“We don’t have, or have any use for a website,” was his reply.

I nearly spat out my last sip of coffee when he said that! Granted that this conversation took place in 2007 but I know for a fact that many small business owners still feel this way today.

It’s ludicrous.

Every single business – small or large, whether service or product based, needs a website. The website doesn’t need to contain your price structure, doesn’t need to showcase every item you carry, but it should be enough of a website to provide contact information and a general overview of what your business does.

It also doesn’t need to cost a fortune. You know today you can register a domain name for $10/year, add hosting for $50/year, grab a decent template from the hosting company (free) and add your own text and graphics as easily as you post on Facebook and share your photos through Flickr.

1/2 a day’s work and $60 and you’re done.

If you’re still not convinced that your small business needs a website, I’m sharing with you (below) the note I wrote to the Auto Body shop in 2007. If you read it and consider your own business use and mandate, I think you’ll find the case for a website to win.

Letter to Bancroft Auto Body Regarding A Small Business Website

Larry, last month we spoke on the phone and I promised to put some information together for you on how Bancroft Auto Body could benefit through website ownership.

I’m no closer to concrete reasons or research today than I was a month ago.

This is not to say there is little argument for website ownership for Bancroft Auto Body – only that I haven’t found much targeted research to share with you. It also doesn’t help that I know very little of the auto body business – I’d never had an accident until the Grand Prix was hit.

What I Can Show and Share:

More people use the internet to search for local business and specialized service today than the phone book.

Google owns 64.4% of worldwide search interest. Run a search on Google. Results for the search term Bancroft auto body (lower case intended) is below.

google.com
#1 – A+ Collision
#2 – Bancroft Auto Body through ProfileCanada. Your listing looks and reads as such: Po Box 269 Bancroft ON, K0L 1C0 Phone: 613-332-3575 Fax: 613-000-0000

google.ca
same #1 and #2 as above
#3 is a Cambellford, Ontario site. Your listing reads as such: Bancroft Auto Body
9 Armstrong Lane, Campbellford, ON K0L 1L0, Tel: (613) 332 3575
#8 & #9 is cdnauto.org which also lists BAB as a Campbellford business.

It’s time to fix these errant listings and let people know who Bancroft Auto Body really is!

A Website Adds Credibility to Your Business

As an author and online business blogger for the last 6 years, I spend 10-15 hours per month in research. In mid-2007 comScore (one of the largest business research companies worldwide) surveyed and documented approximately 100,000 respondents regarding ‘perceived credibility’. Results were clear that a business without a website had less credibility than a business with a website – even if the second business’ website was outdated or poorly designed!

Unfortunately I cannot relocate that report and struggled over even including this section in this letter. I firmly believe however, a quick chat with a few friends and family will give you the same results – all things being equal, a business with a website has more credibility than a business without a website.

Consider as well, that in November 2007 over 150 million websites exist. If a company doesn’t have a website, potential customers can become apprehensive about the business’ credibility.

Capturing More Market Share

I make a liberal assumption to say that you have already captured most of the local market share through our town’s insurance companies and established clientelle (based on tenure, personal recommendations, and/or lack of any real local competition).

But what if your business could increase by 10-30% as a result of an internet presence? Could Bancroft Auto Body handle the extra work, the extra income?

A case scenario:

a) A tourist has an accident and would like to have the work done before his vacation ends. He jumps online to find an auto body shop in Bancroft. He finds (i) Bancroft Auto Body is in Campbellford, (ii) the top result (and therefore the perceived ‘best’) auto body for Bancroft is A+ Collision, (iii) neither has a website therefore neither is credible, so he’ll just drive his smashed car on his vacation until he returns home to find a legitimate auto body shop in his own town.

I do know one thing about your business Larry – your ‘word-of-mouth credibility’ is strong in this community. What if it was equally strong to a world wide audience? What if the tourist in the case scenario above found your website and had the work done at Bancroft Auto Body? Do you think he’d go home and tell people about it? Do you think he’d ask for a business card he could give to his buddy who needed some exceptional work done on his old ‘57 Chevy?

I can actually envision pages on your website of client testimonials. I can further envision car fanatics from all over Ontario driving or shipping their cars to you once they found all those testimonials, your before and after pictures, your list of services, and the ’story’ behind Bancroft Auto Body. (This is marketing on steriods.)

Strutting Your Stuff

Again I do not know your business or industry well, but if there is an area that you excel in there is no better place to market your specialized services than online.

Hypothetically let’s say you are the finest sprayer in Ontario for custom finishes.

• Who else knows this besides the locals?

• What if every luxury car dealership in Ontario knew?
• What would that do for your business?

I always like to ask people who do fine work and offer offer specialty services:

“How many people can you reach via a yellow page ad? A newspaper ad? A brochure or flyer?”

Consider that each of these media forms has a limited shelf life.

• Each is expensive.

• None are interactive nor allow relationship building with potential clients.

A website, on the other hand, is full-color, multi-page, ever changing, and allows customer-business interaction through feedback forms, email contact (far quicker, cheaper, and more efficient than phone calls), as well as lending more credibility to your business. Potential reach in all of North America? 237+ million. 70% of the population.
Potential reach in Canada? 22+ million. 67% of the population.

Why People Surf

I know many people who surf websites more than they watch television now. Of all ages. In all professions and income brackets. It’s a source of entertainment. It’s a learning experience. It even gives people something to talk about.

In fact, at a dinner party last night (Monday) one of the guests pulled their laptop out and onto the dining table to show us a cool site they’d found. This prompted another to show off their business site. And even another (me) to show a site I had just finished working on. And so on. Now, can you envision similar scenarios where your website, or car photos, before and after shots, etc. were shared – whether the person knew you personally or not? I can!

Your Website is Your Business

I hope, after reading this, you can envision the value of having your own website. Business websites are promotional or even just a showpiece. Your business deserves it and potential customers demand or expect it.

Below I’ve listed some point form reasons or potential ideas for your site. Your site is your business, whatever you choose to focus on (feedback, market share, showcase, or all of the above) will serve you well – I’m certain of it.

• Before and after pictures
• Advertise custom or salvage cars
• Feature, display and sell custom parts or specialty modifications
• Showcase types of paints and materials used
• Educate customers with tips on maintaining their paint and finishes, etc.
• Advertise special services like murals, pin striping, window tints, etc.
• List insurance companies you work with
• Inform customers about turn-around times, estimates, subcontractors, etc.
• Provide online forms and documents (for your insurance contracts, or other)
• Provide details and rates
• Your correct address and contact information
• Client Testimonials
• Feedback forms to automate client testimonials or building relationships
• Map to your business
• Photos of the shop
• The Bancroft Auto Body ’story’ (history, credentials, future vision)
• Bancroft Auto Body mission statement
• Advertise in-shop specials
• Whatever else your heart desires…videos of work being performed, audio testimonials, slide shows, etc.

Why Small Business Needs A Website… is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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We’re enthusiastic, excited, passionate.

We’re exhausted, fed up, frustrated.

