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Thursday, 14 June 2007
Tuesday, 29 May 2007
Why Most Advertising Does Not Work
Why Most Advertising Does Not Work - 10 Essential Strategies to Ensure that your Advertising is a Success.
1. If your Advertising isn’t working – STOP IT!
Let’s start with the simple stuff. If you are running advertising that is not working, please stop it!
This applies to you whether you're running ads in newspapers, magazines, or on radio, television, billboards, posters, taxis or buses.
I know it sounds obvious but here’s what often happens: People run advertising because they feel they ought to. They’re not really sure if it’s working but they are hesitant to stop it because it may be one of their main forms of marketing.
By the end of this report you will have enough information to ensure that you are never in that position again. You will either be running great ads that produce great results, or you will be spending your marketing money elsewhere.
2. Only use Direct Response Advertising
There are two types of advertising – direct response advertising and brand advertising.
Understanding the distinction between the two will immediately save you a fortune.
Brand advertising is used by companies like Coca Cola and the large car manufacturers to build and increase awareness of their brand. Unless you have huge amounts of money which you are happy to lose, you should avoid brand advertising at all costs. For a small business it is a complete waste of money.
The only type of advertising you ever want to consider is direct response advertising. The only purpose of direct response advertising is to produce a clear response.
The type of response may vary depending on the type of business you are in and your overall marketing strategy. You may want the response to be an immediate purchase. You may want the response to be for someone to contact you to ask for a brochure.
The great thing about direct response advertising is that you can instantly tell whether it is working (see the next point) It either produces a response or it doesn’t. One of the reasons that most small business advertising does not work is that it’s a combination of half hearted direct response and highly ineffective brand advertising.
Fortunately, you now know the difference. In the land of the small or medium business, direct response is King!
3. Testing and Measuring
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all of your advertising.
If we are going to engage in direct response advertising we obviously need to be able to measure that response, otherwise we are not going to know if the ad is working.
At the very least we need to know how many people responded, how many of them were converted to a sale and what that is worth to you. Then you need to compare that figure to the cost of the ad and you can immediately work out how profitable the ad was, or whether you should stop running it.
So many businesses just allocate a certain mount of money to an advertising budget, spend the money every year…and they’ve only got a vague sense of whether the ads are working are not. This is crazy. If your ads are working, you want to roll them out on a larger scale. If they’re not, STOP and use the money on one of the dozens of other marketing strategies that can bring you a 100 or 200 or 300% return on your investments.
You will obviously need some sort of system for asking people who contact you for the first time where they heard about you. If you have a larger business, you may even want to set up a separate phone line with a number that only appears in your ad. If you’re directing people to a website, you may want to set up a special web page that also only appears in your ad. This will ensure that you can clearly identify when people are responding to your advertising.
One of the reasons that Radio and TV Advertising can be so high risk, is that it's very difficult to test it on a small scale. You should never invest in Radio and TV Advertising unless it's money you can afford to lose.
4. Your Headline is the most important part of your Ad
In the ad itself the most important element is the headline. The headline is either the heading that goes at the top of the ad or if there’s no heading it’s the first words of the ad. If you're on the radio it's the first thing people hear. If it's TV it's the first thing they see and hear. The headline needs to grab peoples’ attention. One change in a headline can produce a 50-100% increase in response.
One of the biggest challenge that any print advertiser faces is getting people to read their ad – let alone for the ad to produce a result. So the main purpose of the headline is not to sell your product – it’s just to get people to read your ad.
The headline should be about your readers – not about you. If your headline has the name of your business in it, you are probably losing out. Imagine you owned a company selling £10 fire alarms. Which of these headlines do you think would be most likely to get the reader’s attention:
Simpson Fire Alarms - Your Guarantee of Safety
OR
Is your Family's Life worth the price of a round of Drinks?
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see what works best. There are no rules – except what works.
5. Remember AIDA
There’s a classic formula used by advertisers and it’s well worth remembering. The formula is AIDA. This stands for
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
If you follow this formula in every ad that you write or produce, you will greatly increase your chances of success.
Attention – the first thing your ad needs to do is grab the reader’s attention. You achieve this with your headline.
Interest – once you’ve got their attention, you need to create an interest in your product or service.
Desire – There is a big difference between being interested in a product or service and desiring it. You need to convert the reader’s interest into a strong desire for what you are offering.
Action - Even if someone desires what you have, it is not enough until they take action. At the end of the ad you need a call to action. Tell people exactly what they need to do to follow through and make it easy for them to do so. This is where many people go wrong. Even if you have a good ad, you still need to tell people precisely what to do - how to take action.
6. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
One of the principles that should drive all of your marketing is communicating the BENEFITS of your product or service.
Your ad needs to be a personal communication to the individual reading, hearing or seeing it. And it needs to be about them. It needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering.
Nobody will buy anything from you until they have explicitly understood how they will benefit from what you have to offer. So here’s a useful tip. When you’ve written your ad, imagine stepping into the shoes of your prospective customer. From this perspective does the add fully convey what those benefits are? If not go back and fine tune the ad until it feels right.
7. Don’t Advertise on a Left Hand Page
If you're doing newspaper or magazine advertising, this one piece of knowledge can turn an unsuccessful ad campaign into a successful one. This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication, your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so statistically, more people will see your ad if it’s on the right hand page.
If you look at the big national magazines and newspapers, you will see that most of the large advertisers are on the right hand pages. The few that appear on a left hand page will be paying less because their advertising agencies know that less people will see the ad.
When you book your ad space, tell them you want it on a right hand page. Very few people in your position ask for this, so the publication will normally oblige. If they tell you they can’t guarantee it – tell them you’ll advertise in a future edition when they can guarantee it. You’ll soon discover how obliging they can be!
8. Never pay the full rate for advertising
The person selling you the advertising needs to know very early on that you have absolutely no intention of paying the full rate.
Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always negotiate. If you’re a small business remember that large companies who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience levels rather than the rate card - so haggle and negotiate. If you can pay 20 or 30% less for your ads it can turn an unprofitable ad into a successful one.
Here’s another handy little trick to pay less for your advertising. The closer to the deadline you can book your ad, the better. Sales teams work towards targets and as the deadline approaches they get more desperate to fill the ad space. They become far more open to negotiation.
This applies to all forms of advertising. If your local radio or TV station does not sell all its ad space that they have available for tomorrow - it's gone forever. If you come along and offer them a deal at what seems a ridiculously low price, you might be surprised at how low they're willing to go.
9. Don’t Follow the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications or on various forms of media (taxis, billboards, buses etc) just because their competitors are doing so. Don’t for a minute think that all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great results. They’re more likely to be there because everyone else is and most of them wont have a clue whether their advertising is working.
In fact, this is a well known sales trick used by the people selling ad space. If they can get one or two of your competitors to advertise, they can call you up and tell you how you’ll lose out if you don’t advertise too. What they fail to mention is that your competitors probably never test their advertising, often haven’t got a clue how to market and are only advertising there because they think you will. This is a highly effective way to sustain the advertising industry. It’s not a great way for you to run your business.
10. Don’t buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your Business Success
Now that I’ve shared some of the strategies for making your advertising work for you – I’ll let you into a secret. I’m not a huge fan of advertising for small businesses. If you can get it right it works brilliantly – but generally, advertising is one of the least effective ways to grow a business.
There seems to be a cultural myth that to run a successful business, you must advertise. Whoever came up with that one is the same person who said that if you get a university degree you’re guaranteed a great, fulfilling career.
Advertising is just one of many marketing options that you have. But you really shouldn’t be dependent on it. In fact, here’s a strategy I use with my clients which is really powerful:
When I work with a client, one of my goals is to get them to the point where they have so much great marketing going on it makes little difference to their business if they stop advertising.
