Archive for the ‘Articles’ Category
“Mini” VS “Traditional” Websites? And the winner is…
Jim Edwards here with my latest article (below) for you…
If you’ve been following my blog at all lately, you know I’ve been focusing on mini-sites and how to use them to quickly build your business.
Well, there seems to be a little confusion as to what exactly "mini" sites are and how you use them to quickly build up your online business (specifically selling to niche markets).
So before we go any further, I wanted to clear up any misconceptions for you and fill in the blanks for everyone.
That way we can all get on the same page about building a list, selling your own products, promoting as an affiliate and more.
Enjoy the article (below)…
Jim
PS – Want to comment on this article?
Leave your 2-cents here on the blog in the "Comments" section
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Cashing In Fast With "Mini" Sites
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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I’ve gotten a plenty of questions lately about why I think "mini" sites, simple 1-2 page websites, are better than "traditional" websites you might learn to build in school or from a website design course.
In fact, I believe "traditional" websites represent a complete waste of time and end up making small and home-based business owners give up on the Internet before they even have a chance to get started.
If you want to cash in fast on the web, stop thinking about making "web" sites and start thinking about "mini" sites.
Basically, traditional sites try to be all things to all people.
If you go to somebody’s website and you see:
"Sign up for my newsletter";
"Buy my product";
"Check out these links";
"Check out our article archive";
"Click Here for the article of the day";
"Subscribe to this RSS feed";
"Visit our blog!"
…. it just creates confusion.
In other words, visitors arrive at the site and either go nuts figuring out what to do next or, more likely, they simply click their back button – never to return.
I once had a sales manager who told me, "A confused mind always answers ‘No!’ Never give people more than two choices in a sales talk."
He was right!
Traditional websites give people too many choices and they fail miserably at it, usually before they ever get off the ground.
On the other hand, mini-sites succeed wildly because they have one purpose: to force someone to make a decision!
Mini-sites typically fall into one of four main categories:
- sales letters
- newsletters
- affiliate presales
- intelligence gathering
Virtually every mini-site you ever see will fit one of these categories. Let’s take a look at each type.
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#1 Sales Letter Mini-Sites
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One-page sales letter mini-sites represent the most recognizable type of mini-site on the Web.
A sales letter’s primary purpose should be obvious: to sell somebody something!
Typically one-page sales letter mini-sites sell ebooks, software, physical products, services and more.
Virtually anything can get sold with a one-page sales letter mini-site.
The decision you want a visitor to make when they come to your sales letter mini-site is also simple: buy or don’t buy.
You force them to decide right there on the spot. Just like any good salesman, you force the decision by the prospect.
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#2 Newsletter Mini-Sites
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Newsletter, or forced-opt-in, mini-sites make up the second type of mini-site.
Their primary purpose is to entice people to sign up for your list, newsletter, or ezine.
But frankly, if you looked at some people’s newsletter sites, you would think their purpose was anything but getting people to sign up for their newsletter!
Once you understand that the primary purpose of your newsletter mini-site is to get a signup, you can eliminate everything else that detracts from that purpose.
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#3 Affiliate Pre-Sell Mini-Sites
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Affiliate Pre-Sell pages make up the third type of mini-site you can use.
Numerous ways exist to "pre" sell people on an affiliate page, persuade them to make a decision, and then take the specific action you want.
Some common types of pres-sell pages include: product reviews; pre-sell videos; audio postcards; forced opt-in pages and more.
Most people think that the primary purpose of a pre-sell mini-site is to have somebody click an affiliate link, but I disagree.
I think that the main purpose of your affiliate pre-sell page should be to get a prospect to give you their name and their email address.
Once you get that information you can sell them several things over time.
If all you ever do is refer traffic without building a relationship, you’ll miss out on lucrative back-end opportunities.
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#4 Intelligence Gathering Mini-Sites
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The fourth type of mini-site is used to gather marketing or other intelligence from your target niche.
Here you actually use a mini-site to get people to tell you what they want to buy, try, see, give their opinion on a topic, etc.. I call it "Your Most Burning Question."