We’re waiting for our next check (because we either need it or because we just love to get them), we’re dreaming of the future, we’re wondering…

"How To Take This Home Business to the Next Level?"

Let’s first define the difference between home business and small business.

“…starting a home business or currently running one – after 13 years away from corporate life, I’m ready to start talking…” –Laura Childs Jun 10 2007

Home business is a business that you not only operate from your home but that you, (or you and your spouse or child) are operating. Often referred to as SOHO (singly operated home office).

Small business on the other hand is usually operated outside of the home (at least partially). Small business will have an employee or more, even if they are virtual assistants (people who work for you, connected only through online communication).

Virtual assistants – to answer your question – are freelancers. They often work for a number of entrepreneurs or small business owners. Most of them, in fact, are running their own home business.

The most common home businesses are contract employees, hobbyists and artists, and the new age, fresh-idea, entrepreneurs (non-traditional and most often internet related).

Started for a variety of reasons, these businesses are usually launched based on past work experience or as financial expressions of a hobby.

Home business – started, managed, and with a strong enough following often grows into a small business.

According to U.S. Census Bureau (year end 2004):

• nearly 20 million US citizens were running home businesses,
• nearly one million new businesses without payrolls were registered,
• home business made up over 70% of America’s business.

The Online Home Business

Although I don’t have current statistics on this, I am hunting some down for you, so stay tuned. However, due to my own personal work and social network online I am well aware of the huge interest, success, and desire to run a business, from home, online.

There are as many ways to accomplish this as there are ideas from home business.

Most common and least risky are offering your services on a freelance basis, much like a virtual assistant above. Work is obtained through a number of freelance opportunity websites, or through personal branding (your own website), and/or through the new social networking websites. Check freelance opportunities for writers, programmers, designers, etc. and you’ll find both a number of available assignments as well as the opportunity to start your own freelancing blog to showcase your talents on!

For hobbyists and artists: Product sales, and services as well, online are a low-risk way to start a home business. Products are sold through your own website, auction sites (such as ebay), or classified ad sites (such as Craig’s List).

The Next Level of Home Business

If you are already operating your home business online, the next level would be to:

a) start hiring and training employees to do the work for you (so you can have more personal time)

b) start hiring and training employees to do the work for you (and increase your brand, customers, and reach)

c) create more websites (essentially building a network of websites) that offer related products or services to increase your home business income.

Starting or Operating A Home Business is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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Wondering what the heck Viral Traffic is?

Check out this free training course by the Grandfather of Internet Marketing, Mark Joyner.
Over an hour of free audio.

For many years Mark has been silent about some of his past success, but he has come out into the Internet Marketing spot light once more to show you the answers to questions like:

• “How did Mark Joyner create both the 36th and the 198th most popular sites on the Internet in just 3 months…generating over one million downloads?”
• “What behind the scenes traffic generating, profit-pulling secrets did he use to create the top 2 online viral marketing systems?”
• “How did Mark build another viral marketing system that generates more visitors than ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and even Harry Potter?”

Get the free viral visitor training here.

There are a pile of online marketers I trust and whose advice I followed to get to where I am today. On this page you’ll be able to subscribe to some excellent free courses on website promotion and marketing…

Free Course on Getting Top Search Engine Placement

The BEST Keyword related, Search Engine Course I’ve Ever Read

I’ve been online creating websites for clients since 1997. I’ve even done some search engine optimization for those clients…but in all those years I hadn’t gleaned as much information as I discovered in this free 6-part course!

This course is, in my books, so instrumental to website success that I practically force my RSS Feed customers to take it and apply it!

Now, you’ve got to pay attention here… When you click this link you’ll end up on a sales letter. In the left column of that page is a free course sign up. The real meat starts on day 2 — stay with it, there’s lots to learn!

Grab this free pdf training on getting top spots in the search engines. Your author won the top spot on google and yahoo for a number of years, for a number of highly competitive search terms, through some simple website tweaks. He’ll show you, step by step, how to do it – all for free. Plus he shares a number of website promotion tips.

These are the same methods I have used to also gain top spots in the search engines on some of my other websites and not one of the suggestions are difficult to perform.

Free Courses on Marketing To, and Building, A Subscriber List

List Profit Secrets – Free Webcast

The free webcast has passed, but you can still listen to the call!

Visit the site, (I know, it’s expensive, think of all the time you’d save fast-tracking to marketing success though – at any rate, follow the instructions below to get the free training).

When you click the window to leave you’ll be invited to sign up for the free e-course – go for it! You’ll get more solid info in that free e-course than you usually get had you paid for someone else’s!

Free Courses on Making Money Online with Niche Marketing

Niche Marketing Course

This is Smartzville’s own free online course – An Introduction to Niche
Marketing.

You’ll learn the concept of niche marketing right through to your first order. Included are tips on idea generation, help on website hosting, how to get people to your site, accepting credit card payments and much, much more!

Article Marketing Course

Although this, in it’s entirety, is not fully fleshed out, the basics to article marketing and how it works to bring you website traffic, branding in your marketplace, and higher search engine ranks, is explained.

Free Work at Home Info from Phil

Phil is one of the most friendly and helpful internet marketers you’d ever want to meet online. He’s helped many kick-start their work at home ventures – simply by following his tips and techniques in his free newsletter.

Imagine what you’d get if you actually bought one of his products…but save that for later…you want to make sure he’s a ‘fit’ for your learning style first.
Sign up here for free work at home training.

Free Courses on The Latest Website Promotion Crazes…

Blogs and RSS Feed Course

Although I swore I’d never try to enter into ‘guru territory’ I just couldn’t help myself when I discovered the power of RSS Feeds to get traffic to a website. My little niche site grew in readership by over 600% in less than 3 weeks just because I added one little .xml file to the marketing mix. I simply had to tell other online marketers about this! So I teamed up with ‘marketing great’ Joe Vitale to create this info product and list of RSS Resources. A mere 10 days after Joe’s acceptance The Stampede Secret was launched!

Free Courses on Copy Writing

Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Copywriting Secrets

Getting this audio interview from marketing guru Joe Vitale can be a bit of a trick – but it’s worth the two minute wait. Here’s how to get it: Click the link below, read the offer and if you aren’t buying, simply close the window. A pop up window will appear. Answer a quick 3 question survey and an audio interview (plus transcripts) of Joe’s Hypnotic Marketing Formula Interview will be sent to you. Powerful ‘writing to sell’ tips and information – soak it in and put it to use!

And, a free audio series from Joe Vitale here.

Million Dollar Online Advertising Strategies

Interesting in learning more about writing copy that sells?

Then go grab the first 3 chapters of this training manual for free. Even master copywriter Joe Vitale says “…insights are brilliant. They teach you about human motivation, sales copy, and what it takes to make a living with your words….”

What you’ll receive are part of the Robert Collier letters, dissected and analyzed (so you’ll see ‘why’ they worked so well), which you can apply to your own online sales letters.

Free Courses on Promoting A Site with Auto Responder Email Accounts

The Power of Auto-responders for Profit

This is a free course, delivered via email on using auto-responder accounts and services in your marketing. This is one of the way we marketers put our income on autopilot. By following up with our customers and newsletter subscribers via an auto-responder. Click the link above to grab a free auto-responder account, plus a great free course to help you prepare for auto-pilot income! 

