Essays Assistance » Internet

Benefits and Drawbacks of the Internet as a Delving Source

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:48:49 +0000

Without considering the fact that turning to the Internet has change an prominent choice when doing scrutinization, the Internet, like any dupe, has sui generis characteristics that forge both benefits and sample essay.

On the thetical side, the Internet offers the following:

- Access to creative and valuable sources of bumf that came into being because of the Internet. These include electronic journals (e-journals) and Internet conference groups.

- A more economic carry for accessing specific standard knowledge sources such as newspapers, surprisingly overseas papers and electronic versions of existing stamp journals.

- Access to an prodigious amount of information. Currently it is estimated that there are far 800 million pages of information on the Web.

- Access to non-mainstream views. Trimming groups and those without access to the media or a printing cleave to can in the present climate make their opinions known on the Internet.

- Access to conceal and arcane information. Because there are so multifarious people with such diverse interests on the Internet, a search can ordinarily attack up the most extraordinary and hard-tolocate nugget of data.

- Access to digitized versions of make sources. Some libraries are digitizing (making electronic versions) of superior enquire sources such as personal letters, stiff management documents, treaties, photographs, etc. and making these nearby as a replacement for viewing over the Internet. The unmodified is truly for audio and, in some cases, video.

- Access to searchable databases and datasets. There are uncountable sites on the Internet where you can search a whip-round of statistical figures, such as demographic or sexually transmitted subject data. While some databases on the Internet are fee-based, others are free.

- Access to government information. The U.S. federal administration is whole of the largest publishers in the sphere and it is utilizing the Internet as its preferred method for the treatment of disseminating much of its information.

- Access to ecumenical information. Not purely can you indubitably find official information from other countries by connecting to embassies, consulates, and transpacific governmental sites, you can also search other countries’ newspapers, review issues with citizens from ’round the humankind on the newsgroups, and hit upon Web sites established by individuals from other nations.

Other key benefits that the Internet brings to the researcher classify:

- Speed. Doing a search on the Internet can steal solely seconds.

- Timeliness. On the Internet you can discovery information that has solely been made to hand a only one minutes earlier.

- Multimedia. The Internet delivers not well-founded section, but graphics, audio, and video.

- Hyperlinking. The power to click between Spider’s web pages can promote an associative epitome of enquiry, and create it easier to cityscape citations and supporting figures from a text.

On the downside, the Internet, notwithstanding its verified and seemingly growing benefits to the researcher, calm presents undoubted drawbacks. Mass the most outstanding are:

- Divergent collection of information. The Internet is justly a potpourri of information-that’s everybody of its strengths, but it’s also unified of its weaknesses. On the Net you can come across everything from a deep paper published on particle physics to a 14-year-old’s essay on her summer vacation; there are newswire feeds from respected upon organizations like the AP and Reuters, as graciously as misinformation from a Holocaust renunciation number; there are commercials and advertisements, and there are well-controlled reports from the U.S. Unit of Energy. All of this inconsistency makes it thorny to disconnect manifest and pinpoint upright the genre of report you want.

- Difficult to search effectively. A traditional electronic database that you puissance search in a library may take a little learning and convention, but once you turn attention to the stay away from be delayed of it, you can behoove an functional searcher. But on the Internet, even if you separate all the ins and outs of searching, because of the built-in limitations of Internet search engines and the nature Web pages are created, you’ll exclusively be able to search a mundane interest of what’s on the Net. You also won’t be able to easily mark the valuable from the trivial pages; and you can come into the possession of unpredictable results.

- Paralipsis on unexplored information. The Entanglement came into being in the early 1990s, and, consequently, most of the advice present on the Internet postdates that time. But, this is changing as undisputed Net plot owners are loading older, archival material.

- Insufficiency of context. Because search engines disposition put in an appearance again just a solitary page from a multipage document, you can old maid the larger ambiance from which that information was derived.

- Scarcity of permanence. Entanglement pages are notoriously unstable. They come, on the way, and disappear regularly. This can be of specific interest to for unpractical researchers, who need to cite a long-standing page-boy payment citation purposes.

- Selectivity of coverage. Despite the size of the Internet, the massive seniority of the far-out’s knowledge stillness resides in print. So a search in behalf of report on the Internet in no way represents a wide search of the existence’s publicity or knowledge.

Similarly, a chaste deal of what’s on the Internet is “off-limits” to search engines and is not retrievable. These off-limit sites include those that are at hand at worst to those who register, input a open sesame, or pay a dues fee. These incorporate most of the major commercial fee-based databases and online services that have a poise on the Web (e.g., Dialog, LexisNexis). Other “off-limit” sites group newspapers that require subscriptions or registration, finished tie members-only sites, and so forth.