Why do I do this? Because quite honestly I’ve seen more business owners pull their hair out through advertising problems than anything else. Ultimately, my work isn’t about marketing. It’s about Freedom. It’s about giving business owners the freedom that comes from having a successful and profitable business which is supported by multiple pillars of marketing.
It’s hard to be free when the future of your business involves trying to get a couple of ads to work in a crappy local newspaper.
So start to think out of the box. Ideally, you should be using a combination of up to at least ten other marketing strategies to grow you business. They include (but are not limited to).
Telephone Marketing
Direct Mail
Internet
Email marketing
Direct Sales
PR (Why spend money on advertising when PR gives you coverage for free)
Strategic Alliances
Lead Response Marketing
A multi level Referral system
Have a look at this list. How many of these are you implementing in your business? More importantly, what would happen to your business if you could start to combine some of these extra marketing approaches? How would that effect your profits? What would that do to your financial freedom?
Here’s another thought. At least four of the items on this list will cost you either nothing or very little to implement. Why throw money at advertising when some of the best marketing is Free?
In the weeks ahead I'll be sending you Free tips and advice via email that will show you how to achieve this. I hope that this is the beginning of a great, long term relationship where I become the source of leading edge information for you that will make a real difference to your business and your profits.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
1. If your Advertising isn’t working – STOP IT!
Let’s start with the simple stuff. If you are running advertising that is not working, please stop it!
This applies to you whether you're running ads in newspapers, magazines, or on radio, television, billboards, posters, taxis or buses.
I know it sounds obvious but here’s what often happens: People run advertising because they feel they ought to. They’re not really sure if it’s working but they are hesitant to stop it because it may be one of their main forms of marketing.
By the end of this report you will have enough information to ensure that you are never in that position again. You will either be running great ads that produce great results, or you will be spending your marketing money elsewhere.
2. Only use Direct Response Advertising
There are two types of advertising – direct response advertising and brand advertising.
Understanding the distinction between the two will immediately save you a fortune.
Brand advertising is used by companies like Coca Cola and the large car manufacturers to build and increase awareness of their brand. Unless you have huge amounts of money which you are happy to lose, you should avoid brand advertising at all costs. For a small business it is a complete waste of money.
The only type of advertising you ever want to consider is direct response advertising. The only purpose of direct response advertising is to produce a clear response.
The type of response may vary depending on the type of business you are in and your overall marketing strategy. You may want the response to be an immediate purchase. You may want the response to be for someone to contact you to ask for a brochure.
The great thing about direct response advertising is that you can instantly tell whether it is working (see the next point) It either produces a response or it doesn’t. One of the reasons that most small business advertising does not work is that it’s a combination of half hearted direct response and highly ineffective brand advertising.
Fortunately, you now know the difference. In the land of the small or medium business, direct response is King!
3. Testing and Measuring
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all of your advertising.
If we are going to engage in direct response advertising we obviously need to be able to measure that response, otherwise we are not going to know if the ad is working.
At the very least we need to know how many people responded, how many of them were converted to a sale and what that is worth to you. Then you need to compare that figure to the cost of the ad and you can immediately work out how profitable the ad was, or whether you should stop running it.
So many businesses just allocate a certain mount of money to an advertising budget, spend the money every year…and they’ve only got a vague sense of whether the ads are working are not. This is crazy. If your ads are working, you want to roll them out on a larger scale. If they’re not, STOP and use the money on one of the dozens of other marketing strategies that can bring you a 100 or 200 or 300% return on your investments.
You will obviously need some sort of system for asking people who contact you for the first time where they heard about you. If you have a larger business, you may even want to set up a separate phone line with a number that only appears in your ad. If you’re directing people to a website, you may want to set up a special web page that also only appears in your ad. This will ensure that you can clearly identify when people are responding to your advertising.
One of the reasons that Radio and TV Advertising can be so high risk, is that it's very difficult to test it on a small scale. You should never invest in Radio and TV Advertising unless it's money you can afford to lose.
4. Your Headline is the most important part of your Ad
In the ad itself the most important element is the headline. The headline is either the heading that goes at the top of the ad or if there’s no heading it’s the first words of the ad. If you're on the radio it's the first thing people hear. If it's TV it's the first thing they see and hear. The headline needs to grab peoples’ attention. One change in a headline can produce a 50-100% increase in response.
One of the biggest challenge that any print advertiser faces is getting people to read their ad – let alone for the ad to produce a result. So the main purpose of the headline is not to sell your product – it’s just to get people to read your ad.
The headline should be about your readers – not about you. If your headline has the name of your business in it, you are probably losing out. Imagine you owned a company selling £10 fire alarms. Which of these headlines do you think would be most likely to get the reader’s attention:
Simpson Fire Alarms - Your Guarantee of Safety
OR
Is your Family's Life worth the price of a round of Drinks?
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see what works best. There are no rules – except what works.
5. Remember AIDA
There’s a classic formula used by advertisers and it’s well worth remembering. The formula is AIDA. This stands for
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
If you follow this formula in every ad that you write or produce, you will greatly increase your chances of success.
Attention – the first thing your ad needs to do is grab the reader’s attention. You achieve this with your headline.
Interest – once you’ve got their attention, you need to create an interest in your product or service.
Desire – There is a big difference between being interested in a product or service and desiring it. You need to convert the reader’s interest into a strong desire for what you are offering.
Action - Even if someone desires what you have, it is not enough until they take action. At the end of the ad you need a call to action. Tell people exactly what they need to do to follow through and make it easy for them to do so. This is where many people go wrong. Even if you have a good ad, you still need to tell people precisely what to do - how to take action.
6. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
One of the principles that should drive all of your marketing is communicating the BENEFITS of your product or service.
Your ad needs to be a personal communication to the individual reading, hearing or seeing it. And it needs to be about them. It needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering.
Nobody will buy anything from you until they have explicitly understood how they will benefit from what you have to offer. So here’s a useful tip. When you’ve written your ad, imagine stepping into the shoes of your prospective customer. From this perspective does the add fully convey what those benefits are? If not go back and fine tune the ad until it feels right.
7. Don’t Advertise on a Left Hand Page
If you're doing newspaper or magazine advertising, this one piece of knowledge can turn an unsuccessful ad campaign into a successful one. This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication, your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so statistically, more people will see your ad if it’s on the right hand page.
If you look at the big national magazines and newspapers, you will see that most of the large advertisers are on the right hand pages. The few that appear on a left hand page will be paying less because their advertising agencies know that less people will see the ad.
When you book your ad space, tell them you want it on a right hand page. Very few people in your position ask for this, so the publication will normally oblige. If they tell you they can’t guarantee it – tell them you’ll advertise in a future edition when they can guarantee it. You’ll soon discover how obliging they can be!
8. Never pay the full rate for advertising
The person selling you the advertising needs to know very early on that you have absolutely no intention of paying the full rate.
Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always negotiate. If you’re a small business remember that large companies who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience levels rather than the rate card - so haggle and negotiate. If you can pay 20 or 30% less for your ads it can turn an unprofitable ad into a successful one.
Here’s another handy little trick to pay less for your advertising. The closer to the deadline you can book your ad, the better. Sales teams work towards targets and as the deadline approaches they get more desperate to fill the ad space. They become far more open to negotiation.
This applies to all forms of advertising. If your local radio or TV station does not sell all its ad space that they have available for tomorrow - it's gone forever. If you come along and offer them a deal at what seems a ridiculously low price, you might be surprised at how low they're willing to go.
9. Don’t Follow the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications or on various forms of media (taxis, billboards, buses etc) just because their competitors are doing so. Don’t for a minute think that all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great results. They’re more likely to be there because everyone else is and most of them wont have a clue whether their advertising is working.
In fact, this is a well known sales trick used by the people selling ad space. If they can get one or two of your competitors to advertise, they can call you up and tell you how you’ll lose out if you don’t advertise too. What they fail to mention is that your competitors probably never test their advertising, often haven’t got a clue how to market and are only advertising there because they think you will. This is a highly effective way to sustain the advertising industry. It’s not a great way for you to run your business.
