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The Promotion World Informer
Issue #59 March 1, 1999
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This issue of the Informer is sponsored by:
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================================================================
Contents Of This Issue:
- Editor's Notes
- Cool Quotes
- Calculating Your Hits-To-Sales Ratio
- What's New At Promotion World
- Sponsor Message
- Searching With Hayden
- Background Check
- Sponsor Message
- The Discussion Board
- Monitor(ing your) writing
- Sponsor Message
- How Not To Promote Your Site
- News Headlines
- A Small Request
- Misc. Information
=========================== Editor's Notes ======================
Wow... I just had a new cable modem installed this week. Wow...
that's all I can say! It really is very zippy, to say the least!
Interesting. Without me coordinating it at all, both Jennifer Johnson
and Julie T. Meyer both wrote articles on use of color in your website
and how it affects eyestrain. David Handlos is also quoted in the
Discussion Boards section with a helpful tip on color selection. So I
guess this is an unofficial special issue! There are also some other very
interesting features, though, so if those topics aren't relevant to you,
don't worry!
Enjoy the issue.
The Informer is sent only to those who have expressly requested it. If you
no longer wish to receive it, simply follow the simple unsubscribe
instructions at the end of this newsletter.
============================ Cool Quotes ========================
Two wrongs don't make a right, but two Wrights made an airplane.
- Unknown
The Swiss have an interesting army. Five hundred years without
a war. Pretty impressive. Also pretty lucky for them. Ever see that
little Swiss Army knife they have to fight with? Not much of a
weapon there. Corkscrews. Bottle openers. 'Come on, buddy, let's
go. You get past me, the guy in back of me, he's got a spoon.
Back off. I've got the toe clippers right here.'
- Jerry Seinfeld
If the camel once gets his nose in a tent, his body will soon follow.
- Saudi Arabian Proverb
Download all the past Cool Quotes by sending any email to
<mailto:quotes@promotionworld.com&> Enjoy!
=============== Calculating Your Hits-To-Sales Ratio ==============
Calculating Your Hits-To-Sales Ratio
By Lee Benson
For this article, we are basing the term 'hit' on
the assumption that it means 'one unique visitor'.
Although many people will argue that a 'hit' is
one request for one file on your website, many people
still believe one hit means one unique website visitor.
Anyway....
When measuring success of a website, we tend to measure
our popularity in traffic hits. Each time someone
visits your website, you will class them as
one 'hit'.
Webmasters and Internet Marketers are constantly
trying to boost their 'hits' in order to generate
more visitors, which in turn will generate
more sales.
However, determining your traffic hits is futile
if you're unsure of the progress they're
gaining for you. Hits are not an accurate measure
of your success, only of your site's popularity.
If you're selling products or services on the 'net,
you need to go one step further and find out
how many of these site visitors are actually
generating money for you.
This is where calculating your 'Hits-to-Sales Ratio'
comes in.
I'm now going to show you one of the most powerful
formulas you'll ever use.
With this formula you'll actually go looking
for places to spend money on advertising,
and you'll see traffic generation in a whole new light.
Right, so what is this great formula?
It's very simple. Basically, you need to know
HOW MANY visitors it takes to make one sale.
Let's imagine a typical scenario....
Bob, a typical Internet Marketer selling personalized
mouse mats is looking for a way to generate
more sales.
He has a website and currently receives 200 'hits'
per day (that is, 200 unique visitors per day).
On an average day, he gets 4 orders for his
personalized mouse mats.
So, what is Bob's Hits-to-Sales ratio?
200 hits divided by 4 orders = 50 hits.
We've now worked out how many hits Bob needs to
generate one order. He needs 50 hits.
What you have learnt is extremely valuable
information. If you haven't calculated your
hits-to-sale ration yet, then you're seriously
missing out.
With this information, you can now quite literally
set your own income. If you know it takes
50 hits to get one sale, you'll go looking
for places to spend advertising dollars on.
Let's imagine Bob places an ad in an E-Zine
for $10. His personalized mouse mats cost him
$10 to produce, and sell for $20. So each sale,
he makes $10 in gross profit.
With the $10 E-Zine advert, he generates
150 visitors to his site and gets 3 sales.
He has earned his $10 back with an extra
$20 in gross profit. He has now found a valuable
advertising resource that he will keep using
to generate sales whenever he wishes.
