When I’m on a site offering a product or service I like to click on customer testimonials because they are generally short and easy to read. People typically point out exactly what they like about a product and how they used it to their benefit. Testimonials come from real users, they’re not some ad written by the company.

Now, let’s take the testimonial concept and think about it as a marketing strategy for you and your business.

Website testimonials describe how buyers feel about the products they have purchased and used. If you, as a buyer, offer your testimonial with your name and website address this now becomes a very valuable marketing tool for you. It will expose you and your business to everyone looking at that merchant’s website. If the merchant site happens to be a well-known site offering a high demand product, this could mean huge exposure for you.

Note that many merchant sites will display your website address but will not put an actual link to it. While it’s ideal to have a link to your site it’s not always necessary. I often investigate sites of testimonial givers whether there is a link attached or not. As long as your website address is displayed, that is good enough.

Testimonials can also double as a great linking strategy as well. If your testimonial includes your link and is displayed on the front page of four or five high ranking merchant sites this can increase your link popularity tremendously. By doing this you have also just eliminated the concern of linking to competitor sites and you’ve avoided the hassle of reciprocal linking.

Testimonials don’t only need to be addressed to merchants you buy from. You should also send your testimonials to ezines or free online services that you use. Send them in the form of complimentary notes. Compliment their products or services and describe how you find them useful. Websites interested in boosting sales will often use them and you are much more likely to get printed if you are delivering a compliment.

Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can visit Elizabeth’s sites at: http://www.pro-marketing-online.com http://www.homenotion.com

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1. Email each visitor a satisfaction questionnaire after they purchase. This will allow you to improve your order system, customer service, site, etc.

2. Give a percentage of your profits to a cause your customers would like. It could be a charity, school, environmental improvements, etc.

3. Take harsh criticism the right way and improve your online business. Don’t get down in the dumps, improve the situation so it doesn’t happen again.

4. Try bartering before you buy services, supplies and equipment for your business. You can use the extra money you save on advertising your business.

5. Give away a follow-up email course on an auto- responder. Include your ad with each lesson. People will buy quicker when they see your ad repeatedly.

6. Make sure your classified ads don’t sound like an ad. Don’t ask people to buy anything or they won’t click, give something away instead.

7. Give your free bonus products extra perceived value. Don’t use the phrase “free bonuses” use the phrase “you will also get”.

8. Keep your visitors on your web site longer. The longer they stay, the greater chance they will buy. Just hold a treasure hunt contest on your web site.

9. Make sure you’re always creating new products and services or improving old ones. Most products or services won’t stand the test of time online.

10. Split the cost of online advertising and marketing by sharing a web site with a similar, non-competing business. You would both put up half the cost.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”,(investing online ) program, which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free "cash"?

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Content management means many things to different people, but it is generally understood to be the concept of separating the design and layout of a website from the actual content contained on that website. This allows a company’s web developer to do his job more efficiently and not get bogged down with endless requests for changes, additions and deletions to the content of the web page. More importantly, it allows employees who are not web developers to update the company’s web page.

When seeing the changes that have occurred to content management over the last couple of years, it is helpful to take a step back. The commercial internet is only about 10 years old. What began as a way for government researchers to communicate their findings with their peers has morphed into the giant commercial enterprise that is today’s Internet. With this explosive growth over the period of just a decade or so, it is no wonder that content management has changed and grown as well.

It may take another 20 years or more until the internet is fully mature, and many more changes are likely to be in store. Seeing those changes coming can put your business on the cutting edge and position you for success.

Putting content ahead of technology is the centerpiece of the content management concept. When designing and updating their websites, smart companies will put the reader first. Try to put yourself in the place of a visitor to your website.

- When a visitor first sees your website, what is their first impression?

- Do they see an easy to use interface?

- Is everything laid out clearly?

- Is it easy to find what you want?

Take an objective look at your company website and answer these questions honestly. If you find your website lacking, you can use content management techniques to make your website more intuitive and user friendly.

More and more companies are hiring professional writers and editors as part of their overall content management strategy. This is a strategy that I believe will pay big dividends as the internet further matures. The internet is already the number one source of information for many people, and as more and more people get comfortable with using the internet, those numbers are likely to grow. The companies that can provide the most useful web content, to the greatest number of people, are the ones that will thrive in the 21st century.