10. Don’t buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your Business Success
Now that I’ve shared some of the strategies for making your advertising work for you – I’ll let you into a secret. I’m not a huge fan of advertising for small businesses. If you can get it right it works brilliantly – but generally, advertising is one of the least effective ways to grow a business.
There seems to be a cultural myth that to run a successful business, you must advertise. Whoever came up with that one is the same person who said that if you get a university degree you’re guaranteed a great, fulfilling career.
Advertising is just one of many marketing options that you have. But you really shouldn’t be dependent on it. In fact, here’s a strategy I use with my clients which is really powerful:
When I work with a client, one of my goals is to get them to the point where they have so much great marketing going on it makes little difference to their business if they stop advertising.
Why do I do this? Because quite honestly I’ve seen more business owners pull their hair out through advertising problems than anything else. Ultimately, my work isn’t about marketing. It’s about Freedom. It’s about giving business owners the freedom that comes from having a successful and profitable business which is supported by multiple pillars of marketing.
It’s hard to be free when the future of your business involves trying to get a couple of ads to work in a crappy local newspaper.
So start to think out of the box. Ideally, you should be using a combination of up to at least ten other marketing strategies to grow you business. They include (but are not limited to).
Telephone Marketing
Direct Mail
Internet
Email marketing
Direct Sales
PR (Why spend money on advertising when PR gives you coverage for free)
Strategic Alliances
Lead Response Marketing
A multi level Referral system
Have a look at this list. How many of these are you implementing in your business? More importantly, what would happen to your business if you could start to combine some of these extra marketing approaches? How would that effect your profits? What would that do to your financial freedom?
Here’s another thought. At least four of the items on this list will cost you either nothing or very little to implement. Why throw money at advertising when some of the best marketing is Free?
In the weeks ahead I'll be sending you Free tips and advice via email that will show you how to achieve this. I hope that this is the beginning of a great, long term relationship where I become the source of leading edge information for you that will make a real difference to your business and your profits.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Thursday, 24 May 2007
Major PayPal Security Issue
Dear Friends,
This information is being provided to you without prejudice towards PayPal. However, I thought I should share this information with those of you who may not know about it already.
Although I would strongly advise against using PayPal all together, for those of you who do decide to use PayPal, please be aware that there are major security issues with their payment buttons.
Anyone using a non-encrypted payment (especially so their own affiliate program will work out commision on their sales) are at high risk if selling digital downloads.
The "form method" in the HTML code can be altered and anyone can buy your digital download for only $0.01 without problems.
Of course there is a procedure that needs to be taken which I am leaving out of this post to maintain security as I do not want to show or encourage people to do this.
However, I have provided the line that is unsecure with some details. Here is an example and I have taken out all the other parts to protect the site.
Take a look at the line below:
INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="amount" VALUE="149.99"
This represents the price within the PayPal button. Anyone purchasing from a site without an encrypted button can easily ammend the price to 0.01 and purchase the product for only 1 Cent instead of the asking price.
Therefore: INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="amount" VALUE="0.01"
I have tried this on my own site and assure you that it is a 100% major security issue.
DO NOT use button that are not encrypted as this will cost you a major loss. If you do, you may as well give away your product for free using a download link on the main home page.
There is a product that I use to protect ALL my downloads so even if someone was still abale to bypass the official price, unless it matches my backend database on my server, the product cannot be downloaded.
Please see: http://www.e-marketingcompany.com/dlguard.html for more information on this system works.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
This information is being provided to you without prejudice towards PayPal. However, I thought I should share this information with those of you who may not know about it already.
Although I would strongly advise against using PayPal all together, for those of you who do decide to use PayPal, please be aware that there are major security issues with their payment buttons.
Anyone using a non-encrypted payment (especially so their own affiliate program will work out commision on their sales) are at high risk if selling digital downloads.
The "form method" in the HTML code can be altered and anyone can buy your digital download for only $0.01 without problems.
Of course there is a procedure that needs to be taken which I am leaving out of this post to maintain security as I do not want to show or encourage people to do this.
However, I have provided the line that is unsecure with some details. Here is an example and I have taken out all the other parts to protect the site.
Take a look at the line below:
INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="amount" VALUE="149.99"
This represents the price within the PayPal button. Anyone purchasing from a site without an encrypted button can easily ammend the price to 0.01 and purchase the product for only 1 Cent instead of the asking price.
Therefore: INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="amount" VALUE="0.01"
I have tried this on my own site and assure you that it is a 100% major security issue.
DO NOT use button that are not encrypted as this will cost you a major loss. If you do, you may as well give away your product for free using a download link on the main home page.
There is a product that I use to protect ALL my downloads so even if someone was still abale to bypass the official price, unless it matches my backend database on my server, the product cannot be downloaded.
Please see: http://www.e-marketingcompany.com/dlguard.html for more information on this system works.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Ready, Set, Sell !
10 tips to optimize your website for online sales.
Once you've got your website up and running, you, an in-house IT staffer or an IT consultant should optimize it for best results. Lisa Schneegans, executive vice president of Praxis Software Solutions, a Minneapolis provider of internet solutions for small and midsize companies, suggests 10 ways to optimize your website:
1. Test your site early and often. Plan ahead to ensure your site can handle heavy shopping traffic.
2. Test your content for misspelled words, broken links, busted pictures, etc.
3. Make sure images load quickly. A slow-loading page may drive customers away.
4. Install, verify and test all patches and upgrades.
5. "Load test" your site to see how much traffic it can support. A web maintenance service can tell you how you do.
6. Create sample transactions. These can simulate expected customer traffic and web transactions. By running "synthetic" transactions periodically--say, every five to 15 minutes--you'll know if there is a problem before your customers do.
7. Check the performance of your network provider. You can do this by looking at a site that is simi-lar to yours in your area but connected to another network.
8. Add cross-sell and upsell opportunities throughout your site. This means, for example, suggesting table linens on the dinnerware, silverware and glassware pages. Offer "Top Gift Suggestions" or "Bestsellers" to improve sales and drive impulse purchase opportunities.
9. Make it easy to find and contact live customer service. Providing an easy-to-find phone number on the site helps online shoppers feel more secure. Clearly state your company's return policy.
10. Make your search function more effective. Your search function should accommodate common misspellings by returning similarly spelled items or your site's most popular search terms.
Taking Shortcuts
If you don't want or need a full-blown e-commerce site, check out the following quick, low-maintenance ways to sell merchandise and services.
Craigslist.org: Craigslist.org allows you to post items for sale for free. More than 10 million people use Craigslist each month, and there are more than 6 million classified ads and 1 million forum postings each month.
Gorage.com: Want to avoid paying auction commissions? Then try Gorage.com, an online garage sale, classified ads section and storefront shopping alternative that offers flat-rate pricing for listing items online, allowing sellers to avoid paying auction commissions. The pricing structure is based on the number of "selling spaces" a user chooses, which together make up the seller's "gorage." Gorage.com pricing plans start at $5, which gets you up to 10 selling spaces for 30 days, and they run all the way to $600, which buys over 2,000 selling spaces for 30 days. Gorage.com charges no auction commissions, which can help you save money and pass on savings to customers.
SwapThing.com: Have a limited amount of cash? Tired of being outbid in auctions? Then try SwapThing.com, a site that lets you swap or sell everything from music, art, trading cards, old schoolbooks--even personal services. You can list items for free; the site charges each party $1 for every item swapped or sold.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Once you've got your website up and running, you, an in-house IT staffer or an IT consultant should optimize it for best results. Lisa Schneegans, executive vice president of Praxis Software Solutions, a Minneapolis provider of internet solutions for small and midsize companies, suggests 10 ways to optimize your website:
1. Test your site early and often. Plan ahead to ensure your site can handle heavy shopping traffic.
2. Test your content for misspelled words, broken links, busted pictures, etc.
3. Make sure images load quickly. A slow-loading page may drive customers away.
4. Install, verify and test all patches and upgrades.
5. "Load test" your site to see how much traffic it can support. A web maintenance service can tell you how you do.
