacy is secured as no private information is provided (99% of
the time).
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There are some terms you should understand in regards to referral
data before analyzing referral data.
The most important terms you should be familiar with are:
• Source: Where your visitors are coming from.
• Visits: The amount of people that came to your site through the
referral.
• Pages/Visit: The amount of pages being viewed by each visitor
from the referral.
• Avg. Time on Site: The average time the visitors from a referral
spend on your site.
• % New Visits: The percentage of visitors who’ve never been to
your site before.
• Bounce Rate: The rate at which a visitor from a referral will see
your site and then leave.
• Direct: The amount of traffic that came to your site directly by typ-
ing in the URL address.
Referring Keywords
Google Analytics will track what keywords were used in Google by
the user that came to your site.
Paying attention to referring keywords can be extremely useful.
You’ll likely be ranked moderately well in Google for several
keywords and phrases. By seeing what keywords bring in the highest
quality of traffic, you’ll have a better idea of what keywords to focus on.
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Knowing which keywords bring in quality traffic will be helpful when
creating an AdWords campaign.
Section 4: Determining the Quality of Traffic with Analytics
You can be receiving a lot of traffic but unless it’s quality traffic, it’s
just taking up bandwidth and server resources.
Every website is different and so quality traffic is different for every
site. There are no absolutes.
Determining quality traffic is something that occurs later on. You’ll
want to know what average for your site is and set that as the
benchmark.
When conducting new campaigns you’ll want to get nothing less then
what you’ve set as your benchmark.
Quality traffic is essentially traffic that spends a lot of time on your site
and will check out a lot of pages.
What you want is a high avg. time on site plus high page views per
visit.
Bounce Rates
A bounce occurs when someone leaves your website.
The bounce rate it the percentage of people who visit a webpage that
then leave your site without exploring your site further.
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It’s a good indicator of how sticky a web page is. If it’s interesting
users will click around and explore your site further.
If a user looks at a page and then leaves your site… it’s safe to say they
lost interest.
If you have an ecommerce site or a site where people have to register,
checking the bounce rates of pages leading up to the sale or registration
can tell you where people are getting turned off and where there’s a
bottleneck.
Fixing bottlenecks is critical if you want people to do a certain task.
People leave mid way during a registration process or purchase for a
variety of reasons, it could be because the process is too complicated or
there’s a trust issue. By knowing that people bounce on a certain page…
you’ll better be able to diagnose the problem.
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Course #16
Search Engine Optimization
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher
262
Search engines are important because you want people to find and
connect with you and/or your business. A large segment of your traffic
is likely to come from search engines.
Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search are the most well known ex-
amples of search engines out there today.
You may think Google is the #1 search engine… but only if you live in
North America or Europe. Yahoo! still reigns supreme in many parts of
the world.
Having a high placement in the search engine ranking pages can bring
you a lot of traffic if ranked for the right keywords.
SEO makes your website more appealing to search engines by making
your site seem more relevant.
The purpose of a search engine is to give you the most relevant web
page related to the search term you’ve entered. If the website you clicked
on was what you were looking for, you’re probably going to use that
search engine again and again which in turn brings up the search en-
gines traffic and hopefully stock value.
If someone types in your business name, you’d hope that the search
engine will rank you high up to the front page so that people will find
your website.
Common SEO Terms
Black hat SEO: Devious methods to increase your rankings in a way
that can get you banned from the search engine if they found out.
White hat SEO: A non manipulative, natural way to increase your
search rankings by making your site more search engine and user
friendly and relevant to certain keywords and phrases.
Crawl: Search engines use bots to scan (crawl) the internet for new
pages and links.
Spiders/bots: software used by the search engines to crawl the net.
SERP: search engine ranking pages or the results on page you see
when you enter a search into a search engine.
Backlinks: External links from other websites linking back to your
website.
Linkbait: Content that others would want to link to on other sites.
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Some of the methods used by “professionals” can get you black listed
by search engines.
Not all SEO professionals are bad of course; just make sure you know
exactly what methods they use.
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Black hat SEO is not illegal and will not get you into trouble. If your
business is just temporary, black hat SEO can do you wonders but if
you’re in it for the long haul… avoid it at all costs.
Search engine algorithms are changing all the time and they’re often
flawed in some way which allows them to be manipulated.
It typically takes a search engine several months to find out about your
black hat methods, so unless you’re doing a PPC campaign, affiliate pro-
gram or quick rich campaign… it’s not worth it.
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• http://www.bing.com/webmaster
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The Long Tail Theory
The long tail is basically the longer variable key phrases of a given
simpler phrase. (Ex; the main keyword of BMW has a long tail with
words such as BMW 1 series, BMW 2 series, etc.)
