Tag: online newsletter

How often do you read something digitally? If you’re reading this, then you’ve done it at least once today. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this isn’t your first time.

Don’t expect to increase landing page conversion rates without following these four simple rules

Posting a landing page with a confusing or inadequate order mechanism is like opening a new Wal-Mart, but forgetting to install cash registers. What’s the point?

In direct mail advertising, one of the two most important elements of the package is the order form (the other being the outer envelope).

This checklist is especially important, because if you get everything else right and blow the order mechanism, your sales letter landing page will almost certainly fail.

Phrasing, lettering and style best practices for attracting seniors to your website

“I hope I die before I get old.” –The Who, My Generation

One of the most famously quoted lines in rock history, written by Pete Townshend, apparently has nothing to do with age, but rather, is speaking out on becoming rich and apathetic. So if one of the greatest rock bands in history has nothing against the elderly, neither should your website.

Email copywriting is only a small ingredient in the grand scheme of email marketing

Why do you send email promotions? Why do you send email newsletters? The answer is that you want the user to complete a task. Maybe the task is for them to click on an ad, or to click through to an article on your website. At the end of the day, you hope that your email newsletter will elicit some type of transaction.

Four tips for getting more people to read your email and buy your product

Back in the day, you’d get an elaborate direct mail piece that may have lasted three to five pages. With the luck of a talented copywriter, you might even get people to read the entire letter, but they might at least skip to the end after reading through.

This method doesn’t work in email because people don’t like to scroll. They want to know right away, what you’re offering so that they can determine if they want to read the rest of your copy.

Offer multiple and convenient ordering options

Posting a landing page with a confusing or inadequate order mechanism will almost certainly fail. Your customers should be able to fill in the fields of an online screen and check boxes to select their preferences. Simple and brief; ask only for the information you need to process the order.

Landing Page Optimization Tip #1 – In general, it is unwise to offer more than two options or two price packages. You can test this, but too many choices tend to overwhelm users and diminish response. A good online order page should include such alternate order options such as a toll-free number for phone orders.

Texting Becoming Bigger Part of Business Communications

Melcrum had an excellent blog on Monday about text messaging as a communications channel. Their focus is on internal communications—so Mike Berry, their head of content, worries about “hard-to-reach and non-wired employees, perhaps on production lines, factories or distribution centres”—but there are lessons to be learned for external messaging as well.

Berry leads us to a survey on texting conducted by the Vitiello Communications Group and a report they issued in their October 2010 online newsletter called Dialog.

Your Pass to Building Profitable Subscription Websites

When you log onto MLP Profits, you immediately see substance—and potential. (MLP stands for Master Limited Partnerships.) The substance lies in the weekly articles in the left column and features such as How They Rate and Alerts and Getting Started in the middle. A welcome video from the co-editor and various links and bios dominate the third.

The potential comes from the numerous invitations to sign up for this newsletter and the many others in this “family.” But you never feel uncomfortable; rather, you feel good about the information and—if you’re in this business—inquisitive about the money-making possibilities.

Aim to impress and engage your email newsletter subscribers every time you arrive in their inbox

How to increase revenue per thousand emails sent
The Mequoda Email Performance Report measures your split tests to help maximize email revenue and profit

The priority code landing page lets you know where sales leads originate in order to control advertising expenses.

The priority code landing page is a hybrid dedicated landing page that’s part of the online order flow. A publisher might drive users to a priority code landing page where they can enter a proprietary combination of letters or numbers (alphanumeric code) in order to qualify for a special discount or express service.

Does your membership website measure up in all these important areas?

A membership website is not a shortcut to Internet riches. In fact, unless you consider all of these elements and execute each with precision, your membership website or online newsletter will probably fail.

Any one of these Internet marketing mistakes can doom your online sales

There are plenty of ways to fail at Internet marketing, but six of the most common mistakes are these:

1. Wrong product—If no one is looking for the product you sell, your Internet marketing strategy is fatally flawed and you won’t make many sales.

If you’re promoting your online newsletter or membership website in person at a trade show or seminar, you might want to hand out CD-ROMs to potential members.

CD-ROMs are not expensive to duplicate. And they can enable a prospective membership website subscriber to experience a portion of your site’s content without having to logon to the Internet and visit the actual website.

It’s a little gimmicky, but it’s likely to grab their attention, especially if you add value by providing some other free information files on the CD-ROM.

Internet publishing profitability boils down to four elements

If you serve a small niche market, then generating website revenue may require creating additional information products, doing joint ventures with other entrepreneurs, and joining the affiliate programs of other Internet publishing businesses that offer quality products and services.

Launching a co-registration campaign is not difficult. The publisher supplies their co-registration partner with his company’s logotype (60 x 120 pixels) and about 10-20 words of concisely written web advertising copy.

Agora Financial Network: Understanding the Seven Strategies that Drive the World’s Most Successful Special-Interest Website Network

The Mequoda Group estimates that the Agora Financial Network will post top-line revenues for 2006 of $55 million, with $41 million being generated online. This makes each of its 500,000 domestic subscribers worth about $82.