By now most major corporations and many smaller firms already have functioning websites on the Internet. This means that the demand for professionals to design and upload websites is likely to shrink in the future. On the other hand, the need for professionals who can update web content and make it useful to customers is likely to grow. The future of content management has never looked brighter.

Barry Stein is the owner of aWebBiz.com where he offers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of business. To find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.aWebBiz.com

Barry’s Internet Marketing Blog: http://aWebBiz.com/blog

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You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included with an active hyperlink to the aWebBiz.com website.

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This is it; basically, when you optimize a website, you first want to enter at least 30 keywords into the ‘head’ of your web page. No problem there.

The next step in optimizing is that you must put each of your keywords into the text of your web page at least 4 times!

This is one area where your web page sinks or swims in the search engine ’spidering’ process. This is where one must get, er.. creative.

We’ve all seen those web pages that are about a mile long and so wordy, that you kind of loose track as to what the heck they are talking about. Well, optimizing is what that’s about. That and testimonials, which are a good thing to have, but most experts agree that you’ve got to get right down to the point and not loose your reader.

If this page is in a surf exchange, you’re expecting your viewer to read a mile long page in about 30 seconds. Trying to get all your key words into your ad text 4 times, can make it read a bit funny.

So here are a couple of alternatives;

If you use graphics, (and who doesn’t?), you are often able to enter text as mouse over text, as if you were going to link the graphic somewhere, but just put in some graphics that you don’t plan to use as links and cram as many keywords into the mouse over as you can.

On some of my sites you see a few extra graphics that seem to be there purely for decoration, until you put your mouse on one and see a mouse over text that stretches off the screen.

But most folks don’t put their mouse on a graphic unless they are told it’s a link.

I honestly thought of that myself, but I have since seen the idea in Trafficology.

Another one that I thought up, and haven’t seen anywhere else is this;

Just create a text box and load all your keywords into it as many times as you need, or use four boxes, (just copy and paste) then set the color of your fonts for the text in these boxes to match the background color of your web page. Now you have invisible keyword boxes that still work the same as if you had put them into your ad text!

Brian Beshore has been involved with Internet Marketing for several years. He publishes his own Home Business Guide. http://surfinsafari.net

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Aho

99% of them were wrong when I asked this simple question.

Who are the best eBook Sellers online today?

The answer I received from most of my ezine list was Amazon.com.

Well here is the good news. Amazon.com is not the only bookseller on the Internet.

Today at first glance things can be rather confusing. Booksellers or e-publishers are popping up all over. Each one seems to bring a new twist to the profession.

Electronic publishing is an industry that is still in its infancy. It encompasses eBooks, as well as print-on-demand technology. Many new innovative companies have been attracted by the exciting possibilities and as a result there are numerous competing companies, software formats and accompanying handheld readers and printer/binders.

In this new “Wild West” of publishing, with multiple reading choices and no clear leader or standard yet established, confusion reigns for consumers as well as publishers. However, much as we have witnessed in other maturing industries, the competition is fierce, resulting in rapidly improving technology, dropping prices with emerging standards. The purchase price of eBooks could be as much 80% less than a comparable book purchased through traditional bookstores.

It used to be you submitted to a traditional book publisher and waited to see if you were accepted. Today, there are all kinds of choices to become familiar with.

Now before we begin let’s narrow down the field a little. There are 3 different types of booksellers that I am referring to.

The first is an online bookseller that you need a publisher to contact before they will look at your eBook.

Second is a bookseller that charges a royalty percentage to sell your eBook.

And last but not least, an online bookseller that will sell your eBook for either a flat up front fee or for free. This means you retain 100% of the profits from your eBook sales.

Today we will be talking about the third, or the last example.

Why use online booksellers is probably what you are asking yourself right about now.

Here are the answers:

1. Books written by the Author never go out of print.

2. Authors can write what they want without formulas being dictated.

3. Crossing genres isn’t a problem.

4. All profits are kept and not shared.

5. eBooks can be changed and/or updated easily.

6. Authors have a global audience.

7. Increases your online identity.

8. Builds momentum for your sales.

Now, once again you also get to keep 100% of the profits from your eBook sales. WOW!

