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GuruGrounds.

com – How to Start and Market an On-


line Business
GuruGrounds

Published: 2010
Categories(s): Non-Fiction, Business & economics, General, Internet
Marketing, Home-Based Businesses
Tag(s): "Starting a business online" "internet marketing" "making money
online"

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How to Start & Market an Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Contents
Introduction to GuruGrounds.com.. 17
About Gurugrounds.com and What We Teach. 17
Things You Should Know About GuruGrounds. 17
Who We Created GuruGrounds For. 18
Course 1: How to Start an Online Business. 20
Section 1: The Various Internet Business Models. 20
Why You Should Start An Online Business Now! 20
What Type of Online Business Is Right For You?. 21
The First Steps. 22
Section 2: Getting Started With Your Online Business. 22
How to Think Like an Entrepreneur. 23
Further Examination of Your Business Idea. 23
Identifying Your Target Market 28
Sizing Up Your Markets Competition. 29
Section 3: How to Make a Proper Business Plan. 29
The Importance of a Business Plan. 30
How a Business Plan Should Be Structured. 30
Getting Help with Writing the Business Plan. 31
Thinking Long Term When Writing a Business Plan. 32
Section 4: Funding Your Online Business. 32
The Low-Cost, Tight Budget Method. 33
Finding a Good Investor. 35
Alternative Financing Sources. 37
Buying an Existing Website. 37
Section 5: Serving Your Online Customers with Integrity. 38
The Customer Comes First 38
Policies, Policies, Policies. 39
Keeping Your Word. 41
Section 6: Setting Up Your Office and Workspace. 42
An Effective Floor Plan. 42
Office Equipment 42
Tools of the Trade. 43

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Internet Connection. 44
Course 2: Legal Issues and Managing Your Businesses Money. 46
Section 1: Keeping Your Internet Business Legal and Within the Law..
46
Maintaining A Legitimate Legal Business. 46
Zoning Laws And Restrictions For A Home Business. 48
Obtaining the All Mighty Business Licenses. 49
Section 2: Choosing the Best Business Structure For You. 50
Determining What Organization Will Work Best 50
Sole Proprietorship. 51
Partnerships. 52
Limited Liability Company. 52
Incorporating Your Business. 52
Changing the Legal Structure Down the Road. 54
Section 3: Trademarks and Copyrighting. 54
Why Trademarks and Copyrights Are Important 54
Making a Trademark. 55
Protecting IP’s With Copyrights. 55
Getting a Professional 56
Section 4: Accounting. 56
Paying Your Taxes. 56
Accounting 101. 58
QuickBooks and Accounting Software. 60
Hiring a Professional 61
Good Recordkeeping Habits. 63
Course 3: How to Design a Website for Your Internet Business. 65
Section 1: The Right Domain Name for Your Internet Business. 65
Carefully Choosing Your Domain Name. 65
Where to Register the Domain Name. 66
What You Should Do If Your Domain Name Is Already Taken. 66
Why Finding a Good Domain Name Is So Hard To Find. 67
Section 2: User Friendly Website Design. 68
Optimizing You Website for Profitability. 68
What Is Good Website Design?. 69
Flash Web Design. 71
Function, Function, Function. 71
Section 3: Building a Website on a Shoe String Budget 73
Planning For Success. 73
Building a Website On Your Own. 75
Hiring a Professional 76

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Section 4: Hosting Your Website. 79
The Terms You Need To Know When Seeking a Hosting Service. 79
Finding the Best Host 80
Section 5: Creating User and Search Engine Friendly Content 81
Effective Internet Writing. 81
Writing for the Internet 81
Motivating Your User to Take Action. 83
Search Engines Friendly Words. 85
Section 6: Launching Your Website. 85
Testing, Testing, Testing. 86
Course 4: How to Operate Your Online Business. 88
Section 1: Ways to Monetize Your Online Business. 88
Selling Physical Products. 88
Selling Your Skills and Services. 92
Information Products. 93
Selling Ad Space. 94
Affiliate Advertising. 95
Multiple Streams of Income. 96
Section 2: Marketing Affiliate Programs. 97
The Ins And Outs of Affiliate Programs. 97
Joining an Affiliate Network. 99
Avoiding Scams and Staying Legitimate. 100
Section 3: Selling Information/Digital Products for Your Online Busi-
ness. 101
Creating an Information Product 101. 102
EBooks. 103
Creating a Webinar. 105
Section 4: Payment Options for Your Internet Business. 105
Credit Cards and Merchant Accounts. 106
Alternative Payment Methods. 108
Protecting Yourself from Fraud. 108
Section 5: Shopping Carts and Ecommerce. 109
The Variety of Shopping Carts. 109
Hosted Shopping Carts. 111
Purchasing Shopping Cart Software. 111
Custom Made Shopping Cart 112
Section 6: Inventory. 112
Using EBay to Find Out What People Are Buying. 113
Doing Your Research. 113
How to Price Your Products. 114

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How to Handle Your Inventory. 115
Section 7: Keeping Up with Demand and Filling out Orders for Your
Online Business. 116
Systematizing the Process. 116
In-House Delivery. 117
Outsourcing Fulfillment 117
Shipping and Handling. 118
Keeping Things in Check on the Back End. 120
Course 5: How to Deal with Hackers and Fraud When Doing Business
Online. 122
Section 1: The Risks Associated With Internet Security And Doing
Business Online. 122
Your Legal Responsibility as the Merchant 122
Securing Your Website. 124
Seals of Approval and Displaying Certificates. 124
Section 2: Having Your Website Hacked and How to Protect Your
Data. 125
Denial of Service. 125
Protecting Yourself and Your Business. 125
Saving and Backing Up Data. 126
Course 6: Storefronts and How They Work. 129
Section 1: Using a Storefront for Your Online Business. 129
The Essential Features of a Storefront 129
Recommended Storefronts. 131
Section 2: Amazon aStore And Other Storefronts. 131
Marketplace. 131
Pro Merchant 132
Astores. 132
WebStores. 132
Section 3: Yahoo! E-Commerce Store. 133
Yahoo Store Functions. 133
Getting Started With Your Yahoo Store. 133
Yahoo Plans. 134
Yahoo Fees. 135
Section 4: Using EBay for Your Internet Business. 135
Starting Out On EBay. 136
The Benefits of Running an Auction. 137
EBay Store. 137
Course 7: Getting Your Brick and Mortar Business Online. 141

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Section 1: Deciding That the Time Is Right to Move Your Business On-
line. 141
Connecting Your Online and Offline Store. 142
Deciding On Inventory. 142
Section 2: Getting to Know Your Online and Offline Customers. 143
Comparing the Online and Offline Shopping Experience. 143
What the Online Shopper Will Expect From You. 144
Section 3: Common Problems with Getting Your Business Online. 144
Managing Your Inventory. 144
Dealing With Returned Products from Online Purchases. 145
Course 8: Selling To a Niche Market 148
Section 1: Finding an Untapped Niche to Sell To. 148
Finding a Niche. 148
Section 2: The Children and Elderly Niche Markets. 149
Marketing To the Younger Audiences. 149
The Over 50 Market 151
Section 3: Blogging about Niche Markets. 152
Getting People to Read Your Blog. 152
Earning Money. 154
Blog Platforms. 154
Course 9: How to Market Your Internet Business Online 101. 157
Section 1: Increasing the Number of Sales for Your Online Business.
157
Conversion Rates and Other Formulas. 157
The Basics to Marketing Your Website. 158
Section 2: Having a Good Reputation on the Internet 159
Writing Articles. 159
Interacting With Your Community. 162
Section 3: Marketing Your Internet Business Online. 162
Marketing Strategy. 163
Email Newsletters. 163
Automation and Creating Systems to Simplify Your Life. 165
Search Engine Advertising. 166
Marketing In the Offline World. 167
Section 4: Increasing Your Conversion Rates. 168
Getting Customers to Stay On Your Website. 168
Giving Customers What They Want Before They Know It 169
Making Your Website Buyer Friendly. 170
Simplifying Shopping Experience. 171
The Dangers of Assuming What Your Customers Want 171

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Converting Viewers into Buyers. 172
Section 5: Web Analytics and Tracking Your Customers. 173
Trends. 174
Using Your Data to Make Changes. 174
Section 6: Search Engine Optimization and Ranking High In Google.
175
How Search Engines Work. 175
The Most Important Aspects of SEO.. 176
Submitting You Website to the Search Engines. 177
Where to Place Keywords on Your Website. 177
Moving Up In the Rankings and Finding out Where You Stand. 178
Course 10: How to Build You Presence Online. 181
Section 1: Getting Your Brand Online and Spread Across the Net 181
Marketing Process. 181
Developing Your Site. 182
Section 2: Making Money on the Internet 183
Affiliates Assistance. 185
Joint Venturing. 186
Section 3: Branding and Marketing For Your Online Business. 187
Color Selection. 188
Site Layout 188
Section 4: Connecting and Integrating Your Multiple Sites. 189
Section 5: How to Write Excellent Web Copy. 190
Section 6: How to Find an Expert Marketer. 191
Course 11: Social Media Marketing. 194
Section 1: What Is Social Media?. 194
Understanding and Exploring Social Media. 194
Blogging. 195
Social Networks. 196
Bookmarking Sites. 197
Microblogging. 198
Media Sharing Sites. 199
Popularity Sites. 199
Aggregators. 200
Section 2: Creating Your Social Media Network. 200
What To Track. 200
Section 3: How to Set Up a Social Media Marketing Plan. 200
Research Your Target Readers. 201
Create Your Message. 202
Preparing Your Style. 203

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Developing Your Profile. 204
Selecting Your Sites. 204
Reviewing Your Content 205
Planning a Routine. 205
Section 4: Top Social Media Sites and How To Use Them.. 205
FaceBook Finesse. 206
Making MySpace Yours. 206
Linked In With LinkedIn. 207
Bookmark like a Pro! 207
Share through Multimedia. 208
Participate In a Discussion. 208
Microblog to Success. 208
Answer Questions. 209
Section 5: Networking Your Business Online. 209
Section 6: Non-Intrusive Internet Marketing. 210
Course 12: PPC and the Basics of Online Advertising. 213
Section 1: Understanding What PPC Advertising Is. 213
Search Engine Relevancy. 213
PPC Pros and Cons. 213
Section 2: The Big Players in PPC Advertising. 214
Comparing the Big Players. 214
Lesson 3: How to Create an Excellent PPC Keyword List 215
Google Keywords Tool 215
Choosing, Organizing and Working With Keywords. 215
Match Types. 216
Destination URLs. 216
Keyword Tracking and Changing Your Keyword List 217
Section 4: How to Write Ads That Convert and Make Money. 217
Structure of PPC Ads. 217
Writing A PPC Ad. 218
Test for Successful Ads. 218
Section 5: How to Budget and Bid for Keywords. 219
Having A PPC Budget 219
Keyword Bidding. 220
Schedule Bidding and Spending. 221
Section 6: Understanding the Law When It Comes To PPC. 221
Click Fraud. 222
Section 7: Tips, Tools, and Tricks of the Trade for PPC Advertising. 222
Managing Content Network Campaigns. 223
Course 13: Basic Guide to Blogging and Podcasting. 225

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Lesson 1: Choosing a Profitable Topic to Blog About 225
Choosing Your Blog Topic. 225
Find Your Competitors. 227
Section 2: Starting a Blog for Your Online Business. 227
Blogging Tools. 228
Other Blogging Options. 229
Setting Up Your Blog. 230
RSS Feeds. 231
Section 3: How to Write Like a Professional Blogger. 232
Avoiding Writers Block. 233
Section 4: Networking With Other Bloggers. 234
Lesson 5: Building Community and The World Of Blogging. 235
Lesson 6: How to Promote Your Blog Posts. 237
Posting On StumbleUpon. 238
Submit To Digg. 238
Other Social Marketing Sites. 239
Section 7: Basic Guide to Podcasting. 239
Preparing a Script and Recording Your Podcast 242
Encoding and Uploading. 243
Course 14: Effective Email Marketing. 246
Section 1: Setting Up an Email Marketing Strategy. 246
Section 2: How to Become a Trusted Email Sender. 247
Avoiding Spam Complaints. 249
Section 3: How to Build a Quality Email Subscriber List 251
Collecting Subscriber Information through Email 252
Collecting Subscriber Information through Website. 253
Collecting Subscriber Information Person. 254
Collecting Subscriber Information with Print 254
Incentives for Signups. 255
List Building with List Brokers. 255
Section 4: How to Create an Effective Marketing Email 257
Filling Out the From Line. 257
Completing a Subject Line. 259
Branding Emails. 260
Basics of Email Layout 261
Email and Images. 263
Emails and Text 264
Emails and Links. 265
Section 5: How to Create Valuable Email Content 268
Valuable Offers. 268

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Effective Calls to Action. 270
Section 6: Tracking Your Results with Email Marketing. 273
Section 7: Increasing Your Emails Deliverability. 277
Course 15: Guide to Web Analytics. 283
Section 1: Getting Started With Web Analytics. 283
Understanding What Can and Can’t Be Done With Web Analytics. 283
Privacy. 284
How Reporting Tools Work. 285
Deciding Which Reporting Tool to Go With. 286
Setting up Your Server for Log File Reporting. 286
Creating an Account with Google Analytics. 287
Section 2: Keeping Track Of Your Internet Businesses Traffic. 288
Hits Aren’t Everything. 289
The Most Important Traffic Metrics. 289
Keeping a Close Eye on Your Referrers. 291
Section 3: Referrer Metrics and Analytics. 292
Referrers. 292
Understanding the Referring Analytic Terms. 292
How to Use Referral Data. 293
Referring Keywords. 293
Section 4: Determining the Quality of Traffic with Analytics. 294
Determining and Applying Benchmarks. 294
Bounce Rates. 295
Key Performance Indicators. 295
Course 16: Ranking High In Google with Good SEO.. 298
Section 1: Increasing Sales with SEO.. 298
The Purpose of Search Engines. 298
How the Search Engines Determine Relevancy. 299
Black Hat SEO.. 300
Tools of the Trade. 300
Keeping a Tab on Your Results. 302
Section 2: SEO and Effectively Using Keywords. 302
Understanding Your Target Market 302
The Long Tail Theory. 303
Tools To Find the Best Keywords. 303
Picking Out the Best Keywords. 304
Inspect the Competition. 305
Section 3: Common Problems with Search Engines and SEO.. 305
Roadblocks to Getting Noticed By the Search Engines. 305
Making It Easy For the Search Engines to Crawl Your Website. 306

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The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar. 308
Duplicate Content 308
Broken Links. 309
Section 4: Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines. 309
Optimizing Your Site Structure for Search Engines. 310
Trust 311
Section 5: How to Capitalize On Blended Search Results. 311
The Other Stuff Google Will Blend In. 312
News. 313
Section 6: How to Write Quality Web Copy For SEO.. 314
Brainstorming Ideas. 315
Writing for the Web. 315
Title Tags. 316
Description Tags. 317
Headlines. 317
Write For Customers Not Search Engine. 317
Make Writing a Routine. 318
How to Find Writers. 318
Section 7: Techniques for Link Building and Getting Backlinks. 319
Link Votes. 319
Linkable Content 319
Easy Places and Ways To Get Backlinks. 320
Quality over Quantity. 323
What to Avoid. 323
Seeing What Your Competition Is Doing. 323
Section 9: SEO Experts and What They Can Do For You. 324
Finding the Right SEO Expert 324
Realistic Expectations. 326

Disclaimer

Whether you are looking to expand your knowledge base, or are start-
ing scratch, this book is sure to help you out. While the information
within is vast, and can be applied at various levels, this book in no way
guarantees that you will make millions.
The information is worth your time and money (even though this is
for free), and if was to be sold, we would charge $1 Billion dollars, but
we aren’t.

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This book is packed with thousands of useful methods that can be ap-
plied to any niche, but success depends on your ability to apply the in-
formation to your specific topic.
In addition to reading this book, be sure to read additional content
which may be more targeted towards your specific market. The advice
and situations discussed within this book may not apply to every situ-
ation and any recommendations made by this book, is not to be held
accountable.
The information contained within including but not limited to all lo-
gos, tables, content and information is copyrighted by Carbon West Di-
gital, 2010.

Introduction to
GuruGrounds.com
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Introduction to GuruGrounds.com
For 20 years the internet has consistently proven itself to be an effect-
ive place to conduct business. Due to the internet’s ability to constantly
change, more and more people have realized the viability of doing busi-
ness online.
While there have been many cases of fraud and negligence, with the
update of technology and security, the internet has become one of the to-
go methods in creating and running a successful business. This may
seem as a complicated process, but by reading this book, you are already
on your way to success.

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About Gurugrounds.com and What We Teach
After witnessing firsthand the difficult process of starting and running
an online business, we felt that a guide was needed. While the internet
has adapted to the times, launching your business is still a fairly complic-
ated process. To help you with that, we decided to combine our years of
experience and create a guide that helps you with all aspects of starting
and marketing your online business.
While we are providing this content to help others make money, we
are also benefiting as well.
We made an effort to research, catalogue and bring together all the as-
pects of online business into one condensed package for learning. Be-
cause we try to cover every aspect of online business we encourage you
to first learn as much as possible and then with the information you’ve
gathered, narrow your focus on a specific type of business.
Use this information as a reference when creating your business.
Not only do we cover the ONLINE aspects of running a business but
we also talk about the OFFLINE experience such as basic accounting
principles, legal aspects, and managing physical products.
Of course learning only our material is not enough to get rich so you
will have to do your part and remember running an online business re-
quires persistence, a lot of learning and hard work.

Things You Should Know About GuruGrounds


This site covers everything you MAY need to know but doesn’t mean
you will need to apply everything to your business. Consider this site a
reference/encyclopedia for running an online business.
You don’t have to read everything; you can skip chapters if they don’t
pertain to your business. If you are better informed on an area of the
book, specific to your niche, then we suggest at least skimming the sec-
tion, to verify with a second opinion (three heads are better than one).

Who We Created GuruGrounds For


This site wasn’t written for the person who’s never touched a com-
puter. If you aren’t sure where the power button is, you may want to
think about hiring a professional (or at the very least, taking some basic
computer classes).
You should be individual who is self motivated, entrepreneurial, and
passionate about your business or product. If you feel that you possess

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any of these qualities, you should still understand the basics of web
browsing, email and navigating the internet.
For those of you looking to get started, this package of information
will definitely be the ultimate reference guide when looking to start and
expand a new or existing business venture.
Our ultimate goal is to provide you with the tools required for you to
succeed. But remember, we can only open the door for you; it is up to
you to walk through it.

Course #1
Starting an Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 1: How to Start an Online Business

Section 1: The Various Internet Business Models


Before you start an online business you should know what your op-
tions are. There are many different E-Business models out there and they
each require a different skill set. This section will briefly go over the dif-
ferent types of E-Business models.

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Why You Should Start An Online Business Now!
The internet is maturing and becoming a more stable place. In the be-
ginning, conducting business online was risky and unpredictable. But
now, with more people online than ever before (and those numbers are
predicted to increase for many years to come), online business has be-
come safer and more productive. People are becoming more and more
comfortable purchasing online.
Online retail sales in the U.S. alone are expected to reach $335 billion
by the year 2012 (According to studies done by Forrester Research).
There are over 238 million internet users in the U.S. and in the online
world they aren’t limited by location.
The internet makes it easy for someone with no startup capital to start
a business and start making money. You can create a website for free
and the cost of hosting and maintaining it are getting cheaper and
cheaper.
There is very low overhead and with that there is the potential of
achieving financial freedom and making really good money. The great
thing about all this is that physical location is not an issue, so you can
work from home! You’re not limited to the people in your geographical
area. You can sell to virtually anyone on the planet. And because you’ll
be self employed, you can work when you want and as much as you
want.
Ecommerce applications are becoming more accessible and easier to
use, thereby allowing novices to compete with the bigger companies. In
regards to the tools required to start an online business, they are cheap
and easy to use so you can start right away.
The demand, still out ways the supply, for many niches. Even if your
niche has a lot of competition, there’s always room for more.
What Type of Online Business Is Right For You?
The next step after deciding if you want to start an online business is
to find out what kind of online business you want to run. You should
choose a business that you’re passionate about and be sure to choose
something that you’d be willing to stick with for a long time. Carefully
choosing your business, will pay off in the end.

Thinking In the Long Term


Not all businesses will become giants like Amazon or eBay. Many
businesses will take years before they reach their peak in sales.
Even though there are business’s that only take advantage of short
term trends and do very well, the majority of those business’s never

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reach their full potential for that market. By choosing a business that will
last into the long term, you’ll have the time to learn, develop and take
over in your chosen market. Think tortoise and the hare.

The Many Faces of Online Business


All online business models generally fall into two categories: business
to consumer and business to business. In some cases your product may
be applicable to both business and individuals.
Knowing whether your customers will be from a business or from in-
dividuals will allow you to create a better marketing plan. Keep in mind
that both types of customers require very different business models.
Here are some of the ways you can create revenue online:
Etail: if you have a brick and mortar site and you offer your products
online, you have an etail site.
Storefront: A strictly online store where you have no actual physical
business but you sell products online, either through drop shipping or
by shipping out your own products.
Service Business: You don’t always have to sell a product; you can
also sell your services.
Content site: Information is a commodity and can be sold online in the
form of an information product or you can distribute it for free and re-
ceive income through advertisements.
Applications and programs: People are always looking for an app/
program to do some task for them. Some people are willing to pay a
large amount of money for an app/program, especially if it will save
them money and time in the long run. Shopping cart apps and account-
ing software are two examples.

The First Steps


So you've decided to start an online business but now what?
Here are some steps to help you get started
Make a commitment to yourself. If you're going to start an online
business you'll need to be committed to it. This is not something you can
do halfway and be successful at.
Identify your business model. Take into consideration your hobbies,
skills and past experiences and decide which business model is best for
you.
Clarify exactly what you want. When setting goals you should write
down exactly what you want on paper. If you know what you want
you’re more likely to get it.

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Consult family members and friends. After developing a clear vision
of exactly what you want, talk to your friends and family up about it.
Getting an outsider's opinion will help you work out kinks in your idea.
Further clarify your business idea. Now that you've figured out the
holes in your business idea it's time to further develop their bulletproof
business idea.
Make a timeline. Write down all the steps required to achieve your
goal and set a date to them. This will prevent you from getting over-
whelmed and it will keep you focused.

Section 2: Getting Started With Your Online Business


This section will talk about turning your ideas into a reality.
Even though you have a clear vision of what you want, your plans still
have a long way to go. You still need to identify your customers,
products and/or services.
By the end of this SECTION you may realize that your plan is not even
feasible. If this is the case you'll just have to take a step back and rethink
your idea.

How to Think Like an Entrepreneur


Running an online business is very similar to running a traditional
brick-and-mortar business. Customer service, taxes, and accounting are
just a few examples of the commonalities between a traditional business
and online business.
The term netrepreneur is used to describe someone who conducts
business online. To become a good netrepreneur there are some skills
you'll need to acquire.
• You must be able to think like a customer so you can better under-
stand their needs.
• You must understand that the smallest change on your website
can create dramatic results.
• You must perfectly understand who your customers are. There are
tools you can use to analyze the habits of your customers. You can
see how much time they spend on your website, where they click,
what time of the day they come to your website, where they come
from and much more.
• You must be able to respond to fast and dramatic changes. The In-
ternet is constantly changing and you must change with it. In or-
der to be successful with an online business, you must make the
effort to understand the new trends, legal issues, privacy and

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security concerns, and the technology and tools that are at your
disposal.

Further Examination of Your Business Idea


Poor planning leads to poor performance.
Your first idea is usually not the best idea so it's important to deeply
examine your idea for potential problems and concerns. At the very least
spend a week thinking of your business idea. Also be sure to take a step
back every once in a while to have a fresh, new, objective outlook.
Conduct informal research to verify the feasibility of your idea. You
can do this by asking your friends, coworkers, and other professionals.
You should ask them the following questions:
• Have you ever seen this type of product or service?
• Would you ever consider buying this product or service?
• What do you think of this idea?
• What problems do you foresee me encountering?
• What do you think are the pros and cons of this idea?
• Do you think of me as the type of person who would sell this
product or service? Why or why not?
Contact organizations that support small businesses and tell them
your idea to get high-quality feedback.
The following links are just a few organizations that are out there to
help small businesses:
Small Business Administration www.sba.gov
Small Business Development Center www.sba.gov/sbdc
Chamber of Commerce www.uschamber.com
SCORE www.score.org
Woman’s Business Center www.onlinewbc.gov
You should also consult your potential customers.
Ask them the following questions:
• Would you ever use this product or service?
• Do you currently use any products like this?
• How much would you be willing to pay for this type of product or
service?
• Would you use it often?
• Where would you normally find this product or service?
• Would you ever order this product or service online?
It's impossible to please everyone but if you find that majority of the
responses are positive then you should consider taking your idea to the
next level.

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Applying the SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is a popular method used to determine the pros
and cons of any idea.
SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors, meaning that they spe-
cifically contribute (good or bad) to the proposed business.
Opportunities and threats are considered external factors since they
deal with things outside of your control and factors that are influenced
by the environment.
Follow these steps to create your own SWOT chart:
1. On a sheet of paper, draw a large cross separating the page into
four quadrants.
2. The upper left quadrant should be labeled as STRENGTHS.
3. The upper right quadrant should be labeled as WEAKNESSES.
4. The lower left quadrant should be labeled as OPPORTUNITIES.
5. The lower right quadrant should be labeled as THREATS.
6. Go through each quadrant and fill out each category to the best of
your ability.
When filling out the STRENGTH category, ask yourself these
questions:
• What are the benefits of the product or service?
• Am I an expert in this industry?
• Can I get a patent or copyright to protect my idea?
• Are my skills applicable to this business?
When filling out the WEAKNESSES category, ask yourself these
questions:
• How much will it cost to produce or offer my product or service?
• Will it be difficult to get suppliers?
• Do I have enough experience in this industry?
When filling out the OPPORTUNITIES category, ask yourself these
questions:
• Is there a big demand my product or service?
• Is my idea a growing trend?
• Will I be able to take advantage of a new technology?
When filling out the THREATS category, ask yourself these questions:
• Will I be able to compete with my competitors?
• How big are my competitors?

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• Are my competitors able to provide the product or service at a
cheaper price?
• Will my product be in need five years from now?
Take a look at each quadrant; do the strengths and opportunities out-
weigh the threats and weaknesses?
Is there anything you can do to offset the disadvantages?
There'll always be a few weaknesses and threats on your SWOT ana-
lysis but the fewer the better.
Keep working on your idea until all the factors have been taken into
consideration.

An Idea That's Right for You


For some of you coming up with a business idea comes easy. Many en-
trepreneurs can be considered dreamers as they're constantly coming up
with new ideas.
If you are one of these entrepreneurs the biggest problem is not com-
ing up with a business idea but instead choosing which one to pursue.
If you can answer YES to the following questions, then your business
idea is worth pursuing:
• Are you interested in this idea?
• Does this product or service get you excited?
• Are you knowledgeable about this product or service?
• Do you have the money on hand to start this business?
• Are you willing to change your lifestyle to pursue this idea?
• Would operating this business get you closer to achieving your
personal goals?
• Would operating this business get you closer to achieving your
professional goals?
• Can you see yourself owning and running this business 10 years
from now?
• Does this idea pass your feasibility test?

How Feasible Is Your Online Business?


Once you've done the SWOT test and received feedback from friends,
family and other professionals there is one last step to completely valid-
ate your idea.
A feasibility study is a formal written process to help you determine
how realistic and achievable your idea is. This is just another step to
make sure that all the kinks have been thought out.
Essentially the feasibility study will answer these basic questions:

20
• Will people buy my product or service?
• How much will it cost to start my business?
• How much profit will my business make?
• Is my idea worth pursuing?
Go through this list of questions to complete the feasibility study:
Products and Services
• What is the product or service that I am trying to sell?
• How will the customers use it?
• Where will my customers be able to buy it?
• How will my product or service be delivered to my customers?
• How will I make my product?
• How will I test my product?
Management Experience
• Do I have any management experience?
• Who will manage my business?
• What specifically are my skills and credentials?
• What skills should I work on?
• How much time and when can I devote myself to my business?
The Marketplace
• How big of a demand is there for my product?
• Who exactly are my customers?
• What is my target market?
• How big is my target market?
• Is my market growing or getting smaller?
• What is the best way of reaching out to my target market?
The Competition
• Who exactly are my competitors?
• What makes me different from my competitors?
• How exactly to my competitors market their products and
services?
• Is my product or service easy to replicate? If so, how can I prevent
it?
The Costs of Business
• How much does my product or service cost me?
• How much money will I need to start my business?
• How much will I need to make in order to make profit?
• What other costs will my business have?
When you answer these questions make sure you back them up with
actual research. The more accurate your information is the better you'll

21
be able to run your business. If you can answer all these questions you
are ready to move to the next step.

Identifying Your Target Market


Your target market is essentially the term used to identify your buyers.
The better you know your target market, the more successfully you’ll
be able to market to them.

Classifying Your Customer


It will be easier to market if you know what your customer wants. It
will also save you time and money if you market effectively to your
market.
When you identify your market, take into consideration these
questions:
• Demographics: what are the income, age group, gender and occu-
pations of your market?
• Psychographics: what are your markets life style, hobbies, taste in
fashion, and taste in music?
• Demographics: where do your customers live? Which country?
Which neighborhood? Urban or suburban?
• Uses: how, when and where will your market use your product?
Your market will most likely be a mixture of different people but find
the most common denominator.

How to Find Out Exactly Who Your Customer Is


You must conduct some research to clearly identify your target
market.
Surveys and focus groups “can” be effective but they should only be
taken with a grain of salt. What a customer thinks they want is not al-
ways what they actually want, keep that in mind.
There are companies such as “Gartner Group” and “IDC” that offer
market research; they can be pricey though ranging from several hun-
dred to several thousand dollars.
Search online for market research relating to your product. There are a
ton of free online resources to help you with this.
Find your biggest competitors and observe their customers. Although
copying your competitors can be effective in some respects it doesn’t
mean you’ll get the same results.

Sizing Up Your Markets Competition

22
The more you know about your market, competitors and the industry
the better off you’ll do.
Document a list of all your competitors and update it often, for each
competitor you should document information such as:
• Their website address
• The types of products and or services that they offer (details,
prices)
• Promotional work such as ads (brochures, flyers, posters,
commercials)
• How often they have sales, and how big they end up being.
The more information you have, the better. Subscribe to all the email
newsletters and promo offers, offered by your competitors, this will
make it much easier to keep up to date with them.
Knowledge is power so don’t let this information go to waste, use the
information you’ve gathered to strengthen your business strategy. Com-
pare the strengths and weaknesses of your business with that of your
competitors. Do they do a better job at a certain task? If so learn from
them and implement their strategy into yours. If your competitors have
a major flaw in their strategy, learn from it and avoid doing the same if
possible.
You can use the information you’ve gathered to define your business
and make it more unique in relation to your competitors. You don’t want
to be a copycat so try to stand out. Be strong where they’re weak.
Depending on the market, pricing your products for a lower price is
not always a good idea. Use your competitors pricing strategy as a
guide, take it into account but do what’s best for “your” business.

Section 3: How to Make a Proper Business Plan


People who are starting a business for the very first time will often ask
“why should I write a business plan?” and they’ll say something like
“it’s all in my head”. Almost all successful business people without ex-
ception will tell you that a business plan is essential.
You can get entire books on writing business plans so this SECTION
will only cover the basics.

The Importance of a Business Plan


It’s important for the same reason as not writing your goals down. If
you don’t know where you’re going you’re like a ship lost at sea without
a destination. Without a destination in mind you’ll be going nowhere
fast.

23
Your business plan is like a map. The more information it contains the
easier it will be to find the destination and goal you had in mind. Writ-
ing a business plan can be a lot of work depending on how detailed you
make it, but it will pay off tremendously in the end.
A business plan will you keep your finances in order and you’ll be
able to see what is priority and what isn’t.
If you’re planning on getting money from an investor, bank or other
outside source you’ll need a business plan to show them. This goes more
or less without exception. The investors want to see that you know what
you’re doing.
A business plan will change with time because it does not only explain
what your business is about and how it works but it also explains where
the business is going and how it will get there, all those will change and
you business plan will need to change accordingly.

How a Business Plan Should Be Structured


A business plan should be no more than 20 pages and you can usually
get by with a lot less than that.
Most experts on the subject of business plans recommend breaking it
down into 7-8 sections as follows:
• The Executive Summary: even though this section appears first,
this section is written last. It’s essentially a summary of the entire
business plan.
• The Industry: This section is an overview of the industry your
business will be operating in. These sections should include in-
formation on industry trends, the major competitors in the in-
dustry, and industry sales.
• Market Analysis: This section will cover the primary target mar-
ket for your product or service, and it will include information
such as geographic location, demographics, your target market's
wants and how these wants are currently being met.
• Competitive Analysis: This will be an examination of your com-
petitors, with a look of their competitive advantages and how you
will be able to overcome any barriers to your market.
• Marketing Plan: This section is a detailed description of your mar-
keting strategy which will include a pricing plan, and any promo-
tional plans.
• Management Plan: This will be an outline of the legal and man-
agement structure of you business. This will include your internal
and external management team/resources.

24
• Operating Plan: This is the section where you describe the physic-
al location, facilities and equipment of your business. You’ll also
want to describe the inventory requirements and suppliers, and
include a description of the manufacturing process (if any).
• Financial Plan: Here you should describe your funding require-
ments and how the money will all be used.
You can use this format for any business.
Check out Bplans (www.bplans.com) for samples of other business
plans. Find a business plan for a business similar to yours and see how
they’ve done it. It can be extremely useful.

Getting Help with Writing the Business Plan


Your business plan “should” be very specific and a little research will
be required. Paying a professional to write your business plan can pay
off in the end if you’re not sure how to go about it.
There are a few computer programs and templates out there that can
assist you in writing the plan. We suggest Business Plan Pro which can
be found at: www.paloalto.com

Deciding Whether Or Not to Hire a Professional


Not all businesses need a professional business plan. If you’re initially
going to start your business on a part time basis and you plan on starting
without an outside investment a solid detailed plan is not needed.
If you want outside startup capital from investors, you’ll want a pol-
ished professional business plan. A business plan consultant/writer will
word your plan in such a way that speaks to investors. They’ll add all
the essential information that the investors will want to see. A profes-
sional will also help you save time if that’s an issue for you.

What You’ll Get From A Professional Business Plan Writer


A business plan writer will require a lot of information from you.
The job of the writer/consultant is to translate your thoughts and
plans into a cohesive business plan that will be both effective for you and
the investors.
The going price for a business plan writer/consultant ranges any-
where between $1,500 to $5,000, depending on the requirements.
Before deciding to hire a professional check out the following sites
since they may contain all the information you need to write a business
plan yourself:
• Small Business Development Center www.sba.gov/sbdc

25
• Chamber of Commerce www.uschamber.com
• SCORE www.score.org
If you do end up deciding to hire a professional be sure that they have
experience with your industry and online businesses. Read other busi-
ness plans written by the professional and ask for references.
As with all contracts, make sure that all the final terms are in a written
contract. With specifics of what each party member is responsible for.

Thinking Long Term When Writing a Business Plan


Your business plan is something that should always be kept in mind. It
should be referred to often and changed if needed.
Referring to your business plan often will help you deal with any issue
that arises and it will guide you in any decision making situations. Ask
yourself if the decision will take you closer or further away from your
vision.
It’s very easy to lose focus when running a business. You’ll get caught
up in the small things and lose sight of the big picture. Rereading the
business plan will keep you on track.

Section 4: Funding Your Online Business


Funding you online business is perhaps one of the scariest things
you’ll have to do, especially if you’re on a tight budget or you don’t cur-
rently have a well paying job.
If you borrow from the bank you’ll be faced with paying interest and
eventually paying it all back. You want to be absolutely sure that your
business will be successful in that case otherwise you’ll be paying it off
for a while.
This section will cover the various funding methods that will assist
your start-up.

The Low-Cost, Tight Budget Method


The more money you have, the easier it will be to start your business.
Luckily, online businesses can be started up for almost next to nothing.
The secret to starting a business on a low budget is to make a little
money go a long way. A tight budget will force you to think outside the
box and leverage all the opportunities that come your way.

The Frugal Lifestyle


Starting a business can be risky so the safest (but hardest thing) to do
is to keep your job while working on your business.

26
One option is to work part-time to earn enough cash for the essentials
but devote the rest of your time to your business.
Some people will keep their day job and work on their business at
night.
The key thing is to be financially safe and secure and to cut down ex-
penses so that you won’t run into problems. It will take you longer to
start your business but you’ll be in a better financial position in the long
run.
Thinking frugally forces you to be smarter with your money and make
the most out of the least.

Every Penny Counts


There are many ways to save money while starting up a business.
• Buy what you need and not what you want.
• Shop second hand and check out garage sales, thrift stores, and
eBay! Shopping second hand isn’t glamorous but it will save a lot.
• Create a daily, weekly, and monthly budget for yourself and fol-
low it to a tee.
• One effective method is to have a customer pay for the product be-
fore you yourself even have it. This only works with physical
products. Instead of buying or creating the products first and then
selling them, get the money first then create the item and ship it
out.
• Focus on the business before investing back into yourself. Sacri-
fices will need to be made in order to get your business up to the
level where you’ll be able to take a step back and relax. Rent out a
cheaper apartment or drive a cheaper car while growing your
business.
• Work smart, not hard. Focus on the tasks that will wield the
biggest results.
• Find people who will work for free. This is a lot easier then you
think. There are many people who will do jobs for you in return
for a good recommendation.
• Find professionals who are willing to guide you for free. Join a
mastermind group and you’ll be able to get free advice from other
business people.

Making Do with Nothing

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Bartering and trading are excellent ways to save money. Bartering and
trading is essentially getting something in exchange for one of your
products of services.
Southern Barter is an organization to help facilitate bartering and trad-
ing in your area. You can search online for similar organizations.
Don’t ever buy computer software before trying out the trial versions.
Most programs offer a 30 day trial period for free which may be long
enough to get your business off the ground. You can always buy the pro-
gram later.
Before going out and buying an expensive program, search for free-
ware (free software) that can do the same thing.
You can find freeware online from many websites. We recommend:
• Tucows.com www.tucows.com
• MajorGeeks.com www.majorgeeks.com
• Free-Downloadable-Software.com www.Free-Downloadable-
Software.com

The Benefits of Being Frugal


Being frugal does have its hardships, it requires discipline and
foresight but in the long run you can save a lot of money.
Investors will want to have a say in the direction of your business so if
you can fund it yourself you’ll retain full ownership. Because you don’t
have investors breathing down your back, you’ll be able to make de-
cisions quickly and on the spot.
Assuming you maintain full ownership of the business, you’ll reap
higher profits and you won’t have to worry about paying back the
investors.
Thinking frugally will prevent you from spending wastefully. Most
millionaires are millionaires because they spend wisely.

Finding a Good Investor


Some business start-ups require an initial investment that may be out
of reach for most people. In those cases where a large start-up capital is
needed an investor is their best option.
If your idea is good, investors will invest in your business with the
hope that there will be a return on investment or they’ll invest for partial
ownership.
It’s important that you know your options when looking for an
investor.

28
Friends and Family
This should be your first source of investments since your friends and
family are going to be the most flexible when it comes to you paying
them back and simply just dealing with them.
Family members and friends will usually not charge you interest on
the loan and you won’t have to deal with bureaucracy that’s usually
found with a bank. You’ll get your money right away with your family
and friends.
Depending on the people you know, it’s possible to get a large amount
of money by asking for a little from everyone.
There are downsides to getting money from your family though.
Approaching family members and friends for money can lead to prob-
lems in the relationship.
You’ll have to be careful with how much company stock you give up
to your friends and family. You don’t want to give them too much own-
ership and then have the company succeed… it can lead to sticky
situations.
Be sure to have proper terms of agreement written that all parties un-
derstand to prevent misunderstandings.
Often time’s people who get loans and funding from family and
friends keep the terms of agreement unstructured and loose. This can
lead to many problems.

Investment Angels
Angel investors are people who are willing to fund small businesses
and young company start-ups.
They’re usually much more lenient then full on investors but they’ll
still require a good business plan and some evidence to prove to them
that they’ll get a return on their investment.
Angels usually avoid getting involved in the actual business. They just
want to provide you with the funding and they’ll let you run your
business.
Also, angels usually give you more time to return their investments,
anywhere up to 5 years.
Here’s a list of angel networks that you’ll find useful.
AngelInvestorNews.com www.angel-investor-news.com
Funding Universe www.fundinguniverse.com
Go Big Network www.gobignetwork.com
NBAI.net www.nbai.net
vFinance.com www.vfinance.com

29
Venture Capitalist
Getting a venture capitalist to fund your project will not be easy.
Venture capitalists will not give money to start-ups. They want to see
that you have a good track record and that you’re able to deal with big
loans. Venture capitalist often invest anywhere from $500,000 to
$10,000,000 or more.
If you want money from a venture capitalist you need to be in a good
industry that shows growth. You’ll need a proven track record with an
experienced management team. Venture capitalists are looking to make a
big return and so you should be ready to give up control and leave it in
their hands if need be.
If you’re thinking of eventually getting a venture capitalist it’s best to
make connections now. Attend seminars hosted by venture capitalist
and connect with them online.
Research the different venture capitalist firms and focus on the ones
that invest in your industry.
Check out these two resources to learn more about the venture capital-
ist industry:
• The directory of venture capital and private equity firms, 2008 edi-
tion
www.greyhouse.com/venture.html
• The money tree report
(www.pwcmoneytree.com

Alternative Financing Sources


If you can’t find an Angel investor, your family and friends can’t loan
you anything and a venture capitalist is out of the question, there are still
many sources you can tap into.
Credit cards and lines of credit are excellent sources, try to find a cred-
it card that will offer reward points for money spent and be sure to get a
card with a low interest rate.
RRSPs and your 401(k) s are another source of funding, just be sure to
consider the penalties for early withdrawal.
Home equity loans are another option, this can be risky though and so
you have to ask yourself… are you willing to lose your home?
If you have poor credit, some banks and investors can offer you a high
interest loan.
Microloans are just as the name implies small loans. These loans usu-
ally go between $5,000 and $25,000 and you can receive them the day

30
you apply for them. There are many organizations out there that offer
micro loans and we recommend you check out:
Count me in www.countmein.org
Accion USA www.accionusa.org
Grants and awards are another way to go. Many companies and or-
ganizations offer grants and financial awards to innovative entrepren-
eurs. You’ll have to do some research to find these though as there isn’t
any resource that keeps track of them all.

Buying an Existing Website


These are thousands and thousands of online businesses, many of
which are quite successful.
Some business owners either don’t have time to operate the business
or they’ve lost passion for their business. Other businesses have a lot of
potential but the owners don’t have the motivation to fully take advant-
age of it. There are the businesses you want to think about buying.
If starting a business is too much work for you, purchasing one may be
an option for you. By buying a business you’ll be avoiding all the work
of starting it up and all the expenses that came with it. Starting a busi-
ness can be easy, but marketing it and establishing yourself in the market
can take a while so buying a website that’s already established will save
you a lot of time.
Although it’s not necessary, look for a business that already has a
steady flow of customers going through, you’ll be paying more but
you’ll have the security of knowing that the business actually works.
Some people make online businesses with the strict intention of selling
it after the initial start up phase, avoid these sellers as they’re looking to
make a profit and they may have used methods to inflate the price of the
site.
Look for owners that are dispassionate about their original idea, no
longer have time to maintain it, or owners that are strapped for cash,
these kind of owner s will sell the businesses for a cheaper price.
Look for a deal where you can put down a down payment and pay the
rest in installments. If the business is making money, you can use the
profits to pay back the installments.
Some business owners are willing to lease out their business. In the
case the owner will continue to own the business but you’ll run it until
you’ve paid off the asking price.

Section 5: Serving Your Online Customers with Integrity

31
The customer comes first, even in an online business and that is the
most important asset in your business; your customer base. What you do
for the customer is more important then what they do for you.
This section will cover good business practice and how to treat your
customer right.

The Customer Comes First


Good service will go a long way and is perhaps one of the most cost ef-
fective methods to retain a customer.
Having a pledge to your customers is an excellent way to not only let
you customer know what to expect from you, but it can serve as a
guideline for you and your employees on how to treat them.
Writing a Customer Pledge
The pledge can be as short or as long as you want and it can be specific
or vague but it has to be honest.
Write about what makes your service special and how you stand out
from the competitors. Explain how you view the customer and how im-
portant serving them is to you.
Mention what you will and won’t do for customers and make it clear.

Policies, Policies, Policies


A customer service pledge is not the only policy your website will
need.
You’ll also need a privacy policy, shipping policy, return policy, and
you may need a few others.
Some policies are mandated by the government so be careful when
writing it out (you must have these policies written out and kept
somewhere).
You should also have them on your website to prevent misunder-
standings and law suits.

Privacy Policy
Your privacy policy will state how you’ll collect, use, and treat the in-
formation you collect from people.
The information you gather includes cookies and other tracking data.
You can find a sample privacy policy at:
www.bbbonline.org/Privacy/sample_privacy.asp
The sample privacy policy can be used if you live in the USA and
you’ll just need to go through and change a few details.

32
A privacy policy for your online business is required by law in the
USA and it’s mandated by the FTC. The privacy policy has to be prop-
erly labeled and easy to access on your website.
It should include information about what information you gather, how
you use it, and who you share it with.

Terms of Services
Also known as a “user agreement” or “terms and conditions”.
Many membership sites ,where you have to register, will include this
during the registration process (a TOS is important if you want to avoid
getting sued for actions taken by users).
The TOS should indicate how users can and cannot use the site, also
legal issues, who are allowed to use the site, and any other rule you may
require.

Shipping Policy
This section should indicate how and when customer orders will be
handled and shipped.
There are FTC rules to comply with in regards to shipping and hand-
ling. Here are the rules:
• You must ship the product as stated on your website.
• You must ship the product within 30 days after the order has been
received, unless an earlier timeframe is specified.
• You must notify the customer ASAP if you’re unable to fulfill the
order.
• You must allow the customer to agree to any delay or to be able to
cancel the order and specify the amount of time required to be
refunded.
• You must include a correct and revised shipping date if there is a
delay.

Return Policy
The return policy should be clear and specific as there are always a
few people who will take advantage of you. The return policy is made to
not only protect you, but also your customer.
The return policy should clearly state the conditions by which a cus-
tomer is allowed to return a product and how they will be refunded.
The return policy should state:
• The time limit in which the owner has before they’re no longer
able to return the product.

33
• You’re right to reject a returned item if it shows obvious signs of
use.
• The fees associated with returning and restocking the items.
• Exactly what can and cannot be returned.
• You should state who will pay for shipping and handling on the
returned item.
• Will the customer receive cash or store credit?
• If you sell other businesses products you must direct the custom-
ers to their return policy.
To avoid having people take advantage of your return policy, minim-
ize the days in which they can try the product.

Protecting Young Users


If you live in the USA you’ll have to follow the rules of the FTC’s
COPPA which mandates that if your website is targeted to children un-
der 13 you must follow a certain set of rules:
• You must have a privacy policy on your front page and have a
link on any page that collects information.
• You must get the parents’ permission before collecting informa-
tion and you must explain to them how and what you collect.
• You must keep all the information private and confidential.
COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act)

Other Policies to Consider


Ultimately, policies can protect you from being sued and they’ll help
prevent misunderstandings and issues.
Many websites will include policies for forums and chat rooms, ex-
porting and Importing, spam and Email subscriptions, and Linking to
and from other sites.

Keeping Your Word


It’s not enough to write your policies and be idealistic; you actually
have to do what you say.
Not doing what you promise will bring down your reputation and
trust among your customers.
Many of the policies are government mandated so failing to follow
these rules, may have big consequences, don’t take your chances. These
policies are also there to keep you protected from being sued. So do what
you say and keep out of hot water.

34
If for whatever chance you are not able to meet the standards when
serving a customer: notify the customer ASAP, apologize, correct the is-
sue, and offer the customer a refund, credit, or discount.
Section 6: Setting Up Your Office and Workspace
Having a proper work space will save you a lot of time in the end, so
don’t take this lightly. You’ll be spending a lot of time in front of your
computer so make sure it’s comfortable.
This section will cover the essential equipment, hardware and layout
for an effective workspace.

An Effective Floor Plan


Whether you live in a tiny condo, or spacious home you’ll want to
setup an area specifically for working.
Will any work related people visit your home? If so you want to make
it as professional and clean as possible.
Will your business require employees to be at the office? (Unless
you’re selling a physical product all employees can work from their
home)
Make a list of all the items you’ll need. Also it’s best to have your com-
puter/office space outside of your bedroom and away from any distrac-
tions like the TV. You want a space made for working.
Draw a layout and make a plan before setting up your office.

Office Equipment
Long gone are the days of the $500 photocopiers, scanner, and
printers.
You can now get computer equipment for a very cheap price. Now
days you can get all in one device that can print, fax, copy, scan and
print DVD’s/CD’s for a very good price (around $150).
Even if you don’t need an all in one device, it’s still probably the most
practical purchase you can make.
Fortunately most online businesses can be entirely conducted online
without devices so unless you sell physical products and you have to
print out invoices, an all in one device is not necessary (but really good
to have).
If you’re selling physical products you should consider buying a digit-
al camera to display pictures on your website of your products.
If purchasing the equipment is out of the question due to finances you
can consider outsourcing that work and using a company like Kinko’s

35
(now FedEx) or Staples to do all you’re printing, faxing, and copying
work.

The Office Computer


A personal and accessible computer is absolutely essential if you want
to conduct business online. Fortunately for 99.99% of you, this should
not be a problem.
If you’re sharing a computer with room-mates, a spouse or family
members then you might want to consider buying a new computer.
If you’re a computer illiterate person that’s alright, buying a computer
has become very easy. You’ll want a fast and stable computer. If you
have a slow computer you might want to consider just upgrading it.
Most computer stores can guide you on what to buy and they’ll even in-
stall it for you for a low price.
A new computer can now be bought for as low $300 and for most on-
line business, it will be more than enough.
For the most part, you’ll be doing simple graphic work, and word pro-
cessing, a super powerful $1000 computer would be overkill.
Naturally though, you’ll most likely be using your computer for more
than just business so purchase according to your needs.
Also before buying a computer, make a list of all the programs you’ll
be using. You’ll want a computer that at the very least meets all the pro-
grams system requirements.

Tools of the Trade


Getting a computer won’t be enough; we suggest getting windows 7 as
your operating system as it already comes with many useful programs.
Every netreprenuer will have their own set of tools and programs that
they’ll swear by.
The following list of tools is recommended (you only need one email
manager):
Web Browsers
Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/
firefox/upgrade.html
Opera http://www.opera.com
Google Chrome www.google.com/chrome

Email Management
Thunderbird ht-
tp://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

36
Gmail www.mail.google.com/
Microsoft Outlook www.microsoft.com/outlook/

Document Viewing and Editing


Foxit PDF Reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/
pdf/reader/
Microsoft Office http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/
default.aspx

Media Viewing and Editing


Flash Player http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
Picasa http://picasa.google.ca/
VLC media player http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Miscellaneous
WinRAR http://www.rarlab.com/

Internet Connection
Depending on the region you live in, you’ll have a different internet
service provider (ISP).
Research your options and go for the most trustworthy and stable ISP.
You’ll also want either a DSL or Cable modem connection.
Don’t be lured in by cheap deals. You’ll want an ISP that’s stable and
provides fast service. There’s nothing worse than when your internet
goes down for a few days while you’re trying to do business.
The average going price for a good internet connection is about $20 -
$40 per month.

Course #2
Business Finance & Legal
Issues
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

37
Course 2: Legal Issues and Managing Your Businesses Money

Section 1: Keeping Your Internet Business Legal and Within the Law
There are many laws governing how you can run your business. An
online business not only has its own laws but also must also follow the
laws regarding a non-internet business.
The laws for online businesses change often so you must stay up to
date with the regulations. Also the laws are different state to state so be
mindful and consult a lawyer if you have any concerns.

