«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«
Merle's Mission Ezine-
"The Best of the Net Straight to Your Door"
July 15th,2003 Issue #115 ISSN: #1527-3105
Edited & Published by: Merle- Merle@MerlesWorld.com
http://www.MerlesWorld.com/
Tell A Friend: http://recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=3463949
New Forum: http://www.merlesworld.com/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«
NOTE: This newsletter is by SUBSCRIPTION. The only
way it could have ended up in your inbox was by YOUR
SUBSCRIBING to it. If you no longer wish to receive it
please see the link at the very bottom of this ezine and
I shall never darken your doorway again.
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«
Donations Wanted: If you enjoy this ezine and feel you
have gained valuable information from it, please make a
donation http://tinyurl.com/21se
If you prefer to donate using PayPal use this link
http://www.merlesworld.com/adtracking/lm.pl?paypal
Your small gifts will help support the website and this
newsletter (and bones for "the boys"). Dakota says
"woof" which means "thanks".
______________________________________________
Sponsor
______________________________________________
"9 Out of 10 People Know the TAE-BO Brand Name."
Would you like to learn how to use the TAE-BO
branded name to generate big profits with their
new product line? Find out how today by visiting:
http://www.TaeBoHealth.biz/-enter
(1x)
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»
Love...
"Love is the only drug you can take that will convince
you each time that you've never had it before."
Compliments of http://www.Siglets.com
----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>
E D I T O R' S N O T E
----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>----<<>>
Hi Kids!
Another day, another dollar! Anyone else seem to feel July
is just flying by? It was just the 4th now it's the 15th.
Why do the summer months come and go so quickly while the
winter seems to drag on forever? I hate that. I want the
sunny sky weather to stay as long as possible and old
man winter can just keep to himself. So there. Yep, me
and the boys are going to have to someday move out of Ohio.
It's just too damn cold. Hate it. Seems like we get less
and less of the nice days and more and more rain, gloomy
skys, and snow. I'm personally sick of it and I know the
Ted Man has been bugging me to move to a warmer climate
for years. He's so skinny he can't take the cold. Italian
Greyhounds have no body fat so once it drops under 60 Ted's
freezing. I can't say I blame him.
I went to the nail salon today to get my nails done. I'm
really bad about going. Most women who wear acrylics go
like every 2 weeks and I stretch it out to 3. First I
just can't seem to find the time and 2nd I'm terrible about
doing stuff for myself. I actually had to go or I wouldn't
of been able to type up this newsletter today. I think
they were ready to fall off. Not my fingers, my nails.
I don't do that much pampering on myself but I do enjoy
my nails looking nice. It's one luxury I do just for me.
Looks like a rain storm is moving in for the night. It
figures. I took the top off my Jeep a few weeks ago
and it seems we've been getting a lot of rain. By the
time I get to enjoy the sun it will be Fall and time
to put the hard top back on. Hate that.
I'm sure you've read about Yahoo buying Overture. I
don't think I'm too happy about that. I've been
with Overture since the beginning, when they were
just a little guy named Overture and no one knew what
a PPC was. I'm sure Yahoo will find some way to screw
it up. I don't see why they just didn't build their
own Pay per click and compete with Overture and Google
directly. At least it would have been cheaper. But hey,
when you're Yahoo what's a few billion dollars. I guess
it's chump change. Now we wait and see what Yahoo plans
to do with their new acquisition.
Anyone going on the Affiliate Cruise? There's still time
to register http://tinyurl.com/fcjc Sounds like a real
blast.
I'd love to hear your comments over at our discussion
board.
http://www.merlesworld.com/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl
Due to the amount of filtering being done by ISP's and
maybe yourself please add this ezine's email address of
mmezine@merlesworld.com to your "friend list" or
approved" senders" list.All hard bounces are deleted
from this list the very first time so if you want to
keep this ezine coming and stay a subscriber, clean
out your box. No, not the litter box, your inbox silly.
This week's winner for a free ad is....
Gracina Fulcher
For your own chance to win fill in the survey. You'll
find the link at the very bottom of this ezine. A
winner is pulled twice a month. Enter now.
Thanks for joining me, let's get to the good stuff.
If you have any comments you can send them to
mailto:merle@merlesworld.com
Merle
http://www.MerlesWorld.com
http://www.EzineAdAuction.com
http://www.MCPromotions.com
--------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE
--------------------------------------------------
=> 1. News From the Net
=> 2. Feature Article-"How To Build A Web Site That Sells"
=> 4. Promotional Resources
=> 5. Other Ezines of Interest
=> 6. Just for Fun or Useful
=> 7. E Books and Things of Interest to Publishers
=> 8. Freeware and Shareware to Download
=> 9.Subscribe/Remove Information
----------------------------------------------------------
1. NEWS FROM THE NET
----------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo to Buy Overture
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2234561
---------
File Swappers Putting Business at Risk
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-1026184.html
--------
Yahoo Buys Overture for 1.6 Billion
http://tinyurl.com/h4lk
--------
FindWhat Finds the Spotlight
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/2235781
---<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>
Please Support our Sponsors
---<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----<<+>>-----sponsor adv
Get Your Own Ready-To-Run Software Business.
