Email subject line attention getters

When prospects get your e-mail marketing message, they make a quick decision, usually in a couple of seconds, to open or delete it based largely on the subject line. But given the glut of promotional e-mail today, how can you convince a busy prospect -- in just a few words -- that your message is worthy of attention?

The "4 U's" copywriting formula -- which stands for urgent, unique, ultra-specific, and useful -- can help.

Originally developed by my colleague Michael Masterson for writing more powerful headlines, the 4 U's formula works especially well with e-mail subject lines. I'll share it with you now.

According to this formula, strong subject lines are:

Urgent.

Urgency gives the reader a reason to act now instead of later. You can create a sense of urgency in your subject line by incorporating a time element. For instance, "Make $100,000 working from home this year" has a greater sense of
urgency than "Make $100,000 working from home." A sense of urgency can also be created with a time-limited special offer, such as a discount or premium if you order by a certain date.

Unique.

The powerful subject line either says something new, or if it says something the reader has heard before, says it in a new and fresh way. For example, "Why Japanese women have beautiful skin" was the subject line in an e-mail promoting a Japanese bath kit. This is different than the typical "Save 10% on Japanese Bath Kits."

Ultra-specific.

Boardroom is the absolute master of ultra-specific bullets, known as "fascinations", that tease the reader into reading further and ordering the product.

Examples: "What never to eat on an airplane," "Bill's it's okay to pay late," and "Best time to file for a tax refund." They use such fascinations in direct mail as envelope teasers and in e-mail as subject lines.

Useful.
The strong subject line appeals to the reader's self-interest by offering a benefit. In the subject line "An Invitation to Ski & Save," the benefit is saving money.

When you have written your subject line, ask yourself how strong it is in each of these 4 U's. Use a scale of 1 to 4 (1 = weak, 4 = strong) to rank it in each category. Rarely will a subject line rate a 3 or 4 on all four U's. But if your subject line doesn't rate a 3 or 4 on at least three of the U's, it's probably not as strong as it could be -- and can benefit from some rewriting.

A common mistake is to defend a weak subject line by pointing to a good response. A better way to think is as follows: If the e-mail generated a profitable response despite a weak subject line, imagine how much more money you could have made by applying the 4 U's. A software marketer wrote to tell me he had sent out a successful e-mail marketing campaign with the subject line "Free White Paper." How does this stack up against the 4 U's?

Urgent.
There is no urgency or sense of timeliness. On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest rating, "Free White Paper" is a 1.

Unique.
Not every software marketer offers a free white paper, but a lot of them do. So "Free White Paper" rates only a 2 in terms of uniqueness.

Ultra-specific.
Could the marketer have been less specific than "Free White Paper"? Yes, he could have just said "free bonus gift." So we rate "Free White Paper" a 2 instead of a 1.

Useful.
I suppose the reader is smart enough to figure the white paper contains some helpful information he can use. On the other hand, the usefulness is in the specific information contained in the paper, which isn't even hinted at in the headline. And does the recipient, who already has too much to read, really need yet another "Free White Paper"? I rate it a 2. Specifying the topic would help, e.g., "Free White Paper shows how to cut training costs up to 90% with e-learning."

I urge you to go through this exercise with every e-mail subject line you write. You can also apply the formula to other copy, both online and offline, including direct mail envelope teasers, ad headlines, letter leads, Web page headlines, subheads, and bullets.

Rate the line you've written in all four U's. Then rewrite it so you can upgrade your rating on at least 2 and preferably 3 or 4 of the categories by at least 1. This simple exercise may increase readership and response rates substantially for very little effort.

Article by Robert W. Bly, http://www.bly.com

Boost Your Profits With Smarter Writing Styles

Have you ever wanted to write more effective sales copy?

If you have ever wished you could convert more of your Web site visitors into actual sales, then let's examine some superior ways to accomplish just exactly how it's done. Let's talk about working with smarter Web copy that can make a difference.

In a minute I want to come back to give you some examples, but let's talk about that word "dialogue."

We know that the term "dialogue" is really more correctly thought of as the dictionary describes: "A conversation spoken between two or more people." If you look up synonyms for the word "dialogue" as a noun, you'll find a lot of terms that focus on "vocal expression" or "utterance" or "verbalization" in some aspect. So why do I use the term "dialogue" in terms of writing Web copy?

It's the best term I can think of to describe what I like to think of as the "flow of conversation" or nearly like writing your copy as though it was meant to be read "out loud" by voice. When I say "write for voice" I'm referring to how something is written for the radio or TV or other live media.

The most prominent aspect of this, is that it makes you feel that the message is deliver just for you. It's nearly like you were hearing it from a friend or someone you personally know. Probably one of the best examples, would be from the professional broadcaster who has been trained to not only speak wonderful dialogue, but they are able to nearly project their personality right toward you through the radio, TV or whatever into your home.

Okay let's talk then about your writing style and start with a very simple example from our opening line to this article. Did you notice the very first line of this article? It was a question which asked you: "Have you ever wanted to be able to write more effective sales copy?"

Questions always grab a readers attention, don't they.

The next paragraph that followed the opening line was to get you immediately reading. On with a few tips and analysis:

Try reading this again now...right out loud:

"If you have ever wished you could convert more of your Web site visitors into actual sales, then let's examine some superior ways to accomplish exactly how it's done. Let's talk about working with smarter Web copy that really makes a difference."

Did you notice how it flows? This is what is referred to as an If/Then type of statement which makes an ideal way to start your visitor reading your content.

The way it is constructed, is to start by writing: "If" followed by "Then."

An Example of If/Then:

If....(write to identify a specific challenge) followed by Then...(write to introduce the solution). Next, consider some of the other components are simply some descriptive adjectives to accent the value of the statement.

For example consider some of these words:

actual sales
superior
exactly
smarter

Other great compelling phrases can be used to help your readers "visualize the benefits" of whatever product or whatever service you may be describing.

