As a business owner, you know that it is important to stay in touch with your customers on a regular basis. E-mail marketing is an inexpensive and powerful way to stay in contact with your clients and build your business.
With all of the different marketing concepts that have become available throughout the Internet, e-mail marketing is often overlooked or simply dismissed. Many people also believe that generating money with e-mail marketing just does not work.
This is simply not true! Ask any one of the many real people who have successfully used e-mail marketing techniques to grow their business and generate profit. E-mail marketing is a great tool when used in conjunction with an overall marketing plan. Plus, it works for any industry and for any size business.
Let’s look at a few examples of successful e-mail marketing strategy campaigns:
Full Email Article
Monday, February 18, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Shopping Cart Web Site - Cart Software Company
Your site, if it offers products will need a shopping cart or secure order form. Companies like Pay Pal, and others can help you. A good way to go is to have your web hosting company design one, or get a cart author to do it for you. We chose to have a cart designed for us. We used a cart designer. Check out Cool Cart and Cyber Cart. What these companies do, and very reasonable I might add, is they have options for multiple merchants. Meaning you could get a cart set up for 1 or 10 products for 1 site, for like $200, one time. You can also have a cart system from them where you pay a little more, and the cart can be set up to handle all of your orders from your different web sites.
The products from one site is totally separate from your other sites. Do not affiliate with Yahoo product carts or anything like that. Do not give any one a cut on your action. Forget it. Spend the money, get your own cart. The cart company will place it in your site. They make the buttons (“continue shopping”, “place order” etc.).
Business Start Up Legal Forms
If you don’t want to spend on a cart right away, you could create your own order form. Go to htmlgoodies.com, and search for form commands. A form can be created very easily. You can make check boxes, or drop down boxes. A customer can use the form to fax credit card orders to you, or to print and mail checks to you. This is also a very cheap way to test the marker for a new product. If you get a few orders this way, you can then look into shopping carts. If it doesn’t sell well, then get rid of it, or leave it as is. It’s not costing you anything anyway. Your page is already up.
SEO Consulting
The products from one site is totally separate from your other sites. Do not affiliate with Yahoo product carts or anything like that. Do not give any one a cut on your action. Forget it. Spend the money, get your own cart. The cart company will place it in your site. They make the buttons (“continue shopping”, “place order” etc.).
Business Start Up Legal Forms
If you don’t want to spend on a cart right away, you could create your own order form. Go to htmlgoodies.com, and search for form commands. A form can be created very easily. You can make check boxes, or drop down boxes. A customer can use the form to fax credit card orders to you, or to print and mail checks to you. This is also a very cheap way to test the marker for a new product. If you get a few orders this way, you can then look into shopping carts. If it doesn’t sell well, then get rid of it, or leave it as is. It’s not costing you anything anyway. Your page is already up.
SEO Consulting
Site Credit Card Company - Web Merchants
Credit Cards and Merchant Services
There are a lot of different ways to go, but I’ll start by telling you how we do it. We are a corporation. I started out as a registered Sole Proprietor. Your bank may very well offer merchant services. You need some type of Merchant account, if you accept credit card payments. The way we do it is we have an actual credit card machine in our office, we also accept credit cards through the internet.
We, like many others, prefer not to charge the credit card over the internet as the order is placed. What we do is, our carts gather the information securely, and is then stored in a secure order bin that we access. We then print the order from that secure location, and charge the card physically here. Why do we do that? One, we get walk in business for other things we do, so we need a physical machine here. Two, if the order doesn’t look right, we can correct it or call the customer before we charge the card. What if they ordered 10 hats by mistake, when they only wanted 1. Sure, they should notice the cart before they put their information in, and you can always correct it later, but we still like to see the order first. Lastly, what if you get a phone order? If a company or a person calls you to buy something, it’s nice to have a machine right there. You can buy a machine or lease it. Buying it is much better. You can get a good one for $300 or so, compared to leasing it for 5 years or something. Hypercom makes a good terminal, and it’s what I use.
On-line services like Pay Pal, will provide real time credit card order processing, that can be incorporated into your shopping cart if you prefer. They will take the order, charge the card, design a shopping cart, and give you secure access to your orders. It is fine to do it that way, but like I said, we do it the other way.
