10 Ways to Grab a Skimmer’s Attention

People don’t have much time to read your sales letters and would rather skim them. They will scan your letter and read only those that catch their eye.

Is the solution to have a short one? No, it’s not. Generally, long sales letters convert better. You will have more time to present the features and benefits of your product and convince your readers to buy.

If a short sales letter is not the solution, how, then, do you grab the attention of a skimmer so he can read all the important aspects of your sales letter? The following are ways that can help you make them read further:

2. Use a lot of headlines and sub-headlines to easily catch your visitors’ attention. Expand on the benefits and features of your product. Have a sub-headline on each benefit. Your readers may want to read further if they find your headlines and sub-headlines interesting.

3. Use pictures or graphics that show your product and bonuses. They will make your product more concrete to your visitors. Pictures and graphics also easily attract eyeballs.

4. Be sure your graphics load fast and correctly. People don’t want to wait. This is true especially if your graphic is at the top of your sales letter, and your whole web site will only be shown after downloading that picture.

5. Use short sentences or sentence fragments. It is easier to read and understand short sentences than long ones. By just looking at the length of your sentences, the visitor will know the degree of difficulty in reading your sales letter.

6. Use color, bold, italics, underlining to highlight important words and phrases. However, use them sparingly. Too much of them may look like you are hysterical and will turn away potential buyers.

Use highlighting near the area where you want to have your visitors read more. You may want them to read the features or benefits of your product.

7. Pick the three most powerful and appealing benefits of your product and repeat them in various parts of your sales letter. This will help your visitors easily remember these benefits. Just be sure to rewrite them, so it won’t appear that you just copied and pasted them in your ad copy.

8. Use bullets to list the features and benefits of your product. Bullets make reading easier making your visitor read more.

9. Use a postscript (P.S.) at the end. This is some of the most read sections of a sales letter. You may repeat the strong point of your product, remind the bonuses included, or emphasize the urgency for the prospect to take action.

10. With a long sales letter, place buy buttons at different places of the letter. Your prospect may have been convinced to buy, so provide them with the opportunity to do so.

People are in a hurry to quickly get over reading a sales letter. Unless something catches their eyes, they would just skim over the letter and go on to the next site. They might miss the important points, and you lose them as customers. However, with the optimal use of eye-catching techniques, you may be able to have them read more, and convince them to click on that buy button.

Our services at leader excel include any where from a personal website to an elite Premium business package website. Our premium package features include creating a personal header with your company’s logo that communicates your product and/or services.

The Avantages of RSS Websites

In essence, RSS is a ‘mini database’ that contains headlines and descriptions (a summary or a line or two of the full article) of your web content, including hyperlinks that enable users to link back to the full article of their choice.

RSS websites – that is, websites that contain RSS ‘feeds’ (articles or postings) – typically have colorful graphics to indicate to users that the specific web content is available through RSS feeds. These graphics are usually depicted by orange rectangles that are usually marked with ‘RSS’ or ‘XML’.

With its increased popularity, RSS is now being adopted and used by more website owners or publishers. Today, numerous resources are now available that aid Internet surfers (and even beginners as well) on how to set up and use RSS.

Setting up RSS feeds and adding them to your website can be a simple process that does not involve a lot of time or any money. Listed below are some simple and basic steps that you might want to follow:

1. Have your web content and/or news in an RSS feed format, such as XML (appropriate and ‘ready-made’ feeds are also available from other sources).

2. Click the orange graphic – this is the RSS feed icon. Take note of the URL of the RSS feed; this will be displayed in the address bar (for Internet Explorer).

3. Input the feed URL on your RSS feed creation program.

4. Click on the “Generate Feed” button. This will generate the RSS code for your web content.

5. Enter the RSS code in the appropriate place on your own website.

Having created an RSS feed for your website, next comes the task of publishing your web content and news and having them displayed on other sites and headline viewers. This is made possible with the use of RSS readers or aggregators.

RSS readers or news aggregators are used to view particular web contents. RSS readers contain the collection of ‘feeds’ or RSS files from content providers, and they are generally classified into 3 types:

Desktop RSS readers – also known as standalone desktop application, they generally ‘run’ in the background and are similar to an e-mail client, collecting the feeds and refreshing items automatically as they are updated.