Free Courses on Writing and Selling an Ebook

Write An Ebook In Seven Days Mini-Course

This is one of my favorite all time ebooks.

It takes a new info-product marketer by the hand and prepares them to have a product to sell in 7 days. I think the book currently sells for $37 but you can sample the flavor of the ebook before you buy!

Sign up for the free marketing course at the bottom of this page. When you are duly impressed (and you can’t help but be duly impressed), return at any time and grab your copy. Then put the knowledge to use and get selling online!

Free Courses – Internet Marketing and Website Promotion is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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You can quickly add new items to your product line by purchasing a package below, then posting your new product for sale.
Each one of the products I showcase here are personally reviewed, and hand selected for the most in demand topics online today. All are exceptional products packed full of solid information and I’m offering them at the lowest possible prices to help you get started in your online business.

How to Profit with Resale Rights

One way to make money online (without writing your own product or developing your own websites and software) is by purchasing resale rights to in demand, high caliber products that you either hold in high regard, or believe to have huge money-making potential. Once you own the rights, you then can sell the product yourself and keep 100% of the profit.

Now resale rights come in many different flavors.

The three most common are basic resale rights, master resale rights, and private label rights. The industry is still relatively fresh so a standard hasn’t really been set on what each term means specifically and each product offering is a little different as well so you’ll want to know your rights, before you buy. I’ve outlined them below for each product I list here.

The online income strategy here is to buy resale rights to any proven seller ebook, software or course and get selling – as you do you’ll be building a customer base as you earn.

The products on this page come with Master Resale Rights which means that after you purchase the product from Smartzville, you are free to resell them online or offline , i.e., on ebay, on CD via direct mail, or on your own website!

I am selling these below the suggested retail price because I want to help my new visitors get their businesses off the ground as well as assist my fellow established marketers to easily add another profit stream to their business. It’s part of Smartzville’s mission.

Here’s the resale rights packages…

Instant Niche Detective – Resale Rights ($19)

This is actually a bundled set of 4 ebooks in total. It is definitely my favorite resource to pass onto others because I give this set much of the credit for my own success! Yes, I learned most of my niche marketing strategies from these ebooks, and upon applying what I learned, have managed to take my online income to new heights.

The content helped me to increase my own skills and save many hours in research and development on lucrative, tightly defined niches. Once I’d finished reading and reviewing I started selling the kit here. You’ll be able to do the same – learn and sell to keep all the profits!

You’ll get the Instant Niche Detective (explains how to perform keyword research, as well as train your brain to spot profitable niches every day – even if you never leave the house!), plus…

Three bonus books that are great products in their own rights. Every time I revisit and review this set I can’t believe I picked them up as part of a package – each one has huge value. These bonuses will take your ability to create ebooks and discover profitable niches to complete understanding. Bonus books are: Quick Niche Product Creation, Targeted Traffic Machines, and Unlimited Adsense Income. The Adsense manual was my least favorite – not because it wasn’t great, just that I don’t have much desire to build my online business on selling off advertising space for pennies a click.

If you’re interested in grabbing these ebooks with master rights for yourself, you can read the sales letter and product info here. Resale Rights on Niche Marketing ebooks.

Now the suggested selling price is $47 and although I’d like to comply with the creator’s wishes I do have my mission to ensure you get started with your online business as quickly and affordably as possible.

123webs is currently selling this set at $19. Previously I sold this same product here for $27, over and over again. So, until I’m told by the creator to put the price back up, I’m linking over to 123webs to ensure you don’t come out of pocket too much. This bundle is worth far more than the $19 because you’ll earn so much back – whether you put the techniques into practice for yourself or you simply resell the package over and over again.

I urge you to read the contents of these ebooks twice! The knowledge you’ll gain on research, traffic, advertising income, and niche products will increase your business in more ways than you thought possible!

Internet Business Models – Resale Rights ($97)

This is a prime example of a resale rights product that doesn’t work! I’ve offered this for sale for the last three years – not one sale. It is actually a great product, but the restrictions placed on the sale of it have made many people turn away. Or perhaps the sales letter is poor. Or any number of reasons.

I’m leaving this here because there’s a lesson about paying top dollar for resale rights and never being able to make your money back. The answer to the problem is to change your selling strategy by packing on some bonus products to the offer, offering the product to a different target market, or lowering the price against the author’s wishes. Tactics that in the future, I may or may not employ.

If you’re ready to start earning more, or learning how the top online entrepreneurs earn big money online, you’ll want this insider’s account of 19 internet business models. Models that you can follow, combine, or re-fashion your existing strategy by. Comes with resale rights and website creation shortcuts to help put you in profit faster (even works for new online entrepreneurs – you can earn, as you learn!).

Online Info Product Business – Resale Rights ($19)

Want the goods on how to make money selling info products? Let me introduce you to the many facets of this online business, including all the shortcuts and high end techniques to create, sell, and promote info products while you increase your online income. It’s easier than you think (and cheaper than you’d thought!). This is another resale rights product that is selling cheap over at 123webs.com. Info Riches at 123WEBS.

Resale Rights is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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Just added! Software that automates and shortens the sales letter writing process. Read more below…

Your Web Site Sales Letter Could Make You or Break You

Fail to get your prospect excited about your product and your profits will only be a small fraction of what they could be – no matter how incredible your product or service might be!

Let’s take a closer look then at writing a sales letter that will have people excited to buy your products and services.

Writing effective text to make a person believe that they simply must have your information is part science, part knowledge, part awareness and part skill.

Writing effective sales letters can be learned, taught, and most certainly bought. Commissioning a top notch copywriter for your website’s order-pulling sales letter is often at a fee out of range for most start up online business. With a few good guidelines or checklists you should be able to do a fairly decent job yourself. A task you will revisit regularly to increase sales.

I do suggest that you try it yourself first and track the results as you tweak the copy. You never know – you might have the ad copy gift!

Let me tell you a little about one of my favorite copywriting mentors…

Joe Vitale makes over $30,000 per month on ebook sales alone (2005). He is both a brilliant copywriter and a veteran internet marketer. He writes to the reader in a manner that the knowledge is assimilated into your very being. Simply one of the easiest teachers to learn from.

Whether you read or listen to Joe’s ’spiritual’ products, his how-to-write products or his marketing success products, you’ll always learn something of value. You can read one of Joe’s sales letters on his 8th anniversay site.

Learn by Observation – Reading Sales Letters

They say that if you want to become an author you should read.

The same goes for writing effective sales copy – if you want to write effective sales copy, surf around and read some. You could sign up for a few top notch marketers email lists (you can always unsubscribe later).

Here’s an even easier way to write a sales letter…

This new software follows time-tested templates to build sales letters for you.

You just need to fill in the blanks, answer a few questions, and click BUILD!

The sales letter for this software was written in 20 minutes using the product itself. It’s easy, fast, but more importantly you’ll make more sales as a result of using it! Read more about this amazing new sales letter writing software and get yourself a copy today.