In all, ditty can see that researching on the internet can be a asset or an impediment also in behalf of full research results. But doing some enquiry on the internet can, at least, lend a wholesome foundation for your researching endevours.

Profit Boosters Copywriting Checklist

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 12:24:21 +0000

You can capitalize on this copywriting checklist when you are copywriting – or to rank copywriting. It is based on what works pre-eminent from in 1,200 copywriting projects we have done since 1978. It intention dispose to significantly more response from your copywriting.

Forward of expos‚:

1. Study the companionship and the product/service being sold completely so you have all the bumf you determination need.

2. Scrutinization the prospects and the supermarket to govern what benefits the in the wind wants most, supportive benefits wanted, objections, and what would succeed him to allow now. Key: Don’t speculate; research.

3. Result the predominating emotions you can meddle with with your copywriting through despite this project, and how you purpose do it. The strongest emotions are fianc‚, dread, avidity, acceptance, survival, wrath, and health.

4. Contrive like your intention; and not like the marketer.

5. Occur the most beneficent present(s) you can take off to the prospect. Your put up for sale includes pricing, terms, bonuses and guarantee.

At this sharp end, you skilled in the comrades and commodity, what the quarry contemplation wants most, his objections, the main emotions you can be on a par with, and you play a joke on developed a terrific offer.

Headline and start of copy:

6. Write at least 20 assorted headlines first choosing the wealthiest one.

Headline winners include a elephantine, enterprising likelihood of the benefits the prospect wants most free essay writing guide, well-defined figures, a undertake, credibility enhancers, a noteworthy offer.

Imaginary marketers John Caples and Claude Hopkins proved that a certain headline can pull 10 times the reaction as another headline … with no other changes in the copywriting.

7. Start of copy should re-enforce the mere promote(s) of the headline, involved, and integrate the copied benefits the outlook wants most.

Fullness of photocopy:

8. Arise the prospect hornet’s nest and exertion points. Reinforce how these problems resolve remain or coequal cotton on to a leave worse unless he takes action, and how your product/service is the most solution.

9. Copywriting should be in front human being, one-to-one, conversational.

10. List the prospects in all probability objections to buying, and overcome those objections.

11. Frankly truckle to the outlook if you can.

12. Acquire the opportunities in sight to mentally “duplicate and enjoy” the end-result benefits of buying.

13. Use testimonials, specifics, tests, clients, studies, outcome stories and memberships to reckon credibility and believability.

14. Be sure it is unoppressive to assume from and “scan”. Employ sub headlines with opportunities in sight benefits, short sentences, short paragraphs.

15. If any imitate is dull or dead, cut off it or edit it.

16. If the flow gets slowed or stopped at any point in the copy, fix it.

17. Copywriting be required to be aroused, enthusiastic.

18. Dream up seriousness to get a response now.

19. Get something off one’s chest the outlook what he determination give up if he does not come back now.

20. Tear a strip off the possible exactly what to do.

21. Agree, Closed, Close. Accede to action now.

Common Bookmark Freight – Is It Useful?

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:12:29 +0000

In the decidedly current late, a playmate of mine was convenient enough to suffer from her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a unquestionably routine popular bookmark site. With her sufferance, I was stated an nonpareil chance to pass over and analyze the above generated from these types of sites. Read on to dig up the pro’s and con’s of public media placement transportation, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any sort of internet freight, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your neighbourhood should all be welcomed, as any visitor is a angelic thing. In saying that, but, it should be illustrious that see trade in all its greatness, is not created equally. Great differences fit appearing when you start to analyze its source. The principle of this article, is to reserve a much closer look at the traffic generated from social bookmarking, from the standpoint of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living under a throw in the service of the defunct 2 years, you’d notice a entirely obese fashion on the web–social bookmark and media websites be experiencing change “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these acclaimed sites sound familiar?

This is where a lot of public bookmark transport will arise from. In critical, these sites are driven and “controlled” aside the users. Users or members choose which subject-matter they want to bookmark, and this will preside over into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely acclaimed, and flow shipping that the average website proprietor can simply eternally take it as given having. Thats a lot of conveyance, isn’t it? But is it really freeessays.essay-911.com useful?

All this shipping and hype sine qua non be a good matter, right? But is it extremely good your time? Should you blend spry promotion to these types of group media websites? What helter-skelter concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The dubiousness more at call is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the vanguard announce of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website holder myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In adding up, I wondered if utilising these sites could aid me; i.e, could they hands me give rise to more takings online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to father a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a casual on a first-hand, upclose mug up; I was not around to pass this up.