Web-based aggregators – these are online services that enable users to personalize web pages, refreshing them each time the page is accessed or each time a person logs in to the service.

Plug-in aggregators/readers – these make use of either web browsers or e-mail clients, which allow users to view RSS feeds while inside an existing program.

Having an RSS-enabled website provides Internet users (especially those who are website owners) with the following benefits:

Allows users to generate up-to-date news and postings, as information and content in the RSS readers or aggregators are automatically updated each time the RSS feed is ‘refreshed’.

Allows users to have control over the information that they wish to view or receive, as they can remove a feed of their choosing any time they want to.

Aside from these benefits, RSS websites are also useful for people who conduct their business in the Internet, particularly in Internet or Online Marketing. RSS can be an effective marketing tool for your website, especially in the following fields:

E-mail marketing and publishing Search engine marketing and optimization Business blogging Internet advertising Digital public relations Branding and e-commerce

In addition, RSS can ‘power’ your website, providing you with the following:

Valuable, updated, and relevant resources for site visitors and potential clients – RSS is ideal for websites that contain (and syndicate) a lot of information that has to be changed or updated regularly.

Search engine optimization for the website.

Increased traffic for the website – your website can ‘harvest’ and display information from other sites, driving more traffic to your own website.

A wide selection of ‘channels’ for content distribution, such as PDA’s, cellular phones, voice mails, and email ticklers.

A reliable way to have your web content delivered to Internet users and potential clients – RSS ensures that your site is viewed by the people who are interested in them, without having them blocked and ‘cleaned’ by ISPs or Spam filters.

These are just some of the advantages that RSS can give your website (and your business). The possibilities are endless, as more and more comes up almost everyday. Do not be left behind – take the advantage of the marketing and publishing power of RSS.

What is Blogging to You?

The internet has given birth to many new terms and phrases that, for many, can be thought of as alien and hard to get your head around. If you are confused by these new words, take heart, you are not the only one!

Imagine if 25 years ago some said that they were surfing the internet on their cell. You’d have thought they were speaking jibberish. Today it’s something millions of people do every day.

Before, to have your say in public you would have to use a medium like radio of television. Today it’s much easier because of the Internet. You just need to familiarise yourself with new way of communicating. It’s called Blogging.

Blogging about a viewpoint has become extremely popular. While anyone would have said, what is blogging merely five years ago, today it’s all the rage and in full effect.

Starting a blog is simple, and free. Just visit a Website like Blogger.com or Wordpress.com and set up and account. it should take about 10 minutes. Then you are free express you self about any topis that you choose. what do you want to talk about? What are you interested in?

Now, if you’re still not clear on what blogging is or why you would try it, you should consider something. You can actually earn from blogging on the web. There are websites like Blogger.com, which is affiliated with Google that let you place relevant ads on your blogs. This means that every time some visits your blog and clicks on an ad you make money.

This is the primary reason that so many people are using blogging. They are using ther knowledge and experience to generate income. So I hope this encourage you to share what you have to say, ther are millions out there who are prepared to listen.

Looking for Affordable Reseller Web Hosting ?

There are many affordable reseller web hosting options out there but you must determine your budget for the hosting and see if you can then find affordable reseller web hosting that will be right for you.There is affordable reseller web hosting that can be found but you have to see if it is right for your site and can they give you the options you need, or are they just cheap?

Your Budget: Many of these affordable reseller web hosts are small and do not turn much of a profit. They also tend to have not been in the business very long.The question is, how much can you afford to spend on a hosting account? As is the case with anything, you get what you pay for. There is affordable reseller web hosting that can be purchased for little but will they be there for you when there is a problem.

There are good programs out there that can be had at a discount price and still be reliable. There are many affordable reseller web hosting options in the affordable price range.But by judging the posts on online communities like WebHostingTalk.com sometimes going with the cheapest affordable website web hosting option does not pay in the long run.Not all of the affordable web hosts are bad. There are many affordable reseller web hosts that have happy clients and have a good track record when it comes to things such as customer service and reliability.

The main thing is to look into the your specific needs because there are reliable and affordable reseller web hosting options that will be the right fit for you.

Websites: what are the costs?