Although you may not rank number 1 for “BMW” you may rank high
for “BMW dealerships” and other variables. The combined traffic of the
long tail may be more then the traffic coming from “BMW”
You’ll want to pick key phrases that have long tail attributes.
The traffic from long tail keywords are generally better customers
since they have a better idea of what they want.
There are other tools out there; one that we like to use is Microsoft’s
demographic prediction tool:
• http://adlab.microsoft.com/Demographics-Prediction/
The demographic prediction tool is useful in that you’ll get a better
idea of who’s searching for those keywords so you can have a better idea
of your market.
Yahoo! Site Explorer is another useful tool that can give you informa-
tion on a website as it pertains to the Yahoo! search engine. It can be
found here:
• http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
One of the best features of Yahoo! Site Explorer is that it allows you to
see what websites are linking back to a website (very useful when re-
searching your competition).
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You’ll also want a word with very little competition per search
volume. Essentially you want a keyword that is searched for a lot but
lacks websites covering it.
The easiest way to find out how much competition a keyword has is to
type that keyword into Google and see how many results come up.
Study the top 20 or so websites that come up for a keyword so you can
see what you’re up against. You want a good keyword but you don’t
want a lot of competition.
The relevant keyword with the least amount of results per search
volume should be added to your keyword list.
Although a general but relevant keyword will have lots of competi-
tion, it will hold value in the long run since eventually with enough
work you may rank high for it.
Keywords that have low competition but high search rates should be
on your list since they’ll help in the short term.
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Upon doing research you’re likely to find that a lot of your competit-
ors actually have bad SEO and that the only reason they rank high is be-
cause of a lack of competition, if this is the case, you’ll have no problem
ranking high.
If you see the “Disallow: /” command, it means the search engine bots
are being prevented from crawling your site.
Robots.txt' are useful if you want the search engine to avoid duplicate
and useless pages. Just make sure you don’t disallow everything.
When a web developer is building your site, they often place a robot
Meta tag in the code to prevent search engines from crawling your site
while it’s under construction. Sometimes they’ll forget to modify or re-
move it.
Check out the source code of your website and if you see the follow-
ing, remove it:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">
Some websites are now using registration forms of some sort to make
the user fill out before accessing the content. Having a form like this
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prevents search engines from seeing the content and therefore the site is
not indexed.
If you have a membership site, keep in mind that it won’t be crawled,
meaning you won’t receive too much traffic from the search engines.
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Back in the olden days of the internet, webmasters would create pages
loaded with keyword rich content for the search engines but then in-
clude a redirect code so that people would be directed to the main page
and not see any of the keyword spam.
This redirected method was also known as “cloaking”.
The redirect method worked great at increasing the ranking but search
engines have caught on and now penalize sites for using this method.
Some websites still use advanced forms of cloaking for certain busi-
nesses but its considered black hat so you should avoid it.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is a big problem when it comes to SEO.
In the early days of search engines, people would intentionally make
several websites with the exact same content linking to each other
thereby increasing relevancy and rankings. The search engines were un-
able to detect duplicate content but they now can and will often times
penalize those sites.
Search engines now detect duplicate content and will only index one
of the copies.
This can be bad because if someone decides to steal your content and
they have more authority, it’s possible that the thief’s site will be indexed
higher than yours.
If you have duplicates on your own site and you have backlinks going
back to both duplicates, you’re essential decreasing the amount of links
going back to a single page. Google will rank both pages separately and
because of the divided links… neither page will be ranked high.
To find duplicate content go to Google and type in “site:
www.yourwebsite.com”. This will show you all the pages of your site
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that have been indexed. You know you have duplicate content if you see
a message at the bottom that says:
• “In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some
entries very similar to the 217 already displayed. If you like, you can re-
peat the search with the omitted results included”.
Another great way to find duplicate content is too copy a sentence of
your content and do a search for it in Google. You’ll see all the other in-
stances of where that sentence has been found.
Your website has 3 different addresses as in:
• yoursite.com
• www.yoursite.com
• www.yoursite.com/index.html
Google sees each version of your website as an entirely separate web-
site and therefore if you get backlinks to each version your site will be in-
dexed 3 times as if they were different but with duplicate content. This
can hurt your rankings greatly.
Always link to your site the same way, preferably like this:
• http://www.yoursite.com/
Have a 301 redirect from “yoursite.com” to
“http://www.yoursite.com/”.
If you have a website that utilizes a database you’ll probably get very
complex URL’s, get a plug-in that will simplify all the URL’s and make
them SEO friendly. You want each page to only have one URL all the
time.
