GREETINGS!
From The WEB PRO TIMES EZINE
What A Day!
The Weather's grand all over the net.
Welcome to The WebPro Times
(WPT as we affectionately call it.)
The Web Pro Times is THE ezine for business people, entrepreneurs and professional
marketers.
DELIVERED MONDAYS
VOLUME 1 - ISSUE 102
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Our Format for the WebPro Times is:
--> Editors Article
--> Guest Article (as they are approved)
--> Janes Jingle
--> Contest of the Day (win prizes)
--> Smart Tip of the Day
--> Smart Resources of the Day
--> Smart Freebie of the Day
--> Continuing Saga of J and P
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EDITORS ARTICLE
TURNING LETTUCE INTO SALAD
No, this is not a cooking lesson!
However, if you are a salad lover, you know that a good salad needs to be
crisp, taste glorious and be exquisitely presented.
This applies equally to a good website or sales letter.
If you want to make sales, have an ad that entices and a sales site that sizzles.
It's that simple.
SMORGASBORDS CAN MAKE YOU ILL.
Have you ever noticed how some ads and some websites look like a buffet table at some
grand dining establishment? You open up the ad or website and there are so many
goodies offered, you don't know where to look or where to go first. If you try to eat it
all, you are liable to end up with a stomach ache.
To illustrate this:
Take a day to surf marketing sites at google.com and the first thing you will
notice is the number of sites that leave you with the question, "What on earth
were they selling?"
Some sites are more like shopping lists than sites selling a specific product or
service. You usually encounter banners or links whizzing you off to 15 to 20 other sites
and the product that interested you in the first place is carefully hidden so you can't
find it easily.
All this does is help you get lost in cyberspace and ensure you never find your way back
to the site you started at.
Our point is this:
If you want to make sales, state your offer clearly and concisely, so that people get the
idea in one take or one glance.
SIMPLE IS BEST
Sell one thing and one thing only. When you serve a creative meal you don't serve your
guests multiple salads.
Get them to your site using the essentials....
Here are the essential elements of a profit-pulling heading...
- What the product or service is.
- What the product or service will do for the customer.
- How fast the Product will do what it claims
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Example: Ad Heading:
Solo Ads: Proven Results. Mail Today!
This heading tells you what the product, is, what it will do and when it will
do it. It is designed to get people to open your ad and read on...
You have one chance to chance to grab
your readers attention and interest
and compel them to act.
WEBSITE COPY - CLOSE THE DEAL.
It's in the copy that you need to convince your prospect to do the one thing you want them
to do. Whip out their credit card right now and order your product or service or join your
opportunity!
Don't distract them or take them anywhere else but to your order page.
Like your ad copy, you want to keep your sales site copy simple and on point and you want
to close the deal and make the sale.
ADD VALUE: TURN LETTUCE INTO SALAD:
Most business owners think the only way to compete against the big boys is to cut prices.
They can afford to cut prices but small business owners can't. This is not the only way
and often not the best way.
Add Value to existing products and be sure that the additions are in keeping with your
main offer. Example...
If you are selling fax machines, don't give away a mobile phone. Better to give away a
roll of fax paper. This fits with what you are selling and adds value to the offer.
If you are selling solo ads, ad value by offering a free course on Ad writing or a piece
of software that helps create headlines.Don't offer an ebook on gardening.
Decide at whom you aiming your advertising and marketing and serve up something that
complements the main course.
Stop selling lettuce, anyone can do that. Become a gourmet chef and serve your customers a
creative salad. Creative salads are simple, fresh, well presented and get your readers
watering at the mouth to get at the extra goodies included.
If you can entice your customers with the first course, you can bet they will come back
for more.
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This article is an excerpt from a
Soon-to-be-released Ebook, Titled
"Success In a Nutshell" by
Phil Basten & Jane Mark of JPE Advertising
http://jpeadvertising.com
Co-Editors of:
WebPro Times Ezine
http://webprotimes.com
Authors of:
Joe? Yes, Mable? Are We Rich Yet?
http://jpeadvertising.com/jandm/
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION:
For our new readers:
You should know that:
We always end our articles with a jingle to emphasize the point. You can capture the
essence of our articles in the Jane's Jingle section every week.
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JANES JINGLE
Jane's Jingle is the summary and conclusion of the editors article and
generally captures it's essence so if you need to cut to the chase, you can always skip
straight to the jingle :-)
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Turning lettuce into salad
Can be great for selling and quite valid
A little vinegar, a little oil
Can make your website really boil
Add a dash of pepper and some salt
watch your sales really vault
Then maybe add a bit of cream
To make things better than they seem
And serve it all with a little spice
And you'll see the rewards can be quite nice.
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GUEST ARTICLE
Guest articles are seen here when we receive an article that is in keeping with the theme
of WebPro Times.
Using A
Simple Idea to Target Your Audience
Copyright 2003 by Kellie Marzolf
A wonderfully easy and free concept that many people seem to overlook during their online
marketing career is the survey. If you are looking for programs to promote or ideas for
articles, you really need not look much further than your own opt in list.
Your list subscribers are a wealth of information right at your fingertips. Surveys can be
as simple as asking one single open-ended question or as complex as using an entire form
with several different types of questions and categories involved. These categories can
range from open ended to multiple choice down to the yes or no variety. You will be amazed
at the response you can receive just by showing your interest in your subscribers wants
and desires.