Web Merchant Services
There are a lot of different ways to go, but I’ll start by telling you how we do it. We are a corporation. I started out as a registered Sole Proprietor. Your bank may very well offer merchant services. You need some type of Merchant account, if you accept credit card payments. The way we do it is we have an actual credit card machine in our office, we also accept credit cards through the internet.
We, like many others, prefer not to charge the credit card over the internet as the order is placed. What we do is, our carts gather the information securely, and is then stored in a secure order bin that we access. We then print the order from that secure location, and charge the card physically here. Why do we do that? One, we get walk in business for other things we do, so we need a physical machine here. Two, if the order doesn’t look right, we can correct it or call the customer before we charge the card. What if they ordered 10 hats by mistake, when they only wanted 1. Sure, they should notice the cart before they put their information in, and you can always correct it later, but we still like to see the order first. Lastly, what if you get a phone order? If a company or a person calls you to buy something, it’s nice to have a machine right there. You can buy a machine or lease it. Buying it is much better. You can get a good one for $300 or so, compared to leasing it for 5 years or something. Hypercom makes a good terminal, and it’s what I use.
On-line services like Pay Pal, will provide real time credit card order processing, that can be incorporated into your shopping cart if you prefer. They will take the order, charge the card, design a shopping cart, and give you secure access to your orders. It is fine to do it that way, but like I said, we do it the other way.
Web Merchant Services
Web Host Company - Website Hosting
Web Hosting Company
A Web or Internet host company serves as sort of your “phone bank”. What I mean by that is, picture a room full of operators, thousands of them, answering the phone for you. Well, that is in effect what a web hosting service does, only they use a computer to act as the operators. The Internet is based on dedicated lines that communicate information. A hundred different people could not access your site at the same time if you did not have a host with a hundred lines.
You need to have your domain registered at Network Solutions or another registration company. After you do that, as I said earlier, it is basically being safe kept there for you. Once you choose your web host company, you will then move your web site to them. Your web site DOES NOT have to be completed to do this. Until you upload the site to the “Internet” for viewing, no one will see it. Don’t wait for your perfect looking site. It will evolve, it will change. Even if you do upload it to the net from your web host, chances are no one will see it anyway until we register with the various search engines.
Web hosting companies are everywhere. The good news is almost all will do a good service for you. Hosting a site is very easy to them, and the reliability is pretty solid across the board. You do need to consider a few things though. I prefer to have my web host to be local. I like the idea of knowing where they are, maybe you would too. Check the yellow pages first, not the internet. If you type in “Web Hosting” on the internet, you will get clobbered with thousands of web sites, pop ups, companies in Europe, forget it. This one time, don’t use the internet.
Either check the yellow pages, or even better, you must know someone who has a web site? Ask them:
“Who hosts your site?
These next few questions are very important (for the company you are considering):
What is the set up fee?
Not much, if any. $100 tops
What is the monthly hosting fee?
This is really what your paying going forward. $50 is average, but if it’s within $10either way, don’t let that be the decision breaker.
Do you have a host rate plan for more than one site, or a set fee for unlimited sites?
This is nice to know, and for me it is a must. This is not negotiable. They must have
something like this in place. You have to look ahead. Switching host companies is a
little bit of a pain later on. Most people have one host company forever.
How many email addresses do I get?
Most will give 2 for free, some more. You shouldn’t need more than two for one web
site. When you get another site, you’ll get a few more. Each email name is chosen by
you. If your site is “Toms pools” Your emails could be “your name“@ toms
Pools.com and “sales” or “info” @toms pools.com
Do you have a dedicated department for technical assistance?
You will have questions. If you need help, is there a department there for that? More
than one person hopefully, and not just an answering machine. If it’s a “one man shop” or he gives you his cell number? Forget it.
How long have you been in business?
Sure, standard question, but important. 5 years is a good number. Remember, this
business as we now know it has only been around for 10 years or so.
