Be sure to check out Ask WAHS Leslie. This week's question is about successful internet marketing!

Stop wasting your time....
Copyright 2005 Richard Grady

One of the things that almost all online entrepreneurs are
guilty of is wasting time.  Running your own business on
the Internet usually means you will be working from home.
This means that you have no boss watching what you are up
to and no staff seeing that you aren't doing what you
should be.

If you run any kind of Internet business from home, I can
almost guarantee that you will be wasting time at some
point during your working day.  I am extremely guilty of
this myself - in fact, I have been doing it for years!  For
the last seven or so years of my 'working for someone else'
life, I worked from home.  It was a bit like being
self-employed but I knew I was going to get paid at the end
of each month.  Boy could I waste time - so many better
things to do than work - watching television, playing
computer games, going out to lunch :-)  Of course, when I
was employed, it didn't really matter as long as I got the
job done.  Nowadays my time-wasting could be the difference
between success or failure of a particular project and that
could mean less money in my pocket :-(

So here are a few tips that I hope will help you avoid
wasting time online and that will, hopefully, help you run
your Internet business more efficiently.

1.  Stop checking your sales stats every five minutes!  I
know how tempting it is to login to Clickbank, Adsense,
Paypal or your credit card processing account just to see
how your sales are coming along and I also know that many
people waste a huge amount of time doing it.  When I first
started out, I would sometimes login to Clickbank several
times a day just to see the numbers growing!  Remember,
looking at your sales won't make them increase - a watched
pot never boils (or was it a kettle?).  Whatever, check
your sales stats once a day.  Nowadays I tot up my sales
every morning for the previous day and that's it.  Takes me
about ten minutes but if I were doing this five times a day
I would manage to waste nearly an hour!!

2.  Same goes for your web stats - don't be checking to see
how many visitors you have had to your site in the past
hour, it won't increase your sales.  Once your site gets to
a fairly constant level of visitors each day, I really
don't see much need to check your web stats any more
regularly than once a month (unless sales start dropping
off, in which case you might need to investigate the
reasons).

3.  One of the biggest timewasters for me and many of my
colleagues is forums.  Forums can be invaluable sources of
free advice and if you find a good one - like mine :-) -
they are great places to 'hang out' with your online
friends.  However, if you do find a good forum, it is all
too easy to spend half the day browsing through posts and
chewing the fat with other forum members.  This is nice to
do from time to time but it won't pay the bills.
Therefore, try and limit your visits to forums to one or
two a day. Spend fifteen or twenty minutes catching up with
what is going on and then get back to work.

4.  Don't start a new project until you have finished the
current one.  I know how distracting the Internet can be
and I know how great ideas can come along just when you are
in the middle of doing something else.  If that happens,
write the idea down and come back to it later.  If you just
jump from one idea to the next without finishing anything,
you will never get anywhere.  On a similar note, don't try
and work on several projects at once - stick to one thing
at a time - get one website/eBook/auction listing/whatever
completed before moving on.  Starting and stopping projects
is not an efficient way of working and if you run your
business in this way it will ultimately take you more time
to complete whatever it is you are doing.

5.  Most online marketers work from home and that will
often mean that there are distractions around you in the
form of family or friends that drop in for a cup of tea
simply because they know you will be at home.  You need to
be strict with both friends and family and politely explain
that if you are at your computer, then you are at work.  If
you had a 'proper' job, you wouldn't be stopping every five
minutes for a tea and a chat so why do it when you are
trying to run your own business?

6.  Resist the desire to revamp your websites every month.
I know how tempting it can be to give your site a brand new
design - you soon get bored of the sight of your site (if
you see what I mean) if you are looking at it everyday.
Just remember that most of your customers won't be looking
at your site everyday and therefore they won't be bored.
There was a time when I would re-design my sites every
couple of months (mind you, back then they needed it!) but
now that my sales have reached a consistent level and I
know that the sites do what they are supposed to, I rarely
give them a complete makeover.  If they ain't broke, why
try to fix them?  Note that I am not talking about updating
content here - adding new content to sites is key and
should be part of your normal business practice but there
is no need to change your logo or the site layout every
couple of weeks.

7.  Work smart and don't try to do everything yourself.
Many of the tasks that an Internet marketer has to do can
be done by someone else - programming, web design,
copywriting, even writing an entire book.  Utilize the
services of freelancers on sites such as www.eLance.com and
www.Scriptlance.com  You will often be very surprised at
how little it costs to hire someone and it could be far
more efficient (both in time and money) to pay someone else
to do a job rather than doing it yourself.