Consider trying one of these type of statements:

Now just suppose...
Can you just imagine the...
Did you ever imagine...

Example: (With adjectives - puzzled - unhappy - extraordinary - top)

"Now just imagine the puzzled look on your unhappy competitors face, when they notice your new top rankings."

A statement like this paints quite a picture in your mind creatively with words, does it not? Let's explore another way you might write in order to "describe an action" in such a way, that your dialogue may cause the reader to really visualize possessing a product ahead of time, even before they order it.

It's just dialogue, but if it paints a picture in your mind, it can be powerful.

Example: (descriptive words include - directly - immediately - )

In just seconds, you'll download your new book, but be sure to flip directly to page 52 where you'll immediately discover the top 100 best selling markets for this year.

What you are really doing here, is painting a picture in the reader's mind. There is a lot more to writing sales copy than just these few mechanics, but one of the best ways to refine your skills, is to study the work of an accomplished writer. By studying well crafted pages, you can build your own writing style and begin to do more of what is right and less of what is wrong.

A few of my favorite tips for writing sales copy.

1. Write your copy as though you were writing to a close personal friend. Your focus is on the "delivery" of your message so that it is absorbed by the reader in an easy to read conversational style. Our dialogue often is quite different when we are speaking to a friend whether we realize it or not.

2. Try starting your page with a compelling headline that captures the visitors attention.

3. Make your dialogue flow so that it reads very naturally if you read it aloud. Try reading your work out loud or even record yourself reading your work out loud. Then play the recording back and just listen to the flow of delivery. This is an age old method that most professional broadcasters use to build their voice, but your focus in on how your writing sounds and how it flows. If it flows smoothly in a nice conversational style when you read it out loud, you can be sure it will read that way too.

4. Add in some descriptive text to help paint a vivid picture of the "benefits" in the mind of the reader. Remember that you need to accent your dialogue. Your objective is to heighten the descriptive narrative in order to flesh out the scope of the benefits so that your Web visitors can nearly visualize those benefits in their mind, just by reading them.

5. Don't forget that a sales letter must have a solid call to action. Your dialogue nearly needs to guide the reader in exactly what you would like to do on a page. Don't assume they'll know what to do, but let your dialogue guide them into a true call to action.

For example suppose you want someone to call your toll free number. (Describe step by step exactly what you want them to do.) Although it sounds crazy, this type of dialogue actually works quite well.

Example: we've made telephone ordering so very simple. Okay, are you ready? Stop. Just walk right over to the telephone right now. Pick it up and call me personally at our Toll Free Number 1-800-XXX-XXXX.

6. Consider how you might occasionally apply a reverse approach in your dialogue. For example instead of just talking about benefits to be gained by using a product or service, you can also describe "the results" or "negative impact" from not using a product or service. So long as your information is accurate this can also stimulate the reader's thinking too.

7. Write for the specific target audience you are aiming to attract. Use metaphors or examples that are relative to your particular audience. You can write in a way that anyone can understand or you can write just for a specific audience using terms meaningful to them in their industry or background. For example how you write for a Web site which is written for lawyers will be quite different than one that is selling baby shower gifts.

Baby gifts may be targeting grandmothers, so there is a style of delivery that is just write for them. In the same way there is a way to write for Lawyers. Who is your Web site attracting? Is it written for Pilots or REALTORS or Marketers or Children or any other market. Write for the ideal audience you are aiming to attract.

In Conclusion: practice makes perfect - focus on building and maintaining wonderful customer relationships.

Like every other aspect of search engine marketing, the more you practice the better the skills that you will build. We encourage our workshop students to test all of their ideas and make sure you take notes of your progress. If a specific style or method seems more effective to you or when you notice big responses to little changes, then benchmark your progress.

Communicate more and more in a smooth flowing style that is right for your particular category of Web visitors. Regardless of whether your objective is to write more compelling content for sales, or whether you are creating valuable informational content that is useful to your readers, make your work something that you feel proud of. Something that stands on its very own merit. Never forget the component of treating your readers to your very best efforts in communication.

Ultimately, you're building resources that stand the test of time and enjoy a maximum success rate because they contribute to your readers "understanding." The Internet is simply a powerful tool which can be used most effectively for doing business. But the same old rules apply for any reputable business whether online or off. Focus on delivering genuine value and maintaining wonderful relationships with your customers.

I really look forward to seeing you at one of our future SEO Mastery Workshops real soon. In the meantime, here is wishing you the very best of online success with all of your projects.


Article by John Alexander, http://www.beyond-seo.com

How To Stay On Top As Copywriter

I recently found a post about the "Victorian Rules of Punctuation". These are a great way to remember the basic rules that every copywriter should know -- and know when and how to break to make your sales copy stand out. So here they go!

The Victorian Rules Of Punctuation

Sentences start with a Capital letter,
So as to make your writing better.
Use a full stop to mark the end.
It closes every sentence penned.
Insert a comma for short pauses and breaks,
And also for lists the writer makes.
Dashes --like these-- are for thoughts.
They provide additional information (so do brackets, of course).
These two dots are colons: they pause to compare.
They also do this: list, explain and prepare.
The semicolon makes a break; followed by a clause.
It does the job of words that link; it's also a short pause.
An apostrophe shows the owner of anyone's things,
It's quite useful for shortenings.
I'm glad! He's mad! Don't walk on the grass!
To show strong feelings use an exclamation mark!
A question mark follows Where? When? Why? What? and How?
Can I? Do you? Shall we? Tell us now!
"Quotation marks" enclose what is said.
Which is why they are often called 'speech marks' instead.

(Based on A Victorian Schoolmistress's Rules of Punctuation)

To keep on the same train, here is a list of common grammatical mistakes that you should avoid. Some people believe this list was written by William Safire, others attribute it to an anonymous source... anyway, it's still a great reminder of what not to do in your writing.

