My 2¢ Worth

he life of an Ezine publisher isn't easy. Somehow Outblaze.com has this Ezine blacklisted. Outblaze and others like them are more of a headache than what they're worth.

ou have to jump through a lot of hoops to get off the black list and onto the white. And the funny thing is that's it's always legitimate Ezines, like this one, who ever gets blacklisted while the real spammers go merrily about their business.

owever, Outblaze itself isn't totally to blame. At least half the blame must be attributed to the subscribers who won't take the time to simply click an unsubscribe link, but would rather report the "offending" Ezine as spam.

ranted, there is an awful lot of garbage being published today. And most so-called Ezines are all but undistinguishable from actual spam. And as soon as you get on their list, your Inbox is bombarded.

 only know of a handful of decent Ezines being published today, where there used to be hundreds! There are still hundreds, being published, but as I said, the majority are garbage.

here used to be a time when publishing an Ezine was an art and publishers took a lot of pride in publishing valuable content and were also mindful to not flood the subscribers with advertisements.

efore I close today, I just want to say my hat's off to those of you who still produce a quality Ezine and those subscribers who still know how to click an unsubscribe link when you wish to move on.

Feature Article

Why Pay for Advertising That Does Not Yield Sales, Increase Your Conversions

by: Sharon Housley NotePage, Inc.

Why pay for advertising that does not yield sales? Before you part with your cold hard cash, consider various ways to increase and maximize your conversions. The term conversion simply represents the number of website visitors that take the action that the web publisher desires. In most cases, conversion refers to an individual browsing a website and purchasing the product(s) or service(s) being sold. The idea is that a browser has been converted into a buyer.

What if you could increase the number of people that visit your site to customers who purchase or take action on your site by 1 percent. What would a 1 percent increase in conversion mean to your bottom line? Even on low ticket items, a 1 percent increase in conversions can be potentially staggering when considered over time.

How do you increase conversions?

Obviously the copy is critical in converting a 'browser' into a 'buyer' and while a webpage should be optimized for search engine spiders, search engine optimization should not be at the expense of web surfers. Webmasters must balance search engine optimization with sensible copy that calls the website visitor to the appropriate action.

What about advertising?

Keyword advertising can be very effective. In order to increase the conversion of keyword advertising, create continuity between your keyword and your landing page. Use the same words in the ad as in the landing page. Keep in mind that landing pages do not have to be part of a websites normal navigation. Webmasters can customize landing pages to cater to a specific audience, advertisement, or search term.

Ultimately, the goal is all about ROI or return on investment--publishers aim to make more than they spend. For every dollar you spend in advertising, you want to make a profit of $ 2.00 or better. That means in many cases you will need to monitor any changes in sales and web traffic, and determine what specific actions are resulting in the sales increases.

When evaluating advertising campaigns, consider whether the results will be long term or short term. Long term results from a short term expense could involve a website design. Short term results are generally things like ezine advertisements that result in sharp sales spikes that don't generally last.

Consider whether the expense is a one time cost or ongoing. Equally important, determine whether you can reliably track and measure the results of the advertising campaign. Can the results be reproduced by spending more money?

Targeted advertising will convert at a higher rate than non-targeted advertising. It is critical that advertising be targeted, so that you can maximize your conversion and increase your ROI.

On the other hand, if you have a low conversion rate, spending money on advertising is not likely going to produce significant results or a high ROI--so before you part with any hard earned cash take a look at your conversion rate.

Why pay for terms that are not converting?

Monitoring is critical to any advertising campaign. As a webmaster, you have a whole host of tools that allow you to track the actions that your visitors take. Use these tools to analyze and test theories that relate to conversions. When determining areas of low conversion, evaluate weblogs. Look at the abandon rate by viewing single access web pages. Use cookies to track the actions that browsers on a website take, do they return and purchase at a later date? Another option is to track customer actions using javascript that is embedded in the website's webpages.

Pay particular attention to what keywords result in traffic, and what keywords result in actual sales. Anyone can purchase traffic with the keyword phrase "free money" but how many of those who click are going to take the desired action on your webpage? Keyword terms that are closely related to the product or service being sold are going to have a higher conversion. It is important to filter phrases or keywords, that do not convert or result in unrelated traffic (due to synonym use).