You use this type of mini-site to gather information about what people want to know, their overall interest level in your topic, and as a means to get ideas for newsletter and blog content.
The bottom line with an intelligence gathering mini-site is to get people to tell you what you need to know in order to make money selling them something later.
So now the obvious question: Which one do you start with?
The answer: It depends on your purpose right now in your business!
Need to sell your existing product or service? You should set up a sales letter mini-site.
Don’t have a list of subscribers? Set up a newsletter mini-site.
No product to sell? Build an affiliate pre-sell mini-site.
No clue what your target audience wants or if they even want anything at all? Set up an intelligence gathering mini-site and find out what you need to know BEFORE spending months creating a product.
Mini-sites are all about saving time and maximizing your effort through clear focus and purpose.
Once you know exactly what you want to get done online, mini-sites create the fastest, easiest pathway to success.
<– End Article –>
Hope this clears up any misunderstandings about mini-sites and why they’re so effective… no matter whether you’re a fresh-faced newbie or a battle-hardened online business veteran.
To Your Success,
Jim
Special Report: The Top 7 Critical Mini-Site Design Mistakes…
From: The Desk of Jim Edwards
Re: Special Report
"The Top 7 Critical Mini-Site Design Mistakes Marketers Make… and (More Importantly) How to Avoid Them"
- Mistake #1 – Butchering Fonts
- Mistake #2 – The “Tweaker” Syndrome
- Mistake #3 – Lack of Focus or a Consistent Theme in the Site’s Content
- Mistake #4 – Using Animation Improperly
- Mistake #5 – The Flying Dutchman Syndrome
- Mistake #6 – Jamming a Football through a Garden Hose
- Mistake #7 – That Baby’s So Ugly, It Makes You Want To Smack Its Mama!
- Mistake #8 – Clean Up Before Company Arrives
- Bonus Idea – Get Really Good at Keeping Records
Why should you listen to me when it comes to "mini" sites?
Well, here are the facts…
I’ve made hundreds of money-making mini-sites on everything from
- real estate… to
- mortgages… to
- typing tutorials… to
- self-improvement… to
- chihuahua potty training… to
- back pain… to
- Legal help… to
- Acne… to
- Writers and authors… to
- Self-Defense… to
- Video gaming… AND MORE
I’ve evaluated thousands of mini-sites (many of them terrible – but some of them killer)…
I’ve made millions with simple 1-page and 2-page mini-sites…
I’ve built up 250,000+ targeted subscribers using 1-page and 2 page mini-sites…
I’ve been the TOP affiliate for launches like John Reese’s "Traffic Secrets" and Ryan Deiss’s "30 Days To 10K" launches using mini-sites…
In short, I know what the hell I’m talking about and can prove it about when it comes to designing mini-sites that make money and pull subscribers like a Kirby vacuum on steroids!
Mistake #1 – Butchering Fonts
Let’s just jump right in… Mistake Number 1 that I see marketers making is that they absolutely butcher fonts.
What I mean by butchering fonts is actually a four pointer.
a. The first point is that people use too many font styles on the same page.
You will see this when you’re looking at pages where people are showing 50 different banners on one site and it’s like they get drunk with their ability to manipulate fonts.
You see people with Arial, Times New Roman, Jester, Impact, Antigone and all these different fonts that other people may or may not have on their own computer (but you see them using all these different fonts in the same paragraph).
It’s like they went and got a bottle of Jack Daniels and just got drunk with their new-found power to change fonts.
The best thing you can do is choose one font style for the main headline and the sub-headlines. I personally like an Arial-style font. (That seems to work best for me as far as headlines go.)
Then you want to choose one font style for your body text. I personally prefer to use a Times New Roman type font, though I have used Helvetica in the past.
b. The other mistake I see people making with butchering fonts is that they have too many different font colors on the same page and it looks, for lack of a better phrase, like the circus came to town when you open up their webpage.
Keep it simple! As far as colors go, keep it really simple and really basic.
The consistent color that I see for the main headline is either navy blue, black or red.
Those seem to be the colors that work the best.
Then for sub-headlines, the colors I see that work best are royal blue or navy blue.