This approach can help you master the market in providing people with what they really
want, whether that be a particular type of product, or a piece of information or
instructions to make their online business more beneficial to them. In your initial email,
it's always a good idea to notify your respondents that they will be notified of the
results in a special email. If you send this out to your ezine subscribers, you can
notify them that the results may be used in a future edition of your newsletter. I would
also recommend offering a free gift to them for taking the time out of their day to help
you with your project. Your respondents time is extremely valuable to them, so make it
worth their while to spend a few minutes of it with you.
Once you have tallied up your answers, now is the time to look into a solution or idea for
what seems to pique their interest or a problem that seems to be affecting a majority of
them. Remember, people online are always looking for something that will help them,
whether that be something such as losing weight or making their business advertising more
beneficial to them. The subject possibilities are endless.
The ideas for survey questions are as different as the people who answer them. As
you research solutions or products that might benefit them, you will become more aware of
what may or may not work and this will come through to your readers. This simple
action will help them to begin equating you with someone who is helpful, someone who cares
and hopefully someone they can trust. Ask anyone who has their own list and they
would probably tell you, building trust and a relationship with your readers is one of the
most important things you can do with regards to your list and in my view this is what
should be your ultimate goal.
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Kellie Marzolf publishes the GoForTheGold Directory Newsletter where
you will find informative articles on marketing, promotion, and ezines.
Weekly safelists to join, useful resources and free bonuses in every
issue. Begin your subscription today:
http://www.goforthegolddirectory.com
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Want to get noticed? Submit an article for review and if your article is just
what our readers need to hear, we will include it here in our guest experts
spot.
Your articles must be on some aspect of online marketing that works. You
must be able to show step by step what you do and what results you get.
Submit your articles here.
mailto:webprotimes@jpeads.com?subject=Articles
You could become quite well known.
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CONTEST OF THE DAY
Contest Winners!
Last week our contest was won by two people. They submitted two different answers almost
simultaneously and they were both right.
The question was:
What is the national flower of Spain?
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS
Paul Wolbers answered: carnation. He's right
http://www.magnumlist.com/
Trey Koehler answered: There is no national flower of Spain. He's right.
http://safelistworld.com
How is that possible? Well, apparently the carnation was the flower of Spain until
recently and now they have no national flower and it depends on who you read as to what
answer you select.
At any rate, we were so distressed to learn the Spain did not have a National Flower, that
we wrote to to The President and suggested the Rose. We will let you know if they oblige
us sometime in the future.
Congratulations to the winners. And to all of you who sent in your answers... The Rose was
the second most popular answer. Sorry, no cigar.
Here's This Week's Contest Question.
What was the day and date of the battle of Waterloo?
Winners get a choice of:
1. A Solo Ad run to 65,000 safelist members or:
2. A free executive membership in DSI Safelist (over 3,600 members)
Send your answers to...
mailto:webprotimes@jpeads.com?subject=Contest-Answer
Contest Rules: First correct answer we receive WINS!
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SMART TIP OF THE DAY!
If you want to track how many hits you get to your website be sure to use an an invisible
counter on your website. You certainly need to know what works and what doesn't right?
But did you know? A counter that your visitors can see can actually damage your sales. If
people think you have too many visitors they could think, rightly or wrongly, you
won’t have time for them. If you don’t have enough visitors they could think
that your product or service is no good or that your are a beginner.
Counters may look impressive, especially if you are selling banner ads, or text ads on
your site. If your counter shows a lot of hits people could reasonably assume that their
text ad or banner has a good chance of getting results.
Be careful: Counters are useful but they can hurt you if you don't use them right.
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SMART RESOURCES OF THE DAY
Well, we have been testing some new resources this week and here are two more we highly
recommend.
Recommendation 1
http://damnsmartads.com/contact/
Recommendation 2
http://www.pushbuttonpublishing.com/affiliates/t.php?rid=961
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SMART FREEBIE OF THE DAY
Need some where else to market?
Sign up free to the WebPro Times Safelist. It's an all executive safelist and you can mail
daily. Go to --> http://jpesafelists.com/wpt/
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THE CONTINUING SAGA OF J AND P
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P?
Yes, J?
What do you do for excitement around here in Australia when things slow down on the net in
August?
We go to the Pokies, J
I beg your pardon, P. Are you propositioning me here?
No, J.
I am not propositioning you here. The pokies - They're kind of like your Vegas slot
machines.
Really, P?
You gamble? I'm astonished!
Why, J...
I took a big gamble on you when I made you a partner in JPE Advertising,
didn't I?
What do you mean YOU took a big gamble, P.
Are you nuts?
I was the one that gambled. I came here to meet you at the ends of the earth - two stars
north of the Milky way - 10,000 miles from the nearest Broadway show. Seems to me I was
the one who took the gamble.
J?
yes, P?
How did I know I was not getting a "Pig in a Poke"
"Pig in a poke"? P...
That's a very American expression.
J?
Let's get the heck out of here and I will show you the pokies.
P? Are you sure you're not propositioning me?
J?
Yes, P?
Don't start....
Phil Basten & Jane Mark
http://jpeadvertising.com
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