Here’s four key tips to sales letters that most new writers mess up on:

• Don’t talk about yourself. Talk about the person who is reading your page, what their needs or desires are and how your product will answer their questions or solve their problems.
• Have lots of bullet points – people like to skim over text on web pages.
• Make the key solutions bold faced type.
• Ask questions that make them scream “yes”! (i.e. Would you like to know…, Do you want to…, Have you experienced…) If your reader has been saying yes all along in your sales letter, it is more likely they will say yes when you ask them to click the order button.

Increase Your Income

As your skill develops and your sales letters convert more readers into customers, you should notice your yearly income increasing. But you don’t have to limit your skills to your own products! There’s a market for your sales letter writing skills and you’ll be able to claim a high price tag for your services once you’ve mastered the secrets.

Ready To Write A Fantastic Sales Letter? is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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I’m sick of it. Online business scams are at an all time high.

Worse yet, the ’scam-bags’ promoting these opportunities are raking in the money from people who truly can’t afford to throw money away. And the scoundrels are laughing all the way to the bank.

You’ll likely never read an article this personal from me on a web page (I keep my personal rants and upsets on my marketing news blog, but since this area of my site gets so much traffic and since this message is vital to anyone seeking opportunities online I had to write it here for you.

“A fool and his money…You’ve heard it before. In a world wide web of opportunity here’s how to protect yourself from online business scams…”

Friends, family members, and strangers who email and phone me – from Canada and the United States, a few from the Philippines and even more from Germany and other parts of Europe – have been sucked in and over-extended their available credit by a multitude of opportunists and ‘proven’ online business training (i.e. scams).

As a person who has been working online since 1995, working first for others and now solely for myself, I’ve seen them all. And I’m about to blow the lid off most of them here in an effort to save you from financial ruin.

• Every day there is a new ‘get rich quick’ scam popping up on the Internet.
• Every day there is a new ’sign up with us and we’ll help you grow your business’.
• Every day there is a training product launched promising, ‘even my 6 year old can do this – it’s that simple…’ 

And all any of this is doing is distracting you from learning how to build a real business online while it sucks money out of your savings account or mad money.

The only ones who make money on these online business scams are the scammers!

They sign you up, take your money, and are off to their Bahamas playground long before you realize you’ve been had, long before you realize it’s not simple enough for a 6 year old, long before you realize that thousands of other people just like you were taken for a ride.

To be clear here, I have written about products and systems and tools on other pages and said things like “it’s dead easy” or “my 9 year old daughter has done it” – and that’s the truth in every sense – but only about that particular system or aspect of online business. It’s never been about an entire business model or a path to ‘untold riches’.

What To Do If You’ve Fallen Into An Online Business Scam

It’s important that you don’t beat yourself up for falling into the online scam trap. These opportunists are very slick and prey upon people’s momentary weaknesses and your desire to believe in the internet lifestyle dream.

The internet lifestyle is real – I know, I’m living it – it’s just not in the same light they portray it, nor is it by buying into their system, tools and ‘network’.

Hopefully you paid by credit card and no more than 30 days have passed. If so, phone your credit card company right away – explain that the online business opportunity product you purchased was not as promised and they will remove the charge from your account (if any extra steps are involved they will walk you through the remainder of the process to retrieve your money from the scam business).

An Antidote to Opportunity Scams

The best way to fight back (after getting your money back) and to really take charge of your online business future is to educate yourself.

• Educate yourself about what it really takes to own, run and succeed at an online business.
• Educate yourself about what opportunities to run screaming from.
• Educate yourself enough to spot them a mile away and avoid them.

Here are some of the ways I investigate potential opportunity scams before I even read their sales pitch:

• Research them on google – type their business name or personal name into the search box and see what comes up – spend 5 minutes following and reviewing every link you can. Now try it with quotes around their name followed by the words review, then scam, then money – and spend 5 minutes following and reading those results. These 10 minutes could save you thousands of dollars and hours of following some scammer’s business advice.
• Email them – See if they reply to your request for more information personally. To be fair here many legitimate internet marketers get thousands of emails every day and often we miss some of our personal mail as we sift through thousands of spam, joint venture requests, review requests, etc. For this reason you might want to try emailing again in a few days and by all means ensure you use a brilliant subject line to your email (I can’t tell you how many people email me with generic subject lines that I might have missed like "Is this for real" or "Please respond". Subject lines like that are seen too often in our spam folders without our even knowing. The ones that work? "Laura, it’s Bob from Chicago and I was…"
• Phone them – Every real business has a real phone number with someone on the other end to answer your call. You’ll find mine on my contact page and the legitimate reasons why I’m not always available to take your call – I am, after all, not trying to take thousands of dollars from you for an online opportunity and as such do not promise to answer all questions free of charge. If I was, you can bet I’d spend more time at my phone or have an assistant to do so.   

Red Flags On Online Scams

There are a few tell-tale signs that an opportunity might be a scam.

Here are a few I consistently run from:

1. You pay, they give you a website to promote, on their server. Your ‘website’ looks something like this: www.scams.com/~yournamehere – which, I’m sorry, is not ‘your’ website by any means. It is a cookie cutter, cookie-setting version of their primary pages and chances are you are paying them to find more suckers for their scam opportunity. Not to mention the fact that hundreds, thousands maybe even tens of thousands of people are also promoting the same opportunity scam. Not a fun way to compete for an income online.
2. You pay to sell their products either by purchasing an expensive ’starter’ kit or pay to be an elite product reseller of a consumable. If any online business says you can sell their product and they will pay you a commission from each sale, chances are it’s a scam. Reputable and profitable commission-based opportunities are free to sign up for.

The Best Ways to Stay Safe from Online Business Scams

Use your business sense. Use your common sense. Trust your instincts.

If you’ve never had a home business or had any business training then I do understand you are at a disadvantage.

You’re also at a disadvantage – like thousands of us – in that finding these online scams you’re often alone. Sitting at your computer alone, reading that sales pitch alone, making that decision alone. I know this – I was a single mom living in a new community down a dirt road (it’s really true!) when I started working online. There was no one to turn to for business advice.

That opportunity you just read about, the one that might be a scam, will be there tomorrow. In the meantime, perform your online scam research (as above), email me for advice, ask your spouse, parent or
trusted business-minded friend, and sleep on it.

My hope is that this saves
you from losing money with online business scams. If it saves just a few people,
I will have done my job.

Is This Business A Scam? is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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• Starting or Operating A Home Business

Small business managers and owners today are at large operating out of the home. This makes distinction between the two quite difficult. So let’s assume that a small business has one employee or more, even if those employees are nothing more than virtual assistants or freelancers.

Let’s also assume that true small businesses are the result of a home business that grew into something larger than the entrepreneur who launched it.

“Turn your home based business into a full blown small business through online representation.”

Can Your Small Business Grow?

According to the Center for Women’s Business Research (2004):

• 1,600 new businesses are launched in America by women,
• female business ownership growth (17%); 

And According to the U.S. Census Bureau (year end 2004)

• home business made up over 70% of America’s total registered business.

