You’ve got a problem. You want people to visit your Web site; that’s the
Ypurpose, after all — to bring people to your site to buy your product, or
learn about service, or hear about the cause you support, or for whatever
other purpose you’ve built the site. So you’ve decided you need to get traffic
from the search engines — not an unreasonable conclusion, as you find out
in this chapter. But there are so many search engines! You have the obvious
ones — the Googles, AOLs, Yahoo!s, and MSNs of the world — but you’ve
probably also heard of others: HotBot, Dogpile, Ask Jeeves, Netscape,
EarthLink, LookSmart . . . even Amazon provides a Web search on almost
every page. There’s Lycos and InfoSpace, Teoma and WiseNut, Mamma.com
and WebCrawler. To top it all off, you’ve seen advertising asserting that, for
only $49.95 (or $19.95, or $99.95, or whatever sum seems to make sense to
the advertiser), you too can have your Web site listed in hundreds, nay, thou-
sands of search engines. You may have even used some of these services,
only to discover that the flood of traffic you were promised turns up missing.
Well, I’ve got some good news. You can forget almost all the names I just
listed — well, at least you can after you’ve read this chapter. The point of this
chapter is to take a complicated landscape of thousands of search sites and
whittle it down into the small group of search systems that really matter.
(Search sites? Search systems? Don’t worry, I explain the distinction in a
moment.)

If you really want to, you can jump to “Where Do People Search,” near the
end of the chapter, to the list of search systems you need to worry about and
ignore the details. But I’ve found that, when I give this list to someone, he or
she looks at me like I’m crazy because they know that some popular search
sites aren’t on the list. This chapter explains why.

With millions of Web sites competing for viewers, how do you get the
results you’re looking for? When asked if they are marketing on the
Internet, many people say, “Yes, we have a Web site.” However, having
a Web site and marketing on the Internet are two very different things.
Yes, usually you need a Web site to market on the Internet. However, a
Web site is simply a collection of documents, images, and other elec-
tronic files that are publicly accessible across the Internet. Your site
should be designed to meet your online objectives and should be devel-
oped with your target market in mind. Internet marketing encompasses
all the steps you take to reach your target market online, attract visitors
to your Web site, encourage them to buy your products or services, and
make them want to come back for more.
Having a Web site is great, but it is meaningless if nobody knows
about it. Just like having a brilliantly designed product brochure does
you little good if it sits in your sales manager’s desk drawer, a Web site
does you little good if your target market isn’t visiting it. It is the goal of
this book to help you take your Web site out of the desk drawer, into the
spotlight, and into the hands of your target market. You will learn how
to formulate an Internet marketing strategy in keeping with your objec-
tives, your product or service, and your target market. This chapter
provides you with an overview of this book and introduces the impor-
tance of:

•  Defining your online objectives
•  Defining your target market and developing your Web site and
online marketing strategy with them in mind
•  Developing the Internet marketing strategy that is appropriate
for your product or service.

What makes each country unique from each other is that they have their own standards to be followed in every aspect. International business practices are absolutely not an exemption to that especially, plenty of corporations are targeting to head to the global market to find more avenues for profit.

In the case of Bolivia, dubbed as a donkey sitting in a gold mine, it remains to be the poorest nation in the South American region because of the said high corruption levels. However, amidst the fiscal crisis they are experiencing, it is good to discover what are there international business practices to keep in pace with economic stability. Not to mention, they are rich in natural resources and is the second biggest producer of gas field after Venezuela.

Here are there international business practices divided into categories namely exporting, trade organizations, commercial policies, foreign investment and taxation.

Exporting is broken down into agents & distributors, import restrictions, import duties and documentation. Agents & distributors are required no legal obligations for emigrant firms to maintain local liaisons but there is representation needed when those emigrant firms make public bidding or branch operations. Import restrictions are anything that will impose health risks or threaten national security. Import duties include paying a tariff rate on non- capital goods from a percentage of 10- 17 based upon cost, insurance and freight. Documentation refers to the five legal papers that must be presented to the authorities such as sellers commercial invoice, inspection certificate, insurance policy, packing list and bill of lading.

Trade organizations are comprised of corporations, private companies and branches. Corporations can only legitimately exist when it can accomplish all the requirements of the Commercial Code. Private companies can easily be established when they have an execution of an incorporation deed and MECE registration. Branches must meet two prerequisites such as local representative and legal entity.