For body text, pretty much without exception, the color that you should use in your body text is black.
With very few exceptions, (I can’t really think of any) your text should appear black on a white background.
c. Now, if you need to put emphasis on a word or set of words, either use bold or use italics but try not to use both.
All these rules are not 100 percent hardened fact (sometimes I break them).
However, if you do bold italics, especially in a Times-type font, you’re going to have what I call “hairy letters” or “fuzzy letters” and they start looking jagged.
The other thing you don’t want to do very often is to underline text.
Make sure if you underline some words that people aren’t sitting there whacking that text thinking that it’s a clickable link.
Another way to put emphasis on a word or a set of words (again, there are exceptions, but, typically you wouldn’t do this with a whole paragraph.) is to use a yellow highlighter.
One of the things that people have been taught is that yellow highlighter is something on a printed page that’s very important.
So, you can use yellow highlighter very effectively to really emphasize a point or to draw somebody’s attention to a specific point.
But, be very careful not to overdo it… if you overdo any of this stuff… if you overdo the bold, or the italics, or the highlighter… if you overuse them… they will totally lose their impact.
d. The other thing that I see people doing as far as butchering fonts is using too many different font sizes.
When they do their first sales letter they think that if 36-point font is good, than 72-point font is even better!
You’ve come upon those websites before with text six inches high and only one word screaming out at you.
Typically your main headline is either large or extra large font size.
It’s not a specific point size, but rather it is a relative size to the other sizes of fonts. Typically, that large or extra large corresponds to a 24 or a 36-point type equivalent.
Then for your sub-headlines those font sizes are typically somewhere between 14 and 18-point font.
The most important thing to remember is consistency.
A sub-headline looks like a sub‑headline all the way through. (As opposed to a sub-headline in one spot that is huge and red and in another spot it’s small and green and in another spot it’s medium and blue.) That interrupts the flow of people’s thinking and they get caught up in how the message gets delivered rather than concentrating on the message itself.
Then your body text should be either medium or small.
(That corresponds if you were in Word, to something around a 10 to 12-point type size font.) So, again, main headline – large or extra large. Sub-headline – large. Body text – medium to small.
Another thing that you need to do is pay attention to link colors.
I try to keep my link colors blue and blue underlined.
The reason for that is because the vast majority of people who have been on the web for more than about a day understand that a blue underlined word is normally a clickable link.
So why do I want to try and retrain them on my website and make them guess as to what they should click? My advice to you is to always use blue underlined links, (text links) to represent a clickable link.
If you decide you want to do something else, that’s up to you.
No matter what you do make sure your links are consistent all the way through your site so that if it looks like a link… it is a link. If they click it, something happens.
You don’t want people guessing if something is a link or not.
So that’s mistake number 1, on butchering fonts.
Mistake #2 – The “Tweaker” Syndrome
I will admit being guilty of this one.
This is what I call the “Tweaker” syndrome… for those of us who like to tweak stuff.
The “Tweaker” syndrome is when somebody gets hung up fiddling with something that was good enough two hours (or two days ago) and yet they keep tweaking it. They keep fiddling with it and they get bogged down.
I can be really guilty of this when it comes to the multimedia audio and video.
But, once I figure out how to do something that works, then I don’t tweak it anymore.
"Tweaking" stuff is a really big trap!
Now, I’m not talking about figuring out how to make something work… all of us spend that initial time getting oriented and learning how to do certain things.
But, once you know how to do something you don’t have to spend 15 minutes messing around with it.
Always look for the simplest solution.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to find the most exotic, or the sexiest thing that you can find to get something done.
If a simple link… or a simple graphic… or a simple whatever will do the job; do not look for a more complicated solution.
All you’ll is waste time trying to make that work when the simple thing would have worked a long time ago.
The other thing people do is get caught up in the minutia of something little instead of keeping their eye on the big picture of why they’re putting the Mini-Site together in the first place.
And, again, I will admit to being guilty of this.
I remember spending an entire day fiddling around with a java script that eventually I couldn’t figure out. It was a script. I ended up wasting a whole day trying to get that script done.