Compare those figures to the normal print royalties: 7% on 50,000 copies for trade paperback, 8% on the first 150,000 copies for mass market paperback, or 8% to 15% on 15,000 copies for hardcover.

Another great advantage of this type of booksellers over print books is that you always retain complete rights to your title and your agreements will be non-exclusive (meaning that you may also sell your work through other publishers). Either party may terminate the agreement by using a thirty-day email notification.

Once again this short article is an excerpt from my new eBook: eBook Marketing Secrets Revealed. Inside you will find numerous low fee and/or free eBooksellers listed for your convenience. To jumpstart you on your way today, here are two booksellers I recommend you try right now.

http://ebookpalace.com

http://www.ebookomatic.com/

Well that’s all for today.

Happy selling!

Blessings Bluedolphin Crow

About the Author Bluedolphin Crow Ph.D. is the author of an eBook called: eBook-Marketing-Secrets-Revealed! Rreserve your copy go to: http://www.ebook-marketing-secrets-revealed.com

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But using simple techniques combined with a bit of care, you can easily give you images the attention that will do them justice.

The materials used in printing your images play an important factor in the quality of the finished print.

1. Printer.

When buying a printer think about the materials that you use. If you are planning to print large format images, choose a printer that can handle rolls of photographic paper. These printers are usually more expensive, but great savings can be made when buying paper.

2. Paper.

Photographic paper comes in many different sizes and textures. No harm in testing out a few different papers from different manufacturers to see which one suits your needs best.

3. Ink.

It is strongly recommended to buy inks from your printer’s manufacturers. Third party inks may mean greater savings on your part but it does not guarantee that they will be suited for your printer.

It is advisable also to plan well in advance when you plan to buy a printer. If you are only going to print a small amount of images it may be better using a local photo lab.

If you are planning to sell a large amount of images, your own printer will be very valuable. Having your own printer will ensure that you can process orders immediately after getting them.

Take note of delivery time though. Nowadays, offering a speedy delivery can mean the difference in making a sale. Using a third party to print your images may take a week or more before you can get your images back. This does not sound good.

When you are happy with the quality of your printer you now need to consider presentation. Putting an image in to a cheap frame will not do anything for your prints.

Presentation is all about giving your images the impact they truly deserve. Before you print your images start thinking about presentation.

When finished printing match your prints to your computer screen. If you think you have a problem with your final print you may need to calibrate your computer. This is a common problem with a lot of people printing at home. Most advance photographic software comes with a basic calibration program, which can be simply used in improving results.

The perfect image is not only achieved during the time it is taken. It is also achieved after it is taken. With the perfect tools and proper care.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.colorprintingwholesale.com

About The Author

Florie Lyn Masarate got the flair for reading and writing when she got her first subscription of the school newsletter in kindergarten. She had her first article published on that same newsletter in the third grade.

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If you run a web site, your web pages need to have a lot of content that is of interest to your visitors. Have you just found an exciting product or affiliate program to promote? Before you set up a sales page, write down all the benefits the product offers your users, then design your own page around those benefits.

Invest the time it takes to figure out how you can best approach your visitors so they see value in what you are offering.

There is a difference between features and benefits:

Roses are red. (Feature)

My wife gets ‘happy’ when I give her roses. (Benefit)

Want to make more sales? Give your visitors more than you take. Shower them with useful items such as articles, updated e-books, free memberships and services related to the theme of your web site.

After all, without user involvement and purchases, your web site becomes as good as an empty movie theater on Friday night. Your web site should get repeat visits and develop a loyal group of thousands of visitors. People will flock to your site when they get something out of it every time they visit.

One way to make your site more convincing and to gain the trust of your visitors is by using testimonials. Testimonials enforce the idea that it’s O.K. for you to get your credit card out and make a purchase. It’s a validation mechanism to induce trust and sales.

Testimonials should always be verifiable, i.e., contain a link to the person’s page. The idea behind most testimonials is to take away all possible doubts about your product or service. Avoid something like:

” I tried this product and made $10,000 the first day. It is simply phenomenal…”

- Jack The Ripper, U.K.

