Exchange links

A good site description will make potential buyers feel comfortable in bidding on your web site. The more you can tell a potential buyer, the more potential buyers you will have. And, of course, a larger number of bidders will naturally raise the selling price.

Bidders are willing to pay more for a well-documented site, because they are more comfortable that they will be able to avoid hidden surprises after the purchase.

Here are a few tips to help you create a winning auction for your web site:

State Your Revenue

The simple majority of website buyers are looking for revenue-generating properties.

State your revenue numbers up-front and you won’t have to deal with a steady stream of questions regarding those numbers during the sale.

List all of the sites revenue streams, including AdSense, YPN, Commission Junction, and Link Sales.

If a revenue stream (such as a link sale) is scheduled to end at some point, document that point.

For sites costing over $500, be prepared to show proof of revenue for the previous twelve months. For sites costing over $5,000, be prepared to show proof of revenue over the previous three years.

List Your Obligations

If you have traded or sold links, those links should be maintained. Document this for the prospective buyer.

Set a BIN Price

Set a BIN (Buy It Now) price, and make it a reasonable one.

Many buyers will ignore auctions without a BIN price.

A BIN price which is too high will discourage potential buyers because they will believe that you are not negotiating in the proper range.

A BIN price which is too low can cost you considerable lost revenue. If your site sells for BIN on day one, you set your BIN price too low!

Set an Auction End Date

All seasoned web site buyers will ignore an auction with no set end date.

In addition, a set end date raises last-minute interest — which is where prices really go up.

Set a Starting Price

Setting a starting price informs buyers of the low-end of the price range for the web site and makes them much more comfortable in placing a bid.

Remember, you know more about your web site than any potential buyer.

Document Outbound Co-Op Weight

Many buyers are looking to buy web sites with significant weight in the Digital Point Co-Op.

If your site has 500 or more pages, put the Digital Point Co-Op on it so that you can tell potential buyers how much Co-Op weight they will receive.

Document Inbound Co-Op Weight

If you are pointing Digital Point Co-Op Weight at the website, this will boost the Page Rank, traffic, and revenue of the web site.

Document how much Co-Op weight you are pointing to the site and how long you are willing to maintain that arrangement after a sale.

Document Links from Other Sites in Your Private Network

If you have links from your other web sites pointing to the site you are selling, document those links. Tell prospective buyers how long you will maintain those links after a sale.

Mention Your PageRank

Mention your PageRank, to save everyone from having to look it up. The easier you make it for a prospective buyer to place a bid, the more bidders you will have and the higher the final closing price will be.

Mention Your Page Count

Document your page count in each of the major search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN.

Document the Registration Date

Document the date your domain was registered.

Document the Technical Requirements

If the site is built upon a CMS, document the CMS.

If the web site was built using a script, mention that script.

If the site can only run under Unix, document that. Do the same if the site can only run under Microsoft Windows.

Document the Bandwidth Costs

For download, graphics, and proxy sites, document the sites bandwidth usage and what you are paying for that bandwidth.

Concerns over the cost of bandwidth discourage many bidders from those types of web sites.

Place AdSense on the Web Site

Even if the web site has never used AdSense before, place AdSense code on the site to show to bidders that the site has not been banned from AdSense.

Document Rights Which You Will Retain

If you intend to retain the right to use the content of the web site elsewhere, document that. Do the same if you intend to resell the web site content again.

On the other hand, if you are selling the web site and exclusive rights to the content — mention that too. That can significantly raise the price of the web site.

Conclusion

These tips should help you to receive maximum value for your web site.

These tips will also help to prevent a stream of warning messages from potential buyers from derailing your auction thread.

In addition these tips are designed to prevent misunderstandings and the resulting loss to your reputation which will arise if a buyer becomes uphappy after a sale.

Best wishes on the successful sale of your web site!

A radio or TV talk show, can be a great publicity move. It takes some effort, but with a little research, and a lot of perseverance, you could be on your way to promoting your product, service or even yourself on a radio or TV talk show.

Step 1 - Groundwork

You need to think about your pitch to the radio or TV talk show. What do you have to say that’s new, interesting, unique and different? What’s your angle or story idea? Do you have a unique product? Are you an expert in a field?