How to avoid grammatical mistakes

1) Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2) Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3) And don't start a sentence with a conjuction.
4) It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5) Avoid clichés like the plague.
6) Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
7) Also, always avoid annoying alliteration.
8) Be more or less specific.
9) Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
10) No sentence fragments.
11) Contractions aren't necessary, and shouldn't be used.
12) One should never generalise.
13) Don't use no double negatives.
14) Eschew ampersands & abbreviations etc.
15) Eliminate commas, that are not necessary.
16) Never use a big word when a diminutive one suffice.
17) Kill all exclamations!!!
18) Use words correctly, irregardles of how others use them.
19) Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
20) Puns are for children, not for groan readers.
21) Proofread carefully to see if you any worlds out.
22) One-word sentences? Eliminate.
23) The passive voice is to be ignored.
24) Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
25) Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

More Internet Profits With Dynamic Text Replacement

What is the first step to internet profits? Well, despite of what other people might tell you, it's not email marketing. Not search engines. Nor joint venture.

In I wrote an article called "12 Mistakes That Will Run You Definitely Out Of Business". You can find it posted inside my Internet Marketing Profits Article Syndicator.

At the time I wrote this article, I didn't know too much about the subject of this new blog post. As a matter of fact, I even don't remember to know about CSS.

Here's what I wrote;

10. Deadly Web Site Sins

Your web site creates a first impression of you and your business to the world. It is an insane to have a great product/ service but a lousy web design. On the Internet
time is money. You work hard to get prospects to your web site. Wouldn't be a great loss to send them away because you have an ugly and inaccessible web site?

Some important elements a good web sites must have: fast download time, correct spelling/ grammar, easy and logical internal navigation, good and useful content, workable links, browsers compatible, control of graphics and animation, contact information, a good balance between graphic and text, use of the right colors and text fonts.

Did you notice what is the first most important step to internet profits?

"...easy and logical internal navigation, good and useful content, workable links, browsers compatible, control of graphics and animation..."

A good web site structure has 2 advantages: visitors will "feel" better when they browse through your pages and search engines will spider more quickly all of your internal structure.

The author of the next article wrote: "Text styling is the dull headache of web design". He has right! Using the new power of PHP, Java Script and CSS, you can easily replace heading-text with images! Don't believe me?

Read the article written by Stewart Rosenberger

Text styling is the dull headache of web design. There are only a handful of fonts that are universally available, and sophisticated graphical effects are next to impossible using only standard CSS and HTML. Sticking with the traditional typefaces is smart for body text, but when it comes to our headings — short, attention-grabbing blocks of text — it would be nice to have some choice in the matter.

We’ve become accustomed to this problem and we cope with it either by making the most of the few fonts we have, or by entirely replacing our heading-text with images.

Most sites that replace text with images do so using hand-made images, which isn’t so terrible when there are a set number of headings, but it quickly becomes unmanageable on a site that is updated several times per day. However the replacement is performed, each image needs to be bound to the text it is replacing. That binding usually manifests itself as an [img] tag, an embedded style sheet, or a custom id attribute. And over time, through layout changes and redesigns, that binding needs to be managed by someone.

We can forget all that nonsense. No more [img] or [span] tags, no more id attributes or wasted time in Photoshop, and no more messy CSS hacks. Using JavaScript and PHP, we can generate accessible image-headings using any font we like. And we don’t have to change the structure of our HTML or CSS at all.

View the demo to see Dynamic Text Replacement in action. Then read on to find out how you can add the same functionality to your site.

PHP

This small PHP script (available here) will deliver a dynamic PNG image to our browser whenever it’s asked to. Before we set it to work, though, it needs to be customized for your specific purpose. The first seven lines of code in the script serve this purpose:

$font_file = 'font.ttf' ;
$font_size = 56 ;
$text_color = '#ffffff' ;
$background_color = '#000000' ;
$transparent = true ;
$cache_images = true ;
$cache_folder = 'cache' ;

The $font_file variable must be set to the local path (not the URL) of a True Type (TTF) or Open Type (OTF) font on your web server. This is the font that your images will be created with; you’ll need to upload it to the web server from your own computer.

$font_size, unsurprisingly, refers to the size of the font in points.

$text_color and $background_color are hexadecimal color codes that indicate the color of the text, and color of the image’s background, respectively.

When $transparent is set to true, the edges of the image’s text will be blended with the $background_color to prevent anti-aliasing, and the actual background color will be entirely invisible.

By setting $cache_images to true, and $cache_folder to the local path of a writable directory on your web server, this script will save each image that it creates, caching them for later use. This can significantly speed up delivery of images to your visitors, and is particularly important on shared, or high-traffic servers.

To install this script, upload it to a web server that is configured with PHP support. Specifically, you will need PHP version 4.3 or higher, compiled with support for the GD graphics library, 1.6 or higher. If none of that means anything to you, email those requirements to your web host and they’ll tell you if your server is compatible.

Although we used PHP to construct the images in this implementation, your website does not need to be actively using PHP to take advantage of this technique. Regardless of how you generate your HTML pages, whether they’re edited by hand or through a CMS, you can use this technique as long as you can insert a [script] tag into the [he@d] of your documents. I’ll explain that detail further, below.

Please note that what can be done with PHP can often be done with other tools as well. Perl, ASP, Java servlets, and other server-side programming languages would also be good candidates for generating custom images. PHP is an excellent choice because of its wide availability, platform independence, and easy learning curve. Consider the alternatives if you require something that PHP doesn’t provide or if you choose to create your own image-generation code from scratch. It might be simpler, however, to just adapt the PHP code presented here.

One thing that our customization of the script did not include was the text that it should use to generate our custom images. That’s because the text that we’re using to produce these images will be passed to the script via its URL. For example, loading the URL heading.php?text=URLs%20Are%20Fun will produce a graphic that reads “URLs Are Fun.” And they are. But we’ll never need to write them ourselves, because JavaScript will do it for us.