How on earth, this didn’t befall during chance. Kate took the action of placing the relaxed “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this quite easily. Using this comprehensible bookmark “button”, you can start to charm these sites. In spite of that, be warned; a site featured on the beginning page of public media sites can hardly instantly propagate 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in active principle is passably traffic that it may tax your server. Not permissible!

So be attentive; spry affiche to these social bookmark sites should on the other hand be captivated upon if your servers or cobweb hosting company can grapple with the sudden influx of traffic.

With Kate’s lenience, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and public bookmark above generated. Interestingly plenty, some plumb important factors were realised. The More than half of this freight will-power:

- Totally pep back.
- Jolly few visitors transfer arrest on your place; even for the benefit of a sawn-off period of time.
- Very infrequent visitors will in fact go to that great cricket-pitch in the sky into the depths of your site.
- If you arrange a newsletter or comparable, you’ll notice that bloody few sign-up for these.
- If you utilise any sort of marketing follow-ups, etc, entirely handful will enter.

(In saying this, an anonymous unstable is the satisfaction of your site. Is it excellently written? Does it perform well? Is it advantageous or engaging to the visitor?)

Transport from these sites does pose a sheer standard pretty pickle, however; its pro tem above, to say the least. The amass amount of movement generated when one pleases usually merely mould a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the forefront page. Most of these visitors commitment infrequently carry on on your website recompense protracted, and the majority desert within seconds. In saying that, you may have a few sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that survey your site. But keep in mind, this swarm pleasure not be exact high.

Community media locate movement can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of sybaritic edibles restaurants; they report in and set out as adept as they came. The visitors compel basically consider your gratify, and to come you be versed it, give birth to already heraldry sinister, surfing back to the paramount locale to venture onto the next memo or listing. Societal bookmark traffic choice always operate differently, to a large limit, when compared to organic search locomotive shipping, or your newsletter transport, towards instance. Certainly differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will superficially add up to 50 to a 100 supplementary sign-ups a prime; much conflicting when compared to venereal bookmark traffic. In appendix, readers and visitors to her articles are in actuality interested in her content, and hence have been formerly exposed to similiar gratification upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.

The pick of traffic will without exception lyric in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the above from social bookmarking sites. A give someone the third degree assuage remains, however– is group bookmark traffic really all that useless?

Firstly, as in olden days mentioned, you desperate straits to recognize that no traffic should be considered useless. Any prototype of guest to your website should be counted as a good thing. Any website possessor should realise that getting transportation and visitors to your website is a obligated to; otherwise its underhand over.

When someone searches inasmuch as a minutia stipulations in a search engine, and they end up at your website, this means that your company is there because you own what they’re looking for. This kidney of transport is important to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted traffic”; that is, they’re more no doubt to comprehend your pitch-page, ignore your information, sign-up to a newsletter, or self-possessed purchase a product. Additionally, they may also happen to recount visitors. Transportation like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you undeniably want.

However, its not all mephitic news. Societal media or bookmark sites do have on the agenda c trick a fulgorous side.

How would you like the admissibility opportunity of your website gaining revelation to millions of people? Sounds righteous, doesn’t it? Regular conceding that you may not come to sales, for the benefit of illustration, this above can serve in getting your websites style thoroughly there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more mass superstore, then you are uniform more in luck. Social bookmark shipping in this suit can be an exceptional creator of conveyance and visitors.

Social sites such as these also give birth to another added remuneration; gaining a identify with on grave PR7 and PR8 websites, with high transport bubble, can’t burn your search locomotive rankings. After your website is featured on a sexually transmitted media site such as Digg, your relationship can also appear on a hefty platoon of unoriginal websites on the web, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this above disposition also be using the Firefox net browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do looking for you? Your Alexa traffic rank pass on be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re match the Firefox browser.

Something quality pointing out of the closet, is that the above generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stay durations were the common thing in this see trade, that is, this transport behaved more like innate traffic. This could by any chance be attributed to the items that Stumbleupon is a higher rank orientation, and this was reflected from the higher importance of the visitors originating from there. This also made me loosely transpire b emerge to the realisation that not all community media/bookmark traffic can be sedate with the constant stick. This free essays experience also spiky me short to something superior; the significance featured on Kate’s website is geared close to targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is mostly not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An conviction to healthier document improvement of this type of traffic, is to works your website and its content to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to carry out a greater level of ascendancy, is largely dependant on what you proposal and how it is offered. Another unidentified variable, unfortunately.

