12 Ways To Increase Sales

If you're here at this blog, chances are, you have an online business. These strategies will assist your growing business.

1. Make your web site a resource center on a certain topic. Choose one subject and expand. You will get repeat visitors that are interested in that topic.

2. If you claim to have something free, make sure it's 100% free. If it's not, you will lose the confidence of your prospects.

3. Add a online chat or forum to your site.

5. Make sure your site looks good in all browsers, especially Firefox and IE. You could be losing sales because it looks distorted in some web browsers. Take into consideration that IE6 is still popular in some countries.

6. Invest a percentage of your profits into your business. Spend it on marketing, product improvement, customer service, advertising, etc.

7. Give your visitors a good time so they will visit your web site again. Use a few jokes or puns, and funny stories.

8. Build trust with your prospects by them teaching them something. Give them free ebooks, articles, tips, and the like.

9. Keep each page of your web site consistent or similar. Use similar text fonts, colors, graphics
and background on every page. This is also a good web design practice.

10. Create traffic generators that people can add to their site without doing all the work. It can be an article directory, freebie directory, web tool, etc.

11. Challenge your visitors to find fault with your product or service. People love challenges. Tell them if they can find a flaw you'll give them a refund.

12. Form alliances with other related but non-competing businesses. You'll be able to beat your competition by selling to a larger audience.

On PLR And Recycled Content

As Private Label Rights become increasingly popular due to their completely editable and resellable nature, what should webmasters and internet marketers take note of when gathering content for their websites?

Content, is king. This is true when applied to search engines and most importantly, your visitors. For an internet marketer who regularly provides helpful tips through email to his subscribers, he is pressed for information to provide to his prospects -- and turns to PLR content, which is often already 'recycled' two or three times before landing in the hands of the marketer, who then condenses it and presents it to his subscribers. But they have seen it before, somewhere, from someone else.

That's the case with PLR editing, what I call recycling.

But here's another thing about information compiling -- some people will say compilations are now original content; but more often than not, people have already seen this information before -- from different sources, just that now, the information is put together.

In both the website content and the email examples, your customer will slowly get tired of your 'original' information that he has seen somewhere else, and eventually unsubscribe, or in the website content example, he would forget about the website and never come back again.

If you have no original stuff, have none at all. It is a waste of your and others' time. Be creative, original, and informative. PLR should be your last choice for content.

Splash page tricks

Here's another use of forms: many internet marketers use 'splash pages,' pages with a two-field form for signing up for their '$199 Value Internet Marketing Course. Sign Up Now!' newsletter. People who have become savvy in the internet marketing field will simply avoid all these splash pages, knowing that people are trying to get their email to sell them things. Making the visitor comfortable with sending you your info is the key to more sign-ups.

Make your splash page 97% free of things you would see in other splash pages. Make your form and copy short. Make sure you don't use 'conversion-pulling, action-packed' words in your copy. People who've become acquainted with these words simply ignore these words and the page.

Remember that a funny headline, a comical graphics work to bring more opt-ins! If they feel that you are not some professional web copywriter trying to sell them the latest great e-book, your will nearly double your chances of generating a productive lead!

I remember that I saw a GREAT funny opt-in page with a few icebreakers:

• The website says you can double your income in a month? Billy G. and Warren B. can't and neither can you!!
• How many hours did he spend before So-and-So Internet marketing guru could make money lying on his bed?

And so on. These help build trust with your potential subscriber. So basically, short or almost no copy, no over-used industry terms (that's no hype), no powerful words, lots of humor, and make the page short. Now, double your subscribers by next next next Monday. Have fun.

Important tips for email marketers

I'm not an email marketer. In fact, I'm far from one.

Needless to say, if you've clicked on the TrafficSwarm or InstantBuzz ads
and have signed up for the average 'free offer,' your email is sure to be barraged with-

"How this guy made 291239.23 in one month from Adsense alone" or
"Mr X will be making a secret call exposing the secrets of Internet Marketing."

-and the like.

When you sign up, they say they "will not rent sell, give way, exchange your email address",
which is good of course, but the emails from them alone are already cluttering every nook of
my inbox. I unsubscribe quickly.

Although I myself am not a email marketer, I do have a few suggestions:

1. Keep the email short.
Most people are BUSY. They will delete your email.
(or worse, unsubscribe)

2. Try very, very hard not to
send emails every day. It kills the effect.
Try to remember: It is annoying.
Instead, try to send emails, every three or four days,
with some free stuff occasionally.

3. Don't stuff your email with affiliate links,
or "recommends" time, after time, after time.
I've subscribed to a list that send me about ten
"recommends" every day; the list was called
"The Best Ezine." (name changed slightly)

4. Make it useful. Think as if you were the average person
reading your email.

The bottom line, and Golden Rule of Email Marketing:
Email unto others what you would have them email unto you.