Imagine the power of this!
So go ahead, start monitoring your site
traffic now and find out how many hits
it takes for someone to buy from you.
Maybe Internet Marketing isn't so hard
after all :-)
Sincerely,
Lee Benson.
lee@cyberprosper.com
ICQ# 6232383
*****************************************************************
Lee Benson is an Internet Marketer and publisher of the FREE
newsletter, "CyberProsper". He has years of Internet Marketing
and Web Promotion Experience. Let him help you succeed!
Visit his site at http://www.cyberprosper.com or subscribe to
his newsletter with a message to mailto:subscribe@cyberprosper.com
*****************************************************************
================ What's New At Promotion World ==================
~ Review: OakNet Publishing
Are you serious about your email based newsletter? Then you must
check out OakNet's excellent newsletter mailing services.
<http://www.promotionworld.com/reviews/oaknet.html>
~ I restructured the What's New Archives at
<http://www.promotionworld.com/new.html> for you to browse through.
Why anyone would want to see what was added to Promotion World in
April '98 at <http://www.promotionworld.com/newapr98.html> is
beyond me, though.
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==================== Searching With Hayden ===================
Q. I received an article a while back about creating dummy pages
optimized specifically for only one targeted search engine. This
page would go into your site and then you would create a hidden
link on your page to be submitted pointing to this optimized page.
This supposedly would improve the ranking of the submitted page
because of the referring links. Can you tell me more about this,
does it work?
A. The dummy pages are better described as doorway or pointer pages.
Pointer pages are one of the most effective ways to get a listing
on many engines. A doorway page is simply a page that is totally
optimized for a particular search engine for a specific keyword or
group of keywords. Your question about the hidden link is interesting,
but may be true especially on Excite. Excite and AOL Netfind (the
same engine) ask that you only submit your root domain page this
is your domain homepage. They then follow links off the page and
index them. If one of these links led to a page optimized for Excite,
you would in fact get a good listing. I see no reason to have the
link hidden unless you think the page could be considered search
engine spamming. A well designed page that is not misleading can
be a good doorway without being considered spam.
Hayden Mitchell
=======================================================================
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======================= Background Check ======================
Background Check
By Jennifer Johnson
Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder, but downright ugly is
pretty much universally agreed upon...at least when it comes to
web site backgrounds.
Here are a few DOs and DON'Ts to consider when selecting a
background for your site:
DO choose a small image - DON'T choose a bloated one
Small images (both in terms of file size and in terms of dimensions)
aid in allowing a page to download quickly. This should be a major
goal of yours as a webmaster.
You want to reach a compromise between image size and aesthetic
quality. Try to get the smallest possible image that still looks good.
You can use GifBot at the NetMechanic site (http://www.netmechanic.com)
to optimize your images. You can't beat the price, it's free.
DO use seamless tiles - DON'T use tiles that have visible "seams"
If a tile is seamless, you can't easily tell where one tile ends
and another begins. The background flows smoothly and looks as if
it's one image, not many smaller images which, in reality, it is.
Check your image editing program to see if it includes a function
to create seamless tiles. Always check the images you download to
ensure they are seamless as well.
DO use a subtle background for business sites - DON'T use a loud
annoying image
Business sites should look professional. Part of what creates a
professional image is a quality background. Save the image of your
favorite cartoon character giving the peace sign for your personal
page. Trust me, it won't do much to cultivate a professional image.
I'm not a big fan of patterned backgrounds for business sites in the
first place. I prefer using border backgrounds instead. I have seen
some business sites that looked very professional, however, with
patterned backgrounds. The key to pulling it off is to use a subtle
image.
The ones I've seen and felt looked decent were basically "texture"-type
backgrounds in very light colors. If you have a background tile you
would like to use on your business site, just make sure it's seamless
and doesn't draw a lot of attention to itself. After all, when your
visitor leaves, the goal is to have them remember your company and
product, not the cool background on your site.
DO choose a background/text combination that is easy to read - DON'T
make it hard on your visitors by choosing poor background/text combinations
I saved the most important tip for last. If you don't retain anything
else from this entire article, remember this: in order for your customer
to know what great content you have, they must be able to read it.