I couldn’t do it and I ended up hiring somebody on E-lance for $10.00 who ended up getting it done in 15 minutes!
The big thing to remember is any time you find yourself fiddling around or getting bogged down with something that’s only a teeny, tiny part of the overall picture, you need to stop in place and ask yourself:
- “Is this just me screwing around with something because it’s something that I’m going to screw around with?" Or,
- "Is this something I could put aside and even if I don’t come back to it, or if I bypass it completely, will that allow me to get the project done much faster?" Or,
- "Could I hire somebody for ten bucks to do this for me and save myself 8 to 12 hours’ worth of time?”
What you don’t want is to end up wasting a whole evening or a whole week on something that didn’t require all that time and even if it didn’t get done, wouldn’t affect the project overall.
So be careful with graphics or wanting to get anything else "just right."
Another place where you’ll get into problems with tweaking, especially once you start doing this for a while, is with java scripts.
You’re better off paying somebody at E-lance ten bucks to install those rather that than trying to do it yourself.
The same goes for web scripts.
Again, you’ll hear about PERL scripts and PHP scripts and things like mail forms.
One of the things I see coming down the pike right now are these interactive sales letters.
But, I can tell you right now the average webmaster doesn’t need to fiddle around with that stuff because it’s an extra bell and whistle that in most cases you could do just as well without… ESPECIALLY when you’re just getting started into a market and trying to find signs of life.
So be careful of the latest, greatest trend or the latest, greatest script that is going to take you from having to put up a fast Mini-Site with a sales letter (or something like that) and turn it into this ordeal where you’re having to come up with ten different versions of your sales letter.
Just be really careful of anything like that that requires endless tweaking and endless fiddling.
The end run objective here, with Mini-Sites especially, is to set things up that run on autopilot.
If you have things you must endlessly tweak and fiddle with, then all you’re doing is creating needless work for yourself.
In the end it’s going to cost you a lot of money and time and probably won’t return the amount of money and time you invested.
So the bottom line here is to keep it simple! Once something works well enough… leave it alone!
Once you’ve got a Mini-Site that’s working mechanically, don’t mess with it! Stop fiddling with it because honestly, bottom line, most people who are “tweaking” stuff or endlessly fiddling around with one little thing are using it as an excuse to avoid getting down to the real business at hand of making money with their Mini-Site.
They’re using the fact “I worked all weekend on this script” to avoid getting anything done.
Well, yeah, they worked all weekend screwing around with this one thing and they use that as an excuse for not driving traffic to the site.
It’s just an excuse. You want to keep stuff simple, get it up, and keep it running.
Well, I have beaten that one to death.
Mistake #3 – Lack of Focus or a Consistent Theme in the Site’s Content
The mistake I see most webmasters making is a total lack of focus or a consistent theme in the site’s content.
Here’s the bottom line, folks…
A Mini-Site is about one topic and it is aimed at one target audience.
A Mini-Site is not a portal site where you’re trying to be all things to all people like Yahoo.
I mean, Yahoo’s got finance, it’s got dating, it’s got personals, it’s got search, it’s got every kind of list under the sun.
They’re trying to be everything and a Mini-Site is the complete and total opposite to that.
It is one thing to one specific group of people.
Now, the best example of a Mini-Site, (And the one you are probably the most familiar with) is the one-page sales letter.
The one-page sales letter has one purpose and one purpose only… To get people to buy. And it’s aimed at one specific audience.
An example of a sales letter Mini-Site’s purpose would be to sell an e-book.
Anything that doesn’t contribute directly to selling that e-book is not needed.
That goes for everything from text and graphics to other things you can put on it… Multimedia, MP3s, any of that stuff.
As soon as you start looking at the Mini-Site mindset like that, you realize that a lot of the things that you see on sites, (especially when you can tell they were done by somebody who doesn’t know what they were doing) a lot of things they think will help them make a sale will actually keeping them from making a sale.
So, it’s important to always have a specific laser focus on your purpose for your Mini-Site.
Then you’ve got to keep all the content on that site focused on that one specific purpose… which is to get people to take the action that you want.