Maintaining A Legitimate Legal Business


Before opening the doors and launching your web business, review
the laws and make sure you’re not breaking any of them. There will be
different regulations you must follow depending the type of business
you have.
We realize that reading and understanding the language used by law-
yers can be daunting so to help you learn more about the laws governing
your business be sure to check out these resources:
• Industry trade associations
• Local Chamber of Commerce
• Small Business Administration (SBA)

Employer Identification Number (EIN)


An Employer Identification number or EIN (also known as the
“Federal Tax Identification Number”) is a 9 digit number that is used to
identify a company for tax returns and certain forms. Also it is needed if
you have employees, or your business is a partnership or corporation.
To apply for EIN you can call 1-800-829-4933 and agents are available
to guide you through the process.
You can also apply online (probably the easiest method) at:
• https://sa.www4.irs.gov/sa_vign/newFormSS4.do
(If you don’t want to apply online you can download the form from
the website and mail the application).
Business accounts, loan applications, and many other documents ask
for an EIN but if you don’t have one your Social Security Number will
often do.

Getting a Resale Certificate

38
Depending on the state you live in, you may have to pay and collect a
sales tax on every product you sell. If you are required to collect and pay
tax, you may have to get a resale certificate (you may also need one if
you’re going to buy or sell wholesale).
With so many exceptions and various rules you may want to consult a
certified public accountant.

Creating a Business Account with Your Bank


You may be tempted to just operate your business through your cur-
rent bank account, this is a bad idea.
If you run and operate a legitimate business you’ll need to pay taxes
and therefore do proper accounting. If you use the same account for per-
sonal and business you’ll have a tough time doing the book keeping.
In order to get a business account the bank will ask for your EID, So-
cial Security Number, a copy of your business license, and any addition-
al business documentation. A good idea is to consult an accountant as
they can help find the best account for your business.

Department Of Health Permit


If you sell food products with your online business you will need a
permit from the department of health. Also prior to getting a permit,
your work place may be inspected to see if it meets all health regulations.
In addition, depending on what you’re selling you may also have to
follow the regulations set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This means that you will have to follow certain labeling regulations that
indicate ingredients and nutritional data.
The FDA’s website will have information on labeling standards and
starting and running a food business. You can find the website here:
• www.cfsan.fda.gov/~comm/foodbiz.html
There are exemptions for businesses that don’t exceed a certain yearly
sales amount. Exemptions are also given to those who don’t make nutri-
tional claims.

Employee Forms and Regulations


The IRS is something that we cannot avoid and if you are looking to
hire an employee, you will need to notify them. If you are the only em-
ployee, you will also need to let them know.
The following forms should be kept in mind as they are required by
the IRS:

39
• Form W-9: This form is given to independent contractors, consult-
ants, and free lancers.
• Form 1099: This form is filled out by you every time you hire
someone (not a contractor) to do $600 worth of work or less. This
form is also used if you barter or trade goods.
• Form W-4: This form is to be filled out by any employees you may
have. You’re responsible for withholding and taking out their
money for income tax, social security, Medicare, and FUTA
(federal unemployment taxes).
• FORM W-2: This form must be given to all your employees at the
end of January of each year. The W-2 indicates the total income
your employee made and how much you’ve held back for tax
reasons.

Zoning Laws And Restrictions For A Home Business


Conducting an online business from your home is perhaps one of the
simplest ways to go. But before starting your business, you should check
to see if you’re city will allow you to operate from home.
Zoning refers to what activities can be conducted in certain areas.
Some locations are zoned for residential housing only which means that
shops cannot be opened. Some areas are mixed use which means many
things can be built there. Your cities licensing and planning department
should be able to tell you what the zoning laws are in your area.
In most cases, for people living in a city, you’ll be allowed to conduct
business from home (but again, check to make sure).
Due to the fact that millions of people are now conducting business
from home, most cities can give you a variance for online home based
business owners.
To get a variance granted to you, you must assure your city council
that your home business will not:
• Bring a lot of traffic to your street.
• Have a lot of people coming in and out of your home.
• Have large delivery trucks (company vehicles included) around
your home.
• Require extra parking.
• Business signs on the outside of your home.
• Have harmful chemicals on site.
• Be warehousing a large number of items.
• Be selling products on site in person.
• Have more than 3 employees working on site.

40
These rules are made to protect the property value of the homes
nearby. These rules are also there to protect neighbors.
If your business requires the storage of a large number of products
consider leasing an offsite storage facility to manage and ship your
products.
In some cities you may be required to get a “home occupational per-
mit”. Usually for online business they are given automatically to you but
in some instances you’ll have to meet a certain criteria and pay a fee of $1
to $75 (Home Occupational Permit is not the same as a business license).
If you belong to a home owners association contact them to see if there
are any restrictions in regards to conducting business from home.
If you rent out an apartment or home, double check with the rental
agreement to make sure that you’re allowed to conduct business on the
property.
Don’t take any of this lightly; if you’re caught breaking the law you
“may” have your business shut down.

Obtaining the All Mighty Business Licenses


To conduct business you’ll need a business license. The price range
can vary from $25 to $2000 (or more) depending on the type of business
you conduct. Also note that these licenses usually expire within 1-2
years.
If you sell your business you won’t be able to transfer the license. Your
license will be void and the new owner will have to buy a new one. The
city issues you the license but depending on your business you may also
need a county license.
When purchasing your license the city clerk will ask you which cat-
egory your business falls under. If they don’t have an “online business”
category look through the list and find the cheapest and most related
one.
To find out where the nearest location is to apply for a license check
out the SBA website at:
• www.sba.gov/hotlist/license.html

Section 2: Choosing the Best Business Structure For You


There are many business structures for you to choose from, all of
which have very specific differences that can change your business dra-
matically. It’s important that you research your options and choose the
one that’s best for you (but don’t worry if you need to, you can change
the structure down the line).

41
Determining What Organization Will Work Best
Figuring out what system will work best isn’t hard but you will need
to know what you want.
A few questions to ask yourself are who will own and control your
business? Will there be multiple owners? Will you accept all the legal
consequences of your business? Or will you make a corporation to pro-
tect you from the liabilities?
While answering these questions be sure to understand that each busi-
ness structure is taxed differently. We suggest consulting a certified pub-
lic accountant, or tax attorney to figure out which option will work best
for you.
Another important factor to determine is funding. How you decide to
finance your company will effect which structure you choose. If you plan
on getting outside investors (angel investors or venture capitalist) you
must have a stock option. If you want other business to be able to invest
in your business your options for the business structure is limited.
Sole Proprietorship
Sole proprietorship is the cheapest, simplest and easiest business struc-
ture to form and operate. Only one person can own this type of business
and all you will need is a business license.
The problem with being a sole proprietor is that you’ll be legally re-
sponsible for everything that happens to the business and all legal mat-
ters. You and your personal assets will be liable under this structure for
the damages caused by your business
Also under this structure you’re responsible for all taxes. The profits
and losses of your business must be indicated on your personal tax re-
turns under Schedule C. You will have to pay Self-Employment taxes
(under Schedule SE) and your Self-Employment taxes will include your
Social Security and Medicare tax.

Fictitious Name Registration


You can look at operating your business under your own legal name
(last name is also fine) or under a different name (you’ll have to register
a “fictitious” name with your state).
When you register a fictitious name you become John Smith dba
(doing business as) fictitious name. You business name will appear on
your bank account, license and various legal documents. It is important
to remember that in most states a small fee and an application is all that’s
required to register your domain name.

42
Sole Proprietorship with Your Spouse
Technically the IRS identifies a sole proprietorship as having one own-
er. According to the IRS if your spouse works for your business they
would be considered an employee in which case you’d have to withhold
taxes. If your spouse has an active role in the ownership of the business,
the IRS considers your business a partnership.
Some tax advisors suggest your spouse can still be involved in your
business since your business income will be indicated on your joint tax
returns under schedule C. According to the IRS your business is still
owned by one person.
One way to bypass paying payroll taxes is to consider your spouse a
volunteer but the downside is that they won’t get any credit for their so-
cial security.
The IRS considers a volunteer to be someone who does not work regu-
lar hours. Your spouse must meet the criteria of being a volunteer other-
wise the IRS will fine you.

Partnerships
Exactly the same as a sole proprietorship except a partnership can
have multiple owners. If you decided to use this structure, a good idea is
to have the terms of ownership written down and signed to prevent dis-
putes and legal issues.
If you decide to create a partnership, write a document indicating
what percentage is owned by each person, what each person is respons-
ible for, and how the profits and losses will be distributed among each
partner.
When going into a partnership there should be a clear idea of how
much money and time each partner will contribute. There should also be
a clear idea of how decisions will be made.
Before starting a business all partners should know exactly what’s at
stake if they don’t contribute and what will happen to each member’s
share of the business if they don’t do their part.
The partnerships that last the longest are the ones where all partners
openly discuss all the issues and agree upon a solid deal before
launching.

Limited Liability Company


A Limited Liability company, also known as an LLC or LLP (Limited
Liability Partnership) is a great structure for those looking for legal

43
protection and having multiple partners. To get an LLC you’ll have to
apply with the state and although it is harder to get than a partnership,
they aren’t as difficult as filing for a corporation.
A great benefit of this structure is, you can fund your project by get-
ting investors (and corporations) as members.

Incorporating Your Business


A corporation is considered in itself a legal entity. The owners of a cor-
poration are its stockholders and the stockholders can be individuals or
other business entities.
The Two Types of Corporations
There are two types of corporations. The first is a C corp. which can
have an unlimited number of shareholders usually without any restric-
tions as to who they are. The downside to a C corp. is that the corpora-
tion get’s taxed on its profits and the shareholders get taxed as well. This
is known as double taxation.
The second is an S corp. which has a limited number of shareholders.
Each shareholder in an S corp. must be individuals (US residents) and
not other business entities. For tax purposes an S corp. must be operated
on a calendar year. The benefit of this type of corporation is that double
taxation does not apply.

Choosing To Incorporate
The great thing about incorporating is that you get legal protection
and is a good choice if you plan on getting outside investors.
Deciding to incorporate has many tax advantages that in other struc-
tures would not be provided. You can take the company public with an
IPO (initial public offer).
One disadvantage to incorporating is that applying for one requires a
lot of paperwork and information. When applying you’ll have to submit
articles and bylaws describing exactly how your business will be run and
it must be approved by your state.
One important requirement for maintaining a corporation is that on an
annual basis you must hold meetings and record minutes for these meet-
ings. This can all be daunting at first but it’s really not that difficult.
If you choose to incorporate, there will be separate tax forms which are
much more complex then the ordinary forms. If your corporation does
not file taxes or record the minutes of your meeting, the stockholders are
legally responsible and they are no longer legally protected.

44
For this type of structure, expect to pay upwards of $1000 for an attor-
ney to fill out the paper work.
If you decide to incorporate yourself you should still expect to pay a
few hundred dollars for the filing fees as well as paying an annual fee
with your state.

Changing the Legal Structure Down the Road


Ultimately you’ll just want the structure that’s best for you now and if
required change at a later time. Most business start out as either a propri-
etorship but down the line someone else may join you and you can
switch to a partnership. If you need new owners for investment reasons
you can look at incorporating.
If your business gets big enough you may want to switch to a corpora-
tion to avoid the self employment taxes (changing from a proprietorship
or partnership to a corporation is much easier than vice versa).
A corporation has many owners and many legal requirements. If you
decide to switch it back to a partnership or proprietorship you’ll have to
go through a lot of work. You must go through many procedures to leg-
ally dissolve the corporation before changing its legal structure.
The SBA website offers instructions for those wanting to change their
business legal structure:
• www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/exit
Consult a trusted business advisor before changing the legal structure
of your business.

Section 3: Trademarks and Copyrighting


This section will cover techniques to protect you intellectual properties
(IP) from plagiarism to improper use of business materials.
You’ve probably put a lot of work into your business and brand and
so you’ll want to protect it from being used by others. We’ll show you
how to register trademarks and copyright. Remember, if you’ve put a lot
of work into a certain phrase, logo, piece of art, or name it’s worth
protecting.

Why Trademarks and Copyrights Are Important


A copyright is the right to use an intellectual property (writing, music,
art, software, design) which is granted by law, for a period of time
(usually the life time of the author and 70 years after).

45
A patent is the ownership of an invention, granted by the government
that prevents others from using it. Once the invention has been patented,
it must be disclosed to the general public.
A trademark is a distinctive name, motto or symbol that legally identi-
fies a company, brand or product and legally prevents others from using
it. Protecting your IP’s will give you the legal ground to sue or stop any-
one someone unlawfully using your work.
While this all may sound very difficult it really is quite simple to
accomplish.

Making a Trademark
The surprising thing about a trademark is that you don’t technically
have to register it in order to have rights to it. The real benefit of it is to
assist you in court if you were ever to sue someone.
You can use the trademark symbol on your work whether you’ve re-
gistered it or not. A trademark is characterized by the “TM” and a re-
gistered trademark is represented by an R inside a small circle. The pre-
vention of people from using your registered trademarks is up to you.
If you decide to register your trademark, you may look at paying
about $325.
You can register your trademark at the United States Patent and
Trademark office:
• www.uspto.gov

Protecting IP’s with Copyrights


As with trademarks, copyrights don’t officially need to be registered
(but it helps for legal reasons). Like a trademark you must pay to get
your copyright officially registered (it costs about $35 online and $45
offline)
If you have an online business, there are certain rules apply specific-
ally to websites and online content.
There are many IP’s you can protect such computer programs, data-
bases, email newsletters but you cannot copyright your domain name.
One important point to make here is as soon as you change the content
of a copyrighted item it’s no longer copyrighted.
While you cannot change certain items without the copyright also be-
ing removed, other items like databases which are constantly changing,
can still maintain its copyrights.
For those of you writing blogs and online journals keep in mind that
although they are databases, they cannot stay copyrighted if changed.

46
For more information regarding copyrights of online work go here:
• www.copyrights.gov/circs/circs66.pdf
It would be advisable to consult an attorney if it’s important that you
protect your product.
You register a copyright at the US Copyright Office:
• www.copyright.gov

Getting a Professional
You should consider hiring a professional if protecting your IP’s is
critically important to your business. US copyright and trademark laws
are recognized in most countries but not all. Hiring a professional famili-
ar with international copyright right and trademark laws will help
tremendously.
A copyright and trademark professional will run you anywhere from
$175 to $300, not including the registration fees.
To find an IP’s professional check out:
• American Bar Association: www.abanet.org
• FindLaw: www.findlaw.com

Section 4: Accounting
For most business owners accounting is the least enjoyable part of run-
ning a business but unfortunately, proper accounting is the most import-
ant part of your business. In the end, you must have proper bookkeeping
if you want to run your business effectively.
The IRS doesn’t take fraudulent inaccurate accounting lightly; you’ll
want to pay your taxes properly otherwise face their wrath. Due to the
high importance of accounting, many business owners outsource their
accounting work to a professional as there is much to know.

Paying Your Taxes


Paying your taxes is unavoidable and when you run a business there
are additional state and federal taxes that you’re required to pay.
Income Tax
You must pay income tax on the amount of money your business
earns regardless business structure (except for a partnership which only
files and information return). Income tax is due every quarter and if
you’re unsure about how much you’re supposed to pay (due to an over-
due invoice) you can estimate the amount.

Employment Tax

47
If your business has employees (including you) you are responsible for
paying taxes meant for your employees.
A payroll tax is the name given to the taxes you pay on behalf of your
employees. Payroll taxes include Medicare, social security, Federal in-
come tax withholding, and federal unemployment tax (FUTA).
Figuring out the withholding amount is pretty complicated if you
haven’t done it before (again, it’s best to hire an accountant to show you
exactly how to do calculate the taxes).
You must submit the payroll taxes every quarter and file Form 941 on
the last day of the month that comes after the end of the quarter.
Here is the payroll due dates:
Quarter End Due Date Extended Due Date
March 31 April 30 May 10
June 30 July 31 August 10
September 30 October 31 November 10
December 31 January 31 February 10
If you are unsure, the IRS website offers tools and learning material to
assist you with paying your taxes. The website also contains information
for people starting up a business and how best to deal with taxes.
If you are not filing taxes, then expect hefty fines. If your payroll taxes
are under $1000 you can get permission to submit your taxes annually.
You can file your taxes online (fastest and easiest way to go) but you’ll
need an EIN (employer identification number) and you’ll need an IRS
approved vendor to submit your work. Find From 4419 here:
• www.irs.gov/businesses/index.html
One highly important recommendation is to send you payroll taxes a
bit earlier if you’re going to do it online as there is a bit of turnaround
time.

Sales Tax
If you’re selling or manufacturing products you must collect, and keep
track of a sales tax from the customers and submit it to the local, state
agencies. Every state deals with the sales tax differently though so you’ll
need to keep up to date with the rules of your state.
Make sure your accountant is aware of all state sales tax laws espe-
cially as it applies to online businesses. There is still a lot of discussion
among state authorities as to how online businesses should be dealt with
so staying informed is a good idea.
The Federation of Tax administrators (FTA) website has links to the
tax agencies of each state. You can find it here:

48
• www.tax.admin.org/fta/link/defaults.html

Accounting 101
Proper and accurate accounting is essential if you want to run a suc-
cessful business. It’s not the most fun but you’ll be able to see how de-
cisions you have taken have affected your business.
You’ll want to keep accurate records to see how much profit or loss
you may have incurred during the month (P&L = profit and loss). Use
your financial statement as a guide to show you how well you’re doing.

Determining Your Tax Year Periods


Your tax year is essentially the period of time you use to see a yearly
snapshot on the well being of your business.
The most common tax years are:
• Calendar year: January 1 to December 31.
• Fiscal year: An exact year starting at the beginning of one month
and ending the following year before that month. Example:
September 1 to August 31. This is useful if your business is season-
al or if your business peaks during the New Year which can be a
hassle.
Calendar year is the easiest method to take for most people.
For some businesses the IRS require that you have a calendar tax year
only. If having a calendar year is going to be a problem for your business
you may file Form 1128 to request changing your tax year with the IRS,
but expect to pay a fee.

Methods of Accounting
The accounting method is the way in which you figure out your in-
come and expenses. You must pick the method before you start business
and you’re expected to stick with it. You may be able to change methods
but only if the IRS approves it.
There are two common methods of accounting: Cash basis and Accru-
al basis.
Cash basis is a method where you report earnings and expenses as
they come in.
According to the IRS you cannot use the cash basis method if:
• Your business is a C corp. making more than $5 million annually.
• Your business is a partnership with a c corp. as a partner and you
business makes over $5 million annually.
• If your business is a tax shelter.

49
• Your business has inventory.
Accrual basis is when you report income when you earn it and you re-
port expenses when you owe them (as oppose to when you pay them).
The only restriction with using an accrual system is that you cannot be a
tax shelter.

Balance Sheets
A balance sheet is a detailed overview of your business financial
status. You will be using a balance sheet regardless of method of
accounting.
Here are a few concepts and terms you’ll need to know:
• Assets: Anything of value that is owned by your business.
◦ Cash: the amount of money you have in your bank account.
◦ Accounts Receivable: (A/R) The amount of money that’s
owed to you.
◦ Inventory: The total value of all the products you currently
have on hand.
◦ Fixed Assets: These would be things like land, building,
vehicles and equipment.
◦ Miscellaneous: Just as the item implies, anything that
doesn’t fit into the other categories.
◦ Liabilities: Any debt that the business has is a liability.
▪ Accounts Payable: (A/P) The total amount of money
that you owe to others.
▪ Accrued Expenses: These include wages and taxes
which are withheld and paid later.
▪ Net Worth: The amount of equity in your company.
▪ Revenue: The total amount of income your money
has made recorded over a period of time.
▪ Expenses: The total amount your company has spent
over a period of time.
If everything is done correctly your assets should equal the total
amount of liabilities plus your net worth.

Income Statement
This is also knows as a profit and loss statement (P&L). This statement
takes a look at all your revenue and expenses. It will show you how
much your business earned or lost for a specific period of time.
It uses line items (a list of items that affect you monetarily to show you
a total of both revenues and expenses).

50
You can create a P&L statement quarterly but we recommend doing it
monthly as you’ll better able to notice any problems.
A P&L statement looks exactly the same as your bank statement. It
shows you what came in and out of your business. With a P&L statement
you’ll be able to notice trends in your activities and how they affect your
business.

QuickBooks and Accounting Software


QuickBooks is by far the best accounting software you can get for your
business and while there are many other accounting programs out there,
most small business owners stick with QuickBooks.
If you business grows to become quite large with many employees,
you may consider investing in software specifically designed for your
business.
There are some online accounting software website you can consider
and are quite useful since your accounting work can be accessed from
anywhere in the world with an internet connection.
An important note to make about your accounting , is to always back
up your finances (we recommend backing them up to a secure online
space)
QuickBooks is made by Intuit. You can check it out here:
• www.intuit.com
QuickBooks is like the Microsoft of the computer world. There isn’t
much reason to go with anyone else unless your company specifically
needs something unique.

Hiring a Professional
You may hire a professional accountant at some point while your busi-
ness grows and by hiring a professional, you can save you millions; and
get set in the right direction.
Although they may be expensive, they can be more then worth it.
You have many types of accounting professionals.
• CPA: Certified public accountant. These are accountants certified
by the state who are recognized by the IRS as someone who can
file and submit your taxes. The generally deal with taxes but they
can also specialize in specific aspects of business.
• Accountant: Essentially the same as a CPA except for the fact that
they’re not certified or licensed by the state. Like a CPA they can
also file your taxes.

51
• Bookkeeper: A bookkeeper is someone who you can hire to man-
age the basic record keeping of your small business. They can also
manage the payroll, make deposits, deal with account payables/
receivables, and create balance sheets and income statements each
month.
• Tax Consultant: They can be an accountant or CPA or neither and
their skills can vary.
• Enrolled Agent: They are federally licensed and trained in state
and federal tax laws. They must pass a federal background check.
They are certified according to the IRS to file/submit taxes, repres-
ent you when dealing with the IRS, and you can consult them with
financial planning.
• Tax Attorney: They help you out when you’re dealing with com-
plex tax issues. They don’t do any general accounting activities.
Many large companies will hire one as an employee but for a
small business… rarely will you need one.
Only a CPA, attorney and enrolled agent can represent you with the
IRS and while bookkeepers are hired by most small businesses if you’re
comfortable doing your own accounting, feel free to. Hiring a bookkeep-
er is generally not expensive as their fees generally range from $8 to $20.
Use the free bookkeepers hiring test when hiring a bookkeeper. You
can find the test here:
• www.aipb.org/testrequest.php

How to Work With a Tax Professional


If you decide to use the services of a professional, be sure to use the
same CPA, accountant, or enrolled agent for all your tax issues. You
want someone who will get to know and understand your business.
The going rate for a tax professional usually starts at about $125/ hour
and you will want to be clear on how you’ll be charged for time (some
CPA’s charge for questions answered by email).
A great way to save some money is to make a list of questions to ask
the professional before hiring them.

Finding the Best Professionals for Your Business


There are several ways to find good accountants. The first way is to
find a trusted successful business person and ask them who their ac-
countant is. Most people have no problem referring you to their
accountant.

52
Another option is to go to your local chamber of commerce and have
them help you find a professional. They don’t play favoritism but they
can direct you to one who’s familiar with businesses like yours.
The following websites are a great resource to help you find a good
accountant:
• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants:
www.aicpa.org
• National Association of Enrolled Agents:
www.naea.org
• Association of Attorney-Certified Public Accountants:
www.attorney-cpa.com
• CPA associates International:
www.cpaai.com
• American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers:
www.aipb.org
• AGN North America:
www.agn-na.org
Aside from looking for proper accreditation and good rates, you
should also look for someone with lots of experience, especially with
your industry.
Naturally as with hiring anyone you should look for someone who has
a good work ethic and doesn’t cut corners. When it comes to taxes you
want someone who’s professional and detailed.

Good Recordkeeping Habits


If you slip up on your record keeping for even a month, the amount of
work required to fix it will be costly. If you make any mistakes, it can
have drastic consequences; good record keeping is of the highest import-
ance for a successful business.

Paper Work
Even though your business is online, you will still be getting lots of pa-
perwork. It would be wise to get a small filing cabinet to keep everything
organized. You’ll also want to keep your paperwork organized in the
event you’re stuck with a legal issue. You’ll want as much proof as
possible.
Because more businesses are being created online, the IRS now con-
siders electronic versions of records legitimate. You’re allowed to scan
copies of your records and keep them on electronic devices, including
CD’s and DVD’s.

53
Be sure to make multiple copies of all your work and store them in dif-
ferent physical locations. If you have a large amount of files to scan and
copy, you can outsource it, as there are many companies who specialize
in it.
The general rule of thumb is to store all your records for up to 7 years
but at the very least 4 years. You’ll want to protect all your records in the
event of an audit, legal situation or lawsuit.

Course #3
Web Design for Your Online
Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 3: How to Design a Website for Your Internet Business

Section 1: The Right Domain Name for Your Internet Business


A good domain name is vitally important and should reflect your
business name. If you are at a loss for a name, just try to think about a
name that will make it easy for users to find you. Another way to call a
domain name is a URL or Uniform Resource Locator.
A URL is the essentially the address of your website on the internet.
Before selecting a URL or domain name, you should first pick a good do-
main name.

Carefully Choosing Your Domain Name


If you already have a business or if you’ve already, legally, named
your business, your domain name should match your company name, as
closely as possible.
You domain name should identify what your business about and
while we don’t recommend this, the name can also be unrelated.
If you’re just starting up a business and you don’t yet have a name
you’ll have more flexibility. So you may want to consider choosing a do-
main name that is appropriate for your market.

54
What Makes A Good Domain Name?
The most important point about a good domain name is it should be
easy to remember and spell (try avoiding words that are easy mis-
spelled). Also, the shorter the name, the easier it will be to remember.
Brevity packs a punch. A useful way to come up with a domain name is
to use keywords to identify what you do.
If you use keywords related to your business, search engines will rank
you higher which will make it easier for people to find you.
A final recommendation when choosing a name is to choose a unique
one. The name should be unique but related so that it’s not confused
with anything else. Avoid names that people search for often.
What name would be attractive to your market? Are you selling to an
edgy younger crowd or conservative older folks?

Where to Register the Domain Name


Many web hosting companies offer domain name registering services.
You can also find companies that just specialize in registering domain
names. Such as:
• www.namecheap.com
There is an official list of domain names that is operated by the Inter-
net Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN):
• www.icann.org
When registering the domain name be sure to know how long the
name will be registered for.
The cost to register your domain name will vary depending on the do-
main name extension (.com, .net, .org etc.). Registering a domain name
will run you anywhere between $5 to $30.
The prices vary because the different companies offer different ser-
vices. Compare the fees and services of the various companies before
buying.
Purchasing a domain name has never been easier and most websites
come with ample instructions to assist you in your purchase.

What You Should Do If Your Domain Name Is Already Taken


With the explosion of the internet also came a gold of rush of sorts for
prime domain names.
If your website name is unique you should be able to get your domain
name registered.
If not there are many ways to compromise and find alternatives.

55
Exploring More Options
Hopefully your first choice of a domain name will be available. The
website in which you register your domain name will often give you al-
ternatives if the domain you wanted is taken (often time the suggested
alternatives can be quite good). If you don’t like the alternatives you ba-
sically have to start from square one. Keep trying out domain names un-
til you find one that you like and is available.
The internet is constantly allowing more and more domain name ex-
tensions so if you’re dead set on a certain domain name you may want to
just consider changing the extension from .com to something else.

Buying a Domain Name


If you’re dead set on a domain name and you absolutely do not want
to go with anything else and it’s been taken you can choose to buy the
domain name from the owner. The best way to do this is to contact the
owner or webmaster of the owner.
Your registering company can contact the owner with your bid but ex-
pect to pay a service fee of about $50.Contact the owner directly and if
you’re nice you can get it for free sometimes. Many domain names do
not have active sites so sometimes those owners will give them away for
free.
WHOIS is a feature that some domain names have that allow you to
see the contact information of the owners.

Why Finding a Good Domain Name Is So Hard To Find


Currently there are about 55 million registered domain names and
there are 300,000 new domains being registered daily.
It can be difficult to find a good available domain name but if you’re
creative, you should have no problem finding a good domain name.

The Domain Name Extension


If you’re preferred domain name is taken under the .com extension,
you may want to consider using a different extension such as .net or .org.
There are many extensions to choose from but .com should be your first
choice.
To see a complete list of extensions you can go here:
www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm

Being Creative with the Domain Naming Process

56
Most of the simple and best domain names were taken during the ini-
tial .com explosion.
You’ll probably have to be creative when choosing a domain name be-
cause your initial choice will most likely have been taken.
You can try making you domain name extremely specific. Niche mar-
keters use this technique.
• Ex: www.howtostartanonlinebusiness.com
You can try thinking outside of the box and coming up with a clever
name. If nothing is working, don’t be afraid to create your own words or
use totally unrelated words for your domain name. (Think: Google,
FaceBook, Yahoo!, and MySpace.)
You can also try adding words like Inc, ltd, corp. at the end of your do-
main name.

Section 2: User Friendly Website Design


Beginners are often tempted to create elaborate websites with many
functions but simplicity, ease of use, and functionality should be your
primary goals.

Optimizing You Website for Profitability


You should plan your website before creating it.
You’re making a website to make money so figure out what will con-
tribute to profit and focus on that and cut out the rest. To get the most
profit out of your website you should clearly define the purpose and
goals of your website.
Make a list of all the methods of monetization that will be used and
number them in order of importance. The method that is expected to
make the most money should be the highest priority.
You’ll want to figure out which programs and applications will be
needed for your monetization methods to work. Anything that does not
contribute to profitability directly or indirectly should be removed.
By leaving in elements that don’t contribute to your revenue, you’ll be
wasting resources and time.
Figure out how each method of monetization will be implemented and
where they’ll be located on the site. Try and create a map to help you
visualize how your website will work.
Regardless of how many methods of monetization methods you can
exploit… if your website isn’t functional, easy to navigate through, and
not pretty you won’t make any money.

57
What Is Good Website Design?
A good design will give your audience a good first impression.
What impression do you want to give to your audience?
You want them to think you’re professional of course but what im-
pressions do you want to give the audience aside from that?
The first impression will be made up within the first few seconds of
looking at your site.

Web Design Principles 101


Before designing your site you should first figure out exactly who
your market is and then cater to their taste.
Conservative people prefer toned down colors and nothing to exotic or
bright. Bright, wild colors can be used for a liberal, younger, and hip
crowd
The layout is the most important element of your website. Layout is
the positioning of pages, navigational buttons, content and ads.
The color or your site will have an effect on the mental state and buy-
ing behavior of your customers. To see how colors can affect people
check out this website:
• http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Hidden-Secret-on-Logo-Colors,-
and-How-They-Affect-Your-Customers&id=124569
• http://smallhomebusiness.suite101.com/article.cfm/
how_color_affects_internet_marketing
Also keep in mind the font you use. Each font in a way sends out its
own message.
Avoid using unique proprietary fonts as not everyone has them and
they won’t show up on the user’s computers.
Stick with the basic fonts:
• Arial = common and relaxed
• Comic Sans = non serious and childish
• Georgia = classy and professional
• Time New Roman = Traditional
• Verdana = like Arial, but more urban and stylish
Images can be important and add value to your site but they can also
take away. Use images cautiously and always ask if they add or take
away from your site. By using images, you can direct a viewers attention
away or to certain parts of your websites.
Video and audio is gradually taking over the internet and people are
avoiding more and more text based content.

58
Having audio and video of you site is a great way to add value to your
site but use it cautiously as it can also be annoying. Also try to avoid
video and audio that plays on its own; better to give users the choice to
play and stop the video.

Choosing Your Design


Take a look at the successful companies in your industry and see how
they design their websites. Your design will primarily be dictated by the
industry you’re in.
You should also take into account the type of service or product you
sell. You don’t want your website to look crazy and wild if you’re selling
Rosaries and Crosses.
If your business is already established as a brick and mortar business
you’d want to use design elements for your website.
If your brick and mortar businesses design is outdated you’d want to
modernize the design while still maintaining something from your site.
Coca Cola has altered its logo and look many times.
Keep in mind the demographics and keep the design simple and
functional.
Web design trends change month to month and keeping up with it can
be quite tiring. By keeping your website simple and clean you minimize
the amount of work required to update it.
It is also important to update your site often. Making changes can
show the viewers that you’re committed to providing high value to
them. Also even if you make changes, it may not be directly related to
design but people will still see the site differently.
People ignore elements of your website if it stays the same. Even just
making a few small changes will make your website seem fresh.
Use photos that won’t become outdated (such as fashion, style, news,
popular culture) and if you do, update them. The exception is of course if
you run a news, info, or retro site.

Flash Web Design


Flash is a program used to create animated vector graphics, applica-
tions, and websites.
They were used a lot in web design for their amazing, intense graphic-
al capabilities. But unfortunately became overused. (Flash web design
should only be used in specific situations as it is expensive to pro-
duce).Also remember that flash websites take longer to load and are

59
used more to display artistry and for entertainment purposes. This being
the case, most professional web designers suggests not using it.
The benefit of a flash website is that it displays the same on everyone’s
browser and is good for product demonstrations. The ultimate benefit
for SEO improvement is flash content will show up in search engines.
You may be tempted to use flash to develop your website due to posit-
ive past experiences. If that’s the case just ask yourself if using flash will
contribute to an increase in sales.

Function, Function, Function


An online business website will contain many applications and func-
tions such a shopping cart, registration/membership capability, news
letter signups and etc.
All functions of the site will either add or take away from the user ex-
perience. If the function adds to the user experience, it will increase your
sales directly and indirectly. A function that takes away from the user ex-
perience will lower your sales.
All aspects of the site should go through the question of “will this add
or take away from the revenue?”

User Experience
Based on initial impressions people will decide whether or not return
to your site and whether or not to buy something from you. Users will
make up their mind about your site within seconds of looking at it. Your
job is to impress them right away and continue to impress them if you
want them to return and buy.
The user experience is just as the name implies; how the user experi-
ences your site and how enjoyable or rewarding they find it.

Adding Function to Your Website


Not only must your site provide a positive user experience but your
site must also influence the user into buying or taking some sort of
action.
Your website functions can be categorized into 3 different categories:
• Basic functions
• Interactive functions
• Enhancing functions
Base functions:
• Your website loads up quickly.
• Simple but effective navigation.

60
• All links work properly.
• Images and media work as intended.
• Your website should have a way for users to make orders
(shopping carts).
• Contact information (an email will do).
Interactive functions
• A search function that allows users to search for information on
your website.
• An option to download media and appropriate files (.pdf’s and
etc.).
• A way for users to comment on articles and posts and products.
• Forums and chat rooms. Difficult to make active at first but it’s
great if you can get them busy.
• Member registration option for more content and access to areas
of your websites (forums and chat rooms).
• RSS and email subscribing.
Enhancing functions
• Demos and tutorials for your products or services.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Store locations (if applicable).
• Language viewing options.
• New forms of media (i.e.; podcasts)

Section 3: Building a Website on a Shoe String Budget


Web technology has changed greatly in the last 10 years and it will
continue to do so. What people want out of a website hasn’t changed
much.
People want a simple, easy to use website that will provide them with
value (in the form of information, media, and entertainment). Simplicity
and ease of use is key.
Sometimes making a website easy to use will require a lot of tech so
don’t think a simple site is easy to make but making a website has never
been easier.
In this section we’ll go into the various methods and ways to make a
website either by you or with a professional.

Planning For Success


When it comes to building a website you can’t just jump in there and
start doing it, you need to plan. Much like building a house, the first step

61
before the foundation is creating the blueprints. Good sites take ample
time to plan exactly what it will look like.
Your site ultimately has one function: “to make money”. What func-
tions will you require in order for your site to make money?
Answer the following questions to help you decide what functions
you’ll need:
• How many types of products are being sold? If you have multiple
categories of products you may want multiple pages.
• Will there be a members section? If so you’ll need a log in and re-
gistration page.
• Will you use a shopping cart system? How will customers pay for
your items?
• Is there going to be a FAQ page to assist users with using your
website?
• Is there a forum?
• Will customers be able to comment on articles, products or other
items?
• Is there a search function?
• Will you create a contact form? Or will you just provide an email?
• Will there be media on your website?
Once you’ve figured out which functions you’ll need, you should start
working on a site map. A site map is like flow chart to show you how
each page connects to one another and what each page links to. Don’t
worry about how each page look yet. You first have to figure out pages
you’ll need.
If you have a large site you’ll have 1000’s of pages so when doing a site
map only map out the main pages.

Guidelines for Good Page Layouts


Don’t overload the users’ senses with too much stuff on any single
page. The content you want the user to see should be front and center
and near the top. Your attention should go there first (also remember
that having an uncrowned page improves loading speed).
Position all important information at the top of the screen (just like a
newspaper does). Users will not scroll down if they don’t like what they
see at the top so keep this in mind and focus on the top part of the
screen.
Simplify all steps for the user (the fewer steps taken to perform an ac-
tion the better). When a user decides to register do not make them go
through any more than 5 steps otherwise they’ll lose interest. Be sure to

62
simplify the shopping experience as much as possible. This will increase
sales dramatically.
Make the navigation global. A user should be able to access all the
main parts of your website from every page.
Good web design is always evolving and can take a lot of time. Your
website will never fully be done because it can always be improved.
Don’t spend too much time working on your web design.
Once you get a functional design that works, get it up and improve it
from there otherwise you’ll never start business.

Realistic Expectations
If you’ve never made a website before it’s easy to get carried away and
create a grandiose plan. Remember that simplicity and ease of use for the
user should be your first priority.
Avoid implementing too many functions on one page.

Common Issues That Occur While Developing a Website


Piss poor planning leads to piss poor performance. Many people start
working on their website without planning. This can lead to a lot of
wasted time.
Buying applications and programs before examining the compatibilit-
ies is big mistake and can waste you a lot of money as hosting companies
may not be able to support the software.
Losing focus is a big problem with many web designers. Focus on the
priorities and don’t waste your time on trivial applications and
functions.
Not debugging enough is a common problem with many website
owners. Once your site “looks done” go through all the pages and but-
tons and make sure they all work as intended.
Websites often require large amounts of content and it’s up to you to
get it done. If you have a web developer making your site be sure to get
all the content done in time so your developer has something to work
with.
Many people don’t know what they should look for in a web de-
veloper so they’ll either hire an extremely expensive one or a way too
cheap one.
Be sure to do your research and see what the developer has done be-
fore hiring one otherwise you may be disappointed.

Building a Website On Your Own

63
Fortunately making your website has never been easier. Long gone are
the days of using notepad to write html code. There are many tools out
there that make the process of building a website extremely easy.
Even if you’re a complete beginner and you’ve never made a website,
the tools out there are simple and easy to use.

HTML
HTML is a code that your browser uses to display a webpage and
primarily makes the base of all websites now days (and is also quite easy
to learn). But the great thing about it is, you don’t need to know html to
make a website as there are many tools that will create the html for you.
Although you don’t need to know html it’s recommended if you want
to have better control of your website. By learning the basics of html you
can save yourself a lot of money.
Entire books are written on html coding and since it’s not necessary
for you to know we won’t go into too much detail here.
Check out the following site to learn the basics of html code:
• http://www.arachnoid.com/lutusp/html_tutor.html

WordPress and Other Simple to Use Website Creators


There are a few extremely powerful and easy to use programs out
there to help you create your website. These tools allow you to easily in-
stall new functions and applications all with the click of a button. Some
of them you have to pay for but they’re well worth it in the long run.
The following websites are recommended to get you started (we
highly recommend WordPress for the beginners):
• http://wordpress.org
• http://www.joomla.org
• http://drupal.org
• http://www.vbulletin.com
The websites that offer this powerful site creation tool have lots of sup-
port. With a little time and patience you can create stunning professional
website on your own.
There are many forums and support available with these tools so if
you encounter a problem you can get the help for free. Many of these
tools support membership plug-ins and shopping cart systems.
We recommend wordpress.com as it’s probably the simplest and easi-
est to use.
Once you’ve made your website be sure to get feedback from web de-
signers by sharing your site on forums and asking for their opinion.

64
One excellent place to get feedback for your website is at:
• http://forums.digitalpoint.com

Hiring a Professional
If you’d prefer to focus on the business and marketing and not the web
development you should outsource the work to a professional.
If making a website is too daunting a task and you’re unconfident in
your ability to make a professionally effective website, hire a
professional.
The benefit to hiring a professional is that you’ll save a lot of time. A
website may take a non professional a week to month to complete where
as a professional could get your site done in several days.
Another option more regularly taken is to hire a webmaster to make
changes as the website progresses.

Finding the Best Webmaster/ Website Designer


Webmasters and website developers can range in price and skill and
cheap doesn’t always mean bad quality. Try to find a professional
whose done business websites before and also be sure to see their past
work.
If you come across a website you really like, you can contact the owner
asking them which designer they used.
Websites like Elance are excellent places to find web designer for a
good price:
• http://www.elance.com
Make sure your designer has experience, motivation and drive.
Some designers have it written in their contracts that the website they
create for you will be owned by them. Make sure this is not the case.
Once the designer finishes your website, it should be yours.

Web Design Firms


If you have a high budget and your website calls for real expertise
you’d want to hire the services of a design firm. A design firm is usually
much more reliable and they’re better able to deal with large problems.
Also a design firm will usually hire many specialists to deal with specific
issues of your site; you can therefore expect a much higher quality web-
site. The main downfall is you will pay a much higher price tag for a
website done by design firm.

Freelance Web Designers

65
A freelance designer costs much less than a full firm. They usually
tend to work much faster and much more efficiently. The benefit of hir-
ing a good freelancer is they have personal shortcuts and ways to simpli-
fy their job and are much better for smaller simpler projects.

Making Sure You’re Not Paying Too Much


Each website is different and they each have their own issues when be-
ing created, so it’s difficult to put a price tag on creating one. Although
some designers prefer to be paid by the hour we suggest you hire
someone for a flat fee. When hiring a designer, be sure you have written
in the contract exactly what must be done in order for the designer to get
paid in full.
Also make sure to have a guarantee that the site will work and func-
tion as intended.

Ways To Speed Up The Website Development


Having a clear and concise plan upfront will save you money and time
when hiring the developer. A good place to start is to create your content
before going to the developer. This includes media, such as photos or
videos and any written material.
A good way to keep your developer in check is to create milestones
that he or she needs to meet. The project should be broken down into
parts and each part should have a due date. You can also look at asking
the developer to send you daily status reports to ensure that their
working.
Be aware that the designer may ask for a lot of your input, so answer
their emails and don’t be lazy with correspondence. Also the designer
may need access to your hosting servers to manage databases and up-
load your website (be sure you can give them access to it right away).

Protecting Your Business Idea


Web designers should have an idea of how your website should look
and work. Make sure they make what you want and not what they want.
Be very clear with the designers telling them exactly what you’re aiming
for. Let the designers give you input but if their ideas don’t fit in with
your business vision don’t use the idea.
Many web designers like to take ownership of their work. Make sure
it’s spelled out who owns what after the job is complete. Make sure you
own the website and all the content.

66
Once the website is completed ask for a copy of the website on disk or
some other form of storage.

Section 4: Hosting Your Website


Hosting refers to having your website being online so that others may
see it. A hosting service is a company that will host your service for a
cost. You can host websites yourself from your own computer but if you
do, you’ll need a lot of know how to deal with the problems. But it is
cheaper to use the services of a hosting service than to host your website
yourself and hire a server technician.
Many hosting companies have a lot of experience to counter all the
problems your website may face.
If you decided to go with a hosting service, hosting fees can go any-
where from $10/year to $10 000/month depending on the scale of your
website. If you’re just starting a business it’s best to start small and cheap
and the upgrade your hosting services as required.

The Terms You Need To Know When Seeking a Hosting Service


You want to know exactly what you’ll need and not pay for anything
more.
Although it’s good to have a little slack in terms of having more then
you need, you may have to pay much more so don’t overdo it.
Disk space: Basically how much space you get on the hosting services
servers. Most ecommerce websites will need no more than 500 Megs.
Bandwidth: This refers to how much information can be sent back and
to your site at any one time. This is important if you expect to have a lot
of people on your site at the same time. If your website offers media
bandwidth is even more important.
Data transfer limit: There is usually a limit on how much information
can be transferred in total per month. You’re usually charged extra if you
exceed this limit. Having a high limit is important if your website has a
lot of media or file transferring going on.
Scripting languages: By scripting languages we mean html, PHP, Java
Script and etc. This isn’t so much of an issue now since hosting services
now support most languages. If you use an obscure uncommon lan-
guage this may be an issue.
Database Management Systems: Just as with scripting languages
most hosting services support the common database systems so this
shouldn’t too much of an issue. MySQL and SQL are the most common
types. Avoid using the less common database management systems.

67
E-commerce support: If your website is going to have a shopping cart
is sure that your host can support it. Also be sure that the host has a
shared SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer) to ensure that all data being
transferred is secure. If the SSL is not shared you’ll need to get an indi-
vidual SSL certificate from:
• www.verisgn.com
Operating System: Each server is run under a certain operating sys-
tem although this isn’t much of an issue except for certain technical
situations.
Backup’s service: You’ll want a hosting service that will backup your
website periodically (if not daily) otherwise it’s possible you can lose all
your information and essentially your business. Backing up your data-
bases and website is something you should periodically yourself as well.
Support: Don’t ever use a hosting service that doesn’t offer support.
This should be a no brainer. They should provide phone and email
support.

Finding the Best Host


Since physical location is not important on the internet don’t feel the
need to find a local company. The only benefit of finding a local host is
that you can get one on one support with an actual person. Also you can
check out the facilities.
Make sure the hosting service is well known and look for reviews of
the company. You want a trusted reliable hosting service. Don’t go with
no-name companies.
Here is a list of hosting services we recommend:
• http://www.bluehost.com
• http://www.justhost.com
• http://www.hostmonster.com
• http://www.inmotionhosting.com
• http://www.hostgator.com
• http://hosting.fastdomain.com
• http://hostpapa.com
• http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting
• http://www.webhostingpad.com
• http://www.lunarpages.com

Section 5: Creating User and Search Engine Friendly Content


When running a business it’s not enough to have a good product, you
also need a good sales pitch to convince the customer to actually buy it.

68
Web copy is the written sales material used to motivate a user into tak-
ing action.
Search engines such as Google search your website for keywords and
then rank you into their search engine according to the words they find
on your website. If you want to rank up high in Google you’ll need to
know what they look for.

Effective Internet Writing


Good internet writing and good literature are two very different
things. The goal of the writing for your website has several objectives;
get the user to take action and to get attention from search engines.
When writing content for the internet you have to get the attention of the
reader.
When writing good literature, you will need to be highly descriptive
and detailed. With good internet writing, brevity packs a punch. Use
simple words and sentences that everyone can understand. Make your
headlines interesting and packed with emotion. Readers will often skip
articles if the headlines aren’t interesting. Also try to be clear and simple
with your writing.
The articles, product descriptions and other written content should not
exceed 500 words. Anymore than 500 words people will not read. Anoth-
er great way to keep the reader engaged is with the use of questions and
thoughts that reader can relate to.

Writing for the Internet


If used effectively, words can move readers into action. Before writing
you have to ask yourself what the goal of the writing is. What action do
you want your users to take specifically?

Understanding Your Reader


When writing for your website you have to know exactly who your
customer is and what they’re all about. What are your reader’s motiva-
tions and fears? By understanding them you’ll better be able to write to
“them” specifically. You want to write something that your readers can
connect and relate to.
What sort of things motivates your customers to buy something? What
are they looking for?
Your customers more often than not are looking for a solution to their
problem, you must clearly indicate that your product is the solution to
their problem and that’s its worth the purchase.

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You must answer the needs of your buyers.

It’s Not What You Sell, It’s How You Package It


The saying “like selling ice to an Eskimo” fits this concept quite well.
Naturally your product should be the best you can offer but if you don’t
present it well no one will buy it. The packaging not only applies to your
product but also to the way you package your written content. Your con-
tent should look so good that the user would want to read it.
Make sure you display your product in the best light possible while
still being honest. Every piece of written content should have an object-
ive. Consider each page as having a purpose to move the user into a cer-
tain direction.
The attention span of an internet user is extremely short so here are a
few methods to keep them focused:
• Make each paragraph really short.
• Highlight certain keywords and phrases.
• Make certain keywords and phrases bold.
• Make lists and use bullet points.
• Use hyperlinks with certain words and link them up to other
pages of your website.
• Increase the font size to draw emphasis to it.
• Use images to draw attention to certain pieces of information.
A lot of research has been done to see exactly where people look when
they open up a webpage. For information on some of this research go
here:
• http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm
Your content should only contain elements that will move the user in a
certain direction everything else should be taken away. Also be aware
that internet users have become expert skimmers. Use the techniques
mentioned to make it more conducive for skimming.

Sorting It All Out


Go through each page of your website and figure out what the goal of
each page should be. Ultimately your goal is to make every user a buyer
but what’s required to make each person a buyer?
A good place to start is your homepage. Your home page is the most
important page of your website since it’s the first thing everyone sees. If
your homepage is not able to take them to the next step, you’ve lost a
customer. Each piece of content should be catered to the user’s needs
and desires.

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Deciding Which Action Takes Priority
There are many actions you’d like customers to take so you must de-
cide which action takes priority. You may want the user to subscribe to
your email newsletter first and then check out your product demo and
then buy the product. Make a list of all the actions your users can take
and rank each one.
Put focus on the actions with priority by placing them higher up on
your webpage. Your most important content should be front and center.

Motivating Your User to Take Action


There are many ways to motivate a reader to do something. Marketers
and people involved in sales can go to school for many years to learn this
fine art.
There are many books on the subject of selling, web copy and
marketing.
There are some basics that you should know. The writing you use
should:
• Solicited strong emotions and feelings. People act based on emo-
tions and not logic. If something feels right they’ll act on it even if
it doesn’t make sense. Even for simple products people use emo-
tions to determine if they should buy it or not.
• Your words should grab the attention of the reader. Words such
as: Stop, listen, urgent, free are just a few examples of attention
grabbing words.
• Make it clear that you know the user’s problem is. Do this in the
beginning and lead them towards concluding that you provide the
answer.
• Use words commonly used by your market. The more you can
connect with them the better.
• Lead the customer. You should tell them what to do otherwise
they won’t do anything. “BUY THIS NOW!” is a good example.
Here are some words you should use when writing your content:

• Act now
• Affordable
• Amazing
• Breakthrough
• Clearance
• Discover
• Don’t be left out

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• Dramatically
• Easy
• Effective
• Fast
• Free
• Free trial
• Half off
• High-profit
• Improve
• Instantly
• Limited time only
• Listen
• Little-known
• Low-cost
• New
• No obligation
• Now
• Powerful
• Profitable
• Proven
• Quality
• Reduced
• Revealed
• Revolutionary
• Risk free
• Save
• Secret
• Stop
• Unleash
• While supplies last

Search Engines Friendly Words


Search engines look at the words and phrases on your website and
how many times they appear on it. Search engines rank you for a certain
keyword based on how relevant you are to that word or phrase. The
more times a certain word or similar word shows up on your website the
more relevant you’re considered for that terms. If you place the keyword
too many times on your website search engines consider it spamming
and will remove you from the rankings.

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The goal is to make your website appealing to both the human users
and the search engines. Use commonly used keywords and phrases re-
lated to your product throughout the content of your website. Don’t
overly use keywords as human users may find it odd and distracting.
Search engines place extra value on the words that are in the header so
place keywords and phrases into those sections.

Section 6: Launching Your Website


Once you’ve designed and developed your website and created all the
content for it and found a good host you’ll then be ready to take it to the
next step.
Launching your website is big milestone in any business and it can be
quite exciting. There are many steps involved in launching a website and
it’s very easy to get excited and lose track but remember one step at a
time!
By launch we mean revealing it too the world.

Hosted and Uploaded


Once your site is up and running you’ll want go through all the pages
and test out all the functions to make sure they work. If you just leave
your website as is, you won’t be getting any traffic anytime soon.
One important point to remember is while your site uploaded, search
engines can take up to a month to scan your website and index you.
Don’t worry too much about any of the problems you see at first as no
one else will find your website.

Testing, Testing, Testing


Websites will look slightly different on every browser. Although it’s
sometimes impossible to make it look exactly the same in every browser
it should be close.
There are about 5 main things you’ll want to test out:
• How your site looks under different screen resolutions.
• Check to make sure that all links work properly.
• Test out all functions of your website.
• Test your website in all the main browsers to look for
discrepancies.
• Test your website in each operating system.
Fortunately you can use websites out there on the internet for free to
test everything out for you. They take screen shots of what your site

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looks like in each browser, under different resolutions and in different
operating systems:
• http://browsershots.org
Ask your friends and family to test out your website. Ask them to click
and use every button and function and ask them to report any problems.
You want your website to be displayed correctly and working for all
viewers otherwise you’ll lose sales.

