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10 Reasons to Put RSS on Your Site!
RSS and Blogs are the topics of the moment. Seems like everyone is talking about it. Granted, there is too much hype about RSS and Blogs.But where there's hype - there's interest!And with good reason - RSS is posed to be the break out technology of 2005. Those who don't take full advantage of it will be left behind.If you need convincing - here are 10 reasons why you should put RSS on your site:1. It's easy and fast! Not to mention Free! You can use a free service like eBlogger and publish your Blog and RSS feed within minutes. You can even place or publish your Blog/RSS Feed on your own site without knowing 'html' or 'xml'. It's all done for you!Repeat - it's simple to use and very convenient. Publishing your blog is only a few clicks away. (If you need help - just use the link at the end of this article.)2. Syndicate Your Content. RSS stands for 'really simple syndication' and it's just another way of passing along your information. With the popularity of 'MyYahoo' and the 'Firefox' browser (which has a built-in RSS feed reader) - syndicating your content has gotten even simpler.The next version of Windows is reportly scheduled to have a RSS feature. If this happens - RSS will explode.3. Get Your Content Indexed. Using blogs to publish your content is a neat way of side stepping the regular indexing procedure. It gets your content indexed very quickly in most of the search engines.Search Engines are constantly on the lookout for 'fresh content' - these 'link rich' blogs are a good source of this content. Because blogs are on specific topics - they have a concentrated source of good quality informational material to serve up!4

has to present an attitude that is appropriate for your audience. This attitude can be conveyed through the graphics, copy, and multimedia presentation of the information, products and services you provide. When it comes to 'attitude' the medium is very much the message and since the Web is such a impersonal environment, it is important to design your presentation so that it delivers the attitude and personality that your audience will relate to.

Stimulate Desire
The desire to buy a particular product or service is based on more than functional utility; after all, nobody really needs a Rolex or a Lexus. People buy much of what they buy based on emotional and psychological desire rather than functional need. Functionality often comes into play merely as a justification for the purchase. Part of your website's job is to create the emotional and psychological desire for the product in question.

Motivate Action
Your website should also be designed to motivate people to action but don't construct your site to limit that action to a sale or nothing. Too many sites are obviously designed to get you to buy something with little or no attention to enhancing understanding or generating confidence. This 'all or nothing' approach is severely anti-productive and conveys an impression that you can't be trusted. Customers need to have confidence in you and your offering and sometimes they need some reassurance that you are legitimate.

Keep Prospecting Simple
I conducted a BLITZ CALL Prospecting workshop in Toronto this week for a group of highly experienced sales professionals.They were a great audience and are already implementing the skills we discussed according to the feed back I am receiving.One thing I have to remind myself and all the people I train is that Prospecting in the commercial/industrial market place has to be simple. The reason is not surprising. Most of us in sales hate to Prospect. Therefore, if we make Prospecting complicated in any way, there is the excuse we need not to Prospect.So, when I say simple what do I mean. Ready for this?Just get Leads and do BLITZ CALLs. That is about as simple as you can get.In commercial/industrial sales, people don’t buy until after the 3rd call. Therefore, we must make at least 3 calls, this is not rocket science. The initial Prospecting call, the BLITZ CALL, is simply a quick introduction – in and out. It is designed for face to face Prospecting while you are in the field, but is being used via the phone more and more these days.Never drive by a good Prospect without stopping. That is what the BLITZ CALL is designed for. After that, you implement your selling skills, the Prospecting phase is over.So there you have it, keep Prospecting simple and you will have more Prospects that you ever thought possible. Now the folks in manufacturing will have to try to keep up with your orders.Sell Well and Often,Bill Truax© copyright 2007 WJ Truax

Everyone Has An Agenda
When we watch our favorite television programs like 'CSI' or 'House', we knowingly and even gladly allow ourselves to be manipulated. When we watch the evening news we are also being manipulated, knowingly or not, by the selection and presentation of stories that have been filtered through a series of network agendas ranging from the benign time constraints of a thirty-minute broadcast to the more suspicious dictates of network and sponsor interests.

Websites are vehicles for communicating content to an audience as well, and like your favorite television show, or evening news, that communication is not neutral; it comes with an agenda and that agenda should be yours.

If your website designer is not developing your site within a framework created to communicate your marketing information, then you are not getting the website you need. If your website designer is merely a technical programmer and not a communicator then you have picked the wrong supplier.

Whether you are selling an idea, a product, or a service doesn't matter; what matters is you are trying to convince your audience that what you have to offer will benefit them in some way. You are manipulating your presentation to your advantage. That does not mean that you should be dishonest or deceitful, but rather just skilled in getting your message across.