6. Create sample transactions. These can simulate expected customer traffic and web transactions. By running "synthetic" transactions periodically--say, every five to 15 minutes--you'll know if there is a problem before your customers do.
7. Check the performance of your network provider. You can do this by looking at a site that is simi-lar to yours in your area but connected to another network.
8. Add cross-sell and upsell opportunities throughout your site. This means, for example, suggesting table linens on the dinnerware, silverware and glassware pages. Offer "Top Gift Suggestions" or "Bestsellers" to improve sales and drive impulse purchase opportunities.
9. Make it easy to find and contact live customer service. Providing an easy-to-find phone number on the site helps online shoppers feel more secure. Clearly state your company's return policy.
10. Make your search function more effective. Your search function should accommodate common misspellings by returning similarly spelled items or your site's most popular search terms.
Taking Shortcuts
If you don't want or need a full-blown e-commerce site, check out the following quick, low-maintenance ways to sell merchandise and services.
Craigslist.org: Craigslist.org allows you to post items for sale for free. More than 10 million people use Craigslist each month, and there are more than 6 million classified ads and 1 million forum postings each month.
Gorage.com: Want to avoid paying auction commissions? Then try Gorage.com, an online garage sale, classified ads section and storefront shopping alternative that offers flat-rate pricing for listing items online, allowing sellers to avoid paying auction commissions. The pricing structure is based on the number of "selling spaces" a user chooses, which together make up the seller's "gorage." Gorage.com pricing plans start at $5, which gets you up to 10 selling spaces for 30 days, and they run all the way to $600, which buys over 2,000 selling spaces for 30 days. Gorage.com charges no auction commissions, which can help you save money and pass on savings to customers.
SwapThing.com: Have a limited amount of cash? Tired of being outbid in auctions? Then try SwapThing.com, a site that lets you swap or sell everything from music, art, trading cards, old schoolbooks--even personal services. You can list items for free; the site charges each party $1 for every item swapped or sold.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
How to Set Up an E-Commerce Site For Less Than $100
Setting up an e-commerce site? Here's everything you need to know to do it right.
So you want to set up an e-commerce site. While it may seem daunting at first, don't fret. The following is an overview of different ways to go about it. Simply pick the one that's right for you, and log on.
Going Solo
Many experts and entrepreneurs believe that building your own website is a no-brainer, thanks to the inexpensive, easy-to-use and sophisticated e-commerce services available. You can even setup an e-commerce store with 1 year hosting and email for less than $100 by using e-Marketing Company hosting providers. Visit: http://www.e-marketingcompany.com/hosting.html
Your next step should be to obtain an internet merchant account from your bank, allowing you to accept credit card payments online. If your bank turns you down, try others--and consider offering to move all your accounts to that bank to up your appeal. Or you can perform an online search for "credit card processing" to find a variety of companies offering accounts to budding online businesses.
You'll also need a payment gateway account, which is an online processor that hooks into both your customer's credit card account and your internet merchant account. The gateway verifies information, transfers requests and authorizes credit cards in real time. Leading providers to smaller merchants include Authorize.Net, CyberSourceand VeriSign.
The best one to use is 2Checkout (www.2checkout.com). They are by far the best and one of the cheapest with no monthly fees or hidden costs. e-Marketing Company uses 2Checkout.com and highly recommends them.
NOTE: STAY CLEAR OF PAYPAL. THEY ARE VERY BAD WHEN IT COMES TO CUSTOMER SERVICES AND CHARGES. THEY DO NOT OFFER VALUE FOR MONEY AND THEIR PAYMENT BUTTONS AND ONLINE ORDER SYSTEM IS UNSECURE AND UNRELIABLE!
Of course, you still have to actually host your site. You can do it yourself on a computer that can be dedicated as a web server and that has a broadband internet connection, but such systems are costly and have limited capacities. Your other option: Use a web-hosting company. Many entrepreneurs swear by some of the bigger names in web hosting, such as Affinity Internet, Go Daddy Software, Hostway, Interland, iPower, Network Solutions, 1&1 Internet, Verioand Yahoo!. But some entrepreneurs prefer small, local hosting providers since they offer a direct contact--especially important if your site has an outage. Whether you use a large or small provider, basic hosting services--as well as domain-name registration and e-mail accounts--cost about $10 per month.
There's also a free option: Microsoft plans to launch a beta version of Microsoft Office Live early this year, providing small businesses with their own domain name, a website with 30MB storage, and five e-mail accounts, each with 2GB storage. Visit www.microsoft.com/office/officeliveto check for availability.
If you'd rather not build your site yourself, there are many hosted web or e-commerce solutions that can help. Web-hosting companies generally offer a combination of site-building tools; product catalog tools; shopping-cart technology; payment, shipping and marketing strategies; tracking and reporting capabilities; domain registration; and hosting.
Creative Solutions (www.creativesolutionsuk.com) can provide you a full e-commerce solution for under $500. They are an award winning comany and very honest and reliable. e-Marketing Company uses Creative Solutions and highly recommends them.
Also, eBay offers a storefront solution called ProStores. ProStores--which is available to everyone, not just eBay sellers--offers a full-featured, customizable web store. Unlike eBay Stores, ProStores sites are accessed through a URL unique to the seller and have no eBay branding. ProStores sellers are responsible for driving their own traffic, and items on ProStores sites sell only at fixed prices. The cost of a ProStore ranges from about $7 per month with a 1.5 percent transaction fee to about $250 per month with a 0.5 percent transaction fee.
Hosted solutions generally start at about $30 to $40 per month, plus setup fees of up to $50 per month. Some companies also charge transaction fees. Keep in mind, $40 will only get you basic functionality--bells and whistles cost a few hundred dollars per month.
Before starting an e-commerce site, many companies test the waters by selling on eBay. They have good reason: Today, the eBay community includes 168 million registered users worldwide. "The most obvious reason a new business chooses eBay is the access to our enormous customer base," says Jim "Griff" Griffith, dean of eBay Education.
To sell on eBay, you need to register and create a seller's account. Listing an item is an easy five-step process, but Griff suggests you do your homework first: Research eBay to learn what the market value is for your items and what eBay sellers of similar items are doing on the site.
When you list an item on eBay, you're charged an Insertion Fee ranging from 25 cents to $4.80, depending on the item's selling price. You're also charged a Final Value Fee if your item is sold. Final Value Fees start at 5.25 percent of the item's closing value.
You may also consider opening an eBay Store, which costs from $15.95 per month to $500 per month. eBay Stores let you sell your fixed-price and auction items from a unique destination on eBay. You can create customized categories, add your own logo or choose one of eBay's on-line images, and list item descriptions and selling policies.
Your eBay Store is promoted in several ways: Your listings and user ID include a "red door" icon inviting buyers to visit your eBay Store. The eBay Store Directory can also guide buyers to your Store. And you receive your own personalized web address to distribute and promote.
One company that has made the most of its eBay Store is Jeff Atchison Enterprises Inc., dba Dad's Toys. The Dardenne Prairie, Missouri-based company, which started in 1999, sells high-end gadgets such as flat-screen TVs--many of them on eBay. Founder and president Jeff Atchison set up a basic eBay Store in 2002. Why? "To add credibility to my listings," says Atchison, 41. "It shows people you are more of a permanent presence on eBay." It also allows Atchison to keep all his listings organized on one website that can easily be viewed by customers. Tactics like this have helped Atchison grow his company to an estimated revenue of $2.1 million last year.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
So you want to set up an e-commerce site. While it may seem daunting at first, don't fret. The following is an overview of different ways to go about it. Simply pick the one that's right for you, and log on.