This is one of *the* most common mistakes I see; backgrounds that are
so similar to the text that it makes it hard or impossible to read. I
find it very hard to believe that designers don't see this when they
preview the page...if I didn't know better, I might think that some
designers don't preview their pages at all.
In addition to background/text color similarity causing visibility
problems, backgrounds can also have patterns that almost hurt your
eyes when you try to read the content. Speaking of hurting your eyes,
don't ever use a bright red background and bright blue text (or vice
versa) this creates the illusion of vibration and really makes it
virtually impossible to read for many people.
Black on white provides the greatest ease in reading. There's a reason
books aren't printed with magenta pages and lilac text, kids. If you
choose to use a colored background or tile, make sure that the text color
you specify shows up well against the background.
TIP: Make sure your LINK and VLINK colors are visible against your
background as well.
These tips should help you avoid a few of the common problems when
selecting a background for your site. There are so many graphics out
there that look great, but some just don't work as backgrounds -
especially on a business site.
See you next week!
PromotingYourSite.com
<http://www.promotingyoursite.com>
Articles and resources to help you effectively design
and promote your site. Free newsletter. Free site
review. To contact Jennifer directly, send email to:
jenny@promotingyoursite.com.
========================= Sponsor Message =======================
Bob: Free samples?!
Joe: That's right!
Bob: Of what?
Joe: A really cool product that will print a picture of your website
on a postcard. They have hundreds of uses!
Bob: Sounds great! How do I get my free samples?
Joe: Just head on over to <http://www.printing.com/promo.asp?site=prowor4>.
===================== The Discussion Board ======================
This week's quote from the discussion board:
"If you need any help on colors, check out Danny's World Color
Palette: <http://www.dannysworld.com/colorpallette/colorpallette.html>,
a neat little tool that shows the RGB codes for colors you want to use.
Hope that can help.
David Handlos
Crosslinkz
<http://www.crosslinkz.com>
Free promotion, email, and awards!"
Visit the message boards to comment on this quote or just to catch up on the
other exciting discussions going on!
<http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/>
Things are really picking up at the boards, stop by and join in!
=================== Monitor(ing your) writing ==================
Monitor(ing your) writing
by Julie T. Meyer, Marketing Specialist
Business Development Resources (WeDevelBiz@aol.com)
We've all read it over and over -- attention spans are short. So,
web sites have to load quickly...
But there's much more than reducing the overall size of your page to
keeping your visitors online. It doesn't matter if a site loads
instantly, if it isn't designed to be read on a monitor as opposed to
a printed page. Many rules apply for both mediums but they must be
adhered to that much more carefully on the frontier of online and,
therefore, onscreen marketing.
Primary consideration: The printed page reflects light while a monitor
is backlit. That means reading onscreen is almost as irritating or
tiring as staring directly at a (low wattage) light bulb. This
significant difference is why the online writer and designer has less
leeway with successful print conventions than the designer for the
written page. So let's get specific.
Keep paragraphs and sentences short
Brief paragraphs provide online readers with the frequent breaks,
between text, that they need to avoid the eyestrain that leads to
logging off. Brevity will also improve the directness of your messages.
Newpapers and magazines are printed in columns for a reason.
Shorter lines are also easier on the eye.
Newspapers are also printed black on white for the same reason.
Restraint from distracting backgrounds and text appearing in lighter
colors (especially yellow!) is also highly recommended. Reverse type
(light type on dark background) is also very wearing on the eye and,
therefore, attention span.
The key is breaks and variety.
Variety of type, that is. In addition to breaking up text by placing
it in short paragraphs, create sections with headers. The text of your
header should summarize the points that you elaborate in the paragraphs
that follow it.
Distinguish your header from your body type by making it bold, preceding
it with sequential numbers, letters or bullets or using contrasting
typefaces or colors.
Test, test and test.
Solicit consultants', colleagues' and friends' feedback on works in
process.
Also compare activity and responses to content before and after
modifications.
And, of course, the obvious.
Any and all errors are automatic grounds for logging off. Spell check,
proof read and review again and again.
Maximize the time you have your readers' and visitors' attention by
designing your online message appropriately for the medium on which
it is appearing and being read.