Once you given some thought to about your pitch, prepare a one page backgrounder on yourself. This fact sheet is very important if you are just venturing into the talk show arena. Include a professional head shot picture and highlight all of your previous speaking engagements, published articles, books etc. You need to build credibility since you are an unknown entity to the radio or TV talk show producer.

Now that your backgrounder or fact sheet is complete, research the various talk shows where you would like to appear. No sense wasting your time or the producer’s time if your topic idea is not appropriate for the genre of the talk show. When doing your research, find out what types of topics the show is looking for. Often, the talk show’s website or the radio station website are good starting places.

Check out how the radio or TV talk show likes to receive topic ideas. Do they prefer phone calls, emails or is there an application form available? Try to determine whom you contact and what the best method for contact is.

Step 2- Practice

Often overlooked, it is always a good idea to practice your pitch and show your fact sheet to some respected colleagues before you try it out on the TV or radio producers. Ask your practice partner to throw out some tough and challenging questions so that you get practice rebutting any negative responses. The practice pitch will give you a chance to make any changes, streamline your narrative and to think about how you will answer the producer’s questions.

Step 3 - Make Contact

Now that you’ve figured out what you want to say and where you want to say it, it’s time to make contact.

There are a few methods of making contact. The first is to fax or email your backgrounder and then follow up with the radio or TV talk show producer a couple of days later. The second idea is to call the radio or TV talk show producer and sell them on your idea right away. A lively phone conversation will demonstrate that you are able to be engaging and interesting. If you get voice mail, persevere! Mention your idea on the voice mail, send your backgrounder and then follow up with a phone call again. A third, albeit more passive way to get on radio and TV talk shows is to register with one of the many online databanks or publications, which are directories of people available for radio and TV interviews. These sites and publications are designed for media professionals who need to quickly and easily find guests for various topics.

When you are pitching your ideas, strongly capitalize on your experience. If you have limited to no talk show experience, the producer may be scared off by that. Play up any and all experience you have. For instance, focusing on the broad range of presentations you’ve made to various audiences will show that you’re adept at speaking. Even better is to have some references lined up who will provide testimonial to the producer that you were an informative, intelligent and engaging speaker.

Another idea is to link your idea with an event or issue in the news, if possible. If you can inject a ‘little’ controversy into a topic (say you represent the opposing side of an issue) you have a better chance of being signed on.

Here’s a quick and easy tip, remember to boost the producers ego by mentioning something from a previous show topic or guest, producers love to know that people are watching.

Be excited! You have to believe in your idea, topic or whatever it is you have to say. The more enthused you are - the more likely you will get the radio and TV talk show producers to buy into inviting you to make an appearance on their show.

Step 4 - You’re Booked!

O.k. you’ve gotten the call you were waiting for. You are booked on your favorite TV or radio talk show! It helps the producers and talk show host if you supply a list of relevant questions. Pick 10 or so questions that you would like to be asked. There is no guarantee that they will use them, but producers and hosts are notoriously busy people and anything you can do to make their job a little easier will be appreciated.

Once you’ve finished your radio or TV talk show appearance, be sure to update you backgrounder. Surprisingly, the more talk shows you do, the more you build your credibility as an ‘expert’. As soon as you have a few appearances under your belt, you will likely find it easier to make that initial contact with the TV or radio talk show producer.

It cannot be stressed enough when you’re looking for ways to get on TV or radio talk shows, perseverance and determination are the keys. You cannot give up. It will be difficult to make contact and eventually get booked, but the reward in free publicity is MORE than worth it! Good luck!

Tear Down the Borders

Remove borders on your AdSense ads. Web visitors eyes wander around the screen; borders stop them from wandering.

Removing borders from your AdSense ads can lead to a significant boost in CTR.

Use Matching Fonts

Match the font of your site content to the fonts of your AdSense ads.

Use Matching Colors

Match the colors of your AdSense ads to the colors of your site content. Make the ads look like content and more visitors will look at them.

One exception to the color matching rule is sites that are designed to appeal to scammers and spammers. Those sites sometimes perform better with highly contrasting colors.

Use Blue Links

Another exception to the color matching rule is to set the links in your AdSense ads to blue. Blue links tend to have a higher CTR than other link colors, because people have become used to clicking blue links.

