35 DEADLY WEBSITE SINS THAT WILL KILL YOUR

35 DEADLY WEBSITE SINS THAT WILL KILL YOUR

BUSINESS!

by Shelley Lowery

After reviewing thousands of web sites over the past couple of years

for my Exceptional Sites Award, I have come to the conclusion that

many business web sites are missing the boat.

For example; I've been working on some offline promotions and was

searching for a simple targeted mailing list. I searched through about

twenty sites and not one of those sites were, what I would consider,

professional. Their standard blue links were enlarged to about a size

16 font, busy backgrounds, flashing images and very unorganized.

Did I purchase a mailing list from any of those sites? Absolutely not.

Why? The way I see it, if those companies don't take pride in their

web sites, chances are, they won't take pride in their products either.

Large linked text and flashing graphics won't make sales.

Your web site is a direct reflection of you and your business. The

appearance of your site is the most important factor in determining

your sites value. In other words, if your site doesn't look professional

or pleasing to the eyes at first glance, its perceived value and the

value of your products and services will be low.

On the other hand, you may have a great web site, well designed and

a quality product or service, but if it takes too long to load, the value

will still be perceived as low. Why? Because your potential customer

won't wait. Ultimately costing you business.

Another consideration of great importance is your content. Not just

links, but content with value. When someone is surfing the net and

they visit your web site, they're visiting for a reason. Your site has

something they want. Whether it is your product, service or

information, that's why they're there. If they don't find what they're

looking for, they move on to the next site and so on. If you want your

visitors to stay at your site, provide the quality content they're looking

for in a nicely organized fashion. Give them a reason to want to

explore your site and to continue to visit your site in the future.

After receiving many questions, in regard to site design, from my

visitors who weren't selected to receive an award, I have devised a

list of what I refer to as "35 Deadly Web Site Sins".

- Poor load time

- Poor overall appearance

- Spelling/Grammar

- No contact information

- Poor content

- Poor navigation

- Broken links and graphics

- Poor browser compatibility

- Large slow loading graphics

- Too many graphics

- Pages scrolling to oblivion

- Multiple use of animated graphics

- Animated bullets

- Too many graphic and/or line dividers

- Busy, distracting backgrounds

- Multiple banners and buttons

- Poor use of frames

- Large fonts

- Pop up messages

- Over use of java

- Poor use of tables

- Poor organization

- Different backgrounds on each page

- Over powering music set to autoplay

- Confusing

- Too much advertising

- Large Welcome banners

- Multiple colored text

- Text difficult to read

- No Meta tags

- Multiple use of different fonts

- Under construction signs

- Scrolling text in the status bar

- Large scrolling text across the page

- Poor use of mouse over effects

Take some time to really look at your site. Compare it to sites that you

feel look professional. Time your sites load time. Your customers

won't wait. Their time is valuable.

The simple, well designed sites make the sales. If your sales aren't

what you had hoped , take some time to seriously evaluate your site

and make some changes before spending your time and money on

advertising and marketing. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

articles w/photographs on your website that are automatically updated

each week. http://www.web-source.net

This Report may be Distributed in any way and even resold, as long

as all information, including bylines above and physical URL's are left

intact and article remains unchanged.

AN E-ZINE PUBLISHER'S SURVIVAL GUIDE

AN E-ZINE PUBLISHER'S SURVIVAL GUIDE

by Shelley Lowery

Are you publishing an email newsletter? If you are then you probably

already know all of the great benefits, but for those who aren't, you

really should be. If you're serious about your Internet presence, having

your own publication will help you build a huge database of targeted

customers. Studies have shown, it may take several contacts with a

prospective customer before closing a sale. What better way to make

those contacts and close those sales then by having a complete list of

targeted potential customers ready and waiting. In addition, you can

eventually make a nice income selling sponsor advertising and

classified ads.

Survival Guide for a Successful Online Publication

Provide your readers with the quality content they're looking for. A

quality e-zine should contain at least some original content, but it is

also a good idea to have some additional resources available.

Before using any articles, make sure you review the author's

copyrights and make certain the article may be published. If you're not

sure, contact the author and request permission to publish their

article. Most articles for publication can be used in your e-zine free of

charge as long as the authors credits or resource box is included.

-------------------

- Free Content -

-------------------

Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Exchange

http://www.web-source.net/article-announce

Subscribe: mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com

E-ZineZ.com -

http://www.e-zinez.com/

Marketing & Advertising Supersite -

http://drnunley.com/

BizWeb2000 -

http://bizweb2000.com/articles.htm

Success Doctor -

http://success-doctor.com/archive.htm

IdeaMarketers -

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

--------------------------

In order to gain new subscribers for your publication, you must

continuously promote it. There are many sites on the Internet that will

list your e-zine free of charge.