Commercial policies are one of the international business practices in Bolivia wherein the Central Bank functions an exchange sale market and sets conversation rates.

Foreign investments include restrictions and investments. Restrictions laid down are not that stringent as compared to others. As a matter of fact, foreign investors are given the same rights as with the domestic investors. Incentives given by the government is in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, Inter- American Development Bank and World Bank. Together they commit to attract more asset ventures in the country.

Taxation is segregated into corporate taxes, personal income taxes and treaty taxes. Corporate taxes are calculated based on their net worth determined by the Tax Code. Personal income taxes are assessed on the sum salary earned. Treaty taxes refer to the agreement made known as the Andean Pact with Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela as well as the signatory of the River Plate Basin Treaty with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.

In the early days of Internet development, its users were a privileged minority and the amount of available information was relatively small. Access was mainly restricted to employees of various universities and laboratories who used it to access scientific information. In those days, the problem of finding information on the Internet was not nearly as critical as it is now.

   Site directories were one of the first methods used to facilitate access to information resources on the network. Links to these resources were grouped by topic. Yahoo was the first project of this kind opened in April 1994. As the number of sites in the Yahoo directory inexorably increased, the developers of Yahoo made the directory searchable. Of course, it was not a search engine in its true form because searching was limited to those resources who’s listings were put into the directory. It did not actively seek out resources and the concept of seo was yet to arrive.

   Such link directories have been used extensively in the past, but nowadays they have lost much of their popularity. The reason is simple – even modern directories with lots of resources only provide information on a tiny fraction of the Internet. For example, the largest directory on the network is currently DMOZ (or Open Directory Project). It contains information on about five million resources. Compare this with the Google search engine database containing more than eight billion documents.

   The WebCrawler project started in 1994 and was the first full-featured search engine. The Lycos and AltaVista search engines appeared in 1995 and for many years Alta Vista was the major player in this field.

   In 1997 Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google as a research project at Stanford University. Google is now the most popular search engine in the world.

   Currently, there are three leading international search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN Search. They each have their own databases and search algorithms. Many other search engines use results originating from these three major search engines and the same seo expertise can be applied to all of them. For example, the AOL search engine (search.aol.com) uses the Google database while AltaVista, Lycos and AllTheWeb all use the Yahoo database.

Common search engine principles
   To understand seo you need to be aware of the architecture of search engines. They all contain the following main components:

   Spider - a browser-like program that downloads web pages.

   Crawler – a program that automatically follows all of the links on each web page.

   Indexer - a program that analyzes web pages downloaded by the spider and the crawler.

   Database– storage for downloaded and processed pages.

   Results engine – extracts search results from the database.

   Web server – a server that is responsible for interaction between the user and other search engine components.

   Specific implementations of search mechanisms may differ. For example, the Spider+Crawler+Indexer component group might be implemented as a single program that downloads web pages, analyzes them and then uses their links to find new resources. However, the components listed are inherent to all search engines and the seo principles are the same.

   Spider. This program downloads web pages just like a web browser. The difference is that a browser displays the information presented on each page (text, graphics, etc.) while a spider does not have any visual components and works directly with the underlying HTML code of the page. You may already know that there is an option in standard web browsers to view source HTML code.

   Crawler. This program finds all links on each page. Its task is to determine where the spider should go either by evaluating the links or according to a predefined list of addresses. The crawler follows these links and tries to find documents not already known to the search engine.

   Indexer. This component parses each page and analyzes the various elements, such as text, headers, structural or stylistic features, special HTML tags, etc.

   Database. This is the storage area for the data that the search engine downloads and analyzes. Sometimes it is called the index of the search engine.

   Results Engine. The results engine ranks pages. It determines which pages best match a user’s query and in what order the pages should be listed. This is done according to the ranking algorithms of the search engine. It follows that page rank is a valuable and interesting property and any seo specialist is most interested in it when trying to improve his site search results. In this article, we will discuss the seo factors that influence page rank in some detail.

   Web server. The search engine web server usually contains a HTML page with an input field where the user can specify the search query he or she is interested in. The web server is also responsible for displaying search results to the user in the form of an HTML page.