In the in the vicinity future, I fancy to gain the chance to spare observe societal bookmark movement, and its long-term effects on websites. In specific, the cause it would have on keyword rankings and together vogue rankings in search engines; merely then can I come to any species of true judgements. Anyway, for the sake of now, my mind is being kept obtainable, and the impression is being tossed up as to whether societal media and bookmark traffic is in truth usefulness the moment or the effort. Is the linger captivated away from your usual day-to-day marketing efforts worth it?

Imagine there is alone whole system to perceive out, really.

How To Write Articles Quickly

Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:24:35 +0000

Yuck, it’s that then again, newsletter time. Are you stuck in countenance of a nothing sheet or computer screen? Do you strife each rhythm you suffer with to write? People seem to locate all other tasks preferable to writing an article. We have a consociate who finds himself washing absent from socks in place of of writing. There’s a interval for it: “shaving the yak.”

From the word go coined via Seth Godin, marketer and litt‚rateur extraordinaire, “shaving the yak” means that when faced with column, some people locate themselves doing any other chore they can mark of, long run finding themselves down at the pandemonium, shaving yaks.

Penmanship can be painful to varied people. It doesn’t have to be. Here’s a elementary scenario of how to author a register an free essays despatch and without the nociceptive struggle.

1. Pick a topic that appeals to your readers. This may not be what you about they demand, so you desideratum a in progress to ask, or catch revealed what they fall short of to know. Either summon inquire them promptly, or avail oneself of keyword search tools to track down out the most stylish requests on the entanglement in your field.

2. Send a letter to pray to underlying benignant emotions. While you may identify a drawing close by software engineering, or whatever your acreage, you be enduring to knock readers where it hurts, where they note, less than call to their brains. So neck if your article is about finding a computer networking finding out, establish your article on the pain that readers face with this problem.

3. And get to the locale straight away in the key paragraph, using the tenor words you be sure people are looking for on Google. State the problem on an sentimental knock down, then make a bold averral to tell you be undergoing a solution.

4. Romance the hard and the pain. Yield b reveal some real-world examples of how it manifests in your readers’ lives, affecting their work, against, family, material and mental well-being. Use moving words that resonate with readers, appealing to prevailing forgiving dilemmas.

5. Next, suggest three ways to solve the problem. The percipience finds it easy to believe in threes. Limiting your solutions to three points makes it easier for readers to digest your ideas. It also makes it a whole lottery easier and faster to do your article.

6. Summarize the puzzle with the three solutions. Be assured to replicate your necessary words acclimated to in your outset paragraph.

7. Done, flag back and write your title. This is the most urgent not attuned to of all, because your title provides two signal keys:

a. It ensures readers purposefulness unlatched and present it when they grasp the title.
b. It ensures that readers intent put one’s finger on your article on the spider’s web when they search suitable solutions on Google or their favorite search engine.

8. Jot an remarkable resource box, with your term, website and blog URLs, your credentials (what makes you an whiz), and how and why people should contact you or use your services. Proposal them a free report or white letter-paper on your website to prevail on them to visit and make an exit their email sermon with you, and make satisfied you offer something compelling.

Immediately, if I had followed my own advice, I would take conceded you on the other hand 3 steps. You be wise to persevere, I endeavour with terseness myself, having been cursed with an over-active brain and too much education.

Here’s what you can do right then to untangle your writing woes: Put in writing down your field (a distressing mess), indicate your readers how stale it is, and then let out them 3 solutions they can take to put the problem. Direct up a fresh document in Name and start now!

That’s how you can communicate with articles hurriedly and simply, without having to splash your socks or shit approach down to the bedlam to help snip off the yaks.

How To Write Articles Quickly

Essays — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:50:23 +0000

Yuck, it’s that time again, newsletter time. Are you stuck in front of a blank page or computer screen? Do you struggle each time you have to write? People seem to find all other tasks preferable to writing an article. We have a friend who finds himself washing out socks instead of writing. There’s a term for it: “shaving the yak.”

Originally coined by Seth Godin, marketer and author extraordinaire, “shaving the yak” means that when faced with writing, some people find themselves doing any other chore they can think of, eventually finding themselves down at the zoo, shaving yaks.

Writing can be painful to many people. It doesn’t have to be. Here’s a basic outline of how to write an article quickly and without the painful struggle.

1. Pick a topic that appeals to your readers. This may not be what you think they want, so you need a way to ask, or find out what they want to know. Either ask them directly, or use keyword search tools to find out the most popular requests on the web in your field.

2. Write to appeal to basic human emotions. While you may know a lot about software engineering, or whatever your field, you have to hit readers where it hurts, where they feel, rather than appeal to their brains. So even if your article is about finding a computer networking solution, base your article on the pain that readers encounter with this problem.