Course #4
Operating An Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 4: How to Operate Your Online Business

Section 1: Ways to Monetize Your Online Business


As the internet evolved, new ways to monetize and make money have
come about and developed.
The secret to be successful online is finding the most effective way to
make the most money. Slight changes in your website and the way you
promote your products can either make your business fail or bring you
more customers then you can handle.
Every online business is different and so there is no right or wrong
ways to monetize, you just have to find what’s best for your business.

Selling Physical Products


Selling physical products is a great and stable method of making
money online. But it does require a lot more work and overhead costs.
Fortunately because it’s been done so many times by so many people,
effective systems have been created and discovered to help you manage
this type of business better.
This business model has been around since the beginning of time… It
works!

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How to Make Profit
Buy low, sell high.
If you can sell something for more than the cost of getting it, maintain-
ing it and distributing it… you’d make a profit. Finessing the system
though will decrease overhead costs and in turn increase profit.
You’ll have to take into account all the expenses required to acquire
and distribute the product and not just the buying price. You have to
look at fuel costs, time spent and etc.
For some products you’ll have a tough time selling because other com-
petitors have managed to find systems to bring down their overhead
costs which allow them to price their products at a more competitive
price.
To help you figure out how much you’ll be making on a certain
product, answer these questions:
• What much does it costs to purchase or produce your product?
• How much will the overhead costs? Take into account storage,
employee salaries, transportation, shipping/ handling, marketing
and etc.
• Will you be able to price your product in such a way that you’ll be
able to cover the overhead and product expenses while still being
competitive with the industry?
• How much profit would you like to make per month? How much
will you need to sell every month in order to reach that amount?
• How many visitors will you need to bring to your website in order
to make the desired amount of sales?
• How much will the marketing costs to bring in the desired amount
of sales?
Write down how much you’d like to make and then write down how
much you’ll need to spend in order to make that amount in profit.
There’s a little math involved but it pays off in the end. You don’t
want to go into business running blind… losing profit without knowing
why so do the math and create a fool proof plan.
Poor planning leads to poor performance… keep that in mind.
The profit margin is how much you make per product sold. If your
product costs you $7 to sell but the product is priced at $10, you have a
profit margin of $3 per sale.

Producing Your Own Products


Some products can be sold for much higher then what they’re actually
worth (in terms of cost to produce).

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Creative items such fashionable clothing, fashion accessories, crafts,
paintings, sculptures, and art pieces can sell for a large amount if you
market it right.
If you have the skill, creativity and know how to make your own
product… you “can” make a good profit from them.
Naturally your products must be of a high quality and worth the price
tag.
Your products should be original and unique, this minimizes competi-
tion. People are always looking for unique items to set them apart from
others so having a unique product can definitely pay off.
Even if your product is just used by a small portion of the population
(such as nose ring jewelry) you’ll be able to tap that market without too
many competitors. This is called niche marketing. Even though your
product may be obscure and unique you can still make a good profit
since you are the only one selling that type of item.
There are many website out there that cater to the artist and allow you
to sell your products on their website. They market and you just have to
produce items. The only downside is that they take a small percentage of
each sale.

Buying Products to Sell Them Online


Most internet business runs on this principle. They buy goods and
then sell them online.
This system works great if you can find a good supplier that sells
items for much lower than the usual market price.
You can either sell items on your own website or on a website like
eBay.
If you have one type of product that you’re selling it may be a good
idea to create your own website to sell these items but if you’re selling a
large variety of items you should use a service like EBay to sell your
items since they have a diverse market going to their website.
Some people will go to flea markets, second hand stores, and garage
sales looking for rare valuable items that the seller was unaware of. They
then sell these items on EBay for an excellent profit. You’ll have to know
your stuff though and spend a lot of time looking around. Many book
collectors and sellers use this method with a lot of success.
Although it can be difficult to make a living selling second hand items.
Some devoted to this method are able to manage a very good living.

Buying Wholesale Items in Bulk

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If you decide that going to flea markets is not your thing you can try
buying wholesale.
When you buy wholesale you’re usually required to buy your
products in bulk.
When selling a physical product you’ll most likely need to devote one
area of your house to storage for inventory. If you’re buying a large
amount you may want to rent out a storage unit or warehouse.
The problem with selling physical products online is that you’ll have
to worry about shipping and handling, returns and exchanges and ware-
housing all from your home… and if not your home a workplace you’ll
have rent out which will cost extra.
To buy wholesale you’ll need a state-issued reseller’s certificate or a
Federal tax ID number.
Making profit buying and selling products can be extremely difficult
but if you have the right product and system in place it can be very
rewarding.

Drop Shipping
Drop shipping has come long way on the internet and it’s become a
system that is well developed and easy to use.
Drop shipping is when you sell a company’s products, but the items
are kept at the companies and warehouse and they deal with the ship-
ping and handling. So you’re basically just a storefront for the drop
shipper.
Drop shipping companies will only bill you once the item is sold and
the items are usually priced wholesale on your part… so the profit comes
from increasing the price to your customers.
The benefit of this system is that you don’t have to worry about ship-
ping or handling, warehousing inventory or storage; you just have to
worry about marketing and selling.
Only certain companies allow for drop shipping so you’re somewhat
limited with what products you can sell.
The most attractive benefit to drop shipping is that you don’t have to
pay anything until you’ve sold the item.
No down payment or startup capital required. You only pay once
you’ve made money.
The customer thinks the product came from you and so you’re the one
taking the credit.

77
You’ll have to look around for a good drop shipping company, there
are many that have bad shipping and handling records so always check
their what their reputation is first… do your research
Another downside to selling for a drop shipper is that you don’t have
complete control. You have no say in how or when the products are
shipped.
Not all drop shippers have return policies so if you guarantee the cus-
tomer full money back return policy… the money is coming out of your
pocket!
Depending on the products you sell, the profit margin might be quite
small.
You can find reputable drop shippers by purchasing a product
sourcing membership with:
• www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_Products.asp

Selling Your Skills and Services


Some of you who are skilled and talented may choose to advertise and
market your services.
This can be extremely lucrative depending on the service and how you
market yourself.
Many freelance artists work online doing logos and design work. Car-
penters, consultants, techies, writers, motivational speakers, no matter
what skill you have, you can market yourself online.
If your talent is locally dependant (you having to be at the customer’s
location) you should obviously specify travel costs and availability.
Many services can be done for a customer right from your own home.
This is a good system if your services can be done from your home but
you lack customers in your geographic area. The internet knows no dis-
tance and so your customers can be international.
If you’re a professional in this day and age regardless of industry
you’ll want a website just to compete with your competitors.

Making Yourself Look Credible


When offering your services online, the biggest issue with your cus-
tomers will be your credibility. The users want to see your credentials
and experience before hiring you. When you’re doing business on the in-
ternet you’ll be facing many competitors all competing for credibility
and legitimacy.
Web users today have gotten smart and they no longer take claims at
face value. They prefer to read multiple sets of information from

78
multiple sources to find the truth. The bar is much higher for convincing
users of anything.
Here are few things you may want to include on your website to estab-
lish credibility with the users:
• Users want to see you on multiple websites throughout the net.
It’s recommended you social network, use YouTube and other
video sharing sites to promote yourself.
• They want to see your certifications and degrees on your website.
You should never lie but saying you’re a certified _____ makes
you automatically more credible.
• Users want to see that you’ve been around for a long time. They’d
have a tough time hiring the services of someone new to the
industry.
• Client testimonials are an excellent way to increase credibility.
• You should display a list of all your big clients. This is another
way to show you have experience.
• Stories and case studies that illustrate how you’ve helped
someone or a company helps.
• Be sure to indicate any awards you may have received.
• If you’ve been mentioned or appeared on another website,
magazine, TV show, or third party… show it off and let people
know!
When selling your services you should market yourself everywhere
applicable.
If you don’t have time to market yourself you can always hire a mar-
keting expert to do the work for you.
Consider yourself a brand and work on making yourself big. You
want to be seen.

Information Products
This is a method where you sell a digital product. Since its digital the
customers are only buying a copy of the original file and there’s no over-
head since there are no physical products to manage. Because there is no
overhead, this method makes the most profit.
With this method you’re selling information, a program, or media file
and your product only needs to be made once.
People are willing to pay a lot of money for this type of product;
whether it’s expert predictions on the stock market or a program that
will save your business 1000s of dollars.

79
A paid membership site can also be considered an informational
product since the user is paying for the information found inside.
This is the most lucrative method to make money online since it re-
quires such little overhead and it’s the direction the internet is currently
moving in.
Most digital products come in the form of a PDF EBook, a media file,
or a program.
Selling Ad Space
This method has been around for a long time and is used in
magazines, newspapers, TV shows, and it’s pretty much seen every-
where you go.
If your website gets a lot of traffic you should consider putting up
some well placed appropriate ads to increase your revenue.
There are many ways to put ads on your site while not being annoy-
ing. There was a big trend for sites to have annoying banner ads and pop
ups to sell you stuff but that trend is waning and going out. The current
trend is to place ads that have value to the customer and make their ex-
perience more rewarding.
There’s still a time and place to be using banner ads but they should
only be used in specific situation.
The most common system is for you to join an ad network like Google
AdSense where you place a small code on a certain page of your website
and Google places relevant ads on that page of your website.
When using an ad network such as Google AdSense you make money
every time someone clicks on their ad
Ad networks typically place ads that are related to the content of your
website, so if you have a travel website the ads will be travel related and
of interest to the users.
Here are just a few ad networks that we recommend:
• http://burstmedia.com
• https://www.google.com/adsense/
• http://www.valueclickmedia.com
• http://www.casalemedia.com
It’s recommended that you use multiple ad networks in conjunction
for maximum revenue. There are limits to how many ads you can place
on a single page that is determined by the ad network so be sure to fol-
low their TOS (terms of service) closely.

Analyzing the Numbers

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More ads do not necessarily mean more money. You need a large
amount of traffic if you want to make good money selling ad space, you
must also display the ads effectively if you want people to click on them.
PPC = Pay Per Click. When someone clicks on the ad on your webpage
you make a small portion of money (assuming you’re using an ad net-
work like AdSense). That money you get is the PPC of the ad.
CTR = Click Through Rate. This is the percentage of people that click
on your ads. A CTR of 3% is considered average.
Every ad has its own PPC. The PPC can vary from 1 cent to as high as
$60. The average PPC though is just a few cents.
Ads related to debt consolidation, money, health, fitness, travel usu-
ally pay more than any other niche.
If your average CTR is 2% and the average PPC is about $1, you make
$2 for every 100 hits. If you have 1000 hits a day you’d make $20. If you
wanted to make $200 per day you’d have to get 10 000 hits per day.
How much money would you like to make per month from ad reven-
ue? By calculating R (revenue) = (hits x CTR) x PPC you’d be able to fig-
ure out how many hits you’d need in order to make the desired revenue.

Affiliate Advertising
You can sign up to become an affiliate for a company, market their
product and make a commission on every sale.
An affiliate is someone is who advertises, markets, and directs custom-
ers to someone else’s product and if the user buys the product the affili-
ate get a commission.
Some affiliates programs offer commissions as high as 75%. If their
product is $100 you make 75$ for every sale that came from you.
You don’t deal with inventory or shipping and handling, you just mar-
ket the product and the other company deals with the rest.
Affiliate advertising is an excellent way to add value to your customer.
You can easily find an affiliate product that your customers would like
and then you can either send out a newsletter or write a review of the
product containing your affiliate link.
Naturally you should only place affiliate links that are appropriate to
your audience for maximum revenue.
Affiliate networks are places for you to easily sign up to other com-
panies affiliate program so you can sell their products.
There are many affiliate networks that simplify everything for you. We
suggest you check out the following sites.
• http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/

81
• http://www.affiliatefuel.com
• http://www.linkshare.com
• http://www.cj.com
• http://www.primaryads.com
• http://www.valueclickmedia.com
• http://www.darkblue.com
• http://www.clickxchange.com
• http://www.primaryads.com
• http://www.clickbank.com
• http://www.azoogleads.com
Having an affiliate program is also an excellent way to market your
own product. The affiliate networks listed above allow you to add your
own product so that people can sign up to advertise your product.

Multiple Streams of Income


The secret to the most successful sites is that they all have multiple
streams of income.
The hardest part is trying to integrate all the monetization methods
while not taking away from your main product.
If you add a new form of monetization it should add to your site and
not take away. People do not want to be bombarded with ads and affili-
ate links that are obviously ads. You want to integrate your ads and affil-
iate links into the content of your site in such a way that it adds to your
website.
You may want to create a resource page and link your audience up
with your affiliate products that can be of use to your customer.
Having multiple streams of income can be a great save in the event
that something goes wrong with your main source of income (your
product). You’ll have a back up to make sure you keep on getting
money.
The ultimate goal of your site is to make money so you want to fully
utilize your websites potential at making money… while still providing
an excellent user experience.

Section 2: Marketing Affiliate Programs


Affiliate networking and marketing has taken the internet by storm
and its here to stay and it makes up a large part of the most successful
online companies. Beware though, there are a lot of scammy affiliate pro-
grams out there on the net.

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This section will clarify and help you get a footing with how affiliate
programs work and what you should know about them.
Even large brand names such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Best Buy use
affiliate programs to make money. They wouldn’t be doing it if wasn’t
working.
Most people’s initial experience with affiliate networking may be neg-
ative… there are a lot of scammy people out there doing bad sales but
when done right… it’s seamless and not visible.

The Ins And Outs of Affiliate Programs


Becoming an affiliate is easy, just follow these steps:
• Become a member of an affiliate network
• Find the affiliate program that your customer would like
• Advertise product on your site
• Direct traffic to the affiliate owner’s website.
Naturally you should only go with products your customers would
like.
High quality products do not always sell the best. There are many af-
filiate programs out there offering what seems to be total crap and yet
they’re total money makers.
Since you image is on the line decide carefully what products you’ll
offer.
Because the affiliate program you choose should be related to your
website you don’t have to directly market the product, just advertise
your website and with enough traffic you’ll be making a nice steady
income.
There are affiliate networks where you can find affiliate programs but
many large companies and vendors also provide their own separate affil-
iate program.
Affiliate Terms You Should Know
Affiliate: An entity that’s paid money to promote someone else’s
products or services.
Merchant: An entity providing the affiliate program for people to
join up to. These are the people selling the products and items.
Affiliate Network: A network where affiliates and merchant come
together to offer and join up to affiliate programs.
Publisher: The entity that wants to become an affiliate.
Advertiser: Same as merchant.
Creative’s: This is the advertising material that either your or the
merchant provide.

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Tag: The part of a link given to the affiliate to keep track of the fact
that the user came from you.
Qualifying link: The link used to direct users to the affiliate pro-
gram so you can earn a commission.
Required URL: This is the affiliate location where you send your
users.
CPM: Cost per 1000 impressions.
CPC: Cost per click.
CPA: Cost-per-action. Some merchants will offer you a small amount
of money if you get someone to take an action that doesn’t involve a pur-
chase (signing up to a newsletter for instance).
EPC: Earnings per 100 clicks.
EPM: Earnings per 1,000 impressions.
CPL: Cost-per-lead. A lead is someone who joins the merchant’s
newsletter, or fills out a survey or takes some sort of action that could
possibly lead to a sale down the road.
PFP: Pay for performance.
PPA: Pay per action. Same as CPA.
PPI: Pay per impression.
PPL: Pay per lead.
PPS: Pay per sale.
RON: Run of network.
ROS: Run of site.
CR: Conversion ratio. The CR is the percentage of clicks or views
needed to achieve something like a sale or lead.
ROI: Return on investment. If you invested $500 and your earned
$1,000, your ROI would be 100%.
COOKIE: A file that is used to remember information about a website
user that is to be used at a later time.
InVue: Ads that are like pop-up ads but they appear in the front
blocking the content behind it. You can’t drag or move an InVue win-
dow. They are not separate windows but instead exist as a part of the
website being browsed.
Interstitial: This is a type of ad that’s displayed between the page
you’re on and the page you want to go on. There is usually a button that
the user has to click on to move to the next page or they must wait a few
seconds for the ad to forward them automatically.

Joining an Affiliate Network

84
The signing up process is straight forward, just follow the directions
provided be the affiliate network.
There are several requirements you need to join an affiliate network.
You must have a website which will be reviewed by the network and
you usually will need an EIN or SSN.
Affiliate networks want to see that you’re legitimate and that you’re
not out there to scam people.
The process can take anywhere up to 10 days.

Avoiding Scams and Staying Legitimate


There are many people out there all wanting to make money. They’re
willing to go to any lengths to get it. There are many rules governing
how things can be sold and what can be sold. Ignorance is not a defense
in court so be careful what you get yourself into.

Illegal Affiliates
Just because it’s online doesn’t make it legal… duh! Check to see
which country the affiliate program is based out of. It might be legal in
their country but not yours.
You can check with the better business bureau at:
• www.bbbonline.org
If you do come across an illegal or fraudulent program you can report
it with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at:
• www.ic3.gov
You should always investigate the programs you sign up for by doing
research of them online. This isn’t fool proof of course but if their bad…
you’ll probably read about it.
Read the terms and conditions of the affiliate program carefully and
always know what you’re getting yourself into.

Legal but Not Nice Affiliates


Even though the affiliate program is legal it can still be shady and un-
trustworthy. Avoid affiliations with companies that don’t offer money
back guarantees.
Make sure the company has a good reputation and has good service
records. You don’t want to become affiliated with a bad company. It will
make you look bad.
Check the company’s background history to make sure they haven’t
been in any legal trouble. Always look online for reviews of the company
and what other affiliates think of them.

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Avoid:
• Avoid companies that don’t have contact information or are diffi-
cult to learn about. You want open trustworthy companies.
• Avoid companies that don’t offer support for their affiliates.
• Never sign up with an affiliate that requires a fee for you to join
them.
• The companies that have slack requirements are usually worth
avoiding. Go with companies that check your website and have
strict rules on how you’re allowed to promote them.

Section 3: Selling Information/Digital Products for Your Online


Business
Knowledge is power, people know this and are often willing to pay for
it. People are always looking for new skills to better themselves and
move up in the world.
Much of our society today around the world has moved and is moving
to an information based economy.
Information products are just as the name implies… it’s information
packed into some form of media, interactive program or eBook for users
to learn from.
Even if you have no expertise in a field you can still make an informa-
tion product. Consider the idea that making an informational product is
a great way for you (the creator) to learn more about a certain topic.
Sometimes people are just looking for a simplified and condensed
chunk of knowledge so that they can learn it faster.
Since an information product is for the most part entirely digital, there
is no overhead save for the cost of hosting. Because of this, there is a lot
of money to be made in the field of information products.
The information product industry has exploded in recent years and it
continue to become bigger and bigger. A large part of the internet is still
untapped and the competition, in many niches, is still very small.
Everyone is connecting to the internet these days, either through cell
phone, iPhone, lap top or home computer… You have a massive market
to sell to.
If someone purchases your informational product they’re essentially
just purchasing a digital copy of your product. There is no shipping or
handling involved in the purchase.

Creating an Information Product 101

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Creating an information product can be fun and rewarding but time
consuming.
To create an information product you just need to:
• Find a topic that people are willing to pay money for and that
you’re interested in.
• Organize the information into a clear concise teachable manner.
• Distribute and market it.
• Make money.

Finding Topics That Sell


If people hire consultants or professionals to assist them on a certain
topic… it’s probably a good topic to cover.
Topics that people have a problem with (such as relationships, health,
money) are excellent topics.
Although you being knowledgeable on the subject are not essential it’s
recommended. What are you knowledgeable at? You may need to do
some further studying but if you know a little it’s a good start.
Anything related to health, money, relationships, and travel usually
do quite well but don’t discount other topics… there are new markets
popping up all the time.
If you know a second language, then that should be considered a body
of knowledge.
Regardless on topic there is someone out there willing to pay for it.
Choosing a niche market is often a good idea since you’ll have no com-
petition to deal with.

Research, Research, Research


Once you’ve picked your topic you need to break that topic down into
parts.
Check out the table of contents for a book related to your subject and
see how they break it down. Do this with several books and try adding
your own sections.
You don’t want to just copy another product; you want to make it
even better and more valuable.
After breaking down the topic into teachable parts you should organ-
ize the parts by what should be learned first and leaving the more ad-
vanced knowledge for the end.
Make sure all you information is current especially if your topic is re-
garding legal issues or finances.

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At the very least your information should be on par with the competi-
tion and obviously… make sure all your content is original.

Organizing Your Information


Most books and information products are structured in a certain way.
When teaching someone you need to start out with the basics and then
move up into more and more complex ideas.
• The beginning should be discussing the problem and why the user
bought the product.
• The middle should be all about the solutions.
• The ending should be a summary of the whole book and any final
thoughts.
Try to think as if you were someone who didn’t know anything about
the topic… what do you need to know first? And what’s the best way to
learn it?

EBooks
EBooks are digital books and with certain formats such as .pdf’s you
can create bookmarks at each chapter or heading to make it easier for
readers.
Although eBooks still sell well in this current day and age… it’s hav-
ing less and less of value as video media is taking over.
EBooks are preferable if you have scientific, legal, or financial docu-
ment as you’re able to show information in a more structured manner.
EBooks make great additions to any audio book or video you sell. It
can add a lot of value to the sale.

Creating an EBook
PDF = Portable Document Format.
EBooks are composed of images and text.
You can write your document in any word processing program al-
though it’s recommended that the final format is a PDF document. A
PDF is good because you can lock the content and prevent people from
editing your work.
PDF’s also give you the option to password protects your file which
will help slow down piracy.
PDF’s are supported by almost all computers and is the standard
format for businesses around the world.

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There are many programs out on the internet that will convert .txt,
.doc, and other formats into PDF. The most commonly used PDF creator
is Adobe Acrobat, sold by Adobe.
Adobe offers a website that can create PDF’s for you. It can be found
here:
• http://createpdf.adobe.com

Marketing and Selling Your E-Book


Many people use EBooks as an incentive to get people to subscribe to
their email. (Ex; subscribe now to get your free eBook!).
If you plan to sell your eBook there are many websites that can help
you with that.
Amazon, EBay, iTunes, lulu.com, and ClickBank.com allow you to list
and sell your eBook off of their sites.
EBay no longer allows for the sale of digital products so you’d have to
burn the eBook on to a CD or other storage device.
The most common method is to sell your EBook directly on your
website.
Once the user has purchased an eBook from you, you have several
ways of distributing it too them:
• Once the user has purchased you eBook you can send them a
download link to your eBook, just be sure to store your eBook on
your server in a secure location and direct the customers to the
location of your eBook. Your browser will give them the option to
save or open the document.
• You can also attach the eBook into an email that will be sent to
them upon payment. Most payment systems support an auto mes-
sage to be sent to the customer upon a successful payment. You
can attach the eBook to the email or send them a link to the eBook.

Creating a Webinar
A webinar is essentially an online seminar. With a good webinar pro-
gram you can deliver video, audio, text, a PowerPoint presentation and
chat features to your audience.
Many people do not like to read, they prefer to watch and listen. Hav-
ing a webinar is a good way to increase value.
Not all topics need webinars but for some… they’re almost essential. If
you’re teaching martial arts or teaching how to apply makeup… a we-
binar is one avenue you should consider taking.

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Webinars are now possible due to the proliferation of broadband
which allows lots of information to be sent to the user simultaneously.
Ultimately the more you can give your customers the happier they’ll
be.
You can record webinars and provide them for download later on and
your webinars can be live or recorded.
Windows LiveMeeting and WebEx have excellent resources to assist
you in making a webinar. Check out the two following links:
• · http://office.microsoft.com/livemeeting
• · www.webex.com/go/demo
There are many programs and utilities coming out specifically for creating
webinars.
What most webinar creators do is market and advertises their we-
binars months in advance. Then on a certain day they do the webinar
live.
Once the webinar is recorded you can offer it to the webinar attendees
or sell it to new users.

Section 4: Payment Options for Your Internet Business


Almost everyone has a credit card now that they can use for internet
shopping.
There are a small percentage of people who refuse to use credit
cards… they make up a small percentage but you should still give them
other options to pay for your product.
Fortunately the internet has developed to the point that you can get a
payment system up and running in a few hours and start accepting cred-
it cards right away.
Although the majority of people would prefer to use credit cards…
you should still offer other methods.

Credit Cards and Merchant Accounts


You’ll want an option for the customer to pay with credit cards. You
can either use a third party service like PayPal to deal with the credit
cards or you can get a merchant account (recommended).
Merchant accounts allow you to directly deposit a customer’s money
into your own bank account.
Many banks now offer ecommerce merchant accounts that simplify the
job for you but keep in mind:

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• Having a merchant account will cost you extra since the bank does
not process the credit cards (it works as a middle man with the
credit companies).
• Banks are very strict and rigid with approving accounts.
You can also get merchant accounts with the direct provider (the com-
pany that processes the credit cards). A direct provider will be a cheaper
option then the using the bank.
Here are a few direct providers that provide merchant accounts:
• www.cardservicesales.com
• www.merchantwarehouse.com
• www.merchantaccounts.networksolutions.com

Payment Gateways
The payment gateway is the process that communicates digitally with
the credit card company, your bank and your website. Your merchant ac-
count provider will most likely have a gateway ready for you.
If you’d like to choose a different gateway, find one that accepts all the
major credit cards:
• Visa
• MasterCard
• American Express
Make sure your gateway is compatible with your shopping cart soft-
ware. You don’t want to be spending money on something that you’ll
not be able to use… do your research and make sure it will all work in
the end.
Your gateway should:
• Be sure your gateway sends the money to your bank account often
and not once a month, a few days at most.
• Your gateway should provide 24/7 support.
• The gateway should allow you to view your transactions and
information.
There are many features your payment gateway can add to your ac-
count such as recurring billing and such. Check out what they have to
offer.
Here are the payment gateways we recommend:
• www.authorize.net
• www.paymentech.com
• www.firstdata.com/linkpoint
• www.onlinedatacorp.com/aboutonlineapp.asp
• www.verisign.com

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Merchant Account Fees
Unfortunately there’s no way to escape this… you’ll be charged a
small fee for every transaction among other things.
You’ll most likely be charged for:
• Processing your application.
• Setting up your account.
• Transaction fee which can be 2-4%.
• Sending you your statement.
• You get charged for not making a monthly minimum.
• Customer charge backs.
• Terminating your account.
Not all merchant account providers will charge you all the fees men-
tioned above.
Look around and check out your options. Decide what’s best for you.

Alternative Payment Methods


Giving your users more options is not always a good thing but it is in
terms to them paying you. Having several payment options will increase
your sales by 20% in some cases… that’s a lot of money!
PayPal is perhaps one of the most popular alternatives. PayPal can be
used for all transactions if you don’t want to pay too much for the mer-
chant account. PayPal supports shopping carts and it gives you a lot of
control in terms of how you sell things and how customers shop. PayPal
has many features that simplify the shopping and selling experience.
You can find it here:
• www.paypal.com
Electronic checks have somewhat of a foot hold in the online world.
Electronics checks are also knows as ACH processing. EChecks allow a
customer to transfer funds directly from their account to your account
and they cost about 25 cents to $1 per transaction.
Here are several ECheck providers:
• www.ichex.com
• www.paybycheck.com

Protecting Yourself from Fraud


If you do business long enough, you’ll eventually receive a fraudulent
charge-back from one of your customers. This is the most common type
of fraud that the online business owner will face.

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Stolen credit cards are an issue many owners will encounter. The cred-
it card companies are always taking more steps to protect both the con-
sumer and merchant from fraud but it’s a constant battle.
To minimize the risks of fraud you should use the following security
features:
• AVS: Address verification, the address associated with the credit
card must match the address given to you by the order.
• CCV: Card code verification, the user must enter the 3 numbers
seen on the back of your credit card.
• Filters: Filters can screen for suspicious order and block out IP ad-
dresses that have made a large amounts of credit card purchases
in a short amount of time.

Section 5: Shopping Carts and Ecommerce


Shopping carts are not essential but they do make your website look
more professional. You can always use company like pay pal, create but-
tons and add them next to the product on your website.
Shopping carts are definitely wanted if you have a wide range of in-
ventory or your products change periodically. If you have 1 or 2
products you can go without using a shopping cart. Shopping carts can
simplify your life tremendously with large product catalogues.

The Variety of Shopping Carts


There is a huge variety of shopping carts available to you. Each shop-
ping cart application can have 100s of features. You have to know exactly
what you want before getting a shopping cart and you’ll have to do
some research to find one that’s right for you.
The shopping cart can be split into 4 sections:
• Back end
• Front end
• Integration
• Marketing
Back End
The back end (or back of house) is what you see and deal with as the
administrator.
You want a shopping cart that gives you a ton of control from the back
end. You should be able to change the colors, fonts, and images, and im-
port and export inventory lists.
You want a shopping cart that offers as much control as possible.

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Front End
This is what the customer sees when viewing your site.
The most important thing for the customer is being able to go through
the process of purchasing your item quickly and easily.
The front end should have a good amount of options for the customer.
There should be buttons to view their order, review your product, leave
and read comments.
Test out the front end yourself and imagine being a customer. You
want to make it easy yet appealing.

Integration
Integration refers to the coding side of things. You want a shopping
cart that is compatible with your site and is easy to install.
The shopping cart should be stable and not have errors pop up and
your shopping cart should be able to connect with your accounting
software.
Find a shopping cart company that offers good customer support.
Dealing with money issues with clients can be a real head ache.

Marketing
A shopping cart that supports marketing functions is extremely im-
portant and makes a good bonus. Marketing functions for your shopping
cart include such items as:
• Coupons
• Recommending similar products to customers
• Data feeds that can communicate with websites like Froogle,
Shopping.com Yahoo shopping, Shop.com, and Shopzilla.com.
• Discounts
• Sales and Specials
• Send out email regarding sales to your email list.
• Gift certificates
• Search tool
• SEO friendly (SEO = Search Engine Optimization)
• Product ratings and reviews
• Product commenting
• Polls and surveys
• Social bookmarking/networking
• Incentives (buy one, get one free)
You want a shopping cart that fits your needs and then some. You
want options and control with your shopping cart.

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Hosted Shopping Carts
An alternative to hosting, installing and programming your own shop-
ping cart is to hire a company to host it and deal with it for you.
Outsourcing your shopping cart can be cost effective since you won’t
have to deal with the problems.
Although you’ll have to pay a small fee, you won’t have to deal with
the technical issues. You just have to worry about keeping the inventory
and store up to date.
If you decide to go down this route be sure to get an outsourced shop-
ping cart company that offers round the clock support.
Even thought the shopping cart is hosted on a different server you in-
tegrate it into your own website.
Here are the best hosting shopping cart companies we recommend:
• www.1shoppingcart.com/shopping-cart-features.asp
• www.goecart.com
Hosted shopping carts can be expensive so make sure it’s worth it for
you. They can run you $25 to $200 per month.

Purchasing Shopping Cart Software


Shopping cart software has been around for a long time and it’s be-
come quite developed.
It will cost you anywhere between $300 and $5000. There are free and
cheaper options but you get what you pay for and so the cheaper options
are not recommended… they’ll give you and your customers a lot of
head ache.
Even though good software is expensive you’ll save money in the long
run. You won’t be tied down by limitations and you’ll have more control
of your own store.
Many companies don’t sell you’re the software but instead lease it out
to you in which you only own the license to use it.
Here’s a list of the best shopping cart programs on the market:
• www.mivamerchant.com
• www.shopfactory.com
• www.shopsite.com
• www.pdgsoft.com
Make sure your payment gateway is compatible with the software you
use otherwise you’ll have to pay a specialist to program it for you.

Custom Made Shopping Cart

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This is not recommended as it would be very expensive. It can cost
you easily over $10,000.
Because it would be custom coded you’ll have problems with integrat-
ing it with your payment gateway and other programs.
A custom shopping cart should only be considered if absolutely neces-
sary or if the cost is not an issue for you.
Down the line when your company starts making large amount of
money, you can consider this as a viable option.
Not only is this approach expensive but it’s also time consuming. It
can take month or more to developed and test out.

Section 6: Inventory
This section is primarily made for those selling a wide range of
products but it can also apply to informational products and people
selling just a few primary products.
Your inventory is not just about the items you have for sale but also
the way you price them and what type of variety you have.
It’s often a good idea to have several varieties of the same product
(different colors, sizes, styles).
Fortunately this subject has been studied and researched greatly and
so finding out how to price your products is easy.

Using EBay to Find Out What People Are Buying


EBay is by far the largest e-commerce site on the web. Million of trans-
actions are occurring daily over EBay and they have supplied its mer-
chant account members with a wide variety of tool to assist them in
selling.
By seeing how well certain products do on eBay you’ll get a better idea
and a more realistic picture of what you can expect once you start selling
your product.
Check out the top sellers on eBay and see what they do to be so suc-
cessful, it may be a backend thing that helps them sell but also see what
they do with the front end…you can learn a lot.
EBay Pulse is a resource for eBay merchants and it keeps track of the
major trends occurring in eBay. Pulse will indicate the top items being
searched, the biggest stores, and the items that are being most watched.
According to pulse there is a lot more demand than supply with a certain
items (hint hint… lots of opportunity).
You can find eBay pulse at:
• http://pulse.ebay.com

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Terapeak is another excellent tool offered by eBay but it has a monthly
fee of about $24.95. You can find it here:
• www.terapeak.com/signup
Terapeak offers a free trial and we highly recommend it.

Doing Your Research


Research is everything in business.
You want to keep track of the numbers and see what works and what
doesn’t.
Not only can research be used to validate your idea but it can be used
to give you knew ideas and point you in a new direction in regards to
marketing.
There is plenty of research data available for free on the internet (just
make sure it’s recent).
If you have money to spare you can hire the services of a market re-
search company. Their reports range in price from several hundred dol-
lars to several thousand dollars depending on how much data you’d like.
We recommend the following resources for market research:
• www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/research/
• www.emarketer.com
• www.forrester.com
• www.jupiterresearch.com

How to Price Your Products


Once you’ve done your research you should have a good idea of how
in demand your products are and what the average going price is for
your product.
The price you set can change the image of your business so you should
price the items in accordance to image you want to give out.
If you want a warehouse image you should price your items at a more
competitive price. If your market is the upscale type you can go for a
higher price without too much difficulty.
The price you set should be based on the following factors:
• The demand of your product.
• How your competitors price their product.
• Your position in the market (if you have control you can afford to
charge a little more).
• The expenses incurred by buying and selling the product.
• How much profit you’d like to make.

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You should calculate all the expenses incurred by your product (the
pricing floor). This is the lowest you can possibly go without losing
money.
You can price items based on the perceived value of the item (some
items, although cheap to make can be worth a fortune… like art)
Pricing your items can be a fine art but as long as you stay within a
certain acceptable range, people will buy the product from you.
The secret to maximum profit is finding that perfect number where
you don’t price it so high that you lose buyers but you don’t price it so
low that you make too little profit per items.
How to Handle Your Inventory
Depending on the type of business you plan to run, you’ll need a cer-
tain amount of inventory on hand.
There are many questions you need to be able to answer when it
comes to inventory.
• How many types of products do you plan to sell?
• How much of each item should you have on hand?
• Do you have enough room for all the merchandise?
The business with the largest array of products has no correlation to
how successful that company will be.
More is not always better.

Marketing Your Self as a Low Price Leader


If your shtick and marketing plan is advertising yourself as having the
lowest price items you’ll want to:
• Provide many choices
• Offer a lot of sales
• Find new and different products to sell.
Low price shoppers are looking for good deals and the quality usually
comes secondary to price. Offer them many sales/coupons and dis-
counts and they won’t be able to say no. Low price shoppers are always
looking for a good deal on an item, cycling your inventory and changing
items is a good idea with this type of person.
By cycling your items you’ll be able to see what items sell the most.
Keep a close eye on how and when your items are being bought. If you
detect a pattern you may be able to capitalize on it.

Keeping A Limited, Specialized Inventory


This is probably the easiest method to take when selling online. By fo-
cusing on a niche you’ll have an easier time tapping that market. Niche

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markets are usually willing to pay much more for an item since the item
is typically much rarer.
A niche market would be something like ladies perfume or Japanese
tea pots.
Try to find a niche that doesn’t have too much competition but has a
big following. With niche markets you should focus on acquiring the
highest quality and most unique items.
When dealing with a niche market people want to trust that you know
everything about the subject and that your items are the best out there.
Niche markets have small communities and usually have social net-
working groups. By joining these groups, you can make a name for your-
self very quickly.

Section 7: Keeping Up with Demand and Filling out Orders for Your
Online Business
Second to actually getting the sale, filling out the customer’s order is
the most important thing you’ll have to do.
Getting your first order can be very exciting as it validates your busi-
ness idea and is proof that your business works.
Keep in mind that no matter how good the user experience was, if the
item takes too long to be sent to the customer and not packaged the way
they expected it… you’ll most likely never see that customer again. You
should think about and plan how you’ll deliver the products before you
start business. If you have a bad, inefficient system for packaging and
sending items out… you’ll be in big trouble when the orders start com-
ing in.
This section will talk about way to simplify the job of filling out
orders.
If you expect a large amount of orders you may want to consider out-
sourcing your fulfillment orders to another company. If you expect 100
orders a month on the other hand… you can probably do it yourself
without too much trouble or time spent.

Systematizing the Process


Ultimately the goal of your business is to make it run itself. You want
to make it as simple as possible while still fulfilling the needs of the
business.
You should have a clear idea of exactly what steps each item goes
through from where and when it’s bought or manufactured to how and
when the item is packaged and delivered. Write down all the step that

99
needs to be taken on paper, it should be clear enough that others will be
able to understand it and run your business. Once you understand the
whole system, take a close look at how things are done and try to find
ways to simplify and automate it for maximum efficiency.

In-House Delivery
For small businesses this is the cheapest and most practical approach.
This approach is good for those people who like to have control over
how their items are shipped.
The space required to store your products depend on the product.
Items such as books, CD’s, DVD’s, naturally take up much less space and
storage should not be a problem. If your product is large and takes up a
lot of space, you may want to consider renting a storage space or
warehouse.
If you get a rental storage you can send your product orders directly to
the storage and the rental company can load the product in your storage
(expect an extra fee of course).
You’ll always want items on hand to ship and you’ll want to order a
new batch of product before your current batch runs out. If you have a
company that ships the products to you, check out how long it takes so
you know when to order a new batch without running out of product.
If you get a lot of orders and you’re doing business out of your
house… you can always hire an employee to assist you in doing the
work.

Outsourcing Fulfillment
If your website sells a lot of product you should consider outsourcing
your fulfillments to a company that specializes in doing so.
There are many companies that handle the shipping and handling for
small businesses and you don’t have to be a multimillion dollar com-
pany to be outsourcing this task. Since companies that specialize in large
fulfillment orders are efficient and effective… getting them to do it is
much cheaper then you developing your own system. These companies
that specialize in fulfilling orders are called “fulfillment houses”.
Many Fulfillment houses offer extra services such as customer service
and reporting.
Make sure you find out how the fulfillment house packages and deliv-
ers the products and check to see how often and how fast they ship out
their products.

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An alternative to big fulfillment houses is that you can also pay
someone to fulfill all the orders for you from their own home. Many stay
at home mothers do this since they can look after the kids while
working.

Finding the Best Fulfillment House for You


As with any purchase you make, you must do your research.
There are many types of fulfillment companies, some completely
handle all your orders and others only deal with packaging and delivery.
Find the one that works best for you.
The costs can vary for each company so be sure it’s worth it for you.
Factor in the fact that you won’t be needing employees and the time
saved.
We recommend you check out the following companies:
• www.caleris.com
• www.efulfillmentservice.com
• www.fulfillmentworks.com
• www.strategicfulfillment.com
• www.webgistix.com
UPS offers a service to small business that coordinates all the shipping,
delivery, supply, and orders into an efficient system. Check out:
• http://ups-scs.com/logistics
Be sure that the company you hire is professional and strives towards
good service. You’re putting your reputation into their hands.

Shipping and Handling


Some customers are picky with how items are shipped to them so it’s
good to give your customers options when it comes to delivery. You
should always include the option for express delivery.
Be sure to indicate clearly exactly how you ship the items and how
long customers can expect to wait before they get their product.
Amazon.com is an expert when it comes to offering customers ship-
ping and handling options.
Options will let the customer know exactly what they can expect and it
gives them a little control which makes their shopping experience more
enjoyable.

Shipping Labels and Postage

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With the explosions of internet businesses came many advances in
web business technology. Many shopping carts systems can now create a
print ready shipping label for you to use on your packaging.
There are many companies that now allow you to create printable
postage. You usually have to give them your Visa number and they
charge you per postage. Here are some companies that offer printable
online postages:
• www.endicia.com
• www.pitneybowes.com
• www.stamps.com
• www.usps.com/shipping/label.htm
Most big shipping companies now allow you create your shipping la-
bels and postage. FedEx, UPS and the US postal service are just some of
the companies that do it. With the shipping companies you can create an
account and have access to forms so you can print your own labels.
As a side note, you’ll want to invest in an accurate weight scale as the
weight is a requirement with the shipping companies.

Delivery
Many shipping companies can now pick up your items. If you set up a
business account with the shipping company they’ll come by on a regu-
lar basis to pick up your items. Most shipping companies can pick up
your items in under 2 hours.
The only prerequisite of having a company picks up your items is that
they all need to be labeled with postage (which you can do online).

International Orders
There should be an option on your shopping cart for international
shipping. International shipping is somewhat expensive hence you
should charge your customers more during the customer buying
process.
When shipping internationally you’ll have to fill out a customs forms
and several other forms (for most shipping companies). When making
your labels online, most shipping companies will have the forms re-
quired for international destinations.

Keeping Things in Check on the Back End


Keeping your back end in check should be a big priority for any busi-
ness owner. No matter how good the front end looks… if the back end is
in disarray… nothing will work.

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The best way to keep a well functioning back end is to create systems
and develop good habits to prevent things from falling apart.

Shelving System
This is pretty straight forward and there isn’t any secret to this and if
you outsource your order fulfillment this won’t be issue for you.
The best technique is to place the most commonly bought items in the
most accessible location and do not place items that look identical next to
each other (16gig and 8 gig iPods for instance) as you might pick up the
wrong one.
Create shelving units and label the shelves accordingly.

Course #5
Security and Your Online
Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 5: How to Deal with Hackers and Fraud When Doing Busi-
ness Online

Section 1: The Risks Associated With Internet Security and Doing


Business Online
Internet fraud accounts for more than 50% of all reports to the FTC.
Fraud and internet crimes account for more than $1.2 billion in losses to
business owners per year. $650 million is the total amount of losses re-
ported by customers.
It’s your responsibility to protect yourself and your customers from
these crimes. Despite the advancements of internet security technology,
the hackers and criminals are always finding new ways to exploit and
bypass security systems.

Your Legal Responsibility as the Merchant

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As the merchant, you’re entirely responsible for securing your custom-
ers data. Credit card companies will more often make you pay for any
losses incurred by the customers. Protecting yourself and your custom-
ers can save you a lot of money in the long run.
Even though you may never be attacked or the victim of fraud, it only
has to happen once to put you out of business.

Dealing with Charge Backs


Charge backs are the most common form of fraud. Credit card users
can dispute purchases made with their credit card number.
(FCBA) The Fair Credit Billing Act allows customers to dispute a cred-
it card charge if their card was stolen, used without the owner’s permis-
sion, or if the customer believes you didn’t deliver the product the way it
was supposed to.
Its considered fraud if you send out the correct product to a customer
but the customer claims it’s the wrong one. If you send out the wrong
product to a customer (accidentally) it’s not fraud but you would have to
pay the charge backs.
90 million credit cards were stolen in 2007 which led to $3.6 billion in
losses to internet businesses.
Charge backs occur often but you can minimize the amount of fraud
by:
• Use AVS (address verification system) to verify that the address
on the order matches the card holder’s address.
• Ask for the cards verification value. On all visas there are three
numbers that are on the back of every card and 4 numbers on the
front of every Discover card and MasterCard.
• Contact customers if they made large orders. Credit card thieves
tend to max out the card as fast as possible.
• Keep records of all the transactions. Your shopping cart software
will usually do this for you.
• Check the charge back policies of your credit card vendor.
As a merchant you can dispute any charge back by calling the credit
card vendor. Be prepared to provide them with evidence that you’re
properly checked to make sure the card was authentic.

Securing Your Customers Information


Customers want to know that their information is safe with you. How
you protect and secure your customers information should be indicated
in detail on your privacy policy page.

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There are certain regulations and standards that need to be met when
protecting data. These policies are enforced if you’re a larger company
(more than 20,000 transactions per year). If you’re a small business the
policies are self regulated.
For information on the policies regarding privacy security check out
the FTC websites at:
• www.ftc.gov
Failure to comply with the security standard can leave you with a fine
as high as $500,000.
For more recourse on ways to protect your customer’s information
check out the following links:
• www.merchantriskcouncil.org
• www.merchant911.org

Securing Your Website


There aren’t too many options when it comes to securing the informa-
tion transferred from your website. Of all the options, the most com-
monly used and recommended method is to get a SSL certificate.
SSL is a method of communications that encrypts (codes) the informa-
tion being sent from and into your website. Under the SSL protocol the
information your customer shares with you cannot be accessed by devi-
ants. To use the SSL system you have to first acquire a license to use it.
You can get the license from either VeriSign or your hosting company.
The SSL software is then installed on the host server and your website
will then be secured. SSL licenses vary in price according to how secure
you want your website to be. High end SSL certificates use 256-bit en-
cryption and the lower end ones use 128-bit encryption. The price for
SSL can range between $29.95 and several thousand dollars.
Your host can activate your SSL or you can do it yourself (it’s slightly
technical mind you).

Seals of Approval and Displaying Certificates


People want to trust you before they buy from you. Displaying certi-
ficates and seals of approval are just one way to increase the customers
trust with you. Although people don’t directly look for certificates, it’s a
good thing to have and it shows the user you mean business.
Some seals of approval require you’ve been in business for more than
a year. Applications for some seals of approval can cost you several hun-
dred dollars so you should consider getting them later on when you’re
business has found some success.

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The following companies and websites offer seals of approval and
certificates:
• www.bbbonline.org
• www.guardianecommerce.net
• www.truste.org
• www.privacysecure.com

Section 2: Having Your Website Hacked and How to Protect Your


Data
Internet attacks can cost companies millions of dollars. Knowing what
to expect and knowing how hackers work can prepare you for when it
happens. In this section we talk about the defensive measures and what
to do in the event of an attack.

Denial of Service
DoS = Denial of service
A DoS attack is when the hacker prevents your website from being
viewed or accessed by you and your customers. Just because your web-
site is small doesn’t mean hackers aren’t interested. Any random site can
be attacked and even though you may have the problem fixed within a
day or so, it will leave a bad impression to those trying to visit your site.
DoS attacking tools are now easy to come by.
Smaller business websites have a higher chance of being hacked since
small business owners put security at the bottom of their list of priorities.
A DoS attack occurs when the hackers put so much demand on the site
that no one else is able to use it.
If you get attacked report it to:
• www.ic3.gov
Computer Crime Research Center:
• www.crime-research.org
If you experience an attack contact your host service providers imme-
diately. They’ll have an expert deal with the issue right away.

Protecting Yourself and Your Business


This should be common sense to everyone but always use a firewall
and antivirus program on your computer. We suggest you avoid using
Internet Explorer and use a safer browser like Firefox.
It is important to remember that hackers are very resourceful and can
enter your computer through many ways. Hackers use Trojan horses and
keystroke loggers to get information and data from you.

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There are many free firewalls and antivirus programs out there and of-
ten times they work just as well as the expensive ones. We recommend
the free version of AVG internet security.
For Firefox you can also get an add-on that prevents scripts from run-
ning in your browser. We highly recommend you use the following add-
on:
• http://noscript.net
Always be careful with your emails.
Hackers often create fake emails (pretending to be sent from a legitim-
ate source like Amazon or PayPal) and they try to get you to click on a
link and enter your visa number.
Protecting your computer is more or less common knowledge
nowadays but if you’re new to the internet you can find many resources
online. Check out the website:
• http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/
honeycutt_spyware.mspx
• http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-protect-
your-computer-from-hackers-spyware-and-viruses/

Saving and Backing Up Data


You’ve probably spent a lot of time creating your business and noth-
ing is worse than losing all that data. Without warning your computer
can malfunction and you can lose all the data.
Hosting services usually back up your website daily in the event that
their servers crash.
How often do you back up data on your own computer?
Losing your information can be extremely costly so make sure you
back up your information regularly.
Computers are not always predictable and although it may never mal-
function for the many years that you have it, it can also break down at
any moment.
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA!
You should back up your data using several methods. You want more
than one backup.
The following methods are effective ways to back up your
information:
• External Hard drive
• USB memory stick
• Storing the data on a partitioned part of your hard drive
• CD

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• DVD
• The cloud (the internet).
There are many online services offering online data storage. The ad-
vantage of storing data online is that it’s accessible globally and it’s
stored offsite.
The following websites offer good online storage:
• · https://www.sugarsync.com
• · www.box.net
• · http://mozy.com
• · www.adrive.com
• · https://www.elephantdrive.com
• · www.onlinestoragesolution.com
• · www.flipdrive.com
• · www.allmydata.com
• · www.carbonite.com
• www.storegate.com

Course #6
Setting Up an Online Store
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 6: Storefronts and How They Work

Section 1: Using a Storefront for Your Online Business


Storefronts are an excellent way to start selling right away. Having a
storefront can vary in price and some can be a bit pricy but others are en-
tirely free.
Storefronts such as Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo have developed ways to
simplify your job and make it easier for you to sell more on their sites.
There are many options to choose from, but after you weight the options
and decide on a storefront you will soon realize their ease of use.

The Essential Features of a Storefront

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Although you’ll more than likely stick to the 3 main storefronts
(Amazon, eBay, and Yahoo) you may decide to use a smaller one be-
cause it better suits your business.
If you decide to go with a smaller, less known storefront, make sure
they have the following elements:
• Shopping cart
• Payment processing
• Free hosting
• Reliable
• Tools to assist you in marketing.
• An administrative back end that offers you a good amount of
control.

Storefront Reliability
Reliability is made up of many elements and is perhaps one of the
most overlooked aspects when choosing a storefront. If your storefront
isn’t reliable you can be in for a lot of frustration and wasted time.
Before using a storefront you should thoroughly check out their web-
site and make sure they have and offer:
• Fast loading speed
• Fast Payment processing speed
• A high amount of data storage
• Data security
• A high limit on how many products you can sell.
• Digital product delivery support (customers are able to access the
digital files upon payment).
• Import and export tools (so you can upload large amount of
inventory).
• 24/7 support
• Editable templates, styles, and themes to make your storefront
unique.

Marketing Tools
When looking for a storefront, be sure that they have proper market-
ing tools. Since storefront providers get a cut out of the sales they’ll usu-
ally have a lot of tools available for you; USE THEM!
The following tools are the main ones you want to look out for:
• Option to display multiple product images
• Forms and tools to allow users to customize their purchase (not
just shipping options but also color, style and etc.).

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• Cross-selling/up selling tools that automatically recommend sim-
ilar items to the customer when purchasing a product.
• The tools to support coupons, gift certificates and promotions.
• Email subscriptions, newsletters, and auto responders.
• Utilities to control the SEO aspects of your storefront.
• RSS feeds
• Affiliate support

Administrative Back-End
The back end is the part you (the business owner) see. This is where
you set up the website and have control of all its features.
The best storefronts give you oversight and features like:
• An inventory management system
• QuickBooks integrations (so you can upload all your accounting
data to QuickBooks).
• Payment system with various payment gateways (PayPal, Visa,
MasterCard, etc.).
• Integrated delivery systems to communicate with UPS, FedEx or
DHL.
• Analytics software so you can keep track of users.