Broken Links
Broken links are a big no no in SEO.
When a bot is crawling on your site and navigates to a broken link, the
search engine will lower the value of your site and the bot is likely to
stop crawling the moment it finds a broken link.
To find broken links you can download a free program called “Xenu
Link Sleuth” which you can download here:
• http://download.cnet.com/Xenu-s-Link-Sleuth/
3000-10248_4-10020826.html
Xenu makes a list of all the broken links it finds on your website.
With the list of broken links, you can then go through your site and fix
all the issues.
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This section will cover how to structure your content and website for
maximum SEO value. We also go into techniques to make your website
trustworthy.
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Have all the content be consistent with a certain style. Meaning the
spacing’s, indents, fonts, colors, bullet points and etc. are always the
same.
Keep in mind that bold larger font text is not the same as H1 text. H1
text has a much greater value.
Only have one H1 piece of txt on your each page at the most. The
search engines don’t like it when you use it too much.
Make sure that each title tag for every page is slightly different and
highly relevant to the page.
Trust
Trust Rank is a new concept being employed by the Google search al-
gorithms. It calculates your trust factor based on a few factors.
The search engines take into account such things as:
• The age of your website.
• The type of websites that link back to you.
• The type of software and code your website uses.
• Plug-in and add-ons that you’re using.
Consider buying a pre-existing domain name before starting business.
Many times the webmaster will give it to you for free.
Don’t link to sites with a low Trust Rank.
It’s recommend you have your site evaluated by a prominent security
service and place the seal of approval on your website. Google search en-
gine will see it and take it into account. Security stickers and badges
help.
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• Product feeds
• News feeds
• Images
• Videos
• Geo search info (displayed on Google Maps)
Products
Google and the other big search engines now take products feeds.
A product feed is basically a spread sheet that you can give to the
search engines for indexing.
Google allows you to submit your feed for free at:
• www.google.com/base
Price Grabber and Microsoft require you to pay to upload your feeds
and they can be found here:
• www.bing.com/productupload/
• www.pricegrabber.ca
In order to have your feed show up, you’ll need to make it highly rel-
evant, so use quality keywords.
Include images in the feed.
Update your feed regularly.
If you’re allowed… include custom fields to add more relevant
information.
News
Press releases can be extremely effective if used right.
When writing a press release, be sure to make it informative and ob-
jective, don’t make a sales letter!
Include images and make it SEO friendly (Good use of keywords and
headlines).
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Bing all take news feeds from news
sites and will sometimes blend them with the searches.
Submit press releases with PRWeb or an equivalent quality newswire.
Images
Images don’t have has much competition as websites in search engines
and so optimizing your images for SEO can be extremely powerful.
Search engines can’t see images but they can see the file name, tags,
and context in which it’s being used. Make sure it’s all there.
If you’re going to use an image on your website, make sure it’s yours
or its copyright free, you don’t want to be sued.
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Use images that are easy to see as a thumbnail, you’ll get more hits
from the search engines this way.
Place keyword rich captions on all your images.
The best formats for images are as .JPGs. They’re the most common
file format for images.
Name the file of the image appropriately using keywords.
Add a description tag to all of your images.
Video
Video optimizing is much like image optimizing. Google can’t see
video so it relies on the tags, context and such.
Name the file with good keywords and make it relevant.
It’s recommended that you not only host the file on your own website
but you also share it on services like YouTube, Vimeo and other video
sharing sites.
If you place the video on other sharing sites, be sure to place a link
back to your site in the description section.
Include your video in your RSS feed.
Geo Search
If you have a location for your business, it’s important to include that
information on your website and to optimize for that area.
Google and the other search engines reference other websites for your
address; this is how they determine your address.
Submit your business to the following sites:
• www.yelp.com
• www.superpages.com
• www.yellowpages.com
• www.citysearch.com
You’ll also want reviews and ratings on those sites since it’s been
proven to help.
Include your physical address on every page of your site (preferably in
the footer).
Include your location in your Meta tags.
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Even if you decide to outsource your writing to a professional, you
still need to practice your writing skills for communication sake.
Keep in mind that if you decide to outsource… you get what you pay
for. There are writers out there working for as low as $5 per article and
the price can go up to a several hundred dollars per 500 words.
It’s critical that when you write for the internet you keep both SEO
and your viewers in mind, they go hand in hand.
Brainstorming Ideas
Regardless of what kind of business you have, you’ll want to contrib-
ute some writing periodically.
Even if your site is just a sales page, you’ll want to write articles and/
or eBooks for marketing purposes.
Get into the mind of your typical customer and think about what they
would want to know or the common problems that they have to deal
with.
