* Contest Beat
* Online-Sweepstakes
* Contests Blogger
* Prize Contests

Increase traffic to your site – Everyone who clicks on your contest link comes right into your website, so be sure to include ads and links for other areas of your site right there on the contest page.

Increase sales – New visitors to your website means that more people are seeing what your company has to offer, and there’s a good chance that some of those visitors will turn into customers.

Increase blog or newsletter subscribers – A great tactic for websites with a blog or newsletter is to require that contest entrants subscribe in order to enter. Sure, some new subscribers will end up opting out once the contest is over, but others might find your writings to be very useful, choosing to remain on your list.

Prizes to give away

The best thing about having a contest on your website is that the prize or prizes you give away don’t have to cost a lot of money. For instance, giving away a $300 Ipod can literally bring in thousands of contest entries. If your website sells products, consider giving away a gift basket full of your own goodies. Think about your current customers and what they would be interested in. If your target market is insurance salesmen, then perhaps giving away a Nintendo wii isn’t such a good idea – sure, you’ll get a ton of entries, but there’s a good chance that none of them will do you any good in the long run.

So, if you have been searching for a new way to bring customers into your website, then you may want to consider having an online contest. If it brings in a good amount of traffic, subscribers or new customers, then having monthly contests could be your next step. Regular contests not only bring in ongoing traffic, but they give an incentive to your current customers and subscribers to keep coming back to your website.

2. Use original content, and lots of it – One of the worst things you can do for your website, in terms of search engine rankings and readership, is to copy and paste text from another site, even if you have permission to do so. All of the major search engines frown upon duplicate content, and visitors searching competing websites are sure to be unimpressed when they happen upon your website, whose copy is identical to the previous three he or she just looked at! Keep all your copy new and fresh and add pages to your site for regular news or blogs – all that extra content will help bring in more visitors to your website.

3. Give visitors a call to action, and often – Okay, the good news is a visitor is on your website, reading your copy. Now what? If you want to turn visitors into customers you will have to hold their hand through the process. Give them the opportunity to buy or learn more (whatever it is you want them to do). Throughout the text on each of your pages, have links that say “Read more”, “Order now”, “Learn more”, etc. You want to make sure you don’t miss the short window of opportunity with your visitor when he or she decides they’re ready to take action.

4. Answer unspoken questions on the first page – What are the most common questions that people have about your business? Okay, now instead of hiding them deep within your FAQ page, answer those questions right on your home page. Don’t let visitors make assumptions about your business, because that may quickly lead them off your page and onto someone else’s!

5. Break up your text – Use bullets or numbers to emphasize points, break up text and bring in some more white space. Another good way to break up text is by using a picture, graphic, or headline – anything to make your website’s copy look unintimidating.

6. Keep headlines short and to the point – A good headline tells the reader everything he or she wants to know, in only a few short words. You should spend more time on a headline because it will be what your readers are most drawn to, and it’s designed to quickly grab their attention. The most important thing about a headline is that the message needs to be 100% clear and understandable. No one should be forced to re-read a headline because they weren’t quite sure if it meant one thing or another.

7. Make your copy personal – If you want to really engage your readers, then talk to them like you know them and understand them. Instead of bragging about how “thousands” have been satisfied with your products, tell them specifically how one of your products could work for them. Imagine you’re writing copy to one of your customers, because visitors don’t log on in groups, they come as individuals.

8. Stick to one – or two-column web pages – Don’t try to get fancy with multiple newspaper-style columns, just stick with the format your online customers are used to, a simple one- or two-column page.

9. Separate your site from its competitors – Unless there are no other websites selling similar products or services to yours, it’s a good idea to give your visitors the reason why you stand apart. The best thing you can do is to avoid clich�s like “our customers are #1″ and to be specific, like “our organic baby diapers are 100% natural and biodegradable”.

10. Make ordering easy – Okay, now here is where many online sites fail; they make ordering overly long and tedious, and then they wonder why their shopping cart abandonment rate is so high. Don’t require additional information like survey questions or membership signups in order for a visitor to place an order. Make the process simple and try to condense the number of checkout steps to four or less (three is optimal).