Going Solo
Many experts and entrepreneurs believe that building your own website is a no-brainer, thanks to the inexpensive, easy-to-use and sophisticated e-commerce services available. You can even setup an e-commerce store with 1 year hosting and email for less than $100 by using e-Marketing Company hosting providers. Visit: http://www.e-marketingcompany.com/hosting.html
Your next step should be to obtain an internet merchant account from your bank, allowing you to accept credit card payments online. If your bank turns you down, try others--and consider offering to move all your accounts to that bank to up your appeal. Or you can perform an online search for "credit card processing" to find a variety of companies offering accounts to budding online businesses.
You'll also need a payment gateway account, which is an online processor that hooks into both your customer's credit card account and your internet merchant account. The gateway verifies information, transfers requests and authorizes credit cards in real time. Leading providers to smaller merchants include Authorize.Net, CyberSourceand VeriSign.
The best one to use is 2Checkout (www.2checkout.com). They are by far the best and one of the cheapest with no monthly fees or hidden costs. e-Marketing Company uses 2Checkout.com and highly recommends them.
NOTE: STAY CLEAR OF PAYPAL. THEY ARE VERY BAD WHEN IT COMES TO CUSTOMER SERVICES AND CHARGES. THEY DO NOT OFFER VALUE FOR MONEY AND THEIR PAYMENT BUTTONS AND ONLINE ORDER SYSTEM IS UNSECURE AND UNRELIABLE!
Of course, you still have to actually host your site. You can do it yourself on a computer that can be dedicated as a web server and that has a broadband internet connection, but such systems are costly and have limited capacities. Your other option: Use a web-hosting company. Many entrepreneurs swear by some of the bigger names in web hosting, such as Affinity Internet, Go Daddy Software, Hostway, Interland, iPower, Network Solutions, 1&1 Internet, Verioand Yahoo!. But some entrepreneurs prefer small, local hosting providers since they offer a direct contact--especially important if your site has an outage. Whether you use a large or small provider, basic hosting services--as well as domain-name registration and e-mail accounts--cost about $10 per month.
There's also a free option: Microsoft plans to launch a beta version of Microsoft Office Live early this year, providing small businesses with their own domain name, a website with 30MB storage, and five e-mail accounts, each with 2GB storage. Visit www.microsoft.com/office/officeliveto check for availability.
If you'd rather not build your site yourself, there are many hosted web or e-commerce solutions that can help. Web-hosting companies generally offer a combination of site-building tools; product catalog tools; shopping-cart technology; payment, shipping and marketing strategies; tracking and reporting capabilities; domain registration; and hosting.
Creative Solutions (www.creativesolutionsuk.com) can provide you a full e-commerce solution for under $500. They are an award winning comany and very honest and reliable. e-Marketing Company uses Creative Solutions and highly recommends them.
Also, eBay offers a storefront solution called ProStores. ProStores--which is available to everyone, not just eBay sellers--offers a full-featured, customizable web store. Unlike eBay Stores, ProStores sites are accessed through a URL unique to the seller and have no eBay branding. ProStores sellers are responsible for driving their own traffic, and items on ProStores sites sell only at fixed prices. The cost of a ProStore ranges from about $7 per month with a 1.5 percent transaction fee to about $250 per month with a 0.5 percent transaction fee.
Hosted solutions generally start at about $30 to $40 per month, plus setup fees of up to $50 per month. Some companies also charge transaction fees. Keep in mind, $40 will only get you basic functionality--bells and whistles cost a few hundred dollars per month.
Before starting an e-commerce site, many companies test the waters by selling on eBay. They have good reason: Today, the eBay community includes 168 million registered users worldwide. "The most obvious reason a new business chooses eBay is the access to our enormous customer base," says Jim "Griff" Griffith, dean of eBay Education.
To sell on eBay, you need to register and create a seller's account. Listing an item is an easy five-step process, but Griff suggests you do your homework first: Research eBay to learn what the market value is for your items and what eBay sellers of similar items are doing on the site.
When you list an item on eBay, you're charged an Insertion Fee ranging from 25 cents to $4.80, depending on the item's selling price. You're also charged a Final Value Fee if your item is sold. Final Value Fees start at 5.25 percent of the item's closing value.
You may also consider opening an eBay Store, which costs from $15.95 per month to $500 per month. eBay Stores let you sell your fixed-price and auction items from a unique destination on eBay. You can create customized categories, add your own logo or choose one of eBay's on-line images, and list item descriptions and selling policies.
Your eBay Store is promoted in several ways: Your listings and user ID include a "red door" icon inviting buyers to visit your eBay Store. The eBay Store Directory can also guide buyers to your Store. And you receive your own personalized web address to distribute and promote.
One company that has made the most of its eBay Store is Jeff Atchison Enterprises Inc., dba Dad's Toys. The Dardenne Prairie, Missouri-based company, which started in 1999, sells high-end gadgets such as flat-screen TVs--many of them on eBay. Founder and president Jeff Atchison set up a basic eBay Store in 2002. Why? "To add credibility to my listings," says Atchison, 41. "It shows people you are more of a permanent presence on eBay." It also allows Atchison to keep all his listings organized on one website that can easily be viewed by customers. Tactics like this have helped Atchison grow his company to an estimated revenue of $2.1 million last year.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
A to Z of Legal Issues
Everything you need to know from A to Z about going online and staying out of legal hot water.
Age
The age of your users impacts the website. According to Federal Trade Commission regulations through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a website must get a parent's permission for children under 13 to disclose information. Also, remember that children under 18 should not be permitted to view information which is adult in nature. In addition, children under 18 may not be able to agree to contracts such as your website user agreement and purchase contracts. Finally, FTC also regulates advertising and other content directed at children.
Bulletin Boards, Chat Rooms, Etc.
Any posting ability by users should be subject to site submission rules and a user agreement. The rules should obtain users' consent not to post pornographic, defamatory or infringing materials and, through your user agreement, consent to your company not being liable for other users taking such actions.
Copyright
The footer of your site should display a copyright notice for the content of the site. The notice should read "© [date] [copyright owner name] All rights reserved." You should also deposit a copy of the site with the Copyright Office to record ownership of the site's content, look and feel. Finally, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, depending on the purpose and the users' activities on the site, your company may be eligible to register for limited liability offered by the act for the site. You should consult your attorney for review of the act and how to register.
Domain Name
When building your website, domain names are an important part. Often they are directly tied to your business name, your logos and your brand. Businesses often fail to give proper thought to which domain name to choose.
Picking a domain name should have the same careful thought as naming other products or services. Choosing a domain name should include analysis of trademark law in relationship to the name. Under current law, domain names may be awarded to trademark holders over others through arbitration or litigation. This means that having trademark registration in the same name as your domain name may ensure that you retain ownership of the name.
Export
If persons from other countries use your site, then you are exporting. If you sell to such persons, you are exporting the item you sell and entering into contracts with persons of other countries. If you use encryption on the site, then you are exporting technology regulated by the Department of Commerce and Defense. Various government departments regulate the countries with which U.S. companies may do business and when a company needs an export license to transmit items, technology or information abroad. Doing business with certain countries, such as Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Yugoslavia and others, is severely restricted. Depending on the information on your site, what kind of business you do, the technology and information involved, your site may be subject to these regulations, and you should consult with your attorney about these business decisions.
Framing
It is important to be careful how your website frames to other sites. There have been trademark cases regarding consumer confusion over which site is which, and which site is the source of the content and data. Also, be careful, because some sites' "terms and conditions" and/or "user agreements" prohibit collecting and reprinting data displayed on the site--even if such data is factual, such as times and places for events.
Giveaways
Sweepstakes, contests, lotteries and giveaways are governed by state and national laws as to how they must be conducted. Florida and New York require registration with the state if the prizes are over $5,000 in value. Most important, you should have rules outlining the terms and conditions of the giveaway. The rules are an offer from the sponsor which the entrant accepts by entering. The offer, plus the acceptance, make a binding contract covering the giveaway.