Recommended Storefronts
The following links are the most recommended storefront, they vary in
price and we suggest you check them all out:
• http://www.ebay.com/
• http://www.shopify.com/
• http://www.prestashop.com/
• http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/
• · http://checkout.google.com
• · http://www.e-junkie.com/
• · http://www.yabdab.com/payloom/
• · http://storefront.paypallabs.com

Section 2: Amazon aStore And Other Storefronts


Amazon made roughly $19.52 billion in 2008, and has a lot of experi-
ence and power that has enabled them to create an excellent storefront
service for entrepreneurs.
Amazon has several services that they can offer to entrepreneurs such
as:
• Marketplace

110
• Pro Merchant
• WebStore
• aStore

Marketplace
This is the fastest way to make money with Amazon and this option is
preferable if you plan on only selling a few items. There is no start up
costs with Amazon marketplace and once registered you can immedi-
ately display and sell your products.
Amazon allows you to sell new and used products but whenever a
user purchases your items, that individual will pay Amazon and
Amazon will transfer money to you to ship the product.
Amazon allows you to list your products but they will get a small cut,
out of each sale. The amount Amazon keeps from each sale can range
from 6% to 20% depending on the product. It’s important to know how
much Amazon will take away so you can better price your product. (The
Amazon website will have information on what percentage they take de-
pending on the product).
With a normal account your items will be kept up for 60 days after
which Amazon will remove the product. There is no fee if your item
doesn’t sell.
Pro Merchant
Pro merchant accounts are much like the EBay Power Seller program.
A Pro Merchant is essentially an enhanced version of the normal mer-
chant account. This account is ideal if you’re selling more than 40 items a
month. One benefits of having a Pro Merchant account is that Amazon
will not charge you transaction fees upon selling an item.
Aside from waiving the transaction fee the other benefits include:
• Mass listing importer and exporter that allows you to post 1000s
of items quickly.
• Your postings won’t expire after 60 days.
• View reports on how much you’re selling and other account
activity.
• Better security and fraud protection.
A Pro Merchant account costs $39.99 a month. But remember, Amazon
may review you depending on the type of item you sell in order for your
business to be approved.

Astores

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aStores are entirely free. With an aStore, you don’t need you own
products; instead you sell amazons pre-existing products. You can add
the aStore to a website you already have or you can create a website en-
tire for the aStore.
With an aStore you only make about 15% per sale. You can make a liv-
ing with an aStore but don’t count on it; expect it to be secondary and
supplemental to your main business.

WebStores
The Amazon WebStore is essentially the storefront that is based off of
the platform that Amazon uses and is extremely powerful. You can sell
your own products or you can sell products found on Amazon.
Having a WebStore will cost you about $59.99 a month but Amazon
will still receive 7% per transaction.
One of the greatest benefits of the Amazon WebStore is that it’s well
known, secure and it comes with automatic trust and security.

Section 3: Yahoo! E-Commerce Store


Yahoo! has been around for a long time and so it’s a trusted and reli-
able company to use. Unlike new start-ups and storefronts, you can be
sure your Yahoo store will work smoothly. Yahoo has developed many
tools and programs to help assist you with marketing and selling.

Yahoo Store Functions


Although there are many levels and pricing plans with the Yahoo
store, the following functions are given by default to the basic plan:
• Shopping cart software
• Sales reports
• Inventory tracking
• Unlimited bandwidth and storage
• Up to 500 sub domains
• 1000 business email accounts
• SSL security
• Credit card verification system
• Automatic backups

Getting Started With Your Yahoo Store


Once you’ve set up your account you can login at:
• http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com
Once inside go through and edit the following sections:

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• Store manager
• Webhosting control panel
• Domain control panel
• Email control panel
The store manager section deals with how your website will be viewed
and how it will function for users.
Once logged into your account you’ll also see a catalogue manager.
This is the page where you enter all your products and product details.
The catalogue manager allows you to upload and export your entire
catalogue of items all at once.

Yahoo Plans
Yahoo! has made plans for every level of business. Whether you’re just
starting your business or you’re making a million a month, Yahoo has
something for everyone.
Yahoo is also great because you can start with the simplest plan and
work your way up to the better plans as your business grows.
Yahoo! has the following plans:
• Starter Package
• Standard Package
• Professional Package
The basic Yahoo! Starter Package is ideal for people starting a new
business and while it says “starter package”, it is actually loaded with
great tools. The Starter Package has all the basic features except for the
advanced tracking, and reporting tools which a small business doesn’t
even need.
The Yahoo! Standard Package is for those businesses that are already
established. The great thing about Yahoo, is it has structured all their
packages in accordance to what a business will need depending on how
big or small it is.
With the Standard Package you’ll not only get all the features of the
Starter Package but you’ll also be able to:
• Receive orders by Fax in addition to just email.
• Automatically send your order information to your databases and
applications.
• Export your orders to your UPS software.
• See what searches are most popular among your customers.
• Have track able links for affiliates.
• Support gift certificates and coupons.

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The Professional Package is an excellent option once your business is
established and already receiving some success. If you’re making over a
million in sales a year, Yahoo! Professional Package will be able to
handle all of your customers and their specific demands

Yahoo Fees
A Yahoo! store can be somewhat pricy but it’s well worth it. There’s an
initial start up fee of $50.00 but a good tip is to look for promotions and
deals from other websites like PayPal.com, as there are often good dis-
counts being provided.
Aside from the initial start up fee Yahoo! charges you on a recurring
basis as follows:
• Starter package: $39.95 per month.
• Standard package: 129.95 per month.
• Professional package: $299.95 per month.
There are also transaction fees that vary depending on the type of ac-
count that you have. It’s important you do the math as upgrading your
account can save you money despite the monthly recurring fees:
• Starter package: 1.5%
• Standard package: 1.0%
• Professional package: 0.75%
Yahoo! has other services that you can use to enhance your business.
Yahoo provides Who Is protection which prevents people from finding
out that you own the website. It costs about $0.75 per month. For an ad-
ditional $10, you can get an extra 20 email accounts.
Yahoo! also provides a search engine advertising program but the
price varies depending on the advertising campaign.

Section 4: Using EBay for Your Internet Business


EBay has been around for a long time and it has a good track record.
Many people use EBay as way to test out how well their items sell before
they create their own dedicated website (as it costs next to nothing and
it’s easy to use).
Due to EBay being around for so long, it has developed tools and pro-
grams to help assist you in selling your items and running a store. EBay
also has many options for you to either sell your own items or sell their
items for a commission.
EBay started out as an auction site meaning that people would bid on
the items but EBay sellers can also offer set price purchases for those

114
users not wanting to bid. Setting a set price and selling your items in the
traditional sense requires a special account.
When you first start out in EBay, you’ll have to sell your items like an
auction. Once you have sold some products, EBay will offer a store ac-
count, but this has a monthly recurring fee. Your best bet is to use an
auction type store as it costs very little money and there are no monthly
fees.

Starting Out On EBay


After you register on eBay there are several tasks you’ll want to do.
EBay works in conjunction with PayPal (EBay connects with PayPal for
the majority of all transactions) so you will want to get an account with
PayPal.
You can also get a merchant account with your bank so you can accept
credit card payments.
In order to sign up for PayPal and EBay you need a credit card and a
bank account. We recommend you have a credit card and bank account
that you strictly use for business so that you can follow all the transac-
tions better.
Be sure to fill out all the information in your EBay account, including
the “about me” page so that customers can see what you’re all about.
The way people price items on eBay can be a bit different from tradi-
tional businesses so before selling your items, check out your competit-
ors on eBay to see how they price their items.
When doing research on your competitors, search for your type of
items and organize the results by what sold the best and for the highest
price. Take note of the following information:
• What keywords did your competitors use?
• Which category did your competitors place their items in?
• How do they advertise and pitch their items?
• How can you be different?
• Are the items being sold quickly?
• Is there a lot of demand for your type of product?

The Benefits of Running an Auction


Depending on the type of product you have, running auctions may be
preferable to having an EBay store.
You should definitely consider doing auctions if you’re selling:
• Unique, one of a kind items
• Expensive items

115
• Collectors items
The benefits of running an auction are:
• It’s more interesting to people (it gets noticed more).
• Auctions sell items faster because it creates a sense of scarcity.
• Auctions only costs you a small initial fee as oppose to a monthly
fee.
• Having an auction is a great way to test the waters and lets you
see how much people are willing to pay for such an item.

Feedback
EBay uses a feedback system that’s used to represent how trustworthy
every user is. Both sellers and buyers have feedback scores, the better
score the more trustworthy you’ll be considered. If you want to have a
successful EBay business your feedback score must be as high as
possible.
Feedback scores are given after the transaction, the buyer fills out a
form scoring your service and you, the seller, leave feedback to the buy-
er. Other sellers and buyers will see the comments and feedback score, so
they know that they’re business will be good.

EBay Store
An EBay store is a storefront and you may see that many EBay auc-
tioneers will also have a store to sell their goods. An EBay store is great
for those selling large quantities of items. (If you’re going to have an
eBay store it’s recommended you focus on a niche and not sell a wide
variety of products).
With an EBay store you can sell your items at a fixed price. Unlike an
auction which expires after a certain amount of time, the products you
sell in you store can remain up forever.
With an EBay Store there is a function that allows you to export all
your sales information from PayPal and EBay into QuickBooks.
If you advertise your products from outside of the EBay website you
can earn extra cash by referring the users to EBay.
By using an EBay store, you’ll have access to various templates which
will assist you in marketing your EBay Store. Also you will have access
to an email newsletter function. To help you will statistical information,
EBay Stores have built in analytics that allow you to see which pages are
viewed most and other user information.

116
An EBay Store can cost anywhere between $15.95 and $299.95 and so
we recommend it’s always best to get the basic plan and move up as
your business grows.
While you are paying to acquire an EBay Store, getting it isn’t as
simple as just giving them your credit card and purchasing the account.
In order to get an EBay Store you must have a feedback score of 20 or a
PayPal account with a good history.

Setting Up Your EBay Store


Once you’ve gathered a feedback score of 20 and have the EBay store
account acquired you will need to set it up. Go into the “Manage My
Store” part of your account and you’ll see that you have many options
and controls for you to customize your store.
When it comes to store design there are many templates offered by
EBay. Also a great feature is that each template is customizable. You can
add custom pages for your policies page, shipping page and etc.
There is also option to control such things as:
• Marketing
• Promotions and deals
• Logos, graphics and branding
• Store design

Power Seller
Power sellers are EBay users who sell a steady amount of items on a
recurring basis. They’ve earned a high feedback score and are in good
standing order.
To become a power seller you must sell a minimum of $1,000 per
month for the bronze status (there are many different levels each with
their own benefits).
The greatest status you can have is that of the Titanium status which
requires your total sales to be above $150,000. Being a power seller has
its benefits and best of all it’s free!
EBay normally incurs a fee from you posting but these fees are re-
duced with a power seller’s account.
There are several third party tools you should check out. If you be-
come a power seller these tools will help assist you in making more
sales:
• www.auctiva.com
• www.channeladvisor.com
• www.marketworks.com

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• http://solutions.ebay.com
Once you become a power seller you’ll have access to the Resellers
Marketplace. The Resellers Marketplace is a market that allows you to
buy items in bulk directly from manufacturers, wholesalers or even
liquidators.

Course #7
Setting Up Your Business
Online
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 7: Getting Your Brick and Mortar Business Online

Section 1: Deciding That the Time Is Right to Move Your Business


Online
If your business is successful offline, chances have it that you’ll do fine
online. Also if you already have a brand well known offline, marketing
online won’t be difficult.
Getting online doesn’t hurt and should be considered by all business
owners.
Getting your business online can:
• Help you expand your brand and store name to an international
market.
• Compared to opening up a new store offline, having an online is a
cheap way to expand your presence.
• Even if you don’t plan to sell anything online, advertising online
to people within your region is an effective way to market.
Never create a website for your business just because everyone else is
doing it. Make sure you have a reason to get online.
Some businesses don’t need a presence online, if your market is not
the type to look for you online, then there’s no point in getting online. If
you are going to create a website for your business, make sure it’s of a

118
high quality. Making a quick website is not enough; you want to look
professional on and off the internet.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter when you decide to launch your website.
Once deciding to have a website expect about a month for the website to
be up and running properly.
Having a special launch for your website is not essential and can be
counterproductive as indicating that your website is new is often times
less appealing then a website that has been around for a long time.
Once your website is up and running be sure to add the URL to your
marketing materials.

Connecting Your Online and Offline Store


Your website and offline presence should match and be congruent. If
your website does not match your offline store, users may be confused
wondering if they’re dealing with the same company.
If you have a good designer, the designer should match your website
up with your vision. It’s important to have a clear idea of who your mar-
ket is and exactly what your image will be. You need a clear public iden-
tity for your business and the actions your business take should be con-
gruent with it.
Don’t have a flowery website if your store is edgy and hardcore, this
goes without saying. You want your website to match your offline
business!

How to Manage Your Inventory


If you’re going to be selling online, your business will need to be able
to fulfill those orders. If you need assistance with order fulfillments, you
may want to consider outsourcing.
Every business is different, each with their own ways to manage in-
ventory and stock. How you decide to fulfill orders is something you’ll
need to take into account.

Deciding On Inventory
If you’ve been running a traditional brick and mortar business for
some time you’re probably well aware of what sells and what doesn’t.
You probably have a good idea of what your customers are looking for
and who your primary market is.
When moving your business online, be sure to create a complete list of
your entire inventory along with descriptions and details. Also speak to

119
your suppliers as they may be able to ship your products from their
warehouse.
The selling price of your product will probably be different from the
price you have in your store. Be sure to check out your competitors on-
line and see how they price similar products.
You don’t have to sell all your products online but you may want to
sell just the highest selling products. Some products are easier to sell in
the real world then online (since the user can’t interact and test the item
out). Be sure to indicate and present the information the users want to
see. Also, just because a product sells well offline doesn’t mean it will
sell well online.
When selling online, it’s best to have a picture of your product for the
users to see. The suppliers of those products will often have photos but if
they don’t, you’ll need to get a photographer to come in. There are many
photographers that specialize in product photography and the cost of
their services can vary.

Section 2: Getting to Know Your Online and Offline Customers


There are differences between online and offline customers. It’s im-
portant to make the distinction between the two as they will have
slightly different shopping habits. Customers who come to you store are
perhaps looking to see the product for themselves, these are people who
really want to know what they’re getting.
Fundamentally your online and offline customers are the same, but
when they decide to buy online they’re often looking for something dif-
ferent. How a customer decides to buy a product online is different from
the decision making process that goes on when buying from a store.

Comparing the Online and Offline Shopping Experience


The online and offline shopper have different expectations.
When you shop at a store a customer will expect:
• That their purchases will be more secured (in the sense that you
see where your money is going).
• The customer gets the product right away.
• Customer service with a real person.
• Familiarity (people are still uncomfortable with online shopping).
• They can test the product before the buy it.
• By shopping at the store they avoid shipping and handling costs.
By shopping online the customer is able to:
• Research their options and products quickly.

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• Compare prices with competitors.
• Check customer comments and reviews.
• Tap a global market for hard to find items (they’re not limited by
geography).
• The convenience of never leaving their home.
• Saving time and travel expenses to acquire the product.
• 24/7 shopping
• Variety of payment methods.

What the Online Shopper Will Expect From You


Unlike running a real business, an online shopper needs information
as to how things will be done. Shopping in real life is self explanatory
but online, the possibilities are endless.
When offering a product online you should include:
• An accurate product description.
• Customer reviews, comments and testimonials.
• Various delivery options.
• Various payment options.
• Contact information.
• Information regarding your return policies

Section 3: Common Problems with Getting Your Business Online


Because you already have a system in place to run your traditional
business, creating a website and selling online requires that you change
your system around.
Getting your business up online is still cheaper than creating a new
location. Also getting your business online will initially require some
work but once you have a system in place, the revenue will outweigh the
cost of operation.

Managing Your Inventory


If your business deals with a lot of inventory you are more than likely
have some sort of system to keep track of the entire inventory. If you’re
going to put your business up online, you’ll need a system that can keep
track of your entire inventory from offline and online sales.
Connecting an online and offline store is not simple and requires an
expert more often than not.
The following websites can help assist you with integrating your on-
line and offline stores together:
• www.coresense.com

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• www.epicor.com
• www.vcommerce.com
• www.netsuite.com

Allowing Your Customers to Track Their Orders


You’ll without a doubt get customers calling in or emailing and asking
how the delivery of their orders is going. Many shipping companies now
have tools that you can implement into your website to allow customers
to track their orders.
The following companies offer product tracking:
• www.dhl.com
• www.fedex.com
• www.ups.com

Fulfilling Orders
Does your store have enough room to deal with packaging and
delivery?
Will you need to train your employees to handle online orders?
Will you need to hire a full time employee to deal with online orders?
Initially fulfilling orders can be done entirely in house but as your on-
line presence grows you’ll have to consider and create solutions to deal
with this part of your business. More than likely, you’ll be selling more
products because of your online presence and you’ll therefore need to
taking into consideration stockings and sending out more orders to
suppliers.
Outsourcing the fulfillment process is one solution to deal with this
problem.

Dealing With Returned Products from Online Purchases


You’ll eventually get a few local customers coming to your store to re-
turn a product they purchased from you online. Dealing with returns can
be difficult since it’s very easy for people to be fraudulent.
If your business already has a return policy with a system able to man-
age it then this may not be a problem. Your return policy can be custom-
er centric in which the user can return the product without difficulty. Be
prepared to be taken advantage of, if you decide to use this type of
policy.
Often times a receipt is required in order for a customer to return the
product. If the user purchased the item online a different system is

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required. Remember to attach a receipt and a form indicating your re-
turn policy.
To simplify your business you may choose to have a no return policy,
expect to have the occasional angry customer but expect a much easier
time not having to deal with the training, systems, and procedures re-
quired to deal with it.

Course #8
Targeting Your Audience
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 8: Selling To a Niche Market

Section 1: Finding an Untapped Niche to Sell To


A niche market is a smaller segment of a larger market. An example
would be something like Japanese tea pots which are a niche belonging
to the general tea pot market. By focusing on a niche market you’ll have

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less competition focusing on that tight market. You’ll have a smaller cus-
tomer base but you’ll have less competition.
Niche markets exist in every industry and they aren’t hard to find,
there are many niches that still haven’t been tapped.
If you decide to go into a niche market you’ll have the benefit of
having:
• Defined customer base.
• It’s easier to market.
• If the niche is good, there will usually be a community for it, in
which case you can expect a lot of word of mouth marketing.
The disadvantages of going into a niche market are:
• Smaller customer base.
• Less suppliers of your niche product.
• Bad service can lead to bad word of mouth.

Finding a Niche
Niche customers are extremely knowledgeable of their niche. Even if
you’re not passionate about a niche you can still study it and demon-
strate your knowledge to customers. Being passionate about the niche
you pick will help greatly.
When looking for a niche, go through the NICHE process:
• Notice: Niche markets exist in every industry and for the most
part, they exist right in front of us. Pay attention to trends, fads,
and look for the next big thing to a segment of society.
• Investigate: Check out the competition, industry trends, annual
sales, and see if it’s a viable idea.
• Customers: Research the competition thoroughly and find out ex-
actly who they are. Are they big spenders? What do they want and
how do they want it?
• Hypothesize: Before you go all out on storefronts and purchasing
products for resale… test, test, and test some more! Try selling a
few items on EBay to see what people are willing to pay.
• Execute: After you’ve thoroughly tested and found it to be viable,
you’re ready to go all out. Plan and plan some more then execute
your plan.
The following sites are helpful when looking for a niche market:
• www.ecommerce-guide.com/news
• www.iconoculture.com
• www.thestylephile.com/blog/330000033.html
• www.smallbiztrends.com

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• www.trendwatching.com

Section 2: The Children and Elderly Niche Markets


There are plenty of opportunities in the younger and older markets.
Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) make up one of the
fastest growing markets.
Trends among children and youth are volatile but explosive. They can
get you a high rate of returns if your product (whether it’s a website,
physical, game, or otherwise) catches on in the market.
If you know how the market works and how to market to then, you
can do quite well.

Marketing To the Younger Audiences


“Younger audiences” can be split into 3 categories:
• Kids: 7 and younger, they don’t have money but their parents do.
• Tweens: 8 to 12, they have small allowances, but they also get
things from their parents. They emulate their older counterparts
and they start to avoid anything “childish”.
• Teens: 13 to 17, they have bigger allowances but still rely on their
parents for online credit card purchases and important items.
Brand names is important to this age group and being “cool” is
important.
The younger audiences are much more computer savvy and adept at
searching the internet. The majority of them are still not allowed to use
credit cards but their parents are more willing to purchase things for
them.
According to a recent study:
• There are about 21 million teen internet users.
• 11 million teens use the internet every day.
• About 9 million teens regularly buy things online.

Keeping the Younger Market Interested


Kids are usually the first to get excited over a new product but they’re
interest can die off quickly. The secret to keeping them interested is to be
always coming out with a new version or new product under the same
brand (think Pokémon, Beanie Babies, skate board decks, Nike shoes
etc.).
Having customizations for your products is an excellent way to keep
kids interested. It’s best to release the customizations and options over

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time and not all at once, you want to sustain their interest for as long as
possible
Try adding new products often but spaced out long enough that it
keeps interest. Also try to create accessories and things to go with your
other products. Making small changes to your website often keeps it
fresh and stops it from getting stale. For your website have polls, sur-
veys, and other interactive features.
School is essentially a place for kids to interact and socialize, if you
have a good product, word of it will spread around quickly.

Keep the Parents in Mind


As a general rule of thumb, always include a “for parents” section if
your website is targeted towards the 17 and lower crowd. For the most
part teens are not going to ask for the parents’ permission and they’re
pretty independent when it comes to online surfing.
The “for parents” section should essentially be your privacy policy
page written in a more understandable manner. You want to reassure
the parents that your website and the product you offer is safe, moral,
and not a bad thing for the kids.
When it comes to marketing to the younger crowd, you’re ultimately
selling to their parents. You have to demonstrate to the parents that your
product will be of value to their kids. Your product has to be appealing
to the kids but also to their parents who control the money.

Policies and Guidelines


Your website should always have a privacy policy page with a link to
it clearly placed and easy to find. If your website is targeted towards
kids you must follow the regulations set out by COPPA (the Children’s
Online Privacy Protection Act).
The COPPA rules essentially state that you can’t request any informa-
tion from a child under 13 without notifying and getting permission
from their parents first.

The Over 50 Market


The over 50 market makes up roughly 1 third of the US population
and they have unique needs and desires. The over 50 market are not avid
computer users but about 36 million of them have internet access.
The myths of the internet not being safe are quickly going away and so
more and more old people are willing to buy online.
Research has shown that the over 50 markets have the following traits:

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• Brand is not as important to them, if your product works and does
the job… that’s all that matters.
• They like deals, promotions, coupons and getting the best bang for
their buck.
• They want to know they’re getting their money’s worth.
• Peer influence makes up a big factor in their buying decisions.
• They like to research and investigate the products before they buy
them, customer testimonials, and research papers should be ac-
cessible to them.

Web Designing For The Older Markets


This is often overlooked by web designers, the older 50 crowd are not
as adept at internet browsing as the younger folk. The over 50 market
typically have problems with close range vision which means you have
to take steps to make it easier for them.
It’s important to have good contact between the text and background
so stick with a simple white background with black text. You can use col-
or in headers but avoid it in the main text. Try to avoid light blues and
greens as these colors are harder to see. Also avoid using too many col-
ors, stick to a simple clear palette.
For the normal text use a text font size of about 12-14 and 14 and up
for headers and captions. If it’s possible, add extra space between lines of
text, this will make it much easier to read.
In regards to font choice, use the sans serif fonts like Ariel, Helvetica,
Verdana, Tahoma or Calibri. Make the navigational buttons larger and
clearly identifiable as a button.
The button hit space should be larger than the actual button to make it
easier to hit. Links in the text should be colored with a strong color so it’s
noticed.
In regards to layout and navigation you want to make it as clear and
as simple as possible, you want to make it intuitive so the user doesn’t
have to look hard for what they want.

Section 3: Blogging about Niche Markets


Blogging technology has come a long way since its arrival and there
are a lot of people making money with blogs. There are more and more
tools coming out constantly to help blog more and more. The technology
used to run and create blogs can also be used to create full on websites
due to their ease of use.

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Blogs are excellent ways to expand your reach, by letting people con-
nect with you on a more personal level. Blogs can be personal journals, a
place for you to share your knowledge with readers, a hub of links to in-
teresting sites on the web and much more.
With blogging, your product is information, entertainment, or media.
There are blogs that charge people for the information contained with-
in but for the most part their free. The way you make money through
blogging is by getting a ton of traffic and advertising.

Getting People to Read Your Blog


The number one most important key to successful blogging is provid-
ing value. You want to provide value to a certain segment of society and
reach out to them and get them to become avid followers.
You’ll want to post interesting things that evokes a reader to particip-
ate, one of the great things about blogging is that people can comment
and add to the content. Allowing people to easily subscribe to your blogs
RSS feed is an excellent way for people to stay connected with you.
An excellent resource to promote your RSS feed is:
• www.feedburner.com
Posting often will keep your blog fresh, if you decide to run a blog
you’ll want to have at least 2 or 3 posts per week (AT THE VERY
LEAST!)

Finding a Good Topic to Write About


You should choose to write about a topic that you’re passionate about
but at the same time is wanted by a lot of people. Naturally you’ll have
competition with other blogs so keep this in mind when choosing a
topic.
What are you passionate about that other people would be interested
in learning about?
Go through the same process as creating a traditional online business
to find a topic.

Your “Schtik”
Before writing anything you should develop the persona that you
want to present on your blog. It’s important to be honest and “real” but
how you really talk is not always what other people want to hear. Set out
a vision of how you want to be seen and write from that perspective.
Blogs can be very formal and professional but the ones that do the best
are the ones that are casual, friendly, inviting, and informative. When

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you write, think of it as having a conversation 1 on 1 with someone. Also
be sure to write grammatically and always use spell check.

Content
Most blogs only have one writer administrating the whole site; the
best and biggest blogs though typically have multiple contributors.
Try to get the readers involved by asking questions and getting them
to comment and add feedback. Write new posts on a consistent and often
basis, the more the merrier.
Each post should be no more than 500 words, people have low atten-
tion spans and if they see it’s a big post, they won’t read it. Pack each
post with nothing but information, refrain from long sidetrack stories.
Providing links to support your post is often a good idea, just doesn’t
jam pack your posts with them. When providing a link, try linking back
to another post on your website. Internal linking is good SEO.

Earning Money
The most common method to earn money from a blog is by using
Google Ad Sense. With Google Ad Sense you earn money every time
someone clicks on one of the ads provided by Google.
Google is just one way to monetize your site, a successful site utilizes
multiple methods to make money, but they all general involve advert-
ising. Another effective way to make money blogging is by writing
product reviews.

Blog Platforms
There are about 10 big blogging platforms but only 2 are worth talking
about; Blogger and WordPress.
We personally recommend using wordpress.org but depending on
what you want and need, blogger and wordpress.com are both excellent.
We suggest creating an account with both Blogger and WordPress so
you can see what they’re all about.

Blogger.Com
Blogger is owned by Google so it’s well integrated with the other
Google applications. You’ll be in full control over the design of your blog
theme.
It’s well supported online and so if you have any problems it should
be easy to fix. This platform is very easy to use and excellent for
beginners.

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WordPress
There is a wordpress.com and a wordpress.org. WordPress.com hosts
your blog for free but your blog URL with be like this:
www.yourblogname.wordpress.com. Wordpress.org provides the en-
gine and platform to run your blog on your own hosting service; it’s
much more powerful and has many more features.
You can have a wordpress.com blog with a normal URL name by pur-
chasing a domain name and forwarding it to your blog. So when people
go to www.yourblog.com they’ll end up at
www.yourblog.wordpress.com.
Wordpress.org is extremely powerful and is highly recommended by
us. It supports powerful tools and features to help you get more traffic
and run certain functions. It’s by far the most supported and feature rich
blog platform out there.
There are thousands of themes and layouts you can choose from but
requires a bit more tech savvy skills for full utilization but it’s still good
for beginners.

Course #9
Marketing Your Online Business
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

130
Course 9: How to Market Your Internet Business Online 101

Section 1: Increasing the Number of Sales for Your Online Business


Building a website is a good idea, when looking to expand; but simply
setting up a site is not enough, you also have to market it.
One thing to keep in mind is that more traffic doesn’t always mean
more sales.
This section covers the best way to find out how much traffic your
website is getting an also discusses importance to knowing your sales/
traffic ratio (how many visitors you need before you make a sale).

Conversion Rates and Other Formulas


Conversion rate is essentially how many people out of a hundred buy
your products (represented as a percentage). Conversion rates vary from
site to site and depend on the product and website (conversion rates can
be as high as 20% for some websites).
A 2% conversion rate is a good number, so if you get it this high, you
can be considered to be above average. Assuming you get 1000 visitors a
day with a 2% conversion rate you’d be making 20 sales a day. If you
make $10 profit on each item sold and you make 20 sales per day you’d
be making $200 which is arguably enough for a decent living.
If you find that you’re converting 2% and your website is optimized
for sales, increasing traffic is the best way to boost sales. By understand-
ing the math you can calculate how much traffic you’ll need in order to
make a certain amount of income.
To calculate the amount of traffic you’ll need to make a certain amount
of sales, divide the amount of sales you want by your conversion rate.
• Traffic = Sales / Conversion rate
• Conversion rate = Sales / Traffic
• Sales = Conversion rate x traffic
You conversion rate is influences by the following factors:
• The amount of qualified traffic you bring in (users who are likely
to buy).
• The quality of your website.
• The price of your products.
According to research the biggest factor in converting a viewer into a
buyer is:

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• Trust, the user want to see that your website is professional and
secure.
• Multiple payment options. People have a preferred method of
payment and if you don’t give them their preferred option they
probably won’t buy from you.

The Basics to Marketing Your Website


The best advice to marketing your website is to be consistent and
targeted.
Google ad words and other keyword advertising have proven to be
worth it (in most cases). With ad words you pay a small price to Google
every time someone clicks on ad for your website.
Ranking high in Google and other search engines can have a dramatic
effect on your business. Study your SEO and work on your rankings.
Having external links heading to your website will not get visitors
heading to your website but it will also increase your search engine rank-
ings. Having your link up on a big named website can bring in 1000s of
visitors.
Having affiliates drive traffic your way is excellent. There are many
people who do affiliate marketing as their main source of income and
therefore they’re excellent marketers and can bring in a ton of traffic for
you.
Having a lot of content on your site can increase your rankings in the
search engines and it can get the visitors to stay on your site for a longer
time… although be careful as having a lot of content can stop users from
buying.
Having a large email list is a great way to get those people on the fence
to become customers. Lots of people may visit your site and be inter-
ested… but not enough to buy your product. Sending out quality emails
regularly will keep the users interested and hopefully get them to buy.

Section 2: Having a Good Reputation on the Internet


Having good public relations on the web is critical to success. Not only
do you want to “look” good, you also want to “be” good to your com-
munity and market.
Your market most likely has a community presence on the web and
you have to reach out and get yourself known among that community. If
you have an informational product where you teach people, you may
want to consider selling yourself and not the product.

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Offering a lot of value to your markets community will let people
know that you’re a congruent, trustworthy person but be aware of the
image you’re presenting and actually showing people.
If you don’t participate in your markets community you’ll have no
“web cred” and you’ll just be another website. If people in your com-
munity see that a lot of people are saying good things about you and that
the information you give out is solid and accurate, your trustworthiness
will go through the roof.
The most popular websites and individuals are the ones that offer the
most value to customers and other people.
Also for those of you that think bad publicity is always bad, you may
be missing out on some benefits. Bad publicity is bad, but can help if
you’re selling something controversial and in certain situations, other-
wise for 99.99% of all businesses, bad publicity is not a good thing.

Writing Articles
Demonstrating your knowledge of a product or niche is a great way to
boost trust and your value. There are many websites out there that you
can use to share and post your articles.
If you’re selling a product you should consider writing product re-
views for your market. If you decided to write a review, be sure to try
and mention your name and website (without trying to sell the reader
something).

Article Directories and Places To Write Reviews


Aside from your own website you should submit your articles and re-
views to as many applicable websites as possible. But try and avoiding
having your articles posted on websites that will bring down your
image.
For example a great website to post to is About.com. This is a website
exclusively made for articles and reviews but your writing must be of a
certain quality in order for you to post there.
Another great site to use is Amazon. It will allow people to write com-
ments and reviews on any of their products although you may not con-
sider this a good place to submit your reviews, it actually is! Amazon
gets a ton of traffic and so you’ll surely be seen.
Another great tip to remember is if you’re following your market you
should know where your customers go for advice. Try and find the web-
site your customers frequent and post your articles and reviews there.

133
Writing Reviews
The great benefit of writing for the web is that you don’t need to be a
world famous writer. People like to read user friendly, simple writing
that’s easy to understand. Think the easier the better!
When writing a review, be sure to include these elements:
• First impressions
• Pros
• Cons
• Personal experience
• Rating
• Recommendation
• Website address or link to your website.

Writing Articles
People are always looking for useful and valuable information. Just as
with writing a review you should always include your name and a link
to your website. If you are providing something of use, why not get the
credit for it.
When writing, be sure to write articles that your market would be in-
terested in and once it is completed, you can submit the same article to
multiple article websites. There are forums on the internet for just about
every subject so be sure to submit and become a member of as many for-
ums as possible.
Articles can vary in types. Lists (Don’t go over 10) are popular and
step by step guides almost always do well.
Articles should be no longer then 500 words. Web users have short at-
tention spans and they prefer to have their information super condensed
and to the point (avoid unimportant knowledge or side stories stick to
the subject). If a user really wants more in-depth information, direct
them to supplementary content on your site or another’s site.
Here’s a really important tip to keep in mind: Always check for
spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.
Articles should have:
• Introduction
• Summary of what the article will be about
• The information
• Summary of what the article was about
• Conclusion

Distributing Your Articles

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Once an article is finished, you’ll want to submit it to as many direct-
ories as you can. By including your link at the bottom of the article you’ll
increase your rankings among the search engines and while you may not
get too many visitors directly from the articles your ultimate goal is just
to get your name out there.
If you have created some really good content, blog writers and other
websites will use their article or link to your article. If the blog or other
website gets a lot of traffic, they can send a lot of traffic your way.
Also always be sure you understand the terms and conditions associ-
ated with submitting your articles to a website. Some article directories
take ownership of the article once submitted.
The following websites are excellent places to submit your articles:
• www.amazines.com/register.cfm
• www.articlesbase.com/submit-articles.php
• www.articlemarketer.com/submit.php
• www.ezinearticles.com/submit
• www.goarticles.com/ulogin.html
• www.isnare.com/members.php

Interacting With Your Community


Getting your name known is essential in business. Not only will parti-
cipating in your community bring you more customers, it will also con-
nect you with other business owners that may be interested in doing a
project with you. There are many ways to interact with your community
and you should take advantage of every method possible to get your
name out there.

Marketing Yourself as an Expert


Being an expert doesn’t mean much and is not an actual “official” title
given to someone. It’s not given to you by a higher authority or anything
like that.
The key is if you act like an expert people will treat you like an expert
and if people see you as an expert, they are more likely to buy from you.
It’s never good to mislead the public so make sure you actually know
what you’re talking about. An expert is essentially just anyone who
knows a lot about a specific field.
To start demonstrating your expertise, participate in your markets
community as an expert and people will remember you that way and of-
fer as much good advice as possible whenever you can.
Section 3: Marketing Your Internet Business Online

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Unlike traditional forms of marketing, marketing online can be much
cheaper (practically free) and you’re able to target your market much
more effectively. Even if you’re a small business, if you market yourself
right you can become a huge business overnight.
With the prevalence of social networking and fast communication
your marketing can go viral and you can become a hit overnight.
The secret to online marketing is leveraging and making a little bit go
a long way. As in the physical world, word of mouth is a huge factor in
digital marketing.
The true secret here is, marketing your site requires steady commit-
ment over a long period of time. You must be persistent.

Marketing Strategy
Having a marketing strategy and sticking to it is essential. Although
there may be a chance of becoming an overnight success, don’t count on
it. A steady commitment and continuous persistence will eventually get
you where you want to be.
If you stay consistent and committed long enough you may reach that
tipping point where the popularity of your site explodes through the
roof. To truly reach that point, your marketing strategy should encom-
pass all the major parts of online marketing.

Creating Your Brand


Your brand is the image and impression that you want people to see
when they encounter your business.
All marketing material should be congruent with your brand image
otherwise people may get confused. You will want to send out an image
to your consumers that you’re professional, friendly, and trustworthy.
Ask yourself, what do your customers want to know you for?

Email Newsletters
We have all heard about newsletters and know that they have been
around for a long time, and while many may argue that they are on their
way out, they are the best tool to keeping in touch with your audience.
Newsletters are not only an effective way to keep people coming back to
your site but you can also make a lot of money through newsletters.
Newsletters can be used to share tips, advice, coupons, promotions,
articles and many other things.
If you find a good affiliate program you can write a review of it and
send it out to your email list. Lots of money can be made this way if your

136
readers trust you (people have gotten really good at detecting advert-
ising so don’t ever make anything you do look like an advertisement).
Your emails should be of value to the customer, always ask yourself,
would I read it?
By including a subscribe button on the front page of your website you
can hook the users into hopefully becoming customers down the road.
You’d think that there isn’t much to email newsletter but entire books
have been devoted to the subject. There are many guidelines and rules
when sending out newsletters, be sure not to break any laws.
If your business is such that people want your personnel expertise,
you should personally write the newsletter, since people really just want
to know what you’re saying.
If you are exceptionally busy or just terrible at writing, you don’t have
to be the only writer of your newsletter. You can get anyone you trust to
write the emails
You can send out your emails daily, weekly or monthly, just make
sure the content stays fresh and that you’re not annoying people with
your newsletter.
A great way to avoid readers considering your content as spam is to
express how often you’ll send out an email before the user subscribes.
People get a ton of spam emails and they don’t want anything of non
value being in their inbox.
Also, your emails should be sent out consistently at the same time all
the time. If you’re sending it out weekly or monthly it should be sent on
the same day at the same time every time.

Deciding What to Write For Your Newsletter


Your newsletter should contain the most interesting information you
can find. Always be on the lookout for the newest and freshest content to
add. Your newsletter is what will get the unsure buyers buying so al-
ways show your best face when sending out a newsletter.
Many newsletters out there consist of customer questions with the
owners answering each question. (David Deangelos double your dating
newsletter is perhaps the greatest example of this).

Newsletter Formats
Emails can either be sent in the plain text format or HTML format.
Plain text emails can be viewed by all email programs and spam filters
are less likely to junk mail them. Plain text emails can also have links but
they can’t have images.

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HTML format can have images, videos and links and are much more
visually stimulating but they should be avoided since they don’t always
display correctly to the user.

Distributing Your Newsletter


Distributing your emails properly will be highly useful to get your in-
formation to all your contacts, but not all email management programs
can handle sending an email out to many recipients.
If your email list becomes really big (more than a few thousand) you
may want to contact your ISP (internet service provider) or hosting com-
pany to notify them that you’re not a spammer. Some ISPs will ban you
if they suspect you’re spamming so be careful.
A great way to reduce your email looking like spam, you should add
to all emails an option at the bottom to unsubscribe. This is also a regula-
tion made by the FTC and government authorities so don’t forget this!
When you’re dealing with several thousand emails, it can get quite
tricky (ex: when you have 100 people unsubscribing daily).
To simplify your newsletter needs there are a lot of companies that
specialize in newsletters. Check out the following companies:
• www.constantcontact.com
• www.jangomail.com
• www.campaigner.com
• www.delivra.com
• www.exmarketing.com
Never write your email directly in the email program (you may send it
out incomplete by accident). Always write it in a word processing pro-
gram then copy and paste it into your email program.

Automation and Creating Systems to Simplify Your Life


If you’re running an online business you’ll undoubtedly have a million
and one tasks that you’ll have to deal with on a regular basis. For-
tunately technology has come a long way and a lot of your routine tasks
can be handled with a program.
By cutting out routine tasks and leaving a program to deal with it,
you’ll be saving yourself a lot of time, time that you can be spent on
more critical and important tasks.
Auto responders are programs that automatically send customers
emails. If a customer subscribes to your newsletter an auto responder
can send automatically add the users email to your email list and it will
also send out a welcome/informational email to the customer. It can be

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used to send out emails in response to different requests but don’t over-
use it. Customers will find it very annoying.
Another great option is having a FAQ page (this can save you a lot of
time). If you find yourself getting asked a lot of questions, you should
add that question to the FAQ with an answer.
Also try having premade emails that are ready to copy and paste. If
you find that you’re getting a lot of similar emails you should write an
email that can be used every time you encounter it.
There are many free programs out there that can automate just about
any routine tasks. There are program that can:
• Submit your articles automatically to article directories.
• Add friends automatically on FaceBook, MySpace, and twitter.
• Open up all the programs and web pages you use with the click of
a button.
• Automatically send out newsletters for you on a timed basis.
Work smart not hard. If there’s a routine task that’s commonly done
by most people there’s probably a program to do it for you.

Search Engine Advertising


Search engines can display your ads for certain keywords at the top of
the page of the search results for that keyword. If someone types in
“computer speakers” and you request that your ad be shown for that
keyword, your ad will get displayed near the top of the page so that
people will see it. Because you can tie in your website with certain
keywords you can be sure you’ll get qualified traffic coming to your site.
Search engine advertising can be extremely cost effective if done cor-
rectly. The more specific the keyword the better your results (“cheap
computer speakers on sale” would do better than “computer speakers”).
Every time someone clicks on your ad you’ll have to pay a small amount
of money.
Google, MSN, and Yahoo Are the largest search engines and they all
offer search engine advertising.
If you are tight on money, you can have budgets so the search engine
will only display your ad until your budget has been exhausted. If you
are looking for the best, Google ad words are the leader in search engine
advertising. They offer many tools that assist you to market effectively.
Your ads not only have to be tied into certain keywords but they can
also be geographically focused so the ads will only display if the search-
ers IP is located in a certain area.

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You should only use search engine advertising if your conversation ra-
tio and profit margin is high enough to make your profit when deduct-
ing the pay per click costs.

Knowing When To Use Pay Per Click Advertising


Pay per click advertising is not always cost effective but there are for-
mulas to figure this out.
You should know the following numbers:
• The profit margin on each product (The selling price of the
product minus the expenses incurred by the product).
• Your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who become
buyers).
• Click through rate (the percentage of people who click on your ad
from the external site). If your ad is displayed on someone’s site to
100 people but only 4 people click on it you’ll have a CTR (click
through rate) or 4%.
You pay money each time your ad is clicked so the goal and hope is
that you’d be making more money per person then the cost of the click.
If you have a profit margin of $10 and you have a conversion rate of
5%, you’d be making 1 sale for every 20 people that visit your site. Each
person that clicks through the ad would then be worth 50 cents ($10 x 5%
= 50 cents). If your pay per click is less than 50 cents you’ll be making a
profit with pay per click advertising.
When it comes to pay per click advertising you want to focus on hav-
ing a really good conversion rate to make each click through visitor be
worth more.
If In the example above the conversion rate was 10% each click
through visitor would be worth $1 and let’s say the pay per click on your
ads range between 20 cents and 50 cents, you’d be making a higher
profit.

Marketing In the Offline World


Although marketing offline is not as cost effective is should be con-
sidered as an additional method to making money.
It’s always good to have a business card on hand in the event you
meet a fellow online business person or someone with a lot of contacts.
The following methods are good offline marketing methods:
• Business cards
• Custom letterheads
• Boxes

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• Flyers
• Invoices and Shipping orders
• Brochures
• Company vehicle

Section 4: Increasing Your Conversion Rates


An important word to remember is, Stickiness = How long the average
user spends on your site.
The longer people stay on your website the more likely they’ll be to
buy something from you or take some form of action. Each website has
its own level of stickiness. FaceBook for instance is much stickier then
your banking website.
Although stickiness is not the primary factor in having high conver-
sion rates, it definitely helps.

Getting Customers to Stay On Your Website


The best way to have customers stay on your website is to offer them
interesting and original content. You can write reviews for your products
or create videos demonstrating how to use them. You can also provide a
chat or forum for people to ask question and discuss your niche.
Another option is to setup a forum on your site. Forums are difficult to
make busy so you’ll have put some effort into it and participate in your
own forum as much as possible to start.
Your website should always be getting new content in order to keep it
fresh.
If you have posted some good content, make sure you allow customers
to write comments and their own reviews of the products. User gener-
ated content can help tremendously.

Creating Original Content


Your website should always be changing even if it is only minor
changes.
If a user sees that nothing has changed and they’ve read all your con-
tent, the user has no need to stay on your website. Even though you
want to focus on the user buying your items you can still provide con-
tent that will push them in that direction.
If your website becomes full of content you can consider removing
older content to make room for new. If you have written as much as you
can, try providing videos is a great way to keep viewers interested. If

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you realize that you have run out of things to provide, you should cycle
your information.
If you have changed various site features and have no other ideas, try
and change special sales and promotions and add/replace new items to
the front page.

User Generated Content


User generated content is a cost effective way to get new content to
your website. User generated content is when the users of your website
write articles, comments or reviews for your site (for free).
There are a ton of websites that offer free content for other website.
Check out the following websites:
• www.articlesbase.com
• www.ezinearticles.com
• www.goarticles.com
• www.isnare.com

Giving Customers What They Want Before They Know It


Having a successful business is not only about giving the customers
what they want but also anticipating what they “will” want. Anticipat-
ing your customer’s needs can make you a lot of money since you’ll be
one step ahead of your competition.
You have to study the trends in your market and supply products to
meet those trends. Watch carefully for what your customers are asking
for and try to give them what they want before the masses want it. Usu-
ally it will be a small minority of trend setters asking for something be-
fore the masses start asking for it. Pay close attention to what the trend
setters are doing.
Always pay close attention to what your competition is doing, you
don’t want to be left in the dust while your competition is offering the
newest product and stealing your customers. Look for the “next great
thing”.
Also, sometimes there is more hype for a product then is actually war-
ranted so be cautious.

Watching Your Customers Every Action


Web analytics and logs allow you to see which page your customers
frequent the most and what they buy. It is important to keep a close eye
on what your customers are doing as it may indicate to you many things.

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If customers are going to one product page often but not buying, it
may indicate that the product is priced too high, code malfunction, or the
review and sales pitch is weak.
You may notice that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your
products. This is often the case in most businesses. Focus on those
products and push them harder.
If you find that the customers are only buying a select few items you
may consider offering more products like that.

Making Your Website Buyer Friendly


Online shoppers look for a few things before deciding to purchase
from some they’re looking to know:
• What your website is about.
• If you’re professional.
• If you’re trustworthy.
• If you have common purchasing systems with a variety of pay-
ment methods.
You must convey as much trust and professionalism on the first page
of your website. Users will decide if they’ll ever purchase anything from
you within the first few seconds of being on your website.
Users are also looking for simplicity and ease of use. Purchasing an
item shouldn’t take too many steps to complete the order.
Everything on your site should make sense and the navigation should
be understandable by everyone.
If your sell products your website should have a way for customer to
access their shopping cart and account from every page of your website.
Amazon.com is perhaps the best example of how you should allow
customers to buy items from you.
Avoid using too many bells and whistles. The shopping experience
should be simple and easy and not cluttered or distracting with sound
files, video files and annoying flash banners…. KEEP IT SIMPLE!

Simplifying Shopping Experience


According to studies, 50 to 90% of all shopping carts are left without
purchasing the items inside.
The biggest deterrents to the customer buying are:
• The high cost of shipping and handling.
• Their unsure on how to complete the order (they can’t find the
right buttons or it’s not clear).
• They don’t feel the site is professional or trustworthy.

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To get more buyers considering taking the following actions:
• Make the buttons clear and easy to find.
• Make it obvious what the next step is for the customer.
• Allow the user to access their shopping cart from any page.
• Allow customer to add or remove items to their shopping cart.
• Offer FAQ page and make it easy for users to find.
• Use an SSL socket to protect their data and make it obvious to the
customer that you use it.
• If you use a third party to handle the credit cards an SSL socket is
not important.
• Let customers know you protect their data.

The Dangers of Assuming What Your Customers Want


Just because your website looks good to you doesn’t mean your cus-
tomers will like it. Everything should be designed and created with the
user in mind and any of your decisions should be based on research and
not assumptions.
Never assume that something will work without proper research to
back your assumptions up.

Finding out What the Customers Really Want


Finding out what customers really want may sound simple, but there
are a few things you should be aware of. You should ask for feedback
from your customers but never take that information at face value. Cus-
tomers will usually say one thing but mean another.
The results retrieved from focus groups and feedback letters are not
completely accurate and should only be used as guidance.
If people say they’ll buy something in a focus group and are then
offered the product immediately after them saying they’d buy it, 99% of
them will refuse to buy the product.
The best way to find out what the customers want is to offer them
products and see what they buy the most.
Feedback can be used to see trends and to give you ideas for what to
sell next, but never assume that just because a lot of customers request
an item that they’ll actually buy it.

Customers Come First


I’m sure you’ve heard “customers come first”, but naturally you will
be more focused on what you want. One important point to make here is
, don’t always pick products “you” like.

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Your store is not about what you want; it’s about the customers and
what they want.
If you’re passionate about your type of business and the product you
sell, you may know a lot about what good and what’s not, but the cus-
tomers may feel differently and they’d rather go for the inferior product.

Converting Viewers into Buyers


If you don’t tell the viewer to take action and buy, they won’t. Always
make it clear to the customer what they should do next. In order for
them to take action they may need a little motivation.
Offering them deals, promotions and special sales is the best way to
get your customers to take action.
Deals and Promotions and the Power of Scarcity
Deals and promotions make the purchase appealing since you’re
adding more value to the product (artificially).
By limiting the deal or item you are making it more scarce which
makes the customer much more inclined to buy.
The three most common methods to create the illusion of scarcity are
to:
• Limit the length of time for the offer.
• Put a limit on how many people can take advantage of the offer.
• Limit the supply of the item being sold.
The following phrases are common way to create scarcity:
• “Order now while supplies last”
• “Supplies are limited! Order now”
• “Sale ends in 10 hours!”
• “Offer ends on July 1st “
• “Offer only available to the next 100 customers”
If the customer always thinks the offer will be there, then they won’t
be motivated to act right away.

Section 5: Web Analytics and Tracking Your Customers


Analyzing exactly what your customers are doing is an excellent way
of knowing what you should be working on.
Programs such as Google analytics can track a lot of information from
your users such as:
• What pages they go to.
• How long each user spends on each page.
• Where they come from geographically.

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• Geographic conversion rate (what geographic location buys the
most).
• What website they came from.
• What keywords in Google lead them to you.
There are many programs out there on the internet that can track your
users for you and some programs will even track where the user’s mouse
cursor went.
By understanding what your customers are doing, you’ll better be able
to market and sell to them.

Trends
By understanding and seeing the trends of your website, you’ll better
be able to focus your marketing efforts.
With many businesses there is an annual trend where the majority of
the business occurs during a certain season or time of the year. If you
know your business has more traffic during the winter season you may
consider putting more effort into marketing during those seasons since
there will be more people seeing your ads.
If you see that your customers are avoiding certain products that were
once best sellers, you may consider replacing that item with another
product.
Trends are accurate representations of what the customers want. It’s
more accurate than any focus group or customer feedback that you may
get.
Following the trends on your website are essential to running a good
business and our recommendation is Google analytics for following
those trends.

Using Your Data to Make Changes


Once you identify new trends in your website it’s advisable to make
changes to accommodate your customers.
If your customers are buying a lot of a certain product you may want
to start advertising it on your front page. If you notice your customers
stop and exit your website mid way through the registration process,
take a look at the process and make it better for the customer.
What you decide to change may not have an effect at all. It’s important
to realize that making a change may reduce sales.
If you are attempting to make changes then you will want to always
make a back up of your site before you make a change to it. You’ll want
it just in case the change has a detrimental effect on your revenue.

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Section 6: Search Engine Optimization and Ranking High In Google
SEO = Search engine optimization
SEO simply put is optimizing your site so your ranking increases and
ranking high in the search engines will get you a lot of traffic.
People now days are using search engine more and more to find what
they’re looking for.
Typing in a search into Google can yield you 100s of thousands of res-
ults and for the most part people will never look beyond the second
page.
Ranking high in search engine will not only get you’re a lot of traffic
but it will increase your reputation and trust to those who found you
through them.
The section is all about looking good for the search engines so you
rank higher and in turn get more traffic.
Search engines aren’t only limited to Google, and Yahoo, websites like
YouTube can also be considered a search engine.

