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infoProducts > Dr. Kevin Nunley |
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One of the most common ways people lose sales is by hiding the good stuff. I think we all tend to do this. In an effort to keep the opening page of our website looking clean and attractive, we put the things we sell on inner pages where it is actually harder to find. Many sites start you off with an opening page that is one big eye-popping graphic. Then you click to the "real" main page. You choose a general product category and click to a menu page. From there you chose the product you want and click to its individual page. Did you count the clicks? The product is four levels deep into the website. Each time someone has to click to a new page, they have to wait. Since the vast majority of us are still using slow dial-up phone lines (and will continue to do so for several years to come) getting four levels deep can take up to several minutes. Most folks won't wait that long. Increase sales by moving important money-makers to the first or second level of your site. Put the good stuff right up front. Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536. How do you keep from wasting ad dollars? How do you make sure your ads pull in qualified buyers who will make good customers? Test, test test and Track, track, track. Savvy business folks have come up with all kinds of clever ways to track which of their ads pull in customers. They find marketing tools that look like they will work, then they try them and test them. Let's say you put a small ad in your local newspaper. You can have people call your number and ask for extension "463." The phoney extension number tells you where the person saw your ad. Mail order can work similarly. Have responses mailed to "dept. 463" to tell you which publication ran the ad. Internet entrepreneurs do similar things. They include an email address like info21@yoursite.com" or send shoppers to a URL like www.yoursite.com/publication4. You can check your website stats to find out how many of your hits are coming from the ad you ran in publication 4. The ability to track visitors and sales is probably the Net's greatest advantage and one that will become even more sophisticated in the future. There are already some impressive tracking services. See http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536. There is a time to stay the course, keep your chin up, and keep plugging. There are also times when you have to face the realization that a business idea just isn't gong to work. You have to give up. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence that we often give up too soon. It takes time, sometimes lots of time, before a business idea can take root and start to turn real sales. Big businesses often figure they won't make a profit for the first few years. Although most small businesses don't have that luxury, success may still take many months to come. The other day I was searching for info on a 33.6 modem. Several search engines listed one site high. The site was a simple, home-made page on a free GeoCities space. It hadn't been updated in two years. At the top was a note from the owner, "I have enjoyed doing this site but I'm not getting anywhere with this and will have to give it up." It was dated June of 1997. Sometime after the owner gave up, the business started to cook. At the bottom of the page the counter listed over three million visitors! This long forgotten project has been pulling hits like crazy. Could you make money off three million visitors? The owner had given up too soon. Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536. When is it OK to use another person's articles? Do you have to ask permission first? Do you have to give the author credit when you talk about their ideas? Sharing interesting articles with customers and others in your business is a great way to market. Everybody likes to do business with someone who seems plugged in to the latest ideas. US Copyright law (most countries have similar rules) is a bit vague on what is and is not OK. In general, you can't reprint somebody's article without permission--especially if you are selling the reprint. Most writers are more than happy to let you use their stuff if you promise to run their contact info along with the article. If the article appears in a magazine or newspaper, its best to call the Re-Print Rights department and ask what they charge for reprints. Most have very low rates. Some authors, like me, have a long history of giving their articles away to anyone who asks and never taking action in cases where people use articles without asking. We wouldn't have a lot to stand on in court (so feel free to use my articles on your website and in your newsletter--hint, hint.). An article does not have to carry a copyright notice to be covered under copyright law. If the author created the article and can prove they created it, they are covered by the law. For good explanations of copyright law by real lawyers, check the terrific "Law Dictionary" at http://www.nolo.com/. It's written for non-lawyers. Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Read all his free tips at http://DrNunley.com Reach Kevin at kevin@drnunley.com or (801)253-4536. |
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