Home Page
On the footer of the home page of the site, you should have a link to your privacy policy, your user agreement or terms and conditions, and your copyright notice.
Insurance
Be sure that your business insurance covers website activities. Often website activities are excluded from errors and omissions and other business insurance. Lloyds of London and a few other companies have insurance specifically covering materials and sales via websites, including security of credit card numbers and other important data.
Jurisdiction
One of the primary reasons for having a user agreement is to better address the issues of jurisdiction. Under current law, website owners may be subject to jurisdiction and law in any state or country where its users are located. Being subject to the law of so many different locations makes trying to comply with the law and trying to assess your risk tricky. An attorney can help you consider which markets are your highest risk and how to lower your risks through consultation with local counsel or blocking users from those regions. Additionally, you should consider that many foreign jurisdictions do not offer protections for intellectual property which are comparable to the U.S. Therefore, if a user in such a region steals content or software from your site, you may have little recourse by law, and a hard battle to fight on foreign soil and in a foreign language.
Kill All the Lawyers
A mean and horrible, horrible joke which Shakespeare penned in Henry VI and which I hear far too often, although never in reference to me.
Linking
When linking to other sites, you should consider two factors. One is what word or image you are using for the link and whether it is a trademark of another site or company. If so, you need the trademark owner's permission to post the company's trademark on your site. Second, you should always link to the home page of a website since there have been "deep linking" cases claiming loss of advertising revenue which would have been gained if the users had been directed through the home page.
Metatags
Courts have not permitted use of another company's trademarks as metatags on competitors' sites. These cases arose when company A used company B's trademarked term in the metatagging of company A's site so that when a user looked for company B, company A would come up in the listing. For example, it would not be permitted for Coke to use the metatag "Pepsi" on the Coke website.
Notification
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there are required procedures for someone to notify a website that materials on the site may infringe on that person's copyright. If the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies, these procedures should be outlined in a notification policy on the site.
Obscenity
Materials which are considered "obscene" by state or federal law are not permitted on the internet and, especially, may not be viewed by children. What is obscene is based on the local standards of the viewing community. This makes prior determinations of what is acceptable somewhat complex. If you have questions about your site and its content, you should review them with your attorney.
Privacy Policy
If you collect any information from users of your site, using cookies or otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission requires you to have a privacy policy. The privacy policy should contain an explanation of how you collect the users' information, how and where the information is stored, how the user can delete or change the information, and to whom the information is disclosed and for what purpose. The European Union also has similar and strict regulations on collection of information via websites.
Rules for Mail Order
The FTC and some states have guidelines for selling items by mail which have been extended to cover internet sales. These guidelines cover return policies, customer contact and other information about how to inform your customers about your products, shipping and sales procedures.
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission considers a website a means of disclosing information to the public about a company. Therefore any information disclosed on your website should be given the same review and consideration that your company gives all public disclosures with regard to "forward-looking statements" and "material" information.
Trademark
Trademarking the name of your company, logo, mottos and domain name is an important part of your business development and should be reflected on your website. Your nationally registered marks should display an ® and unregistered marks should display a ™ or SM.
User Agreement
Having a user agreement or "terms and conditions" may be the most important part of a website. A user agreement requires each user to agree to be bound by a contract governing his or her use of the site by clicking "I agree" before being permitted to use the site. Be aware that simply posting your legal agreement without forcing the user to click "I agree" prior to use is unlikely to bind your users to the terms. The user must take an active step through which she agrees to the terms and must not be allowed to proceed to use the site without such step.
A user agreement allows a company to:
1. dictate how the site may be used (for example, for reading and printing materials)
2. dictate how the site may not be used (for example, reverse engineering the coding tricks, copying content, for illegal purposes)
3. dictate who may use the site (for example, persons over 18, US citizens)
4. dictate procedures or policies for the site (for example, return policies, complaint policies, notification of copyright infringement policies)
5. dictate your company's waiver of implied legal warranties (for example, implied warranties of noninfringement, fitness for particular purposes, etc.)
6. dictate the limit of your company's liability for the site, other users postings on your site, sites you link to, etc.
7. dictate jurisdiction for any disputes relating to the site
View Source
The ability for users to view the source code of nearly all websites by using the "view source" command in browsers means that the source code for your website is not protectable by trade secret law. For something to be protected by trade secret law, it must not be publicly known, the owner must take some effort to keep the information secret, and the information must have monetary value to the owner. If the information is publicly available on the web through "view source," the information is not a trade secret.
Warranties
Statements on your website about your products and services are express warranties to customers. It is important to carefully review all website text to be sure that what your company promises is true and corresponds with its other policies and advertising.
When you review, look for statements that are absolute statements which may be hard to prove or verify if the Federal Trade Commission were to request that you do so. Examples of such statements are: "Our printer works with all software," "Our services are the best," and "We guarantee that our product will always perform perfectly." Also, be aware that the FTC has specific guidelines that should be followed for use of the words "free" and "guarantee" in advertising or on your website.
Also, review your website to be sure that the text matches your regular business contracts. For example, your website should not promise a 60-day money-back guarantee if your contract states only a 30-day warranty.
XXX
If your site contains adult materials, be sure to consult your attorney regarding special legal requirements regarding notice prior to entering the site, notice requirements under federal regulations and other laws applicable to the adult entertainment industry.
Your Risk
The law is all about risk. The more time and money you spend following laws and regulations governing your business, the lower your risks of fines or successful claims by government or third parties.
Zero
The amount your company may have left after ignoring all the laws, regulations and risks.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Age
The age of your users impacts the website. According to Federal Trade Commission regulations through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a website must get a parent's permission for children under 13 to disclose information. Also, remember that children under 18 should not be permitted to view information which is adult in nature. In addition, children under 18 may not be able to agree to contracts such as your website user agreement and purchase contracts. Finally, FTC also regulates advertising and other content directed at children.
Bulletin Boards, Chat Rooms, Etc.
Any posting ability by users should be subject to site submission rules and a user agreement. The rules should obtain users' consent not to post pornographic, defamatory or infringing materials and, through your user agreement, consent to your company not being liable for other users taking such actions.
Copyright
The footer of your site should display a copyright notice for the content of the site. The notice should read "© [date] [copyright owner name] All rights reserved." You should also deposit a copy of the site with the Copyright Office to record ownership of the site's content, look and feel. Finally, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, depending on the purpose and the users' activities on the site, your company may be eligible to register for limited liability offered by the act for the site. You should consult your attorney for review of the act and how to register.
Domain Name
When building your website, domain names are an important part. Often they are directly tied to your business name, your logos and your brand. Businesses often fail to give proper thought to which domain name to choose.
Picking a domain name should have the same careful thought as naming other products or services. Choosing a domain name should include analysis of trademark law in relationship to the name. Under current law, domain names may be awarded to trademark holders over others through arbitration or litigation. This means that having trademark registration in the same name as your domain name may ensure that you retain ownership of the name.
Export
If persons from other countries use your site, then you are exporting. If you sell to such persons, you are exporting the item you sell and entering into contracts with persons of other countries. If you use encryption on the site, then you are exporting technology regulated by the Department of Commerce and Defense. Various government departments regulate the countries with which U.S. companies may do business and when a company needs an export license to transmit items, technology or information abroad. Doing business with certain countries, such as Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria, Yugoslavia and others, is severely restricted. Depending on the information on your site, what kind of business you do, the technology and information involved, your site may be subject to these regulations, and you should consult with your attorney about these business decisions.
Framing
It is important to be careful how your website frames to other sites. There have been trademark cases regarding consumer confusion over which site is which, and which site is the source of the content and data. Also, be careful, because some sites' "terms and conditions" and/or "user agreements" prohibit collecting and reprinting data displayed on the site--even if such data is factual, such as times and places for events.