To manipulate, as defined, in part by wordreference.com, means to 'control or influence skillfully, usually to one's advantage'. Like it or not that's the job of a professional website designer: to skillfully influence an audience to the website owner's advantage.

Bad Websites Use Technical Solutions to Solve Communication Problems
Website designers constantly hear complaints from business owners and marketing executives that their websites are underperforming and their ROI is anemic. This is not surprising when so many websites are developed based on attracting traffic rather than skillfully influencing audience opinion. You can attract all the traffic your server can handle but if your message is lost in a labyrinth of search engine-friendly requirements it will not influence, persuade, or convince anybody of anything.

It used to be that technical agendas formulated by IT departments where a significant cause of website communication deficit, but today that torch has been passed on to the SEO guru promising to deliver the multitudes but more likely creating a severe case of information and performance anxiety. Technology is not an end; it is merely the means to an end, and when it comes to websites that end is communication.

The technical aspects of website design are fairly easy to learn for anyone who is willing to take the time to learn them - let's face it, it's not rocket science. As a consequence there are lots of technical website programmers creating ineffective communication solutions. Professional website designers must be expert communicators practiced in the art of skillful message manipulation and communication delivery.

Defining An Appropriate Website Agenda

In order for your website to be an affective marketing communication vehicle it should be build around an agenda that accomplishes the following tasks:
1. Attract interest
2. Focus attention
3. Convey attitude
4. Enhance understanding
5. Generate confidence
6. Stimulate desire
7. Motivate action

Attract Interest
If you check your website logs and find that people are leaving your site as fast as they are arriving, then you have an problem. All that time and effort you spent on optimizing your site for the search engines to attract visitors is wasted if those visitors don't stay long enough to get your marketing message. Visitors will leave your site within seconds if your splash page is confusing or irrelevant to their needs. Your initial contact with your audience must capture their attention by quickly establishing that you are the source of the information, products, or services they are looking for.

Focus Attention
Once you've established that your site has the information your audience wants, you must make it easy for people to find it. Information, products, and services must be organized for quick access and easy navigation between options and alternatives.

Visitors are focused on finding what they came for; once they have found it, they will be more receptive to paying attention to the items that you want to direct them to; this is what Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering calls the 'seducible moment', the moment when visitors are ready to focus on your pitch.

Enhance Understanding
Rather than designing the presentation of your information for search engine robots, design it for human understanding. People absorb more information; have better comprehension; and retain more of what you want them to when information is presented by a real person.

If you want to see the future of the Web visit Wyeth's menopause related website at http://www.knowmenopause.com. This site provides visitors with the option of going to a text-based version that is index-able by search engines and where visitors can print-out the material; and a multimedia version that features video presentations by doctors discussing the medical issues, and interviews with ordinary women discussing their personal experiences.

Generate Confidence
Since the Web is a remote environment, it is important to create confidence in your company and the products and services you provide. The easiest thing you can do to create this confidence is to provide visitors with not just email addresses but phone numbers, physical locations, and contact names. It never fails to amaze me how many websites fail to provide this kind of information. If you don't provide proper contact information, it looks like you have something to hide.

As mentioned in 'enhancing understanding', relating to people with people is critical in building confidence. The Wyeth knowmenopause.com site does a brilliant job of providing expert video advice from qualified professionals as well as video commentary from average people relating their personal experience with the subject matter. And you don't have to be a multinational pharmaceutical company to do this. Every business has access to expertise and knowledge. If you stop pitching and start informing, you may find you're further ahead.

Convey Attitude
Every business has a personality that is conveyed to clients through their experiences with that company. If you are relying on your website as your main point of customer and prospect interaction, then your website has to present an attitude that is appropriate for your audience. This attitude can be conveyed through the graphics, copy, and multimedia presentation of the information, products and services you provide. When it comes to 'attitude' the medium is very much the message and since the Web is such a impersonal environment, it is important to design your presentation so that it delivers the attitude and personality that your audience will relate to.

Searching For Free Color Business Cards Online
One of the most powerful business marketing tools out there is on paper. These include pamphlets, portfolios, and business cards. Using all of them is a plus, but business cards remain the cheapest (and arguably most important) way to market your business. Launching a business requires money from the start, and many may seek to cut corners and save whenever appropriate without sacrificing the integrity of their business. Plus, with inevitable changes to contact information and design for business cards, it is important to save money. One site that offers free business cards is VistaPrint, a company that offers 250 free (has an $85 value)Business competition can be tough. Adding your name and contact info only on business cards won’t help too much. Instead, business cards should reveal a lot more, like specializations and a website detailing your service. Although VistaPrint prints their cards on heavy paper stock and comes with a selection of designs, they insist on adding their logo and name on the bottom back of each card which can make your business look cheap.If you want nothing on the back, VistaPrint offers 250 cards for less than five hundred dollars plus the cost of shipping. This is a great deal, considering VistaPrint delivers its cards through the mail quickly. In addition, if you have enough money, heavy textured papers and a professional design might be a possibility. Look around and compare prices at different office stores and print shops. There is always a healthy selection of business card internet suppliers. All in all, true business people carry business cards to pass around. Three or four business cards should be on you at all times to give to potential clients, networkers, relatives, and anyone who can bring money to your pocket.