Is This The Right Time for You and An Online Small Business

Since we’re assuming that small business (at least online) is more productive, financially rewarding, has one or more employees, and has likely reached it’s peak as a home business – let’s talk precisely how to get your business online – offering your products and services to a global marketplace.

You will need to strategize, or hire a consultant to assist you in this strategy, as not all home business converts easily to a small business online. And, since most entrepreneurs don’t have the capital available to hire a consultant let me offer a few options.

Teach Yourself How to Strategically Get Your Small Business Online

• A variety of reasonably-priced training exists online regarding profitable business models. You may have to sift through hours of information and multiple websites to find a model that works for your business but it will save you a business strategy consultant fee.
• Universities and Colleges are now offering a wide range of entrepreneur classes. Many offer online business strategy courses through their night course curriculum. Research indicates that graduating students from these courses are far more likely to succeed at their small business than those who learned by doing.

If neither of the options appeal to you or fit your lifestyle and available time, you can always test the waters by hiring and training a college student (educated in small business) to expand your reach online.

Taking these ‘baby steps’ are as easy as advertising your services online as a freelancer but having the student perform the extra work. If your business is product related, you could start selling those products online (through your own website or auction sites) while your college student makes the products for you.

Home Business Turns Small Business Through Online Reach

Small business means employees which has it’s own challenges but the rewards could be well worth it. Begin by hiring and training an employee to do the work for you
while you focus on growing your brand, income, customer list, and reach through your own website, heavy traffic free websites such as Squidoo.com, or by participating in social networking.

Growing Into A Small Business? is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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• Free Courses – Internet Marketing and Website Promotion

How to get website visitors (traffic) that convert to sales is every website owners’ business. Although you can pay for traffic, share your profits for traffic, actively market for hours daily to solicit traffic, there is one preferred method for getting website visitors.

This is what online marketers call ‘organic’ search engine positioning and even though the work is challenging the dividends pay off as long as you own your domain.

“Without website traffic from the search engines you’re paying for every visitor no matter how useful or beautiful your website may be…” Laura Childs, 5th Oct, 2005

There are a number of firms, freelancers and specialists in the business of performing research and tweaking pages to gain top ranks in the most popular search engines. They are labeled as SEO experts, search engine optimizers and such.

The goal is to achieve a steady stream or ‘organic’ traffic – free, from the search engines. To have your site naturally recognized by the top search engines as being one of the best sites on the subject of choice.

Getting to that stage is a process that contains many variables but once you learn the basics you can then apply your knowledge to any site you ever build. You might even consider freelancing your services out to other site owners in the future. (Of course I’d never recommend wasting your talents working for someone else when you can apply your time to your own venture for better profits.)

There are a number of places to learn how to perform search engine optimization. You can take the slow and costly route to get visitors to your site or you can learn from the marketers and experts who are now fast tracking the process through tried and tracked techniques or highly specialized software.

If you’re going to spend any ‘learning dollars’ at all on your business, this is my top suggestion – put your money into search engine knowledge and current optimization techniques – after all traffic is the lifeblood of any internet business.

Why wait for 3 months for the search engines to find you only to give your website a low ranking – when the knowledge you need for higher positioning can be had for a song? Get the basics through the free email course below, this free 89 page pdf report "#1 in the Search
Engines, and then spend your money on high-ticket training materials on Web 2.0 traffic.

Get to Know How Search Engines Direct Traffic

Understanding Search Engines and Increasing Traffic

This is a free course that arrives daily in your email. I make every one I come into contact with take this course whether they’re new to making money online or a seasoned vet.

The course is called: ‘The 7 Most Powerful Web Traffic Creation & Conversion Techniques Period.’ It’s completely free and information rich. You’ll never look at search engine positioning and results pages the same way again! There is something in this course for everyone to learn – even one new tip is worth the 3 minutes it takes to read.

This is not a well-known or highly-publicized course so you’ll be going into it on my recommendation. (The sign up form for the course is on the left side of page. The first automated email makes you wonder if you signed up for the right course, but it all begins to fit together and begin to train you for search engine positioning success by day 2.)

More Traffic to Your Site with Web 2.0 Strategies

New Technique for Website Traffic – It Doesn’t End at the Search Engine

Listen, in order to get lots of traffic you must be included in the top search engines, that’s true, however, it doesn’t end there…

I just finished months of research regarding 2006-2007 online user activity and discovered that although more people are signing onto the internet daily and spending more hours at it then ever before, they just aren’t using the search engines as often as they used to.

So how can you capture their attention and attract them to your website?

It’s a little trickier as it involves a strategy to (a) determine where your target market is spending their time and (b) getting your website link in front of them. This is Web 2.0 Traffic strategy – you’ll be hearing a lot more about it over the next few years.

Once you understand basic search engine strategy (by taking the free course above), you can easily apply the Web 2.0 traffic strategy and get twice the bang for your buck as the search engines will automatically include your site in their listings once you’ve created a presence on a Web 2.0 site. This new technique doesn’t cost a cent, gets your site indexed by the top engines in short order, and is easy to repeat for higher rankings and more traffic over time.

You’ll have to pay to learn the techniques, but the result is worth the cost and more. Organic placement and targeted traffic to your new website, or increased traffic to an existing site. My clients and I have been using this technique since January 2007 now and we’re all seeing great results.

Get Incoming Links and Boost Your Website Traffic

Traffic from Outside Websites – Getting Off Links which Increase Page Views (but not necessarily search engine positioning)

Although getting incoming links from a variety of existing websites was once a sound solution to website traffic woes, it’s effectiveness is waning.

However, if you are a brand new website owner there are some very basic rules and training necessary to your success. I used to sell this video training set for $29 that share the techniques I still use today for a boost in website traffic whenever I need some extra visitors (after extensive testing I haven’t seen much good from using the technique described in Video 5, so don’t waste your time on that one if you buy this set at it’s reduced price of $8). P.S. Once you buy the video set, you can practice the techniques and sell copies of it!

More Visitors to Your Site – Search Engine Traffic is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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It’s just my way of saying "Thank you for being here."

If you’re running an online business that requires more sales or page visits to make your business viable I suggest you do this as well – it works in spades and
let’s customers know you care about them.

Thank you for visiting Smartzville’s Internet Marketing Website. I have gifts I like to give my subscribers and customers from time to time…

So whether you have to suffer through my newsletters and promotions or you’ve bought one of my products I think you deserve a reward. That’s precisely why I bundle up products with bonuses (often unadvertised) or follow up my customer contact with relevant (and only useful) information, tips or more ebooks.

For instance since I discuss website traffic so much on a few websites and since my specialty is Web 2.0 I recently started selling resale rights to a series of ebooks on how to market yourself, your mailing list, your products or your affiliate links with marketing on Squidoo. The set is top notch content and I passed the savings onto my customers when I sold it for under $13.

Wonder of wonders though, a few days later I picked up master resale rights to another ebook (not as good, but valuable enough to some) on Web 2.0 sites. My customers were happily surprised when I followed up with them a few days after their initial purchase with another ebook – this one for free.