Recession-Proof Your Online Biz
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Recession-Proof Your Online Biz
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Ok, unless you live under a rock and get you news by carrier
pigeon, most people know the USA currently teeters on the
brink of recession.
Though I maintain my own opinions about what this will
actually mean to the average person, there’s no denying that
the economy may slow down and sales may slack off a bit.
So, in order to prevent this possible downshift in the
economic engine from affecting you, I offer the following
advice to help recession-proof your online business.
*See It To Believe It*
No matter what you sell, you can use video to demonstrate
either what you sell or the results customers should expect.
Product, service, software – it doesn’t matter. You can
either use full motion video or screen capture video to
"show and tell" people why and how your offering helps them.
In a down economy people try to make every dollar count.
Thus, consumers will spend more time on research and
comparison before buying just about everything.
Use video to set your business apart as every online playing
field gets more competitive.
*ASK What They Want*
Ask the people who buy from you, or are considering buying
from you, what they want most right now – then figure out a
way to sell it to them!
Too many online businesses assume they know what their
customers want and need. But in a down economy you must
maximize the value of every customer for your business.
You can do this quickly and easily with a survey via email
where you ask them about what they need and want as it
relates to your area of business. I personally use
www.OneMinutePoll.com to conduct my surveys.
*Become Invaluable*
Find a way to go beyond just selling a product, service, or
software.
Become invaluable to your customers. Become the last thing
they would ever throw overboard if their economic ship
started to sink.
You can often do this by combining whatever you sell with
information and news they can’t easily obtain elsewhere.
The easiest way to do this is to include special reports,
ebooks, videos, or articles on your website, with purchases,
or in an email newsletter.
If you sell the same thing everyone else does, you’re just a
commodity judged on price.
If you provide added, demonstrable value to your customers,
you transform into a "resource" they can’t let go.
*Stuck In Traffic?*
Most online businesses lapse into one or two main sources of
online traffic generation (no, this doesn’t include "hoping"
for traffic).
Whether using pay-per-click, banners, email or some other
method, we all tend to gravitate towards what "worked in the
past."
Unfortunately, in a down economy, those traffic sources may
dry up, increase in cost, or stop converting (or all of the
above). But, as the saying goes, when one door closes,
another opens somewhere else.
You must constantly look for and test new sources of traffic
because you might just find one that could revolutionize (or
save) your business.
Make it a priority to find and test at least one new source
of traffic per month.
Recession-proofing your online business is easier than you
think.
It simply comes down to discovering what enough people want,
effectively demonstrating you provide it, and making
yourself an indispensable part of their lives.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…
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"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"
Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
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Make Your Website More Mobi-Friendly
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Make Your Website More Mobi-Friendly
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Ok! Tis the season to make startling predictions about where the web will head this year and what rates your attention in the world of ecommerce.
I’ll say I’ve seen some great predictions by others this year, including some of my friends who say the "newbie" market and the Asian markets will explode this year.
However, I want to talk about something that most of the "geek" set take for granted, but none of us fully understand the impact of just yet: mobile surfing.
No, I’m not talking about hauling your laptop around to find the nearest free hotspot, I’m talking about the tens-of-millions (if not hundreds-of-millions) of cell phones, iPods and other mobile devices built to surf the Web while on the go.
With so much surfing power now in the hands (literally) of millions of people, anyone with an online business can no longer ignore the importance of this growing audience.
So what caused this great epiphany about the rights of the mobile surfing masses? Simple!
I got an iPod Touch for my birthday (the iPhone without the phone part) this past month and realized I could surf the Web through any available wireless network, order music, and watch YouTube videos without my computer.
Sure, everyone in my family carries a cell phone, but the power of this mobile Internet access didn’t come home to me fully until I was sitting in my easy chair laughing at online "Gumby" videos downloaded directly to my iPod.
In my opinion, there’s an expanding world of mobile users out there that most online business owners (myself included) neglect.
However, the great news is that you can start catering to the mobile market now more easily than ever.