Now that you have been given some copywriting tips for your website, you’ll be ready to give your online text a makeover! The effort you put in to bringing visitors to your website will mean nothing if the site is hard to read and requires too much time to understand. The key to any website’s success is to make sure your copy is understandable, to the point, grammatically correct and that the text is broken up by lots of white space.

Phil

A: I think you are, for reasons both large and small. Let me give you but one example:

A few days ago on a busy school night, my wife called and asked me to pick up some dinner on the way home. She mentioned a restaurant we like, even though we don’t get to it often, and asked me to look up their menu online so we could figure out what to get.

Yet try as I might, I couldn’t fine their website. It finally dawned on me that they did not have one. But since we had not been there in quite a while and could not remember everything on their menu, we decided to get dinner from another place.

Multiply that multi-fold and that’s why every small business has to have a website.

Can you do e-commerce if you are not online? Nope. Can customers who hear about you check you out later on the Net if you don’t have a site? No again. Can current customers (like I was) find out what your new offerings are if you lack a site? Not easily.

And is it hard to get one? Happily, the answer again is no, in fact it’s easier than ever. (More on that in a moment.)

Here are some amazing statistics:

* According to Jupiter Research, half of all small businesses with less than 10 employees do not have a website.
* 7 out of 10 solo businesses do not have a website.

What is up with that? We both know that Americans are spending ever more time than online. 80% of us now spend as much time online as we do watching television.

So you must get your business online; there’s no question about it. Having a website is as essential today as having business cards or a telephone number.

So the question really is, how do you do it easily and affordably?

There are three ways, but for most small businesses, the third is almost always the best:

1. Hire a web developer
2. Use a software-creation program
3. Use an online service

Online services are great because, not only do they point and click you through an easy process, but the best ones will also help you grow your business.

Here’s an example: Microsoft (a company I do some work with) just launched a new version of its web service, Office Live Small Business. For the small business wanting to get or grow online, there is plenty to like about this service, not the least of which is that not only is it more powerful, but whereas it used to cost up to $39.95 a month, it is now free:

* You can easily design and create an elegant, professional website in a few short clicks (or even get help with it if you want.)
* E-mail marketing is made easy. There is a service that helps you send e-newsletters and other promotions using branded e-mails that match the look of your site.
* There’s a tool to help you advertise on search engines.
* The e-commerce tool helps you sell either on your own site or on eBay (this is the only service you would have to pay for.)

What I really like about this service is that it allows you to get a web address, create a site, market that site, and even sell on that site, all in one place. Most similar web services might offer a couple of these services, but not all of them.

The point is, today, there is no reason for any small business not to be on the online, and not just online, but online in a professional, powerful way. That way, when a customer wants to find your menu of products, they will.

If not, they’ll go somewhere else.

Today’s Tip: And why are you not doing any e-marketing? An Opus research survey found that most small business owners think they cannot afford it (wrong.) 20% think e-marketing is too complex (wrong again), and 15% think it will take too much manpower (x 3.)

One good marketing idea is to offer people something in return for their email address. If you have a site offering advice or a newsletter and you are trying to build up an email list for your newsletter, you can offer something such as an e-book in exchange for an email address.

You can contract with an author to write a short e-book (10-12 pages) for you, or you can buy one with the right to resell/give it away. An e-book serves 2 purposes: it gets you an email address, and you can add links in the e-book to your site or sites that you have.

The customer or prospect is happy because they get a resource to use that contains knowledge and help about something they are interested in. Obviously the e-book you give away needs to be about a subject related to your site and the products or services you offer, or there is no point. Also, the customer or prospect feels valued because you didn’t just hit them up for their email address; you offered them something in return.

Get creative…have a contest!

In order to experience growth, there are also some fresh new ideas you can try that are a little off the beaten path. For example, say you have an online business selling antique tools online. Your niche is selling tools to those individuals who want to invest in and collect antique tools. While the traffic through your site was say approximately 1,000 visitors a month, it wasn’t generating enough traffic or sales in order to make your business viable.

Subsequently, you start experimenting with different traffic-building strategies. One of the ideas you have is to hold a contest, where you give away an antique tool. To gain excitement about your products, you use antique tools to promote selling antique tools.