How Search Engines Work


Search engines use secret algorithms to rank a website. They are able
to search the internet for websites and new content and they look at cer-
tain aspects of the site to determine what it’s about.
After a search engine has scanned your website it will assign a value to
it associate with certain keywords. The keywords the search engines
have assigned to you are related to the words found on your website.
Search engines not only rank your website based on the content found
on your website but also the links going to your site from other websites.
Each website has ranking and if higher website with a good ranking
links back to you that link back is worth more than a link from a smaller
site. If you get a lot of big websites linking back to you, the search en-
gines will increase your rankings.
Each search engine uses a different algorithm and how they determine
your rankings is always changing and slightly different from one
another.
When a search engine scans your website they play higher value on
the keywords used in:
• Headings
• Font size
• Bold
• Italics

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• Meta tags
• The first few paragraphs of your content
• Meta tags associates with images and videos
Because search engines place high value on certain areas of your web-
site it’s best to place your keywords in those locations.
To optimize your website for a search engine you want to use
keywords and phrases that people would search for. There by getting the
search engines to associate you with those words and phrases.

The Most Important Aspects of SEO


Ultimately content is still king.
No matter how many back links you have going back to your site, if
you have poor unoriginal content, don’t expect good rankings. If you
have unoriginal content that you’ve taken from another website, most
search engine will place your page into supplemental (since its duplic-
ate). Also if the search engine detects that your content has been used
elsewhere, it will not place high value on your website page.
The best thing is to try to have as much original content as you can
(unless your website doesn’t offer free information).
Back links are second to content, but not by much.
By having good content on your site, you’ll get more people linking to
your site. If you are looking to get back links you can post your link on
other people website but if you have good content, people will do it for
you.
Having back links on big important websites can tremendously help
your rankings in the search engines.
When creating content DO NOT fill up the content with the main
keywords too often… the search engines will consider it spamming and
can penalize you for it.
The age of your website will play a huge factor in the ranking of your
website. There’s no way to make your site older but to stay around for a
while.
Reciprocated links have a lower value then incoming links. If you also
link back to the other website… the search engines consider that too be
worth less.

Submitting You Website to the Search Engines


Search engine use spiders (automated programs that search the net) to
find and index new content.

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Waiting for a spider to crawl and search your site can take several
weeks. Submitting your website to the search engines is the fastest way
to get yourself ranked in the search engines.
The most important search engines you should submit too are:
• Google
• Yahoo!
• MSN search
Often times the search engine will request that you submit a site map
for easier crawling.
Although Google controls the market on search engines in North
America, Yahoo Is still king in Japan and several other countries.

Where to Place Keywords on Your Website


Effectively placing keywords on your website is critically important.
There are many places you should consider placing keywords.
Your keywords and phrases are the words you want people to find
you by in the search engines.
If you’re selling a financial investment product, you’ll want to use
keywords related to “financial investment” so that you attract users
looking for that. If the search engine associates you with those words or
phrases they’ll rank you higher up in the search engine for those words
or phrases.
Search engines will scan your whole website but they’ll put more
value on words found in certain areas of your website.

Meta Tags
Meta tags are hidden html codes used specifically for the search en-
gines and while search engines are putting less and less value on them
but you should still use them.
Meta tags indicate to the search engine what your website is about,
what keywords you associate your website with, and how often you’d
like the search engine to crawl your site.
Meta tags are place right below the <head> tag of your website.
Use the following tags and place them in your html code:
• <META name = “keywords” content = “PLACE YOU
KEYWORDS HERE”>
• <META name = “description” content = “PLACE YOUR
DESCRIPTION HERE”>

Visible Keywords

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The most important places to insert your keywords and phrases on
your website are in the following locations:
• Page title
• Page headings
• First sentence
• Hyperlinks
Bold, italic, underlined text is also considered to be of value to the
search engines so be sure highlight your keywords.
While having strong keywords in your content is very important, hav-
ing too many keywords is detrimental. You content should be created
with the users in mind first and then the search engines.
If you place the keywords so many times in the text that it’s not enjoy-
able to read, it won’t matter how much traffic you get, because people
won’t like it.

Moving Up In the Rankings and Finding out Where You Stand


Using a program like Google Analytics can tell you if someone came to
your site through a search engine and it will indicate what word they
used to find your site.
Moving up in the search engines can take a long time and ranking
high is often not something that can be done overnight. Expect several
months of SEO and marketing to see significant results in your rankings
Remember, content is king so the most important thing to do is to
make your site the best you can and good rankings will follow.

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Course #10
Building Your Online Presence
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 10: How to Build You Presence Online

Section 1: Getting Your Brand Online and Spread Across the Net

A website may be created for a variety of reasons such as providing


support, generating business sales or providing research. In this section
we are going to take a look at how to set up a website and begin to create
some buzz about your site. First we need to understand how to set up
your website as well as the process a site must go through.

Marketing Process
This section we will take a look at the process involved in getting
yourself prepared for spreading the word about you and your products/
services.
• Phase 1: Organization: You will first need to get your information
in order. If you have someone in charge of running and maintain-
ing your website, you will want to get all the materials pertaining
to your site (you need to be in charge in case your designer is sick
or is fired). This means getting all information such as photos,
passwords, backups, everything! You will also want to determine
whether you have anything to sell or provide. More information
on this will be discussed in following sections
• Phase 2: Get Attention: Although this is easier to say than do, you
will need to get yourself out to the public. Provide answers to
problems, discuss concerns, become the expert. You need to show
that you have a purpose on the internet and in turn this will help

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increase your customer base, increase traffic to your site, and help
you become recognized as someone to “follow”.
• Phase 3: Expand: Once you have become known on the internet
and are making money, you may want to consider adding a sales
team or even acquiring a partner; both of which can dramatically
increase your sales numbers.
This may seem simple enough but remember this isn’t a get rich quick
scheme. These sections are designed to help guide you along, and the
process discussed earlier, is going to be shown in a more detailed man-
ner as we continue throughout the sections.

Developing Your Site


Before you run out and spend large amounts of money building a site
and waiting for customers to come to you, you need to plan how you are
going to create and develop your website.
First you will need to define your customers and your competition.
You need to determine who your target niche customers are going to be,
and who you will be competing with to get those sales. For those of you
already up and running, you can take a look at the areas your customers
are visiting and what types of concerns they may have.
If your website is still in the planning phase, you will want to do the
following:
• Discover the Needs: Why are people coming to your website?
You will be providing a service that isn’t being provided any-
where else. Write some of these down and keep it for your records
for later.
• Competitors: If you are providing support for a small niche, you
may be able to easily determine who your competitors are. For
those involved in a much broader topic, you may want to spend
some time performing searches for your related topic.
• Making Money: Estimate an amount that customers would be
willing to pay for your services or products. Remember, time
equals money. If you are spending too much time and not making
any money, if may not be worth that time.
Once you have determined whether your company, product or in-
formation is worth your time and effort, your next step is to set up some
goals.
You may also want to:
• Set up a budget for your website.
• Consider how much it will cost to run and maintain your site.

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• Consider whether you’ll be able to do all the work or if you will
need to hire someone to help you.
• Consider future options regarding an expansion or the amount of
income you will need to generate.
• Determine what type of sales you will need to have.
If your goal is to achieve $1 million, and your product sells for $100,
you will need to determine how many you will need to sell before
achieving that goal (10,000 units).
While having a website already up and running may provide you with
information on traffic and sales generated, you will need to estimate how
many of your customers are going to purchase your product.
Those that take the next step and purchase something with you may
be very little (1%), which provides you with insight as to how much
more traffic you’ll need to increase your sales to achieve your target goal.
If you’re having difficulty seeing yourself do the previously men-
tioned tasks, then this would be a perfect time to discuss your abilities. If
you are a tech savvy individual, you may already see yourself perform-
ing the tasks easily. If your background is highly unrelated to computers,
then you may want to begin considering your abilities and where you
will need to hire others to help you out. If you require assistance with
your new internet business venture, you’ll need to consider how much
more money your website will need to generate.

Section 2: Making Money on the Internet


Just because you have a website and a product, doesn’t mean you will
strike it rich! Many, if not all, will need to implement different methods
in achieving your financial goal. In the following section, we will discuss
some of the options you may use to increase revenue
The first method is to advertise and promote an affiliate product. Es-
sentially what this entails is having a banner ad on your webpage ad-
vertising someone else’s product. If someone continues through the ad
and makes a purchase on that site and is due to your referral, you will
get paid a commission. There is no additional work for you to do.
Your first step of course is to find an affiliate product to promote. To
do this, you will want to start your search on Google or any other search
engine. Your other option may be to use an affiliate aggregator such as
ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) or Commission Junction (www.cj.com).
Once you have found an affiliate to promote, you will want to register an
account and start promoting. It’s that simple. Note: you will want to fol-
low the directions provided to get the affiliate URL set up on your site. If

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you are a little lost, you may want to get some assistance from a web
designer.
If you are able to already generate a large amount of traffic, you may
as well start making some money of it. You can turn that traffic in money
by setting up some ads. There are a few methods you can use, and we
have listed them in the following section:
• Google AdSense: This is the most popular method to use. For
many this is the only type of ads they may use as it is easy to set
up. Although it doesn’t generate large amounts of revenue, it still
is a great starting point. It’s also important to remember that you
are showing ads for other peoples products. If you are selling an
item, you may not want to send your customers to competitors!
• Banner Ads: This has you presenting a banner ad for someone
else’s product, and you will get paid according to a specific
method.
◦ Your first is a cost-per-click (CPC), where whenever a cus-
tomer clicks the ad, you charge it to the advertisements
owner. You will have to keep track of how many people
click by using a statistics tracking tool such as Google Ana-
lytics. Note: There is also the method of pay-per-click this is
done automatically through the program you use and is
easier of the two.
◦ There is also cost-per-page-views (CPM), this method is a
payment per 1000 views and can range typically between $4
- $10 but depending on your niche can result in higher
amounts.
◦ Finally we have cost-per-action (CPA) with this type of ad-
vertising, the advertiser only pays when there is a sale or
lead made.
Another useful method is to sell your own products and services on
your website. Although this is a great way to keep all the profit and get
your name and brand across, it may be one of the more difficult methods
to use. If possible try to create your product in an easy to sell format.
This can range from information products such as books or PDF files, to
podcasts, videos, or webinars. For those of you with more niche variety,
you may be interested in creating a whole product line, or even starting
an online program.
Once you have your site up and running and you’ve created one or
more products, your next step is to start selling (of course, there are

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several other steps, but these will be discussed in upcoming sections).
There are a few key essentials when setting up the shopping process.
• Purchase Page: this is the page where a customer picks their
products to purchase. It may be a regular shopping cart or even a
form, where the customer enters the product info.
• Sales Account: prior to making any purchases you will want to set
up an account with a company that is able to accept payment in-
formation. This can range from PayPal accounts to credit card
accounts.
• Order Form: if you have ever purchased something online, then
you’ll know that this is the place where you enter all of your in-
formation in to make the transaction.
It is important to remember that the easier a shopping experience is,
the higher the likelihood that a customer will make a purchase. This may
include adding a shopping cart feature, but also being able to make the
page look like the rest of your site; several payment options; coupons;
extra product information to grow revenue; support; or even a page that
thanks customers for making a purchase.
Another important aspect of the shopping experience is to answer all
the questions a customer has prior to making that purchase. If a custom-
er knows how they have to pay for a product, how long it will take to
ship, the security of their information, support questions or just making
a right decision, they will be more inclined to give you their payment in-
formation. (Remember, the customer is taking the final step with you,
making a purchase. Put yourself in their shoes, and see what other con-
cerns you may need to answer for them).
Once a customer has decided that they are going to continue making a
purchase with you, you may want to try selling them additional or sup-
plementary products through up-selling a better product; trying to sell
them another product by providing a discount; or selling them
something after they have made an initial purchase.
For those who lack the traffic they need to be able to generate a good
conversion rate, there are a few options that you can look into using.
There are a variety of ways in getting your message across, but your ba-
sics should include the following:
• Free listings on the major search engine sites such as Google and
Msn.
• Paid searches for promoting a product or service.
• Writing content on topics through your blog or on other sites.

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• External resources and offline options are also available to in-
crease awareness
• References and testimonials always go a long way
All this talk about traffic and sales is great if it comes easy, but to some
if may come only after weeks and months of work. A great way to get
your product and service out quicker is to think about creating your own
affiliate program.

Affiliates Assistance
Your first step is to create an environment where affiliates can create
an account, connect and share your product with the rest of the internet
and also allow them to track how their sales are doing. Creating a place
such as this may sound complicated and difficult, but luckily there is
1ShoppingCart which offers all this! Just check them out and learn as
much as you can, it will be one of your most essential tools.
Now that you affiliate centre is all complete, you will want to get your
message out that you are looking for affiliates. You will want to write an
attractive letter, mentioning your program and where they can get more
information on becoming an affiliate. Of course you will also want to
mention the way in which the affiliates will be compensated. Note: if an
affiliate is very good at promoting your products, you may look at mak-
ing a much better offer to that specific individual.
Lastly, once you have your centre and affiliates, you are going to want
to train each individual. This will sound even more complicated as it is
important to have 10 affiliates for each member that is producing any
sales. So you can imagine how large of a team you will need. Here are a
few tips in helping you with your training:
• Weekly calls are great ways to touch base with your affiliates. Set-
ting up a conference call with an agenda is great to get some inter-
action from your affiliates. Note: you may want to record the con-
versation as it may come in handy at a later time.
• One-on-one help is useful for those who are struggling or those
new to promoting your products.
• Give incentives you may think about providing additional incent-
ives or increasing pay to those who are able to make the most sales
or even to those who can recommend a great affiliate.

Joint Venturing
While using affiliates to promote your product may be a great way to
let others do the work for you, it also has you spending most of the

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income on your affiliates. A great way to reduce this is to partner up
with someone who may already have a large following. Now this
doesn’t necessarily mean a true business partner, but a partner during a
particular event. This could be someone who may provide you with a
conference room and refreshments or someone willing to promote your
product to their email list (possibly even to a million people). Before you
can approach someone at a networking event, on forum or speaking to
affiliates or clients, you are going to want to have everything in order.
This means that you will need to have your sales proof, showing your
product is worth their time and effort. You will also want to have in-
formation regarding your visitation and conversion rates (viewers
turned buyers). Finally you will want to be able to show your affiliates
performances. A last bit of useful information is to show that you can
fulfill the orders. Nothing worse than having several hundred or several
thousand orders, which can’t be fulfilled (you will embarrass yourself
and your partner).
Once you have found a venture partner or host, you will want to gath-
er a collection of materials for a presentation. You may be required to
make a presentation to the host and/or group of staff. You will want to
assemble a binder with information regarding sales, affiliates, visitation
information, testimonials and sales letter copy. It is also important to re-
member that you may have information regarding your partnership such
as:
• Profit sharing and what amount each will receive
• Expectations of all parties involved
• Dispute resolution and how a formal dispute will be dealt with
• Confidentiality and how company specific information is to be
dealt with. You may have a confidentiality agreement for your
partner/host to sign.
Keep in mind that your host is your ticket to big money, but it is also
their ticket too! You are going to have to do extra work, because he/she
has all the connections. Remember, you will need to bend over back-
wards for your partner/host and demonstrate how they will benefit out
of the experience.

Section 3: Branding and Marketing For Your Online Business


Branding can take a painstakingly long time to develop, yet is critical
in helping increase your company and product being recognized. What
you will need to keep in mind is branding helps customers remember
you and your product, but also inspire sales. If you position text or

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pictures poorly, it may convey the message that your company has no
idea what you are doing. People want to buy from leaders not followers.
Before starting to create a brand or logo or anything, you need to
know what your company stands for. Is it looking to be an innovator or
leader in the industry? Are you looking to be funny, silly or exciting? Is
there something that you can do better than anyone else? Questions such
as these help determine what your company stands for and helps you
determine what your slogan or taglines will be. You will want to devel-
op a tagline for your site that matches you company, but also that won’t
change frequently.
Once you have determined your tagline, your next step is to looking
into a logo. Many may say that a logo is not important but let me ask
you this. When I say golden arches, what do you picture? What do you
associate this with? The same applies to your company. A logo will help
readers remember you, your company, and your products. Also as we
mentioned for your taglines, your logo needs to match the company’s
persona and appearance. A quick way to get some help on logo creation
is search through Google for logo creation or a great recommendation is
to use 99designs.com
Another equally important piece of information has to do with the lay-
out of your website. Not all users have the same shape monitor or even
same internet browser. So you will want to make sure that your website
will be seen by all viewers in the best way possible. To do this, you will
want to make sure there is consistency among all your web pages. This
includes text, color, logo and information layout.

Color Selection
It is important to speak to your web designer when choosing a color
scheme for your website. People vary in feelings depending on colours
presented to them. For example, blue suggests honesty and loyalty,
while black suggests sophistication and elegance. Each colour is inter-
preted differently and needs to match what your company stands for.
You will also need to determine what type of font you will be using for
your site. For example, Arial is traditionally used for headings, while
Trebuchet is good for essentially anything. It all depends on the message
you are trying to convey
While this may seem as a difficult task, web designers are usually
pretty accustomed to designing great looking sites. If you have the
budget, look at hiring a professional branding company.

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Site Layout
Just because your page includes audio, text, pictures and video on a
single page, doesn’t mean it will generate traffic. Your site needs to en-
tice viewers to remain on your site as long as possible. You will need
them to read and learn about you, and of course most importantly, make
a purchase!
A great way to determine how viewers are looking at your site is to
employ the use of a heat map application. This is a tool which searches
through your site and assessing where readers are focusing their atten-
tion. Performing a search on heat map applications in Google will
provide you with a great assortment of tools. This will show you where
readers are looking and where they aren’t, helping you rearrange and re-
focus your content.
Another important point of interest is in regards to the use of horizont-
al and vertical navigation bars. Users hate having to scroll, in any direc-
tion. Minimize the use of navigation bars by placing important informa-
tion within one page. If there is additional information don’t hesitate to
add a vertical navigation bar.

A great tidbit of information is if your site is too cluttered (on purpose)


then think about adding arrows, buttons, underlines or outlines to help
readers focus attention on the next step of action to take. This can be to
continue searching or reading, or it can be to make a purchase. Your site
needs to flow from one page to another, easily and efficiently.
The final recommendation is to run some tests for usability on your
site. This may include having family and friends use your site, or it may
require you to hire a focus group. In either scenario, you will want to
have the participants write down any issues or difficulties they have us-
ing the site. Have them do a complete tour through your site and write
down, where there are any issues.

Section 4: Connecting and Integrating Your Multiple Sites


A website can be created from scratch with your own layout and 100%
personal input or can be developed through the use of a design template.
Either method you use will need to reflect your company image and
goals. For those looking to use pre-designed templates, you can perform
a search for website templates on any of the search engines.
While many sites were previously created offline and uploaded once
completed, many of today’s sites are creating using a blogging platform.
A Weblog or as is more commonly known, blog, is essentially a

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continuously updated website. With a blog you are able to post informa-
tion or articles, which are added to the top of the page. Thus you are able
to present that latest content without having your readers search for the
information. This also allows readers the ability to make comments or
suggestions on the information you have posted.
To create a blog, there are several different tools that you can use such
as WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad. These are the mostly commonly
used tools and of course require that you register an account. When us-
ing the various blogging platforms, you may also look at adding various
plug-ins to customize the use of your site.
Another great option is to create a membership site. This allows users
to create a username and password and access content that otherwise
would not be accessed. This type of site is great if there is a high amount
of traffic which will entice users to return on a weekly basis. While this
method may be useful to create recurring revenue, it may not always be
the case.
Using a paid membership site may get you excited but there are some
questions you will need to ask yourself before you get started. Your first
question should be how much will it cost users to become a member of
your site? If it’s too expensive they may not register, but if it is too cheap,
then it may not be cost effective for you. Also you will need to look at
amount of time you will need to spend on running and maintaining the
site. Again, if there is too much time being spent on the site, and there
isn’t a great enough return, you are wasting your time. Remember time
is money!

Section 5: How to Write Excellent Web Copy


A rule of thumb is content is king! If your service or product isn’t
selling, it may have to do with the way in which you are presenting your
information. On the internet people are sceptical and the only way to
earn their trust is to show them that you are worth their business. The
key to do this is to write passionately about your topic and show your
readers that you care about what you do and how others react to that.
One critical area is to create a headline with a hook. You will need to
capture the interest of a reader within a few short seconds. If your head-
line is appealing to your readers, then they will continue to read the
article.
Once you have developed a great headline, your next step is to create
scannable and understandable copy. This may include adding photos or
videos of your product. You will want to demonstrate that you are

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passionate about your product and show viewers how they will benefit
from it.
When writing about your product or service, make sure that what you
say a product or service does actually happens in real life. For example,
if your product promises users the ability to speak fluent French in 5
hours, then that is what needs to be given. There’s nothing worse than
purchasing a product that doesn’t do what it says it will.
Other great methods are to include testimonials, letters of recommend-
ation, or demonstrating where other products fail. While using these
various techniques is crucial, none is more important than providing a
call to action.
A call to action is where you ask the customer to take the next step
with your company. That may be as simple as registering for a free
newsletter or making that $500 purchase. You may look at testing vari-
ous words for a call to action or use pictures and video. It is important to
remember, a call to action requires the reader to take the next step, but
before they can do that, they need to trust you and your service.
One largely missed but highly important point to remember is that
every single page needs to have a purpose and a call to action. While this
may not apply to About Us pages or your Sitemap, it does apply to where
there are new posts. For example, when writing a new post, you may
make reference to readers subscribing to your feed or purchasing your
product, which is better than the competitions. A page without purpose
will be skipped over by readers and may make you lose a sale.
Once a customer is interested in making a purchase, they will be taken
to a sales page. Here a customer is to be educated on the product and
service, answering any questions they may have about the product or
purchasing procedures, and helping to initiate the purchase. If a custom-
er is not necessarily interested in purchasing you may be trying to get
their email, but in either situation, enough information needs to be
provided before they proceed with the action.

Section 6: How to Find an Expert Marketer


Sometimes running a website or even a marketing campaign can be
time consuming and tedious. It is at these times where you need to as-
sess what your company is missing. While many may feel as though they
are capable of running all aspects of a business, this may lead to their
downfall.
However many skills you may have, it is always important to have
someone capable of helping you whenever needed. Depending on your

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budget these individuals may be completely dedicated to your project or
more on a hobby basis. These technicians are able to assist you with es-
sentially all tasks you may have, but remember its only one individual.
You can expect them to be there whenever there is an emergency, and
will know the business exceptionally well as it is their form of income.
The other option is to hire a hobbyist who will be paid less but may not
be dedicated and involve themselves in other complications. It all de-
pends on your budget and level of assistance.
Once you have determined the level of assistance required, your next
step is to find one. A few recommended places are Elance, RentACoder
or even Craigslist. The first two require you to set up an account and
pick someone to help you, while Craigslist doesn’t and just lets your sift
through individuals looking for work. Again each method has its pros
and cons, but it all comes down to the interviewing and filtering process.
Before hiring someone you will want to go through the usual steps,
such as getting a resume, information on past jobs/wages. You may also
want to ask what the typical turnaround time is for projects that you
may have as well as any extra services they may provide. You essentially
want to find out as much as you can about the person you are interview-
ing. Also remember interviewing doesn’t necessarily have to be in per-
son, it can be over the phone, but depends on your level of comfort. You
may also look at outsourcing work to other countries, but again it de-
pends on how comfortable you are with sending out work overseas.
Once you have someone onboard to help with your various tasks, you
will want to keep things in order by setting some ground rules. For ex-
ample, you may expect progress reports, or scheduled communications.
While this may work for you, don’t forget to encourage and use repeti-
tion when speaking with your employee. A little praise goes a long way!

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Course #11
Social Media Marketing
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 11: Social Media Marketing

Section 1: What Is Social Media?


Social media is your connection to the world and your customers. It
used to be simplistic, made up of bulletin board discussions and forums.
Today’s social media has turned into a multi-faceted process which in-
volves millions of users from around the world.
An example is FaceBook. We’re sure you’ve heard of this site, but
there are others such as MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, and many others.
These sites are great places to meet new clients and customers and also
just get your name out there.
Even if you are not going to be using social media marketing, you still
need to be aware of what is out there. So in these Sections we’ll dive into
the world of social media marketing and really get to understand what it
is all about.

Understanding and Exploring Social Media


Social media sites allow you the ability to connect to friends, family
and colleagues and build a reputation among them. Every time you

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make a post, add a friend, or add a bookmark, you are slowly building
up your profile. Doing this provides you with a great way to:
• Product Announcements: great way to let people know about a
new product.
• Feedback: asking your connections to provide some feedback on
your new idea or post.
• Building Buzz: building some momentum or getting others talk-
ing about you and your company.
There are a few different types of social media websites, each offering
their own unique abilities. Some websites are able to provide additional
options that some are not able to, while others have the ability to link to
each other. Listed below are some of the websites available and a little
bit of information about each.
Social Media Descriptive Information Examples
Allows the ability to enter data, provid-
Blogger
Blogs ing content to readers about your
WordPress
business
Social Able to connect and interact with other FaceBook
Networks users MySpace
Delicious
Bookmarking Save you bookmarks in your browser but
Ma.gnolia
Sites also on a website
StumbleUpon
Microblogging Allows you to blog on a smaller scale. Twitter
Sites Such as one or two sentences at a time Plurk
Media Sharing Provides you with the ability to upload YouTube
Sites video, audio and pictures Flickr
Popularity Adding your bookmarks to a site and Digg
Sites having others vote on them Reddit
Help connected individuals keep up with
Aggregators FriendFeed
everything

It is important that you get to know these websites as they will


provide you with the ability to stay connected. Not only that, but many
of these sites are connected, which provides you with the ability to
spread your message more quickly and efficiently. A FaceBook user may
have a YouTube account, and when posting a favorite video on
FaceBook it will be linked to their Youtube account. Another FaceBook
user may be linked to their Twitter account, and when posting on Twit-
ter, it will show up on their FaceBook account.

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To better explain each category, the next section will take a look at
these social media sites separately.

Blogging
Blogging is a set of regularly published content by one or several au-
thors that allows users to comment on the entry. There are many things
that the word blog may refer to such as a program used, or the writing
style or even something as simple as the entries.
For our purposes here, we will refer to the aforementioned statement
about a blog in regards to regularly published entries, where comments
can be made.
Blogs are a great way to get your message out, on your own website,
letting readers know all sorts of information about yourself, your
product, or just discussing random subjects. This is probably going to be
the first step you will take when creating a website for yourself or
product and key to funneling users to you.
A few key benefits of blogging are:
• Talking to customers: this will allow you to talk directly to your
readers and allows them to comment on what you are
writing.
• Explain your business: here you can provide them with informa-
tion on your business, your mission statements and philosophy. A
great way to just let readers see what your company is all about.
• Demonstrate expertise: if you are an expert in your field, then this
is a great way to let others know what you know.
• Get more customers: if customers see you have a blog, providing
them with information on the products and services you provide,
this may incline them to do business with you.
Blogs are powerful tools for social marketing and a great place to start
in building your social networks. It is also important to remember that
the more content you are adding to your blog, the more traffic you will
drive as it will increase your search engine ranking.
Creating and running a successful blog is not something you do
overnight.

Social Networks
Social networks should be your next step in connecting with other
users on the internet. Your blog will be a place where you can provide
information about a service or product you offer and your social

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networks will be where you can connect with those interested in what
you are providing.
Here you can create a profile, find and connect with other users and
talk to your friends. You can also do other things such as post pictures,
videos and audio as well as other pieces of information for your circle of
friends to see.
Using this type of service has some clear benefits such as getting to
know your customers, getting advice from colleagues and of course, and
this is just a little ego boost, demonstrate your expertise.
For those of you who are already very familiar with social networks,
you can look at distributing custom tools and create discussion groups
that target a particular topic.
A few websites you may be interested to take a look into are listed
below:
• FaceBook: we’re pretty sure that if you have some previous exper-
ience using the internet you may have already heard of this dom-
inant website. FaceBook (www.facebook.com) was originally de-
veloped to be used at a university campus but then expanded to
include, well just about everyone. You can create a profile, send
messages, add friends, create discussion groups, and use a variety
of applications such as quizzes, games, and utilities.
• MySpace: another highly used website is MySpace
(www.myspace.com). This site has been around much longer than
FaceBook and provides very similar features. This site has also
been seen as a place where many up and coming performers strut
their stuff.
• LinkedIn: this site is a pay-for-use website, which is more directed
towards business people. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) allows
you to create a profile and provides you with the ability to connect
to others based on similar interests.
• Yahoo! Answers: this website is a great place to get answers to
your burning questions. This website is quite simple to use, and of
course free. There are many helpful members that are able to
provide answers to pretty much any questions you may have.
(http://www.answers.yahoo.com)
• Discussion Forums: for those of you thinking that discussion for-
ums have disappeared, think again. You can perform a search in
Google or Yahoo! for your topic. You can also take a look at sites
such as Webmaster World (www.webmasterworld.com), and
Google Groups (http://groups.google.com). Most discussion

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forums are free to join, and those that you do have to pay for may
just be providing you similar information as those that are free.
The key here is that using social networks is great in spreading the
word about yourself, your company and your services. Don’t overlook
these websites as they can really put some money in your pocket if used
properly.

Bookmarking Sites
Bookmarking sites provide you with the ability to move your book-
marks from your computer to the particular website. By doing this, a
user is able to access his or her bookmarks from anywhere that has a
computer with an internet connection.
Using a website to maintain your bookmarks is a great way to share
with others, review others bookmark choices, and discuss the book-
marked topics. Some websites available are below:
• StumbleUpon: is a program installed on your computer and
through the click of a button are, taken to sites that are positively
rated by other users. This little application is quite useful in find-
ing similar sites related to the topic you are viewing.
(www.stumbleupon.com)
• Delicious: using Delicious (www.delicious.com) is very similar to
using StumbleUpon, but instead of saving the bookmarks on your
computer, you are saving them on the website server.
As you may see, this is a great tool to drive traffic to your website. If
many users rate your website as useful, then your content will be spread
to other users, and essentially driving thousands of viewers to your
website.
It is also important to remember that with this drive of traffic, your
website will be crawled on by search engines, and increase your ranking.
Also by having many individuals rate your website positively, it
provides a benefit for your search engine optimization.

Microblogging
If you have an idea of what blogging is all about, think smaller. Mi-
croblogs allow you to make many short blog like posts. Microblogs are
useful when you are on the go or only have small amounts of informa-
tion to post (and when we say small, we mean up to 140 characters long).
Using a microblogging service is very similar to a messaging service,
where some users make posts every few minutes. This type of social me-
dia is very instant and in “real time”.

167
Another benefit of using such a service, is the ability to follow other
microbloggers. Communities can be built based upon interests. This in
turn relates to others subscribing to your microblog. You will essentially
become a leader of your microblogging pack.
Here are a few sites you can check out for your microblogging
purposes:
• Twitter: before we get into too much detail, we would like to cau-
tion you that Twitter (www.twitter.com) can become quite addict-
ive. Now that we have warned you, Twitter is a microblogging
tool in which you can enter messages up to 140 characters long.
You will be able to follow other Twitterers and you will receive
their messages. This service is free to join and like other social me-
dia, you are able to create your own profile.
• Plurk: this is another great microblogging tool, but a few user in-
terface differences. Signing up with this website is also free.

Media Sharing Sites


Media sharing sites allow you to upload videos, audio, and pictures as
a way to get information across to your audience. Here are a couple sites
that are quite popular:
• Youtube: is the best site to upload videos and have your audience
view, rate and comment on your post. This is also a great way to
generate an income as well, as long as you have enough viewers
taking a look at your content. Youtube is a free service.
• Flickr: this site is a perfect tool for uploading and sharing your
photos with your audience. This is a great way to demonstrate a
project, product or any other content to your readers. In addition
to photo support, Flickr has also been providing video support.
These two sites are a great way to get your message across to your
audience in a format other than text. These sites may not generate traffic
instantly, but does provide you with a benefit of connecting with your
viewers in a more intimate fashion. This is a perfect way to build trust
with your customers.

Popularity Sites
Popularity sites have combined the best of two different worlds; book-
marking and social networking. This allows you the ability to submit
new websites that then get voted on by other internet users. Those voted
on more often are moved up in the ratings and seen by more users. Here
are a few sites to take a look at:

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• Digg: Digg is a great way to get users to your website, and if it is
voted as number one, be sure to have a large server, or expect to
be offline almost instantly. Digg has many users resulting in a
large amount of traffic to your site; so beware!
• Reddit: this is very similar to Digg, but its focus is more towards
news, while Digg is targeted towards the funny and weird. Again,
having a number one post, will drive many users to your page,
but remember this does require some work on your behalf.
Posting on these types of sites can drive large amounts of traffic to
your page, but it isn’t a guarantee and does require you to do some edit-
ing and possibly re-editing.

Aggregators
An aggregator is a tool that provides you with the ability to manage all
of your connections, such as the photo-sharing site, social network, and
bookmarking site. Posting on one of the following FriendFeed.com or Se-
condbrain.com, will upload the content to all of your other connections.
This is a great way to keep track of all your social networking sites,
and still be able to update everything, without missing on any websites.
While most aggregators are free, some do require a minimal fee, and ex-
pect that you perform some managing. This is perfect as you don’t have
to worry about missing out on anything, but also reducing the amount of
work you have to do.

Section 2: Creating Your Social Media Network


Social media connections are great to get your information out to the
world, but how do you keep track of everything. In this session we will
take a look at a few different programs and ways to reduce the time you
spend online, trying to determine what everyone is saying about your
products and/or stories you want to track.
To get everything organized, you will want to get an RSS feed (really
simple syndication) set up. This is a great way to have everything sent to
you in one program, and then you can choose which headlines to read
further into.

What To Track
You can add blog results from all sorts of websites based on your
interests.
It is also important to keep in mind that subscribing to all sorts of in-
formation, will only lead to more work later. After you have gotten a fair

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amount of subscriptions, you will want to go through and be critical of
what and who you are following.

Section 3: How to Set Up a Social Media Marketing Plan


In this section we are going to take a look at determining who you
want to target on the internet, and how to get your message across to
those readers. We have separated the process into a few simple steps,
and even if you are familiar with this section, it may still be useful to
quickly skim over the information.
Research Your Target Readers
Determining who and where your readers are coming from is the first
step in understanding how to position your social media plan. When
performing research on your audience, there are a few questions that
need to be answered:
• What kinds of people are you targeting: very simply, you need to
know who you want to target.
• Why they are participating: you need to determine why those
people are there and why they are participating in the community.
Are they looking to get something accomplished? If so can you
meet their needs?
• What sites are they most using: where are the individuals or tar-
get members gathering on the internet.
• How big is your target audience: you will want to gather as many
users as you can. While one avenue may be ideal for some topics,
others may not. The key is to use as many different social media
sites as possible to get your information out to the public.
• How often are your users participating within the group: if you
have a small number of audience members and they participate
rarely, then your level of participation will reflect their usage.
You will want to keep these questions available as you begin research-
ing the different websites available. A great way is to create a table and
write your answers in the boxes accordingly. You can easily do this us-
ing a spread sheet program such as Excel.
To begin your research you will want to first start by browsing
through online communities. Below are a few different sites you can take
a look at to help you find your audience and some questions you need to
answer for yourself:
Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups, FaceBook, Digg, Blogs.
• What are people asking?
• How active are the users?

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• How often are the users participating?
• How many members are in groups?
• How are posts received by other audience members?
• How many are writing about a similar topic?
• How many questions are being asked and unresolved?
• What concerns are being focused on?
Researching your audience is critical in understanding what your
readers are looking for, ultimately providing you with insight in ways
for you to provide answers to questions or concerns that are not being
answered.
Once you have explored the online communities you may want to use
some additional services such as AdCenter Labs and Quantcast. These
resources are free to use, but of course are only experimental and can
provide useful or useless information. Although the data is useable, it
does change and while some searches are useful at one time, it may not
be at a later time.
AdCenter Labs is a good tool to use if you are:
• Running an online store.
• You target audience uses Hotmail or Microsoft related websites.
• Your audience is easily identifiable by keyword searches.
• If you have a tight budget
Finally, you may be interested in using a paid data service for gather-
ing data. This method of course should be used if you have a flexible
budget, which can be used to gather research. Below are a few sites you
can check out for some research help.
• Neilson Online (www.neilson-online.com): you can create reports
based on demographics and online usage. Highly detailed reports
can be used for comparison study.
• Hitwise (www.hitwise.com): this site provides highly informative
reporting on industries, categories or even specific sites.
• Compete (www.compete.com): provides information regarding
searches and usage of specific websites.
• ComScore (www.comscore.com): this site provides you with the
ability to research advertising and usage patterns on specific sites.
Using the above mentioned sites are for those looking to spend a few
dollars performing research, are on a time strain, require this type of
data, or have the training or interest to go through all of the data.

Create Your Message

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This section is going to be fairly short as it will be combined with the
following sections to really get your message across to your viewers.
First, think about your company and what it means to you. Then on a
piece of paper, write down a few words that you will want associated
with your company. Now those words will become your message and
whenever you make a post, remember to stay within those words.
If you have performed some research, you may want to compare your
words to the data you have collected. Does your message fit with re-
search and does it meet the needs of your audience? You can use the re-
search to provide you with assistance to narrow your words and focus
your efforts.

Preparing Your Style


The way you present your message will be your style theme. There are
a few different ways you can present your content, and although many
users don’t fit into one specific category, it is still wise to understand the
different standpoints.
• Instigator: this person likes to question assumptions and may at
time make fun of others. This is the type of person you want to be
in your field, as long as you know for certain that you are an ex-
pert in your field. You have a fun approach to information but
also have a teasing quality about your responses and actions.
• Moderator: this type of person, loves to help others and doing so
by sharing their knowledge. You search out for those who have
questions and concerns, and try and help them out.
• Newbie (Noob): this type of person is seen as being new to the
scene, but not necessarily quiet. You gather information like a
sponge, and also get to know the users. Be sure that if you con-
sider yourself as a Newbie that you let others know why you’re
there, and how you may be able to help.
• Superstar: this type of person, goes without saying, is popular.
Everyone wants to be a superstar, but getting there is not an easy
venture. This type of person has many followers and when makes
a comment or post, has many responders. If you are well known
in the industry then this will be your automatic position.
These are just some of the personas you may find on the internet, and
we aren’t suggesting you fake it, but this provides you with some insight
as to where your stand in the types and guides you in the way you inter-
act with others on the social media sites.

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Developing Your Profile
Each social media site that your register to, allows you to create a pro-
file, detailing some information about yourself. It is important that you
write down some information about yourself, as it provides you with the
ability to connect with other users in a more intimate manner (something
which is very hard to do on computers).
Some of the things you will want to make sure you provide in the pro-
file is the avatar or picture representing you, a short description of your-
self, some random information regarding your interests, and some basic
contact information.

Selecting Your Sites


There are many social media sites out there and figuring out which
ones are going to be the most successful can be difficult. Some sites are
more beneficial for one line of business, while other sites may not be as
useful. Although figuring out which one is going to be the best fit for
your topic, here are some guidelines to help choose your sites:
• Compare your results: take a look at what you wrote down for
your research, and compare whether the answers are met by the
site.
• Consider size: if you need to reach consumers, readers or just
passersby’s then think about using one of the bigger social net-
working sites such as FaceBook or MySpace.
• Think of objectives: if you are looking for business connections
then you will want to think about using LinkedIn and microblog-
ging sites such as Twitter or Plurk. If you want to use media, then
you will want to take a look at using Youtube, Flickr, Slideshare or
iTunes.
• Make headlines: if you care about search engine optimization or
have some important information then make sure to check out
bookmarking sites and social news sites as well.
• Determine your target market or niche: if you are in a particular
field or marketing towards a particular audience, then figure out if
there are any other large sites that market towards the same
audience.
As you’re developing your list of sites, it is important to keep in mind
whether using a particular site will be beneficial in achieving your goals.
Each site you use must be useful in doing so directly or indirectly and
also help reduce the amount of time you spend on the internet.

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Reviewing Your Content
Alright, now that you have determined your sites to get your message
across, you are going to have to review your site and the content within.
Before initiating a social media campaign, here are a few things to keep
an eye out for:
• Grab an audience: if you don’t have an audience, your message
may not be heard by anyone. You will want to grab their attention
somehow. To do this try answering questions, write out top 10
lists, use other ways of communicating such as audio, video and
graphics. You may also want to write about things that invoke
some type of emotion in your readers.
• Ease of contact: nowadays internet users may have several main
websites they view for information on a particular subject. What
many users don’t realize is that information may be delivered dir-
ectly to those readers. The use of an RSS feed, will bring all new
content to the subscriber, and reduces the amount of internet
“travel”. Using an RSS feed will bring all of your new content dir-
ectly to the reader without any use of the internet (minus the read-
er downloading the content).
• Share your information: allowing users to share your content to
other sites can increase the amount of traffic your site may gener-
ate. Make sure you have buttons that can quickly bookmark or
share your content. You will also want to make sure that your
website address and contact info will be easy to remember.

Planning a Routine
Having chosen your social media sites, your next task is to keep on top
of your communication. You will need to develop a posting style wheth-
er it’s posting every hour, a few times a day, or once a day. It’s all about
how aggressive you want to be and how much information you have to
post.
Once you have a daily routine planned, you may want to figure out a
few long term options as well. This may include stand-ins while you are
away, ease and enjoyment of posting and finally a way to keep track of
the results of your postings.

Section 4: Top Social Media Sites and How To Use Them


In this section, we will take a look at some of the top social media sites,
and how to do a few social media tasks.

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FaceBook Finesse
FaceBook is a great way to meet millions of users from around the
world and excellent in keeping your friends up to date with any and all
of your updates.
This site is excellent in providing users with the ability to keep your
friends up to date with your current statuses and events. Highly useful
in networking with your friends as well as discovering other friends you
may have forgotten about.
FaceBook also allows you to create groups, where your friends can join
and talk about an endless array of topics. This is a perfect way to meet
people and make new friends and contacts. (You may also join other
groups too!) Also for those looking to just unwind, there is an array of
games, quizzes and activities you can do while on FaceBook.
Other great functions FaceBook provides you with are things like
branding and creating applications. While this may require some addi-
tional knowledge or skill on your behalf, it is a great way to get yourself
out to your friends, and their connections.

Making MySpace Yours


MySpace was one of the main social networking sites of its time. Al-
though it still is a fierce competitor, FaceBook has taken a more domin-
ant role. MySpace is highly useful for those looking to attract a younger
age group, build traffic to their sites, or (if you are a band) get your band
some recognition. Using MySpace is seen more effective for those in-
volved in the entertainment industry or those related to trendy topics.
A few key pointers are to:
• Customize your page: make it look like you are interested in what
you do and want to demonstrate to your audience.
• Username selection: needs to be consistent with your brand, com-
pany and just your overall presentation.
• Linkage: have links back to your website, FaceBook, Twitter,
LinkedIn, all your networking sites.
• Get Help: if you aren’t sure what to do or how to do it, get help!
MySpace is the perfect tool for branding. It has great customizability
and so it’s excellent to get your message across. You can also look at
adding multimedia capabilities, such as audio or videos. You don’t want
to overload your page with this type of content, but you do want to
demonstrate that you know what you are doing.
Linked In With LinkedIn

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If you are a business and serious about getting work done, then be
sure to sign up to LinkedIn. This site is exceptionally useful for compan-
ies looking to provide a service, create connections with other compan-
ies, are providing some form of consultation, or looking to find quality
connections.
It is also important to remember that unlike FaceBook or MySpace, the
connections you make must be in some way related to you otherwise
you will be unable to friend that individual. For this reason, all of the
connections you make will be quality contacts.
Think of this as the site where the connections you make are worth
gold. All the other sites are much easier to friend someone than
LinkedIn.

Bookmark like a Pro!


You may have used the personal bookmarking available in your inter-
net browser, now have a try at sharing those bookmarks. Bookmarking
sites allow you to bookmark your favourite sites and share it with the
rest of the world.
There are a few sites you can use to share your websites, such as
StumbleUpon, Delicious, Ma.gnolia and Digg. Each of these sites
provides similar capabilities, ranging from saving bookmarks in your ac-
count, to downloading toolbars to your internet browser.
Bookmarking is very simple and can be done by pretty much anyone.
If you already have a list of bookmarks on your browser, you can even
upload them to your account. (Be aware of what sites you have book-
marked, because you don’t want any embarrassing ones showing up on
your business profile).
A great way to develop bookmarking connections is to follow the top
users when you initially signup for a bookmarking service. Of course,
the top users need to be from your chosen niche. You will also want to
make comments, vote and participate in any of the submissions those
top users make.
A final suggestion when using a bookmarking service is to add proper
tags to the bookmarks. A good tag allows others to find your submission
easily. Also make sure the words describe what your submission relates
to. And the most crucial is to add more than one tag, because one word
may not always describe your submission.
Share through Multimedia

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If you are looking at getting your message across or just looking to
connect, using various forms of media will help increase your rate of suc-
cess. The first site you will want to take a look at using is Flickr.
Flickr is a photo-sharing site, where you and others can comment on
photos you or other people post. While this may be a great way to find
others with similar tastes, you need to be wary of the pictures you post.
While you may want to make a statement, you will also want others to
get involved in a positive and useful manner.
Another excellent service to know is YouTube. It is very similar to
Flickr, but Youtube deals with videos. Anyone can setup a free account,
upload videos, add a brief description and let other viewers make com-
ments. While this is useful in getting video content out to your viewers,
remember to personalize your profile and keep your videos short (no
one likes watching 10 min long videos). Also think about providing a
good brief description as well as an eye catching title. Finally, comment-
ing on what others have written is expected if you want to develop your
connections.

Participate In a Discussion
While discussion forums may seem old and out of date, many users
still participate extensively in their favourite forums. They have been
around for a long time, and many still feel more comfortable using this
type of networking. If you decide to use this type of networking, be sure
to choose forums which are relevant to your niche. When posting com-
ments or suggestions, do so in a respectable manner, and don’t try to
spam, as the administrators will kick you out. Using a forum is also great
to advertise your expertise and of course your site or social media tools.

Microblog to Success
Microblogging is the progression of blogging. In a blog, you are able to
post an article pretty much as long as you like, Microblogging on the
other hand, only lets you post up to 140-character posts. This means that
you need to know exactly what you want to say, using targeted words.
Using microblogging is beneficial in keeping your followers up to date
with what you are doing. One of the top microblogging sites is Twitter
but there is also Plurk, FriendFeed and Identi. While this may seem as
too simple or time wasting, it really has potential for spreading the word
about your content.
A few things to keep in mind about microblogging is:

177
• Profile. Profile. Profile: just like all other sites, setting up a com-
plete and well developed profile is crucial.
• To Follow or Not: while there are many different approaches to
following, you need to see what the best method is for your niche.
While reciprocating a follower may be useful it may just come off
as spammy.
• Participate: if you find something interesting and related to your
topic, post about it. Also if someone makes a post that is interest-
ing, make sure to pass the word.
• Spam: you get in the mail and you hate it, so don’t do the same
with the posts you make. Think about posting at proper intervals
and not a ten posts in ten seconds.

Answer Questions
Ever have a question that you needed answered but none of your im-
mediately family or friends could answer it? Well unless you want to do
your own research, then your next best step is to ask a question on Ya-
hoo! Answers.
This site is useful for asking or answering questions and helps your
search rankings. By answering others questions, you are able to demon-
strate your expertise and of course get your name out there.
Remember out of all of the information provided, there is a continuing
trend. That trend is getting yourself, your brand, and your company out
to the rest of the world. The methods mentioned above, not only helps
you do that, but also helps you practice what we preach. While this may
seem repetitive or dull, it really is the key to your success. Keep it up and
you will soon be on your way to the top of your niche.

Section 5: Networking Your Business Online


When we talk about setting up a network, we might think of an intric-
ate grouping of various individuals all related in some way or other.
While this may be something of a difficult task on a face-to-face level,
networking through the use of social sites is really quite simple.
Depending on the social media site, making friends and keeping in
touch can be done in many different ways. From sending a private mes-
sage to making a public post on their “wall” or “space”, staying in touch
is a lot easier online.
Social media marketing can really only be done by having more
friends. While more friends may be less valuable than some friends, it all

178
depends on how well connected and in touch you are with those friends.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when acquiring friends:
• Search your interests: finding friends interested in your interests
is always a good place to start.
• Content is king: you’ve probably heard this a thousand times, but
it really is true. People like to follow and friend people who post
interesting content.
• Joining others: if there is a following or groups already created on
your niche, join in. Then show others what you know (but remem-
ber don’t repeat what others have said).
• Be original: just as we’ve mentioned above, don’t repeat other
people. Be the expert you want people to see you for. If you can’t
say something from a different perspective or angle, don’t say it.
• Answer and ask: if you aren’t sure how to get more friends, then
start searching FaceBook, Yahoo! Answers, Youtube, Twitter, or
any other sites for questions. Then answer them! If you don’t have
an answer, then ask a question. The more involved you are, the
more your name will come up, when people perform a search!
Once you have friends, remember to keep them. Nothing is worse than
making friends, and then having them leave you. Besides, if they make
some other friends, they may recommend staying away from you be-
cause you don’t post enough, or aren’t a leader in your niche. (Good
news travels much slower than bad news, but everyone seems to always
remember bad news more often).

Section 6: Non-Intrusive Internet Marketing


In this last section we explain how to market yourself in a non-intrus-
ive manner. You never want to be the person who shoves advertising in
a readers face, but rather be the one talked about and praised on what
you do.
To try and advertise yourself, we have seen that the best way is to
provide something of value. Be it some free information, a self-use tool,
or just assistance. You want people to come to YOU and not the other
way around. (There’s nothing wrong with chasing after readers, but let-
ting them take the last two steps is key).
While this may be easier said than done, you don’t have to always do
the hard part. For example, if you know of a great tool that you use, but
not many others use it, think about advertising it. You may not be the fi-
nal step or making the sale, but people are going to see you as somewhat

179
of a leader. You will be seen as someone who is able to keep up to date
with latest trends, but also a reliable source for information.
For some, advertising may seem as intrusive in any way you do it.
While this may be true, a great way to ease people into a product or ser-
vice, is do present it in an entertaining way. Whether it’s with a small an-
imation, or audio intro, something that entertains a reader will always
grasp their attention much easier. Also be sure to avoid misleading or
rude behavior when advertising or presenting your content. While it
may quickly grab their attention, they will be less inclined to continue
following you, if you are seen to be untruthful. If you are ever not sure,
just think of whether you would try it in person, if you wouldn’t then
don’t do it on the internet.

Course #12
Advertising Online
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

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Course 12: PPC and the Basics of Online Advertising

Section 1: Understanding What PPC Advertising Is


For this section we’ll be focusing on Google AdWords since it’s the
most commonly used PPC advertising service. There are many other ad-
vertising networks that you can join but Google AdWords by far has the
furthest reach, and it’s easy to use.
Pay per click (PPC) – also known as cost per click (CPC) – is a type of
paid advertising, such as a paid search, sponsored listings, sponsored
links and partner ads.
When you create an ad with Google AdWords, you assign the ad with
a list of keywords. Google then finds Google AdSense ready websites
relevant to those keywords and places your ad on their site. Essentially,
you (the advertiser) pays a small fee when a user clicks on the advertise-
ment displayed on their site.

Search Engine Relevancy


Search engines determine relevancy based on a few known key factors:
• Key Word List: Do the keywords in the keyword list match what
the person typed?
• Ad Copy: Does the ad mention what the person is looking for?
• Landing Page: Does the ad go to a page that has what the person
is looking for?
• Bid: How much are you willing to pay to get that visitor?
Google keeps the relevancy criteria hidden and secret so that all indi-
viduals get an even playing field when it comes to advertising. Google
and other advertising providers have had many problems in the past
with people using loopholes and blackhat techniques to take advantage
of the system… because of this… many ad networks avoid giving details
on how the rank, and determine relevancy.