Use Large Ads

Larger ads outperform smaller ads. Wider ads also outperform more narrow ads.

The Large Rectangle (336×280) is the best performing ad unit.

Use Lots of Ads

Google allows you to use three ad units and one link unit on each page.

Use them all. The more ads you have, the higher your Page CTR will be.

Place Ads Above the Fold

“The fold” is industry jargon for “the part of the page that the user sees without scrolling down”. This will vary depending upon the resolution of the users screen and the size of their browser window.

Place as many ads as possible above the fold. Ads placed below the fold are seldom seen and seldom clicked.

Place Ads on the Left

Web users are accustomed to seeing menus on the left side of the web page. Move your menu to the right and place your AdSense ads on the left.

Use the Heat Map

Use the Google AdSense Heat Map to determine where to place ads. The darker spots are areas where users spend more time looking. Place your ads in the darker areas.

Integrate Ads with Content

Visitors will be reading your content. Keeps your ads as close to your content as possible to ensure that the visitors also look at your ads.

Use Custom Channels

Use AdSense’s Custom Channels to test the performance of different ad sizes, placements, colors and fonts.

Don’t use Low-Paying Competing Ads

Don’t clutter your page with competing ads that don’t pay. If a user clicks on an ad that pays you $.01, they are not clicking on an ad that pays you $.30.

Use URL Channels

Use AdSense URL Channels to determine which pages are making you the highest CTR, CPM, and earnings. Focus your efforts on building pages like those.

Use an AdSense Reporting Package

Google only supports 200 channels. If you have more than 200 pages, use AdSense reporting software to give you more insight into your AdSense earnings.

Don’t Compete for Other Peoples High Paying Keywords

If a keyword is on a list of high-paying keywords, that means that thousands of spammers are already competing for that keyword.

Don’t be a follower. There is no money in being one of the crowd.

Do Compete for Your Own High Paying Keywords

Monitor your AdSense URL channels to determine which keywords are making you the most money. Compete for those keywords. Build more pages optimized for similar keywords. Get inbound links for those keywords. Spend your time and efforrt on the keywords which are making you money.

Increase Traffic

In the long run, the best way to increase your AdSense revenue is to increase traffic to your web site.

Over the past five years, the number of people who want to start a business has increased.This is due in large part to the number of people who are being laid off from their job in the corporate world.Deciding to start a business is the best way to avoid being laid off.Stay at home parents are also very interested in what it takes to start a business that you can operate from home.

The first step in order to start a business from home would be to research all of the opportunities available to people that want to start a business.The internet is the best place to perform research on how to start a business.By typing "start a business" into your favorite search engine you will get enough results on how to start a business to keep you busy for weeks.Websites such as doculmarketing.com offer the reader excellent information on how to start a business.This site offers links to other sites which offer knowledge on how to start a business from home.By visiting all of these sites you will soon learn which ways to start a business are most successful, and which ways to start a business are unsuccessful.

After your research is complete, the next step to start a business is narrowing down your options.Pick two businesses that really intrigue you, and complete some in-depth research on how to start a business in this industry.Find all of the information that you can on how to start a business in this field.By digging deeper on how to start a business, you may find pros and cons on how to start a business in your selected industry.

After learning how to start a business in your desired industry, you can get started.There are many websites that offer tips on how to start a business, and what to avoid when you start a business from home.There are many problems that people run into when they decide to start a business.If you are aware of the problems people face when they decide to start a business, you will be able to avoid them.

To start a business you need to do research.It is not easy to start a business, but if you decide to start a business you never have to worry about losing your job.Never try to start a business without doing research first.If you want independence, start a business from home today!

There are ways and means of making considerable savings on airfares. Here are a few thoughts:

•If you are flexible about travel dates often you can make a saving of over $100 or more. You just need to visit sites like Travelocity http://www.travelocity.com which give flexible travel date airfares.

•If you are net savvy keep a watch on fare watcher on My Yahoo and you will learn how to monitor prices on a daily basis and how to snag a low price. In this case however, you will need to know your travel dates well in advance and be open to many options.

•Benefit by signing up for being intimated by e-mail of discounted fares for unsold flights and special promos being offered by airlines.