Giveaways
Sweepstakes, contests, lotteries and giveaways are governed by state and national laws as to how they must be conducted. Florida and New York require registration with the state if the prizes are over $5,000 in value. Most important, you should have rules outlining the terms and conditions of the giveaway. The rules are an offer from the sponsor which the entrant accepts by entering. The offer, plus the acceptance, make a binding contract covering the giveaway.
Home Page
On the footer of the home page of the site, you should have a link to your privacy policy, your user agreement or terms and conditions, and your copyright notice.
Insurance
Be sure that your business insurance covers website activities. Often website activities are excluded from errors and omissions and other business insurance. Lloyds of London and a few other companies have insurance specifically covering materials and sales via websites, including security of credit card numbers and other important data.
Jurisdiction
One of the primary reasons for having a user agreement is to better address the issues of jurisdiction. Under current law, website owners may be subject to jurisdiction and law in any state or country where its users are located. Being subject to the law of so many different locations makes trying to comply with the law and trying to assess your risk tricky. An attorney can help you consider which markets are your highest risk and how to lower your risks through consultation with local counsel or blocking users from those regions. Additionally, you should consider that many foreign jurisdictions do not offer protections for intellectual property which are comparable to the U.S. Therefore, if a user in such a region steals content or software from your site, you may have little recourse by law, and a hard battle to fight on foreign soil and in a foreign language.
Kill All the Lawyers
A mean and horrible, horrible joke which Shakespeare penned in Henry VI and which I hear far too often, although never in reference to me.
Linking
When linking to other sites, you should consider two factors. One is what word or image you are using for the link and whether it is a trademark of another site or company. If so, you need the trademark owner's permission to post the company's trademark on your site. Second, you should always link to the home page of a website since there have been "deep linking" cases claiming loss of advertising revenue which would have been gained if the users had been directed through the home page.
Metatags
Courts have not permitted use of another company's trademarks as metatags on competitors' sites. These cases arose when company A used company B's trademarked term in the metatagging of company A's site so that when a user looked for company B, company A would come up in the listing. For example, it would not be permitted for Coke to use the metatag "Pepsi" on the Coke website.
Notification
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there are required procedures for someone to notify a website that materials on the site may infringe on that person's copyright. If the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies, these procedures should be outlined in a notification policy on the site.
Obscenity
Materials which are considered "obscene" by state or federal law are not permitted on the internet and, especially, may not be viewed by children. What is obscene is based on the local standards of the viewing community. This makes prior determinations of what is acceptable somewhat complex. If you have questions about your site and its content, you should review them with your attorney.
Privacy Policy
If you collect any information from users of your site, using cookies or otherwise, the Federal Trade Commission requires you to have a privacy policy. The privacy policy should contain an explanation of how you collect the users' information, how and where the information is stored, how the user can delete or change the information, and to whom the information is disclosed and for what purpose. The European Union also has similar and strict regulations on collection of information via websites.
Rules for Mail Order
The FTC and some states have guidelines for selling items by mail which have been extended to cover internet sales. These guidelines cover return policies, customer contact and other information about how to inform your customers about your products, shipping and sales procedures.
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission considers a website a means of disclosing information to the public about a company. Therefore any information disclosed on your website should be given the same review and consideration that your company gives all public disclosures with regard to "forward-looking statements" and "material" information.
Trademark
Trademarking the name of your company, logo, mottos and domain name is an important part of your business development and should be reflected on your website. Your nationally registered marks should display an ® and unregistered marks should display a ™ or SM.
User Agreement
Having a user agreement or "terms and conditions" may be the most important part of a website. A user agreement requires each user to agree to be bound by a contract governing his or her use of the site by clicking "I agree" before being permitted to use the site. Be aware that simply posting your legal agreement without forcing the user to click "I agree" prior to use is unlikely to bind your users to the terms. The user must take an active step through which she agrees to the terms and must not be allowed to proceed to use the site without such step.
A user agreement allows a company to:
1. dictate how the site may be used (for example, for reading and printing materials)
2. dictate how the site may not be used (for example, reverse engineering the coding tricks, copying content, for illegal purposes)
3. dictate who may use the site (for example, persons over 18, US citizens)
4. dictate procedures or policies for the site (for example, return policies, complaint policies, notification of copyright infringement policies)
5. dictate your company's waiver of implied legal warranties (for example, implied warranties of noninfringement, fitness for particular purposes, etc.)
6. dictate the limit of your company's liability for the site, other users postings on your site, sites you link to, etc.
7. dictate jurisdiction for any disputes relating to the site
View Source
The ability for users to view the source code of nearly all websites by using the "view source" command in browsers means that the source code for your website is not protectable by trade secret law. For something to be protected by trade secret law, it must not be publicly known, the owner must take some effort to keep the information secret, and the information must have monetary value to the owner. If the information is publicly available on the web through "view source," the information is not a trade secret.
Warranties
Statements on your website about your products and services are express warranties to customers. It is important to carefully review all website text to be sure that what your company promises is true and corresponds with its other policies and advertising.
When you review, look for statements that are absolute statements which may be hard to prove or verify if the Federal Trade Commission were to request that you do so. Examples of such statements are: "Our printer works with all software," "Our services are the best," and "We guarantee that our product will always perform perfectly." Also, be aware that the FTC has specific guidelines that should be followed for use of the words "free" and "guarantee" in advertising or on your website.
Also, review your website to be sure that the text matches your regular business contracts. For example, your website should not promise a 60-day money-back guarantee if your contract states only a 30-day warranty.
XXX
If your site contains adult materials, be sure to consult your attorney regarding special legal requirements regarding notice prior to entering the site, notice requirements under federal regulations and other laws applicable to the adult entertainment industry.
Your Risk
The law is all about risk. The more time and money you spend following laws and regulations governing your business, the lower your risks of fines or successful claims by government or third parties.
Zero
The amount your company may have left after ignoring all the laws, regulations and risks.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Thursday, 17 May 2007
No Quick Fixes Where Search Engine Optimization is Concerned
Wouldn't it be great if we could simply edit Meta tags and get high rankings?
Many years ago I read Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." One thing Covey discusses is the glitter of the "Personality Ethic." He mentions how some people try to find some "quick and easy way to achieve quality of life ... without going through the natural process of work and growth that makes it possible." Then he goes on to say, "The Personality Ethic is illusory and deceptive. And trying to get high quality results with its techniques and quick fixes is just about as effective as trying to get to some place in Chicago using a map of Detroit."
What Covey says is nearly identical to what I've been saying for years regarding search engine optimization: There are simply no quick fixes.
I wish I had a dime for every potential client who came to me and said, "We just need you to fix our Meta tags so our site will rank highly with search engines." These people don't realize that if it were simply a matter of fixing Meta tags, they could probably do it themselves!
Why Not Meta Tags?
Search engines don't have a whole lot to work with when trying to figure out which sites to show in their list of results for any given keyword search. Considering this, it's actually quite amazing how relevant most search results tend to be, given the sheer number of pages on the Internet these days.
For an internal search engine that just searches through pages or products on your site, the information provided in the Meta keyword tag can really help to narrow down the most relevant pages that one of your site users might be searching for.
Unfortunately, the differences between an internal search engine and a public one such as Google are many. For instance, with an internal engine, there are only a relatively small number of pages or products to search through to find a relevant page. Plus, the content and Meta tags on the site are trustworthy, since your goal and that of your internal search engine is to help people find exactly what they're looking for on your site.
On the other hand, with major search engines, their database contains basically every page on the web that they know about. They can't necessarily trust the Meta tags they find since a site owner's goals may not necessarily be the same as the major search engines' goal (i.e., you would like your site to show up in the search results as much as possible for as many keyword phrases as possible, but the search engine would like to show the most relevant pages, whether those are yours or someone else's).
This makes changing or adding Meta tags on your site neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything and it won't have any effect on your search engine traffic.
What About Content?