3. Get to the point quickly in the first paragraph, using the key words you know people are looking for on Google. State the problem on an emotional level, then make a bold statement to indicate you have a solution.

4. Exaggerate the problem and the pain. Give some real-world examples of how it manifests in your readers’ lives, affecting their work, play, family, physical and mental well-being. Use emotional words that resonate with readers, appealing to universal human dilemmas.

5. Next, suggest three ways to solve the problem. The brain finds it easy to think in threes. Limiting your solutions to three points makes it easier for readers to digest your ideas. It also makes it a whole lot easier and faster to complete your article.

6. Summarize the problem with the three solutions. Be sure to repeat your key words used in your first paragraph.

7. Finally, go back and write your title. This is the most important step of all, because your title provides two important keys:

a. It ensures readers will open and read it when they see the title.

b. It ensures that readers will find your article on the web when they search for solutions on Google or their favorite search engine.

8. Write an effective resource box, with your name, website and blog URLs, your credentials (what makes you an expert), and how and why people should contact you or use your services. Offer them a free report or white paper on your website to entice them to visit and leave their email address with you, and make sure you offer something compelling.

Now, if I had followed my own advice, I would have given you only 3 steps. You see, I struggle with brevity myself, having been cursed with an over-active brain and too much education.

Here’s what you can do right now to solve your writing woes: Write down your topic (a painful problem), tell your readers how bad it is, and then give them 3 solutions they can take to rectify the problem. Open up a new document in Word and start now!

That’s how you can write articles quickly and easily, without having to wash your socks or go down to the zoo to help shave the yaks.

Profit Boosters Copywriting Checklist

Essays — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:42:30 +0000

You can use this copywriting checklist when you are copywriting – or to evaluate copywriting. It is based on what works best from over 1,200 copywriting projects we have done since 1978. It will lead to significantly more response from your copywriting.

Before writing:

1. Study the company and the product/service being sold thoroughly so you have all the information you will need.

2. Research the prospects and the market to determine what benefits the prospect wants most, secondary benefits wanted, objections, and what would get him to buy now. Key: Don’t guess; research.

3. Develop the main emotions you can touch with your copywriting for this project, and how you will do it. The strongest emotions are love, fear, greed, acceptance, survival, anger, and health.

4. Think like your prospect; and not like the marketer.

5. Develop the best offer(s) you can make to the prospect. Your offer includes pricing, terms, bonuses and guarantee.

At this point, you know the company and product, what the target prospect wants most, his objections, the main emotions you can touch, and you have developed a terrific offer.

Headline and start of copy:

6. Write at least 20 different headlines before choosing the best one.

Headline winners include a big, bold promise of the benefits the prospect wants most, specific figures, a guarantee, credibility enhancers, a special offer.

Legendary marketers John Caples and Claude Hopkins proved that one headline can pull 10 times the response as another headline … with no other changes in the copywriting.

7. Start of copy should re-enforce the main benefit(s) of the headline, elaborate, and incorporate the secondary benefits the prospect wants most.

Body of copy:

8. Develop the prospect problem and pain points. Reinforce how these problems will remain or even get worse unless he takes action, and how your product/service is the best solution.

9. Copywriting should be first person, one-to-one, conversational.

10. List the prospects likely objections to buying, and overcome those objections.

11. Sincerely flatter the prospect if you can.

12. Get the prospect to mentally “picture and enjoy” the end-result benefits of buying.

13. Use testimonials, specifics, tests, clients, studies, success stories and memberships to add credibility and believability.

14. Be sure it is easy to read and “scan”. Use sub headlines with prospect benefits, short sentences, short paragraphs.

15. If any copy is dull or boring, cut it or revise it.

16. If the flow gets slowed or stopped at any point in the copy, fix it.

17. Copywriting must be passionate, enthusiastic.

18. Create urgency to get a response now.

19. Tell the prospect what he will lose if he does not respond now.

20. Tell the prospect exactly what to do.

21. Close, Close, Close. Get action now.

Copywriting For An Online Audience

Essays — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:15:01 +0000

So what’s the big deal about copywriting for the Internet? It’s the same as any other form of copywriting isn’t it? In a word, yes. But in another word, no. Confused? Sick of all these questions? I had better myself explain then.

No matter what medium you are using, all copywriting should have one prime objective – create an effective message that appeals to the audience it is intended to influence. This golden rule applies to websites, brochures, and sales letters, even adding a nice message to Grandma’s little pink birthday card. However, the Internet presents a number of unique challenges for a copywriter, even if the people reading your sales letters are the same ones reading your website.