to Solve Communication Problems
Website designers constantly hear complaints from business owners and marketing executives that their websites are underperforming and their ROI is anemic. This is not surprising when so many websites are developed based on attracting traffic rather than skillfully influencing audience opinion. You can attract all the traffic your server can handle but if your message is lost in a labyrinth of search engine-friendly requirements it will not influence, persuade, or convince anybody of anything.

Defining An Appropriate Website Agenda

New Year's Sales & Marketing Resolutions
Happy New Year! It's a great time to dust off your playbook and think about what your strategic plans are in sales and marketing for the coming year. A good way to start is to start by taking your management team through a series of new year's resolutions. What are your new year's resolutions for sales and marketing? Are you going to boost your lead generation? Are you going to invest more heavily in telesales to reduce your sales cycle? Are you going to commit yourself to double digit sales growth for your company? Are you going to finally invest in search engine optimization in order to improve your company's online visibility using natural and organic search engines? Are you thinking about boosting your performance for lead generation through direct mail campaigns? What about refreshing or developing a new website with better content that's more compelling against your competitors? These are all new year's resolutions that companies should be considering as they think about how to accelerate their sales this year. We're working with a number of companies that are specifically targeting improvements to their sales and marketing programs and now is a great time for you to do that. The year is just now getting started and if you get an early jump on your sales and marketing activities for this year you'll have the best results for converting those investments into actual sales growth. What's your sales and marketing new year's resolution?The first thing you should be doing is considering an investment in your own business and making sure that your putting dollars into it first before putting dollars into the owner's pockets or into the shareholder's pockets. Why? Because over time, your shareholder value will increase the more you invest in g

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5. Generate confidence
6. Stimulate desire
7. Motivate action

Affiliate Marketing - Building Trusting Relationships Is The Way To Success (Part 2)
The 2nd method is if you do get a lot of support types of questions, the best action that you can take is to open your own help desk and set up your own FAQ (Frequently Ask Questions) page. So before the customer ask you any questions, you will direct them to the FAQ page and if their questions is still not being answer, then you will have to help them. Do not be afraid to work together with your merchant by letting know all the questions that your list have ask. If you look from another point of view, you and the merchant are actually working as a team to sell the same products.The last method is to make sure that your customers will be able to contact you. Do let them know the ways that they will be able to contact you. When they contact you and you reply back, you will start to build a trusting relationship with your customers already as they will know that they are interacting with a real person.These are the 3 ways which you can do to build trust with your customers. It is always important to get the potential leads to trust you. So you have to provide quality content and always be willing to go the extra mile for your customers. It is a known fact that the more people that trusts you, the more sales that you will be able to make. So building a trusting relationship with your customers is the key to success in affiliate marketing.

se related website at http://www.knowmenopause.com. This site provides visitors with the option of going to a text-based version that is index-able by search engines and where visitors can print-out the material; and a multimedia version that features video presentations by doctors discussing the medical issues, and interviews with ordinary women discussing their personal experiences.

Search Engine Robots - How They Work, What They Do (Part II)
If your site isn't found in the search engines, it is probably because the robots couldn't deal with it. It could be something as simple as not being able to find the site, or it may be more complicated issues involving the robot's not being able to crawl the site or figure out what your pages are all about.Submitting your site to the major search engines: that will help with the "can't find it" problem. Even having links pointing back to your site can be enough to attract the search engine robots. Google, for example, suggests that you may not have to submit your pages; they will find your site if you have a link pointing back to it from at least one other site on the web.If the robots can find your site but can't make sense of it, then you may need to look at the content and technology used on your pages. Frames, Flash, dynamically generated pages, and invalid HTML source code can cause problems when the search engine robot tries to access your web pages. While some search engines are beginning to be able to index dynamically generated pages and Flash (e.g. Google and AllTheWeb), use of some of these technologies can hinder your ability to be indexed by the search engine robots.Text in images cannot be read by the search engine robots. Using ALT image text is an important way to help the robots "read" your images. Websites with extensive images rely heavily on ALT text to present their content. How Do I Get The Most Out Of Indexing?If you know what to "feed" the spidering robots you will help yourself with search engine ranking.Having a website full of good content is the major factor. Search engines exist to serve their visitors, not to rank your website. You need to be sure to present yourself in your site in the way that wi

What you want to do is get website visitors to do something, anything that demonstrates some interest. That demonstration of interest could be a phone call to ask a question, signing up for an e-newsletter, requesting a catalog, responding to a survey, poll, or promotion - anything that displays they have some interest in what you are offering. If you can motivate your audience to action, even if that action is not directly sales related, you are on your way to building a relationship with that prospect.