The contest asks each visitor to the site to register a wish list of the tools on the site in inventory, valuing from $10 to $500. Once a month, an entry is randomly selected and an item from the person’s wish list is given to them and announced online.

After the establishment of the contest, you will notice an increase in visitors to the site, and you can potentially even double your traffic in just a month or two after the contest begins. Additionally, the day after the monthly e-mail goes out to those who signed up for the contest, you will see an increase in sales for that day.

People like free stuff, and people like useful free stuff even more. Promotions, contests, and giveaways are great ideas to spice up the interest level in your website and sharpen the focus of those visitors. Make sure what you give away is related to your site and useful to your prospect or customer, and have fun!

Why should you know?

In any business, it is imperative that you know who your customers are and how they access your services. Knowledge about your customers and their navigation habits is critical info you need as an online business owner. This information allows you to target your products and services effectively.

Not knowing your customer is like shooting at a target in the dark, with no guarantee you will hit the target. However, every shot costs hard earned money, and with every missed target your costs increase. Now, wouldn’t you like to maximize your chances of hitting the right target?

Analyzing your web traffic

Web analytics is the answer. With web analytics software, you can get crucial insights on your customers’ behavior – such how they get to your website, which search engine they came from, how many came through a site linked to you, which keywords did they use to find you, what do they do once they are on your website, which pages do they spend most of their time on, and so on.

Precision targeting

With such important analytical information at your disposal, you can better target your customers. With web analytics you can have a better idea about where your customers are coming from and what kind of products they like. You can then devise a precise targeting strategy by advertising at places where they can most likely be found. You’ll definitely save a few dollars by canceling your accounts at sites that do not provide you adequate visitors. Conversely, you can increase your spend on sites that give you denser web traffic.

Improved conversion rates

Improving conversion rates is the crux of tracking your traffic through web analytics. How do you know what your visitors do once on your site? Do they visit the pages you want them to? Do they fill out forms, or make purchases that you want them to? How many of your visitors are first time visitors and how many of them are returning visitors? How many of your visitors get converted into buyers?

That’s conversion rate for you – the percentage of your visitors that end up buying your products or services. Web analytics provides you all of these answers.

Reduced bounce

Tracking and web analytics software will enable you to track the “bounce” of your site – that is you’ll know exactly how many visitors come to one page of your site and leave without visiting the other pages. If the “bounce” off your site is high, it doesn’t matter what traffic your site generates. What really matters is the targeted traffic your site generates – visitors that come to your site and stay there, exploring what you have to offer.

Where can I find web analytics and tracking software?

Several web analytics software programs and services are available, such as Webtrends , Deep Software , and Google Analytics .

What are authority links? They’re links coming from sites that are considered by search engines to be of a high value, due to the high number of inbound links going to those sites. To the search engines, inbound links = authority. These sites are generally original content-heavy and cover very specific topics. Getting links from authority sites can boost your site’s credibility and in turn your search engine rankings.

If you remember back to the Million Dollar Homepage with Alex Tew, the success of Tew’s idea happened because of the hundreds and hundreds of bloggers that were writing about it – and the thousands and thousands of people who were reading all those blogs. If used properly, blogs can not only give you links, but readership – and in turn more links, traffic, etc.

So, how do you get bloggers to list your e-tail site or talk about your products?

Think of this as a marketing strategy, something that needs to be planned and researched before it’s executed. First, put together a list of all the relevant blog sites for your particular industry. This will take doing research on Google. For instance, if your site sells scrapbooking supplies you’ll want to search for "scrapbook blog", "scrapbooking blog", etc. Google has a blog search that will make finding these blogs easier – http://blogsearch.google.com/ . You can also try sites like Technorati.com , which will also give you "Authority" scores for each blog.

Now that you have your list, it’s time to come up with a strategy to get your link on those sites. There are really only two ways to get this done, so read about each and decide which method is best for the type of site you have.

Tell the blogger about your site and ask for a link – This is the easiest way of getting links to your site, however it only works if you have something new and interesting to offer. If you are yet another iPod accessory store, then forget it. But, if you are selling a brand new product that lets you turn your iPod into a universal television remote, then bloggers just might be interested. Imagine if you were writing an industry-related blurb day after day, you’d love something new to write about. Bloggers are just waiting for the "next big topic", and if your website saves them from racking their brain for ideas, then it’s a win-win. You have to be honest with yourself though; don’t bother asking for a link if your site or products don’t have any sort of "wow factor". If you annoy the blogger you’ll inevitably ruin your chances of ever getting a link or even a shot at the next strategy.