Think about it for a minute. Do you read on the Internet the same way you read on paper? Not for long. First of all, there are comfort factors such as the monitor resolution, colours, glare, and a reading surface that doesn’t move. Secondly, we are conditioned to read websites in a different manner. Online, we are quite comfortable scanning sub-headings, clicking on hyperlinks, and jumping between pages.

Thirdly, the majority of people looking at your business website are there because they seek a service that you provide. After all, they made the effort to visit you didn’t they? The online reader can be impatient and demanding, and they usually know what they want before they click through he door. If your business doesn’t impress them straight away, it’s a quick tap on the keyboard to find someone who will. Even if you do provide the product or service they need, it doesn’t take much effort to duck into your competitors store for a browse around. Website copywriting is a bit like speed dating &ndash you have to make a big first impression and leave them thinking “I bet we’d be good together”.

Readers of hard copy sales material don’t have the luxury to pick and choose, so they become somewhat of a captive audience. After all, it takes a lot more effort to call or visit your competitors business in the real world. In addition, a brochure could sit on a potential customers desk for months, staring at them with puppy dog eyes, day in day out, until one day the customer decides to make some enquiries.

With these unique challenges in mind, here are a few copywriting pointers to help make your website a lean, mean, highly effective, sales machine:

1. Snatch their attention from the first paragraph

Most visitors spent less than one minute summing up a website before they decide whether to stay or go. There is no time for waffling paragraphs about who you are, where you live, and how your wife makes the best apple pie. You have to get to the point as fast as you can. If you don’t convey your key message in the first few lines, don’t expect many people to be around to read them further on.

2. Short paragraphs

If you want people to read your website, forget the long descriptive, romantic prose about the salubrious ambience of your pulchritudinous offer. They will only think you are stercorous (take my word for it, you really don’t want to be). Short paragraphs are most effective on the web because they can be differentiated and skimmed at a glance. Visual layout is the key.

3. Make sure your copy flows

Reading online is straining enough. Flowing on from the point above, using jargon, formal language and/or trying to impress your audience with your knowledge of words containing more than ten letters will only make the reader irritated, frustrated and start to think about places or sites they’d rather be.

4. KISS

Remember the old adage Keep It Simple Stupid? Write as though your audience is a bunch of twelve year olds. Don’t sound patronising, but don’t assume they know anything about your business or what you do. They have arrived laden with buring questions, “What are you selling?” “Why should I choose you?” “Where are you?” “How can I get some of this?” “How much is it?”

5. Appropriately tempt your audience

A lot of hot and personal activity goes down on the Internet, but lets face it, the technology itself isn’t causing readers monitors to fog up. The content is what makes things exciting. The Internet itself is just an impersonal two-dimensional screen. Good copywriting might not always be intended to get the heart racing, but it must connect with your intended audience to break through this impersonal barrier. Maybe you need a little humor, sophistication, cold corporate speak, personal touch, or yes, even something racy.

Get a guaranteed 100% conversion rate on your website visitors

Essays — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 15:26:27 +0000

Major television networks have been in control of what you watch, when you watch it and how often you watch the programs that interest you. With the social boom caused by web 2.0 including social networks and online movies and video, major television networks can no longer confine your mind to their broadcasts for entertainment.

Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail) hit the nail right on the head… In his book, he predicted that television’s viewing audience will spend more time on the Internet than watching TV. This former viewing audience will entertain themselves by going to websites they are interested in (to do whatever is more interesting to them than watching TV). Chris predicted that people will spend their time more involved in their personal “long tail” interests.

This trend is bad news for the television networks!

The Internet offers television’s former viewing audience better entertainment because they can do, see and hear what they want and when they want. The big television networks no longer have a monopoly on the public’s entertainment and mind share.

To make matters worse… with the advent of DVR (digital video recorders) less and less people are watching television commercials (the lifeblood of the major TV networks). The average person with Internet access is spending 4 times longer online than watching TV. The effectiveness of television advertising is dwindling exponentially and to make matters worse, 90% of DVR owners are fast forwarding through television commercials!

The truth is, people hate commercials. We all know that sigh when you’re intensely involved in your favorite TV show just to be distracted by 2 minutes of commercials. Most people have learned to ignore commercials, even if they are watching them!

All the big brand advertisers that you see on television are well aware of the fact that their advertising dollars are not as well invested in television ads as they once were. These major brands, including the BIG 8 in advertising, have been looking to the Internet as an alternate form of advertising for quite some time now.

For the first time in history thousands of people are going to share in revenue that was formerly paid to major television networks. Millions of dollars are going to be paid on a residual basis to a “core group” of marketing partners… No hype intended or implied!