That, in a nutshell is one of the easiest ways to brand your name and secure repeat customers for your business. In no time at all you’ll start receiving emails from your following asking for your advice on this product or that product, if you’ll be selling something similar, and so on.

Why not give it a shot? You can map out the strategy in less than 1/2 an hour and load up the entire campaign in an auto responder. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about take the free auto-responder course here.)

Free Internet Marketing Information is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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Blog or RSS? Which is Right for Your Site?

I’ve been telling my readers (and people who email asking for help) since 2004 that if they’re blogging just to gain rank and traffic (instead of a true passion for blogging), sooner or later they’ll find they’ve wasted their precious time – especially when they tire of writing to a blog everyday just to keep up their search engine positioning.

Let’s face it, not all of us have time to write 400 word articles every day and post it to our blog – and that’s what it’s starting to take to get the search engines hungry for your website’s content and visiting every day. But you can get the same amount of traffic and search engine results by running an RSS Feed on your site. To get the full scoop, read the story behind the controversy at RSS or Blog?.

Blog and RSS Feeds Ebook and Resources for Website Owners

Is your website hungry for visits from targeted buyers? Learn how to explode your sales and subscribers – whether you target a niche market or not – with this fully explained process. This is the new Stampede Secret for Web 2.0!

Joe Vitale and I wrote the original version for our subscribers and from 2004 to 2006 I worked one on one with our clients via email if they needed help understanding the contents, the techniques or the tools. In early 2007 The Stampede Secret was re-launched with all new content to help webmasters of all types of websites get more traffic through custom and effective Web 2.0 Marketing strategies. The concept is ‘working smart’ by finding the 2.0 properties that match your market – saving you time and bringing in only highly targeted visitors.

Favorite Web Script to Earn Money Online

In mid 2006 I tested an innovative website script that assisted website owners to set up and share in the earnings of the internet’s most lucrative site – eBay! Since that time the script has been updated and is remarkably better, well after I dubbed it my top pick for 2006!

If you have a website and you’re looking for more ways to earn some money from it, or if you’re still scratching your head wondering how to create websites that earn consistent cash online you owe it to yourself to check this out – "best website script". You’ll be amazed at all this script can do for website creation and income.

Internet Marketing Announcements is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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If you’re fed up with paying top dollar for marketing information that seems little more than a promotional mailer, you’re ready for the Smarties series of ebooks and tutorials!

Concise Strategies to Help You Prosper Online

The best advice for start up entrepreneurs on this entire 400 page website is this: "Once you’ve made a profit, poor it back into your business and your education. Learners are earners!"

But when your business is online, that ‘education’ can rob your entire online income for the first three years with all the $97 ebooks and $497 packages that call your name in the moonlight hours, "You NEED this to succeed online! Click here to order…"

It’s frustrating. It can be disheartening. You feel like you’re not being told the entire story. That even though you just paid this week’s grocery money on the latest info product – you still feel something’s missing.

I remember those feelings and it was a horrible place to be.

When I first started out online I knew I wanted those ’secret strategies’ but money was tight. I poured over the sales letters, reading every word of my top six picks determined to just pick one, learn from it, apply the strategies and when I’d earned enough from that strategy, I’d buy the next one on my list.

But ebook about ebook failed to deliver the goods…

The rest of the story is the same as so many other’s accounts of spending thousands and getting no where.

If you’ve been caught in this cycle you’re probably wondering if all ‘make money online’ products are nothing but hot air…

The answer is "not all". 

There are plenty of high quality info products written by top notch business people who are selling fantastic tutorials and step by step strategies for entrepreneurs. Unfortunately you have to wade through a lot of junk, written by people who don’t have a clue how to teach anything to anyone. 

The strategies they’re trying to convey might have worked for their business, but without a clue how to teach others, they end up making their millions on the backs of start up entrepreneurs,  frustrating their readers and giving the internet marketing industry a bad reputation.

The other side of this is that no one teacher is right for every student.

I saw this far too often in the first set of ebooks authored. Some customers would write and ask for help because the strategies were too difficult for an online newbie – others would write to brainstorm and glean advanced strategies because the content was too remedial.

The way I see it, the industry has to change to suit the market:

• ebooks and home study courses should be priced on a scale that directly relates to the cost to create and the potential to benefit the reader,
• strategies should be written, explained and mapped out by people who have succeeded with those strategies and who actually know how to convey an idea (without missing any key points), and
• authors, especially ebook authors, need to be ‘at the ready’ to listen and respond to their reader’s questions, then update the ebook’s content as often as required to minimize the frustration of future customers.

Am I pipe-dreaming? Perhaps. Will the internet marketing crowd change to suit the needs of their market? Probably not.

But I know I can make a difference.

Hence, the birth of the "For Smarties" series…

Currently available:

• Public Domain Profits for Smarties. Now that you know the mission, click here to learn about using public domain to launch your career, create website content or make money selling ebooks.
• Netpreneur’s Guide to IdeaStorming for Smarties. ‘Average’ just doesn’t cut it anymore. Learn how to be creative, have innovative thoughts and product ideas and tying it all in with an understanding of what’s hot right now.

Helpful Resources for Busy Entrepreneurs is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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How to Sell Products Online

The route to sell any product online is to find out what people want and get it in front of them.

I know that sounds simplistic, but in many cases pulling off the ‘get your offer in front of the people who are interested’ task is not particularly easy – especially when you don’t know where to start! We’ll talk more about this later, on other web pages…

“First off, I hope I caught you in time…read What to Sell? first, then come back to this page.”

If you’ve already determined the product you’re selling and defined your target market (and after you’ve created your website and discovered how to get traffic to your offer), only then do you need to worry about how to actually ‘make’ or ‘process’ a sale. Putting the cart in front of the horse by wondering about the mechanics of how to sell products online, will only slow your progress.

You might sell on your own website:

• one product through a mini-site, or
• many products on a content site

You might sell on other sites:

• products on ebay, or
• open your own yahoo store.

Again, I’ve simplified the variety above, because the knowledge of how to sell online is wrapped up in first understanding your market well enough to write directly to their interests, desires and comprehension ability. Once you’ve made that first sale, you’ll move further into learning – then  testing and applying what you’ve learned.

Potential Customers Are on My Site, but I’m Not Making Any Sales!

This is a problem for many website owners and the reason why 95% of internet business fails within the first year. If you care for your business and want to make it work, it’s time to learn the fastest and surest way to a sale. A style of marketing called ‘direct selling’.

Direct selling is a skill that that can be mastered over time, but online it all begins with the way you write your sales letter (as that is the first and most direct contact you’ll have with your customer).

Most of direct selling has to do with your sales copy – the printed words you use to ‘pitch’ your product and convince your reader that your offer is the one they should purchase.

So What’s In Direct Selling ‘Copy’?

• You’ll want to write to your intended reader, in a conversational style that makes them feel you are speaking directly to them.
• In that same sales copy, you’ll also have to build their confidence and trust in you. This is no small feat!
• You’ll have to overcome your reader’s skepticism and find a way to make your product more desirable than other similar products available to them.
• You’ll have to be easy on the eyes and a pleasure to read, without being boring or flat.