JavaScript

Download the JavaScript source file here.

This technique borrows heavily from Peter-Paul Koch’s JavaScript Image Replacement (JIR) method. The premise of JIR is very simple: Many CSS coders exploit browser bugs to hide CSS styles from those browsers. These hacks are akin to limited conditional statements in their code, turning CSS into a crude programming language.

Rather than using this language-of-bugs to compensate for browser differences, Koch and others have put forth the idea that JavaScript — an actual scripting language — could more intelligently and accessibly perform the same task. This is wonderful for our purposes because JavaScript also gives us more flexibility. Specifically, we’ll be using it to replace text with images that don’t even exist yet.

When the page first loads, the script will attempt to load a small (1x1 pixel) test image. If this test is successful, we can conclude that the visitor’s browser supports the display of images, otherwise it would not have wasted bandwidth downloading it. This is the crux of JIR: By testing for image support, we can immediately determine whether or not our visitors have any use for stylized headings. If they do not, the script will stop right there.

Assuming the visitor’s browser supports images, the script then waits until the page is entirely finished loading, because it can’t replace text that hasn’t been downloaded yet. Once the HTML is finished loading, our script will search it for specified elements ([h 2], [font], etc.) and replace the text inside of them with an [img] tag. This dynamic [img] tag has its alt attribute set to the original text, and its src attribute set to the URL of the PHP script that we just installed. The PHP script then sends back a custom PNG image, and voila: custom headings.

Weighing in at a hefty eight kilobytes, there’s a lot of stuff going on in this corner of the ring, but there are only two lines that need to be customized before the script will work.

replaceSelector("h 2","heading.php",true);
var testURL = "test.png";

The replaceSelector function accepts three parameters: The first is the CSS-style selector that indicates which elements should be replaced. This selector may be almost any valid CSS selector, including id, class, element and attribute selectors.

The second parameter is the URL of our custom PHP script.

The third parameter is a true/false value that indicates whether word-wrap should be turned on for this replacement. When this flag is set to true, headings are broken into multiple images, one for each word. When it is false, only a single, non-breaking image is generated for each heading.

replaceSelector should be called once for each group of elements you want replaced by a custom image. The URLs in these lines can be absolute (http://…) or relative to our HTML file (path/filename).

The testURL variable needs to be set to the URL of a small (1x1 pixel) test image.

Once these lines are set correctly, you can upload the JavaScript file to your web server, and apply it to your web pages by adding the following line to their tags.

[script type="text/JavaScript" src="replacement.js"]
[/script]

Make sure the src attribute in that line points to the location that you uploaded the JavaScript file to.

That’s all that’s required to get dynamic text replacement working; we can stop right there if we want to. But there are a few optional improvements we may want to make before calling it quits.

Print Versions

As previously seen here in ALA, many sites are now employing specialized printer style sheets to give their visitors better hard copies of their content.

In many cases this involves reversing the process of image replacement so that the printed copy of a page uses actual fonts rather than graphics, which often look poor on high-resolution printers. Unfortunately, JavaScript falls short of solving this problem. Once we’ve replaced our text with an image, it’s impossible to reverse that process specifically for printing purposes, so we need to find another solution.

Instead of trying to reverse our replacement process, we can do a little planning ahead. Along with inserting an [img] tag into our headings, we can also insert a [span] tag that contains the original heading text. And we can set that span’s display property to none, so that it doesn’t show up onscreen.

Now we have two copies of our original text: One in a visible image, and one in an un-displayed span. By giving each of these elements identifiable class attributes (“replacement”, and “print-text,” respectively), and by adding in a print-specific style sheet, we can swap their display properties when they’re printed.

The following style sheet (download a sample CSS file here) could be used to generate an appropriate print version of your page:

span.print-text {
display: inline !important;
}
img.replacement {
display: none;
}

Once we’ve uploaded this style sheet -to our web server, we only need to change two lines in our JavaScript to make it work:

var doNotPrintImages = false;
var printerCSS = "replacement-print.css";

By setting doNotPrintImages to true, and printerCSS to the URL of the print style sheet we just created, the script will automatically insert the appropriate CSS [link] into our document’s tag.

Flicker Free

Because our script can’t begin replacing elements until after the entire document has loaded, there will often be a quick flash of unstyled content as the browser waits for the replacement process to begin. This is less of a problem than it is a minor annoyance, but since it’s avoidable we might as well fix it. With the help of another small style sheet, we can do just that.

Before the document’s body begins loading we can dynamically insert a style sheet that will hide these elements entirely. Since linked CSS files are applied even as the document is rendering, no content will be visible during this period. Once our replacement technique is finished executing we can disable this style sheet and our newly stylized headings will be visible once more.

For example, if your page was set up to replace [h 2] tags, the following style sheet (available here) would hide them until our replacement technique was finished:

h 2 {
visibility: hidden;
}

There is a slight problem with this approach, however. Our entire technique depends on the loading of a test picture to indicate whether the browser supports images. If the image never loads, our technique will never activate. And if our technique never activates, the style sheet that hides our unstyled headings will never be deactivated. Because of this, visitors who have disabled image support in their browsers, but who are still capable of using JavaScript and CSS, will see nothing but empty space where our headings should have been.

We’ll do our part to improve this poor minority’s already-difficult browsing experience by adding a short timeout value to the script. If the test image hasn’t been successfully loaded after one or two seconds (or however long you see fit), the script will automatically disable this style sheet, and the headings will reappear. Those one or two seconds are a slight inconvenience for this exceptionally rare person, but it solves the flicker problem for the other 99.99% of our visitors. What’s important is that we maintain accessibility for everyone.