-----------------

- Listing Sites -

-----------------

eZINESearch -

http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master/

EzineSeek -

http://www.ezineseek.com

E-ZineZ.com -

http://www.e-zinez.com/

Flying Inkpot's Zine Scene -

http://www.inkpot.com/zines

John Labovitz's ezine-list -

http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/

--------------------------

A discussion list is a group of individuals who have mutually

subscribed to receive posts from other individuals on the same email

list. Discussion lists provide a great way of communicating with other

people with the same interests. Although blatant advertising is

prohibited, signature lines (sig files) are acceptable. Include your e-

zine subscription information in your sig file.

----------------------------

- Email Discussion Lists -

----------------------------

zine-talk

http://www.infojump.com/publishers/res/zine-talk.html

epub

http://www.onelist.com/viewarchive.cgi?listname-epub

--------------------------

Subscribe to these wonderful publications for a wealth of quality

information to assist you in all aspects of publishing your e-zine.

----------------------------

- E-zines about E-zines -

----------------------------

Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Exchange

http://www.web-source.net/article-announce

Subscribe - mailto:article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com

Writers & Publishers Connection

subscribe - mailto:writers98@aol.com

Ezines - Publishing & Promotion

http://www.ezine-publishing.com/newsnet/archives.htm

Ezine-Tips

http://Ezine-Tips.com

Writers & Publishers Online

subscribe - mailto:wpo-on@mail-list.com

The List-City Report - The Ezine on Ezine advertising

subscribe- mailto:listcity-on@mail-list.com

Zine Roundup - News from other 'zines

subscribe- mailto:zine-on@mail-list.com

--------------------------

Announcement Lists provide a great way to announce your new

publication to their entire list of subscribers. Subscribe to these email

lists to announce your e-zine. Make sure you review their posting

guidelines prior to making your posts. Look through some of the other

posts to get an idea of how your post should look.

---------------------------

- Announcement Lists -

---------------------------

New List - Announcement list for new e-zines.

http://www.scout.cs.wisc.edu/scout/new-list/

AAnnounce

http://www.onelist.com/viewarchive.cgi?listname=-AAnnounce

NewJour List

http://gort.ucsd.edu/newjour/subscribe.html

Promote

http://www.mail-co.com/promote.htm

New-List.com

http://New-List.com/

--------------------------

A discussion Forum is threaded discussion on a web or message

board. This is a great way to get your name out into the Internet

community and make some new friends and/or customers. Although

blatant advertising is prohibited, signature lines are acceptable.

-------------------------

- Discussion Forums -

-------------------------

We Talk Zines!

http://www.ezine-publishing.com/bbs

EzineSeek - Email Publishers Forum

http://www.ezineseek.com/forum/index.cgi

Biz-Gold Discussion Board

http://www.profitinfo.com/discuss/marketing/

--------------------------

Webrings are groups of sites with similar content all linked together to

exchange traffic. If you don't have a web site for your publication, you

definitely need to get one. Having your own site will enable you to give

your visitors an in depths look at exactly what your publication is all

about. You can include highlights of upcoming issues, polls, archives

and a subscription box to enable your visitors to easily subscribe.

When you've gotten your site set up, you can join a webring and

benefit from all the traffic you'll receive from the other sites in your

group.

-----------------------

- E-zine Webrings -

-----------------------

E-zine Webring -

http://ezinewebring.hypermart.net/

ZinesOnline Webring -

http://members.tripod.com/adm/popup/roadmap.shtml

World Of Newsletters Webring -

http://bizx.com/newsletter_ring.html

--------------------------

Trading Ads with fellow publishers is one of the best ways to build

your subscriber base. It's as simple as it sounds. You simply contact

the publisher you're interested in exchanging ads with and ask them if

they would be interested in an ad exchange. If they're interested, you

would then run a classified ad promoting their e-zine in your

publication in exchange for them running your classified ad, all

completely free. Here are some great resources to assist you in the

process.

-----------------

- Ad Trading -

-----------------

Ezine Publisher Trade List

http://www.bizpromo.com/ezinetrades.htm

Media Peak - AdSwap

http://www.mediapeak.com

E-ZineZ Ad Exchange

http://www.e-zinez.com/classpro/viewads.html

Publishers' Business Exchange

http://www.cashconnection.com/publisherssite.htm

I-Barter

http://www.i-barter.com

Free Barter Exchange

http://www.loska.com/barter

Ezine-Swap

http://www.promotefree.com/eswap.htm

Subscribe: mailto:ezine-swap-sub@promotefree.com

--------------------------

Participate in newsgroup discussions. As with most discussion lists

or groups, blatant advertising is prohibited, but sig files are

acceptable. Before posting to any newsgroup, read the groups

policies and review other posts to give you an idea of how your post

should look.

