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 Issue #38 - January 19th, 2004 Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses
Brought to you by idesignbusiness.com http://www.idesignbusiness.com Issue # 38 Monday, January 19th, 2004 In this Issue: ARTICLES: ONLINE POLL: FREE RESOURCE: Welcome to another issue of the idesignbusiness Internet Marketing Newsletter. As I was doing research for this issue I came across a Web Marketing technique that I have not yet tried yet myself but I will implement in the near future. The article in this issue focuses on creating "Mini-sites" for specific products or sections of your main site. I found a great article from a guest author that clearly explains the benefits of "Mini-sites" and how to easily set one up for your business. We would love to hear any questions, comments, or ideas for future articles, just email us at newsletters@idesignbusiness.com Did you miss the last issue? You can always visit our idesignbusiness Internet Newsletter Archive and easily view and search all our past issues. Neal St. Clair idesignbusiness Advertisement idesignbusiness Mail Manager Are you using email to market you products and services, communicate with customers, and generate leads? If not, you are missing out on the most affordable and effective marketing tools available to small businesses. The idesignbusiness Mail Manager handles everything required to execute a professional email marketing campaign including email collection, contact list management, email delivery, and reporting. Learn how you can begin sending e-Newsletters, greeting cards, email promotions and more today. 30-day Free Trial, Credit Card NOT Required! Click here to learn more. Online Poll Do You Pay More Than $9.95 per Month for Web Hosting? ARTICLE Mini-Sites -- Highly Targeted Sales Generators By Shelley Lowery If you‘re looking for a highly effective method of increasing your Internet sales, then mini-sites may be your answer. Mini-sites are one of the most effective marketing tools online. Not only are they effective, but they‘re also very inexpensive and easy to create. The concept is simple. Create a one or two page website that completely focuses on one specific topic. Everything within that page should have one purpose -- getting the visitor to take action. This page should be neatly designed in standard HTML with no Flash or fancy plug-ins and very few graphics. There should be no banners or outside links of any kind and nothing that will distract your visitor‘s attention. The sole purpose of a mini-site is to attract highly targeted traffic. The more targeted the better. For example, if you have a website that sells a number of products, a good mini-site would focus on one specific product instead of all of the products. You could create a mini-site for each product you offer. Designing Your Mini-Site Each mini-site you create should be optimized for that one specific product. Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases, as this will help you to tighten your targeting. Remember ... the tighter the targeting the better. * Title - Your “Title" should contain your most important keywords. You‘ve probably heard that before, but I‘ve found a slightly different method for optimizing the title. Since mini-sites focus on just one product, place the “most" important “keyword phrase” first. Not just your most important phrase, but the keyword phrase that you think people will use when they do a search. Instead of capitalizing the first letter, type it in lowercase, as most people type in all lowercase letters when searching. This will assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engine for your targeted audience. * Description - Your description should focus on one specific product and not generalize. Make sure you include your most important keywords towards the beginning of your description. In addition, make sure your description describes your site in detail. You want your potential visitors to know exactly what you‘re offering. Your description should be less than 200 characters. * Keywords - Concentrate on just a few keyword phrases. * Heading tags - Search Engines pay close attention to the text displayed within the “Heading” tags. Place your most important keyword phrase within a “Heading” tag. * Graphic Alt tags - Place a readable keyword phrase within your graphic “Alt” tags. * Text - All of your text should focus on your product. There should be no filler text whatsoever. It should have one specific purpose -- getting your visitor to take action. Make sure you include your keyword phrases throughout your text. If you‘d like to set up your mini-site using tables, try to place your “Heading” text above your “Table” code. If this isn‘t possible, make sure you include your keyword phrases within your top left “Table cell” to assist you in ranking higher in the Search Engines. Mini-sites are not limited to just your products. They can also be used with any affiliate programs you may be promoting. You can include extra incentives such as a free bonus for purchasing the product or even your personal recommendation. This is a great way to presell the product. Hosting Your Mini-Site Although it is much better to have your own domain name, these sites can be hosted on a free server and still rank high in the Search Engines. Keep in mind, free sites do not build trust and credibility. No matter which option you choose, make sure you place your most important keyword phrase (the keyword phrase that you think people will use when searching) within your web address. Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Site Once you have tested the effectiveness of your site and have a good conversion rate, (the number of visitors compared to the number of sales) you can buy targeted traffic. Goto.com is the number one pay-per-click Search Engine and will most likely produce the best results. For additional options, visit: http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/ They provide information and reviews on a number of pay-per-click Search Engines. The key to using this technique effectively is to bid on “very” targeted keywords. This will weed out the casual visitors and only attract your target audience. There‘s no sense in paying for visitors who really weren‘t interested to begin with. In addition to bidding on keywords, you can also advertise in targeted ezines and even purchase some targeted banner advertising. Be creative and take the time to test all of your promotions prior to spending a lot of money. If you really want to increase your sales, create some mini-sites. They are one of the cheapest and easiest to create profit generators online. Copyright © 2001, All rights reserved About the Author: Shelley Lowery is the author of Ebook Starter. A complete ebook design kit including a guide to creating and marketing an ebook and over fifty predesigned ebook templates and ebook covers. http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter.htm Shelley invites you to partner with her in her Ebook Starter affiliate program. Visit: http://www.web-source.net Advertisement SpamArrest.com - Take Back Control of Your Inbox Are you fed up with SPAM? If so, take action and take back control of your inbox. Kill unwanted emails in their tracks before they ever reach your inbox. SpamArrest lets you easily manage your email by blocking unwanted senders and verifying your valid contacts. It‘s easy to setup and will block all junk email. Click here for 30 day free trial FREE RESOURCE: Each issue of the Internet Marketing Newsletter for Small Businesses will include helpful free online resources to promote your website. ASP (Active Server Pages) is a powerful web programming language that can make your site interactive and dynamic. If you are ready to go beyond HTML I would recommend learning ASP because it is highly documented and fairly easy to learn. To get started I would go to ASP 101 (www.ASP101.com) and read a few of their beginner articles. They also provide many free code samples so you can see the different applications available using ASP. http://www.asp101.com ABOUT idesignbusiness idesignbusiness provides complete Internet services for small businesses including Website Design, Website Development, Hosting and Internet Marketing. Increase Website traffic, build your customer base, and drive revenue using our cost-effective and result driven tools and services. Please visit http://www.idesignbusiness.com for more information. SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE This newsletter is only sent to opt-in subscribers. If at anytime you would like to be removed from this list, please send an e-mail to newsletters@idesignbusiness.com with REMOVE in the subject line or click on the remove link below. 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