What about the landing page?

When designing the landing page think about the action you want and emphasize it; remove all other distractions from the webpage. The landing page should be designed in such a way that the website is driven to the action you wish for them to take.

Unique URLs or special landing pages can be instrumental in tracking a advertising campaigns success. They are also helpful when you conduct split-testing sending users to different web pages, and then tracking the actions that result.

What common problems result in poor conversions?

Poor web site design can result in a low website conversion. Websites should explain the product or service is that you are selling in simple terms. The website navigation should be intuitive, and it should not be difficult to locate what visitors are looking for. Avoid vintage web graphics that are of low quality, or fonts that are unreadable. Avoid color schemes or font size that alienate web visitors, colors should be used to highlight important points. Webmasters should avoid small font sizes or fonts that are not easily readable.

While some items are easy to measure, others become a little more nebulous, it is difficult to know whether enhanced graphics will increase sales, but they should be considered when evaluating a poor conversion rate.

**************

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company

Non-Tiling Background Images

If you would like to display a background image on your web page, but don't want it to tile (repeat), place the following code in the <head> of your HTML document. This code will prevent your image from tiling and will center it within your page. Don't forget to change the text in red with the name of your image.

<style type="text/css">

body { background-image: url(yourimage.gif) } body { background-repeat: no-repeat } body { background-position: center }

</style>

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

Is Banner Advertising Still A Good Marketing Tool?

by: Riki Trafford DMOM Ltd

Are banners effective or have they totally lost their appeal? Some say banner advertising never really had an appeal on a medium that relies on the user doing the navigating rather than the medium calling the shots. Anyway, don't Internet users access the Internet through Search Engines rather than through advertising? Banner advertising went through stages since its inception to become a marketing tool that motivates people to action instead of merely an informational tool like a print ad or web site.

Banners are found everywhere on the Internet. Do advertisers expect their exposure to increase recognition? Or, do advertisers want their exposure to lead to a click-through? Unfortunately, research shows that too much banner advertising online is a turn-off for the Internet user who actually starts to gloss over banner advertising. Still, Internet marketing services assert that banner advertising will work as long as its done right and placed in the right spots.

An Internet user is most receptive to your banner and the banner's message if it's presented carefully. Positioning of the banner entails getting the viewer's attention in a positive manner instead of in an annoying way. Useful attention grabbers include animation, specific call-to-action offers, and freebies. Animation works if it isn't a bothersome distraction. Call-to-action offers include advice like "If you do this, then you can get rid of that!" Freebies work if no catch is involved or doesn't sound too good to be true. When a banner offers more than basic information, a viewer is more likely to click-through and performs the requested action.

What does the exposure from banner advertising online achieve? Does the banner draw in lots of traffic or visitors willing to buy? The banner must attract the right target audience that is receptive to performing a click-through and then purchasing. Where the users of the 1990s didn't think twice about following a banner to a new location, today's Internet user is more discriminatory and suspicious of banner's so-called gimmicks such as freebies.

Many banner ads never get the opportunity to flaunt their stuff since many Internet users automatically block their appearance. As the risks of identify theft, ad ware and spyware increases, more Internet users avoid anything to do with banner advertising. Justifiable or not, many users put banners and invasive programs in the same category. Therefore, many website developers seek alternative marketing tools to announce the site location, products and services.

Time is of the essence in gaining your visitors attention
- some say you've only 8 seconds before the visitor decides to stay, or leave
- and banner advertising tends to drag down the loading speed.

Some web sites rely on banner ads for an extra source of income, especially if visitors follow the banner to its destination. However, the web site itself also wants to maintain its visitors and customers who don't want to be bugged by advertising and slow downloading times. Sometimes simpler banners are more effective than complicated flashy banners.

What does an advertiser consider effective when it comes to Internet advertising anyway? Is the ad effective if people click on the banner or effective if sales increase as direct result of the banner ad? The measure of its effectiveness is sort of hit and miss. Much the effectiveness depends on the banner's total campaign and goals of the advertiser.

**************

Riki Trafford is the webmaster of Direct MO Marketing which offers low cost keyword-targetted web traffic. For comments and questions visit his web site: www.1dmom.com/

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