The following tips should help anyone who sells online (or wants to sell online) make their sites more "mobile-friendly":
- If your website depends on surfers seeing your layout at a certain browser size, consider creating a mobile-friendly version of your site and put a link at the top that says "Mobile Users Click Here".
- Keep your html code simple and avoid using numerous graphics or depending on a fixed width to display text properly.
- Use a single table to display text and graphics so the mobile device’s browser can "squish" your site horizontally to make it fit on the small screen.
- Keep navigation on your mobile-friendly site down to two or three links at the top to minimize choices and cut down on load times.
- Since mobile devices load web pages in chunks, put your most important information toward the top of the page so you don’t force surfers to scroll too much.
- Test your site on at least one mobile device to see how it looks.
- Test your site on the Opera Browser (one of the most popular mobile browsers). Download it free from www.Opera.com/download/, pull up your site in the browser, hit SHIFT+F11, and preview how your site looks to a mobile user.
By the way, anyone who understands web design realizes that I just described how to build a site for the Web back in 1996!
If you wan to hit the emerging mobile surfing market, the first step is to realize they exist.
The second step is simply to make a few allowances in your design to allow them access to your site’s information.
The final step is to keep your eye on this emerging user-base and look for opportunities to serve them.
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by-
step and click-by-click how to finally create your own
money-making mini-sites…
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"Finally! A Quick and Easy Way For YOU to Painlessly Set Up
Your OWN Moneymaking ‘Mini’ Websites… Without Being a
Computer Geek, Buying Expensive Software, or Paying
Outrageous Fees To A Webmaster!"
Click Here => http://www.MiniSiteCreator.com
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Amazon Kindle E-Ink Reader Is The Coolest Thing I’ve Seen In a LONG Time!
Jim Edwards here with an article (below) I think you’ll really enjoy…
It runs in tomorrow’s paper, but you get the scoop today!
It seems like it’s been a long time since somebody introduced something truly new and unique online (something that you can see will really change the way we do things)…
I believe Amazon has done just that with their "Kindle"…
What’s a "Kindle" – read the article (below) to find out!
To your success,
Jim
PS – Have a comment about the article? Feel free to leave your feedback right here on my blog!
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Amazon’s Kindle Changes All The Rules
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Amazon.com, the Web’s largest online bookstore recently
released their own electronic book reader that will truly
revolutionize the way many people absorb information.
The "Amazon Kindle" is a standalone book reader using
electronic paper to store up to 200 books at a time. All of
the material gets downloaded without the need for a PC or
Mac and without an Internet connection.
Though not the first reading device of its type, I believe
the Kindle will shortly dominate the world of electronic
reading devices.
Log on to www.Amazon.com/kindle/ to get all the particulars
about the device, but don’t expect to get one before
Christmas, because they’re all sold out. However, you can
see a couple of online videos demonstrating the device and
explaining how it works.
Amazon also shows a fairly impressive "drop test" video
demonstrating the device’s ruggedness.
The Kindle uses electronic paper, which means the screen
works in bright or low light conditions.
Though I have not been able to put my hands directly on a
Kindle, the electronic paper readers I’ve seen (I own a
Sony PRS-500) look just like real paper so you don’t get
the same eyestrain you do with a laptop screen.
Probably the coolest feature of the Kindle is that you can
download books without hooking up to your home network or
finding a wireless hot spot.
The Kindle connects directly to Amazon using available cell
phone networks (which you don’t have to pay for or sign up
for any monthly obligation).
The fee to download books, surf Amazon and even search on
Wikipedia.org (the Web’s largest free encyclopedia) is
included as part of any book purchases you make.
Amazon obviously put significant thought into this product
and put the needs of the customer into their design,
because they took something complicated and made it drop-
dead simple.
In fact, here are just a few of the killer features they
built into the reader:
~ Amazon backs up all your purchases. If you ever lose or
break your Kindle you can easily recover your books through
Amazon.
~ The rechargeable battery lasts for days so you don’t get
stuck on a long trip with a dead battery.
~ The Kindle holds over 200 books and can expand its
storage capacity with standard SD memory cards.