Communication: Turning Content Into a Memorable Experience
In order to achieve your marketing goals you need to know how to manipulate, or if you prefer, 'seduce' your audience to your advantage using the seven tools of website persuasion.

1. Position
Web-pages are usually made-up of similar types of information. Standard page elements include:
i. Header information - such as logo, company name, address, and basic contact information;
ii. Navigation elements - so visitors can find what they need;
iii. Content - such as text, graphics, audio, and video;
iv. Sidebar information - that might include additional information or links that relate to the content or advertisements, and;
v. Footer information - that might contain further contact or copyright information.

The positioning of these elements is critical to the comprehension and retention of your information and marketing message. Various usability studies carried out in the USA and Great Britain have tracked the eye movement of website visitors. These studies help the designer place the various page layout elements on the screen to produce the maximum effect.

Most studies are fairly consistent with their eye movement tracking results:
i. Middle-Center: Visitors first focus on the center of the page searching for content that is anticipated;
ii. Top-Left: Eyes then move to the top left corner where a logo or company name is expected;
iii. Down Left-hand side: Eyes then move down the left-hand side of the screen where navigation is commonly placed;
iv. Top-Middle to Right: Eyes then move back to the top of the screen and move from the center to the right scanning for further navigation elements or additional company identification information;
v. Middle-Center: Eyes then move back to the middle of the screen scanning for relevant content;
vi. Right-hand side: Eyes then move to the right side of the screen looking for additional information or sidebars;
vii. Middle-Center to bottom: Finally eyes go back to the center and down the page towards the footer scanning for additional content.

It should be noted that these studies also suggest that website visitors will quickly determine where any advertisements are located and then proceed to ignore or avoid them when moving on to other pages of that website.

Size
The size of the various elements will obviously draw attention to, or away from particular information. Logos, graphics, headers, and body-text should all be balanced and proportionate, and the use and amount of white space is as important to readability and comprehension as any of the other elements.

Color
The use of color is another obvious feature that draws attention to particular information; color also conveys personality, mood, and image. Blue, silver, and green are calming colors that convey a cool if somewhat remote image. Reds tend to convey a sense of excitement and boldness, while yellows are bright and friendly. Browns and beiges are earthy, warm and rich, while black, white and gray convey a sense of sophistication.

Of course these are all generalizations and colors can be mixed and matched to provide a variety of moods and personalities. What's important is that a color palette is chosen with care, not only to convey personality but also to direct and focus attention on particular key elements.

Shape
The shape of elements is another way to draw attention to particular information or content. Traditional computer monitors with their 4:3 ratio and the new more extreme 16:9 ratio monitors create particular challenges when trying to present substantial information above the virtual fold, by that we mean the visible area that does not require scrolling. Sometimes vertical scrolling can't be avoided, but if you have a lot to say, think about adding an audio or video option that only requires the click of a button to present your information with no scrolling required.

Sound
Web-audio is the most cost-effective multimedia-format for delivering large amounts of complex information or instructions to website visitors. Web-audio not only delivers the information in a meaningful, compelling, entertaining, and memorable way, but it also helps establish a corporate personality and image.

Movement
Movement will also help attract and direct attention to certain aspects of your website. By far the best way to incorporate some action on your site is with Web-video that uses a Web-host to present information or direct visitors to where they want to go.

Style
The visual style of your site not only directs attention and focus but it also helps establish your personality and how it relates to your target audience. Styles range from conservative to funky to downright bizarre but what really matters is the style you choose tells visitors who you are and what you're all about. Your website style will help create the attitude aspect of your website presentation.

Conclusion
Designing a website is more than programming and search engine optimization; it is how you communicate to your future customers - a job that is too important to leave to someone who doesn't understand how to use the Web and it's full arsenal of presentation elements to communicate your marketing message.

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This article explains how a small business owner can delegate on a limited budget. Resources available to provide delegation without a payroll.

Business retailers and the public are often against skateboard parks and yet a skateboard park will mean less skateboarders breaking the law and causing problems in shopping centers. It also means less cost and security guards to chase them away. It will also alleviate the cost of police who are often called because of the skateboarders.

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