Sending Email Attachments: When is Big too Big?

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Tom Antion

Lately I've been getting emails from people with
enormous attachments. This is poor form for a couple reasons.

1. If the attachment makes it through, you may have caused the
person receiving the email to exceed their allotted email space
which would make their other emails undeliverable. They won't be
very happy with you if you cause that to happen.

2. Many servers are set to delete or “send to junk” large
attachments because it looks like a hacker attack on their
system. In this case your email never gets through.

3. Definitely don't send a broadcast email or set up an
autoresponder with an attachment. You'll get tons of complaints
and a bad delivery rate. Just send an email with a link in it to
where people can download the file if they want to.

Large files are much more common because of video and graphics.
So what should you do?

A. Check the size of your file before you attach it to an email.
If it's anything bigger than a megabyte or two, don't send it via
email unless the person receiving it gives you the go ahead.

Generally you can “right click” on a file and click on
“properties” to see the file size.

B. Learn to reduce the file size of your graphics for screen,
ebook or website use. There are several sites available. Just Google “reduce image size”.

C. Use a file transfer service. Find it at
https://wetransfer.com Upload your file to that
service and tell it the email address you want the file delivered
to. The recipient will get an email telling them they have a file
to download. This is a much more accepted procedure and will make
you look like you know what you're doing.

Use the above tips to make sure you don't look foolish or cause
trouble for people when you send emails.

Implementing a “Points” System for your Database

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Tom Antion

Many businesses and marketers have a hard time connecting with their database of prospects and customers. Low email open rates and low attendance to teleclasses and webinars have online business people scratching their heads as to how to increase involvement with their list.

A ‘points' system could be the answer you're looking for. Whether it's simply opening up an email and clicking on a link, or being re-directed to a page during a live webinar, a points system can reward customer behavior with an ever-growing bounty of points that the customer can redeem for free services.

Maybe 1000 points could be redeemed for a photoshopped website banner or an ebook cover. Maybe 5000 points could be redeemed for a video editing job or 30 minute consultation. The only way the customer can collect points is for a specific action taken via a webpage or social media conversion.

Using a program such as ContestBurner, posting a tweet or Facebook comment, uploading a video to Youtube or publishing an article about your business can reward the visitor with points that they can redeem for services. Everything the visitor does to earn the points can help promote your business. To have access to the information, the visitor would have to open an email or attend a live webinar, both increasing your brand awareness to your list.

What other ideas can you think of that would increase participation in your online activities?

Website Copy: Writing Killer ‘About Me’ Pages

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Tom Antion

Do you know how popular the “About Me” page is?

Often, it is the second most visited page of a website, next to the Home page itself. That's because it's the heart and soul of the site — the one place where visitors judge how competent the information is over the hype of the Home page copy. More and more, site visitors need to know who is offering their advice and their services to them long before they waste time clicking on the rest of the pages. People are afraid of dealing with online business people without trying to learn as much as they can before-hand.

But if your About Me page is weak, boring, short or hides behind a persona, you can create a negative impression in the visitor before you've had time to try and sell your services. Here's a list of tips that will ensure an exciting page:

– Stop writing in ‘third person.' Unless you're a major company, writing in third person can distance you from your reader. There are plenty of solo entrepreneurs using language such as “We want to help you” & “Our expertise is heads above the rest.” If you are a single entity, use the word “I”, and speak in first person to make a more personal connection. While you may want to make yourself seem larger than you really are, most website visitors can see right through this.

– Tell a personal story. No one cares how you became the expert in your field if the visitor can't relate it to what they're going through. Make sure you connect with your reader on their level instead of looking as if you live in an ivory tower.

– Put in testimonials. This is a far more effective place to put in testimonials than a dedicated “testimonials' page that no one will click on. What's better than other people talking about how much they love you while you're talking about yourself?

– Use a video. There's no better way to introduce yourself to your prospect than with a online video. They get to see the real you and a video will show nuances and personality that's nearly impossible to write about.

– Speak in your own voice. Write like you're talking to a prospective client face-to-face, rather than like you're reading from a brochure. The web is more and more a place where you need to be yourself.

– Get an updated and professional picture of yourself. Invest in a nice portrait. Avoid low resolution images from the 1980's and never use stock photos of other people.

The About Me page may be the one place on your website that builds enough trust and ‘good vibes' to make the sale. This page is your personal handshake, like the one you would use in real life situations, that makes or breaks the website. Don't blow it or gloss it over.

Discover how the pros use website copy to change people's minds…

Online Vocational Schools

Posted on November 2, 2012 by Tom Antion

http://www.imtcva.org

The Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia is an Internet marketing school designed to teach you everything you would need to know about selling your products online. No only can you sell your products and services, you can also get hired by companies looking for the same thing. Check out http://www.imtcva.org for more information.

Optimizing Website Images for Search Engines

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Tom Antion

Another great place to embed keywords that your visitors don't see but Google can, are in the image files of your website.

What files? For starters, the ones you directly upload from your digital camera, buy online or create from Photoshop. Every image has a file name. Most often, they are a registry number such as: 1220090034.jpg or some other identifier like that. After you save the image to your computer, and just before you upload the image to your website, right click on the image file and click on “rename.” You'll have the opportunity to overwrite the long identifier number and rename the file with a keyword. Choose something relevant to your business such as publicspeaking2.jpg (if your business is teaching public speaking). Do thorough keyword research ahead of time to create a list of keywords to choose from and do this to every image on your website.