Think your products don’t have that "wow factor"? Maybe something else about your site or business does. Maybe you’re having a contest on your site, or you’re giving away something cool with each order. If you pitch that to the blogger, you might get yourself a link.

Become actively involved with blog sites – Don’t lose hope of getting blog links just because your site isn’t toting the latest gizmo gadgets. It may take more time and effort than the first strategy, but the result is the same – links! Start by posting highly informative comments on various blogs in your industry – but be sure to post on a regular basis. This way the blogger and posters will know who you are and hopefully will have some respect for you as an informative commenter. After a while, and in certain situations, you may find that mentioning your website is relevant to the blog post. Just be sure that the mention actually adds to the conversation and is not at all a sales pitch.

It’s a good idea to do a combination of both options. Start by getting involved with informative comments so the blogger comes to recognize you. Then move on to introducing your site to the blogger via email and asking for a link.

How NOT to get blog links

Never post comments to a blog just to mention your website or to sell your products or services. This cannot be stressed enough. Both bloggers and posters hate this and you are sure to get a slew of negative posts behind it (and get your comment marked as spam by the blogger).

When asking the blogger for a link, don’t annoy them. One introductory email, plus one follow up after a week is enough. If you don’t get a response, don’t keep spamming their inbox with link requests – just move on.

In Summary

The key to getting blog links is simple: offer bloggers and posters something relevant and interesting. If blogs were all about sales pitches, no one would ever read them. Good blogs are read because they’re interesting and informative. So, your website and postings should be too!

Both land-based businesses and online retailers are successfully using eBay to supplement their regular sales, and in this article we will look at ways to use eBay to increase your bottom line.

Offload Old Inventory

No matter what you are selling, you will find that a time will come when certain items in your inventory are not selling as they used to. Excess inventory can be a big problem; essentially, it is money that has been wasted, and it might also be taking up some valuable room.

eBay allows retailers the opportunity to get rid of old inventory items that don’t seem to be selling well from your own website anymore. This is possible due to the wide range of people using eBay in order to buy; odds are that the auction giant has a much greater awareness level, worldwide, than our own website.

This means that you can still recover costs on items that your own clientele isn’t buying, and you may still have the chance to make a profit!

Creating an eBay Store

Think of an eBay store as a side shop to your own web page. Like any branch, it has the opportunity to reach a different category and a broader customer base than your own site. Again, the reason is in eBay’s huge recognition factor; someone who has never heard of your store will have heard of eBay, and if you have a featured store on the site they are likely to find your products and you will make more sales.

Of course, the other side of the eBay store idea is that it involves additional costs. eBay charges anywhere from $30 to $500 a month for stores, so you better make sure that the supplemental dollars you earn are worth it!

Advertising

Never neglect an advertising opportunity – and eBay does present a good opportunity for your website as well as a chance to supplement your sales. Whether you use a store or just the auction, make sure your buyers learn about your own website and the sale opportunities available there.

The best thing to keep in mind about eBay, as far as supplementing the sales off of your own website, is that it has a much greater base as far as customers. If you find that some items in your inventory just aren’t selling well through your own site, the odds are that you can sell them on eBay.

When it comes to making a purchase online, the anxiety can be that much greater on the part of the consumer. After all, a brick and mortar purchase means that there is some familiarity with the people who make the business work, the products, and the reality of the storefront.

On the web, customers have none of these assurances. But they do have additional anxieties to boot, from privacy issues to shipping concerns. Here are some ways in which you can help overcome those mental objections from your potential buyers.

* Ensure That Customers Feel Secure In Their Purchases. When it comes to purchasing items on the Internet, you can bet that the first concern any customer will have is the issue of credit card theft or fraud. The media doesn’t do web-based businesses any favors here; any small infraction is likely to be blown into a crisis of international proportions.

It’s the web-based business owner’s responsibility to overcome this common objection, and the only way to do so is through convincing copy and an ongoing commitment to ensure the security of your customers (by providing top-notch customer service).