So, you are going to get a website? It’s a big step and you want to know what the costs are, what is involved with getting a website and what are the issues that you must understand. For business owners who are not so computer or Internet savvy, terms like “domain names”, “web hosting” and “email hosting” can be quite confusing and even intimidating. Furthermore what are the features that you need in your website: newsletters, search facilities, blogs, forums and more. How much do they cost to add on?

The first step is to think of a suitable domain name. The name of your company can be a great start, so you get www.mybusiness.co.nz or www.mybusiness.com . Which do you need: dot co or dot com? I believe that a dot co domain name is OK for most New Zealand businesses, and that a dot com name still really implies an American site, although this is not a fast rule. Why not identify your business as a NZ one straight off and use dot co, which will promote our country to overseas net users? Something else to think about is whether the name lends itself to what your business does or provides. So the domain name www.circusanimalhire.co.nz (it doesn’t exist, I checked!) tells you pretty much what the website is all about. A name like www.prsmythe.co.nz doesn’t give as much information about the core business, and so users then have to actually view the site to determine what is provided. You need a lot of advertising, PR and brand marketing clout to get a name like www.amazon.com to be synonymous with books right? But it is possible as we know. When you’ve thought of your name, register it: $39.95 will secure you the name for a year.

Website development costs can vary from nothing for a free “do it yourself” website, to the sky is the limit for a website built by a web development company. There are pros and cons to both. A “do it yourself” website means just that: you do the work, and if you are busy trying to run your business, then that can be quite an ask. But you have control and can spend the time to tweak and get it right. A websiite from a web development company on the other hand can be delivered quickly and efficiently and possibly to a higher standard of professionalism, but will cost more (exactly how much depends on what you have in it).

The other costs to consider when getting a website built include the purchase of a domain name, and the annual renewal, your website hosting and email hosting, and marketing and search engine services.

Writing for Newspapers as Freelancer

In this business you have to do that. You have to keep in touch with people in the industry, you have to make sure your name remains fresh in their minds, you have to keep on plugging away at keeping that contact book up to date, adding to it, and maintaining friendships. This is a business that functions, to an extent, on “who you know” rather than “what you know”, and it doesn’t hurt to keep that in mind.Well, in my case, I do it mostly through contacts. I started out as a staff reporter on the local paper, and I’ve kept up with the people I met throughout my journalism career, whether they be fellow reporters, editors, or the woman who used to empty the rubbish bins at the end of the night.

I had located the page with my by-line before I even reached the checkout, and I really had to exercise enormous self-control not to thrust the newspaper under the check-out assistant’s nose and say, “Look! That’s me! That’s my name! In the paper!” I managed to restrain myself, and just did that to my fianc instead, but the fact remains: for a freelance writer, there’s no rush greater than publication.(Actually, I prefer being ignored: it stings less!) You have to keep at it. Remember that for every query you send to an editor, they probably received one hundred others. You’re up against a lot of competition, but sometimes sheer persistence pays off. Remember, it was the tortoise that won the race: keep chipping away at it, keep on sending in those queries, know that it can only get easier.

I do it by being in the right place at the right time, and what I mean by that is that anytime an editor contacts me with a job, I jump at it, even it means staying up all night and missing the next episode of “Lost”. A little-known fact for you: in newspaper journalism, excellent writing isn’t the most important quality to have. That’s what sub-editors are there for. I also do it by being persistent. You need a thick skin to be a freelance writer. You spend a lot of time being rejected, being snubbed, and even being ignored. What many editors are looking for are writers who will respond instantly, file copy on time, get the facts right, and get the story. Being always-on call may not be the most relaxing way to live, but it’s one way to make sure that the editor who just commissioned you for one story will come back for more.

Advanced SEO Services For Anyone

If you are looking to really have an impact with your internet marketing efforts, then you will need to learn some advanced seo services. Search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your websites so they rank high in the search engines. But there are some advances seo services you should be using right now.

Blogging and seo are a very good combination

The good thing about using a blog is you can have one set up in about 5 minutes. I recommend using wordpress and hosting it on your own domain, but if funds are tight, then you can go with a blogger one.

Using a blog allows 2 things to happen: You can become an expert in your field and you start adding a bunch of links to your main site.

Social marketing is an area you need to get familiar with.

There are new social networks starting up all over the place today. Seeing this trend, you should definitely realize you need to take advantage of this. If you are going to use social networks, then there are two things you need to know in order to make this work for you.