You will receive hundreds of quality ebooks and over
70 software products to use for yourself, giveaway or
ReSell Unlimited Copies. All for a One Time Fee.
http://tinyurl.com/cjo6
(1X)
---------------------------------------------
2. FEATURE ARTICLE
---------------------------------------------
"How To Build A Web Site That Sells"
By Herman Drost
Have you ever set off in the car to your destination,
without a map, naively believing you will find it? Several
frustrating hours later, you are either lost or stressed
out. Your wife says, "I told you so - you should have
brought the map!"
This is the same situation when you create a web site
without planning. The end result will be an unclear
purpose, target market goals and structure. Ultimately,
you will lose visitors and end up with little or no
sales.
Let's look at each of these points:
Define Your Purpose
Without a clear purpose for your site, you will not
know where you are heading. For example, the purpose
of my design site, is to help small business owners
attain a presence on the web to sell their product
or service. Now, write down the statement of purpose
for your web site. Go over it a few times to make
sure it is crystal clear, otherwise your customers
will be trying to figure it out for themselves.
Research Your Target Market
Research the product or service you wish to sell.
Find out if it has a good niche (e.g. a product
or service nobody else has thought of), or it has
a strong demand (many people are searching for it).
Do a search on some of the major search engines
(e.g. Yahoo, Overture) for keywords and phrases
that you think people will be using when looking
for your product. Now you can see what kind of
demand there is for it.
Realize many others may be competing to sell the same
product. Focus on something unique you may have to
offer, that stands out from your competitors. If you
are setting up an affiliate program, make sure it is
a reputable company with a good track record with lots
of help available from others involved. Don't recklessly
jump in - you will waste a lot of time and money.This
is the number one reason, why many entrepreneurs give
up so quickly.
For a more in-depth look at targeting your market,
read my previous article, "How to Target Your
Customers and Put Them in a Buying Mood?"
(http://www.isitebuild.com/target.htm)
Set Your Goals
Create a timeline for the planning, building and
marketing of your site. Without doing this,
procrastination may take over your goals.
Decide how much money you want to spend to create
your site and how much you will invest for its
promotion.
Set a target date for what you want your site to
achieve - you can always adjust it if you need to.
Make a goal for how many visitors you will attract
to your site. What percentage of these will be
actual sales? When do you expect to make a profit?
Choose a Domain
Name Look up available domain names for your business,
by using Nameboy. (www.nameboy.com). They will provide
a large list to choose from. Keep your domain name as
short as possible, so it is easy to remember. Avoid
hard to spell words. Also avoid words with hyphens
in them, because people won't remember to add the
hyphens and may end up at your competitor's site.
Mindmapping - How to Sketch Out Your Site
This is the process that allows you to structure
ideas on paper in the logical order your brain
follows, rather than the linear process normally
used when forming ideas.
Take one sheet of paper, draw a circle in the middle
- this is the subject of your homepage. From there,
draw branches, which have more ideas about your
topic. If any topics are related in a more definitive
way, create another branch off the current idea branch.
Within minutes, you will see your mindmap develop into
a dynamic sketch. You might find that a standard sheet
of paper is not enough to contain all your thoughts.
Use more paper, create more branches, and keep the
ideas flowing.
With a clear purpose, definite target market, targeted
goals, a domain name and a clear structure, you are
now ready to begin building the pages for your
successful web site.
In my next article, I will discuss how to structure
your web pages, so they will be easy to read and
navigate. This will attract visitors to your site,
and ultimately make more sales.
=========================================================
Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster(CIW)
owner and author of iSiteBuild.com Site Design,
Low Cost Hosting and Promotion
(http://www.isitebuild.com)
Subscribe to the "Marketing Tips" newsletter
for more original articles. mailto:isitebuild@aol.com
-----------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------
3. WEBMASTER RESOURCES
-------------------------------------------------
Pop Up Window Maker
If you need a pop up for your site but don't know how
to create one use this online generator to build it
for you.
http://www.easyriver.com/js_popwindow.php3
--------
Pop Ups
Love em or hate em pop up windows are a
boon to advertisers and site owners and they
don't appear to be going away anytime soon.
Learn everything there is to know about them
and find free scripts and even an online generator
at this informative site.
http://www.nowsell.com/pop-ups/
-----------
PHOTOSHOP VIDEOS
If you've never been to DesignsbyMark and are an
avid Photoshop user I'd suggest you run not walk.
Mark also sells cd roms to train people on Photoshop
use. Here he offers 6 free training videos as a
sample but their awesome and well worth watching.
If you make ebooks the make a box tutorial is
especially helpful. I even learned a few things.
http://store.yahoo.com/designsbymark/marphot7mask.html
---------
Message Friend
If you need a website form and don't know
your CGI from your Java, no problem. This
site will let you design your form and it will
do the back end processing and email you
the results. Pretty slick.
http://www.Messagefriend.com
---------
CSS Online Generator
If you've been wanting to create your very own
Cascading Style Sheet for your website and get
rid of all those font tags this is nice. Just
type in what you want the fonts and the sizes
to be and this little baby will spit out a
complete style sheet for your site.
http://www.ahfb2000.com/cssgenerator2.php?sub=gen_form
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«
Tip
«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«»«
If you want to make it easy for your website visitors
to print out your webpage add this code which will
create a "print out this page" button for your site.
..
Please remove the . above before and after the