•If you have time and patience offer to be bumped off a full or over booked flight. If you are a good negotiator you can get huge discounts, vouchers, as well as a free flight. You need to know the intricacies of air travel.

•The largest savings are made when you book early at least three weeks to one month before the scheduled departure. Fares can range from $444 for booking 5 days before to $ 192 if booked 26 days before a flight.

•Find out which day of the week flights go empty and plan to travel then. Studies show that most people like traveling on week ends and Monday but the mid- week is comparatively rush free. Look up the fares and you may find that the difference can be as much as $ 100 or more.

•If you destination has more than one airport check what it costs to fly to either. Often the saving can be as much as $ 200 when you choose a less crowded airport and funnily enough the distance from the airport to your destination may be the same from the alternative airport. Check on sites like Orbitz, Kayak, or Travelocity to access list of alternative airports and a fare comparison.

•Choose round trip or multi-destination fares. This is a considerable saving of over US$ 500 and more. Most airlines have multi-city specials so if your work or holiday travel encompasses more than one destination consider such options.

Be travel smart and surf the web to make a comparison chart. Check out travel sites, agencies, as well as the airlines themselves. Whether you are traveling within the country or abroad there are wonderful deals to be availed. Read as many travel articles and tips given by travel gurus as you can and soon you will be master of “cheap travel.”

Ego Searches
What is an ego search? Find out where your name or company is mentioned, view forum posts or online articles that mention your name or company.

Trademarks
The best offense is a good defense. By monitoring newsgroups or search engines for trademarked terms, you often head off a future conflict. As a trademark owner, it is your responsibility to actively protect your mark. Otherwise, you could lose your trademark rights. Monitoring tools send immediate notification should any suspected trademark infringements occur.

Search Position
Statistics show that more than 85% of Internet users find web sites with the help of the search engines. Therefore, a website’s search engine position is crucial to its success. Prudent webmasters regularly check their search engine position. Monitoring fluctuations and re-indexing of major search engines affects keyword terms and phrases. Monitoring of positions will alert webmasters to any shifts before sales decline.

Competitor Watch
Monitoring newsgroups for mentions of competitors may allow you opportunities to chime in and offer an alternative solution in a helpful, friendly way. Knowing exactly what your online competitors are doing provides a competitive edge that can be used to your advantage.

Website Downtime
Accessibility is the most critical measure of your website’s performance. If customers can’t access your site, they can’t shop; and if they can’t shop, they can’t buy. More important, your business could gain a bad reputation among your customers, which translates into negative word of mouth and even worse, if you’re highly visible, negative press. So regardless of what else you monitor, you want to monitor websites for downtime.

Take a look at the various tools available and how they can be used to keep you current on relevant issues.

WebAlerts - Recieve email updates of the latest relevant Google results based on your choice of query or topic. Alerts can be sent based on information in Google News, Google Searches or both.
http://www.google.com/webalerts

PubSub - PubSub matches your requests against new information as it appears real time. Searches can be categorized to search, blog entries, SEC/EDGAR Filings, press releases, news group posts or flight delays.
http://www.pubsub.com

Ego Alerts - Google news search turned into an RSS feed.
http://www.justinpfister.com/gnewsfeed.html

Ebay Alerts - Ebay Alerts monitoring will create an RSS feed to monitor Ebay auctions for specific keywords or phrases. When a new item that contains those keywords is added to Ebay you will receive notification via your RSS feed!
http://www.freebiddingtools.com

Amazon Alerts - Generate a URL which you can use to automatically search Amazon.com with your favorite RSS news reader. It will automatically update you when new items meet your search criteria. I personally use it to look for new books on topics I’m interested in, and I have the defaults set to do the same, but you can adjust it to search any of Amazon’s stores. You can also adjust the search order and what kind of items you wish to search.
http://www.oxus.net/amazon

Internet Seer - InternetSeer remotely monitors your website to insure that your site is available 24/7. If InternetSeer is unable to reach your site, we will send you an immediate e-mail alert that your site is unreachable.
http://www.internetseer.com

NetNewsTracker - NetNews Tracker is a clipping service for Usenet newsgroups. Newstracker searches newsgroups twice daily for any specified words or phrases and delivers alerts via e-mail. Newstracker can be used to monitor newsgroups for names, company names, products, URLs, or any other topic of interest.
http://www.netnewstracker.com