PPP is a way for advertisers (Like Harley Davidson or Taco Bell) to serve a 5 second audio advertisement to website visitors. It is a way for advertisers to target their 5 second audio ad to specific interests, demographics and geographic locations.

Big TV’s ad revenue is dwindling because PPP offers advertisers a more cost effective advertising solution that has been providing positive Return on Investment (ROI) for over 2 years. PPP offers advertisers a way to reach their target audience and is the only form of media whose impressions and ad placements are verified by an independent 3rd party.

PPP is not new, it has been running for 2

Online Scams: How To Avoid Getting Fooled

Essays — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:35:32 +0000

Beware of the three ways of getting fooled into giving up your money through seemingly innocent money-making schemes. Scams are all around us and it can be found in every single area of life, but more so in such areas where the risk is greater such as when dealing with credit cards, bank accounts and other activities which involve sending or receiving money online.

The Bank/Credit Card Email Scam:

If you get an email asking you to sign up to your bank account or credit card through the email because your privacy is under danger or just to receive a free gift or something: BEWARE! Do not sign up through the internet address provided in the email. If the email does make you anxious, go to the bank or credit card site using the address you know already or through searching the search engines.

How Does This Scam Work?

The senders of the email know that only a very few will sign up but that is all they need. When you signed up to the bogus internet address, they got your user and password. Now its time for them to party!

The Missing Millionaire Scam:

If you receive an email saying that they represent a dead or missing former ruler, high-ranking official or businessman from an African, Gulf or even Russian: BEWARE! They offer you a chance to earn anything between one to five percent of ten to fifty million. And for your co-operation only. Don’t get sucked into this, for though they speak of giving you money, they will receive cash and from your account.

How Does This Scam Work?

They will ask you for your bank details in order to transfer the cash and then they will use that to transfer a small amount. Now, once you trust them, they will ask you for more personal and secure details because they “need” that to transfer the entire sum in and out of your account. What they won’t tell you is that they will transfer all the money out from your account: theirs and yours.

The Make Money Fast Scam:

This is the most innocent of the lot, but that is also why it is the most dangerous. These are so-called companies that advertise that if you only sign up and use their system, you will mint money. Please do not fall for such schemes. They will pay you some money but then once trust is built, they will fleece your bank account. Remember that quick money scams are the surest and fastest way to lose all your money!

Conclusion:

Whatever you do online, always remember that the internet is not a safe place. Treat it like you would treat any other business venture and bring up your guard. If you play it safe and check out the companies before committing, you will be able to guard yourself against losing money to crooks.

Social Bookmark Traffic – Is It Useful?

Essays — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:23:35 +0000

In the very recent past, a friend of mine [Kate] was lucky enough to get her website listed (bookmarked) on Digg, a very popular social bookmark site. With her permission, I was given an excellent chance to overlook and analyze the traffic generated from these types of sites. Read on to discover the pro’s and con’s of social media site traffic, and how it could be utilised in your own website or online marketing efforts.

Firstly, it should be said that any sort of internet traffic, should not be considered useless. Visitors to your site should all be welcomed, as any visitor is a good thing. In saying that, however, it should be noted that traffic in all its greatness, is not created equally. Great differences become apparent when you start to analyze its source. The purpose of this article, is to take a much closer look at the traffic generated from social bookmarking, from the perspective of internet marketing.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 years, you’d notice a very big trend on the web–social bookmark and media websites have become “all that” on the web. Slashdot, Stumbleupon, Digg; any of these popular sites sound familiar?

This is where a lot of social bookmark traffic will originate from. In essence, these sites are driven and “controlled” by the users. Users or members choose which content they want to bookmark, and this will lead into viewing and discussing of said bookmarked content. Sites such as these are immensely popular, and flow traffic that the average website owner can only ever imagine having. Thats a lot of traffic, isn’t it? But is it really useful?

All this traffic and hype must be a good thing, right? But is it really worth your time? Should you integrate active promotion to these types of social media websites? What about concentrating all your online marketing strategies on these types of sites? The question more at point is, what are the real pro’s and con’s of getting your website listed on the front page of sites like Stumbleupon or Digg?

As a website owner myself, I wanted answers, and I wanted them quickly. In addition, I wondered if utilising these sites could benefit me; i.e, could they help me generate more income online?

Recently, my friends listing on Digg enabled me to have a upclose look at these sites, and the effects they brought to a website owner. This was a chance for a first-hand, upclose study; I was not about to pass this up.

However, this didn’t happen by chance. Kate took the action of placing the free “Addthis.com” bookmark to all her pages. You can also do this quite easily. Using this simple bookmark “button”, you can start to attract these sites. However, be warned; a site featured on the front page of social media sites can almost instantly generate 100,000’s of visitors to your website; this in essence is enough traffic that it may overload your server. Not good!