There’s definitely more to online direct selling than sales letter copy (which you can master over time), but to help you understand the process of what it takes to truly excel at selling online I’ve listed a few books and examples for you. The more you learn about and apply Direct Selling techniques, the more your income will grow.

All the Direct Selling Techniques You Need to Know

Are actually in one book, just released and available on amazon for less than $15. The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less. Written by the ‘Godfather of Internet Marketing’ – The Irresistible Offer.

Now trust me on this…I could quite easily have recommended you to an info-product here that would cost you hundreds of dollars and make me a fat commission to boot, but instead I’m suggesting you spend much less, get much more valuable information, and get your business moving quicker.

Spending a few days absorbing that book is such a small investment to help you, the new online entrepreneur…

“The good news is that you can earn as you’re learning – just promise me – to never stop learning! The more you learn about selling, marketing and working online, the more you will earn. Every month my income goes up – every month I read, learn, digest and test new techniques and skills. You’ll do this as well once you realize the value of it…”

For the first year that I worked for myself online I invested over 20% of my earnings back into my business – yes, I bought a new laptop and some other office equipment, but mostly I bought information from other online marketers. Information that I quickly put into practice and the results were fantastic to say the least!

While you’re waiting for your new book on direct selling techniques to arrive, have a browse around this website and see if any of the online markets appeal to you – if any of their free courses or products interest you. If they do, sign up to their subscriber lists and watch how they market their products to their readers (there is much to be learned this way).

And, when you have a few dollars left over at the end of the month buy their information – they’re busy in the field of marketing all the time to a variety of markets, their battle tested techniques are worth your investment.

And, if you have a marketing question, be sure to hit the interactive blog and post me a "how to sell online" related question. If I can’t answer, I’ve got a few friends around to help you out! Web 2.0 Internet Marketing blog where you can read reviews, ask questions, or search the archives for even more help with making money online.

Other Online Selling Techniques to Know

• You’ll have to follow up with your leads (that’s why you need a subscriber list).
• You’ll have to be prepared to change your marketing strategy or sales copy, if what you’re shooting for isn’t making the number of sales you’d hoped for.
• You’ll have to be diligent in tracking and testing your efforts – to see what works and tweak your copy accordingly.

How to Sell Online – What to Sell Online is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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• Niche Marketing Guide and Free Information

On this site I only recommend products and people who have made a difference in my personal income – and I try to find the best free or cheapest resources available for you – but I will not recommend just anything because it’s free or cheap – it has to be information that works, information that is easy to follow…

Have you just started marketing a business, product or opportunity online and find that you’ve absolutely overwhelmed by:

• the website tools,
• the marketing techniques,
• the online gurus,
• the free selling reports,
• the webcasts,
• the marketing forums,
• and more?

Help for New Internet Marketers and Your Websites

You aren’t the first person who has ended yet another day with their head swimming in possibilities and questions.

• Which ‘guru’ to listen to?
• Which Search Engine Optimization program to buy?
• Which program or product to promote?
• Should you be a niche marketer? Or an affiliate marketer?
• Should you focus first on building a website or performing keyword research?
• What’s most important? Getting traffic or subscribers?
• How important is sales copy anyway?

Let me see if I can help with your marketing…

First step is to focus. Focus your energy, your talents, your desires. Finely hone your interests in online business down into a small target market.

Next, you’ll want to do some research. You’ll want to find the phrases that people actually use to find information, product or services like yours.

Then, you’ll want to register a website (domain) name and secure a hosting contract for your website.

After this you’ll have to get down to some hard decisions about your marketing.

• If you are going to create an info-product, you’ll probably just need a one page sales letter and an order link.
• If you’re planning on blogging and linking to affiliate products you’ll want to learn (or hire someone) to install a blog on your site.
• If you’re planning on creating a huge and traditional content site you’ll want to purchase some page creation software and learn how to use it.

Of course this can all be as difficult or as easy as you choose for it to be. You can start really small with an info-product sales site and learn other marketing techniques as you go.

Marketing Help for Existing Sites

Once you’ve chosen your market and your product, the next two biggest challenges in marketing are sales copy and getting potential customers to your website.

If you require marketing assistance in either of these areas don’t take the cheap route of trial and error. Sign up for some of the free resources on this site.

See which marketer best fits your learning style during the free training, then buy their product and follow their systems to a T. It is important that you take advice from one who has gone before you that you can easily relate to/learn from. I’m not saying this to make a buck off you, I’m saying this because this lesson took me far too long to learn! (A) Spend the money. (B) From a marketer who ’speaks’ your language.

I’ve paid up to $1100 for some products (and believe me paying those prices hurt us at the time), BUT I’ve seen more than that initial investment come back as a result of applying the techniques taught!

Years later if I know I need to learn a new technique or beef up my marketing skills I don’t question the price tag. I know it adds up to more revenue for me further down the road.

Looking for some One-on-One Help with your Marketing?

Head over to my Marketing Help blog and drop me a line or leave a question you need answered. I’ll do my best to assist you!

Online Marketing Help is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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The letter below is from the originator of the Top Secret Copywriter’s Checklist. I challenge you to not want your own copy of this ebook by the time you’re finished reading – especially at this price!

Struggling With Poor Sales?

“What If You Could Easily and Simply,
Write Cash Pulling Sales Letters
‘On The Fly’
by Following These 30 Master Copywriting Steps?"

Dear Friend,

If your business isn’t generating as many sales as expected, you can be sure of one thing – your sales copy sucks.

Look, it isn’t my everyday style to tell people straight in the face and hurt their pride…but that’s the colossal truth!

“Leave just one of these sales squeezing tactics out of your own sales letters and you’ll be paying for it in lost revenue. You owe it to your success…Test drive the secret weapon for writing highly converting and riveting sales copy…and exhaust your order buttons!” Laura Childs, Apr 14, 2006

Whenever I come across a sales page that’s below average… I feel my blood pressure start to rise because most business owners just seem so contented with using wimpy sales copy!

Fact: If Your Copy Is Wimpy, You’re Hurting Your Sales Big Time

The most essential skill in business is the ability to produce cash cranking copy, on demand. Of course, you don’t always have to write these sales letters yourself if you have deep enough pockets to employ world class copywriters for the job. 

But the sad truth is, most business owners are unwilling or even unable to spend a minimum of $1000 on a sales letter…

and These Are Often The Guys Who Need Compelling, Cash Pulling Copy The Most!

So what’s the next best alternative?

Writing it yourself, of course. It’s free, and takes just a few hours of your time if you’re a fairly proficient writer.

But there’s a major problem…

Most people know nuts about writing compelling and highly converting copy for their products from a marketing savvy point of view.

They mindlessly copy a few phrases that “look right” from other letters they’ve read, throw in a bunch of benefits about their products which make everything end up like reading like a dog’s dinner.

Sadly, it will never convert at its maximum potential UNLESS you apply some of the tried and tested principles used by professional copywriters.