To enable this optional customization, and to remove the brief flash of unstyled content, you must edit three lines in the JavaScript source:

var hideFlicker = false;
var hideFlickerCSS = "replacement-screen.css";
var hideFlickerTimeout = 1000;
Set hideFlicker = true, and hideFlickerCSS to the URL of the CSS file that you just created to hide your headers.

hideFlickerTimeout should be set to the maximum number of milliseconds (i.e. 1/1000 seconds) that the script will let pass before disabling that style sheet.

Notes and Suggestions

Older versions of Mozilla, including Netscape 6.2, contained a bug where the browser would download images even if the user had instructed it not to display them. This obviously made no sense, and has been fixed since version 1.4. Although this technique will normally work without any problems in these browsers, it will incorrectly diagnose image support and fail when visitors using these browsers have images disabled. I don’t consider this overwhelmingly rare occurrence to be a serious drawback, but it’s worth noting for completeness. There is currently no workaround for this problem.

Use this technique with a translator service, like Google or Altavista’s Babelfish. As long as your font supports the foreign character set, the dynamic images will be translated as well.

The text that you replace does not have to be inside of a heading tag ( [h 1], [h 2], etc.); it can be any element on the page. With some fairly simple adjustments, and some manipulation of float values, this technique could produce dynamic drop-caps for any paragraph you apply it to.

You can also replace [a] tags, giving your page stylized hyperlinks, although getting rollovers to work would require more customization.

Instead of replacing content with dynamically generated [img] tags, this technique could avoid using PHP altogether and instead insert dynamic Flash animations.

Acknowledgements

Peter-Paul Koch, for his JavaScript Image Replacement technique.

Simon Willison, for this getElementsBySelector function.

Stuart Langridge, for unobtrusive JavaScript techniques.

7 Practical Tactics to Turn Your Blog Into a Sales Machine

SUMMARY:

Call us cynics. Blogs may be hip and trendy, but they don't do diddly-squat for most people's businesses. After four years of research, MarketingSherpa reporters estimate only .03% of the 34.5 million existing blogs are driving sales or prospective customers to their bloggers. (That's less than 1,000 that we've been able to find.) Want your blog to be the one that works? Discover seven practical secrets from a real estate blog that gets prospects to raise their hands and beg to be contacted.

CHALLENGE: A little over two years ago, John Mudd quit his job in book publicity to try his hand at selling waterfront vacation homes worth an average $700,000 in Florida.

He quickly learned the Web was mission critical.

"People are more interested in the property than they are in the realtor. About 80% of home buyers go online long in advance of even looking at real estate in a certain area. They'll visit something like 20 different realtor Web sites and then they'll go with the first realtor who calls them back."

Mudd's Web site had to show up high in search engine results to get visitors, plus it had to convert clicks into hand-raising prospects he could call on.

But, his budget was small -- less than $1000 -- and competition for real estate-related search visibility was incredibly fierce.

CAMPAIGN: Mudd knew Google's crawlers were infamous for paying more attention to blogs than they did to most traditional Web sites.

"I had a blog when I was in PR and I noticed the blog ended up pretty high in Google for terms like 'Media Relations.' Pretty much anything I'd post would end up in the top five rankings for a while."

Tactic #1. Seed your blog posts with keywords

Each separate entry you post to a blog will be reviewed on its own by search engines. If that individual entry contains keywords your prospects are searching for, the search engine may include a link to that particular post in its results.

This means you can't just post keywords as part of your overall blog name or template and count on that to do much for you. You need to consider what key terms are critical to your audience, and include them in your postings.

However, you can only rank well a few times for a particular term, and prospects may search under hundreds or even thousands of different terms to find information like yours. Instead of using the same exact term over and over again, brainstorm a long hit list of terms to use. (The best will be incredibly specific, often with three to five words.)

Then as you blog over time, create posts focusing on each term on your list.

Tactic #2. Report exclusive news and insight

Many bloggers rely on linking to news sources and other blogs for much of their content. It's fast, it's easy.

But, it's also awfully me-too. Why should a search engine, or a prospect, notice you for writing about things that other sources online already cover? You want to look (and act) like a uniquely qualified expert.

Mudd decided to turn into a reporter for his own blog. His goal was to scoop the local newspaper on real estate items relating to his niche whenever possible. He networked for industry gossip and posted as many exclusives as possible. The stories didn't have to be huge, they just had to contain keywords folks were searching for and not appear anywhere else that search engines had previously ranked for the topic.

If he couldn't find a story, he'd write commentary instead. For example, he might dash off some notes on his experiences with a particular luxury condo building in the area that currently had some listings.

What he didn't do is post off topic, or post general musings on real estate as a whole. The purpose of each listing was to get prospects... and most prospects don't care about a realtor's musings. They want more details on properties.

Tactic #3. You don't need to blog daily

At first Mudd blogged as frequently as he possibly could, aiming to get a good posting up for his list of critical keyterms. Then he slowed down to just once a week or so, only blogging when he had a great item with a solid keyterm.

Fact is, most blog postings will show up in search engines for months or even years after you've written them. One or two highly ranked listings in each search term's results is all you need to get a stream of traffic for those terms.

Plus, Mudd wasn't shooting for lots of repeat traffic or trying to build a fan club or regular readers.

Why? "People are only going to buy new property every three to seven years. You're not concerned with creating new content for the same audience, you're trying to get a steady stream of new customers by posting content that's targeted to whatever those customers are interested in."

Tactic #4. Add easy contact links to every single post

Mudd wanted the maximum number of blog visitors to contact him so he could then begin a relationship. Instead of relying merely on contact info on his blog template and navigation to pull them in, he added a Contact email link at the bottom of every single posting.

This way he'd get impulse contacts from folks who might not want to search the page looking for the contact info. Most people won't work that hard.

Tactic #5. Jump on incoming leads super-swiftly

Unlike many realtors, Mudd checked his incoming email continually throughout the day and into the evening hours. He decided sitting in front of the computer was more important than driving around.

However, if he was out, he knew he could arrange to send email notes to his pager.