------------------

- Newsgroups -

------------------

alt.zines

alt.ezines

alt.etext

alt.binaries.zines

comp.infosystems.www.announce -

(Read FAQ prior to submission)

http://www.sangfroid.com/charter.html

--------------------------

Winning awards is a great way to build your subscription base. Stop

by any of the following sites and submit your publication for a possible

award.

----------------------------------

- E-zine Awards & Reviews -

----------------------------------

Best Ezines

http://www.bestezines.com

Techmailings List of the day

http://www.techmailings.com

Choice Ezine Award

http://ezineseek.com/award/index.html

E-ZineZ Excellence Award

http://www.e-zinez.com/eaward.htm

--------------------------

Write a press release and tell the world about your publication. If

you're not comfortable with writing your own press release, Dr. Kevin

Nunley will write it for you at a very reasonable price.

http://www.drnunley.com/

Visit any of the following sites to send out your press release.

--------------------

- Press Release -

--------------------

Gebbie Press -

http://www.gebbieinc.com/

Press Promoter -

http://www.presspromoter.com/

Press Release Network -

http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/index1.html

PRWeb -

http://www.prweb.com

Internet Wire -

http://www.internetwire.com/

BBL Internet Media -

http://bblmedia.com/

--------------------------

Don't forget about offline promotions. There are still millions of people

around the world who aren't online. Place your ads in newspapers,

magazines, etc.

-------------------------

- Offline Promotions -

-------------------------

Gebbie Press -

http://www.gebbieinc.com/

NewsDirectory Newspapers -

http://www.ecola.com/news/press/

Newspapers Online -

http://www.newspapers.com/

This guide is just a small example of e-zine publishing and promotion.

For a complete e-zine tutorial with hundreds of resources, download

the free e-book entitled, "E-zines: A Complete Guide to Publishing."

This free e-book received a 4-star Editors Pick from ZDNet.

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

articles w/photographs on your website that are automatically updated

each week. http://www.web-source.net

This Report may be Distributed in any way and even resold, as long

as all information, including bylines above and physical URL's are left

intact and article remains unchanged.

A CRASH COURSE IN EZINE PUBLISHING

A CRASH COURSE IN EZINE PUBLISHING

by Shelley Lowery

An ezine, also know as an email magazine, online publication or

electronic newsletter is simply a newsletter available via email and/or

online. There are hundreds of thousands of ezines on various subjects

available on the Internet free of charge.

Having your own publication will not only enable you to keep in touch

with your visitors, but it will help you build a huge database of targeted

customers.

If you've been marketing on the Internet, then you know it may take

several contacts with a prospective customer before closing a sale.

What better way to make those contacts, without spamming... In

addition, you can eventually make a nice income selling sponsor

advertising and classified ads.

You can publish an ezine completely free. There are many list servers

such as;

Egroups (http://www.egroups.com), Onelist (http://www.onelist.com) &

Listbot (http://www.listbot.com) that will host your list (ezine) free of

charge. In addition, they take care of all your subscription requests so

you won't have to. To use one of these list servers, simply sign up and

instantly create your list. They will provide you with a subscribe and

unsubscribe email address and even a list owner email address, all

completely free. The only disadvantage is that each posting will

contain an ad for their service. This is really a small price to pay for

such a great service. If you're just starting out, utilizing one of these

free services can simplify the process.

- CONTENT -

A quality ezine should contain at least some original content. Don't let

the fear of writing intimidate you. If your ezine's focus is on an area of

your expertise you shouldn't have any problems coming up with

something to write about. If you've been out of school for a while, you

might want to freshen up on your writing and grammar skills. Visit any

of the sites listed below for a crash course.

Garbl's Writing Resources Online -

http://pweb.netcom.com/~garbl1/writing.html

11 Rules of Writing -

http://www.junketstudies.com/rulesofw/

Exploring English -

http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/english/

Simpler Words And Phrases -

http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/tpl5.htm

Here are some additional resources for obtaining free content for your

publication. Before using any articles, make sure you review the

author's copyrights and make certain the article may be published. If

you're not sure, contact the author and request permission to publish

their article. Most articles for publication can be used in your ezine

free of charge as long as the authors credits or resource box is

included.