The testimonial above could be totally fabricated and people know that. A better one is:

“I don’t usually buy everything I see on the Internet but I took a chance and purchased this program. I made $150 my first week with 2 sales. A got an order from a lady in Washington and another one from a gentleman in New England. Neither one has returned the product. One of them emailed me and said: ‘This product is fantastic, thank you!’ I am really excited to be promoting your product and I think others will too!”

Mario Giordani, Webmaster http://milliondollardays.com webmaster(at)roiclicks.com

Which of the above testimonials sounds better and more convincing? The second allows you to send an email or visit the web site. While verification is not 100% guaranteed, it’s much better than the first testimonial. If you use an online form to collect testimonials, you may be able to guide your clients to provide better formatted testimonials to get the "punch" that you want for your product or service. A testimonial with a photo gives you more credibility. Never use a fake photo, or the photo of someone you don’t know, for obvious liabilities reasons.

Does your page make you sound like a "used car salesman"? Does it inspire trust? Is it customer focused? Fine tuning your web page can be an ongoing task. Ask people to go over your page and get their input. Could you change a word here and there to make it more appealing? Is it convincing? Does it load fast? It is optimized? Would they buy from you? Does it come across as full of hype and empty promises? How can you make improvements to it?

In order to get attention, the message on your web page needs to stand out in the crowd. Make it "shout" a little louder than the rest with a powerful opening headline. Most of us are conditioned to reading the headlines on news stories. If the headline sparks our interest, then we tend to dig in deeper. The same is true with your opening headline on your web page. Make a strong visitor-oriented statement that prompts the user to want to read on?

Many pages promise you the world until you pay the fee. Then it is not unusual to be disappointed when you get the actual product or service that was so highly touted. Make sure that your page doesn’t fall into this category.

I once bought into a site that did a fantastic job in convincing me I was going to be rich just by virtue of accessing all this “secret” information and by having access to all these great “tools”. $97 later, all I got was a bunch of “ad blasters”, free classified ad sites and ezine blasters, FFA links and a bunch of stuff thrown together to create “volume” for the member’s area. Most of the information was either ineffective or readily available with a couple of searches on Google and, ahem, Free!

So while your sales page should address the "What’s in it for me factor", your actual product and service needs to satisfy the customer once they trusted you and parted with their hard-earned money. Disappointed customers rarely come back.

The most important word on your sales page should be the word "you" at all times. The most important content is the one that deals with your visitors needs.

My name is Mario Giordani. I’ve been marketing online since 1993 and many of my 40 web sites can benefit you. Feel free to distribute this article as long as all links are clickable and nothing is changed. You can reach me at ifsbos(at)aol.com. Let’s increase our page rankings by reciprocating links at http://milliondollardays.com/

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There are three main groups of permissions when dealing with the chmod command. The three groups are yourself or owner, your unix group, and everyone else. A typical chmod command would look like this - ‘chmod 755′ This allows you to add, remove or rename files as well as read or edit a file. It also specifies that your unix group and everyone else can only read and edit the file in question. They can’t add, delete, or rename the file.

How the numbers in the chmod command work

There are three types of permissions that can be given to a file. They are read, write, and execute. The read permission is assigned a value of 4, the write permission is assigned a value of 2 and the execute permission is assigned a value of 1. So when a chmod command specified the digit 7 as the first number, it means that all three types of permissions are to be assigned to it. If a party is assigned a value of ‘0′ then it means it has no rights whatsoever to a file. ‘6′ tells the server that the user can read and write to the file but can’t execute it. I think you get the idea.

Common permissions to set

Most of your html files will do fine with a permission of 644. Most script files will need a permission of 755. Any configuration files in a script package will often need a file permission of 777. Be very careful about assigning a file permission of ‘777′ for everyone. With this permission, it means that anyone who gains access to your server will be able to add, remove, rename, read or edit the file. It is always a good idea with security in mind to assign the least amount of permissions necessary to get the job done.

An FTP client can keep things simple

Most people on shared servers will not have access to a command line to be able to use the chmod command. For most people, changing file permissions will be done through an FTP client. To do this, right click on the file you want to alter, and choose the chmod command. You will usually get a popup that will show nine checkboxes. The will be arranged in three rows. On the left you will usually see Read, Write, and Execute for the row headings. You can accomplish the same thing as typing in the numbers above by clicking on one, two or three boxes for each party. Once you’re done, you click the apply or ok button and the file permissions will be changed.