Tactic #6. Measure by qualified prospects, not total traffic

Mudd didn't spend much time reviewing site stats or promoting the blog on unrelated venues. The point wasn't to get loads of traffic, it was to get highly targeted traffic.

Why waste time responding to leads who aren't truly interested in buying what you're hoping to sell them? Mudd knew a successful blog for his niche should get hundreds, not thousands, of daily visitors.

Tactic #7. Blog elsewhere

As a former PR person, Mudd knew not to rely on one outlet alone to catch attention. He pitched a few other blogs on being a writer for them. While they could not be too sales-y in nature, his postings on other blogs always included a link back to his main site.

RESULTS: Of the average 3,000 visitors who click to Mudd's blog each month, roughly 1% turn into qualified leads who contact him. The majority of these are baby boomers from Northern states.

"Virtually anything I write about, I get phone calls or emails from people interested in buying that kind of property. I posted something about a condo conversion just recently and got three phone calls from investors who want to do condo conversions."

He adds, "When I posted my exclusive about Trump Tower Tampa, my email box blew up with inquiries about it." One of those inquirers went through Mudd to plunk down a hefty deposit on a $1.2 million condo.

Mudd has also landed guest blogging gigs with three sites, including the respected realty publication Inman News. His more than 3,000 hotlinks from these have helped push his main home site higher in search engine rankings and resulted in roughly 12,000 visitors per month.

Useful links related to this article:

View of Mudd's site and blog as they appeared when we wrote this Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/jmudd/study.html

Inman News:
http://www.inman.com

Mudd's Blog:
http://insiderealestatejournal.blogspot.com

Mudd's site:
http://www.HomeInTampaBay.com

How *Crap* Can Dramatically Boost Your Profits!

You're about to discover something that I honestly believe can CHANGE YOUR LIFE. This is a concept that drives my marketing. This concept continues to make me a small fortune. Today I want to share this concept with you.

"Crap can make you rich."

Don't laugh. Let me explain.

The beautiful thing about marketing online is that we can achieve RESULTS for anything LIGHTNING FAST.

We can put up some Google AdWords, drive some traffic, and starting getting results in a matter of MINUTES.

I can essentially write a sales letter, include an opt-in form, and create a little infoproduct to sell, all in less than ONE HOUR and have it getting results.

Okay, so the product may completely STINK. i.e. it's CRAP.

The sales letter may be nothing but CRAP too. And even if someone DOES order, they'll be getting that product which is CRAP and most likely will request a refund. Heck, after all, I only spent an hour on the entire thing.

But none of that matters. The GOLD is not in the crap itself, the gold is in the RESULTS.

Everything in marketing has a "Cause and Effect" -- everything.

If you put up the WORST CRAP EVER right now on a web site, something WILL happen. And those results are what eventually drives a few hundred dollars a month in profit, and eventually produces several thousand dollars a month, and can eventually create a small fortune.

Okay, so maybe your conversion rate will initially be 1 out of 1,000. That's okay.
With enough data that 1 out of 1,000 will become a solid average and that site will CONSISTENTLY produce 1 sale out of 1,000 visitors.

Hey, welcome to a CRAP conversion rate.

Hehe, but seriously...

The point is this. There is tremendous value in a 1 out of 1,000 visitor conversion rate -- no matter what the price of the product is. No matter what the offer is. Why? Because it's GUARANTEED that you can IMPROVE upon it. You can make it better. You CAN get MORE people to buy.

All you have to do is improve your marketing. Test small changes. Try a few little tweaks. Improve it little by little.

Get better and better RESULTS.

Here is something I want you to engrave deep into your brain...

You will NEVER, that's right, NEVER, launch a site or any marketing that will be even 10% of "perfect". You're never going to launch a site that starts pulling a 10% conversion ratio, let alone 100%.

And before you email me and tell me that a site you launched pulled a 10%+ conversion rate, I'm not talking about the results of a strong endorsement someone did for you. I'm talking about an AVERAGE conversion rate from ALL the traffic sources you point at your site.)

So why are you spending SO MUCH TIME to get that latest project launched? What the heck are you waiting for?

Know this... everyday that goes by without you launching your latest project is a day that you could be using to test and IMPROVE upon what that project produces.

Yes, that means make you more money.

Your project will never be perfect. You could have always made it better. You could have always done this or done that.

WRITE THIS DOWN...

"The biggest piece of crap ever created and launched online makes more money than an almost-perfect project that was never launched."

Is my point getting through to you?

The biggest mistake we entrepreneurs make is trying to make our little projects PERFECT before we are willing to launch them and see what they will do.

This can be the "kiss of death" for our businesses. Because until we launch projects we don't get any RESULTS. What you need to realize is that RESULTS are the biggest ASSET to your online business. Even the CRAPPY RESULTS.

Because the results are what tells us what is working and what isn't. And believe me, I've probably made MORE MONEY from the results I discovered about things that weren't working, so don't just think it's all about what works.

So learn to produce projects on an ACCELERATED launch schedule. Just get the sucker to the quickest version that will allow you to launch it and start getting ANY results at all. Then spend your time IMPROVING on the results.

Let's face it. Many of our projects FLOP. It just happens. People just won't buy enough of something to make it profitable. So we must move on and work on another project. Get it out there and see if that one starts making money. Repeating the process again and again.

But think about what I just said and realize something. If you KNOW the reality that many of your projects will fail, why the heck are you taking so long to find out?

It's probably the same reason *I've* often delayed things... FEAR.

I'm AFRAID to see my "baby", my special project, fail. But since we've already come to realize that the reality of business is that some projects WILL FAIL, we just need to GET OVER IT.

Put that CRAP together and launch it! Unpolished. Unperfected. Ugly. Yes, I say let the crap fly! (no, not that crap.)

So get your projects launched absolutely, without a doubt, as quickly as possible. Get SOME results. Any results. THEN work on improving whatever those results are to increase your profits.