Hope that helps and remember, TIME IS MONEY - YOUR MONEY!


About the Author:

Richard Grady has been helping ordinary people earn online
since 1998. He writes a free newsletter which is published
every two weeks. To subscribe (and claim your free gifts),
visit: http://www.thetraderonline.com/newsletter.html

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How to Write Effective Web Copy
by Herman Drost

Writing effective web copy begins with an understanding of
what the goals of your web site are. Are you trying to get
your visitors to purchase something or have them sign up
for your newsletter? Remember you are trying to get someone
you can't see and have never met take a step towards
building a relationship with you or your company.

1. Create a customer profile - try to find out what are the
needs and desires of your visitors. Here are some examples
of questions you could ask:

Are they young, middle aged or senior?
Are they primarily male or female?
Are they financially secure or budget-minded?
What gets him or her excited?
What are his or her most pressing concerns?

Try to brainstorm a list of topics that might interest your
target audience.

2. Create a Unique Selling Position (USP) - This is a
statement of 2-3 sentences that explains why you are
different from everybody else. This is the unique factor
that sets you apart from your competition. Make this the
first thing your visitor sees when they arrive on your home
page.

3. Focus on benefits - most web users want to find the
information about the product or service they need as fast
as possible. If they land on your site, they want to know
how they will benefit from buying your product or
subscribing to your ezine. You will need to answer that
question as clearly and concisely as possible or you will
lose that visitor.

4. Use the inverted pyramid style - provide a summary of
your information by clearly communicating the direction of
your discussion. Use informative headings and subheadings
with a paragraph of 4 to 5 lines that supports them. You
only have a few seconds to grab your visitors attention.
Most will simply scan for the information they are seeking.

Use bulleted or numbered lists, boldface or colored font
to emphasize the points you wish to make. Include links
at the end of your paragraph (or within the text) to direct
visitors to other pages of your site for more in-depth
information.

5. Write in an informal or personal style - write in a
unique way that differentiates you from other small
businesses in a similar business or niche. It doesn't have
to be elaborate or super-creative. You simply provide a
style that gets the attention of your visitors.

6. Keep your sentences simple - you are not writing to
impress. You are writing to communicate. You want to
pre-sell your product or service, therefore write as if you
are talking to a 13 year old.

Don't use large words but opt for strong verbs over weak
ones. Use the active voice instead of a passive one. i.e.
Instead of "a good score was achieved by the team".say "the
team scored a season high". Speak "to" but not "at" your
visitor. Keep your sentences short and snappy.

7. Include searchable keywords - use targeted keywords in
your web copy that will allow the search engines to find your
site. Include these keywords in your meta tags, links and
file names also.

8. Eliminate the fluff - don't waffle on in your writing.
You will only bore your visitors and they will click
elsewhere. Try to remove filler sentences that contain
phrases like "for those of you" and "all of you".

9. Proof read your web copy - errors in your web copy give
the impression of being unprofessional or sloppy. Read the
copy aloud to yourself or get someone else to proof read
it. Often they will find more errors because they are more
objective.

Use the spell checker but don't rely on it. Often it
doesn't pick up all incorrectly spelt words. Print a
copy of your content. It's easier to find grammatical or
spelling errors on a hard copy.

10. Take a break - revise your web copy after taking a
break from it for several hours or a few days. This allows
you to see it from a different viewpoint. You may find a
better way to say something to further improve your copy.

11. Use images sparingly - images should only be used if
they relate and support your web content. If not, they will
only distract the visitor from reading your web copy. Too
many images will slow down the time it takes for your
visitor to load your site in their browser.

12. Use effective navigation - your navigation bar should
help visitors easily find the main sections of your site.
Read: "How to Create an Effective Web Site Navigation
Structure" (http://www.isitebuild.com/navigation)

Writing effective web copy is the key to converting visitors
into buyers. Getting 1000s of visitors to your web site doesn't
guarantee sales. Reading your web copy should pre-sell your
product with the words you use. Once you achieve this, your
web site will become very profitable.
******************************************************************
Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com..Affordable
Web Site Design and Web Hosting.
Pick up your copy of the 159 page ebook TODAY titled:
"Make Your Content Pre Sell" by going to the link below:
http://mycps.sitesell.com/webselling83.html
******************************************************************

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