Don’t assume that something is common knowledge, just because
you’re an expert doesn’t mean everyone else is.
Reviews of other products will supply you with an endless list of
things to write about.
Keep up with the news in your industry and write about the current
events going on.
Regardless of what your business is, you’ll want to brand your expert-
ise and participate on other blogs and websites; write daily!
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It’s recommended you use spaces between each line; it makes it easier
to read.
Always look for ways to shorten your sentences and you don’t need to
be poetic, just straight to the point.
Make your point first and then explain it as oppose to starting vague
and ending with a conclusion.
Web users are scanners, not “readers” in the traditional sense. Because
of this write your content as a list. If your product has many features
don’t cram it all into a paragraph but instead turn into a list with bullet
points; it’s much more scannable.
In regards to keyword density, make your content easily readable and
appealing to your customers first.
Keyword density all depends on the topic and context. Just use as
many as you can get away with without making it spammy or annoying.
5% keyword density is what most professionals recommend.
Title Tags
Title tags are used by search engines to label your webpage in the
search engines.
Think of title tags as headlines, they should be interesting and make
people want to see it.
Having unique keyword tags for each page is essential if you want to
be indexed. Make sure your CMS (ex; WordPress, Joomla etc.) allows
you to edit the title tags for each one of your pages.
Typically search engines only look at the first 65 characters in your
title tag so place the keywords in the beginning. Always place your
brand name or business name at the end of the title tag. You want to say
what the page is about first. People will see what the brand is upon en-
tering your site.
Avoid stuffing keywords into the title tag. It should be readable and
make sense. The secret is to make it entirely of keywords while still
sounding nice.
You can get more traffic then the number 1 position in a search engine
if your title tag is intriguing and attention grabbing. Keep this in mind.
Description Tags
Description tags don’t affect rankings but they are used by search en-
gines as the text you see below the title tag in search results.
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Although it’s not as important to include keywords in your descrip-
tion tag, it’s still recommended since those words will be highlighted if
they match the search term.
The description tag should only be a few sentences long and it can
either be about the page it’s on or your business as a whole. Either way it
works as long as it’s interesting and convinces you to click on it.
Having a call to action as in “call us at: 123 4567” can be very effective.
Headlines
Headlines are important for SEO and more important than most
people think.
The purpose of a headline is to grab the attention of the reader and to
make them read on.
The header should relate to the title tag and should also be about the
purpose of your content on that page.
A large part of your focus should be on creating the perfect headline. It
can bring in a lot of traffic when it’s done right.
Headlines for your content should always be coded as H1 tags and not
just larger bold text.
A great place to get information and see examples of a good header is
at:
• www.copyblogger.com
Write For Customers Not Search Engines
Write for your customers first. If it’s not appealing to your customers,
you’ll get traffic but you won’t get sales.
The secret is to have your keywords placed in such a way that it
doesn’t take away from the user experience but it still conforms to good
SEO.
No amount of SEO will help if your content is not good. Content is
KING!
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Even if you outsource your writing to someone else, it’s important you
develop your personal writing skills because learning how to make a co-
hesive article or document is critical to many other activities.
By making writing a routine, you’ll enhance your understanding of
the topic, develop your writing skills and possibly be creating useable
content for your business.
At the very least you should be writing 30 minutes a day. Practice
makes perfect.
Within 30 minutes you can easily research and write a 500 word art-
icle. If you did this daily you’d have 365 articles by the end of the year…
which can then be used to create a massive eBook or it can be used for
your site.
Link Votes
All websites have a PageRank which dictates how many votes (links) it
can give to other websites. The links each have a different value
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depending on the relevancy of the pages. The more relevant the website
is to the one it’s linking to the more valuable that link is.
PageRank is determined by how good the SEO of that website is, in-
cluding number and power of the links it receives from other websites.
Link velocity is the term used to describe the rate a websites receives
incoming links. Having a consistent number of links coming in is better
than getting a lot in a short amount of time. Spamming the internet with
links back to your site and then stopping doesn’t have much value.
Some websites will add a “nofollow” command to the links. This com-
mand prevents search engines from counting that link as a vote. It looks
like this:
• <a href=http://www.yourwebsite.com rel=”nofollow”>
Linkable Content
People link to articles they think other people will find interesting.
Providing unique fresh information is the best way to get others to link
back to you.
Good content should always come first. It should be the backbone of
your link building strategy. You can get other websites to link back to
your site all you want but if the content isn’t there… no amount of links
will help.
Getting link backs naturally with interesting and provocative informa-
tion is the best strategy. A great way to get link backs is to always be ori-
ginal and create new fresh content that hasn’t been seen before.