The last thing you ever want is for one of those news stories to feature your business!

* Make Your Business Real To Buyers. Remember, part of the reason why customers are leery about online purchases is that to them, your business is just a location on the World Wide Web. You can overcome this by including your information, including location and contact numbers, on your site.

Your customers will feel better if they know they can reach you or someone who works for you, in the event that something goes wrong.

* Provide Real Testimonials. If people see that others are using your services or buying your products safely, they will be more likely to trust your site.

Make sure that you ask past customers to endorse your business so that others feel confident about making a purchase. Read more about including testimonials on your website .

When it comes to overcoming purchase anxiety on your website, the answer lies in making your business as "real" as possible to potential customers. Following the tips above is a great way to get them over their web purchase anxiety quickly – and for you to close the sale.

According to the law of averages some of them will only stay for a few seconds before going elsewhere. Your job as a website owner is to reduce the percentage of potential customers you lose by as much as you can. The longer people stay on your site, the more chance there is of signing them up to your newsletter, or even selling them something.

The secret to doing this is to make your webpages interactive. Or more precisely your homepage, since this is what people will see first.

You need to draw people in to your website in order to make them stay longer, so you need to ensure the top section of your homepage has a least one interactive feature. The top section is the part that you can look at and read without scrolling down (commonly referred to as "above the fold"). After all, what’s the use of saving your best features for the bottom of your homepage if no one actually sees it?

The best method to use is to give away a free item in exchange for the person’s email address. This way you build a relationship with your customer and your email opt-in list at the same time.

To get the best results, make sure the free item is instantly available. A free download or access to a secret page loaded with information are two good examples of this.

It’s also vital to make sure the free item has a high perceived value. It needs to be something the customer couldn’t get anywhere else – or couldn’t get free anywhere else – and will be of real use to them. If this product is currently very popular you will stand an even better chance of getting their attention. You need to ensure the customer cannot possibly click away from your site until they have this information.

Once you have their email address through the double opt-in method (they will need to confirm via email that they have requested the information) they will be added to your email marketing list. This will not only give you the chance to keep in touch and possibly sell them something in the future, it also keeps your name and your site fresh in their mind.

In the world of internet marketing building relationships with your customers is vital to your success. By having an interactive homepage you will be a lot closer to achieving that success.

Well, there are a lot of answers to this question, and we will go over them below. Together, they present a compelling case for what we call “content strategy”; that is, how you will create content for your site and what it will entail (we will take a look at that in the next section in this article).

Why A Good Content Strategy Is Important

1. Search Engine Optimization: The most important reason for creating content on your site is SEO. Over 50% of visitors to any website, retail or informational, arrive there for the first time through the use of a search engine.

That’s millions of users and potential customers, so naturally enough website developers are looking to increase their visibility on the big engines. The best way to do so is with content that proves the site is relevant to a given search term, and content that is updated on a regular basis.

2. Increasing credibility: Visitors are more likely to make a transaction on your site if they feel you know what you are talking about. Good content will show them that you have a good understanding of your product and what makes it necessary for them as purchasers.

3. Engagement with customers. Unlike a brick and mortar business, a website does not give you the chance to meet a customer face to face. Content will take some of the cold impartiality away from an online transaction, creating an environment in which a visitor is much more likely to make a purchase.

4. Increasing sales. Of course, all of the above reasons for creating a content strategy will help to increase sales through your website – and that, of course, is the ultimate goal.

Adding Valuable Content

One of the great things about content is that there are many ways to add it. One of the most common is through writing articles based around words that your customers might be looking for in a search. You can write these articles yourself or have someone else write them for you. The great thing about articles is that there are limitless options; you can write them in a “newsy” style, as informational pieces, or even with some humor.

Another way to increase your content is through RSS feeds. These are news feeds that arrive from a different web site every day, and their freshness is great both for potential customers and for the search engines.

Press releases can serve the dual purpose of providing content for your site and providing links back to your site from other sites.

Remember that as far as getting noticed by search engines, content is king. Website developers in certain niches will suffer as soon as their competition begins to provide content on their sites, so the sooner a content strategy is implemented, the better.