Other Suggested Resources -
Monitoring Tools - Monitoring Tools is a directory of online monitoring tools and applications
http://www.monitoring-tools.net

Monitoring Software - Monitoring Software is a collection of downloadable monitoring software solutions.
http://www.monitoring-software.net

What does it take to become a successful Affiliate Marketer? What are the ingredients of an affiliate marketing success story? Is there a shortcut to Affiliate Marketing glory? All these questions play around in the minds of affiliate marketers who want to make it big in this business.
Although affiliate marketing is touted as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it is not as easy as it sounds. The wise affiliate marketer plans every action and executes it the best way he can. He should also maximize the potential to earn by utilizing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing business. We have consulted some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the business and below are the top three necessary tools for a successful affiliate marketing business.

Important Tool #1: Your Own Website

The most important and indispensable tool in Affiliate Marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. Thus, you must first build a user-friendly website, which will appeal to your prospects and encourage them to click on the links to the products and service you are promoting and make a purchase. Therefore, you must first concentrate your efforts in building a website that will cater to what your prospects need.

The most important thing you should consider is that almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. Above all else, make your website full of original, relevant and useful content. People will love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, in the internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it can also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more trustworthy endorser of the product or service you promote. Establishing a good reputation is a good step in building up a loyal consumer base.

Important Tool #2: Incentives

Most of this information comes straight from the Affiliate Marketer pros. Careful reading to the end virtually guarantees that you’ll know what they know.

Competition is extremely tight in the internet world. You must always be one-step ahead of your rivals to ensure that you capture a significant share of your target market. Therefore, you must use every possible means to encourage people not only to visit your site but also to click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting. Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to gather prospects. Offer a newsletter or an e-zine. Better yet, offer incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your newsletters. You can present free softwares, access to exclusive services and other freebies that will be helpful to your prospects.

Important Tool #3: Link Popularity

The importance of driving highly targeted traffic to your website cannot be emphasized enough. The all-important web traffic is at the top of the list of the most important entities in the internet world. Attracting people to your site should be the first step you should carry out. Do everything to achieve a high search engine ranking. Link Popularity is one of the factors that search engines use to determine search engine rankings. Therefore, to enhance your link popularity, you must launch an aggressive reciprocal link campaign.

One of the best ways to do this – at no cost at all – is by submitting articles, with your website’s link at the resource box, to e-zines and free article sites. You will not only gain exposure, you will also have the opportunity to advertise for free, just include a link back to your site. The more sites you submit your articles to, the better your link popularity is. Make your articles original, relevant and useful so that more websites will pick it up and post it.

These are but three of the many tools that an affiliate marketer can use to maximize earning potential. The possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and determination. You can always explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become a high rolling affiliate marketer.

Those who only know one or two facts about Affiliate Marketer can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you’re learning here.
http://www.internet-marketing-ez.com/

First off, if you don’t want to write articles yourself, no problem. The web is a great resource for finding articles written by respected authors who are willing to give you their article for free (as long as you include their signature at the bottom of the article). It is very easy to take these articles, publish them on your website, and then make a RSS out of them. But enough of the rambling, the top six reasons for having an RSS feed on your site:

6. Reputation - A good RSS feed will increase your reputation as a honest and willing to help business, not just a business that wants to take your money, and nothing else. A feed with quality articles shows that you want to help the reader learn more about a topic instead of just give the reader a sales pitch. Making your business prospects knowledgeable in the area that you are focused will hopefully show how your product/service is superior in it’s design.

5. Advertising - A RSS feed can be used to advertise your website for no money at all. If you submit it to RSS directories, the name of your website will appear at the top of your feed every time! Not only does it appear, it also functions as a link (but we’ll get into that later).

4. Increase in traffic - Designing your RSS feed to only include part of your article forces the reader to click on a link back to your site. One could only assume that if they enjoyed the article your wrote, or published, then they would enjoy browsing the site where it came from.

3. Links back to your site - Not many people think of RSS feeds as a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) potential, but they include dozens of links in every feed! Publishing your feed on RSS directories puts in place the opportunity to create links with the specific keywords that you desire, and hopefully we all know how the more links you have with keywords in them, the higher ranked you will be on search engine searches.