If the content isn’t the most appealing, try and place a focus on your
headlines and make them interesting and provocative. If you aren’t
really sure how to make a boring topic interesting, try adding images to
your article, 1 or 2 images are ideal. While adding images and great
headers will help with your SEO efforts, quality content must be your
highest priority. Provide as much value as you can.
For those of you starting out, you may be tempted to go above and
beyond to get more buying power, while you can to a certain extent, do
not make your content a sales pitch. The quality of your content should
sell itself. Make your content so good that people want to see more and
pay for more.
One great tip to keep in mind while writing your content is making it
easily scannable like a “top 10 list” always does well. Also if possible,
try to write something that people would want to share.
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Aside from having excellent content, you should make it easy for
people to share the content. There are many plugins now available for
most CMS’s that allow people to share a page on the various social book-
marking sites.
Including an “email to a friend” feature at the bottom of your content
is a good way to encourage sharing. Also be sure to make your URL’s
simple and avoid dynamic URL's as they won’t get indexed.
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You want to make the act of them placing a link to you a natural pro-
cess; you shouldn’t have to ask for it. Offering your product for free to
the webmaster in exchange for links can be very effective. Make sure
your product and site is of such a high quality that others would want to
link back to you.
The webmasters reputation is on the line by linking to you, so make
sure your site is not something that would embarrass them.
Link Bait
Link baiting is creating a piece of content that will make other people
want to link to it and share it.
Lots of marketing experts are trying to figure out the secret to viral/
link bait marketing. There are hundreds of factors at play so it’s very
hard to figure out.
Link baiting much like a viral video is not a well understood science
but there are commonalities between the successes. The most common
commonalities are:
• The content provides a new outlook on things.
• It’s never been seen before.
• It’s a list.
• It has images and/or videos.
• It’s never just text.
• It’s different.
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Follow social bookmarking sites like Digg and notice what makes it to
the front page. Lists like “top 10 lists” do really well, be sure to add im-
ages and add a little humor.
Talking about a controversial subject can be good link bait, although
avoid offering an opinion, instead talk about both sides and let your vis-
itors argue about it in the comments section.
Link bait content may not be successful right away but keep at it;
sometimes an article will take off a year after publishing.
What to Avoid
Not all backlinks are good backlinks.There are some websites you
should avoid being associated with as they can lower your rankings.
The search engines look for certain signs that could mean you’re
spamming. Getting thousands of backlinks in short period of time can
set of their radar so be careful.
The best way to stay out of trouble is to not spam, instead build links
naturally. So if you are trying to build links naturally, then be sure to
avoid link exchanges and link networks, as it could get you associated
with spam sites.
Also be sure to avoid using programs that automatically submit your
URL to thousands of sites, this can get you penalized.
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There’s an excellent Firefox extension that lets you see your competit-
ors backlinks, the anchor text used and other information about the links.
You can find the program here:
• www.linkdiagnosis.com
By seeing what your competition is doing, you can follow in their foot-
steps and then go beyond their efforts.
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Unfortunately with the internet, trust can be an issue so when you
check out the experts sites, take it for face value.
Do a search for the potential SEO experts and see what others have to
say. Google Blog Search is a good feature to see what people are saying.
Always call them to see what they’re like on the phone. Do they sound
professional? Do they know what they’re talking about?
Don’t be so concerned if they’ve worked with your industry or not,
SEO is the same for every industry. A good question is to check to see
how long they’ve been around for. Consultants who’ve been around for
a while are likely to be much better.
The most important things to look out for is that they’re transparent
with their techniques and that they have a good track record.
Realistic Expectations
Good SEO takes a long time to fully implement so don’t expect quick
results.
The pricing for an SEO professional can vary but they typically charge
monthly. You’ll see prices ranging from $90 per month to $10,000 per
month.
Some of you may just want a consultation with an expert in which case
they just write a report about your site and give you recommendations.
For smaller businesses this option is recommended.
You should expect regular reports from your professional. By de-
manding regular reports you’ll see exactly what they’re doing.
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The experts you hire can only do so much. You’ll have to do some
work and provide them with content and other things in order for them
to do their job.
The costs all depends on your situation, if your site is already optim-
ized they should charge you less. Always ask them why and what
they’re doing, if they can’t tell you… fire them.
It is all about finding out as much as possible about the individual and
getting to know what they have worked on, and what they can provide
you with. If you aren’t comfortable with the person you are dealing with,
then don’t be afraid to move onto the next expert. Remember you are the
boss, and you are the one with the vision of what you would like your
online business to be!
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www.feedbooks.com
Food for the mind
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