One of the ways you can use the social networks is to make friends. You want to increase your network of friends on these sites, and follow all of their stuff, and have them follow all of yours.

Getting a bunch of one way links pointing back to your site is another way you can use social networks and social bookmarking. Digg is probably the best tool for this.

Website owners can have a big impact in their online efforts just by adding some of these advanced seo services.

How to Choose Best Web Host!

Whether you desire to create a website for fun or for earnings, you will need to find a reliable web host to hold your site. While you shouldn’t spend a fortune each month in hosting fees, you should be expecting to get what you pay for. But cost shouldn’t be the only variable when it comes to choosing a host.

Understanding what you need from a web host and visiting different host websites to see what they have to offer will give you some good information on which to make your choice. Below are four tips that can make this decision a little easier.

Check Out Different Web Hosting Packages: Because your needs will be different from a large corporations needs or a medium sized business’ needs, many web hosts offer packages for small, medium and large businesses. When comparing packages, you will notice that the major differences are cost, amount of data transfer and disk space available, number of email addresses offered, and amount of bandwidth you will receive each month. If you’re planning to upload lots of pictures, video or other media that takes up more space than text, you should determine how much space you’ll need before choosing a web host.

Quality Control Panel: A good web host makes it as easy as possible for customers to upload files, manage email accounts, analysis site statistics and manage FTP accounts. Gain knowledge of as much as you can about the control panel before choosing a web host. Learn which site statistics will be available so you can adequately monitor all marketing campaigns and incoming traffic. Lastly, make clear in your mind you can contact customer service at any time if you’re experiencing problems.

Moving Your Domain Name: If you’re moving from one web host to another, keep in mind that you may have to pay to move your domain name. While some hosts offer to do this for you for free, others do not and will charge you for registration.

When reviewing monthly fees and billing options, find out exactly what’s included in these fees. If you don’t have a domain name, you will have to register one in order to claim a web address so no one else can use it. Some web hosts include the domain registration fee in their monthly fees, while others charge service fees. Because your domain name needs to be renewed each year, find out who will be paying the renewal fee as well.

Customer Service: If you can’t get in contact with your web host if you’re site goes down, there is very little you can do except wait until the site is up and running again. Choosing a web host that provides excellent customer service 24/7 via phone, live chat, email and tutorials found on their website can make downtime seem less frustrating.

Since you’re paying for their services, you should expect their customer service department to be efficient and easily accessible. Now that you know more about what to look for in a web host, you should be able to make an informed decision that will enable you to choose the very best hosting services for your website.

Are You The Virtual Assistant That Clients Brag About?

If your clients brag about you, you probably are not having a problem keeping your practice as full as you want it. Someone bragging about you is the best kind of networking you could ask for. If your VA practice is lacking, and no one seems to bragging about you, then perhaps your virtual assistant technical skills are not meeting the requirements that most entrepreneurs need.

This message was in an email I received a few weeks ago:

“After desperately looking for some high quality virtual assistants to recommend to my clients, I am finally taking things in my own hands…”

Can you tell what this person is saying? This entrepreneur could not find virtual assistants she could turn to for any or most of the projects she had and her clients need.

From this statement, doesn’t this appear that virtual assistants are letting some great opportunities pass by because we are not skilled enough to handle the projects these successful entrepreneurs need?

Think about it, if your car develops a mechanical problem, you want to take it to your local garage, you expect them to diagnose the problem and to fix the problem. You don’t want to go back and hear, “oh, we don’t do that, you’ll have to take your car to Dan the mechanic.” And then what happens? You need to go to Dan, make another appointment, and spend more time without the car. Pretty soon a whole day is gone and you have to do it all over again tomorrow.

Understand how pleasant it is for your client to hear, “okay, sure, I can do that.” Wow, they LOVE that statement. If you are an entrepreneur who has projects that need continuity and that require one system to work with the other, for instance, a product attached to a shopping cart that results in an autoresponder being sent – you, as the entrepreneur, would love to turn the whole project over to your virtual assistant. As the client’s VA, you will be more efficient by being able to work through the process yourself rather than finding and relying on someone else to do parts of the project.

How would you like to start turning clients away because there is no more room in your practice? You can by being the virtual assistant that clients brag about. And why do they brag? Because you have the skills they need to run their business.