2. Exposure - Are you a new website? Has anyone ever heard of you before? Well RSS feeds definitely get your name out there on the market. Quality articles associated with your name boosts your exposure and reputation as a quality website who is worth doing business with.

1. Targeted traffic - People look at your feed as a representation of your site. If you have a feed that relates to dog bones, obviously if they are interested in buying dog bones, your site will come in mind.

by Titus Hoskins © Copyright 2024

Capturing leads is perhaps one of the most vital elements of
your web site. Done properly it can increase sales, boost
traffic and transform any site (including yours) into one of
those fantastic Internet success stories we all read about.
Yet, many webmasters are unaware or ignore these crucial lead
capture elements when designing their web sites.

‘Lead capture’ simply means capturing or obtaining the contact
information (name and e-mail) of your site’s visitors. You
obtain permission to contact these subscribers at a later
date to inform them about your site’s updates, special events,
or any other promotional material dealing with your site.
Many marketers refer to this as building your ‘opt-in list’,
visitors opt-in or give you permission to contact them.

Any webmaster can build a loyal list of contacts, customers,
or interested parties that will return again and again to
your web site. So here are Five Lead Capture Tools along
with a detailed explanation on how each one works:

1. Opt-in List - Perhaps, the most important
lead capture tool that you can have on your site. It’s simply
an e-mail form that will capture the name and e-mail of your
visitors. Most savvy marketers and webmasters put an e-mail
capture form on each page of their site because visitors to
your site don’t always enter through the front door
i.e. your home page.

Offer some great incentive, a free ebook or resource to
entice visitors to ‘opt-in’ to your contact list. A pop-up
with a list of free gifts works well, so does offering a
sample of your ezine or newsletter.

Most web hosts will supply you with the code for these
e-mail capture forms - just place this code on all your
pages. Some webmasters use a more informal ‘guest book’
method but it’s basically the same thing, you capture
e-mails and get permission to inform people of special
events/updates relating to your site or product.
See example of an e-mail capture page with pop-up here:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/opt-in.htm

2. Landing Pages. This tool is very similar
to the technique described above, and is mainly used in
affiliate marketing. Basically, a landing page is just that,
a potential customer/visitor first lands on your landing
page and is then directed to the affiliate page or product
you’re promoting.

Why do this?

To capture your visitor’s contact information for further
follow-up. It is commonly known that it takes up to six or
seven e-mails before a potential customer buys a certain
product. By using a landing page, you build a contact list
for people interested in your product or promotion.
You now have a targeted list of interested leads to
promote your products to.

These landing pages can be very simple, a few sentences and
an e-mail capture form. Some marketers make these landing
pages more elaborate - offering special bonuses and offers
if the potential buyer buys your featured product. See an
example of this here:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/article-announcer.htm

3. Articles - Recently, there have been an
explosion of article writing on the web. One of the reasons,
besides bringing in targeted traffic to your site, articles
are great lead capture tools. People read your article,
and they become more interested in your site or product.
They are more willing to give you their contact information
- especially if you have written a well informed helpful
article.

Simply adding your site’s url or your subscribe e-mail address
in the author’s resource box at the end of your article will
help you capture leads. (See below for example) Then place
these articles in online article directories like
ezinearticles.com or goarticles.com - other webmasters will
pick up your articles and place them in their ezine and on
their sites. One of the most effective and underrated lead
capture tools you can use. Just try it!

4. Desktop Software - This is a software product
that sits directly on the desktop of computer users. It can
put you in direct contact with potential customers or
interested parties. Many of these products are given away
free to your site’s visitors who download your product
and install it on their desktops…free desktop calendars,
wallpapers, personal planners, etc.

How does it capture leads?

These products usually have LIVE links to your web site,
company product and your contact e-mail information. Interested
customers will click thru to your sites or contact you directly
about your product or company. The best of these desktop
programs are very viral, friends and colleagues will pass
them around - resulting in more lead captures for your
business or web site.

Here’s a Free Desktop Calendar example:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/Free_Desktop_Calendar.htm

5. RSS - Perhaps the least understood and
the hardest to understand lead capture tool. RSS stands for
‘Really Simple Syndication’ and was first popularized by blogs
because blogs use XML and RSS feeds to syndicate their content.
Don’t come to us, we will deliver. People can view a site’s
contents through RSS readers or an RSS equipped browser
without actually going to that site!