Marketing would appear to be the great buzz word of the decade. Every self-respecting business team talks about it, yet many of us aren’t even sure what it is, and even more are uncertain of how they should be doing it.

In Marketing -the next level we looked at some of the most important definitions, and pointed out that marketing is simply about bridging the gap between the producer and the consumer. It’s not about what you’re trying to sell, it’s about who you’re trying to sell it to, what they want from you, and how to give it them. It really is that simple.

This is all very good in theory, but one of the main problems with marketing is that while it makes complete sense when reading about it, applying it to the real world can often prove to be a different matter. One of the simplest and most effective ways to do so is to focus on the consumer.

How to attract new customers to your product and website is the constant quandary of many businesses, small or large. But the fact is that no matter what method you use to do so, it’s a hard, slow and often expensive process. Logically, we can therefore assume that we should, and indeed must, apply some of our energies to retaining existing customers.

The question is why we lose so many potential customers before they’ve even had a chance to reach for their wallets. There could be many reasons for this. Some may no longer require what you’re selling, some may simply forget about you, and inevitably, some may feel (rightly or wrongly) that you don’t provide what they need or want.

While there is little that you can do if they genuinely have no need for the product or service you’re selling, everything else is completely under your control.

Why Are You Losing Customers?

If, for example, a customer did use your product in the past, but no longer has any need for it, then something must have changed. Is it perhaps new technology that you’re not keeping up with, a gap in your product, or incompatibility with other software? Identify what’s changed, and if possible, address those needs.

If the reason is a competing product, then go after the product’s features with a vengeance, and build on them. Don’t constrain yourself by only providing the bare basics of what the consumer wants. Give them what they could use, and show them features that they’ve never even thought of before. While no-one in their right mind goes shopping for a new car based on the stereo and seat linings, the fact is that sometimes these add-ins may prove to be the make-or-break features in choosing their purchase. Throw them in.

On the other hand, if the potential customer doesn’t even realise what you’re offering, then you’re doing something very wrong. Have you ever come across a site with the make-or-break fact that persuades you to buy the product, hidden away four clicks into the web site? I certainly have, and it’s far from rare.

Realistically, chances are that a large number of your website visitors won’t go beyond the front page, so don’t hide the juicy details buried in the depths of your site. The most important sales facts should be plain to see from the moment your main page loads. A book may not be judged by its cover, but a website certainly is. Catch their attention the moment they arrive, entice them in with tasty titbits, and you’ve got them.

Sell The Benefits, Not Just The Features

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll say it many times yet. You have to sell the benefits of your software, and not just it’s features. A long feature list looks great to the person who’s thinking about buying the software, but until they realise that they need or want it in the first place, it’ll barely even register.

Take an imaginary graphics file viewer as an example. If the front page for the product is one long feature list, with an impressive 60+ supported formats on display, that’s all very well and good. But will the three-second-a-site visitor be interested? Probably not. They’re not looking for what the software is capable of, they’re looking for what the software can do for them.

If however you sell the fact that the file viewer can SAVE TIME AND MONEY, ALLOW YOU TO ACCESS YOUR COLLEAGUES FILES and VIEW ALL YOUR EMAIL ATTACHMENTS, then you’re far more likely to grab their attention.

Feature lists are for shareware sites and magazine reviews. People want benefits and solutions. Again, it goes back to the consumer.

Once you know what they’re looking for, spoon feed it to them in just the right way, with all the information and details they need, and a little bit of icing never goes amiss either.

As for the people who click on the features list, chances are that they don’t need convincing that they may have a use for the software, they’re looking for more reasons to buy it. They’re looking for as many facts as possible to satisfy their wallet, boss, spouse or conscience. Give them what they want.

And remember not to go for too blatant a sales pitch. People are strange, and although the average person loves to buy things, they hate being sold to! The difference? Make them want what you’re selling, don’t just shout BUY at them! Satisfy their needs, meet their requirements and show them that you’re the answer they’re looking for.

Never forget that you’re not selling to objects. You’re selling to people. In order to reach them, you have to start thinking like one of them!

Spend time finding out how your existing customers use your software, what made them choose your product, and why they continue to use or enjoy it. See if any patterns emerge, and use this information to focus on your strengths and also your opportunities. Then apply what you’ve learnt to your product literature, your banner ads, your email signature, your advertising campaigns and above all your website. Be seen, be sold.

Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you’ll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace.

 

The greatest challenge is to find the perfect ecommerce shopping cart solution for yourself and/or your client. This task can be very overwhelming, considering, if you type ’shopping cart’ into Google.com, this search alone returns over 14.4 million hits! Most of us don’t have the time to sift through more than a few pages of a search engine to find what we’re looking for.

For the last 3 months, much of my time has been devoted to researching as much shopping cart technology as I could get my hands on. In general, shopping cart software ranges in price from free to over $2000 for a single license and web hosted carts range from $5 to hundreds of dollars per month. The studied carts cover the spectrum of all web programming languages (ASP, ASP.NET, Cold Fusion, Flash, Java, JavaScript & Perl shopping carts) and provide limitless features as a whole. The problem is that locating YOUR perfect cart with YOUR specific features can be a big task.

But no fear, just follow this guaranteed step-by-step guide to locate it:

The Top 10 Steps to Finding the Best Online Shopping Cart

Cost

How much money do you have to spend on an internet shopping cart? The nice advantage is that there are shopping carts with hundreds of features and they don’t cost you a dime. They are generally open source products. The only problem is that these same “free shopping carts” can take hours of installation time and be fairly difficult to configure. For a monthly fee, web hosting shopping carts are made for users with little programming experience and allows them to have an online storefront presence in no time.

Hosting vs. Software

There are two options in selecting your overall shopping cart solution. Either you get shopping cart software, download it, install it on your web server, then configure the shopping cart OR you get an online storefront (aka a hosted shopping cart) where the configuration is very basic and the required setup time is minimal. If you have some programming skills, I recommend buying a script and installing it on your own. The nice thing is that you pay a one-time fee for shopping cart software and the license is good for a lifetime. It’s approximately the same price to have a hosted solution for a year compared to most one time shopping cart license fees.

Supported Gateways

What do I mean by gateways? Gateways give shopping carts the ability to connect and securely process credit card orders in real-time. Not all shopping carts are created equal. Make sure that your client’s merchant account is supported by the cart you select. I have found that almost all carts support the larger online payment processing companies, such as Authorize.net, PayPal and Verisign.

Shipping Options

Will you be shipping physical products? If so, there are shopping carts that have built-in real-time shipping options through DHL, UPS And USPS. Often times, the cart gives the user the ability to view tracking orders and order status all from within your secure shopping cart web interface. Also, there are shopping carts with options to ship digital goods as well (files, programs, pictures, music and others).

Technical Support

What kind of technical support does your shopping cart offer? If you choose to purchase a script, be sure to also subscribe to the shopping cart creator’s newsletter, so that you can stay on top of future updates to the software. Be aware that technical support is generally available on a pay-per-incident basis, as a yearly fee or in the rare case, free. Be sure to know what kind of customer support guarantee the shopping cart comes with.

Security

Please, only buy a shopping cart if it supports SSL (secure socket layer), with 128-bit encryption. As an online storefront, remember that you are responsible for the safe transfer of sensitive information (credit card and bank account information) that is processed through your store. If any of the sensitive information is accessible (stolen) from your website, you could be liable. Be sure that you’re purchasing a secure shopping cart solution. Ask the creator’s of the shopping cart what they do specifically to protect the secure transfer of sensitive information.

Style Compatibility

Can you customize your shopping cart to look like your website? There needs to be a seamless transition between your website and your shopping storefront or your customers might get hesitant in purchasing your products. There should be similar colors and style layout to look professional and believable.

Extra Features

I just wanted to mention some of the other features that I have discovered, which might be a critical point in determining the shopping cart you want.

Affiliate Program - Offer your own customized affiliate program through your shopping cart software. Quickbooks Integration - Many carts allow direct integration with Quickbooks.

Newsletter & Mailing Letter Managers - The ability to stay in touch with your current customers and keep them returning to your online store.

Custom Taxing Options - Create taxable or tax-free products and have the ability to add various global tax options at checkout.

World Languages & Currencies - Shopping cart language translation and support for world currency might be a necessary feature for your cart.