- FREE CONTENT -

Article Announce - Writer & Publisher Exchange

http://www.web-source.net/article-announce

Subscribe: article_announce-subscribe@egroups.com

E-ZineZ.com -

http://www.e-zinez.com/

Marketing & Advertising Supersite -

http://drnunley.com/

BizWeb2000 -

http://bizweb2000.com/articles.htm

Success Doctor -

http://success-doctor.com/archive.htm

IdeaMarketers -

http://www.ideamarketers.com/

- FOCUS -

Your ezine should focus on a subject in which you have a great deal of

knowledge. If you have a web site, you should also take into

consideration the focus of your web site; i.e., If your web site's focus is

on Internet Marketing, you wouldn't want to have your ezines focus to

be on "Animals & Pets," you would want it to be on "Internet

Marketing."

- TITLE -

The title of your ezine is one of the most important decisions you can

make. Many e-zine listing sites list their ezines in alphabetical order.

By selecting a title such as, "Advertising Secrets" instead of "Working

Online," your publication will be listed towards the top instead of the

bottom. This will give your publication an advantage over the

publications listed below yours. Potential subscribers will see your

ezine first and be more apt to subscribe.

Your title should sound intriguing and tell your potential subscriber

exactly what your publication is all about.

- PUBLISHING SCHEDULE -

You can publish your ezine as often as you like. When you first begin

you may want to only publish once a month until your subscriber base

has grown. You can always increase your publication to bi-weekly or

weekly whenever you'd like.

- SIZE -

There has been a great deal of controversy over the size of an ezine.

In my humble opinion, size really doesn't matter. If you publish a quality

e-zine with a great deal of content, I don't feel that your subscribers

will care what size it is within reason. You should; however, take into

consideration that your subscribers may not want to download it. If it is

too large, America Online will automatically turn it into a file

attachment. Consider either condensing it or separating it into "Part

One" and "Part Two."

- WEB SITE -

It isn't imperative that your ezine have its own web site, however, it is

HIGHLY recommended. Having your own site will enable you to give

your visitors an in depths look at exactly what your publication is all

about. You can include highlights of upcoming editions, polls, archives

and a subscription box to allow your visitors to easily subscribe.

- ADVERTISING -

You should probably wait to begin selling advertising space until you

have at least 1000 subscribers. You can sell ad space for $25 for

every 1000 subscribers you have. There is a lot of advertising

competition to take into consideration when selling ad space so, you

may want to begin selling your ad space at a lower rate or offer

special incentives; i.e., Buy two weeks of advertising for $20 get the

third week free. Try to limit the number of ads per issue to ten and

place them in the center of your publication. This will not only ensure

adequate exposure for your advertisers, but your subscribers won't be

overwhelmed with advertising as well.

- STYLE & FORMAT -

The appearance of your ezine is one of the most important factors in

determining your e-zine's success. Getting subscribers is the easy

part. Keeping them will entail a little work. A professionally written,

well designed, content rich publication will ensure your ezines

success.

When formatting your ezine, keep in mind there are many different

types of email programs and they are not all created equal. As a

general rule, to accommodate all of your subscribers and their

different email programs, it is probably best to write your ezine in

plain text. As with email programs, word processing programs are not

all created equal as well. Your regular word processing programs are

great for writing business letters, sales letters, etc., but not a good

choice for writing your newsletter due to formatting issues.

A good program to consider using is Notepad. This program should

already be on your desktop.

Another consideration of great importance is your line length. If your

text lines are too long, some email programs that aren't capable of

viewing long text lines will force the last few words to the next line and

your text will be viewed like this:

When formatting your publication your text

length is

one of the most important factors in

determining

how professional your publication will appear.

As a rule, a generally safe line-length is 65 characters (including

spaces).

As you begin typing your text, when you reach 65 characters, use a

hard carriage return. (Hit Enter)

If you'd rather not have to worry about hard carriage returns, you might

want to use a program called "TextPad". http://www.textpad.com/.

This program can be set to automatically insert a hard carriage return

when your text has reached 65 characters.

When you're ready to begin, make an outline for the contents of your

e-zine to enable you to create a template.

After you've written your publication and you're ready to copy & paste

it into your email program, make certain your email preferences are

set to allow at least 65 characters of text per line. If your preferences

are set for less, when you paste your text to be mailed it will appear to

be improperly formatted.

It is highly recommended that you send a sample copy of your

publication to yourself prior to sending it to your subscribers. By

viewing your publication in this manner you will get an idea of what

your subscribers will see and it will enable you to correct any

formatting problems.

Publishing your own ezine is one of the best marketing decisions

you'll ever make. Take your time, research your subject and design a

publication of quality, useful content.