How does it capture leads?

Many ways! Perhaps, the most simple, webmasters place an
orange RSS icon on their web pages - anyone visiting can
add this RSS feed to their RSS readers or aggregators. Then
whenever this site is updated, the contents is syndicated or
sent to those who have subscribed to the feeds. Another
popular way, webmasters place ‘add to myYahoo’ or ‘add to MyMSN’
buttons on their sites and visitors can subscribe to these
RSS feeds. This method of subscribing is also known as
‘Live Bookmarks’.

Popular RSS site feeds are picked up by other webmasters
and placed on their sites. Spreading these popular feeds
all over the Internet, and drawing back interested visitors
who are looking for more information. In essence, capturing
leads for your site.

With Microsoft announcing the next version of Windows
will have RSS, be prepared for a big explosion in RSS list
building techniques. Under the ‘Creative Commons License’,
there is even greater potential for lead capture programs and
methods. Just make sure your site, already has a blog and
RSS feed(s) - you can put up a simple blog and RSS feed
within minutes for free with blogger.com which is owned
by Google. If you need help just try this simple guide:
http://www.bizwaremagic.com/RSS/Lead_Capture_Page.htm

Hope you were paying attention as you read this article on
‘lead capture tools’ and noticed how the author has placed
‘five examples’ in this article. These are actually lead capture
tools the author (that would be me!) is using to build his contact
list. Not to mention, this article in itself is a great ‘lead
capture tool’ - it works for me and it can work for you too.
Just place it on your site along with your e-mail capture form.

And watch those leads come in.

Writers can truly benefit from submitting their articles to online Article Directories for publishers to view (for free).

Below is my list of the top ten reasons you should write articles and allow them to be published for free online.

1.The first, most obvious benefit to you as a writer, is the opportunity to get your work published.

2.The second reason is FREE PUBLICITY! - Most article Directories online allow you to include a “resource box” at the end of your article. see http://www.1starticles.com/newstuff.html for an index of lists and web sites where you can submit your articles for free publication.

3.The resource box is your opportunity to SELL yourself, your web site, your products, your services etc… Below is an example of a resource box:

Resource Box - ? 1starticles Directories (2005)
got links to your articles! got contents with you website
http://Submission.1starticles.com
to subscribe send email to:
submission@1starticles.com

4.By writing articles for free publication on a specific topic, you can establish yourself as an expert in that field.

5.By submitting your work to article Directories and allowing web sites to publish it for free, you multiply the potential number of visitors to your site dramatically.

(For example: If you write an article and publish it on your website or submit to a paying publication (and it’s accepted) - the only people who will see you work and/or visit your web site are either the people who already visit your web site and/or the people who subscribe to the publication that prints your article.
Where as, if you write an article and more than one web site publishes it, the chances are very good that a significantly larger number of readers will read and/or come to your web site.)

6.There are literally thousands of article Directories publishers online (here is a list:http://www.1starticles.com/newstuff.html )- all looking for one thing - GREAT CONTENT. Your article(s) (if written well and about a popular subject) are definitely in demand.

7.It costs you nothing - not a dime - to submit your articles to article Directories for free online. The only thing that’s required of you is your time (and your ability to write a good article that people will want to read).
Think about it - is there any other FREE way for writers to get published, recognized and publicized online?
Just submit your articles to online article Directories.

8.By listing your work in article Directories, you have the opportunity to establish new contacts and lasting relationships with professional publishers online.
Once publishers choose your articles for publication, they usually contact you via email to let you know when your work will be published in their publication (with a link to their web site). Their notification email to you will frequently include an invitation to submit more articles to their site. (And if they do not directly invite you to contribute, they have still provided with their URL - which allows you to take the initiative to view their publication and consider possible future submissions.)

9.By getting your articles published online, you have opened the door for more traffic to your web site, new readers (possibly paying publishers and/or agents looking for good writers in a specific field), and name recognition across the web.

10.Although writing articles for free article Directories does not pay you directly, it does provide the potential for earning money via product/class/service sales on your web site.