If you keep in mind that you need to always go with the most restrictive file permissions possible that still allows your files to execute, and that there are three parties to define permissions for, you’ll do fine. The three parties again are the owner, group, and everyone else.

This article was written by Joe Duchesne, president of http://www.yowling.com/, a web hosting company that specializes in helping online business owners increase their website traffic. Copyright 2004 Yowling. Reprint Freely as long as you link back to my website from this resource box.

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If yes, then do what internet marketing experts do to increase online sales:

1. Attend trade shows and seminars that are related to your specific industry. Pass out business cards or brochures about your business.

2. Swap articles with other e-zines publishers. You could get your articles published more often if in exchange you publish their articles.

3. Ask people to link to your site’s content. Some people may not want to link to your home page but might want to link to your content.

4. Convert your web site into an ebook. You could offer your ebook as a free bonus for your product or another business’ product.

5. Create ebooks for other web sites or businesses. You could create them for no charge in exchange for an ad or mention of your web site inside.

6. Team-up with eight to ten other sites to promote the same web site. Just include everyone’s products on the web site you are all promoting.

7. Give free e-mail consultations to your customers. When you e-mail them back your advice include a small ad for a back end product your selling.

8. Encourage your customers or visitors to e-mail you questions about your product or web site. Just include your sig file with your reply.

9. Give out free web space on your server. Many of your visitors may want to publish their own web site. Just require that they publish your banner ad.

10. Design web sites for other businesses for free. Just require them to publish your banner or text ad somewhere on their home page.

May these secrets help you to increase online sales at your website.

Warmly,

I-key Benney, CEO

I-key, a Millionaire CEO from New York City is the creator of “Mscsrrr: Millionaire Secret Cash System”,(Online Trading ) which has helped thousands of ordinary people from all over the world to attain financial security and shining success during the past 2 yrs.

Mscsrrr Millionaire Cash System helps you to generate $1,500+/Week for life, from home or office, part time or full time. No large investment or hassles. Win $1000-$2000 free "cash"?

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As you earn your CCNA and CCNP certification, you’re going to have to get comfortable with manually summarizing routes. This isn’t just another reason to learn binary math (although it’s a good one!), but summarizing routes is a true real-world skill that can help your network operate more efficiently. So the question isn’t just how to summarize routes, it’s why.

When you summarize routes in RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, or OSPF, you’re replacing a series of routes with a summary route and mask. With RIP, IGRP, and EIGRP, this actually lessens the size of the routing update packet itself - multiple routes are replaced with the summary route. For instance, the routes 8.0.0.0/8, 9.0.0.0/8, 10.0.0.0/8, and 11.0.0.0/8 can be summarized as 8.0.0.0 252.0.0.0. Only the summary address will be found in the update packet, making it concise yet complete.

Summarizing routes can also make the routing table smaller, yet still allow for complete IP connectivity when done correctly. Using the above example, the four more-specific routes will be replaced by a single summary route. Since the entire routing table is parsed before the routing process is complete, keeping the routing table as small as possible does help speed the routing process as a whole.

To prepare for success on your CCNA and CCNP exam, you’ve got to know how to summarize routes as well as the specific commands for doing so with OSPF, EIGRP, RIP, and IGRP - but knowing why to summarize routes is just as important as knowing how! Here are some additional tips on route summarization.

With RIP version 2 and EIGRP, manual route summarization is configured on the interface that will be advertising the summary. This is done with the route summarization command “ip summary-address.”

RIP version 2 and EIGRP also both perform autosummarization on routes that are advertised across classful network boundaries. This is disabled with the protocol-level command “no auto-summary”.

OSPF offers two different route summarization commands. To summarize routes from one OSPF area to another, use the “area range” command; to summarize routes learned via redistribution, use the “summary-address” command on the ASBR.

With proper planning and an understanding of binary math, you’ll master route summarization quickly with some practice - and you’ll be ready for success on real-world networks as well as the CCNA and CCNP exams!

About The Author

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, visit the website and download your free copies. You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNA exam with The Bryant Advantage!

thebryantadvantage.com

chris@thebryantadvantage.com

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