Some years ago I personally analyzed a collection of one hundred and ten sales letters to determine their winning secrets and was shocked to realize that…

Some Of Them Contain Up To 89 Winning Traits Per Sales Letter!

I then took these 89 winning traits, categorized them and boiled them down into 47 one liners. This became my “secret weapon” for writing highly converting and riveting sales copy which my clients now repeatedly return to me for.

In fact, I use it for every single copywriting job I do… just to make sure I don’t miss anything.

Later, I sat down and condensed the 47 one liners into 30 checklist items that matter the most, and wrote a concise description explaining each of them!

In fact, if you just take any sales letter and “ramp it up” by checking it against this Top Secret Checklist, you will
discover how to…

Miraculously Transform Any “Dead In The Water”
Sales Letter Into “An Orders Magnet”!

• What is the most important trait that has to be in ANY headline, without fail?
• 3 proven ways to grab prospects by the neck, and suck them in right from the very first word.
• The 6 universal themes of interest you should always use to leverage on the “selling power” of your prospect’s own greed and ego.
• The most important personality trait a copywriter should possess when writing copy. (No, it’s not good English!).
• The best format for headlines and why it works.
• A grave mistake which even some of the top copywriters in the game make… just by failing to use this additional “check” on their sales letters (Item #5).
• How to address your readers and capture their attention without fail.
• The best way to write any opening paragraph (by simply forgetting all the rules about English you learned in school)…
• Why selling is just like fishing in the murky waters (Item #9).
• The most effective way to start any letter which is bound to spellbind your prospects. (You may have fallen prey to this method more than once in your daily life and it still continues to work!).
• How I come up with interesting things to write in a sales letter even though I lead an utterly, absolutely boring, stay-at-home life. And how you can do so too.
• 2 counting exercises that will immediately distinguish a master copywriter from a wannabe (Item #12) — Try this on any promotional material you come across!
• Why you should be very good friends with a 6th grader (Item #14).
• Why merely including a cliffhanger in your letters may not be enough…and what you absolutely must do to ensure that the reader turns the page.
• How to engage your prospect’s interest through one single element in your sales letter…
• Item #17 tells the story of how I was almost duped by an excellent sales letter… but grew suspicious because the letter did not contain these 2 crucial elements.
• How to appeal to the 2 kinds of buyer moods reading your letter – emotional and logical.
• What one thing you should never leave out in any sales letter. (HINT: It’s not the headline!)
• Why it is important to be as precise as possible, then going one step further and beating your own precision!
• One thing that always gets read in ANY letter, email, or note…
• Item #30: Quite possibly the only reason why people read sales letters, and how to make use of this primal need…

If you’re someone who writes your own copy for your products, you absolutely owe it to yourself to lay your hands on my “Top Secret Copywriting Checklist” right now.

But You Don’t Even Have To Decide Now!

Here’s the deal – You don’t have to make a decision now!

Take a full 10 days to test drive these 30 highly essential, must-have conversion boosting tips on ANY sales letter you have written.

That’s right – Take a sales letter you already have, put it to the test by changing it to fulfill all 30 winning “traits” as specified in this checklist, then send some traffic to your new and improved sales letter. If you’re not receiving more sales as a result of a higher converting letter just write me a note with a link to your new sales letter and I’ll return your money.

That’s My Personal Promise

If you do not manage to increase your sales AND profits after using my “Top Secret Checklist" as stated above, simply ask for a full 100% refund!

I’m THAT confident that this checklist will make you far more money and increase your awareness.

And to make this decision even more of a ‘non-decision’, I’m making this “Top Secret Checklist” available for a super low price of only $**. I’m officially out of my mind!

Make the right choice for your business today.
There’s absolutely no risk on your part.
Order Now from 123WEBS

P.S – Don’t make the mistake of giving this insane offer a miss just because you think you know how to write good copy or that you don’t believe you’ll see much value for such a moderately priced product! I promise you’ll be absolutely thrilled!

Reserve your copy right now!
You could be applying the techniques to your
sales copy tonight and waking up with
higher conversions
in the morning!

** A Note from Laura – I paid a fair bit of money for these resale rights to help you with your business. The author suggested a retail value of at least $37 for the ebook and he (and I) have made quite a bit of money off this report already. Due to the fact that I have already recouped my investment and that I have a mission to help you with your business, I’m now selling the Top Secret Copywriter’s Checklist for $17. Crazy isn’t it?

Top Secret Copywriter’s Checklist is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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Are You Working on Your Website?

Me too! And I’m always looking for, trying out, testing-tracking, tweaking and learning…

But that’s the business I’m in.

I have a pile of websites now (and I’m always in the market for more) plus I manage the promotion of a few friends’ successful sites.

Because of my work focus I have to stay on top of the latest search engine news, promotional tools, copywriting techniques, and educational products (as they relate to online business).

I spend hours a day at learning the best (and some really bad) website promotion techniques taught by the gurus and the up-and-comers!

You should too! But you likely don’t have time to sort through and filter out all the junk from the gems. You’re probably trying to run your business, improve your conversion rates, and get more traffic and subscribers.

Really Fast Money
New for 2008 – $5
As trainers in the make money online marketplace, we are inundated daily with emails from people asking “What would you do if you needed $1000 – $2000 by TOMORROW, and you didn’t see it (coming)…?”
Click here to see the answer…

How do you know what’s working now and what’s old news regarding website promotion?

Listen, I first wrote this page on December 06, 2005, and not getting to updating it until today, February 3, 2008. Yet I just received another email from a guru who wants me to invest in his latest automated software – he says it will cut down on my workload and get my sites indexed faster. Well, that message would have been fantastic 2 years ago, when we all started to realize the power of blogging, but the magic is waning. Our target is onto website promotion experts – simply blogging and pinging is no longer enough…(if you want to know what’s hot and new and working right now, see Website Traffic). And, if you’re an advanced marketer who is living on the pulse of what’s happening online then Web 2.0 Traffic is more your speed.

So how can I help you promote your website without breaking your personal bank account or wasting your time?

By signing up for my free ‘Working on My Website Promotion’ news.

• First off I can promise you that you won’t get any old news from me or find me pitching products that are no longer effective.
• Secondly, I won’t be trying to sell you on some new $97 course or software every day (I will suggest some software, ebooks, and promotional techniques but I will also tell you if it works, why it works, how long it takes to work and anything else you need to know before you buy).
• Third, if there’s a product that I own – that I believe will benefit you and that I’m licensed to give to you – you will have it. Free. As a matter of fact if you see that I’m selling a product on this site that you want, that I haven’t given you yet, just email me asking for it! (Some products I cannot just give away due to licensing restrictions or co-author agreements so please understand if I have to say "I can’t."

Try it out. You have nothing to lose, some products to gain for free, and you can unsubscribe with one click at any time. But I don’t expect you to do that any time soon because you never know what ‘goodie’ could be in the next email I send you…

Have a great day, use the form below if you’re subscribing, and I’ll see you in your inbox shortly.

Laura Childs

p.s. You should also know that I answer every subscriber email personally so if you need me to clarify or help, don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Website Promotion Techniques is a post from: online marketing with smartzville

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