If you are planning on doing JVs with people for your new product, or rolling out an affiliate program for it, the "JOHN REESE CRAP METHOD" (as I will call it) still definitely works.

Here's how you use it...

You put together your web site and product as quickly as possible. Go jump on Google and buy some AdWords traffic to point at the site. Start tracking the results -- no matter what they are. Make changes and TEST them. Continuously work to improve the results of the site.

When you're able to get the site to a satisfactory conversion level, then and only then proceed with putting together JV deals and really rolling out the product.

You know, the biggest kiss of death for an online marketer can be to launch a product with JV partners WITHOUT having first tested and improved a site's conversion.

Do you think your JV partners are going to promote your next project if the initial one completely FLOPS and doesn't make them any money? Absolutely not.

SO USE THE "JOHN REESE CRAP METHOD" AND PROFIT!

1. Create and launch crap.

2. Test that crap.

3. Improve that crap.

4. Make money with crap that eventually becomes non-crap.

Seriously. Don't laugh. This process works. Again and again. It has made me rich. Learn it. Live it. Love it. Let crap make YOU rich.

Article written by John Reese at http://www.marketingsecrets.com

Submitting To Directories: A Comprehensive Guide

Why submit to a Directory?

Every webmaster is looking for ways to improve their website’s visibility, and one great way is by getting listed in the major web directories. This should be a very important part of your marketing strategy online, which many website owners neglect.

The only way to grow your online business is if people can actually find you! Some web directories have a free submission option whereas others require some form of payment or reciprocal link in exchange. With the hundreds of various general directories and niche directories you have the choose to submit to – it becomes crucial knowing which directories are worth your time and money.

Submitting to directories can be a real time consuming task. Moreso, if your handing over your hard earned cash, its wise to know which directories will most benefit you in your linking campaign. Understanding why you should submit to directories will help you identify which one’s are worthwhile.

There are two major reasons for submitting to Directories:

- Targeted traffic

- Link popularity

Clearly, the same benefits can be be said about links from other sites - not just from a directory. However, there are some significant differences between the two link sources:

- Directories provide one way links to your site which is really beneficial to your link popularity (Exchanging links with other sites will often require a reciprocal link in exchange)

- Directories are an established source of 'authority' in regard to various subject matters.

- It is much easier and simpler to be listed in directories than in subject specific sites (not forgetting the fact that there may be a conflict of interest issue!)

Directories as traffic source

What is 'targeted traffic'?

Directories are an excellent source of targeted traffic. Even with the advancement of Search Engine technology, the keyword based search method, common to all search engines, is still far from perfect. That is - many search results do not actually match the user's requirements. Although Search Engines will most likely generate more website traffic to your website, many of those visitors will NOT become 'customers', as they had a different requirement when they conducted the search.

Thus, it is not enough to simply 'count' the number of visitors. One must also look at the 'conversion rate'. For example, if one source of traffic sends 1000 visitors/day with a conversion rate of 1% and another sends only 100 visitors/day with a conversion rate of 20% - the latter provides TWICE as many 'customers' as the former. We can say that the second source provides better 'targeted traffic'.

Web directories are maintained by human editors - in most cases volunteers. Having a real person review your site before inclusion assures only rich content and informative sites will get included. The purpose of a directory is to provide an intuitive and precise category structure. Are you in any doubt as to the nature of sites found in this DMOZ category?

Top: Games: Role playing: World Building: Created Worlds: Science Fiction

Or the following Gimpsy category?

I want to > Play > games > role playing > Sci-Fi

It is therefore safe to assume that users who trail through either Directory structure will have a very clear idea of what to expect from sites found there. Such matching of content with user expectation guarantees that the conversion rate of visitors from Directories will be significantly better than standard Search Engines.

Directories as Link Partners

The Importance of Link Popularity

It would be safe to assume that Link Popularity now plays a significant role in the ranking algorithm of all the major Search Engines.

The challenge for site owners and web masters is to increase Link Popularity, which in turn increases the likelihood of pages from their sites appearing high in the search results. One of the best ways to start a link campaign is to get links from Directories. If you put the right amount of effort (and money) into it, you can see your Link Popularity increase significantly in a short space of time. The question is: Which directories are worth paying for? Here's some pointers to make an educated decision.

Link Types

The first and most important consideration is the link type. There are two types of links: Simple Link (otherwise known as Static Link) and a Redirected Link. You cannot discover the difference by clicking on them -- the results are absolutely identical, but from the perspective of gaining link popularity, knowing the difference is vital.

A Simple Link is a link that contains the target URL of the site and directly points to it, as in this link: http://www.yourdomain.com. On the other hand, a Redirected Link points to a URL inside the current site, and has a longer URL like this: http://www.thisdirectory.com/jump.php?www.yourdomain.com. You can check the type of links used by a Directory by observing the 'Status bar' at the bottom of your browser while hovering your mouse over the links.

If your primary objective is to increase your link popularity, then only submit to web directories which use simple links. Obtaining redirected links is just a waste of your time (and money). A good sure way in identifying the type of link a directory uses is to check the PR of its category pages. Redirected link pages will often have no PR.

PageRank and Back Links

Not all links are created equal - some are more important than others. If you have the Google toolbar installed, it will give you a rough estimate on the page's 'importance', or PageRank (PR), on a scale of 0 to 10. A Directory with a high PR is more important than a Directory with a low PR. Having your link on a page with a high PR will transfer more PR to your site.

Invariably, the Home Page of the directory will have the highest PR, but very few (if any) sites will be listed there. What you need to examine is the PR of the specific Category (page) in which your site will be listed to get an idea of the 'strength' of vote you are likely to receive from this link. For example, although DMOZ has an exceptionally high PR of 9 on its home page, most of it’s deeper categories have a PR of 4.

Also consider the number of outgoing links on the specific category page you wish to be listed on. It’s great if the category page has a PR6, however if the site is not well maintained and there is hundreds of links on that page, then minimal PR will be transferred to your site.