For further information on publishing your own ezine, you may

download the free ebook entitled, "Ezines: A Complete Guide to

Publishing." This free e-book received a 4-star Editors Pick from

ZDNet. http://www.web-source.net/free_ebooks.htm

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

articles w/photographs on your website that are automatically updated

each week. http://www.web-source.net

This Report may be Distributed in any way and even resold, as long

as all information, including bylines above and physical URL's are left

intact and article remains unchanged.

AUTORESPONDERS: PUT YOUR BUSINESS ON

AUTORESPONDERS: PUT YOUR BUSINESS ON

AUTOPILOT

by Shelley Lowery

Autoresponders are one of the top promotional tools available online

today. They are also known as mailbots, automatic email and email

on demand. They were derived from the very popular fax on demand

and designed to automatically respond to any email message sent to

it with an automatic response.

Their popularity most likely stems from its vast variety of uses as it

eliminates the need to manually answer every response.

Subsequently saving hours of valuable time. Your information can be

available to your prospective customer 24 hours a day, 7 days a

week.

Get your best ad copy ready, load it to your autoresponder and your

business is set to autopilot. When your prospective customer sends a

message to your autoresponder address, your information will be

instantly delivered to their email address.

There are many ways of utilizing the power of autoresponders:

* Sample E-zine Copy for potential subscribers

* Articles For Publication - A great way for writers to distribute their

articles

* Offer Free Powerful Reports on various subjects and use your

signature file at the end to promote your site or business

* Offer Free Resources with information about your site, product or

business

* Information about your Business Opportunity

* Product listings

* Price list

* Welcome letters

* Thank you letters

* Order Confirmations

* Advertising Rates

Advantages:

There are many advantages associated with the use of

autoresponders. Not only do they automate the daily task of manually

replying to requests for information, but they provide instant

gratification for the recipient. They also enable you to track your ad

responses and gather the email addresses of potential customers.

A good autoresponder service will automatically send you an email

notification informing you each time someone requests your

information.

Selecting a quality autoresponder service:

When selecting a autoresponder service, there are many factors that

need to be taken into consideration to ensure maximum performance.

* Personalized responses - This makes the recipient feel that the

letter was sent specifically to them.

* Automatic follow ups - Studies have shown it may take up to seven

contacts before closing a sale.

* Unlimited text length - If you are inhibited by the amount of text your

autoresponder may contain, you may be forced to revise a successful

sales letter, ultimately costing you business.

* Free Unlimited updating - It is imperative to provide your

customers with accurate, up to date information on your

products and services.

* Automatic Notification - You must have the ability to track your ads

performance. You should be instantly informed each time someone

requests your information.

Advertising Tips:

* Include your autoresponder address in your signature file.

* When placing classified ads, instead of supplying your

regular email address, use your autoresponder address.

* Appropriate News Groups

* Opt in email discussion lists

* Guestbooks

* Business Cards

* Letter Head

* Your web site

Key Coding Your Ads:

Tracking your ads response rate will be the key to your marketing

success. Once you test your ads and determine which ad is pulling

the most responses, you can easily test which classified ad sites are

producing results as well. This will save you a lot of valuable time by

only placing your ads at classified ad sites that produce results.

1. Make a list of the classified ad sites you intend to post your ad.

2. Number the list of ad sites.

3. You can key your ad using the subject of your email.

Many times, if you ask for a certain "subject" description, it may not

be provided. To avoid this problem you can add a simple code to

your email tag. mailto:freeinfo@yourautoadd.com?subject=cl1

This code should contain your autoresponder address and will

automatically fill in the subject with your ad key when clicked on. The

"cl1" stands for the classified ad site number one. The second ad site

you have listed should be coded as cl2 or classified ad site number

two and so on. By coding your ads you will know exactly where your

leads are coming from.

4. Begin submitting your ad and replace your normal email address

with your key coded autoresponder address.

You can obtain free autoresponders with all the amenities mentioned

above from any of the following sites:

http://www.getresponse.com/

http://www.fastfacts.net/

http://www.myreply.com/

http://www.autobot.net/

Submit your autoresponder address to AutoResponder Central - An

Autoresponder Information Directory.

http://www.web-source.net/links

Shelley Lowery is the Webmistress of Web Source - Your Guide to

Professional Website Design and Development. Join The Syndicator,

our new, free article syndication program and display complete

articles w/photographs on your website that are automatically updated

each week. http://www.web-source.net

This Report may be Distributed in any way and even resold, as long

as all information, including bylines above and physical URL's are left

intact and article remains unchanged.