There is a gap between learning the “business” part of getting your Virtual Assistant practice off the ground and the technical needs of the people out there who need great VAs.

Business people needing VAs only options are to set about searching for individuals who do the specific projects, like setting up a hosting account, setting up the shopping cart, customer service, learning some software – looks like this person will be managing four people. Not much “time saving here.” Or, they can subscribe to a service that provides a “Team” of VAs. The problem with this solution is that the client is either communicating with the specific member of the team that is working on a specific project or only gets to communicate with the coordinator.

Ask any entrepreneur what a true Virtual Assistant Partnership is, and they’ll respond that their VA can do almost all of what they need and is a true entity in their business.

As a virtual assistant, you should be able to say, “yes I can” more times than, “I’ll find someone for you to do that.” You should always be in the process of broadening your skills so that you can help take your clients from an idea to a viable business. You should be able to show your clients ways to enhance their businesses.

Don’t fall into the “box” of low paid Virtual Assistants who know only how to type a letter or work on a spreadsheet. You’ve already learned HOW to become a VA, now you need to add value (and $$$) to our virtual assistant practice by focusing on increasing your technical skill level. You can create a WOW image and have your clients brag about you. By increasing your value, you can increase your rates.

You can learn how to become the VA clients brag about and you can close the technical gap between “how to be a VA” and actually being able to execute the things your clients need to help make their businesses successful. This gap can be closed with technical training. Skills entrepreneurs constantly ask for are the ability to maintain a web site, manage a shopping cart, set up autoresponders, send broadcast emails, find joint venture partners, distribute articles, how to use Assessment Generator, help them develop products, set up a teleclass and marketing their site, teleclasses and products.

Adding to your technical skills is a win/win for you and your client. You win because you add value to your business and your client wins because now they get new ideas and they can count on you to do the job. VAs need a wide variety of skills and we need to know when, where and how to apply those skills. We need to know the best way to apply them for our customers. We need to know the best solution for the problem at hand.

WordPress Specific Webhosts: Are They Worth They Money?

There are quite a few options for bloggers in terms of what they use to get content heard. Of the masses, WordPress has arisen to the top of the bunch as one of the best platforms for blogging. To help keep up with popularity, webhosts are starting to offer WordPress-specific hosting options. But are special WordPress hosts worth the time and effort to try?

Common Features In WordPress Hosts

Before a blogger can get any work done, he or she needs to install WordPress. But doing that can be tough for those of us who aren’t exactly technically gifted. In that case, many webhosts, even the generalized ones, offer auto-installers that do the dirty work for us. So far, general webhosts and WordPress specific webhosts are neck and neck.

One big downfall for normal webhosts is their lack of support for recent upgrades. When an important security upgrade comes out, WordPress users need to upgrade their blogs as soon as possible. If they don’t, they may run the risk of losing their entire blog to hackers. With normal webhosts the upgrading can be delayed, since they aren’t specializing in any single product.

When a blogger needs to upgrade a blog, he or she will soon find that the “one-click” upgrade feature most webhosts have is very dangerous. These installers write over previous files: meaning that old themes, plugins, and other content can be lost for good. In this case, WordPress-specific hosts take the win as they allow for better upgrading options.

WordPress users will attest that blogs take up a nice amount of bandwidth. This is because blogs use databases to store the vast majority of their information, meaning multiple connections to the database could overload the backend of a blog. In this scenario, WordPress users need a host that allows for flexible bandwidth plans. The host should also have a sturdy hardware setup so that a bottleneck performance issue is not created at the database level.

Extra Features For WordPress Users

Whenever it comes to the normal webhosts, there aren’t many extra features they can offer for WordPress users. But with the WordPress hosts, there are usually a myriad of extra features to enjoy. This can range from special plugins and themes to other WordPress-specific services.

The great thing about getting free themes from WordPress hosts is the fact that no one else has them. This means that you can have a professionally designed blog at no extra cost, compared to the hundreds of dollars it would take to get a custom WordPress theme designed and coded.

Custom designs for WordPress blogs can easily run hundreds of dollars. As compared to the low fees of a WordPress host, it’s no contest as to which route every WordPress user should take in regards to themes.

When we add the score up, it seems that the WordPress hosts come out on top. But be sure to get quotes from several sources before making your decision. After all, a website is only as good as its host!