©1999 Business Development Resources
Julie T. Meyer has developed and implemented comprehensive marketing plans for
a broad range of businesses including leading accounting, law and technology
firms, and numerous divisions of the University of Pennsylvania. She also has
years of product development and sales experience. She can be reached via
email at WeDevelBiz@aol.com; requests for free copies of her "15-Minute
Marketing Plan™" can be made to this same address.
======================= Sponsor Message =======================
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================= How Not To Promote Your Site ==================
How Not To Promote Your Site
By David Handlos
In my own promotion efforts, I've always tried to cover as many
aspects of promotion as possible. Search engines, reciprocal links,
free for all link pages, banner exchanges, and web rings. I've used
them all.
Used correctly, they can all be quite effective for traffic. However,
sometimes they may not be sufficient. In fact, focusing strictly on
promotion can cause as much damage as not promoting at all. Oddly
enough, one way not to promote your site is when you focus strictly on
promoting your site.
Confused yet? Don't worry. Simply put, constantly working solely on site
promotion can give you tunnel vision. When building pages that search
engines will like, good banners that load quickly, it's easy to lose
sight of one thing: the visitor.
Easy to lose sight, but it can be just as easy to fix: Ask the visitors
what they want! Post to newsgroups, write for newsletters, participate
in discussion groups on the Web. Make sure visitors to your site can
contact you, either through a form or email.
Basically, just get involved. Exchanging messages, tips, and ideas can
prove to be just as valuable as exchanging links. Don't get me wrong,
site promotion is essential. By all means, submit to the search engines.
Join a web ring or banner exchange if you like. But you can't stop
participating, keeping in contact with others.
Don't forget, the Web is based on one thing: communication.
Happy promoting!
David Handlos <mailto:webmaster@crosslinkz.com>
Crosslinkz: Your FREE Web Directory!
<http://www.crosslinkz.com/>
Website promotion, email, chat, and awards, all for free!
========================= News Headlines ========================
Here is a compilation of URLs to interesting news pieces on an Internet or
website promotion theme.
~ What REALLY Affects Response Rates
<http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0301993.html>
~ When Is Spam Really Spam?
<http://www.searchz.com/Articles/0226991.html>
~ Feds investigating eBay
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2217693,00.html>
~ Is your domain in danger?
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2217614,00.html>
~ FCC not taxing or regulating Net
<http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2217752,00.html>
~ Free email comes at a price
<http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,33068,00.html>
~ @Home Expects 1 Million Subscribers In 1999
<http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990301S0010>
~ Linux's importance transcends itself
<http://www.builder.com/Servers/Shafer/030199/>
More Internet related news headlines at
<http://www.promotionworld.com/news.html>
========================= A Small Request ========================
If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, why not tell a friend
about it? Even better, why don't you recommend The Informer on a
discussion list? After all, you wouldn't want to keep all this free
information to yourself.
Just tell 'em all to subscribe by sending a message to
<mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com> with SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of their message.
======================== Misc. Information =======================
To comment on the issues covered in this week's newsletter, use the
appropriate forum on our Discussion Boards.
<http://www.promotionworld.com/discus/>
Browse the archives at <http://www.promotionworld.com/informer/archives.html>
If you are looking for some good advertising deals, you might like to
consider Promotion World and the Informer as places to advertise.
<http://www.promotionworld.com/sponsor.html>
To subscribe put SUBSCRIBE in the BODY of an email to
<mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com>
To unsubscribe put REMOVE in the BODY of an email to
<mailto:informer@oaknetpub.com>
I appreciate all your mail with your comments and suggestions!
<mailto:webmaster@promotionworld.com>
Newsletter Credits:
Joshua Reimer, Editor
<mailto:webmaster@promotionworld.com>
<http://www.promotionworld.com>
Jennifer Johnson, Feature Writer
<mailto:jenny@promotingyoursite.com>
<http://www.PromotingYourSite.com>
John S. Rhodes, Usability Specialist
<mailto:john@WebWord.com>
<http://www.WebWord.com/>
Hayden Mitchell, Search Engine Specialist
<mailto:hayden@webthemes.com>
<http://www.webthemes.com>
David Handlos, What Not To Do Specialist
<mailto:webmaster@crosslinkz.com>
<http://www.crosslinkz.com>
And now for the mandatory legal stuff:
This newsletter is copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Joshua Reimer. No part may be
reproduced in any way without prior permission.
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