~ You can buy books, newspapers and magazines as well as
read blogs and, for a small fee, convert your existing Word
documents to a proper format for viewing on the Kindle.
~ Amazon passes the savings on to the user by offering most
Best-Sellers for only $9.99 and many major magazines for
$2.99 or less.
A long time ago I said Amazon would publish books under
their own label some day. The Kindle enables them to bypass
the Internet and create a direct line to their most
enthusiastic user base. "Amazon Publishing Inc." is the
next logical step.
Also, this reader brings the impulse buy to the online
store. Just like a real bookstore, you browse titles, buy,
and get instant access to the content.
Also, the Kindle can reach new segments of the market
because it removes another layer of technology from the
equation. Since it does not require syncing with a computer
to get new content and everything gets downloaded straight
to the device over a cell network, my techno-challenged mom
can do it without the help of her favorite geek (me)!
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
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© Guaranteed Response Marketing, LLC
Why People Buy Anything Online
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Why People Buy Anything Online
- by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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There’s a mental "hump" over which everyone must jump before they buy anything online. It doesn’t matter what you sell, every single customer must throw a little switch in their minds before they pull out their credit card to buy. What makes them throw that mental switch? Anyone who buys anything online does so because of 2 basic emotions and one (or more) of four basic buying motivators.
People buy 99% of everything sold online for one of 4 basic reasons.
First, they buy because of money.
They buy based on how much money they can make or save as a result of purchasing. In fact, making money is the number one reason people buy just about any "info-product" online.
Now, you might say, "My product has nothing to do with making money! How does this help me?" Well, could you put a spin on your product that would help people save money or make money?
For example: if you sell anything to do with golf (equipment, videos, clothing, etc.) you could add a report that explains how to get more business by playing golf with clients. I bet Realtors, insurance agents, and investment advisors would buy whatever product you sold just to get the bonus report about making money while playing golf.
The second reason anybody buys online involves time and effort.
People simply don’t have enough hours in the day to get everything done. They buy products in the hope of saving a few minutes or alleviating some mundane task.
Saving time and effort is one of the reasons software sells so well online because people hope (sometimes in vain) to offload tasks to their computer.
Show people how your product saves them time and reduces effort and you’ve got a great angle to help increase sales.
The third reason people buy online is to escape either physical or mental pain.
Online pharmacies succeed, even though they represent a risky proposition, because people with physical problems need medicine and can’t afford to get it any other way (adding mental anguish to the mix).
One way to position your product or service to alleviate pain is by explaining how you take the worry out of the transaction. Explain how others put all the risk on the customer while you actually remove it through your guarantees, testimonials and proof that your product delivers as promised.
The fourth biggest reason people buy online revolves around the promise of increased popularity and social success.
Why do you think people buy stylish clothes, perfume, books on how to pick up women, or acne treatments? They buy these, and thousands of other things, because they want to feel better about themselves and operate more confidently in social situations!
You can help increase sales of just about any online item by explaining to your customers how smart they’ll look or how they can brag about the money they saved. No matter what you sell, take a little extra time to explain to your customers how they will look good and feel smart purchasing from you.
No matter which of these four buying motivators you invoke, two emotions will intensify their effectiveness: "fear" and "greed."
Normally fear in online selling revolves around fear of loss. Offline retailers try to invoke fear of loss by holding sales (deadlines with financial incentives), but they hold sales so often they lose much of their effectiveness (example: the weekly furniture ads on TV declaring once in a lifetime deals this weekend only).
Online, you can effectively use fear of loss by threatening to raise the price at any time, only offer a limited number of bonuses, or only make an offer good until a certain date.
Greed will also intensify the buying motivation by giving people a self-serving reason to buy now. Greed can be as simple as telling them how much money they can make / save as a result of making a purchase now as opposed to waiting.
But greed can also take a more emotional form where customers covet the feeling they’ll get by making purchase. Whether it’s a good feeling from buying a loved-one that perfect toy or gift, or the feeling of smug satisfaction from snagging one of the most popular gifts this holiday season, consumers are greedy for both material and emotional gain. Explain to them how they can satisfy their greed and you win!