In Summation: Look for Directories which make use of simple links, have high PR category pages, with few outgoing links on the page. This will ensure maximum link popularity will be transferred to your site, which ultimately will boost your search engine rankings.

Final words

How can you make a good decision when faced with so many options and considerations? The answer lies, perhaps, in limiting the number of directories you submit to. When beginning your linking campaign I feel you should submit to all free niche directories, and select a few paid submission directories that will most benefit you in terms of link popularity and traffic. Most paid directories will require you make a one-time payment between $5-50 USD. This is money well spent.

Having to pay for submission will deter most other webmasters, hence there will be fewer outgoing links on each category page – so you gain maximum link popularity and it’s a great traffic generator as visitors browsing the directory can easily find your site without having to wade through hundreds of links.

Below are a few web directories I strongly recommend to submit to:

- BlueFind

- GreatNexus

- Arielis

- IstSpotNet

- LinkoPedia

- ThisIsOurYear

Article by David Di Cristo, an online entrepreuner and owner of http://www.online-sellers-resource.com/

Contact: davidATonline-sellers-resource.com

14 Link Exchange Strategies To Boots Your Internet Profits (P1)

Another month is gone and another issue of my Internet Marketing Profits newsletter is available online. Because I normally write long issues, I cannot post them entirely into this Internet Profits Blog, but I will outline couple of good things.

The first article is called "14 Link Exchange Strategies To Boots Your Internet Profits (Part 1)". Inside of this article you will discover why link exchange strategies with related web sites are an important part of a search engine optimization and:

- how to choose your partners wisely

- what to do in order to avoid link dilution

- where to use related keywords

- why you should stay away from dynamic links (pages)

- how to manipulate subdomains to boost your internet profits

- why do you need to watch your back at techno hula-hoop

- great sources to start getting links fast

If you think these information are useful for your Internet business, read the full article inside my Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter, issue 51.

When it comes to selecting keywords, the question to ask yourself is how do you really know if you're optimizing your pages for keywords that surfers are looking for? There are several techniques you can apply.

The second article, "Top Five Tips for Choosing the Best Keywords", reveal exactly what action you need to perform for choosing the best keywords to optimize your internet profits. This action means:

- to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience

- to target niche markets

- to brainstorm for keywords in your category

- to choose only relevant keywords

- to understand that keywords can have multiple meanings

Everything is available into my Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter, issue 51. Enjoy reading!

PS: if you like what you read, don't forget to check my other articles available on my Internet Marketing Profits Newsletter archive -- strike for more tips on how to skyrocket your internet marketing profits.

How To Make Profits off Your Blog

You pound on the keyboard each day, broadcasting your unalloyed truths to the world (or at least to friends and family) via your blog. Unfortunately, earning such singular authority demands serious time and energy, and what begins as a hobby can quickly start seeming like Job No. 2 -- sans paycheck.

But haven't you heard? You can turn your Web log into a digital cash cow. Simply choose among these techniques (but keep in mind that it's not all free money -- come tax season, Uncle Sam gets his fair share).

LET GOOGLE WORK FOR YOU.

Selling ad space might be the oldest way to make a buck, and with Google's free AdSense service (www.google.com/adsense), it's way too easy. AdSense allows bloggers to display up to three content-specific "ad units" (boxes that can hold up to four ads each) per page. "If you're writing about sports cars, they'll be ads about sports cars," says Biz Stone, Blogger senior specialist at Google. Each time a visitor clicks these ads, you get paid. Google doesn't disclose its exact share of the revenue, but a personalized report page lets you track your own earnings. Earn at least $100 and Google sends you a check.

PLAY AD-SALES EXEC

If you want more control over the ads on your blog, hit www.blogads.com. BlogAds lets you join its database free and set your own ad prices. Companies (including media bigs such as Paramount Pictures and Random House) then search for suitable blogs and purchase ad space for a set period -- say, one month. In contrast to the way AdSense works, your earnings don't depend on whether a reader clicks the ad. All you have to do is give 20 percent of your net revenue to Mr. BlogAd, and you keep the rest. Perhaps best of all, you can indulge your megalomaniacal tendencies by approving or declining potential ads at will.

BE THE MIDDLEMAN

Many companies run "affiliate" programs: post an ad provided by Amazon.com or Lands' End, for example, and receive a small commission every time your readers click that ad, go to the company's Web site and end up buying a book or splurging on a down parka. Referral fees -- the cash you get from these transactions -- vary (you can earn as much as 10 percent per sale from Amazon). LinkShare (www.linkshare.com) claims to run the Internet's biggest "affiliate marketing network," with more than 600 companies on its roster of advertisers. Another service, Commission Junction (www.cj.com), runs programs for eBay and Expedia.com, among others.

PASS THE CUP

If you're toiling away to maintain a blog that people enjoy, why not ask your guests to show a little monetary appreciation? The online payment service PayPal (www.paypal.com) lets you add a donation button to your blog. You can opt to receive money in U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, Japanese yen, pounds sterling or euros. When visitors give money, PayPal sends you an e-mail to let you know. Amazon's Honor System (www.amazon.com/honorsystem) and BitPass (www.bitpass.com) offer similar donation options.

SELL SCHWAG

Don't dig ads? Uncomfortable asking for handouts? Then create your own blog-branded gear at CafePress.com, which offers more than 50 products begging for your unique logo. Choose from standard fare such as T-shirts and coffee cups, or, if Grandma doesn't read your blog, opt for sexy thong underwear (ooh la la). You get to sell each product at whatever price yourentrepreneurial heart desires. CafePress gets back the original base price ($13.99 for T-shirts, $10.99 for mugs); you keep the markup. Just add your online store's link to your blog, and all that's left to do is wait for CafePress to send you a monthly check. See? It's practically like your real job.

Article by Mike Peed, The Washington Post

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