Error Free

You mean shopping carts can have errors? Of course. A private UK-based web testing firm found the following, after studying a large group of UK online shopping carts for a period of one month (24/7):”The majority of UK web sites are guilty of leaving e-consumers stranded at the checkout empty handed, once they have already spent valuable time browsing and selecting goods to purchase. This is due to erratic functionality within shopping carts, at a critical step in the online purchasing process.”

“E-consumers are prevented from making purchases on UK web sites for 9 hours and 30 minutes a month on average, (115 hours a year).” “80 per cent of web sites perform inconsistently with widely varying response times, timeouts and errors - leaving consumers at best wondering what to do next and at worst unable to complete their purchase successfully. This is potentially costing e-retailers millions in lost sales from consumer frustrations.” (http://www.scivisum.co.uk/report/ecommerce/)

Be sure to see what other users are saying about a shopping cart that you might be interested in purchasing. Any shopping cart errors could cost you thousands of dollars in sales. Get a stable and secure cart.

Shopping Cart Directory

The following is a link containing a directory of shopping carts that are categorized according to each of the above-stated steps. Make shopping for shopping carts a breeze!

Shopping Cart Directory

If you have any questions or comments about this article, please contact the author.

Choosing the right merchant account provider is like choosing a spouse, as you are in fact choosing a partner for your business, one which would hopefully last a lifetime. There are many merchant account providers out there, much like there are many prospective husbands or wives. But there is only one merchant account provider that would complement us in every aspect of our trade. Finding this kind of a merchant account provider would be as easy or as difficult as we want it to be, and all dependent on the type of business we’re running.

What Is A Merchant Account Provider?

A merchant account provider is simply a service that would maintain a merchant account for our business. A merchant account provider would establish for us an account that could process payments from credit cards. The said merchant account provider would also deposit such payments, and thereafter, after the lapse of a specified period, the merchant account provider would transfer the funds to a financial institution of our choosing.

Why Is A Good Merchant Account Provider Important For Your Business?

The ability to process credit card payments would substantially increase your customer base, and this is what a good merchant account provider could guarantee. 87% of online consumers, and 36% of offline buyers (with a whopping 63% in North America) prefer to use their credit cards for their purchases. The services that a good merchant account provider would give you will allow you to tap into this segment of the market. The result? A good merchant account provider can actually increase your profit by up to 450%.

Characteristics Of The Right Merchant Account Provider

A good merchant account provider should have the following characteristics:

* A merchant account provider should be able to accommodate a variety of credit card brands. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and other popular credit cards should be included in what such a merchant account provider could accommodate.

* A merchant account provider for an online business should also be able to accommodate popular payment alternatives like PayPal, StormPay, E-Gold and the likes.

* A merchant account provider should have a solid history of service and credibility. A merchant account provider should always be viewed as a long term partner, hence, every effort must be made to ensure that such merchant account provider would be reliable.

* A merchant account provider should have an excellent customer service system. Payments are delicate matters, and whenever problems are encountered, the merchant account provider should be able to render expedient and efficient support.

Read the title of this article over a couple of times in your head so it really starts to sink in.

So what does this title really mean. Well, there’s no beating around the bush with this one… it means exactly what it says.

If your site is NOT an order-pulling, money-sucking mean machine then it’s not really worth promoting your product, whether it’s a killer product or not.

It is vital that your site has a well-written and extremely powerful sales letter that will hook your prospects and reel them in like a fish.

Your goal is to walk your prospect through your sales letter straight to your order page where they will be so excited, they would have already whipped out their credit card from their wallets.

“Your Site MUST Influence Visitors To Buy”

Now ask yourself this… “I have an amazing product but do I really have a killer converting website?”

If you’re not really sure, take a look at your web stats:

- How many unique visitors did your site receive last month?
- What’s the average time spent on your sales page per visitor?
- How many people clicked onto your order page but didn’t order?
- Most importantly, how many visitors actually ordered?

Armed with this information, you can now look at how well your site is performing and how you can improve your site’s conversion rate.

As you probably well know, the industry standard conversion rate is 1% which is not bad, but then again not that good either.

If your site is converting under 1% then it needs serious and immediate attention because you’re losing a lot of money, more so if you have a high traffic site.

Let’s just take a look at a quick example, so you can see it more clear in black and white.

Let’s say your site converts a 0.5% and you only receive 100 unique visitors per day. Your product sells at $97.