If you are using WordPress for your site, you have another opportunity to add even more keywords to an image. In your Media Library, select the image and click on “edit.” In the edit section, you can change the “title” to a keyword or entire keyword phrase such as “presentation skills.” Then save your edits. For the most part, your visitor will never see these keywords, but the search engines can. That's because the search engines scan the source code for its information and these new image file names can be seen there.

Want to see what the search engines see? While viewing any webpage on the Internet, hold your mouse cursor in the middle of the page and right click. Then scroll down and select “View Source.” A window will open up that shows the ‘inside workings' of your website: the design elements, code and programming that creates the page. You do not have to know what all that code means. Besides programmers, most people don't. But the keywords that you have now embedded in the image files are there, able to be detected by Google. It's one more place to take advantage of SEO, without blatant keyword stuffing in your website copy, which can hurt you.

Additional keyword hiding places revealed…

What is a Joint Venture?

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Tom Antion

Joint Venture Partner:

Another business owner that you start a business relationship with. This person helps promote your products and services through email marketing, and/or website advertising and seminars in return for money or similar and equitable promotion to your database.

A Joint Venture can include any product, consulting, training or seminar that is complimentary to the database list of another business person. When that business person promotes your business, service or product, they will receive paid commissions on any sales you make through their promotions. The sales are tracked and recorded through affiliate tracking software as provided by KickStartCart.com or some others.

An example of a joint venture might be as follows: Mr. Smith has a product that he wishes to sell, but has no idea how to go about doing this online, as he has no potential client base. However, another Internet marketer, Mr. Jones, already has an existing client base with an interest in the type of product Mr. Smith is selling. By forming a joint venture with Mr. Jones, Mr. Smith can enjoy a number of benefits, including driving traffic to his own website, and generating product sales and orders. Mr. Jones would also benefit, as by endorsing Mr. Smith's product he would earn a commission on each sale, thus increasing his own income.

A joint venture can be used not only as a tool for increasing sales but also a valuable tool simply to increase traffic to your own website. Developing a sizeable client base isn't always easy, but joint ventures have provided valuable opportunities to make this far simpler. With the right joint venture partners you could see a huge increase in sales and/or traffic depending on your aims. Your joint venture could be with one partner or a number of partners – no matter how many parties are involved in the joint venture, the combination of tools and resources means that everyone involved can enjoy the benefits.

Learn to make more money with joint ventures.

Why Get an Online Education?

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Tom Antion

http://www.imtcva.org

Find out why an online education is best for you. Learn how you can discover the hottest and most in demand jobs available today. At the Internet Marketing Training Center of Virginia, you can get a dedicated certificate in as little as six months and be on your way to a great job. Visit the site to download your free career guide.

Certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia

Website Updating: Checking For Broken Links

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Tom Antion

Building a website can be exciting and daunting at the same time. In our zest to make the coolest website possible, we can easily forget to update our website by checking for broken parts.

How can a website have broken parts? Don't forget that a website has a fluid motion: navigation that takes the visitor to the other pages of the site, links embedded in anchor text and links to resources on other websites. If a search engine such as Google sees that your website has broken links, it can cost you valuable ranking in the search results. It also can quickly confuse or irritate your visitor and make them leave.

A broken link is simply a clickable link on your website that no longer goes anywhere, (page not found) or goes someplace else than it originally intended. You have to keep a constant vigil as to where your links are going to make sure that the original site has not been banned, been taken down or changed to some other site or service. The Internet is constantly changing so it's important to check for broken links often. Sometimes, when updating to new versions of WordPress, the linking code can be compromised, causing a broken link. Sometimes code just gets messed up for no reason at all. The only way to stay on top of this and not have it affect your search results is to spend time every couple of months going through your site and clicking on the links to make sure they are going to where they are supposed to.

All of this is an easy fix, even though checking on every link can be time consuming. It's worth it in the long run to make sure your website is professional looking as possible, and that you are not losing money or sign-ups with broken links to important resources.

Learn more about the latest website updates.

Making Money With Webinars

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Tom Antion

Over the last few years, making money with webinar training has skyrocketed for business people all over the Internet. And for good reason: it's relatively easy to do if you have 1) something to teach 2) something to sell and 3) a database of interested prospects to advertise to.

No matter what kind of business you're in, you can be looked upon as the ‘go-to' expert in your field and hold a webinar workshop for people to learn new skills, the latest techniques, the hottest trends or anything that can make their life and career easier. Webinars are so popular because an audience can learn visually, with the aid of slideshows and professional presentations, very similar to a live presentation on stage or at a boardroom. You can show your audience charts and graphs, play music, show animations, chat with them live and even show them things on the Internet such as webpages, files and stores.

The most effective way to make money on a webinar is to pitch a product or service at the end of a high-content presentation where your audience learned a ton of new information. Then, popular services such as consultations, training systems, audio / video files and software can be offered to help implement the lessons that they just learned into their businesses of life.

How do you get a large audience to attend? Social media invites, Facebook and Google ads, newsletter announcements, banner ads and joint promotions are just a few of the ways to fill your webinar with information-hungry people. Webinar software and services such as GoToWebinar are fairly easy to learn, but it does take practice to make a slick presentation. Other things that are critical to webinar success are: creating good slides, pitching the right way at the right time, attracting quality attendees and juggling chatting, visiting websites and staying on script all while live on the line.

Where can you learn all of these techniques in one convenient place?