Sure, you can add all kinds of content to your site and hope that will be a quick fix, but writing lots of good content cannot be done quickly. It will generally take years of writing a little bit every day or every week, to eventually end up with a genuine archive of truly useful information. It's highly doubtful that if you're somehow generating 100 pages a week, you're actually creating good content. You're either stealing from elsewhere, auto-generating it from some sort of icky software program, or you're some kind of robot with too much time on your hands!
How About Links?
It is true that links are very important to helping your site gain visibility and search engine traffic. But quick-fix link schemes are not going to result in long-term high rankings for your site. Everyone knows to avoid "link farms," but nobody seems to quite know what they are. No worry, because it doesn't matter whether something is a link farm or a link scheme or a link popularity bonanza software extravaganza. If you set out to get links for the sole purpose of increasing your search engine rankings, you're already thinking backwards.
Forget about link popularity and instead think about your target audience and how you can let them know your site exists. It's really just marketing, plain and simple. You have a website and a business that presumably is [better] [more unique] [cheaper] [friendlier] than the others out there and it needs to be marketed. You may even have to spend a little money to publicize your site. Good, old-fashioned newspaper, magazine, and even TV ads that mention your website can really get your site noticed. The more visible your site is, the more it will be talked about in the right circles, and the more links it will obtain just because. Even PPC ads can help, because they put your site in front of people looking for what you offer. The point is that people have got to find your site one way or another while you're waiting for your SEO campaign to kick in. It's your job to figure out how to get it in front of them as often as you can.
Regardless of how you market your site, don't count on becoming an overnight sensation.
This brings us back to Covey's Personality Ethic. Sure, someone can edit your Meta tags quickly and submit to 50 billion search engines and trade links with 90 million useless sites. However, if you haven't invested the time up front to create a website with great content that speaks to the reader in plain language that real people use (in other words, without technology buzzwords), you will not see good long-term results.
How To Achieve Long-term Results
You may achieve high rankings very quickly for words that nobody is searching for, but as Covey so aptly put it, these will be illusory and deceptive results at best. If no one uses those words in the engine's search box, all the #1 rankings in the world won't keep your business afloat.
It's imperative to think of the search engine optimization process as a long-term investment for your site, so here are 5 tips to help you invest in your future success:
1. Thoroughly research your keyword phrases using the paid versions of Wordtracker or KeywordDiscovery. Keyword research is completely and utterly the key to everything that is search marketing.
2. Make sure your site is not made up of graphics alone, as these cannot be read by the search engine spiders that come a-crawling. (This is especially true of graphics that look like text -- these are often used when a particular font is desired.)
3. Be sure to use natural, easy-to-understand language that conveys the message of your website and includes keyword phrases you'd like your site to rank highly for.
4. Make sure your Title tags and link anchor text all jibe with the visible content on the page.
5. Be patient! You knew I'd end with that one, but with Google's aging delay in place for new sites, patience is more important than ever. It's most likely going to be a good 9 months before you start seeing much (if any) traffic from Google's natural results. Don't be discouraged, but instead use that time to constantly make your site better than the other guy's.
Remember, you are working toward the future. Good placement achieved by doing things the right way will have staying power over time with very little additional effort. Like everything in life, if you spend the time and money to do it right to begin with, the long-term results will always be impressive.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
Many years ago I read Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." One thing Covey discusses is the glitter of the "Personality Ethic." He mentions how some people try to find some "quick and easy way to achieve quality of life ... without going through the natural process of work and growth that makes it possible." Then he goes on to say, "The Personality Ethic is illusory and deceptive. And trying to get high quality results with its techniques and quick fixes is just about as effective as trying to get to some place in Chicago using a map of Detroit."
What Covey says is nearly identical to what I've been saying for years regarding search engine optimization: There are simply no quick fixes.
I wish I had a dime for every potential client who came to me and said, "We just need you to fix our Meta tags so our site will rank highly with search engines." These people don't realize that if it were simply a matter of fixing Meta tags, they could probably do it themselves!
Why Not Meta Tags?
Search engines don't have a whole lot to work with when trying to figure out which sites to show in their list of results for any given keyword search. Considering this, it's actually quite amazing how relevant most search results tend to be, given the sheer number of pages on the Internet these days.
For an internal search engine that just searches through pages or products on your site, the information provided in the Meta keyword tag can really help to narrow down the most relevant pages that one of your site users might be searching for.
Unfortunately, the differences between an internal search engine and a public one such as Google are many. For instance, with an internal engine, there are only a relatively small number of pages or products to search through to find a relevant page. Plus, the content and Meta tags on the site are trustworthy, since your goal and that of your internal search engine is to help people find exactly what they're looking for on your site.
On the other hand, with major search engines, their database contains basically every page on the web that they know about. They can't necessarily trust the Meta tags they find since a site owner's goals may not necessarily be the same as the major search engines' goal (i.e., you would like your site to show up in the search results as much as possible for as many keyword phrases as possible, but the search engine would like to show the most relevant pages, whether those are yours or someone else's).
This makes changing or adding Meta tags on your site neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything and it won't have any effect on your search engine traffic.
What About Content?
Sure, you can add all kinds of content to your site and hope that will be a quick fix, but writing lots of good content cannot be done quickly. It will generally take years of writing a little bit every day or every week, to eventually end up with a genuine archive of truly useful information. It's highly doubtful that if you're somehow generating 100 pages a week, you're actually creating good content. You're either stealing from elsewhere, auto-generating it from some sort of icky software program, or you're some kind of robot with too much time on your hands!
How About Links?
It is true that links are very important to helping your site gain visibility and search engine traffic. But quick-fix link schemes are not going to result in long-term high rankings for your site. Everyone knows to avoid "link farms," but nobody seems to quite know what they are. No worry, because it doesn't matter whether something is a link farm or a link scheme or a link popularity bonanza software extravaganza. If you set out to get links for the sole purpose of increasing your search engine rankings, you're already thinking backwards.
Forget about link popularity and instead think about your target audience and how you can let them know your site exists. It's really just marketing, plain and simple. You have a website and a business that presumably is [better] [more unique] [cheaper] [friendlier] than the others out there and it needs to be marketed. You may even have to
Regardless of how you market your site, don't count on becoming an overnight sensation.
This brings us back to Covey's Personality Ethic. Sure, someone can edit your Meta tags quickly and submit to 50 billion search engines and trade links with 90 million useless sites. However, if you haven't invested the time up front to create a website with great content that speaks to the reader in plain language that real people use (in other words, without technology buzzwords), you will not see good long-term results.
How To Achieve Long-term Results
You may achieve high rankings very quickly for words that nobody is searching for, but as Covey so aptly put it, these will be illusory and deceptive results at best. If no one uses those words in the engine's search box, all the #1 rankings in the world won't keep your business afloat.
It's imperative to think of the search engine optimization process as a long-term investment for your site, so here are 5 tips to help you invest in your future success:
1. Thoroughly research your keyword phrases using the paid versions of Wordtracker or KeywordDiscovery. Keyword research is completely and utterly the key to everything that is search marketing.
2. Make sure your site is not made up of graphics alone, as these cannot be read by the search engine spiders that come a-crawling. (This is especially true of graphics that look like text -- these are often used when a particular font is desired.)
3. Be sure to use natural, easy-to-understand language that conveys the message of your website and includes keyword phrases you'd like your site to rank highly for.
4. Make sure your Title tags and link anchor text all jibe with the visible content on the page.
5. Be patient! You knew I'd end with that one, but with Google's aging delay in place for new sites, patience is more important than ever. It's most likely going to be a good 9 months before you start seeing much (if any) traffic from Google's natural results. Don't be discouraged, but instead use that time to constantly make your site better than the other guy's.
Remember, you are working toward the future. Good placement achieved by doing things the right way will have staying power over time with very little additional effort. Like everything in life, if you spend the time and money to do it right to begin with, the long-term results will always be impressive.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com
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