PPC Pros and Cons


PPC advertising can be great if you know how to use it… but you can
waste a lot of time and money if you don’t use it properly. PPC is not
something you just want to jump into, you should read up on it before
starting an AdWords Campaign.
One huge advantage to Google AdWords is that it allows you to track
and figure out which target words are converting the most users to cus-
tomers. By knowing which advertisements are converting the best you
can focus on those ads to build better ad campaigns

181
There are issues though that many may encounter, some of those may
be:
• Not enough budget to spend for your industry: advertising needs
budgeting correlated to cost of product.
• Poorly designed site: update your site and make the navigating
easier (this relates to conversion)
• Slow page loads: don’t fill the site with all sorts of flash apps, not
all computers are up to date, and can make you lose many poten-
tial customers.
• Not enough volume: Are your search words the right words for
your niche? Or are you being too specific?
• No analytics: you need an analytic program if you want to know
what’s happening with your site
• Setting it and forgetting it: this is a big no-no. Your ad campaigns
and site both need to be maintained on a set schedule (2-3 times a
week). There’s no such thing as a solve all problems solution; you
need to stay on top of your business.

Section 2: The Big Players in PPC Advertising


Although Google AdWords is the predominant PPC provider on the
web, there are several other companies you should take a look at such as
Yahoo! and MSN AdCenter.
There are many other smaller companies out there and you may con-
sider them once you’ve become more experienced with PPC advertising.
Some are cheaper but have less reach and some have specific benefits
that you might find appealing.

Comparing the Big Players


If you are really looking at setting up a PPC account, then take a look
at the biggest contenders, as they have the most bang for your buck (and
time too!). The big contenders are naturally:
• Google AdWords
• Yahoo!
Google AdWords has the biggest reach worldwide and is the easiest to
use. The only reason why you wouldn’t go for Google AdWords is if
you’re doing business in Japan (or any other country where Google is
not the predominant search engine) in which case you’d want to use Ya-
hoo! Aside from geographical considerations and other minor reasons,
Google AdWords is definitely the way to go.

182
One other factor in choosing your PPC provider is your market.
FaceBook for instance has its own PPC advertising system so if you’re
going for the FaceBook crowd, the FaceBook advertising system is the
obvious choice.
The smaller PPC providers are only really needed in specific situations
and recommended to more advanced users, Google and Yahoo! are your
best bets otherwise.

Lesson 3: How to Create an Excellent PPC Keyword List


It is important to remember that the keyword list is the foundation of
your ad campaign. Everything depends on the keywords and phrases
that you use for your ads.
Sometimes going for the obvious keywords and phrases can be a big
mistake. This section will go into making a keyword list that performs
well and will bring quality traffic.

Google Keywords Tool


If there’s every a tool you need when creating keywords, it’s Google’s Key-
word Tool which can be found here:
• · https://adwords.google.ca/select/KeywordToolExternal
Just type in a word and an Google will give you a list of suggestion
along with estimated average costs, the amount of times it’s being
searched for and many other important metrics.
Your keyword list should start there since it’s the most comprehensive
and easiest to use.

Choosing, Organizing and Working With Keywords


What type of product are you selling? On a piece of paper, jot down
some information about what it is you’re selling (Color, Size, Style, and
Brand)
Be specific if you have more of one type of product. If your selling ball
point or gel pens, be sure to separate the two to get the desired amount
of hits
Organize the words into separate groups. If you’re selling car
products, separate by car brands, and again by make of those brands.
Remember, don’t take the easy way out. This will work if you take
time and care to be as precise as possible. One group will not give you all
the details required.
Also, remember to keep the words as precise as possible. 25 words
max, and make the words count!

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The reason you need to be so exact is that using general words will
bring in too much low value traffic. If you’re selling cars and you use the
term “car”, the traffic received for that term is likely to be low.
If you use specifics, you’ll get less traffic but the quality will be much
higher.

Match Types
“Match types” are kind of hard to explain but essentially they’re what
you use to tell the search engines in what situation you want your ads to
be displayed. It’s basically linking other words/phrases to your
AdWords. This helps generate more results.
Here are is an explanation of the match types:
• Broad: long-tailed words (3 or more), misspelled, and uses a vari-
ety of words and synonyms.
• Phrase: uses the word in plural form and in the exact order; will
add other words in front or after your main keyword.
• Exact: the ad only shows up in searches that use the exact same
words; no plurals or misspelling.
• Negative: basically these are words you don’t want your ads to
appear with.

Destination URLs
Once you’ve organized your keywords by “match types” and ad
groups you can help further categorize your information by setting up a
destination URL. Basically the URL leads to a specific webpage.
If you’re using keywords like “pink iPods” it makes sense to link the
ad to the exact page of that product instead of the more general products
page.
Adding most exact destination URLs will improve user experience and
they’ll be more likely to convert.

Keyword Tracking and Changing Your Keyword List


Over time your list of keywords should change but in order to know
which ones to change you’ll need to utilize the tracking tools provided
by PPC provider.
By knowing which keywords are performing and which ones aren’t
you’ll know which ones to remove and which ones to keep.

Section 4: How to Write Ads That Convert and Make Money

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In this section we’ll take a look at what makes a good PPC ad. We’ll
look at such things as the structure of the ad, how to write a compelling
ad, and how to test your campaigns.

Structure of PPC Ads


Each component of your PPC ad should be carefully considered. Inter-
net users have adapted to overlook and avoid ads so your work is cut
out for you. Your ad needs to stand out and be compelling and interest-
ing enough for users to click on it.
It should also be mentioned that it’s easy to make someone see an ad
(by making it big and bright) but getting someone to actually click on an
ad is much harder.
There are 4 parts to a PPC ad:
• Headline: this is the most essential component of your ad. Some
search engines might only search for this part of the ad. Use your
most targeted keyword(s) here. Depending on the provider you
are using, you will have a header limit ranging from 35-40
characters.
• Body: Here you will have 2 separate phrases or 2 separate sen-
tences. Make sure you get your message across within 70 charac-
ters. Think of it as placing an ad in the paper. You need to be as
targeted as possible but within a small space. Make those words
count.
• Display URL: Test a few options for this one as it all depends on
your traffic. It might be better to add http:// or just www. Other
times you may be interested in adding more information such as
www.gurugrounds.com/contact or www.gurugrounds.com/
• Destination URL: deliver what the ad says. If it’s a specific
product, make sure the link goes directly there. If it is the website
then it is alright to take them to your home page, but make sure
whatever you are advertising is what the user will be sent to.

Writing A PPC Ad
Writing this ad is not going to be an easy task, there is no point in us
telling you it is easy. But if you follow these guidelines, it will make
things a lot easier (and you won’t have to get someone to help you (save
your money).
Firstly, make sure your ad is providing a benefit and a feature. This
means that you will have something saying free shipping, on sale, in

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stock. Then provide the feature such as colors, sizes, quality. This works
much better than having just information on your product.
Secondly, put in some urgency/aggression or call to action. Buy Now!
Or Order Now! Exclamations help to make you stand out and make
users want to take the next step.
Note: Two types of action, aggressive call to action targets an immedi-
ate response while the information call to action is for research and
browsing.
Don’t forget your grammar. Just because it’s the internet and its fast
and easy, doesn’t mean you can forget how to speak. Remember this is
your ad to the world, if you can’t spell, don’t expect business to flow.
Make sure you use your keywords, but don’t jam pack it in there. Be
direct and specific but don’t try and tell them everything, because you
won’t have enough space.

Test for Successful Ads


There’s nothing wrong with trying and failing. But you need to learn
from your mistakes and the best way to do that is run some trials (A/B
Tests).
Test your ads in different ways such as having different headlines but
the same body.
Capitalize the body copy and make everything top notch. Nothing in
an ad should be overlooked. The slightest changes can make a big
difference.
Remember to try and use Dynamic Keywords. Having your ad stand
out a little bit more, will make for better clicks. If it doesn’t work then re-
move and try another test.
Ad testing as you will find is a continual process. If you aren’t getting
the goals you have set up for yourself it’s time to take a look at your
keywords or the layout of your ad.
If you are meeting your targets, be it revenue, amount of clicks, down-
loads, or other goals, then great, you have yourself a winner. If it doesn’t
then its good to set a finish point.
A finish point or end point can be set at 100 clicks. Once your ad has
reached 100 clicks review the conversion information and any other data
you have been keeping track of and see what steps you need to take next.
Also don’t forget to keep a tab on length of time online. If one ad has
only been up for a few days and comparing it with one for a month will
give you skewed results.

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Make sure to also keep a tab on your ads, some say once a week, but if
you are in a very targeted niche and have lots of viewers, a couple times
a week may be your required level of involvement.
Finally, remember to check conversion rates. This will tell you where
the money is at and hopefully with these tips, there will be more money
in your pocket, than in your competitors.
The secret to PPC ads is that the cost of the advertising is less than the
revenue it generates. Once you know the conversion rate you’ll know ex-
actly how much money to invest in ads in order to make specific
revenue.

Section 5: How to Budget and Bid for Keywords


Here we talk about the most important factor when it comes to ads,
Money! And how much you should spend.
Depending on your niche, the cost per click will differ. If you’re in a
highly competitive niche such as weight loss or debt consolidation you
can expect to pay a high price for your ads.

Having A PPC Budget


Your PPC budget needs to meet the cost of what you are attempting to
sell. That doesn’t mean if you are selling an $60,000 product that your
PPC budget needs to equal half. But it does mean that you will need to
use your tools and research other companies and figure out where your
budget needs to be.
Research is key here. Just like you decided to research on how to set
up your PPC and your site, you need to do the same on figuring out how
much you are willing to spend. If your PPC is successful, look at rein-
vesting and expanding. If you aren’t doing so well, look at rearranging
your words, making changes.
Don’t be afraid to change your words and edit your ads. If you have
set a meager budget to test the waters (always a good choice), and it was
not successful then change things around, and see what does work.
Decide if you are going to budget monthly or daily. Remember if your
budget runs out by the end of the month, you won’t have any ads left.
Best way is to decide on a daily level. Remember these are only
guidelines. If you are able to spare more, then research and see if it is
worth spending the extra bucks.
Our suggestion is to gather as much information as you can before
throwing your money into something. Remember, you are trying to
make money, not spend it all.

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Stick to your budget! If you are getting the clicks required and making
the sales, then don’t change anything. If you aren’t making the sales then
its time to redraw the plans and figure out what course of action is best
for you.
Make sure you have enough money for your campaigns. Some words
may be more expensive than others. One key rule to remember here is
that the more generic and broad the terms are the more traffic and times
your ads will show up but the quality of traffic will be much lower.

Keyword Bidding
This is going to be the most complex aspect of PPC advertising. Bid-
ding on keywords of which there are two levels.
• Ad-group Level: must set a maximum bid, the largest amount you
are willing to pay for a single click, but you may not pay that
amount (but be ready if you have to).
• Keyword Level: maximum CPC you are willing to pay per word.
Cost per click (CPC) is based on the search engines calculations. We
are sorry to say but we can’t provide you with the exact calculations per-
formed as those are kept hidden and secret only to their own companies
(Google, MSN, Yahoo!).
We can tell you that there are known factors that play into this, such
as:
• Relevancy of the keyword to your ad
• Relevancy of the search term to your keyword
• Destination URL (where the ad takes the searcher)
• Daily Budget
• Keyword Bid Amount
• Amount of Competition
• Relevancy of competitors words to yours
One thing to keep in mind is if possible, set the maximum amount for
an ad group as a start. Then lower as you receive results. This will give
you more results and allows you to adjust better than going from bottom
up.

Schedule Bidding and Spending


Depending on your product, you will want to know when your cus-
tomers are doing most of their shopping. If you are in the US and your
consumers are in Europe or Asia, you will know there is a time differ-
ence, and you will want your ads to display when they are using the
internet.

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You need to make sure that your ads are visible to your customers
when you need them to be.
Setting up your budget will also depend, as mentioned before, on
your market. Those selling low cost per conversion and short buying
cycle tend to fare better than those with complex and long buying cycles.
It’s all about attracting the right customers, for the lowest cost for ad-
vertising and making enough sales to keep you in business.

Section 6: Understanding the Law When It Comes To PPC


Don’t be sneaky! Using an ampersand (and) instead of “and” or “2” in-
stead of “to” shortcuts will get you in trouble. Using others information
is also a big no no.
There are certain guidelines set by the search engines and if you aren’t
abiding by those, you will either get your ad removed or worse have a
civil suit on your hands.
A few things to watch out for is use of language, false claims, avoid all
capital letters, excessive punctuation or repetition. Watch your grammar,
use standard typography, and don’t use generic click calls to action like
“click here”.
Following the guidelines will keep your keywords in check and your
ads online. If you aren’t abiding by the rules, don’t expect your ads to
show up.
Your URLs need to be in good working order, and need to take the vis-
itor to your site. The site/page needs to be online and not under
construction.
When wanting to use a trademark or copyright, you will have to get
permission. The guidelines for trademark and copyright information are
put in the information sections when setting up AdWords.

Click Fraud
Click fraud is where an individual or programs go onto a site and con-
tinually click an ad without ever having intention of buying or using
your service.
The search engines have their own ways of dealing with click fraud
and if detected will reimburse you for the cost.
You can keep track of click fraud by checking your server logs and
studying the ip addresses. If you see a large number coming from one ip
address, then you could be experiencing click fraud.

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Also check to see where the clicks are originating from. If you are
selling a product only for American residents and you are receiving
clicks from Russia that may be a warning sign.
You may also look into a click fraud prevention program, but make
sure to do your research and know what you are getting into.
If you are experiencing click fraud, make sure you contact your cus-
tomer service department. Be ready to show them your server logs and
information.

Section 7: Tips, Tools, and Tricks of the Trade for PPC Advertising
Offline editors allow you to see your entire account, campaigns, ad
groups and keywords without having to load pages. It basically allows
you to make PPC edits quickly and easily.
You load your account, go offline, make the necessary changes and
then get back online and update the account. EASY!
Use a keyword traffic tool to expand and develop which keywords to
add. Tells you the rate and information needed for each keyword
Use geotargeting to target a specific area. People in a specific are that
you chose will see your ads while others won’t. Using your budget to
market to those that would use your product. If you sell snowboards,
then your ads will be targeted towards those who live close to mountain
ranges instead of those living in sunny/beachy areas.

Demographic bidding also allows you to target individuals by range


of age.

Managing Content Network Campaigns


A content network or partner network is a set of websites that are affil-
iated with the search engine that are authorized to show PPC ads
provided by that search engine. If your company deals with bikes and
another site has similar or bike related content, the search engine may
authorize them to display your ads. You can specify which websites to
show your ads and which ones not to.
Some tips to keep in mind for success in content networks:
• Create separate campaigns for your search and content networks
• Don’t use exactly the same keywords and ads in all your search
and content campaigns.
• Choose a keyword list that describes the sites on which you want
your ad to appear.
• Limit keywords to three words (two are better).

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• Bid lower on the content network than on the search network.
• KEEP TRACK OF THE NETWORK SITES
Finally the ultimate tip for all websites and this should be a given is
USE ANALYTICS PROGRAMS! These programs will help you keep
track of everything you will need to run and maintain a successful busi-
ness. The question should not be “Do I need an analytics program?” or
“Why should I use an analytics program?”, the question should be
“Which program should I use?”, and “How can I use it efficiently?”.

Course #13
Basic Blogging & Podcasting
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 13: Basic Guide to Blogging and Podcasting

Lesson 1: Choosing a Profitable Topic to Blog About


To begin your blogging career your first need is to determine a topic.
Something that you are passionate yet informed about. As you may be
aware, if you aren’t passionate about a topic, you probably won’t stick to
it when times get tough.

Choosing Your Blog Topic


The first step is to be positive about this experience. You are going to
take a topic you like and know about, and turn it into a site with quality
content to inform people. But to determining what exactly you’ll be talk-
ing about must be your first step.
We aren’t going to convince you that you can write and we aren’t go-
ing to tell you what to write. What we will do is provide you with some
guidance and advice on what you should write about and how to write
about your topic.
If you are trying to decide what topic to choose, take a look around
you and determine what talents you have. Take a look at your ability to
perform or do things that others can’t do. Another great way to figure

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out what to write about is to look at what you involve yourself with.
Take a look at your hobbies and see whether this would be of some in-
terest to someone on the internet.
If you are trying to expand your business online, then make sure it is
something you are passionate about. If you aren’t happy with what you
are doing, it will come out in your writing. Before you do get started
there are a few things to keep in mind.
• Set it and forget it: this is the last thing a blog is. A blog requires
dedication, hard work, and long term commitment. It will require
you to update your blog on a regular schedule and you must stick
to it, otherwise, readers will not bother to view your content.
• Watch for mistakes: if you provide some information on the inter-
net and it’s wrong, be ready to be called out on it. You will want to
make sure what your are saying is correct, or it can lead to users
questioning your information and credibility.
• Be passionate: you need to be passionate about your topic. As
mentioned if you aren’t passionate about what you are doing,
your readers will see it right away.
• Familiarity is key: writing about a topic you are unfamiliar with,
is going to be boring and tedious. You will have to research
everything and get the information you need to work on your
blog. This will only become more difficult as you begin getting in-
to more complicated content and hitting road blocks.
• Make it your own: if your topic is not the most interesting subject,
then add a little bit of your own touch to the mix. This could be
putting a funny spin on things, or adding the newest information
on the topic. You could add pictures or videos, making the content
more appealing.
There are a million different topics you can choose from and all have
ways in creating the content to attract the attention of readers. All you
have to do is figure out what you are interested in, and market it to the
world.
Now once you have decided on your topic, you need to decide what
goals you have planned for your blog. If you are looking for a way to es-
cape your 9-5 job or make millions from inception of your blog, then this
is not for you. Here are a few pointers that will help determine if your
goals are proper for blogging.
• Blogs need time to succeed: blogs will not explode with new
users within the first day and some don’t explode at all. What you

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want to do is give yourself a time frame. A good time frame for
blogging is 6 to 12 months and this is for realistic goals.
• Are you ready to be unheard?: usually the first 6 months of your
blog is spent speaking or rather typing and posting to an empty
room. You aren’t well known on the internet just yet, we are going
to have to work on that.
• Money is not going to be flowing in: you may be in the land of
milk and honey, but it is not just going to come streaming in. Only
a certain amount of websites truly generate a large amount of in-
come from advertising on their site. If you are looking to make a
lot of money, be sure to use the blog as a supplement to your actu-
al products and/or services.
With these in mind, setting goals needs to be done realistically. If you
are posting on a bi-weekly schedule to your blog and expect to make a
million dollars in a year, then you will need to rethink what you are
selling. Here are few examples of realistic goals that you can set for you
and your blog to achieve in about 6 months time:
• Answering questions: you will begin to have users read your con-
tent and what you will want to do is determine what questions are
being asked most frequently. Then you will want to answer those
in the 6 month time frame.
• Write a set amount of posts: this will depend on your business or
blog and how often you will post. Having approximately 60 posts
by 6 months is a good target.
• Find and send customers to blog: You can expect some people to
start taking a look at your blog. They either came to you through
search engines or your marketing efforts.

Find Your Competitors


Once you have found your topic and set up your goals, your next step
is to find out what is out there in regards to competition. You will also
want to determine how big your niche or targeted market sector is. To
determine this information you can use a few of the following methods:
• Technorati: this website will perform a blog search and provide
you with a list of blogs that are written about the particular search
your just made. This website will also provide you with their
ranking score and show you who your top competitors are.
• Google Trends: this website will provide you with information re-
garding the current trend of your chosen topic. This is a great way
to determine if there is an increased interest in your topic. If you

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are right on time and provide exceptional content, you can become
one of the internet success stories. But also remember that the like-
lihood of this is based on what you are providing.
• General search engines: this is the easiest way to determine com-
petitors. Go to the search engine you are most familiar with and
search for your topic. Once searched, you will want to research
what they are providing and what they aren’t. This will provide
you with ways in providing readers with something they aren’t
receiving with other blogs. Make notes on what bloggers are talk-
ing about, how many other bloggers there are on your subject.
These are questions that need to be asked.
Note: if there is an overflow of content on the internet and many blog-
gers talking about the same topic, it will make it more difficult for you to
make a space of your own, that will get more attention than the rest. You
need to stand out and provide something other bloggers are not
providing.

Section 2: Starting a Blog for Your Online Business


A few things we are going to look at in this session is choosing a blog-
ging program, setting up your account, changing the design of your blog
and finally posting your first blog.
Blogging is a process by which you use specific tools to publish in-
formation on the internet for others to read and comment on. To do this
though, we need to first take a look at some blogging applications you
can use.
Blogging Tools
There are a few programs you can use and each come with their own
specific set of benefits and abilities. The two main blogging applications
are Blogger and Wordpress.com
Blogger and Wordpress.com are both very easy to use and only takes a
few minutes to get set up. Once set up you can start blogging immedi-
ately. Both have very similar features and can be used by anyone inter-
ested in setting up a blog. Both blogging programs are:
• Easy to use
• Do not require additional software installation
• There are many prebuilt designs that you can use
• No programming skill required
A few draw backs for these are:
• Non-customizable: these sites are very basic and only provide
you with very, very limited options for customization. (We will

194
talk about how you can customize your blogging in upcoming
sections)
• SEO limitability: if you are hoping to increase your SEO, this type
of blogging will not provide you with options to increase visibility
for your website.
• Slow updates: All of the coding is managed by their IT profession-
als, so you get what they give you.
There are other options for online blogging. TypePad is another solu-
tion and provides similar qualities as Blogger and Wordpress.com but it
does require payment for use.
For those looking for more options and the ability to customize your
blog as you see fit there are two options. WordPress.org and Moveable
Type. If you decide to go with an installed version of a blogging plat-
form, we recommend that you have some knowledge with web servers.
If you do not then you will want to speak to a Web host or web de-
veloper to have you all set up.
WordPress is a great way to get set up with Blogging. We would re-
commend this platform over the rest as it provides you with the ability
to customizing options and is also free to install. The basics of Word-
press.org are similar to that of Wordpress.com but with a few extra ad-
ded features:
• Customizability: having the software installed allows you to
really make the blog look the way you want it to. You can use free
templates off the internet and then redesign them to meet your
needs. You also add plug-ins which can make running your blog
more effective and run more efficiently. Installing WordPress will
also allow you the ability to make it part of your website.
• SEO expandability: due to its customizing nature, you can also
look at a range of SEO options. Using plug-ins and other market-
ing techniques, you can turn your blog into a real money maker.
Although there are some great benefits, WordPress does present its
own challenges such as:
• Maintenance: if you need any updating or changes made to your
blog, you are going to have to do it all yourself (or of course, hire
someone to do all the work for you).
• Software knowledge: you will be installing all the necessary pro-
grams required to run your blog. If you aren’t sure what needs to
be done, again you can hire the services of a specialist.

195
If you having issues with this, then you will want to speak to an IT
specialist or web host. They can manage all the installing and set-up
parts of your blog, while you worry about the content and posting.
If you decide to go with Moveable Type, then you are looking at a few
differences such as cost and level of difficulty. Basically you are looking at
the same features that are within Wordpress.org, except with additional
features such as ability to manage more than one blog at a time. We re-
commend this route only if you have a greater understanding of how to
use blogging platforms.

Other Blogging Options


Listed below we have a few other options for blogging platforms.
These are just a few that we have taken a look at but there are at least
dozens of options available to you. It really comes down to your lever of
comfort and knowledge.
• Joomla! (www.joomla.org)
• ExpressionEngine (www.expressionengine.com)
• Textpattern (www.textpattern.com)
• LiveJournal (www.livejournal.com)
• Drupal (www.drupal.org)

Setting Up Your Blog


Depending on the route you have taken, you either need to go to the
respective websites and sign up for their blogging platform or download
and install your own blogging platform. Once that is all set up you will
want to move onto setting up the look and feel for your website.
If you have gone with the installed platform, you will want to:
1. Download and install necessary programs.
2. Configure server and your website.
3. Set up login information.
4. Run a test post.
5. Design your blog.
Designing your blog can be easy since there are many prebuilt tem-
plate and themes for you to use. If you’d like something more personal
and original, we’d recommend hiring a professional… you’ll save a lot of
time and money by hiring someone.
To hire a professional web designer we recommend using Elance.
Once you have your design up and ready for use, you will want to de-
termine the capabilities you are willing to give your readers. A few
things you should definitely do is:

196
• Do not allow them to post comments as they please. You don’t
want links to porn sites or the like being posted for comments.
• Do not refuse people from posting at all. You want people to come
to your blog to interact with the information you have provided.
• Do not get mad at what people comment. They have a right to
their opinions and on the internet; anyone can become a critic or a
fan.
• Do review comments before allowing them to be published on-
line. You want to make sure that you users are commenting on
your information appropriately.
• Do allow registered or trusted users to post without moderation.
The individuals posting are regulars to your site and you do want
to keep any eye on what they say but not completely review
everything they say. A form of trust needs to be built on you blog.
Another critical customization you will want to make is in regards to
pinging. Pinging is where your blogging software sends out a notification
to search engines and directories, letting them know of your updated
content. This is a great way to generate traffic and requires no further ac-
tion from you.
Within the settings of your blogging software, you will want to add
these websites to help you get started in pinging the internet with your
content.
• http://rpc.pingomatic.com
• http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080
• http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
• http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
• http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger
• http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
• http://ping.blo.gs
• http://ping.feedburner.com
• http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
• http://weblogalot.com/rpc.php
If your blogging software doesn’t have a pinging feature, you can go
to www.pingomatic.com and you can send out your pings using a single
form.

RSS Feeds
One essential component required to run a successful blog is to have
an RSS feed. If you are unsure what RSS stands for it means, really

197
simple syndication. It is a format which is able to provide the headings
and a brief summary or the entire contents of your post.
Readers can subscribe to your RSS feeds, using one or more of hun-
dreds of feeds readers. There are many RSS feed readers that a user may
have, but you’ll need to set up an RSS feed for them to view your
content.
This is a great way to allow your readers to keep track of what content
you might have recently published without having to come to your web-
site. The feed reader will provide the reader with your latest content in a
simple and easy to read format. Below are the steps required to setup an
account and get you information sent to your readers.
1. Go to www.feedburner.com
2. Setup an account.
3. Verify blog documentation for blog’s feed address.
4. Paste address into the Burn a Feed Right This Instant field and se-
lect Next.
5. Replace old feed address with the new FeedBurner address in
your blog.
Once that is all set up you are all done, except for your first post. Just
get onto your blog and type away. It doesn’t necessarily have to be
something perfect and doesn’t have to make the most sense. Just write
up an introduction about your blog and what you hope to do with your
blog. Make it simple, conversational, and from the heart.
The important step here is to make that first post, get your work out
there, and getting the hang of how to write a post. Also try and avoid
writing things like, “I don’t know what to write about”. If you are having
writers block, take a break and then come back. No need to tell people
about it as everyone experiences it one time or another.

Section 3: How to Write Like a Professional Blogger


Writing a blog can be quite difficult to say the least. Telling people
how to write their blogs is a task even more difficult. What we are going
to do here is provide you with some pointers to writing a blog. Some
may be useful for your blog, while others may not.
The most important idea you should take from this entire section, is
that writing your thoughts out will help you determine your writing
style.
We could sit here and tell you what to write and how to write your
blog, but if the style doesn’t match your personality and business model,
then we clearly have failed you.

198
So to avoid any further confusion, we are going to provide you with
some pointers. Take them into consideration when working on your
posts, but only apply as necessary.
Two ways to keep your blog on track and concise is to follow two
simple rules. Simplicity and scanability.
Simplicity: you are getting to the point of your sentence and doing so
clearly. There is no need to start getting fancy with words. Just spit it out
(well not literally). Blogs allow writers to get their message across, in a
professional manner yet in a semi-professional tone. Here are some tips
to help you keep it simple.
• avoid the thesaurus like the plague or at the very least do not use
it. If you can use simple words to explain something, then use
them.
• write, analyze and revise. This is self explanatory, write
something down and if it doesn’t make sense then revise it
• use shorter sentences instead of a large compound sentence. They
are much easier to read.
• avoid filler words as it will only increase your sentences. For ex-
ample, “really,” “extremely,” “totally,” and “like”.
• use confidence when writing, it helps get your message across
better and shows that you are knowledgeable about your topic.
• make lists. Everyone loves to read a list and it is always simple to
understand.
• using too many exclamation points can get annoying, try and use
this in limited quantities.
• practice. It will help you develop your writing style and after a
while, thoughts will come more naturally.
Scanability: as we discussed in our email sections, users tend to scan
their emails. Readers also scan content that they are reading. If content is
all mashed together users will have a hard time reading what you
have to say and may stop coming back to your blog. Take a look at some
of the suggestions below to try and help with making your blog easier to
scan.
• Your paragraphs should be kept to a minimum. A good recom-
mended length is about four or five lines.
• Any lists that you may create should be bulleted or numbered
• Structure your blog so customers know what to expect next
• Major points to be broken apart by headlines. Don’t jumble it all
together
• Use line spacing of 1.5 or greater

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• Use images to help relieve the stress on the eyes
• Allow for one idea per paragraph. Again, jumbling ideas together
can get confusing and strenuous on the readers eyes

Avoiding Writers Block


Writers block can happen at any time. If you run into this problem
then here are a few ways to help reduce the impact.
• Read other blogs: find out what the World Wide Web is talking
about.
• Ask for help: don’t have any ideas, see who has a topic that hasn’t
been discussed.
• Answer questions: if someone has a question and it’s not being
answer, there’s the perfect way to get some new content out there,
and to meet readers needs that other websites aren’t meeting.
• Just write: write about anything and in a totally different tone.
• Break time: you could just be frazzled from all the thinking and
working you have been doing and it’s just time to take a break. It’s
ok, don’t worry, we all deserve a break, but don’t turn it into an
extended leave of absence.
• Talk it out: if you can’t write or are tired of typing, then use a re-
cording device and talk out what you were going to write. Pretend
as if you are presenting the material to a group of friends.
• Set a date: set a schedule for how often you will post. If you know
that in a few days you have to come up with some content, you
will be more concentrated on developing ideas.
• Write ideas down: do you ever have those moments when you
come up with an idea but then when it comes down to talking or
writing about it you can’t remember. Then what you will want is
an idea booklet or page. This is a great way to keep track of your
ideas which may be used at a later time. (I usually keep a notepad
by my bed, and if I come up with something, ill note it down in
there for later).
• Write for the future: if you are on a roll and have an abundant
amount of information then keep on writing. You will want to or-
ganize it so that material can be posted at a later time for when
you may get writers block again. Save it and access it when you
need it again.
• Guest bloggers: if you know of someone within your field that
has expert knowledge about a particular subject, then speak to
them and see if they would like to write you a piece for your blog.

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Try not to find a guest blogger that is doing the exact same niche
as you, because he or she may then promote their own blog or
website.

Section 4: Networking With Other Bloggers


Blogging is a great way to exchange information, ideas and concepts
with people around the world, in a user-friendly, community centered
type of way. To become a recognized contributor to your niche or sub-
ject, you need to make contact with those that are already discussing
your topic.
To do this you can go to other sites and make comments, paraphrase
or quote another bloggers content and link to them. If you are highly
trained in your field or have some specialized knowledge, writing some
new highly relevant content will also get your name out to the world.
If you aren’t an expert in your field, what you will want to do is keep
track of those who are, or those individuals interested in your field. The
best way to track those bloggers is by using a feed reader.
A feed reader is a program which gathers content from RSS feeds
(really simple syndication) and brings them all to you in a nice and or-
ganized format. The feed reader will deliver the headline and some in-
formation about the posts.
• Note: your feed reader will update itself about once a day, but you
can have it perform a search to see if new content has been
created.
This is a great way to get the important information from all the blogs
you are subscribed to and have it all in one application. This is very use-
ful as the information is brought to you, instead of going to all the differ-
ent websites.
• Note: this allows you the ability to collect articles that are highly
relevant to your topic and can be used for reference at a later time.
The rest you can just delete.
There are different programs that you can use out there. Many users
have responded positively with Google’s Reader but it all does come
down to preference.

Lesson 5: Building Community and The World Of Blogging


Have you heard the phrase. “Build it and they shall come”? If you
have, then don’t be surprised if “they” don’t come. A blog or website
that is put on the internet and is not being connected with other like-
minded individuals is already on a path to failure.

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In this section we are going to look at ways to connect with other blog-
gers and also look at ways to communicate effectively with them.
Your first step is to find out who you need to connect with in your
field. You may have already done this using email marketing, but if you
haven’t then this is what you need to do. Once you have determined
who you need to speak with, your next step is to make contact. The only
problem is, no one is aware of you. For example, think of approaching an
unknown blogger like approaching a stranger on the street. If you just
start asking questions one of two things can happen:
1. He or she thinks you’re crazy and completely ignores you
2. He or she tells you to politely, buzz off.
So your next question should be, how do I communicate with those
top bloggers without seeming like a weirdo? Good job my friends, here
are a few pointers on starting a relationship.
Leave comments: now we don’t mean going onto a site and just saying
something like “awesome post dude”. There needs to be a response
worth the blogger reading it. For example:
• Read the full post and then reply. Nothing like looking unin-
formed than making a comment straight out of left field.
• Read other peoples comments and see whether it’s worth your
time making a post.
• Don’t repeat the same comment. If someone has said something
you want to say, don’t try and repeat it. Try using a different
angle.
• Make a conflicting statement. You can make a conflicting state-
ment but make it in a way that makes a person think. Don’t just go
onto bloggers sites and post random conflicting questions that will
irritate people.
• Linking without relevance. This is a big one to remember. If the in-
formation is not important or relevant to what your blog is about,
don’t link to them. It’s just a waste of your time and the blogger’s.
Comment Tracking: For those of you looking to keep track of all your
replies, which can get quite complicated if you are posting on several dif-
ferent blogs, more than once, take a look at a service called Commentful.
This service can be accessed through www.blogflux.com.
Avoiding conflict: using the internet is easy to have message misun-
derstood. When talking to someone face to face, you will use your body
language, tone and pitch of voice and facial expressions to get your mes-
sage across. On the internet, all you have are your words. You need to

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make sure that you are careful in the way you type your messages so as
not come off as a jerk. Here are some things to avoid:
• The use of sarcasm. It’s hard to show sarcasm in text as it is all in
the sound of your voice . Text cannot do this, so avoid it. It will
save you a lot of trouble.
• Do not be nasty. Try to avoid being nasty. Remember you are rep-
resenting your company and you don’t want to come off as unre-
spectable. If you don’t have something nice or informative to say,
it’s better not to say anything at all.
• Avoiding jokes will also keep you out of the line of fire. Unless
you can be completely clear with the joke, best to avoid making
them.
Link to bloggers: if you want to gather attention for your work, you
can link other bloggers content to your postings. To use someone else’s
content, here are a few ways to avoid any problems.
• Creating a link list where you would discuss a few links which
provide good content that relates to your topic. You would of
course have a link back to their blog.
• Citing for support for an argument you are making in your post is
another great way to link up.
• Citing for additional resources can help expand your resources list
and connections
It is important to remember that the bloggers that own the content you
are posting, will be checking their analytics program to see where their
users are coming from. If they see that you are contributing to their in-
crease in traffic, they may link back to you to help you out.
Guest posting: just as we mentioned that you invite others to post on
your blog, you may be able to do the same on another bloggers website.
You will need to get in touch with them and let them know of your in-
tentions. You may not be accepted to just write content for them, but you
can offer an exchange. Here are some things to pointers to remember
when you are guest posting:
• Blog owner gets final say. If your writing isn’t up to his or hers
standard or are contradicting their values or beliefs, they may de-
cide not to post your content. He or she may also have suggestions
for how you may change it. Remember it’s his/hers website.
• Take some extra time when writing the post, as its your introduc-
tion to new audience members and can increase your traffic.
• Determine if linking back to your blog is alright. You want to
make sure they are comfortable with linking back to your website.

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• Write about yourself. This is the perfect time to let readers know a
little bit about yourself.
Ask politely: sometimes just asking a blogger politely might work.
• create an introduction of yourself and about your blog
• ask politely if they would be interested in linking up. Don`t ask
more than once as you may irritate the blogger.
• say please and thank you. Use a little bit of common sense. Man-
ners will get you further in your progress.
• finally make sure to reciprocate your linking. If they link to you,
you should do the same for them.

Lesson 6: How to Promote Your Blog Posts


Now that you have finished writing your post, your next task is to get
your information out to the public. You have posted the content on your
blog, you have links from your website to and from your blog but now
you need to reach the rest of the world.
In most blogging programs, three things happen.
1. You publish a post on your blog.
2. It updates the RSS feed.
3. It alerts relevant websites.
Even though there are some places that get the updates of your post-
ings, you will still need to gather readers from all areas of the internet.
As mentioned in earlier chapters, pinging will provide a message to
the relevant websites that there is new content on your site. This is a
great way to generate some traffic, but here are a few ways to really get
the ball rolling.

Posting On StumbleUpon
One website you may have heard of while doing some internet re-
search or browsing is StumbleUpon. This websites/service requires that
an app is installed onto a person’s browser toolbar and whenever the
user clicks on the StumbleUpon icon, they’ll be taken to a website based
on members thumbs-up or thumbs-down preferences.
You also submit new content to the site, which is then circulated
among StumbleUpon users. If more users select thumbs-up, your in-
formation will have a higher likelihood of being stumbled upon.
It is a great little tool but don`t expect to set it and forget it, you`ll want
to continue spreading the word about you posts.
Here are few basic suggestions for completing a good submission:

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• Descriptive title: you should have a title that can explain what the
post is about.
• Description: if your title is descriptive, don`t forget to write a
good description about your content as well.
• Good tag usage: remember to tag your article properly. Keywords
to explain your post.
• Send to friends: send your post to StumbleUpon friends if you
think they would be interested in your post.

Submit To Digg
Another website you may be interested in using is Digg. Digg is a
great site because if your article is of high quality and of great import-
ance, your post may make it to the front page and if it does that, expect
server crashing traffic.
The only problem is, if your content is mediocre or only above par,
you may only make it to pages 2,3 and beyond, which would decrease
the traffic rate, drastically.
The find out if your post is Digg-worthy, take a look at these
suggestions:
• Interesting topic: does your topic have something to do with a
current trend, something bizarre or strange, or is it a funny
post?
• High-quality productions: make sure that your post is easily
read. Quick and easy, because your readers may be surfing the in-
ternet looking for good content and you want to be one of those
pages they view.
• Geek alert: if it appeals to those that you may consider “geeky” or
“nerdy” you have good content. If it doesn’t appeal to them, then
you might want to rethink using Digg.

Other Social Marketing Sites


There are other sites similar to DIGG, here are just a few:
• Reddit.com (www.reddit.com)
• Yahoo! Buzz (http://buzz.yahoo.com)
• Sphinn (http://sphinn.com)
• Mixx (www.mixx.com)
• Ezine Articles (http://ezinearticles.com/)
• Fark (www.fark.com)
• Plime (www.plime.com)

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Other recommendations we can make to get your blog out there, is to
connect with bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, Digg, and Ma.gnolia.
They are similar to StumbleUpon and are great ways to get more
attention.
You can again as noted in our other sections, send polite emails to
bloggers, subscribers and other contacts that you may know about your
new posts. It is all about spreading the word about your information and
getting people to notice and remember you.
Our final suggestion is to get onto online communities such as
FaceBook or microblogging sites such as Twitter. These are great ways to
pass on information quickly to those that are already part of your com-
munity. This allows users to gain quick and easy access to your content.

Section 7: Basic Guide to Podcasting


Have you ever imagined yourself being on the radio and providing
useful information about your topic to people everywhere? Welcome to
your new favorite form of communication, podcasting.
Blogging puts your thoughts, ideas and concepts on paper, while pod-
casting puts you on the microphone. If you decide to go ahead and do
some podcasting, then be prepared to take some extra steps to provide
content to your readers.
Podcasting allows you to record your voice or any other sounds you
may have, compile it into an audio track and post to your blog and RSS
feed.
There are some benefits of providing a podcast to your viewers such
as providing content to customers while on the go, it helps reduce the
amount of content you need to write, and is a great way to get more per-
sonal with your viewers.
To be able to create a podcast you are going to be looking at either bor-
rowing or purchasing some equipment (if you don’t already own any)
and also set up an area in which you can capture great sound quality.
Some of your basic necessities to create podcasts are:
• Microphone: how else are you going to get your voice recorded
and onto the computer.
• Computer: this will be your device to record your information. We
are also assuming that if you can read this, you must have had ac-
cess or can get access to a computer.
• Software: you will need a program that can record and edit your
audio content.

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• Broadcasting source: getting your content to your viewers will
have to be done using FeedBurner, iTunes or some other service.
Now that you have an idea of the tools you will require for getting
your podcasts completed, we will look at each component separately.
First, the microphone.
The microphone is the way that sound will be transferred into a digital
format which will be what your viewers are listening to. If you already
have a microphone and are comfortable with the quality it is providing
then you’re already ahead of the game. For those of you who don’t
already have a microphone and aren’t sure which to purchase, we will
look at a few options below:
• Built In: this microphone is built in, and is seen on a laptop. It is
easy to use, it may even have proper software already installed. Its
great if you are going to be recording while sitting in front of your
laptop but if you need to move around or get things done, it may
make it a bit challenging to drag your laptop around.
• Headset: this type of microphone fits around your head and is
plugged into your laptop or desktop computer. Great way to cap-
ture all the sound from your voice, but it doesn’t allow for more
than one user to make comments.
• Microphone stand: this is the type of microphone that is usually
made of plastic and has its own support that holds it up. Great
tool for multiple individuals to record their voices all at once.
When it comes down to microphones, our recommendation is to do
some online searches and see what the best for your needs is and budget.
We could make recommendations for $30 microphones to $400 micro-
phones and beyond, but if it doesn’t meet your needs and budget, then it
would be pointless. There are a few brand names that we can refer you
to:
• Blue Microphones: (www.bluemic.com)
• Logitech: (www.logitech.com)
• Samsontech: (www.samsontech.com)
Once you have determined your microphone, you will want to de-
termine what type of program to use. Once again your needs and budget
should be taken into consideration. Here are a few options for programs:
Windows PC programs:
• Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
• Podproducer (www.podproducer.net)
• Adobe Audition(http://www.adobe.com/products/audition/)
Max OS X:

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• GarageBand(www.apple.com/ilife/garageband)
• Ubercaster (www.ubercaster.com)
• Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net)
• Logic Studio Pro (http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/)
There are quite a few options here, as you can see Audacity is avail-
able on both Mac and PC, and out of all of them, this will be your best
choice. And its free! You can’t go wrong with free.
Now that we have found our microphone and installed all our soft-
ware, we are going to need to find a place to set up for recording. The
key here is quiet. You need a room where there aren’t any appliances
running or sounds of people walking upstairs or any other types of
noise. You need a place with complete quietness and if you are trying to
do your recordings at home, just have the family go out for a bit, while
you complete your recordings.
Other issues to look out for are echoes. If you are in a large room or
sound carries through your recording area quite easily, you can stick up
some blankets on the walls. If you have a dedicated area to perform your
recordings, egg cartons are also excellent in reducing the echo effect.
Below we have listed a few tips for setting up your quiet recording
area:
• Windows: these need to be closed as you may begin to notice, cars
driving by, birds chirping, neighbors talking, and those sounds
will be heard on the recording.
• Appliances: in a quiet area you will begin to hear the low buzzing
sound of the appliance. Try an avoid rooms with appliances
completely.
• Turn off phones: this refers to cell phones and home phones. We
have heard many podcasts where in the middle of the conversa-
tion, a phone goes off in the background. This is not very profes-
sional and can be very distracting for listeners and for yourself.
• Turn off other programs: if you use any instant messaging pro-
grams or programs that have sound effects.
• Microphone placement: you will want to move the microphone as
far away from the computer as possible and you also want to keep
the microphone at eye level for directing your voice directly at the
microphone.
Excellent, now that we have the equipment, the location and
everything set up we can begin podcasting. Well not just yet. What you
want to do is run some tests with the microphone in different positions.
Read a few sentences of any document with the microphone at different

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levels of sound and height. Once you have done that, encode the data
and play it back. This will help you determine which combination
sounds best.

Preparing a Script and Recording Your Podcast


When you write a blog, you need to write out everything you are
thinking about and want the customer to know. Podcasting on the other
hand requires you to tell viewers what they need to know. While there
are some individuals out there that are comfortable with just sitting
down and recording their content, the rest of us may want to write down
a few key ideas.
A great way to sound comfortable but still have some structure to your
podcast is write out the start of your introduction, your main headlines,
and a conclusion. This way you will sound comfortable and relaxed but
still deliver the content that you want your users to know about.
If you are doing an interview, you will want to have the questions lis-
ted out on a piece of paper to make sure you get all the information you
need.
Now you might be wondering how long a podcast needs to be. Our re-
commendation is to stick between 10-20 minutes per podcast. Doing any-
thing less may be too short and come off as an advertisement, while any-
thing over, will just start to bore the listeners.
As you begin to record your information you need to keep in mind
two things. Speak slowly and clearly. If you start rushing your listeners
won’t be able to keep up with you, but if you speak to slow, you may
have a few people falling asleep.
Best way to avoid this, is to listen to your recording after you have fin-
ished. If there are any mistakes or hiccups, you can re-record the mis-
takes and then use the editing program to insert your new recording.
After editing your recording, add a title and a date. Some editing pro-
grams may also allow you to add some artwork which can be used for
branding. Our recommendation is to add your logo as the artwork as it
will help users remember you from the rest of the podcasters on the
internet.

Encoding and Uploading


Once you have completed your recording, you will want to encode
and upload it to the internet.
Encoding is the process of compressing a file into an mp3 format. This
process does reduce the size and quality of a file, but the benefits

209
outweigh the minor quality loss. This compression makes it easier and
quicker to upload the file to your blog or website.
To upload your file, you may have to download a transfer application
such as an FTP client. There are many applications out there and any one
of them will suffice, we use Filezilla but others such as CuteFTP or
SmartFTP are useful.
For those of you using Firefox, we suggest using the add-on FireFTP.
It’s an FTP program built into the browser… very useful!
Now that you have your podcast uploaded onto the internet you are
going to want to promote it. To do this, you will follow the same
guidelines provided to promote your blog posts, but some additional
ways are:
• iTunes: you will want to visit iTunes Store and find “Submit Pod-
casts to iTunes Directory”.
• PodcastDirectory.com: uploading your content to this will get you
more views.
• Other websites: try finding other sites that allow you to upload
your podcast online such as PodcastAlley.com.

With all this information, you are ready to start blogging and podcast-
ing. With all this information, you are ready to get your written and vo-
cal content out there for all your viewers to see.

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Course #14
Email Marketing
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 14: Effective Email Marketing

Section 1: Setting Up an Email Marketing Strategy


Using email is a cost-effective way to deliver your marketing mes-
sages. It can be personalized, targeted, and interest-specific to a large
number of people.
An email message is sent and received almost instantaneously and
once received the person will open and take steps of using the email. Of
those steps taken, feedback may be given back to the sender. Of which
there are two types:
• Stated Feedback: when someone fills out an online form, com-
pletes a survey or replies
• Behavioral Feedback: when you track link clicks, email open
rates, emails forwarded
Using emails will not only keep you in touch with people who may
not be ready to buy at the moment but may remember you when they
are ready to take further action. You can also ask people to do certain
things with your email or any other information you may send them.
If you emails are kept consistent in elements and personality, it will
naturally develop your brand. It is important to remember that custom-
ers will respond more positively to your email messages when they can
identify with your brand.
Some ideas to help with branding and provide a familiar look and feel
are:
• Have logos that look consistent in: signs, order forms, email
signup forms, website, receipts, business cards, emails.

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• Include company name in all marketing: email from lines, email
addresses, email signature, online directories, your blog.
• Format message consistently across media: fonts, layouts, images,
headlines, contact information, calls to action.
It used to be alright to send emails to anyone you knew and lots of
people you didn’t know, but nowadays there is protection against that
such as spam filters, fire walls and junk folders. To avoid such a situ-
ation, acquiring the service of email providers will reduce the loss of
emails. Some benefits of an ESP (email service provider) are:
• Improved email deliverability
• Database and list management
• Email template design
• Email message and content creation
• Tracking reports
• Advice and consulting
There are a few providers that can provide excellent email marketing,
templates and service:
• Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com)
• Microsoft Office 2007 (http://office.microsoft.com)
• Vertical Response (www.verticalresponse.com)
• 1ShoppingCart (www.1shoppingcart.com)
• ExactTarget (www.exacttarget.com)
• Aweber (www.aweber.com)
• MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com)
Some benefits of ESP’s:
• Professional Look: Can provide professionally looking newslet-
ters, templates, promotions announcements, greeting cards, busi-
ness letters.
• Keep Marketing Legal: One-click unsubscribe links, privacy state-
ments, physical addresses added to emails, sending from a veri-
fied email address.
• Help With Logistics and Reporting: Storage and retrieval of sub-
scriber information, reports on deliverability, automated subscribe
and unsubscribe requests, tracking on blocked and bounced
emails.
• Help with Content: Online communities, webinars, tutorials,
classroom-style tutorials, consultation.
• Teach You Best Practices: Best times to send, improve open rates,
avoid spam complaints, what to do when email is blocked or
filtered, how to design and layout.

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Section 2: How to Become a Trusted Email Sender
Due to the bothersome nature of spam, laws have been created to
avoid such situations. Lawmakers have enacted the CAN-SPAM Act
(Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing).
This legislation separates the two types a person may receive and
email for:
• Commercial Email: email containing an ad, promo or business
content
• Transactional/Relationship Email: anything other than a com-
mercial email
Make sure that the emails you do send out are CAN-SPAM compliant.
Collecting emails has to be done legally and while some email collec-
tion is illegal they aren’t always easy to spot. Here are some tips to keep
you on the legal side of email collection:
• Never purchase an email list from a company that lets you keep as
a data file.
• Never collect email addresses from websites and other online
directories.
• Don’t use an email address collection service.
• Don’t borrow an email lists and send emails to other businesses
email list.
• Don’t rent email lists unless the rental company practices are legal.
Sending out email content to people requires you to have some re-
quired information. That includes:
• Provide a way for subscribers to opt-out of receiving future
emails.
• Your email includes your physical address (website address).
• Clear email header identifies business and is not misleading.
• Email subject line isn’t misleading.
• Email clearly states the email is a solicitation.
• Email complies with any applicable guidelines for sexually ori-
ented content.
Collecting people’s information nowadays can be quite an endeavor. It
may be easy to use sneaky tactics to gather information, but this will
only lead to mistrust and loss of business.
If you are looking at gathering and using someone’s email address, be
sure to get permission, otherwise it may lead to hesitation for any future
business. There are three levels of permission you can receive.

213
• Level 1: Implied Permission: this form of permission happens
when someone is in the course of performing normal business
communication. An example would be when someone is provid-
ing you an email as part of receiving a quote or further specific in-
formation. This does not mean that they will agree to further
routine emails. (If you do want to continue sending emails, add a
discretionary note advising of possible further emails and ability
to opt-out)
• Level 2: Explicit Permission: this form of permission happens
when you disclose to the subscriber what your plans are for the
use of their email address. If a customer is aware of the decision
they are making such as in a “Sign-up to receive a weekly newslet-
ter” or requests to be added to email list.
◦ Note: This can be verbal (they share email wiht you and
you request to add them to your list); written (they email
you and you reply by asking for permission); physical (add
their email to a guest book or signup via paper form); incid-
ental (online shoppers can select a box to receive additional
information after purchase).
◦ Level 3: Confirmed Permission: this type of permission
happens when someone implicitly or explicitly signs up for
an email service, at which point you respond with an addi-
tional email, confirming their registration.
There are pros and cons for each level of permission, it really is up to
you to determine which one works best or whether a combination of the
three is key to your success. As all things in this line of work, it requires
tweaking to really meet your business model and requirements.
If you have developed or gathered emails either by using low permis-
sion levels, through the purchase of another business, or just having a
long list and loosing track of what levels of permission belong to which
email, here are a few steps in deterring permission status:
1. Sort your list by source: where have the emails originated from
and are the sources still used. If you are unsure, then it is best to
discard the email
2. a. Note: If you are unsure about all emails, continue reading
below.
1. Sort by date: check orders and match to email, if purchase
made over a year ago, its time to discard the email.
2. Discard ambiguously named emails: if you aren’t sure who
it goes to, discard it. These emails might look like

214
webmaster@ or info@ and aren’t sure who it actually gets
sent to.
3. Sort by category: determine if a prospect or a return cus-
tomer. Depending on this fact will determine how you pro-
ceed. But remember, always be cautious, you don’t want to
come off as a spammer.
4. Confirm permission to send email: Obtaining emails from
subscribers is something you should be proud of. Once a list
has been obtained you will want to protect that data as mis-
using the email will be misusing the subscribers trust.
If you see the above steps as a laborious process then you might be
better off in discarding your list and starting off fresh.