Once your set up with your web host, they will help you install an FTP program or something similar. This program is basically a file manager that allows for easy uploading and downloading of your files and images. “Smart FTP” is a great program, and it is what I use. You can download a free version on the internet. Just run a search “download Smart FTP”
Remember the cable modem? When you are uploading through your FTP program, you will be glad you have it. It zips it right over in ½ a second. Phone modems are fine for your notepad files (web text), they are not heavy files. Images and pictures will take longer using a phone modem though
Build you referrals, talk to affiliates. Touch up your site now and then. During your research phase, you can still put your site up, in fact you should. Don’t worry that there is not much there yet, you will build from there. If you feel your site is naked looking, go to news groups, financial news, sport news and ask if you can link their news stories on you site. It is just temporary, and it will give your site some color. You can paste the script right from them into the notepad of your site, then upload away on your FTP program.
Web Host
run a web business - The #1 Internet site for web start ups.
A Web or Internet host company serves as sort of your “phone bank”. What I mean by that is, picture a room full of operators, thousands of them, answering the phone for you. Well, that is in effect what a web hosting service does, only they use a computer to act as the operators. The Internet is based on dedicated lines that communicate information. A hundred different people could not access your site at the same time if you did not have a host with a hundred lines.
You need to have your domain registered at Network Solutions or another registration company. After you do that, as I said earlier, it is basically being safe kept there for you. Once you choose your web host company, you will then move your web site to them. Your web site DOES NOT have to be completed to do this. Until you upload the site to the “Internet” for viewing, no one will see it. Don’t wait for your perfect looking site. It will evolve, it will change. Even if you do upload it to the net from your web host, chances are no one will see it anyway until we register with the various search engines.
Web hosting companies are everywhere. The good news is almost all will do a good service for you. Hosting a site is very easy to them, and the reliability is pretty solid across the board. You do need to consider a few things though. I prefer to have my web host to be local. I like the idea of knowing where they are, maybe you would too. Check the yellow pages first, not the internet. If you type in “Web Hosting” on the internet, you will get clobbered with thousands of web sites, pop ups, companies in Europe, forget it. This one time, don’t use the internet.
Either check the yellow pages, or even better, you must know someone who has a web site? Ask them:
“Who hosts your site?
These next few questions are very important (for the company you are considering):
What is the set up fee?
Not much, if any. $100 tops
What is the monthly hosting fee?
This is really what your paying going forward. $50 is average, but if it’s within $10either way, don’t let that be the decision breaker.
Do you have a host rate plan for more than one site, or a set fee for unlimited sites?
This is nice to know, and for me it is a must. This is not negotiable. They must have
something like this in place. You have to look ahead. Switching host companies is a
little bit of a pain later on. Most people have one host company forever.
How many email addresses do I get?
Most will give 2 for free, some more. You shouldn’t need more than two for one web
site. When you get another site, you’ll get a few more. Each email name is chosen by
you. If your site is “Toms pools” Your emails could be “your name“@ toms
Pools.com and “sales” or “info” @toms pools.com
Do you have a dedicated department for technical assistance?
You will have questions. If you need help, is there a department there for that? More
than one person hopefully, and not just an answering machine. If it’s a “one man shop” or he gives you his cell number? Forget it.
How long have you been in business?
Sure, standard question, but important. 5 years is a good number. Remember, this
business as we now know it has only been around for 10 years or so.
Once your set up with your web host, they will help you install an FTP program or something similar. This program is basically a file manager that allows for easy uploading and downloading of your files and images. “Smart FTP” is a great program, and it is what I use. You can download a free version on the internet. Just run a search “download Smart FTP”
Remember the cable modem? When you are uploading through your FTP program, you will be glad you have it. It zips it right over in ½ a second. Phone modems are fine for your notepad files (web text), they are not heavy files. Images and pictures will take longer using a phone modem though
Build you referrals, talk to affiliates. Touch up your site now and then. During your research phase, you can still put your site up, in fact you should. Don’t worry that there is not much there yet, you will build from there. If you feel your site is naked looking, go to news groups, financial news, sport news and ask if you can link their news stories on you site. It is just temporary, and it will give your site some color. You can paste the script right from them into the notepad of your site, then upload away on your FTP program.
Web Host
run a web business - The #1 Internet site for web start ups.
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