Now, you might say, "Gee Jim, this sounds great, but I don’t see how all this comes together to sell online. Give me an example!"
Okay, let’s take one of the most mundane yet competitive items of the Christmas season: gift cards.
Everyone sells them, yet the marketing for gift cards both online and offline absolutely stinks. Retailers hawk gift cards by either hanging them on a rack or putting a button on their website that says "We have gift cards." Yet every single one of them misses an opportunity to cash-in with gift cards if they would just explain to people why they should buy in terms of the four motivators.
In fact, gift card retailers make the oldest and most fatal mistake in all of sales: selling on features rather than on benefits.
In other words, they try to sell based on what the gift cards do (let someone pick what they want) rather than on what gift cards do for the person who buys them. Gift cards actually help you save on gas (save money) because they don’t necessitate you driving all over town trying to chase down a gift (save time / avoid wasted effort) the person you’re buying for may not want anyway (mental pain of rejection). In fact, a gift card from a store your friend or loved one really likes will make your gift the most popular one under the tree (social success).
You can increase your online sales just by shifting the emphasis off what the product or service does and onto what it does for the person buying it, along with putting your message within the context of as many of the four main reasons people buy as you can.
Then, by intensifying your prospects’ desire through the effective use of fear and greed, you can truly explode your sales over the competition.
All it takes is a little bit of careful thought, some basic explanation to your customers, and the motivation to do a tiny bit more that others are willing to do in their marketing.
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(FireFox Plugins) – 4 Cool FireFox Add-Ons You Need
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4 Cool FireFox Add-Ons You Need
– by Jim Edwards
© Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
http://www.thenetreporter.com
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Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Web browser still rates as the most popular and widely used browser for one simple reason: it rides along with every Windows installation.
But in response to security scares over the last few years, another browser took a bite out of Microsoft’s monopoly.
FireFox often represents the browser of choice for those who either dislike Microsoft (for whatever reason), or want more flexibility and functionality in their browser, specifically in the area of add-ons (also know as "plugins").
Add-ons (little programs that enhance a web browser’s functionality) can trick out your browser to help you do everything from upload website files to speed dialing your favorite websites.
The overwhelming majority of add-ons for FireFox come free of charge (though donations are appreciated). Just log on to http://addons.mozilla.org and check out the free add-ons you can snag.
Note that once you get to the page, the little programs you can run with FireFox are under the "extensions" link. Here are a few of our favorites here in my office – just search for them by name once you log on to the Mozilla site (or use the links below).
** Forecastfox **
"Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive extension." That’s a fancy way of saying you can always know what the weather reports say just by glancing down at your browser’s lower right corner.
This makes very handy tool to keep an eye out for thunderstorms or remind yourself that a sunny day awaits when you finish up a marathon session on your computer.
http://tinyurl.com/yqv54y
** SpeedDial **
Everyone uses bookmarks or "favorites" at one point or another. But those who use them frequently create a problem for themselves. Every time you want to log on to your favorite sites, you must wade through dozens, hundreds, even thousands of links to find what you want.
Enter the "SpeedDial" add-on that helps you organize your most frequently used websites into a "dashboard" you can customize. You can even organize multiple speed dial directories around groups of web pages (business resources, shopping sites, etc.).
http://tinyurl.com/2hhn7a
** FireFTP **
Anyone who owns a website needs the ability to upload files to their hosting account. You can either install a standalone FTP program, or you can use this nifty little browser add-on that turns FireFox into a neat little FTP utility.
"FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers." I really found this add-on helpful in my own business when it comes to fast access to the files on my websites.
http://tinyurl.com/yv56ru
** Download Statusbar **
One annoying feature of Firefox involves the download window that opens up every time you download a file from the web. This can get in the way and actually disrupt your activity.
Enter the "Download Statusbar" add-on, which promises "View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar – without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing."
Even though this add-on does make downloading more convenient, make sure to read the instructions before using it just to make sure you don’t get frustrated.
http://tinyurl.com/29a456
–
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted
visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?
"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving
Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate
links… without spending a dime on advertising!
Click Here> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
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