Avoiding Spam Complaints


Recipients of your emails must be comfortable receiving emails from
you and to avoid getting complaints, permission to send them emails
must be given.
Once permission is received your next step is to minimize confusion
among subscribers. The most important and professional practice is to
allow users to unsubscribe from your email service (it is also required by
CAN-SPAM Act)
The use of the unsubscribe ability provides users with the confidence
that you appreciate your relationship with them.
There are many reasons for a person to consider your email as spam
some of those may be:
• Don’t want it: unwanted marketing emails.
• Can’t verify it: customer is unaware of it origins. Use “From” line
to discern if spam or not.
• Too Frequent: repetitive, irrelevant or long emails that are fre-
quent may be seen as spam.
• Other: can’t unsubscribe, doesn’t trust unsubscribe, accidentally
clicks spam, accidental filter.
Here are a few tips and trick for keeping subscribers up to date with
your emails and letting them know what your company is up to:
• Email reminders: let them know how you obtained their email
address
• Email frequency in line with email content: don’t overdo it but
keep the content proper
• Reinforce branding: include logo and keep the same color scheme
• Reinforce familiarity: make emails memorable and familiar

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• Send reminder letter: send a periodical letter (with their permis-
sion) similar to email reminders.
• Make Valuable Email Content: nobody likes to receive boring
and useless emails, make sure you have something important to
say, or wait until you have more information.
• Easy signup and clear identity: don’t make signups hard (you’ll
lose potentials); and make your emails easy and comprehendible
(don’t make them work more than clicking open).
• Get reviews: find out why people have unsubscribed (they may
not want to give you any information but it doesn’t hurt to ask
politely)
• Use ESP authentication: if you can get an ESP to authentic your
emails, you just avoided a lot of people sending you to the junk
mail inbox.
• Include email and signup process: when a new subscriber is in-
terested in receiving emails, let them know what the process in-
cludes and what they will receive.
• Send useful information: don’t abuse the permission. If they al-
lowed you to use their email, make sure you send them relevant
content that they approved (no sending cartoons to your sub-
scribers, if you’re in the business of funeral homes or tombstone
masonry)
• Allow customization: if you send out more than one type of
email, allow users to subscribe to the email content they want. If
you are sending all your emails to someone who only wants one,
they will spam block you.

Section 3: How to Build a Quality Email Subscriber List


Building an email list can be an arduous task and so determining
whether each subscriber you have is a loyal follower or just a migrant is
important. It is difficult but it makes sense to agree that having a smaller
following full of avid fans and repeat customers is more beneficial than
having a large group of low quality subscribers and no buyers.
To develop a proper list, you will first need to keep track of your sub-
scribers and to do this, you will want to develop a database. You can use
this database to do the following:
• Organize and view list data easily.
• Sort list into categories: you will want to do this to send out tar-
geted emails in a variety of groupings.

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• Process and track unsubscribers: this will show you a trend; dat-
ing will assist in showing you how long they stay with you or
unsubscribe.
• Look into your list and extract: take the most useful information
and reports.
A few things to remember when creating an email database:
• More bang for your buck: you don’t need to have the most fancy
database out there. If a simple database with a few features will
suffice then great, but don’t go spending more money on features
that are going to cost you more time and money (remember the
old saying, mo money, mo problems).
• Applications galore: if you aren’t sure where to start, first place
would be a simple database application (Microsoft Access has a
great set of tools available) or through your Email Service Pro-
vider (ESP).
• Synchronization: if you decide to stick with your own program or
use an external providers program, make sure you can transfer or
sync your data with your ESP.
• Backups: always keep a copy of your database in a few private
places. Nothing like getting your hard earned work disappearing
in seconds.
• Exportation: finally, remember to make sure that whatever pro-
gram you are using will export the database to other programs.
You definitely do not want to work on a project and realize it will
be useless.

Collecting Subscriber Information through Email


There are a few types of information you can ask from prospective
email list subscribers. Below is just some of the information you can
gather as well as what it can be used for and some examples of each.
Category Description Use Examples
Information your First name, pre-
Essential Used to personalize
customers expect ferred email ad-
Information your emails.
you to know. dress, zip code
This will show you Used to categorize Prospects, coupon
Behavioral how audience will subscribers into cat- users, repeat cus-
Information act towards your egories for targeted tomers, VIP’s,
emails messages advocates

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Reveals important
Gender, marital
Personal info about person Used to send more
status, family
Information you are sending relevant info.
info, preferences
info to.

You can try to gather all this information at the start but more than
likely this will not be the case, to do so you can do the following:
• Send short relevant email surveys.
• Ask for info in regular emails.
• Use forms or links to site where they can browse or make
purchases.
• Use other medias for marketing as trust develops.
In an effort to get to know your subscribers a little better, you will
need to provide them with a variety of questions, each with its own spe-
cific benefit so you can better understand your customers’ needs.
You can ask them open ended questions which may take them longer
to answer, which would quickly decrease their rate of answering or you
can ask them questions and provide them with answers that would give
you a more targeted response.
To better explain this we have provided an example below:
• Open-ended question: “Why do you use our service?”
• Closed-ended/Categoric-specific question: Which answer best
describes your willingness to do business with us? Good Savings,
Excellent Customer Service, Knowledgeable Staff, Ease of
Understanding?
Some subscribers may only provide information if there is preferential
treatment or a prize for providing you with information that others
wouldn’t provide. In these situations you can, if able to, provide them
with:
• Priority
• Reserved tickets
• Early bird access
• First-to-know product information
• Member-only discounts
You need to provide them with an added benefit as they are providing
more insight into themselves. This way everybody wins even though
you may get additional winnings in the near future.

Collecting Subscriber Information through Website

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If you have a list already built up from users that have used your ser-
vice but are looking for more, another approach is to essentially swap
your readers with opportunities on your website. Now we aren’t saying
that every other button or link has to be an opportunity, but close to that.
A few options you can look at increasing email subscription is listed
below:
• Text boxes: those little boxes that have the words “Enter your
email” and have submit underneath the area where you enter
your email address. Those can either lead to a thank you page, or
a page requiring more information. Simple, easy and highly
effective.
• Buttons: a button placed alongside your other buttons, may be un-
der “Contact Us” or “About Us” or even your last button. You will
want to fiddle around with its location to determine, which gets
you the most subscriptions. You will also want to make this visible
and easy to follow through, but don’t make it stand out like a
clown at a funeral.
• Text links: this type can be added to the bottom of each page or it
can be added as part of your email signature. This is also a very
simple way to get subscriptions, the only issue with this is that it
doesn’t stand out as much as the others, but it can be incorporated
in less dramatic places.
• Check boxes: this type of subscription method is usually added as
a buffer. A person who is in the process of purchasing a product
can select this check box and begin to receive emails. Remember as
discussed in the previous information, that when a customer is go-
ing to receive emails, let them know the frequency and the inform-
ation contained within.
These types of subscriptions can be employed pretty much anywhere,
here is a list of a few places:
• Every page of your website
• Email signature
• Blog/personal website
• Banner ads or online advertising
• Other websites
• Non-competing friends emails
• Online directories

Collecting Subscriber Information Person

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There are rules out there when it comes down to collecting informa-
tion from potential subscribers in person, but our recommendation is do
it with finesse. You don’t want to walk into a room and just start advert-
ising yourself (although is has worked before and should only be done if
appropriate). Here are a few ideas in helping you shine bright and not
look out of place.
• Swap business cards: ask if their email address is on the business
card they give you.
• Place a guestbook: this can be done at your store or office; keep
one in the car just in case.
• Business card basket: if you’re at a trade show or convention set
up a basket, and add a note letting potential subscribers, know
what information they will receive.
• Train employees: if you have employees working for you then
have them take down clientele information. You’re paying their
wages, and it only takes a few moments to do.

Collecting Subscriber Information with Print


Using print may seem contradictory when it comes to an internet busi-
ness, but you would be surprised to find out how easy and effective it is
when a person has something in their hand to remember you from. Here
are some useful pieces of information when it comes to print sources.
• Postcards: send this out with an incentive to return it with their
email address. Get their permission and let them know your inten-
tion. (who isn’t interested in free stuff for an email address?)
• Added value: this used together with the postcard example.
Provide an additional benefit outside of your line of business such
as a free haircut, or gift card.
• Business card incentive: on the back of your business card you
can add an incentive for registering for emails such as “save 10%
or more”.
• Buy a domain name: create an intuitive name for a website that
would then link to your signup page. it will cost extra per year,
but doesn’t have to be too fancy and can be a few pages long, but
its whole purpose is to get those every important emails.

Incentives for Signups


Providing an incentive for readers to subscribe is a great way to show
your appreciation to those that subscribe, to those that refer others and to

220
those remaining loyal to you. Using an incentive provides you with two
basic benefits:
• Increased signups: if individuals feel they are going to get a bene-
fit they will more likely give you information than if you weren’t
giving them anything in return.
• Increased loyalty: incentive rewards provides a benefit to sub-
scribers and can cause loyalty, repeat buyers and referral increase.
These incentives can also be provided to subscribers in two formats:
• Immediate: free trials, discounts, reward points, VIP access,
member-only info.
• Future: event access that only a member would have to already be
subscribed to. The subscriber would only get this information that
you would provide advertising for after they have been with you
for a time. (ex. Customer would get access to a 24-hour sale that
would be upcoming in 6 months).

List Building with List Brokers


List brokers are marketing companies that collect and sell contact in-
formation. This route is a great way to get a large list, but at the same
time, it isn’t a guarantee that it will pay off at the end. You may have a
full list and send the information to the right demographic but end up
with negative results.
If you are using an ESP, they may not allow you to use a purchased list
. They don’t want to become known for allowing users to essentially
spam people on the internet.
Our recommendation is to collect-where-you-connect. This basically
means that wherever you are already in contact with people, be it the in-
ternet, in person, or by mail, develop your list through them. You
already know who your customer base is and purchasing a list where
you hope it will target your market, may just be a financial mistake.
If you decide to continue with this route, then make sure to proceed
with caution. Also be prepared to pay anywhere from 10-30 cents per
email address (this is for only one email sent). Make sure that the list you
do purchase has emails of individuals that are prepared to receive your
emails and have given confirmed-permission. If this point of quality isn’t
met, then be ready to have your emails overlooked.
A few things to keep in mind when purchasing a list from a list broker:
• Emails obtained: how and when was the email obtained and was
explicit permission provided.

221
• Permission confirmed: determine when permission was provided
and how much time had passed from the date of confirmation and
any other emails send to relate further info.
• Subscriber interests: finding out how the interests of the sub-
scribers was determined is also very important. If an email was
gathered through the individual selecting a interest to car tuning
is more useful than using an email from a person that bought a car
part online (the purchase may have been bought as a gift).
These questions are essential in determining whether the list you are
buying is going to be useful for you or whether its going to be just a
waste of money.
Finally you will want to know whether the emails that you are looking
at purchasing are emails you will get to see or not. Quality confirmed
permission emails are hard to attain and thus, email lists may be on sale
only as a rental. This means that you will be buying the use of the emails
but you will never actually see the emails. You will create an email and
then send it to the broker, who then formats the email and then sends it
to the list.
If this is the case, make sure that your email provides a few options for
signing up to receive more of your emails. Also be sure to have a link
that will relate back to your website. This will generate traffic and can
further help you with signups and website development.

Section 4: How to Create an Effective Marketing Email


This section we are going to be looking at the proper way in creating
an effective email that will provide you with a brand and bring in the
subscriptions you are looking for.
We will look at examples and ways to present an email and things to
avoid when putting together all the components.
An email needs to be built in a way that will stop readers in their
tracks and has them take steps with you. Think of when you read an
email. Do you read every single word or do you tend to scan? Like most
readers when it comes to foreign emails, you will tend to scan. This is
what you need to keep in mind when developing the email.
The first step in creating the perfect email is having a proper header.
The information included in a header is listed below:
• From line: this tells the recipient of your email whom the email is
from.
• From address: this will be the address from which you are send-
ing the email

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• Subject line: this is where you will enter your information regard-
ing the email details
• Email server address: this is the Internet protocol (IP) address,
which is unique number that provides information from the server
you are sending the information from. You will definitely want to
be associated with a good ESP as this will impact your reputation
as well.
As you can see, there is already quite a bit of information presented to
the subscriber. To better understand this part of the email, we will ana-
lyze each segment in more depth.

Filling Out the From Line


Here you will want to ask yourself, “how is your audience most likely
going to recognize you”, and then go ahead and create your “From” line
with that information.
A few things to include in you’re “From” line will help identify you
much easier:
• Your name: if you are the only one in your business, this may be
the easiest way to have subscribers remember you.
• Business name: if you are sure subscribers will remember you
easier from your company name rather than your name, then be
sure to have your business name. If you have a longer business
name, such as Internet Business Academy, be sure to leave the en-
tire name as opposed to IBA. If subscribers are able to relate to
both, then use whichever one is easiest for customers to associate
with.
• Name and business name: if you are a representative of a large
company, then using both your name and business name will be
more useful for your subscribers. (ex. George Simmons - Galaxy
Travel)
• Representative’s name: if there are several representatives in your
company that subscribers associate with, then be sure to split your
email addresses into separate lists by representative.
• Location: if you are part of a large franchise, then your best option
would be to add your business name as well as your location. (ex.
Galaxy Travel, Seattle)
• Website domain: if your customers are able to recognize you bet-
ter with your website domain name over your name or business
name, then use your domain name. If your website domain name

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uses abbreviations, initials or alternate spelling, then you’re still
best off using your business full name for clarity.
• Email address: in addition to using your name and business
name, you may be able to use your email address in the From line.
Here are some examples of different emails for different
situations.
◦ If you are sending newsletters and are recognized by your
name you may send an email from
“newsletters@yourname.com”
◦ If you are sending coupons and that recognizes you better
from your company name then you may be able to send
them from “coupons@youcompanyname.com”.
◦ If you are sending and event invitation and your customers
recognize you by a personal representative then your email
should look like “event_invitation@repname.business.com”.
◦ If you are sending an announcement and users recognize
your website domain name then your best option may be
“announcement@yourdomain.com”.
There are a few options that you can follow through with but of course
it is all dependent on how users associate with you best. These are great
ways for readers to recognize you, but if you have other ways that are
successful then by all means stick with that route.
Also when placing information, make sure that the information
therein is honest and relevant to your business as it does need to be
CAN-SPAM compliant. Any issues with the honesty of your emails may
come back to you and end up in further issues.

Completing a Subject Line


This portion of the email gives the reader a hit as to the content within
the email. The most effective subject lines are those that prompt the audi-
ence to open the email and search for specific information.
Coming up with a good subject line is difficult seeing as how most
programs only display 30-50 characters. This only allows a limited
amount of information to be presented.
One way to really get your point across is to copy the benefits of the
product or service you are providing. Provide the benefits in the subject
line and let them know what amazing results to expect.
You are really trying to create a sense of urgency, making the customer
want to open your email and see what the fuss is about. Here are a few

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examples of how a subject line may look like, and what you can do to
make it sound more urgent.
• Poor: What you need to know about investing
• Better: What you need to know now about investing

• Poor: Car Sale


• Better: Car Sale – early entry information

• Poor: Consultation invitation


• Better: Last chance to register

• Poor: Tips for remodeling your home


• Better: Tomorrow’s tips for remodeling your home today
Clearly there are simple ways in changing your subject line from im-
portant to urgent and all you need is to think of a word or two that will
help increase urgency.
A way to really test whether your wording of urgency is doing it’s job
is to send out the same email with different subject lines. If you are get-
ting more responses from one email than another, then you know how to
send out the rest of the emails.
Another very useful tactic in determining how to send out your emails
is to double check your junk mail folders and see what they are doing.
Make sure you are avoiding things that they are using as they will only
make sure your emails get sent to the junk folder.
• Excessive punctuation: !!!! or ????
• Symbols: dollar signs ($$$) or asterisk (***)
• Capital letters: CLICK TO ORDER NOW
• Recipients first name: clearly the reader is not the subject, it’s
your product information.
• Using RE: unless of course it’s a real response to a previous email.
• Blank: don’t leave the subject line blank, if you are bothering read-
ers with an email make it worth their time and yours.
• Vague Trickery: don’t try tricking readers in clicking your emails
by using openings such as “Hey” or “Check this out” or “Hi!” or
“Personal Information”.
Remember you don’t want to mislead, as per CAN-SPAM regulations.
If you are a legitimate business, wanting to get proper information about
your products and services, then there is no need to lie, deceive or ma-
nipulate your emails.

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Branding Emails
This is probably going to be the most fun part of your email develop-
ment as you will be using graphic elements to give your business a
unique and consistent identity.
Branding helps your readers recognize you immediately and help dif-
ferentiate your emails from the unfamiliar emails they receive.
To brand your email you are going to need to know how to use
HTML. If you are unsure on how to use HTML you will want to direct
your concerns to your ESP. If that does not work then you will want to
speak to a Web designer and have them create a custom look and feel for
your emails.
All your communications that you send will need to convey your
brand and provide readers with confidence in what you provide. You
also want to make sure that the design is memorable enough so that cus-
tomers will not forget you even if you send less than frequent emails.
To really get the right design of email for your brand, here are a few
things to keep in mind:
• Logo: make sure you have a logo added to your email. Have it po-
sitioned in the upper left or top centre of your email. In the posi-
tion where readers are most likely to see it
• Logo and email colors: be sure to use colors from your logo with-
in your email. This will keep a more consistency throughout your
email. If you aren’t sure which colors go well together then do a
quick search on the internet for keyword “color-matching tools”.
• Website and email colors: another way to determine which colors
to use in your email is to look at the color patterns within your
website. This provides a further integration within a subscriber’s
mind of your company and brand by reiterating the color scheme.
• Website and email offers: if your email includes an offer with a
specific design, be sure that your website has a similar if not exact
design. Again, this will keep the person focused on what was in
the offer and will be easier to recognize it, once they are on your
website.
• Print and emails: if you are sending out offers via print sources,
you will want to make sure that your communications match your
emails.
• Fonts and brand: consistent use of fonts throughout your email
and separate communications will provide visual anchors. Using
more than two or three types of fonts will only further confuse a
reader.

226
• Emails and business personality: your emails look and feel also
needs to be consistent with the type of language you will be using.
For example if you are a seller of party supplies your email text
may look childish or exciting something like this: “Party Sup-
plies”. If you aren’t very good at writing, look at using a copy-
writer. Once you’ve selected someone to write your emails for
you, let them know what type of feel you are striving for whether
it be:
◦ Serious or comedic
◦ Formal or friendly
◦ Professional or casual.
The main point you will want to keep in mind when creating your
brand and developing your look and feel is consistency. Readers will be
able to associate and remember you better if the emails they receive have
emails with a consistent layout and design. For those of you with mul-
tiple formats of emails, be sure to only make slight changes to the differ-
ent topics. You don’t want to stray too far from the main design but
don’t want to have all the information with one design template.

Basics of Email Layout


When someone begins to read their emails, they will tend to use the
layout as their guide on how to read the content. A good way to determ-
ine how someone reads their email is to run a few trials, which many do
not have time for, or use a heat map.
A heat map will take a look at your email or content and determines
which areas are most likely to drawn attention. This program will help
you when creating content and laying out the information in your
emails. To get a few examples take a look at:
• www.eyetools.com
Heat maps will use different components of your email such as colors
and shading to determine which areas of an email will gather the most
attention. Using this program will help shed some light on how to design
your emails.
A good way to figure out how a person will view your content is to
separate your email into four quadrants. The tables below show how the
majority of users scan emails.
12
34
13

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24

Figure 1-1 Figure 1-2


As you can see, the upper left quadrant is the area in which most at-
tention is given to, so you will want to make sure that your most import-
ant content is in that area of your email.
Here are a few pointers you should keep in mind when designing
your email and also having the most important information in the upper
left hand quadrant:
• Brand display: you readers are going to be seeing this portion first
so having your name, logo and other brand-identifying informa-
tion in this area will be most useful in helping your audience re-
cognize you easier.
• Main headline: adding a main headline won’t be only in the up-
per left hand area, but it will grab their attention and having them
read your headliner will again provide the recognition you will
want.
• Email’s call to action: as discussed in previous sections, a call to
action is a statement asking the reader to do something specific or
immediately. This may be like making a purchase, clicking a link
or calling for service. Make sure that if you are going to be adding
a call to action, that it is within the email or directs them to where
you want them to perform the particular action.
• Strong visual anchors: visual anchors are such things as icons,
bullets, images, links and graphics. These will help reinforce your
readers view of your most important information.
• Image sizes: if you are going to be adding an image in the upper
left hand quadrant, make sure that the image is not overwhelm-
ing. You don’t want to add a large picture and have your import-
ant information be off the page. (Making users scroll through your
email will mean less views of what is really important – the
content).
• Next quadrant: once you have made your statement or got their
attention, your next step is to show them where to look next. If
there is further information be sure to use navigation links to
show them where to read further.

Email and Images

228
Images can help make your message stand out loud and clear. This
will also be your way in providing customers with strong visual cues
and help communicate your message better.
It is important to remember that although adding pictures is essential
to a well-designed email, it does need to be added in proper format so as
to allow for all computers with different email browsers to view the
content.
When adding pictures to your emails you need to make sure that the
file you will be using is email compliant. If you are using your personal
pictures or ones you have paid for online, you will want to make sure
that the file can be read by email browsers.
Some key elements you will want to make sure that your picture con-
tains is the following:
• Browser compliant pictures: an image will be created in a format
of which will determine the amount of space that picture will take.
There are three formats that are the best for most email browsers.
◦ JPG or JPEG (Joint Pictures Expert Group): is the standard
for internet and email pictures.
◦ GIF (Graphic Interchange Format): this is well suited for
images with few colors.
◦ PNG (Portable Network Graphics): similar to GIF but dis-
plays colors more efficiently.
◦ File size: the size of the file refers to the amount of data
your image will use. This information is determined by a
number and measured in kilobytes (K). Images of less than
50K will be easier to view and load much faster. To use pic-
tures effectively, you will want to:
▪ Reduce dimension: smaller picture equals less space
and less load time.
▪ Reduce resolution: 72 dpi (dots per inch) or ppi
(pixels per inch) is the best for quality while propor-
tionate to loading time. More dots per inch means a
higher quality image. If your readers are going to be
viewing the material online, then this resolution is
perfect. If they are likely to print the material then
300 dpi or higher is better.
It is also important when adding pictures to remember not to embed
or add the pictures as attachments. This will usually send your email to
the junk folder. A solution for this is to use an image reference point,
which directs images stored on a public folder.

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This will require some minor HTML work, if you are unsure, you will
want to speak to your ESP or acquire the assistance of a web designer.

Emails and Text


The use of text within an email should be no surprise. A picture may
be worth a thousand words, but if those viewing your pictures aren’t
getting the full message, then words will provide the missing
information.
You will want to add text but within a HTML design format. Plain text
will seem boring and look unprofessional. At the opposite end of the
spectrum, too many pictures and HTML can get cluttered.
What you will want to do is to have a combination of text within the
email to truly get your message across. The main components required
are listed below.
• Headline: this will usually be 2 to 4 points larger than your para-
graph text and help entice users to continue reading.
• Paragraphs: this will provide the important information you are
attempting to relay. This will provide reasons for purchasing
products from you or buying a service you may provide.
• Links: this will allows your readers to click on keywords or
phrases, directing them to perform a desired task.
• Fonts: this isn’t necessarily its own segment within the email, but
is the way in which your information with be viewed. This will
provide emphasis on words, brand your emails, and give your
email an overall feeling. If you are using HTML fonts, it must be
noted that for readers to view your content, it must be available on
their computers. Regular users do not usually go out of their way
to update their fonts, and if you are using one unavailable to them,
then that content will not be visible. (Remember: use sparingly).

Emails and Links


Once you have created your email design and figured out what in-
formation it will contain, you need to provide users with a way in taking
action or performing some sort of transaction with you. To do this you
will want to place links in the email. The use of links will allow users to:
• Visit pages: you can direct them to specific pages that you want
them to view
• Download: customers can download files or any additional in-
formation not in the email
• Ordering: allowing users to gain access to your shopping page

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• Skipping: users can skip through the different pages in your email
without having to scroll through all the content available.
The first type of links we will look at are text links. These are clickable
words or phrases, which results in a particular action when a user clicks
on them. Of course we are using computers, so be ready to use a little bit
of HTML. A simple link to a website will look something like the
following:
• <a href=http://www.mywebsite.com>Insert Link Text Here</a>
Most ESP’s and email applications have the user-friendly ability of se-
lecting particular text and adding a link to the text. Doing this would
only require you to enter such basic information as the website address
and the name of the link.
One critical part of text links that is mostly overlooked is choosing the
appropriate words for the link. To assess this we are going to provide
you with a few pointers in creating proper names for the links.
• Name links naturally: name the link in a way that will tell users
what they will get.
◦ if the link is going to download a file then add the type of
file in parentheses: “More Information on Our Services
(PDF)”.
◦ if the link is taking a user to your website and they have to
scroll through the information, let them know what to ex-
pect: “Details on website/blog (scroll to bottom of page)”.
◦ if you are going to have a link that requires customers to
perform additional clicks or actions after their initial selec-
tion, then you will want to name the link providing the first
step: “Read step 2 for submitting ticket purchases”.
◦ if your link is going to link to an email address then you
will want to make sure to include your email in the link
such as: “Contact Us at sup-
port@yourcompanydomain.com”.
◦ Name links from content: use links that are contained with-
in your body text. If your information provides renewal op-
tions for car insurance, then making that text the link will
provide you with better results than “Click Here” text.
◦ Name links for analysis: you will want to create links that
provide you with some feedback as to what the reader is in-
terested in. If your email provides information on car repair
of classic cars, then having a “Click for More” link won’t

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provide any further information on the reader. Here is
something how your link should look like:
▪ Restoring your 1967 Mustang? Discover more effi-
cient alternatives to fiberglass.
▪ Name links with benefits: telling the user that there
will be some sort of benefit for clicking your link, will
make the reader that much more interested. Having a
“Go to Site” link doesn’t provide a benefit and re-
duces interest. Here’s an example of a better way:
▪ Shop at our site and receive free shipping, 15%
off and a complimentary company mug.
Another great way to set up links in your emails is to have image
links. Customers can click on a picture and it will bring them to your de-
sired location. There is some additional programming required and so
you’re lost as to how to do that, you’ll want to speak to a web designer.
Here are some key elements to help make your image links more
effective:
• Make image links naturally: When a user sees the picture, they
should have an idea as to where they are going to be directed to.
• Logos to website: this should be a given as many websites are de-
signed this way as well. Clicking the logo will bring you to the
main page of the website. Go ahead, try out other websites and see
how their logo brings you to the homepage of their website.
• Link to images: if you are trying to conserve space and load time
by having smaller pictures, you can link the picture so that it takes
you to the original size image. Remember to let users know that
they will be directed to a better or larger copy of the image.
Another form of link you can have is navigation links. These allow
users to click a link which takes them to a part of the email that they
can’t see immediately and also provides them with a way of skipping
through the email instead of scrolling.
You may also be interested in adding a table of contents. This is a
group of links, usually at the top of the email and contains the headlines
of your content. A user can click one of the links and be directed to the
specific information.
Although these may be a great way to organize your information, try
and avoid a table of contents if at all possible. Try to only use it when
you have a lot of information. If you need to add a table of contents,
make sure the information you are providing to users is useful and not
just rambling.

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Some tips in helping you create a table of contents is below:
• Heading: just like your body texts have headlines, so should your
table of contents.
• Short headlines: keep the headlines short but to the point. You
can add the same headline from the body text but just truncate the
information if it is too long.
• Clear headlines: links should provide users with clear informa-
tion as to what they will see. Try and avoid being clever with
headlines as they may only confuse your readers. If your headline
for your paragraph is “Top 10 ways in dealing with stress and
anxiety” can be added to a table of contents as “Top 10 ways…”.
• Keep above scroll line: your table of contents should be kept
above the scroll line, or the point where the user needs to scroll
down to continue reading your content. Table of contents should
help you viewers read your content, not distract them.
Email has the opportunity to provide readers with extensive informa-
tion, although sending emails with attachments can result in having it
sent to the junk folder. To avoid such situations you can create links
within the content of your emails.
The general concept involves copying the link of the website with the
content and then adding that link within the email.
You can provide links to video content which enables a visual element
for better selling techniques. Although there are great benefits of video, it
becomes difficult to email a full video. As an alternative you can embed
a screen-short picture of the video.
Another method to deliver your message is through audio or sound
files. These can be great tools for providing content while the customer is
running errands or performing other duties. This information can also be
hosted on your website as a podcast.
Finally you can also provide links to Portable Document Format files
(PDFs). A link is added to your email and provides a direct link to your
website and content. Also by providing the link, remember to provide
information to the readers as to what they should expect on clicking the
link.

Section 5: How to Create Valuable Email Content


As your list grows, you begin to wonder what a subscriber will expect
from you. Customers will not be comfortable with receiving frequent
emails that either provide little to no valuable content or emails only
highlighting your special qualities.

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Repetitive emails providing nothing of importance will begin to bore
the subscriber which translates to low levels of emails being opened, loss
of clicks and ultimately leading to unsubscribing requests.
Two types of values need to be given to a customer when sending an
email. One of which is an offer that is valuable with the proper actions
taken and the second of which is an inherent value or value in and of it-
self. But as good as these values may be, there still needs to be a strong
call to action, which prompts the reader to help meet your goals.
A strong call to action does not mean that an individual will make a
purchase, a call to action can be a request for the customer to consider a
product or become aware of a new service. To help subscribers become
interested in a product or service you may have, you will need to
provide some value offers.

Valuable Offers
Offers can range from promotional emails to gather interest, to
giveaways of complimentary products or services to entice the individu-
al to make a purchase. To better demonstrate sending valuable offers,
take a look at some of steps you can take to make your sales.
• Promotional content: this type of email would be sent as a way of
promoting a new product or service. Here are a few key elements
that will assist when creating this type of email.
◦ manufacturers content for your products can provide you
with descriptions, images and headlines.
◦ digital photos can be taken using a digital camera and can
demonstrate your services to customers.
◦ customers descriptions can be provided from those who
are using your products or services.
◦ testimonials can also be productive in the sense that you
can allow customers to provide you with stories of their ex-
periences. This can be very useful as it is a powerful tool for
motivating customers to take action. Also make sure that
you have permission to use the testimonials.
◦ check emails for clues as to what customers are interested
in seeing from you. As you provide answers to customers,
keep track of your responses as they can be used to help
promote your products and services.
◦ Coupon cashing: coupons have usually come in print form
and redeemed in person. Today’s coupons are also

234
provided online. Here are a few formats in which coupons
may be seen:
▪ HTML designed and printable these can be seen on
websites and through emails for a real, in-person
type store.
▪ codes are entered when using an online store to pur-
chase a product or service
▪ links that are included special codes which would
apply a discount to a product once added to the
shopping cart.
▪ NOTE: you may also be able to add a dotted line bor-
der to the coupon which can later be printed of and
used in store. If you don’t have a store then it can
give the feeling of a coupon which can motivate pur-
chases to be made.
▪ NOTE: this is especially important as you may not
realize how quickly a coupon can spread. Even if you
have a few subscribers, the readers you do have may
pass the coupon on to their friends who may be inter-
ested in your products. If you are truly content on
keeping your coupon usage to a limit amount of
readers, make sure to add a coupon number or a dis-
claimer, making your readers aware of the one
coupon per person rule. Even with the disclaimer,
you may want to take a look at the financial loss you
may incur if someone does try and abuse your offer.
Dates and codes can help lower your occurrence of
any issues.
▪ Incentives and giveaways: incentives are used as a
way to try and gather information as to what custom-
ers are interested in and what they are willing to pur-
chase. An example of an incentive would be a savings
or some type of additional privilege. A giveaway on
the other hand would be provided to a select amount
of individuals and entice the customer to do the
following:
▪ share information with you such as more per-
sonal information and interests
▪ respond to questionnaires and surveys you
may have

235
▪ forward your information and emails to
friends or family. (word of mouth marketing.
Easiest and cheapest form of marketing)
▪ Loss leaders and urgent offers: a loss leader or
bait-and-catch design is where you are dis-
counting your product or service substantially
to gain new customers or sales that is more
profitable. This is a great way to acquire cus-
tomers that are interested in your product but
not ready to invest just yet. Another method is
to instill a sense of urgency in your readers.
Customers are going to be more perceptive to
offers that are only available for a limited
amount of time. It is also important to remem-
ber that when used sparingly it is more effect-
ive than used on a frequent basis.

Effective Calls to Action


If you are sending emails to customers on a irregular basis customers
may forget you. If you are sending emails to customers on a frequent
schedule they may become irritated and unsubscribe or not consider
your information valuable. To avoid such situations you are going to
need to use a call to action.
A call to action is a statement that motivates the readers to perform a
certain action. This can range from opening your email to making a pur-
chase. Everything you want the user to do must be stated and sometimes
the only way to do this is to be blunt or straight forward.
By now after using the internet, we are sure you have seen generic
calls to action such as “Click Here” or “Call Now”. We consider this as
stale, boring and repetitive. To avoid such uninteresting calls to action
we have added a list of calls to action that are strong and clear in
providing direction to customers.
• Complete this form
• Sign up now
• Print this email
• Make this purchase
• Visit our website
• Register online
• Visit our location
• Save this email

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• Purchase this item
• Call for information
• Forward your email
• Find us now
• Make an appointment
• Order product now
• Call us now
• Purchase product now
• Register for information
• Call for service
This gives you a sort of idea as to what you want to your readers to
do. As you can see we have our action words and our information
words. You are asking the customer to act in a particular way.
To create your own call to action, try and think of what you want your
customer to do. Then combine an action word with the event that you
want to happen. The examples provided above are just your starting
point. From there you can add words to provide the location, a sense of
urgency and an adjective. Here is an example:
• Purchase this great item online before Thursday and receive a
20% discount.
This can be difficult but with practice and knowing what you want
customers to do before hand will help make things easier.
Providing readers with content that is inherently valuable is simple if
you have something worth saying. Readers are more appreciative of
emails with information based on your knowledge and experience rather
than emails with offers. There has to be a benefit of opening your email
in the first place. The next portions of information will detail how to cre-
ate inherent material or how to combine it with various offers.
• Informative content: when you are looking to provide readers
with educational material then naturally you will be looking at
adding direct facts and data possibly combined with expert opin-
ions. Here are some ideas for you to use when creating an inform-
ative email.
◦ Aggregating information is the process by which one col-
lects information. There is such an array of information
available on the internet that having your users find exactly
what you what them to find, will be very difficult. By ag-
gregating information, you are gathering stories or reports
from others and providing that knowledge to your readers.
(Make sure you have permission to use the information

237
before posting to your site. Providing a link back to that
persons website will reduce any issues with using that
content).
◦ Provide opinions to your readers. This way you don’t have
to gather evidence and permission from other websites. You
are summarizing content from other websites or magazines
in your own words with your opinion.
◦ Interviewing an expert in your field is a great way to
provide some relevant and motivating content. You can
find someone within your field that is recognized as an ex-
pert, and provide that content through your emails.
◦ Story telling is another great way to provide content. You
can have one of your customers provide information about
your product or service.
◦ Tips, tricks and advice: providing some form of guidance is
a great way to develop trust with you clients. Here are some
ideas for your tips, tricks and advice content:
▪ Start a newsletter that provides information content
in a fun and easy to read format. For example, an ex-
perienced mechanic may provide information on
how to extend the life of your tires, or provide in-
formation on how to change your oil.
▪ Try adding one tip or trick in your promotional
emails. You can also add a link to your archives
where the remainder of your tips are stored. This is
also a great way in increasing the amount of views to
your website. Increases length of time spent on the
website as well.
▪ Don’t be afraid to share your opinions with custom-
ers. If your readers are aware of your concerns and
have similar beliefs, this will increase the likelihood
of developing loyalty.
▪ Also do not be afraid of sharing others opinions. If
you are considered as just another website, present-
ing the opinions of an expert can again draw further
attention to your email and website. You will of
course have to ask for permission but experts from
the field are sure ways in gathering attention.
▪ Answering customer questions or concerns is another
great way to develop loyalty with your readers.

238
Within your email, dedicate an area where readers
can ask you questions.
▪ Instructions and directions: if your products require
customers to follow certain steps, then including this
information within your emails is another great way
to provide useful content.
▪ Having customers submit tips or tricks can be
used as a section in your email. You can call it
“Reader Submitted Tips” or “Tips by Readers”.
▪ As mentioned above, you can add one step
within your emails.
▪ If there are steps that may be used for refer-
ence, make sure to add them to your emails
and remind readers to save them.
▪ Entertaining content: if your readers value a
good laugh or enjoy a good story then adding
some of this content will help make readers in-
terested in your emails.
▪ Telling a story of a customer’s experi-
ence may make the reader laugh and
also helps remember your products or
services. (Remember to get permission
to use their stories in your emails).
▪ Including links in your emails to videos
or other similar content. (Remember
again to get permission from website or
video owners)
▪ Writing your own stories is also a great
way to convey a message to your read-
ers. If you are a food critic, you may add
stories of your travels abroad.
▪ Fact and research: you can perform your
own research and present that informa-
tion in your emails. You may also be in-
terested in adding facts or research from
other sources such as the internet or
books and magazines.
These are great ways in developing great content for your emails, if
you require further assistance, then you may want to speak to marketing

239
companies or content providers. This may be a great way to get things
done if you are on a tight schedule or if you are just looking for help.

Section 6: Tracking Your Results with Email Marketing


A great reason to use emails for promotions and contact is the ability
to track the emails. You will need to have extensive knowledge of HTML
and database programming to track emails, but if you don’t then you
will want to speak to your ESP.
Email tracking reports are a great way to determine how your email
campaign is going. Here are a few examples of what you might expect in
one of those reports:
• Emails bounced
• Why emails bounced
• Who opened the emails
• Links clicked
• Unsubscribers
• Emails forwarded
There are a few calculations that you can make to determine these.
Here are a few important figures you will need to know as they will ex-
plain your readers usage:
• Bounce rate: is the rate of emails that bounced or did not get de-
livered. If your emails sent is 100 and your bounce rate was 15 of
them, then your bounce rate would be 0.15 or 15%.
• Non-bounce rate total: this is the amount of emails that are sent to
the reader and not bounced by the server. To calculate this rate,
you take the amount of emails sent and subtract total bounced
emails. So again if your total emails sent is 100 and 15 of them
bounced, then your total non-bounced rate is 85.
◦ Note: it is important to remember that your non-bounced
rate is not the exact amount of emails that is received by
readers as some emails might be blocked or not received
that is not due to the server.
◦ Open rate: the open rate is when someone opens an email
but also when one of two things happen:
▪ When the recipient enables the images in preview
pane or full display or the recipient clicks the link
within the email.
▪ The open rate is calculated by dividing the tracked
opens by non-bounced total. For example, if 85 of
your 100 emails are not bounced, and 35 are tracked

240
as opened, then the amount of received emails is 0.41
or 41%.
▪ Note: for those that are sending out text-only emails,
you will not get these emails tracked until the reader
replies. You want to make sure that your ESP adds a
blank image in every email, to ensure that open track-
ing is possible.
▪ Click-through rate: this is the number that is from
unique individuals clicking on the links within your
email. To determine this figure, this requires a few
additional steps listed below:
▪ To find out this number, the amount of clicks
in your email are divided by the number of
emails opened. If your email contains 4 links
and received multiple clicks from 20 users
user, you want to subtract 20 from the total
amount of clicks.
Next you want to take the number of tracked opens and divide by
total unique clicks. For example, if you have 50 tracked as open and 6
unique clicks, your email received 0.12 or 12% click-through rate per
open.
• Note: your number of click-through rate will never exceed the
number of tracked opens. Customers can’t click links if not
opened. Also this only present your with unique clicks, but most
email tracking reports do provide reports on how many clicks
each user selected and which links were clicked.
Some information cannot be tracked through click rates but requires a
different form of tracking. This might be used to determine sales, attend-
ance or responses. Below we will take a look at a few examples that don’t
require tracking of clicking.
• In-store purchases: if you are looking at converting internet users
into in-store purchasers then you will need to somehow track
those individuals. Here are a few ways to do this:
◦ Have the email audience print the email and bring it along
with them if they decide to come to your location. Try to do
a monthly count as a daily count may be too minor.
◦ Ask your email recipients to mention your email when they
visit your location. You can keep a booklet set aside to keep
track of the mentions. You can also provide an incentive or

241
gift to mention your email. This can be done even if they
aren’t purchasing anything.
◦ When customers enter your store, you may ask about the
email. This can be done by you or your employees and kept
be kept track of in your booklet.
◦ Promoting products or services can also be used to track
customers. If a customer enters your store in search of that
particular offer then your know they have received your
email.
◦ Phone calls: if you are looking at increasing your telephone
traffic, then here are some useful ways in keeping track of
those callers.
▪ Just like those trying to generate in –store purchases
have callers mention your email, and count each call
related to a promotion or service.
▪ Setting up a special phone number for calls related
directly to your emails.
▪ You may add a note within the email regarding who
recipients should speak with. Whenever a call comes
in for say Mr. Smith, then you will know that is a call
related to your email.
▪ You can also ask customers how they found your
number. If they reply from the email, then you will
want to make sure to note that information down.
▪ Event attendance: if you are trying to determine how
many email recipients you will have at your event,
here are few ways to help you keep track of them:
▪ Ask subscribers to bring the email invitation to
the event. You will want to count the emails
after the event.
▪ If the invitees do not want to bring the email,
then have them mention the email to you at the
event.
▪ If you are looking at a way to count the num-
ber of people attending prior to the event, you
can have guests preregister or reply to your
email.
▪ Email replies: the easiest way to track emails is
well through your email. If you sent out an
email regarding “Registration due today” and

242
received an email back with “RE: Registration
due today” in the subject line of the email, then
you can clearly see what they are responding
to. There are two components here that you
want to keep track of here.
▪ Keep track of the reply. This will help
you determine why they are replying
and whether there were any concerns or
questions they may have had.
▪ Keep track of your reply and any further
replies thereafter. You may also want to
keep track of the result or solution for
the reply.
Once you have sent out information to the readers, you will begin to
accumulate usage data through your link-tracking codes. There are dif-
ferent ways in which you can use this data to help determine what steps
you will need to take next. The list below is an example of how you can
use click-through data for email development.
• Targeted email offers: if someone were to own a car parts store
and from their email, received 150 link clicks for hot rod parts,
they would be safe to assume those individuals are interested in
hot rod parts. Using this form of data you may be able to:
◦ Create a database for those individuals. You will then send
more targeted email information to those specifically inter-
ested in a particular segment in your business.
◦ You will be able to create interest targeted emails to groups
of viewers. For example, if the car parts store knew that
they had viewers interested in hot rods parts and other in-
terested in import car parts, they would create a generic
email and make minor adjustments for the two different
categories.
◦ Once you have discovered the different categories of in-
terests, you can change your offers specific to the group.
Your offers may be different, while one group receives a
coupon the other receives a discount, you want to make
sure that your call to action remains the same.
◦ Follow ups: following up with your clients is a great way to
develop your understanding of how users interpret your
email and provide you with more personal information.
This will be a great opportunity to speak to the customer

243
and collect information such as telephone numbers and
home mailing addresses. Here are some pieces of informa-
tion regarding follow ups with your customers.
▪ This will be a great way to make a second offer to
customers that may have clicked your purchase link
but didn’t continue with the transaction. You can also
find out why they may have decided not to go
through with the purchase.
▪ For those that did click your link, you can send a
thank you card which makes a perfect transition to
another offer for an alternative product.
▪ This can allow you an opportunity to call and speak
to the customer. Find out more about your clients
and provide any answers for questions they may
have.
▪ Following up with customers can provide you with
an opportunity to send a survey. This can help gather
vital data in their experience with your email.
▪ You can thank your subscribers who may have
helped gain you leads or new subscribers.
▪ Finally you can use the follow up to get in touch with
your clients that may have unsubscribed. Determine
what reasons they had for leaving your business.
▪ Testing: this will be essential in providing you with
insight to clients reaction of your email layout and
content. Here are a few ways to run testing with your
subscribers and you don’t even have to tell them that
you’re doing anything.
▪ To run a successful test, you will want to ran-
domly select a percent of your email sub-
scribers (10 to 15%) and separate them into a
new category in your database.
▪ Then you will want to create two editions of
your email and send it out to your subscribers.
▪ You will want to wait approximately 48 hours
or until you are sure your clients have received
the email. Then you will want to record the
amount of link clicks and usage.
▪ Once you have determined the email with the
highest rate of return (clicks, purchases, etc.),

244
send that email to the remainder of your email
list.
▪ Final step is to wait for results. If you are doing
this properly and often, you will begin to see a
dramatic increase in activity and will provide
you further information about your subscribers
usage. After several tests, you will also become
better at designing your links and proper
wording to attract attention. (Remember prac-
tice does not make perfection but it does bring
you closer to your clients needs).

Section 7: Increasing Your Emails Deliverability


Mail has always been somewhat of a love/hate relationship. We all
love to receive fun and exciting mail, such as a monthly magazine sub-
scription. We also hate to receive boring, irritating or expensive mail,
such as bills, ads or those political ad pamphlets. Email is very similar in
nature, but the difference is the ability to block certain content.
In this section we will take a look at ways at maximizing the deliverab-
ility of emails and minimizing the rate of bounced or blocked emails.
We will first take a look at different types of bounced emails and ways
of dealing with them. Then we will take a look at blocked emails and
ways to avoid having your emails blocked.
When an email is sent to a recipient but then returned to the sender
this is called a bounced email. A bounced email may be due to the server
or by the email program. Because an email can be bounced for different
reasons, we will take a look at the categories separately.
• Hard bounces: this is a type of bounce which happened due to a
specific and fixed condition. Such examples may be due to mis-
spelling of the email or due to unused of email.
◦ A way to deal with this is to send an email every third
month informing the client that their email is registered to
your mailing list. You can also provide a link where a cus-
tomer is able to update their information if it has changed.
◦ If you have misspelled the email address, the clear solution
is to fix it before sending another email out.
◦ Soft bounces: this type of bounce happens when an email is
unable to be sent due to a reason that is temporary in
nature. This is usually caused due to a technical issue and is

245
not something that can be controlled by the sender. A few
examples of soft bounces are:
▪ Recipients’ mailbox is full.
▪ A server that is performing the transaction of emails
is currently down.
▪ The software used by the recipient cannot accept the
email.
These are all issues that are out of the senders hands. The best option
is to wait until the matter is resolved or until you are to send out your
next email campaign.
Emails that are not being received by the sender and not due to any of
the reasons mentioned above are due to blocking. These reasons may be
temporary or fixed in nature and is a response done by the server or ap-
plication. To avoid these situations, here are a few things that you may
encounter and ways to avoid getting blocked.
• Challenge response authentication: this is an application thats
generated by a third-party that works alongside the email applica-
tion. The application returns unrecognized emails to the sender
who then needs to authenticate that they are human. At this point
the sender would authenticate the email, allowing it to be passed
onto the recipient. This is used to avoid inbox’s being flooded by
programs designed to send out spam.
• Avoiding spam lists: this is a list that all senders should try and
avoid. It is also known as the blacklist. If you are sending out
emails that are receiving spam complaints on a continual basis
your email may be added to that list.
• Spam traps: spam traps are essentially email addresses that are
trapped and sent to a block list. If you send an email to any of the
spam trap address you ability to send any further emails to any-
one will be nonexistent. A few things to remember when avoiding
these spam traps are:
◦ Don’t steal or collect emails of the internet. Browsing the
web is not a good way to get more clients.
◦ Try to avoid purchasing a list of emails. Usually these lists
of emails are gathered without consent and may con-
tain spam traps.
◦ If you have just gathered a list of new subscribers, try send-
ing a introduction email to your readers. If you receive an
email back from particular emails, remove them from your
database (it is most likely a spam trap).

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◦ Firewalls: are applications which are designed to filter out
spam emails to a high degree. Trying to bypass these ap-
plications are very tricky as anyone using one can set the
parameters to block any emails with a certain type of con-
tent or words in subject headings or any other settings they
desire. You will have to change the way you deliver your
email to these individuals. Here are some ways that may
help your emails get around these firewalls:
▪ Having your subscribers add you to their contacts list
may improve your rate of deliverability. Even though
your email may be considered spam, if you are listed
as a contact person, your email just may get through.
▪ Speak to your subscribers and determine if there is an
alternate email address that you could send informa-
tion to. It may be that one email is blocked by fire-
wall, while the other is not. If that email is unblocked,
you just got one more person to read your content.
▪ This next step might prove a bit difficult but if pos-
sible it will allow your readers access to your content
even at work. Speaking to the IT professional at your
subscriber’s place of work and having them add you
to their allowed sender list will provide you with ac-
cess to their work email.
Now that we have taken a look at bounced and blocked emails, we
will take a look at another program which stops a recipient from receiv-
ing your emails. This program is called an email filter. The difference
here is that an email filter does not send an email back to the sender, no-
tifying them that the email has not been sent.
An email filter is designed by the system administrators of the email
programs. An email may be filtered due to words that are contained
within the email or even done so by mistake. There are spam emails that
are created to look like real emails and if your email has similar qualities,
may be blocked like the rest.
To understand and avoid your emails being filtered we will take a
more in-depth look at email filtering.
• Establish a reputation: having a reputable name behind your
email address will increase the likelihood of your email being de-
livered. Because your email server is mostly unknown, you will
want to deliver your emails through a respected and well-known
ESP. Here are some things to look for when choosing your ESP:

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◦ make sure they can provide you with authentication for
your email. This will enable servers to identify you as the
sender.
◦ ESPs should allow you to remove customers with high
spam complaints. If a complaint is made, the ESP should as-
sess the situation and determine the necessary action that
needs to be taken
◦ ESP will require quality email lists before sending out
emails. They will want to make sure that your contacts are
valid and have provided your permission to send them
emails.
◦ ESPs that control their content being sent out by customers
is also necessary. This shows that they are interested in
keeping a good name for their company and at the same
time providing you with a quality name provider.
◦ Automatic filtering: there is the possibility that emails may
be filtered due to system administrators. Global parameters
are set in place and if affected there isn’t much you can do
for this unless of course you know the IT professional. It is
safe to say that there is only a small percentage of individu-
als that are affected, so best thing to do is hope you aren’t
part of that small percentage.
◦ User controlled filtering: this is a setting that is controlled
by the user. There are certain specifications that a user can
control in a means to provide additional filtering control.
Listed below are a few ways to avoid being considered as
spam:
▪ Watch what you use for information entered in the
subject line. Using the subscribers name in the subject
line is a sure fire way to get you filtered. If they don’t
know you and you have their first name, they will
consider your email as spam
▪ Place some information in the from line. Most filters
will block your email if there is no from information.
Here you can add your company name, email ad-
dress or first and last name, whichever the subscriber
identifies most with.
▪ Try not to use excessive symbols and punctuations.
This can range from exclamation marks (!!!!!) or

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dollar symbols ($$$) or any other types such as those
mentioned. It is easy misunderstood as spam.
▪ The use of ALL CAPITALS is another great way to be
filtered as spam. There is no need to use all capitals
as it will draw attention, but will either be interpreted
as yelling, which is never good, or just plain old
spam.
▪ Emails that have attachments and are considered for
marketing use will also scare the reader. They are un-
familiar with the email address and the content, there
is a high likelihood of deletion or filtering.
▪ Self-learning filters: these are the type of filters that
are set at a broad parameter and are self updated as
the user interacts with his email. This is a great tool
for users to filter content but not so great for your
emails. If the application considers a certain word to
be associated with spam, and your email contains
that word, unfortunately your email will be filtered
out.
It is important to keep authentication in mind when sending emails to
your subscribers. The ultimate goal is to get your email content out to
your readers and provide you with additional benefits such as sales,
clicks or additional subscriptions. A few things to keep in mind that
technology is constantly changing and updating and can prove beneficial
for your needs.
You will want to keep updating yourself with new technologies that
ESPs are providing, which in turn results in more of your emails either
getting through the filters or running into road blocks.

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Course #15
The Essentials of Web Analytics
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 15: Guide to Web Analytics

Section 1: Getting Started With Web Analytics


Web analytic programs keep track of all the traffic your website re-
ceives which can then be used to see what your users are doing.
There are many programs and companies that offer web analytics cap-
abilities but this course will only focus on Google Analytics (the best op-
tion out there for most people).
We’ll take a look at the data Google Analytics keeps an eye on and
how to use that information in an effective manner.
Entire books can be written on web analytics so this course will just
cover the most essential and practical applications of the data.