This means that you’re roughly selling half a product a day, an average of 15 sales per month, right?

100 visitors per day x 30 days = 3,000 visitors per month.
3,000 x 0.5% = 15 (15 sales per month)

15 sales x $97 = Monthly income of $1,455

This is definitely NOT a killer site. It would need major time spent on creating a high converting sales letter.

Now, let’s say you have your current sales letter scrapped and a brand new one created that converts at 1.5%

How does this affect your monthly income? Let’s take a look.

100 visitors per day x 30 days = 3,000 visitors per month.
3,000 x 1.5% = 45 (45 sales per month)

45 sales x $97 = Monthly income of $4,365

$4,365 - $1,455 = $2,910

That’s nearly an extra $3,000 per month without generating any extra traffic to your site.

Do you see how powerful a well-written sales letter can be.

It doesn’t matter what kind of product you’re selling and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a marketing ‘How To’ product.

You could be selling a product to do with travel, gardening, pets, music, sport, dating, cooking, it doesn’t matter.

But what does matter is, if you want to see a pile of orders in your inbox every morning when you wake up, then your sales copy has to be nothing short of order-pulling.

It MUST be a high sales converter otherwise you’re leaving a pile of cash on the table which should really be in your bank account.

So what conversion rate would I class to be a killer site… 1.5%?

No… 1.5% is good, but there is room for improvement.

What about 2%?

Now we’re getting somewhere. 2% is a great conversion, obviously 2.5% is even better and I’d be pretty happy if my site was converting between 2% and 2.5% but personally, I still wouldn’t class it as a killer site.

This is what I like to aim for… the 3% mark.

Now we’re definitely talking. I’d class a site converting 3% of it’s visitors into paying customers as a killer site.

Personally, I prefer NOT to use sales letter generators but to write my sales letters from complete scratch starting with a blank piece of paper.

I find that this gives me great scope and does not limit my creative juices as if I were to use a generator.

My websites have seen conversion rates as high as 3.8% which I feel is pretty darn good.

Along with a powerful sales letter, it is advisable to have a quality set of graphics, so your site likes professional.

If your site has a quality look to it, then your potential customers are more than likely to think that your product is of high quality.

This can also improve sales dramatically because seeing a picture of your product makes it look like a real physical product that they can get their hands on.

People like to see things before they buy. So when you show them a picture of your product, this will increase it’s perceived value inside your prospects head and this will increase your sales.

By using world-class website graphics, some marketers have experienced a conversion rate increase of over 400%.

A quality looking website, pleasing to the eye and an amazingly powerful sales letter when put together, will create a site that will influence prospects to buy.

Could you use an extra 500,000+ visitors to your site each year?

What if I told you there was a way to do this for free, using the time it takes you to watch your favorite TV show each week, would you be interested?

I’m sure you would tell me to stop hitting the bottle so hard, it isn’t possible.

Well you would be wrong on both counts. For starters, I don’t drink. Secondly, it is possible to rake in huge amounts of traffic for free.

How do I know this? Simply put, I am living proof it works.

I don’t pay a single dime in advertising costs, and it only takes a few hours a month to produce this traffic.

So what is my secret? Reciprocal links!

Reciprocal linking is one of the most powerful and effective advertising concepts on the Web. Yet it is vastly underutilized by most Webmasters.

I have thousands of links pointing to my site:

http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com

These links are responsible for 75% of my traffic.

I almost feel guilty that I am able to generate this traffic so easily.

Here is the secret to my success: Everything is automated!

I simply don’t have time to manually add my partners new links by hand. Therefore, I have a site engine that allows my partners to enter their site information, then tells them how to add my link to their Website.

It is so simple, that I’m astounded more Webmasters don’t utilize these techniques.

Here is a quick start guide to automating your linking strategies:

1.) Choose the right software

You must have a way for link partners to add their Website information automatically. There are dozens of software programs on the Web that will accomplish this.

I personally use Reciprocal Manager:

http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/rm.html

To find similar programs, simply go to Download.com and search on “Link Exchange Software” for more programs.

2.) Find high quality Websites to exchange links with

There are a couple of ways to accomplish this:

- You can use software such as SEO Elite to find highly targeted link exchange partners.

SEO Elite - http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/seoelite.html

- Use Alexia to find high traffic link partners for your site.