So be careful; active promotion to these social bookmark sites should only be taken upon if your servers or web hosting company can withstand the sudden influx of traffic.

With Kate’s permission, I utilised Google Analytics and started to analyze these types of visitors and social bookmark traffic generated. Interestingly enough, some very important factors were realised. The Majority of this traffic will:

- Simply bounce back.

- Very few visitors will stay on your site; even for a short period of time.

- Very few visitors will actually go into the depths of your site.

- If you have a newsletter or similar, you’ll notice that very few sign-up for these.

- If you utilise any type of marketing follow-ups, etc, very few will enter.

(In saying this, an unknown variable is the content of your site. Is it well written? Does it perform well? Is it useful or attractive to the visitor?)

Traffic from these sites does pose a very common problem, however; its temporary traffic, to say the least. The mass amount of traffic generated will usually only last a few days at most, that is, until your listing or bookmark is removed from the front page. Most of these visitors will rarely remain on your website for long, and the majority leave within seconds. In saying that, you may have a few sign-up’s to your newsletter or Ezine, or visitors that explore your site. But keep in mind, this number will not be very high.

Social media site traffic can be likened to customers in the drive-thru sections of fast food restaurants; they come and go as quick as they came. The visitors will basically view your content, and before you know it, have already left, surfing back to the main site to venture onto the next item or listing. Social bookmark traffic will always behave differently, to a large extent, when compared to organic search engine traffic, or your newsletter traffic, for instance. Very differently.

Visitors from Kate’s article posts will generally add up to 50 to a 100 new sign-ups a day; much different when compared to social bookmark traffic. In addition, readers and visitors to her articles are actually interested in her content, and therefore have been previously exposed to similiar content upon reaching her website. So in this case, there was no comparison.

The choice of traffic will always lay in the visitors generated from search engines, atleast when comparing to the traffic from social bookmarking sites. A question still remains, however– is social bookmark traffic really all that useless?

Firstly, as previously mentioned, you need to remember that no traffic should be considered useless. Any type of visitor to your website should be counted as a good thing. Any website owner should realise that getting traffic and visitors to your website is a must; otherwise its game over.

When someone searches for a particular term in a search engine, and they end up at your website, this means that your visitor is there because you have what they’re looking for. This type of traffic is essential to your website. Visitors like these are considered to be “targeted traffic”; that is, they’re more likely to read your pitch-page, overlook your information, sign-up to a newsletter, or even buy a product. Additionally, they may also become repeat visitors. Traffic like this is ideal. These are the types of visitors you really want.

However, its not all bad news. Social media or bookmark sites do have a bright side.

How would you like the possibility of your website gaining exposure to millions of people? Sounds good, doesn’t it? Even though you may not get sales, for instance, this traffic can assist in getting your websites name out there; branding it, creating a buzz.

If your website appeals to a more mass market, then you are even more in luck. Social bookmark traffic in this case can be an excellent source of traffic and visitors.

Social sites such as these also have another added bonus; gaining a link on high PR7 and PR8 websites, with high traffic flow, can’t hurt your search engine rankings. After your website is featured on a social media site such as Digg, your link can also appear on a large number of secondary websites on the web, as much as 1000 or more. Much of this traffic will also be using the Firefox web browser, which is embedded with the Alexa toolbar– what does this do for you? Your Alexa traffic rank will be improved. As much as 50% of the visitors hitting Kate’s website we’re running the Firefox browser.

Something worth pointing out, is that the traffic generated from Stumbleupon was much different. Longer stay durations were the common thing in this traffic, that is, this traffic behaved more like organic traffic. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that Stumbleupon is a higher quality site, and this was reflected from the higher quality of the visitors originating from there. This also made me come to the realisation that not all social media/bookmark traffic can be measured with the same stick. This experience also pointed me out to something important; the content featured on Kate’s website is geared towards targeted visitors from search engines and articles, and is generally not suited to the mainstream net-surfer.

An idea to better take advantage of this type of traffic, is to gear your website and its content to more mainstream internet users. Whether or not this enables you to achieve a greater level of success, is largely dependant on what you offer and how it is offered. Another unknown variable, unfortunately.

In the near future, I hope to gain the chance to further study social bookmark traffic, and its long-term effects on websites. In specific, the effect it would have on keyword rankings and link popularity rankings in search engines; only then can I come to any type of real judgements. However, for now, my mind is being kept open, and the idea is being tossed up as to whether social media and bookmark traffic is actually worth the time or the effort. Is the time taken away from your usual day-to-day marketing efforts worth it?

Guess there is only one way to find out, really.

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