Understanding What Can and Can’t Be Done With Web Analytics


Before we go into the details of web analytics and the traffic reports
they provide, it’s important that you know exactly what it can and can’t
do.
You should know exactly how this data relates to your KPIs (key per-
formance indicators ex; sales, leads etc.).

What Analytics Can Do

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Google analytics can provide you with the following information and
much more:
• The most popular pages on your website.
• The number of people that visit your site.
• Which websites your visitors are coming from.
• The average amount of time a person spends on your website.
• The keywords that a visitor used in Google to find you.
• E-commerce sales tracking.
• Tracking conversion goals.
• Knowing which of your ads, emails, and other marketing pieces
brought in the most traffic.
From the information you get with Google analytics, you’ll be able to:
• Understand what your visitors are interested in by knowing
which pages are most viewed.
• Better focus your advertising efforts since your know which
sources are driving the most traffic.
• Figure out where users are leaving your site during the shopping
cart process. If you see that people are leaving at the registration
page… you’ll want to either remove it or make it easier for users.
• By understanding what paid ads (like Google AdWords) had the
best ROI, you’ll have a better understanding of what keywords to
focus on.

What Analytics Can’t Do For You


There are strict laws in regards to privacy that prevent Google Analyt-
ics from collecting certain information.
Google Analytics does not:
• Let you know the demographics or your users.
• Provide you with the identity of the users (it’s all anonymous).
• Determine the location of the users (accurately). Google Analytics
will let you know what regions traffic is coming from but not exact
addresses.
• Provide 100% accurate information; there are many ways in which
the information provided will be skewed.

Privacy
There are many ways to learn more about your users, but only with
the user’s permission.

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FaceBook users can add lots of information to their profiles which is
then used for better ad placement on the part of FaceBook. The informa-
tion provided by the users was consensual.
If you decide to collect more information on your users, you must let
the users know about it and get their consent before you do it.
Collecting information such as demographics, interests and habit can
be extremely valuable since you’ll better be able to place ads for them. It
must be done with permission.
There are strict laws regarding internet privacy and the penalties can
be steep. Always ask before collecting sensitive data.
To avoid any problems with the law:
• Provide a clear privacy policy on your site that explains what in-
formation you collect and what you do with it.
• You must be able to protect the information you collect from
users. The information must be kept private unless permission is
granted from the users.
• Sharing analytics data is only allowed if you have permission
from the user.

How Reporting Tools Work


Google analytics and other reporting tools collect the information in 3
possible ways:
• Analyzing server log files.
• Retrieving data from JavaScript programs.
• Retrieving and analyzing data from both log files and JavaScript
codes.

Log Files
Log files are made by your websites server, typically to deal with any
problems that may arise.
Log files collect information such as:
• When the visitor arrived.
• Where they went on your website.
• Where they came from.
• Sometimes they provide info on when the user left the website.
The tools that use the log file information have to go through thou-
sands of lines of code to retrieve and make sense of the useful data.
Log files tend to sometimes provide faulty information since not all
analytic tools are able to understand some aspect of the log files.

252
If you don’t own the server you won’t have access to the server and
therefore won’t have permission to control what information the log files
record.

JavaScript
Analytic tools that use JavaScript to retrieve data require that you
place the code on every page of your website.
If you use CSS and PHP codes… just place the JavaScript code in the
footer.php of your website and it will end up on every page of your
website.
One problem with using JavaScript code is that it can slow down the
load times of your website.
Some people have JavaScript disabled on their browsers; if this is the
case the JavaScript will not retrieve the data.
JavaScript based analytic tool typically collect much more useful in-
formation and it’s much more accurate.

Deciding Which Reporting Tool to Go With


Google Analytics is the best tool for 90% of all users but it’s not the ul-
timate analytics tool out there.
It all depends on the size of your business and the budget you have
available.
You’re not limited to just one analytics tool; you can run several at the
same time which is recommended if you’re thinking of switching to a
different tool.
Some tools interpret the information differently and so it’s recommen-
ded that if you decide to switch to a different tool that you run both sim-
ultaneously to see how they differ.
We recommend Google Analytics but if you feel it’s not powerful
enough we suggest you go with the following:
• www.omniture.com
• www.clicktracks.com
The high-end analytics tools can go for as much $500 per month. They
can be extremely powerful and useful if you know how to use them.

Setting up Your Server for Log File Reporting


This can be extremely complicated and not recommended for most
users. We suggest contacting your webmaster to set this up for you.
You should get your server to log the following information:
• Session time

253
• IP addresses
• Referring cookie file info
• HTTP status code
At the very least your server should be recording the basic
information.
Servers can be set up to record more data but it requires a technical ex-
pertise that we won’t go into here.

Creating an Account with Google Analytics


Google Analytics provides a very easy method to start tracking your
websites traffic.
After you register your account, Google will ask you to place a code in
the footer section of your website.
It will take about 24 hours before you’ll see any actual data in Google
Analytics.
For the most part setting up Google Analytics is very easy as they
provide all the info you need to start up.

Tracking Searches
While you’re setting up your Google Analytics account, you might as
well set up the extra features they have.
One such feature is the search tracking tool that will allow you to see
what’s being searched for on your site and when it’s being done.
To set up your site search function in Google do the following:
1. Log into your Google Analytics account.
2. Click the edit button next to your website.
3. Click the edit button at the very top of the page. It should be next
to the Main Website Profile Information button.
4. Select the “Do Track Site Search radio” button.
5. Go to your website in a separate browser window or tab.
6. Do a search for “pickaword” in the search field on your website.
7. Find the search query attribute in the address bar of your website
(typically q= or search=). It will probably look like this:
• (http://www.yourwebsite.com/(random string of numbers and
letters)&q=pickaword&(more random letters and numbers)
1. Copy the search query attribute and place it into the Query Para-
meter field in Google Analytics.
2. Save Changes.

Excluding IP Addresses From Google Analytics

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If you’re working on your website often, your own traffic will screw
the results of your analytics tools.
It’s important that you exclude your IP address and the other com-
puters who work on your site from Google Analytics.
To do this you need to add a filter to your website in Google Analytics
that will ignore traffic coming from your computer.
Follow these steps to add a filter:
1. Log into your Google Analytics Account.
2. Click the Edit button next to your Website.
3. Click the “Add Filter” button under “Filters Applied to Profile”.
4. Select the “Add Filter for Profile” option.
5. Name the filter and under “Filter Type”, select “Exclude All
Traffic from an IP Address”.
6. Enter the IPs that needs to be filtered.

Section 2: Keeping Track Of Your Internet Businesses Traffic


In this section we cover the main metrics that are used to understand
your sites traffic.
We mostly cover the metrics used by Google Analytics since it’s the
most widely used program.
It’s important that you understand what the metrics mean and doesn’t
mean.
It’s very easy to come to conclusions when looking at your metrics,
keep in mind that the numbers can mean many things and that it’s very
easy for the numbers to become skewed.

Hits Aren’t Everything


It’s important to know exactly what a “hit” is. A hit occurs when a file
is being requested from the server.
Every time an image or file is loaded it’s considered a hit and therefore
the more files you have on a single page the more hits that page will get
per visitor.
A simple website with very few images will get less hits then a website
with many images.
Hits don’t mean much in terms of traffic or marketing so don’t even
bother to look at this metric.
Tracking the hits your website receives is not important, unless you
want to examine server loads and page load times.

The Most Important Traffic Metrics

255
There are 5 important metrics that you should know. In order of im-
portance they are:
• Sessions
• Unique Visitors
• Page views
• Time on Site
• Referrers
These 5 metrics should be tracked regardless of what tool you use.
Google Analytics places these 5 metrics on the front page when you
log in. They are vital.
All of these metrics don’t mean much on their own.
By knowing the relationship between each metric and what they could
mean… you’ll get much more information than if you were to just look
at each metric individually.

Sessions
Sessions (aka visits) indicate how many times your website as a whole
was viewed.
Every time someone goes to your website (regardless of how many
pages they went to) it’s regarded as a session.
They are a good measure of traffic but they don’t necessarily indicate
audience size since a lot of visits can be created by a few people.
If a person goes to your site many times a day… each time they go on
will be considered a session.
Sessions are a good indicator of how interested people are in your site.
If you have lots of visits but only a few unique visitors… you know that
those people like going back to your site on a regular basis. You’ll see
this sort of trend with forums and news related sites.
Knowing the number of visits is needed to know your conversion rate
since the conversion rate is based on sales per traffic.
Some Analytics experts pay less attention to sessions and put more fo-
cus on unique visitors… but it all depends on the type of website that
you have and what your goals are.
Google Analytics has a great feature that allows you to see the peak
visit time throughout times of the day, month, or year. This information
can come in handy when used right.
Activity is an indicator of activity of the users already there; it’s not an
indicator of new users coming in.

Unique Visitors

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Unique visitors indicate how many individuals have been visiting
your site, regardless of how many times they’ve been on.
It will let you know how big your audience size is. You may get a lot
of visits but if you only have a few visitors you may want to focus on
getting new people.
By knowing how many new people are coming to your site, you’ll
have a better understanding of how well your ad campaign is working.
The better your external ads… the more new people your website gets.
By taking a look at the sessions per uniques ratio, you’ll get a good
idea of user loyalty. If the number is high, you know you’re doing well.

Page Views
Page views have multiple ways to be examined.
Google Analytics offer several ways to look at page views. They can
show you the average number of pages viewed per session, the number
of views each page received, and they can also show you the total
amount of pages viewed on your site.
Page views are a good way to determine what pages are most popular
on your site. You’ll have a better idea of what your users are into.
Some visitors may view a single page several hundred times so don’t
confuse more page views with more traffic.
The average amount of pages viewed per visit is a good measure of
how interested users are in your site. Users who look at a lot of pages on
your site are probably more interested in your site then users who just
look at a few pages.

Time on Site
The average time spent on your website combined with page views
and traffic is extremely useful and powerful.
The time spent on your site is the metric that brings everything
together.
The average amount of page views can be high (let's say 10) but if the
time spent on your site is low (1 minute) then your users are just clicking
through a few links but not spending the time reading anything (only 6
seconds per page).
Ultimately what you want is a high time spent on your site per page
views. The higher, the better.

Keeping a Close Eye on Your Referrers


Referrers are other websites that link to you.

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Referrer data is incredibly important, especially when combined with
the other metrics that Google Analytics offers.
By knowing which website has sent you traffic, you’ll better be able to
advertise and know which one of your campaigns have worked.
Referrals to your site can come in 3 different forms:
• Search engines
• Links from non search engine websites
• Links in emails
It’s paramount that your tracking program is able to detect where a
user has come from.
If you get a huge spike in traffic from a certain site but the average
time on your site has gone down, you can safely assume that those visit-
ors were not as interested in your content.
Don’t assume that just because you received a lot of traffic from a cer-
tain site that those people were interested in your site. Take everything
into consideration.

Section 3: Referrer Metrics and Analytics


Referrers are by far the most important metric that you can have.
When combined with the other basic metrics and more advanced met-
rics like conversion rate, you’ll have invaluable data that can dramatic-
ally boost your sales and other goals.
In this section we cover the most important elements of referral track-
ing and a few ways in which you can use this data.

Referrers
Referrers are essentially the websites, emails, ads, search engines that
have links heading to your website.
When a user clicks on a link heading to your website, your analytics
program will make requests to the user’s browser as to what website
they just came from.
The website the user came from will be logged in your analytics
program
The feature in your browser that provides referral information can be
turned off if you choose to.
Your privacy is secured as no private information is provided (99% of
the time).

Understanding the Referring Analytic Terms

258
There are some terms you should understand in regards to referral
data before analyzing referral data.
The most important terms you should be familiar with are:
• Source: Where your visitors are coming from.
• Visits: The amount of people that came to your site through the
referral.
• Pages/Visit: The amount of pages being viewed by each visitor
from the referral.
• Avg. Time on Site: The average time the visitors from a referral
spend on your site.
• % New Visits: The percentage of visitors who’ve never been to
your site before.
• Bounce Rate: The rate at which a visitor from a referral will see
your site and then leave.
• Direct: The amount of traffic that came to your site directly by typ-
ing in the URL address.

How to Use Referral Data


If you see that you’re getting a lot of traffic from one site but the aver-
age time spent on your site is really low from those users… that may be
an indication that there’s a problem with that page and it’s not loading
up properly. It could also mean that users clicking on that link are ex-
pecting something different.
If you’re conducting an AdWords campaign, referral data can be used
to see which ads are performing the best. If you combine conversion
metrics with your referral data, you’ll know exactly which ads are bring-
ing in the most sales.
Referrer data is excellent for knowing where to focus your efforts. If
you see that a single submission to a site like Digg gets a lot of traffic.
You’ll want to focus your efforts on Digg but also create content better
suited for Digg users.

Referring Keywords
Google Analytics will track what keywords were used in Google by
the user that came to your site.
Paying attention to referring keywords can be extremely useful.
You’ll likely be ranked moderately well in Google for several
keywords and phrases. By seeing what keywords bring in the highest
quality of traffic, you’ll have a better idea of what keywords to focus on.

259
Knowing which keywords bring in quality traffic will be helpful when
creating an AdWords campaign.
Section 4: Determining the Quality of Traffic with Analytics
You can be receiving a lot of traffic but unless it’s quality traffic, it’s
just taking up bandwidth and server resources.
Every website is different and so quality traffic is different for every
site. There are no absolutes.
Determining quality traffic is something that occurs later on. You’ll
want to know what average for your site is and set that as the
benchmark.
When conducting new campaigns you’ll want to get nothing less then
what you’ve set as your benchmark.
Quality traffic is essentially traffic that spends a lot of time on your site
and will check out a lot of pages.
What you want is a high avg. time on site plus high page views per
visit.

Determining and Applying Benchmarks


Google Analytics give you the option to set goals (or benchmarks) so
you can easily see if a campaign is working effectively.
Benchmarks can be set as high as you want but you should set them
realistically. I like to set my benchmarks slightly higher than average for
a particular metric.
Find the average for each metric and set that as the benchmark.
You should also set a benchmark for customer loyalty which is essen-
tially how often users keep coming back to your site and how often they
buy products from your site.
After you’ve set all of your benchmarks, set them up in Google
Analytics.
Once you set all the goals with Google Analytics, you’ll be able to
know what referrers are performing effectively.
By setting the avg. time on page benchmark you’ll be able to know
what page on your site is performing the best. Take a close look at the
page and if you can replicate it with similar content.

Bounce Rates
A bounce occurs when someone leaves your website.
The bounce rate it the percentage of people who visit a webpage that
then leave your site without exploring your site further.

260
It’s a good indicator of how sticky a web page is. If it’s interesting
users will click around and explore your site further.
If a user looks at a page and then leaves your site… it’s safe to say they
lost interest.
If you have an ecommerce site or a site where people have to register,
checking the bounce rates of pages leading up to the sale or registration
can tell you where people are getting turned off and where there’s a
bottleneck.
Fixing bottlenecks is critical if you want people to do a certain task.
People leave mid way during a registration process or purchase for a
variety of reasons, it could be because the process is too complicated or
there’s a trust issue. By knowing that people bounce on a certain page…
you’ll better be able to diagnose the problem.

Key Performance Indicators


Also known as KPIs, they are the metrics that indicate how well your
business is doing.
KPI’s can be measured in many ways but for the most part they’re
measured in terms of conversion goals.
There are success KPIs and warning KPIs.
Success KPIs are metrics that if they increase indicate that your busi-
ness is doing well and they can include such things as:
• Conversion rates for sales
• Conversion rates of leads
• Number of email newsletter signups
• Number of sales
• Number of leads
• Revenue
• ROI (return of investment).
Warning KPIs are metrics that if they increase are signs that your
business may not doing well and they’ll include such factors as:
• Bounce rate
• Cost per sale
• Cost per lead
• Complaints

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Course #16
Search Engine Optimization
By GuruGrounds – Thomas Timely & Nick Gallagher

Course 16: Ranking High In Google with Good SEO

Section 1: Increasing Sales with SEO


Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process that doesn’t happen
overnight. You’ll need to put a lot of time and consistent effort into it in
order for it to work.
This course will cover all the essentials and then some on how to get
your site ranked up high on the search engines.
For the most part SEO is very straight foreword but there are a lot of
tricks and methods that can make a huge difference.

The Purpose of Search Engines


Search engines are essentially what make the internet what it is. They
allow us to find and connect with others.

262
Search engines are important because you want people to find and
connect with you and/or your business. A large segment of your traffic
is likely to come from search engines.
Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft Live Search are the most well known ex-
amples of search engines out there today.
You may think Google is the #1 search engine… but only if you live in
North America or Europe. Yahoo! still reigns supreme in many parts of
the world.
Having a high placement in the search engine ranking pages can bring
you a lot of traffic if ranked for the right keywords.
SEO makes your website more appealing to search engines by making
your site seem more relevant.
The purpose of a search engine is to give you the most relevant web
page related to the search term you’ve entered. If the website you clicked
on was what you were looking for, you’re probably going to use that
search engine again and again which in turn brings up the search en-
gines traffic and hopefully stock value.
If someone types in your business name, you’d hope that the search
engine will rank you high up to the front page so that people will find
your website.
Common SEO Terms
Black hat SEO: Devious methods to increase your rankings in a way
that can get you banned from the search engine if they found out.
White hat SEO: A non manipulative, natural way to increase your
search rankings by making your site more search engine and user
friendly and relevant to certain keywords and phrases.
Crawl: Search engines use bots to scan (crawl) the internet for new
pages and links.
Spiders/bots: software used by the search engines to crawl the net.
SERP: search engine ranking pages or the results on page you see
when you enter a search into a search engine.
Backlinks: External links from other websites linking back to your
website.
Linkbait: Content that others would want to link to on other sites.

Be Cautious Of SEO “Experts”


Unfortunately there are a lot of scammers out there promising to build
1000s of backlinks for you for a low price. Always know exactly what
methods these experts intend to use, if they don’t tell you… don’t hire
them.

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Some of the methods used by “professionals” can get you black listed
by search engines.
Not all SEO professionals are bad of course; just make sure you know
exactly what methods they use.

How the Search Engines Determine Relevancy


Search engines use complex algorithms to determine what your site is
most relevant for and it then compares your site to other sites in order to
rank your web page.
They look at such factors as title tags, description Meta tags, headings,
the written content, site age, trust factors, image captions, backlinks, an-
chor text, file names, URL, and much, much more.
A backlink is like a vote, and if it comes from a website related to your
niche, that link is considered to have more value. So the more votes you
get from high valued sites… the higher you’ll rank.
Good keyword rich content is important but if you want to be ranked
#1, you’ll need backlinks from authoritative and relevant websites. You
want your site to be associated with a certain keyword or phrase.
SEO is making your site easy for the search engines to understand
what your site is about and letting them know that you’re relevant to a
certain keyword or phrase.

Black Hat SEO


It’s very tempting to take shortcuts when doing business but in re-
gards to SEO, don’t count on them.
White hat SEO is a long process and to rank #1 you’ll have to put in a
lot of work and time. There are no short cuts.
There are methods to get 1000s of backlinks very quickly and ways to
fool the search engines but you stand the risk of getting penalized and
possibly black listed.
Some methods will get your site to jump up for a short period of time
but they won’t help in the long term.
If you plan on running a business for several years, DO NOT USE
BLACK HAT METHODS!
Black hat SEO looks at the loop holes in the search engine algorithm
and then takes advantage of them. They can bring in lots of traffic and
rank you high but as soon as the search engine finds out… you can kiss
your rankings goodbye.

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Black hat SEO is not illegal and will not get you into trouble. If your
business is just temporary, black hat SEO can do you wonders but if
you’re in it for the long haul… avoid it at all costs.
Search engine algorithms are changing all the time and they’re often
flawed in some way which allows them to be manipulated.
It typically takes a search engine several months to find out about your
black hat methods, so unless you’re doing a PPC campaign, affiliate pro-
gram or quick rich campaign… it’s not worth it.

Tools of the Trade


If you’re serious about your SEO campaign there are tools you should
use to help you reach your goals.
Firefox is the preferred browser of online entrepreneurs. It has hun-
dreds of add-ons many of which can assist you in your business
ventures.
You can download Mozilla from the following website:
• www.mozilla.org/firefox
Not only is Firefox one of the safest browsers to use but it has thou-
sands of add-ons. You can check out their collection of add-ons at:
• http://addons.mozilla.org
The best SEO add-on for Firefox is SeoQuake which you can download
at:
• www.seoquake.com
SeoQuake places a bar at the top of your browser that shows informa-
tion about the sites that you’re visiting.
SeoQuake provides information like PageRank, backlinks, site age,
and rankings in Google and Yahoo.
SeoQuake is useful in the sense that you can do research on your com-
petitors and you can check out your own site to see what the search en-
gines have on you.

Search Engine Webmaster Tools


Search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing provide web-
master tools that can you help you out with your SEO campaign.
Google Webmasters is an extremely powerful tool and can provide
you with a lot of useful resources. It can be found here:
• www.google.com/webmasters
Yahoo! and Bing are not as useful or as powerful as Google but they
provide tools that you’ll want to use. They can be found at:
• http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

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• http://www.bing.com/webmaster

Keeping a Tab on Your Results


There are many options to analyze your results but Google analytics is
by far the best.
Google analytics will analyze all the traffic coming to your site and
display the results for you in a very comprehensive and understandable
manner.
By keeping track of your traffic, you’ll see what works and what
doesn’t.
It’s important to document the steps you take so that you won’t con-
fuse a large amount of incoming traffic with anything else. You want to
know exactly what’s causing any spike or decline of traffic.
Google Analytics is a very advanced tool and has many features that
go beyond what’s needed. Learn to use it and it will help greatly.
If you don’t know how your efforts are affecting traffic you could end
up damaging your site. Check your Google Analytics daily and you’ll
eventually see trends and gain a better understanding of how Google
sees your site.

Section 2: SEO and Effectively Using Keywords


Having the right keywords and key phrases are paramount to an ef-
fective SEO campaign.
SEO starts with your chosen keywords.
If you don’t have the right keywords, don’t expect much in regards to
the traffic you receive from the search engines.
In this section we’ll cover how to pick the right keywords to bring in
valued traffic from search engines.

Understanding Your Target Market


Choose keywords that your target market would associate with your
topic, not what you associate with your topic.
The secret is to find the variation of keywords for your niche that are
searched for the most in search engines by your target market.
Make sure your keywords relate to your website and that those words
don’t have double meanings (ex; depression can be both a mental state
and a financial state).
There are tools to help you find the best keywords that we’ll go into
later. Just understand that you want to choose the words from your tar-
get markets perspective.

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The Long Tail Theory
The long tail is basically the longer variable key phrases of a given
simpler phrase. (Ex; the main keyword of BMW has a long tail with
words such as BMW 1 series, BMW 2 series, etc.)
Although you may not rank number 1 for “BMW” you may rank high
for “BMW dealerships” and other variables. The combined traffic of the
long tail may be more then the traffic coming from “BMW”
You’ll want to pick key phrases that have long tail attributes.
The traffic from long tail keywords are generally better customers
since they have a better idea of what they want.

Tools To Find the Best Keywords


Google by far has the most dominating keyword tools out there on the
market… and best of all… they’re free!
The following tools are provided by Google and are extremely easy to
use:
• https://adwords.google.ca/select/KeywordToolExternal
• http://www.google.com/trends
• http://www.google.com/insights/search/

There are other tools out there; one that we like to use is Microsoft’s
demographic prediction tool:
• http://adlab.microsoft.com/Demographics-Prediction/
The demographic prediction tool is useful in that you’ll get a better
idea of who’s searching for those keywords so you can have a better idea
of your market.
Yahoo! Site Explorer is another useful tool that can give you informa-
tion on a website as it pertains to the Yahoo! search engine. It can be
found here:
• http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
One of the best features of Yahoo! Site Explorer is that it allows you to
see what websites are linking back to a website (very useful when re-
searching your competition).

Picking Out the Best Keywords


The best keywords are ones with a good long tail but because a lot of
words can have multiple meanings make sure that the long tail primarily
consists of phrases relevant to your subject.

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You’ll also want a word with very little competition per search
volume. Essentially you want a keyword that is searched for a lot but
lacks websites covering it.
The easiest way to find out how much competition a keyword has is to
type that keyword into Google and see how many results come up.
Study the top 20 or so websites that come up for a keyword so you can
see what you’re up against. You want a good keyword but you don’t
want a lot of competition.
The relevant keyword with the least amount of results per search
volume should be added to your keyword list.
Although a general but relevant keyword will have lots of competi-
tion, it will hold value in the long run since eventually with enough
work you may rank high for it.
Keywords that have low competition but high search rates should be
on your list since they’ll help in the short term.

Having a Master Keyword List


You should write down all the good keywords along with each ones
search volume and number of results.
We recommend using a spread sheet to keep all this data as it will be
easier to manipulate.
Having a master keyword list will come in handy when creating con-
tent and it’s important that you review the keywords every once in a
while to keep yourself focused.
Google’s AdSense keyword tool has an option to export your chosen
keywords into a txt file (which can then be imported into Excel. It can be
found here:
• https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Inspect the Competition
Always keep a close eye on your competition… chances have it they’re
also inspecting you.
See who ranks #1 for a certain keyword and try to deduce what they
do to get there.
Do a search for your keywords in Google and Yahoo! and examine the
top 10 or so results, those are your competitors.
If you installed SeoQuake mentioned earlier in the lesson, you’ll be
able to get some interesting information on your competition.
You can use a Yahoo! Site Explorer to see exactly what pages are link-
ing back to your competitors.

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Upon doing research you’re likely to find that a lot of your competit-
ors actually have bad SEO and that the only reason they rank high is be-
cause of a lack of competition, if this is the case, you’ll have no problem
ranking high.

Section 3: Common Problems with Search Engines and SEO


This section will cover common problems that webmasters will have
and some of ways to fix them.
Every search engine is different and the algorithms they use always
change, so one day you might be doing well and the next you’ll be off
the radar. It’s important to always stay on top of the current SEO
methods.
We’ll also go into ways to make your website in such a way that you
won’t have any problems when it comes to the search engines crawling
your site.

Roadblocks to Getting Noticed By the Search Engines


There are some things that prevent the search engines from crawling
your site.
The most typical reason is a robots.txt with a disallow command on
the whole site.
If you have a robots.txt already, check it out and if you see:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /

If you see the “Disallow: /” command, it means the search engine bots
are being prevented from crawling your site.
Robots.txt' are useful if you want the search engine to avoid duplicate
and useless pages. Just make sure you don’t disallow everything.
When a web developer is building your site, they often place a robot
Meta tag in the code to prevent search engines from crawling your site
while it’s under construction. Sometimes they’ll forget to modify or re-
move it.
Check out the source code of your website and if you see the follow-
ing, remove it:
<META NAME="ROBOTS" CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

Some websites are now using registration forms of some sort to make
the user fill out before accessing the content. Having a form like this

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prevents search engines from seeing the content and therefore the site is
not indexed.
If you have a membership site, keep in mind that it won’t be crawled,
meaning you won’t receive too much traffic from the search engines.

Making It Easy For the Search Engines to Crawl Your Website


Search engines crawl your site by links on your page. Always make
sure you have HTML links somewhere on your page as a way to navig-
ate to other pages.
Search engine bots can’t use forms or drop down menus. You can still
use forms and drop down menus but be sure to have a way for the bots
to crawl your site.
Having a link to a site map that links to all your other pages is perhaps
the easiest way to ensure that your entire site is crawled.

Ajax and DHTML


Ajax and DHTML are code languages used to make fancy web apps,
they use JavaScript to load the content.
Ajax is used to create fast loading WebPages and DHTML is used to
create drop down menus and other interesting effects.
Since search engines are unable to read JavaScript, the content you cre-
ate with Ajax and DHTML will not be indexed.
There are ways to build drop down menus without DHTML and in
such a way that search engines can navigate them. The most common
method is to have your page “degrade gracefully”.

Why You Shouldn’t Have Flash Websites


Flash is a highly advanced code used to make vector animations and
“flashy” websites and apps.
Much like Ajax and DHTML, the search engines can’t read the flash
code and therefore the content won’t be indexed.
Adobe (the company that makes flash) is working hard with Google to
make flash crawlable but it’s still not there yet.
What many websites do is offer an html and flash version of their web-
site which allows the site to still be indexed. The problem with having
two versions is that only the html version will be indexed and so the
traffic you receive will only be directed to the HTML version.
Flash looks great but it’s not SEO friendly.

Client Side Redirects

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Back in the olden days of the internet, webmasters would create pages
loaded with keyword rich content for the search engines but then in-
clude a redirect code so that people would be directed to the main page
and not see any of the keyword spam.
This redirected method was also known as “cloaking”.
The redirect method worked great at increasing the ranking but search
engines have caught on and now penalize sites for using this method.
Some websites still use advanced forms of cloaking for certain busi-
nesses but its considered black hat so you should avoid it.

The Firefox Web Developer Toolbar


Firefox has a web developer toolbar plug-in which can be found here:
• http://chrispederick.com/work/web-developer/
This tool will let you see what a website looks like to the search
engines.
Go to a website and disable CSS and JavaScript… what you see is what
the search engines sees.
You can use this tool to see the problems in your own website. Disable
JavaScript and CSS and if you can see all the content on your website
and navigate to every page… you’re in good shape.

Duplicate Content
Duplicate content is a big problem when it comes to SEO.
In the early days of search engines, people would intentionally make
several websites with the exact same content linking to each other
thereby increasing relevancy and rankings. The search engines were un-
able to detect duplicate content but they now can and will often times
penalize those sites.
Search engines now detect duplicate content and will only index one
of the copies.
This can be bad because if someone decides to steal your content and
they have more authority, it’s possible that the thief’s site will be indexed
higher than yours.
If you have duplicates on your own site and you have backlinks going
back to both duplicates, you’re essential decreasing the amount of links
going back to a single page. Google will rank both pages separately and
because of the divided links… neither page will be ranked high.
To find duplicate content go to Google and type in “site:
www.yourwebsite.com”. This will show you all the pages of your site

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that have been indexed. You know you have duplicate content if you see
a message at the bottom that says:
• “In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some
entries very similar to the 217 already displayed. If you like, you can re-
peat the search with the omitted results included”.
Another great way to find duplicate content is too copy a sentence of
your content and do a search for it in Google. You’ll see all the other in-
stances of where that sentence has been found.
Your website has 3 different addresses as in:
• yoursite.com
• www.yoursite.com
• www.yoursite.com/index.html
Google sees each version of your website as an entirely separate web-
site and therefore if you get backlinks to each version your site will be in-
dexed 3 times as if they were different but with duplicate content. This
can hurt your rankings greatly.
Always link to your site the same way, preferably like this:
• http://www.yoursite.com/
Have a 301 redirect from “yoursite.com” to
“http://www.yoursite.com/”.
If you have a website that utilizes a database you’ll probably get very
complex URL’s, get a plug-in that will simplify all the URL’s and make
them SEO friendly. You want each page to only have one URL all the
time.

Broken Links
Broken links are a big no no in SEO.
When a bot is crawling on your site and navigates to a broken link, the
search engine will lower the value of your site and the bot is likely to
stop crawling the moment it finds a broken link.
To find broken links you can download a free program called “Xenu
Link Sleuth” which you can download here:
• http://download.cnet.com/Xenu-s-Link-Sleuth/
3000-10248_4-10020826.html
Xenu makes a list of all the broken links it finds on your website.
With the list of broken links, you can then go through your site and fix
all the issues.

Section 4: Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines


SEO is all about making your website appealing to the search engines.

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This section will cover how to structure your content and website for
maximum SEO value. We also go into techniques to make your website
trustworthy.

Optimizing Your Site Structure for Search Engines


The secret to having a good structure is to have your best content
within 1 click of your homepage.
The deeper a page is, in terms of page hierarchy… the less value it will
have.
The home page is the most important and the pages within one click
are second and so on.
Try to structure your site in such a way that your main content is ac-
cessible through the home page.
The best method to push up content is to create “hub pages” that link
to the rest of your content. The hub page can be within 1 link from your
home page.
The hub pages should be categorized, so one hub page will link to a
certain category of content.
Your home page should link to these hubs (categories) that will then
link to the content.
By linking like with like, search engines will add more value to the
content since it’s more relevant and related.
By creating hubs you make it easier for users to find the content that
they want. Making your site simpler is not only more SEO friendly but
it’s also more user friendly.
You want your users to find the content in the least amount of clicks
possible. Structure your site with that in mind.

Having Rules and Structure


It’s important that you make an outline of the rules and structure that
you’ll use for your site.
It’s important to have each page congruent with one another. It comes
off as more professional.
Each page of content should be structured as follows:
• Title tag
• H1 tag
• H2, H3, H4 etc tags
• Txt content
• Links and images
If your title tag is irrelevant to the H1 tag, the H1 tag won’t matter.

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Have all the content be consistent with a certain style. Meaning the
spacing’s, indents, fonts, colors, bullet points and etc. are always the
same.
Keep in mind that bold larger font text is not the same as H1 text. H1
text has a much greater value.
Only have one H1 piece of txt on your each page at the most. The
search engines don’t like it when you use it too much.
Make sure that each title tag for every page is slightly different and
highly relevant to the page.

Trust
Trust Rank is a new concept being employed by the Google search al-
gorithms. It calculates your trust factor based on a few factors.
The search engines take into account such things as:
• The age of your website.
• The type of websites that link back to you.
• The type of software and code your website uses.
• Plug-in and add-ons that you’re using.
Consider buying a pre-existing domain name before starting business.
Many times the webmaster will give it to you for free.
Don’t link to sites with a low Trust Rank.
It’s recommend you have your site evaluated by a prominent security
service and place the seal of approval on your website. Google search en-
gine will see it and take it into account. Security stickers and badges
help.

Section 5: How to Capitalize On Blended Search Results


Blended search is a feature Google implemented back in 2007. It takes
news, images and video and other media and mixes it with your regular
search… but only if Google feels it’s more applicable.
Yahoo and Microsoft have both followed in Google footsteps and have
implemented blended search features.
This is good for you since it’s another opportunity to get ranked high.
You may not get a certain website ranked high but maybe an image or
video will do well.

The Other Stuff Google Will Blend In


Google takes in several different forms of content that it blends in with
your search.
They’ll blend in:

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• Product feeds
• News feeds
• Images
• Videos
• Geo search info (displayed on Google Maps)

Products
Google and the other big search engines now take products feeds.
A product feed is basically a spread sheet that you can give to the
search engines for indexing.
Google allows you to submit your feed for free at:
• www.google.com/base
Price Grabber and Microsoft require you to pay to upload your feeds
and they can be found here:
• www.bing.com/productupload/
• www.pricegrabber.ca
In order to have your feed show up, you’ll need to make it highly rel-
evant, so use quality keywords.
Include images in the feed.
Update your feed regularly.
If you’re allowed… include custom fields to add more relevant
information.

News
Press releases can be extremely effective if used right.
When writing a press release, be sure to make it informative and ob-
jective, don’t make a sales letter!
Include images and make it SEO friendly (Good use of keywords and
headlines).
Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft’s Bing all take news feeds from news
sites and will sometimes blend them with the searches.
Submit press releases with PRWeb or an equivalent quality newswire.

Images
Images don’t have has much competition as websites in search engines
and so optimizing your images for SEO can be extremely powerful.
Search engines can’t see images but they can see the file name, tags,
and context in which it’s being used. Make sure it’s all there.
If you’re going to use an image on your website, make sure it’s yours
or its copyright free, you don’t want to be sued.

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Use images that are easy to see as a thumbnail, you’ll get more hits
from the search engines this way.
Place keyword rich captions on all your images.
The best formats for images are as .JPGs. They’re the most common
file format for images.
Name the file of the image appropriately using keywords.
Add a description tag to all of your images.

Video
Video optimizing is much like image optimizing. Google can’t see
video so it relies on the tags, context and such.
Name the file with good keywords and make it relevant.
It’s recommended that you not only host the file on your own website
but you also share it on services like YouTube, Vimeo and other video
sharing sites.
If you place the video on other sharing sites, be sure to place a link
back to your site in the description section.
Include your video in your RSS feed.

Geo Search
If you have a location for your business, it’s important to include that
information on your website and to optimize for that area.
Google and the other search engines reference other websites for your
address; this is how they determine your address.
Submit your business to the following sites:
• www.yelp.com
• www.superpages.com
• www.yellowpages.com
• www.citysearch.com
You’ll also want reviews and ratings on those sites since it’s been
proven to help.
Include your physical address on every page of your site (preferably in
the footer).
Include your location in your Meta tags.

Section 6: How to Write Quality Web Copy For SEO


This section is all about writing for SEO. If it’s good for your viewers
it’s good for SEO.
Many people may dread the idea of writing but it’s an essential skill to
have when conducting business online.

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Even if you decide to outsource your writing to a professional, you
still need to practice your writing skills for communication sake.
Keep in mind that if you decide to outsource… you get what you pay
for. There are writers out there working for as low as $5 per article and
the price can go up to a several hundred dollars per 500 words.
It’s critical that when you write for the internet you keep both SEO
and your viewers in mind, they go hand in hand.

Brainstorming Ideas
Regardless of what kind of business you have, you’ll want to contrib-
ute some writing periodically.
Even if your site is just a sales page, you’ll want to write articles and/
or eBooks for marketing purposes.
Get into the mind of your typical customer and think about what they
would want to know or the common problems that they have to deal
with.
Don’t assume that something is common knowledge, just because
you’re an expert doesn’t mean everyone else is.
Reviews of other products will supply you with an endless list of
things to write about.
Keep up with the news in your industry and write about the current
events going on.
Regardless of what your business is, you’ll want to brand your expert-
ise and participate on other blogs and websites; write daily!

Writing for the Web


Writing for the web is different from other media.
People tend to have a much shorter attention span on the net and
therefore will avoid reading anything too long and trivial.
Brevity works best on the net.
Write in short easy to understand sentences and avoid overly complex
words. Keep it simple.
The writing style you should use all depends on you industry. The
New York Times for instance has a very educated crowd of followers
who don’t mind the detailed articles.
For the most part people on the web just want the information they
“NEED” and nothing else.
People who use the web regularly have become expert skimmers.
They ignore useless information and focus only on what they’re looking
for. Keep this in mind and make your content skimable and easy to read.

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It’s recommended you use spaces between each line; it makes it easier
to read.
Always look for ways to shorten your sentences and you don’t need to
be poetic, just straight to the point.
Make your point first and then explain it as oppose to starting vague
and ending with a conclusion.
Web users are scanners, not “readers” in the traditional sense. Because
of this write your content as a list. If your product has many features
don’t cram it all into a paragraph but instead turn into a list with bullet
points; it’s much more scannable.
In regards to keyword density, make your content easily readable and
appealing to your customers first.
Keyword density all depends on the topic and context. Just use as
many as you can get away with without making it spammy or annoying.
5% keyword density is what most professionals recommend.

Title Tags
Title tags are used by search engines to label your webpage in the
search engines.
Think of title tags as headlines, they should be interesting and make
people want to see it.
Having unique keyword tags for each page is essential if you want to
be indexed. Make sure your CMS (ex; WordPress, Joomla etc.) allows
you to edit the title tags for each one of your pages.
Typically search engines only look at the first 65 characters in your
title tag so place the keywords in the beginning. Always place your
brand name or business name at the end of the title tag. You want to say
what the page is about first. People will see what the brand is upon en-
tering your site.
Avoid stuffing keywords into the title tag. It should be readable and
make sense. The secret is to make it entirely of keywords while still
sounding nice.
You can get more traffic then the number 1 position in a search engine
if your title tag is intriguing and attention grabbing. Keep this in mind.

Description Tags
Description tags don’t affect rankings but they are used by search en-
gines as the text you see below the title tag in search results.

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Although it’s not as important to include keywords in your descrip-
tion tag, it’s still recommended since those words will be highlighted if
they match the search term.
The description tag should only be a few sentences long and it can
either be about the page it’s on or your business as a whole. Either way it
works as long as it’s interesting and convinces you to click on it.
Having a call to action as in “call us at: 123 4567” can be very effective.

Headlines
Headlines are important for SEO and more important than most
people think.
The purpose of a headline is to grab the attention of the reader and to
make them read on.
The header should relate to the title tag and should also be about the
purpose of your content on that page.
A large part of your focus should be on creating the perfect headline. It
can bring in a lot of traffic when it’s done right.
Headlines for your content should always be coded as H1 tags and not
just larger bold text.
A great place to get information and see examples of a good header is
at:
• www.copyblogger.com
Write For Customers Not Search Engines
Write for your customers first. If it’s not appealing to your customers,
you’ll get traffic but you won’t get sales.
The secret is to have your keywords placed in such a way that it
doesn’t take away from the user experience but it still conforms to good
SEO.
No amount of SEO will help if your content is not good. Content is
KING!

Make Writing a Routine


One of the biggest commonalities between all experts is that they write
about their subject often.
Writing about your subject forces you to form your knowledge into a
cohesive manner, which can then be used as content for your business.
For many people writing is something that they avoid at all costs.
Having to sit down and focus to write is not appealing to most people.
As mentioned before, writing is essential to an online business so you
have to develop effective writing skills.

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Even if you outsource your writing to someone else, it’s important you
develop your personal writing skills because learning how to make a co-
hesive article or document is critical to many other activities.
By making writing a routine, you’ll enhance your understanding of
the topic, develop your writing skills and possibly be creating useable
content for your business.
At the very least you should be writing 30 minutes a day. Practice
makes perfect.
Within 30 minutes you can easily research and write a 500 word art-
icle. If you did this daily you’d have 365 articles by the end of the year…
which can then be used to create a massive eBook or it can be used for
your site.

How to Find Writers


Some people are either too busy or they just can’t stand writing. If
you’re one of them, you’re in luck as there are thousands of writers out
there for a good price.
The best website out there to connect you with a writer is:
• www.elance.com
Don’t be afraid to hire a writer from Asia or a traditionally non Eng-
lish speaking country. They can be very proficient at writing English and
they can do it for a very good price.
It’s recommended that your writer understands SEO and keyword
densities. An SEO copywriter will cost you more but the quality of the
content will be much greater.

Section 7: Techniques for Link Building and Getting Backlinks


Link building is about having other websites link back to you. There
are many ways to create back links and some techniques can get very
complicated.
Many people are under the impression that back links are the most im-
portant aspect of SEO; it’s arguable but don’t ignore the other tech-
niques, SEO is not just about link building.
This section will go into the various techniques to build links, link bait-
ing and the various things you have to keep in mind.

Link Votes
All websites have a PageRank which dictates how many votes (links) it
can give to other websites. The links each have a different value

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depending on the relevancy of the pages. The more relevant the website
is to the one it’s linking to the more valuable that link is.
PageRank is determined by how good the SEO of that website is, in-
cluding number and power of the links it receives from other websites.
Link velocity is the term used to describe the rate a websites receives
incoming links. Having a consistent number of links coming in is better
than getting a lot in a short amount of time. Spamming the internet with
links back to your site and then stopping doesn’t have much value.
Some websites will add a “nofollow” command to the links. This com-
mand prevents search engines from counting that link as a vote. It looks
like this:
• <a href=http://www.yourwebsite.com rel=”nofollow”>

Linkable Content
People link to articles they think other people will find interesting.
Providing unique fresh information is the best way to get others to link
back to you.
Good content should always come first. It should be the backbone of
your link building strategy. You can get other websites to link back to
your site all you want but if the content isn’t there… no amount of links
will help.
Getting link backs naturally with interesting and provocative informa-
tion is the best strategy. A great way to get link backs is to always be ori-
ginal and create new fresh content that hasn’t been seen before.
If the content isn’t the most appealing, try and place a focus on your
headlines and make them interesting and provocative. If you aren’t
really sure how to make a boring topic interesting, try adding images to
your article, 1 or 2 images are ideal. While adding images and great
headers will help with your SEO efforts, quality content must be your
highest priority. Provide as much value as you can.
For those of you starting out, you may be tempted to go above and
beyond to get more buying power, while you can to a certain extent, do
not make your content a sales pitch. The quality of your content should
sell itself. Make your content so good that people want to see more and
pay for more.
One great tip to keep in mind while writing your content is making it
easily scannable like a “top 10 list” always does well. Also if possible,
try to write something that people would want to share.

Making It Easy To Share

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Aside from having excellent content, you should make it easy for
people to share the content. There are many plugins now available for
most CMS’s that allow people to share a page on the various social book-
marking sites.
Including an “email to a friend” feature at the bottom of your content
is a good way to encourage sharing. Also be sure to make your URL’s
simple and avoid dynamic URL's as they won’t get indexed.

Easy Places and Ways To Get Backlinks


There are many places on the net where you can simply submit your
URL for a backlink. Although many of these freebies won’t be worth
much, they’ll still help in the long run.
There are thousands of directories on the net where you can submit
your URL for free. We suggest the following directories:
• www.DMOZ.org
• www.Chiff.com
• www.exactseek.com
• www.clickey.com
• www.zeal.com
• www.somuch.com
If you aren’t sure where to start, forums are also good places to get
link backs. Join all the forums related to your topic and contribute con-
tent to their website. Be sure to not copy and paste your content to each
forum. Each post should be unique and genuine.
When posting on forums, don’t ever spam or make it look like you’re
trying to get a link back. Many forums allow you to have a signature
which goes at the bottom of your post; place your URL in there.
Another great way to get your URL out there is commenting on blogs.
Many blogs will ask for your URL when you comment.

Approaching Others for Linkbacks


This technique should only be used once since asking a webmaster
multiple times can be very annoying.
Many large blogs and websites receive many emails a day asking for
link backs and 99% of the time they’re ignored.
Before you ask others for link backs it’s recommended you build a re-
lationship with the webmaster first by:
• Contributing content to their site.
• Placing links on your site back to them.
• Doing positive reviews of their site.

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You want to make the act of them placing a link to you a natural pro-
cess; you shouldn’t have to ask for it. Offering your product for free to
the webmaster in exchange for links can be very effective. Make sure
your product and site is of such a high quality that others would want to
link back to you.
The webmasters reputation is on the line by linking to you, so make
sure your site is not something that would embarrass them.

Widgets, Addons, Apps and Plug-Ins


Regardless of what niche you’re in, there’s a widget, or tool that will
be helpful to your customers and other webmasters in your field.
Widgets and tools are great since you can add your URL to it and if
someone else uses the tool, they’ll be advertising for you.
To find a programmer we suggest using Elance.com. Just make a de-
scription of the idea you want and you’ll get programmers bidding for
the project. Simple apps won’t cost you much (under $100).
When making an app, make sure it’s useful, easy to use and easy to
implement. But don’t make programs your main source of backlinks as
the search engines frown upon it if it’s used too much; be sure to have
other forms of backlinks as well.
Make sure the program runs smoothly as other webmasters will hate it
if slows down loading speed. If an app is really useful to you niche, ex-
pect others to promote it.

Link Bait
Link baiting is creating a piece of content that will make other people
want to link to it and share it.
Lots of marketing experts are trying to figure out the secret to viral/
link bait marketing. There are hundreds of factors at play so it’s very
hard to figure out.
Link baiting much like a viral video is not a well understood science
but there are commonalities between the successes. The most common
commonalities are:
• The content provides a new outlook on things.
• It’s never been seen before.
• It’s a list.
• It has images and/or videos.
• It’s never just text.
• It’s different.

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Follow social bookmarking sites like Digg and notice what makes it to
the front page. Lists like “top 10 lists” do really well, be sure to add im-
ages and add a little humor.
Talking about a controversial subject can be good link bait, although
avoid offering an opinion, instead talk about both sides and let your vis-
itors argue about it in the comments section.
Link bait content may not be successful right away but keep at it;
sometimes an article will take off a year after publishing.

Quality over Quantity


Here are a few pointers to keep in mind when creating links.
One good link is worth a lot more than a lot of bad links so try and fo-
cus on quality and not quantity when making back links
Remember that links with a keyword rich anchor text is much better
than a “click here” link and when possible, always use anchor text for a
link.
Make sure your anchor text is relevant to your home page. The more
relevant it is the better. One final recommendation is to focus on getting
backlinks from websites with a high PageRank.

What to Avoid
Not all backlinks are good backlinks.There are some websites you
should avoid being associated with as they can lower your rankings.
The search engines look for certain signs that could mean you’re
spamming. Getting thousands of backlinks in short period of time can
set of their radar so be careful.
The best way to stay out of trouble is to not spam, instead build links
naturally. So if you are trying to build links naturally, then be sure to
avoid link exchanges and link networks, as it could get you associated
with spam sites.
Also be sure to avoid using programs that automatically submit your
URL to thousands of sites, this can get you penalized.

Seeing What Your Competition Is Doing


Your competition may be your greatest source for finding good
backlinks.
There are some programs like Yahoo! Site Explorer which allow you to
see which websites link to your competitors.

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There’s an excellent Firefox extension that lets you see your competit-
ors backlinks, the anchor text used and other information about the links.
You can find the program here:
• www.linkdiagnosis.com

By seeing what your competition is doing, you can follow in their foot-
steps and then go beyond their efforts.

Section 9: SEO Experts and What They Can Do For You


This section covers what you should look for in an SEO expert.
SEO is a long and tedious process and may get a little technical. An ex-
pert can take a look at your site and its links and quickly tell you what
do differently.
SEO experts can be worth your time and money but you have to watch
out as there are many scammers out there.
Also when choosing an SEO expert be sure that you two have good
communication and goals, as your SEO expert is someone you’ll want to
work with for at least several months as SEO takes a while to see any res-
ults from it.

Finding the Right SEO Expert


There are a lot of people out there advertising themselves as SEO
experts.
There are a few sites that can help connect you with an SEO expert.
Check out the following:
• www.elance.com
• www.sempo.org
• www.seomoz.org
Look for an expert that you can talk to and work with in person. Com-
municating over the internet just doesn’t cut it sometimes.
A great tip to help you find a good SEO expert is to avoid any expert
who guarantees a high ranking. Also be sure to never use an SEO expert
who doesn’t reveal their secrets. Their methods should be transparent in
case they use black hat methods.
If the SEO expert ever mentions placing links to unrelated websites,
avoid them!
If you have found someone you are interested in working with be sure
to ask for referrals from anyone you know who’s used an SEO expert.

Are They Qualified?

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Unfortunately with the internet, trust can be an issue so when you
check out the experts sites, take it for face value.
Do a search for the potential SEO experts and see what others have to
say. Google Blog Search is a good feature to see what people are saying.
Always call them to see what they’re like on the phone. Do they sound
professional? Do they know what they’re talking about?
Don’t be so concerned if they’ve worked with your industry or not,
SEO is the same for every industry. A good question is to check to see
how long they’ve been around for. Consultants who’ve been around for
a while are likely to be much better.
The most important things to look out for is that they’re transparent
with their techniques and that they have a good track record.

Questions To Ask Your Potential SEO Experts


To get the most out of your SEO expert you should talk with them
over the phone so you get a good grasp of exactly what they do.
You should ask them:
• How long they’ve been working in SEO.
• What’s their payment process?
• What steps they would take with your site (make sure they see
your site before talking).
• Do they have contracts and if so… can you end them early?
• Ask them what techniques they would be using for your site.
• Are there any extra fees?
If they can’t tell you something because it’s a “secret”, avoid them. If
they come across as professional, they probably are, but make sure you
have an “out” in case they mess things up.

Realistic Expectations
Good SEO takes a long time to fully implement so don’t expect quick
results.
The pricing for an SEO professional can vary but they typically charge
monthly. You’ll see prices ranging from $90 per month to $10,000 per
month.
Some of you may just want a consultation with an expert in which case
they just write a report about your site and give you recommendations.
For smaller businesses this option is recommended.
You should expect regular reports from your professional. By de-
manding regular reports you’ll see exactly what they’re doing.

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The experts you hire can only do so much. You’ll have to do some
work and provide them with content and other things in order for them
to do their job.
The costs all depends on your situation, if your site is already optim-
ized they should charge you less. Always ask them why and what
they’re doing, if they can’t tell you… fire them.
It is all about finding out as much as possible about the individual and
getting to know what they have worked on, and what they can provide
you with. If you aren’t comfortable with the person you are dealing with,
then don’t be afraid to move onto the next expert. Remember you are the
boss, and you are the one with the vision of what you would like your
online business to be!

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www.feedbooks.com
Food for the mind

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