Alexia is a very powerful search engine that allows you to:

* Search the Web and other resources directly from your toolbar.
* Obtain traffic and contact information for each site.
* Surf more efficiently with related links for each page.

The information found on Alexia is very powerful, yet it can become quite time consuming contacting each Webmaster individually (Remember to automate as many tasks as possible).

http://www.alexa.com/

- Subscribe to these reciprocal links newsletters:

Elite Links -
http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/elitelinks.html

Zebulon Exchange of Links -
http://www.2000clipart.com/zelus/index.htm

Each newsletter is packed with Websites looking to exchange links.

3.) To keep track of your link popularity, visit:

http://www.linkpopularity.com/

You will see a major spike in traffic to your Website within a few short months of starting your link campaign.

It is important that you set aside a day or two each week to run your campaign.

Remember, you will only get of your campaign, what you put into it.

About the Author

Jason Tarasi publishes the newsletter “My Secrets To Success.” Subscribe now and DISCOVER the Rags to Riches stories from some of the most successful Internet marketers online. Claim you free lifetime subscription now by visiting: http://www.mysecretstosuccess.com/

You try to make your customers happy. You sincerely WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. You go out of your way to provide quality and integrity in everything you do.

So, why is it that every once in a while there’s a customer who insists on totally, absolutely and completely pissing you off?

How long is a string?

There are some questions, the answers to which, will always elude me. Are you with me on this?

I received an email message from a customer who must have not only have awoke on the wrong side of the bed, but must have also found himself in the wrong bed, in the wrong bedroom, in the wrong house, on the wrong block, in the wrong city, and in the wrong life. As I read this message, I was seething with anger -my hands literally shaking.

Wanting to somehow reach through my ethernet connection to find the neck attached to the head of the person who could be so rude was my first priority.

What do you do at this point? How do you satisfy the irrational?

ANSWER: You don’t.

Romans 12:20 says, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

This is what I attempted to do in my reply to Mr. Disgruntled. Here’s a formula that you can use; and if you do this, the satisfaction will outweigh - many times over - the anger you initially felt.

Step 1: Stop. Close the email. Put down the poison mouse and walk away.

Step 2: Consider the situation carefully. Can you imagine a time and place where you might have blasted someone in the same way? Is there even the tiniest hint of legitimacy to the claim of this angry customer? Things aren’t always as you might perceive them. There are always multiple sides to every story. Does this condone abusive behavior? Of course not.

Now, if the answers are “no, No, and NO, this is unjustified”, stick with this formula anyway. When you’ve done what’s right, you’ll be the bigger person and your self image will be elevated.

Step 3: Now that you’ve cooled off, draft your reply. Answer question, comments and complaints with cool and exacting detail. If the complaint is a product problem, test it. Also understand that with the proliferation of different computer operating systems, your test results may not match the results of others. Explain only what you know for certain (this version of this software on this operating system with this service package, etc.) Keep an open mind that your experiences are not always shared by others.

Step 4: Spell and grammar check your message. This might seem like a funny thing to include here, but haste leads to errors and errors can erode the potency of your reply.

Step 5: Print your message and read it out loud to yourself. Is it coherent? Have you addressed everything? Is your reply laden with sarcasm, anger or spite? If yes, Start Over.

Remember, you provide awesome customer service and will not be shaken by small minds or ill tempered customers.

Step 6: Sign your message. This is the last thing that the customer reads and if you blow this, everything said prior will have little or no meaning. Leave them no doubt that you are, above all else, a professional.

Step 7: Click send.

Yow! That feels good.

Two additional options that you may consider are…

Option 1: Call the customer if you can find their phone number. You’ll be blown away at how attitudes change instantly when your customer hears your voice live at the other end of a phone connection. It’s miraculous.

Option 2: Refund their money instantly. Cancel their membership. Remove every trace of their contact information from your mailing lists. AND MOVE ON WITH YOUR LIFE. In some cases this is the prudent thing to do. You won’t please everyone, and 14 different email messages over the course of 8 days isn’t worth the $19.95 sale. Cut bait and run.

You try to make your customers happy. You sincerly WANT them to be pleased with your products and service. You go out of your way to provide quality and integrity in everything you do.

Outstanding! Keep up the good work.