Clayton Makepeace is a legend in the direct response advertising business. He has the respect of both his clients and peers—the hallmark of a real professional.

He has a huge portfolio of winning direct mail packages, commands top dollar for his work and in April of 2006 conducted a $5,000-per-seat, how-to seminar for aspiring copywriters. I can’t imagine anyone not putting his name on their top-10 list.

At MakepeaceTotalPackage.com Mr. Makepeace displays his considerable skill with one objective: to get other copywriters to sign up for his free email newsletter.

The Publishers of the Wine Enthusiast Magazine Have Done it Right. They Have Created a Series of Websites that Complement Each Other and Effectively Lead Visitors to Make a Buying Decision.

WineEnthusiast.com is an online catalog that offers a comprehensive selection of all things wine related. The only thing the site doesn’t offer is wine. But that’s just fine, as the publishers of this site depend on a motivated visitor who is enthusiastic enough about wine to want the very best in wine accessories.

Media experts tell us that the average consumer is bombarded with hundreds of advertising impressions every day. That’s a lot of competition for our attention. As a result, most of us have developed an anti-advertising defense. We tune out when we sense someone is trying to sell us something. Even when we’re actively searching online for a product or service to solve a problem or soothe a pain, we are cautious and skeptical.

Our Campaign to Stamp Out Bad Website Design Turns Ugly with a Visit to ManagingYourHR.com, Which In No Way Resembles What This Reviewer Imagines it Should=

For me, the two most important of the 14 Mequoda System Website Design and Usability Guidelines address strategic intent and aesthetics.

The fundamental mistake made by many entrepreneurs is the classic chicken-and-egg scenario in which the inventor first creates a new product and then seeks a market for it.

Experienced product developers do the opposite. They anticipate the changes in society. They assess the evolving problems, requirements and desires of consumers, and look for opportunities that have not yet been addressed by the market. Then they forecast demand and create new products that fill the gap.

America’s Test Kitchen Website, a Network Hub Positioned to Extend Visitors from the Television to the Web to the Printed Word, Demonstrates Extraordinary Website Architecture in Satisfying Users’ Need for Added Value and Publisher’s Desire for Additional Revenue

TheBookStandard.com describes itself as “the all-inclusive online destination for publishers, retailers, librarians, agents, authors, distributors, studio executives, screenwriters, publicists, book groups and more!” It’s an accurate description.

VNU Business Media, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Computing, and other trade titles, launched TheBookStandard.com, its first solely online publication, in January of 2005.

eDiets Doesn’t Feed You Enough Reasons to Join Their Program. I had mixed feelings when Don Nicholas asked me to take a look at eDiets.com as my first website review for the Mequoda Library.
The reason is my weight. You know those height/weight charts you see in the doctor’s office? Well, according to that chart, I am 7-feet, 8-inches!

There are a Few Common Factors that Contribute to Improving Landing Page Readability—Notably, the Choice of Typeface

If You Get Everything Else Right and Blow the Order Mechanism, your Sales Letter Landing Page will Almost Certainly Fail.

What hands-on, take-charge-of-your-own-health Baby Boomers really want is reliable information about alternatives to the traditional model of practicing medicine. One tireless medical detective is betting they will pay a premium to access his subscription website for answers.

America is getting older. The immediate post World War II generation—Baby Boomers—are approaching retirement age. Smart companies are creating and marketing products to this affluent group. Her subscription website helps show them how.

Sam Knoll knows his way around the business world. He has had a number of successful careers including in manufacturing, mail order, and retail. His latest enterprise is an online newsletter devoted to health and dietary supplements.

Reg Hardy brings a background as a print journalist, editor and publisher to his paid subscription online newsletter and uses his Palm Pilot to create volumes of content for four websites. In this exclusive Mequoda interview, he reveals how he gets it all done and reminds us of the importance of customer service.

Interview with Chris Parkin, co-publisher of an online newsletter for innkeepers and others in the hospitality industry. He began as an apprentice in the Savoy in London, and 36 years later has his own country inn—plus a subscription website directed to helping others run a successful bed and breakfast.

Membership websites benefit by adding social networking

Your discussion forum could be the most valued feature of your membership site. But if many members only lurk around, reading the posts but reluctant to make their own contributions, you could have a problem. Here are some ideas for stimulating more activity.

In this scenario, inspired by Frank Kern, you send up a trial balloon and let your potential subscribers tell you what they want, if anything, from your proposed information product.

Before the Internet and the world wide web provided us with easy access to a plethora of information resources without charge, print newsletters were the dominant medium for publishing specialized subject matter.

The key to success as an online information marketer is feeding a starving crowd.

A starving crowd is any group of people who share an enthusiasm for a topic and are passionate enough about it to spend their money to learn more. They’re “starving” for more information.

This creates an opportunity for you, the information provider.

Jim Laube publishes one of the most successful special niche membership websites on the Internet at RestaurantOwner.com. There are a lot of reasons for his success, including that he is an authority on his topic and a very savvy marketer.

Making your online newsletter easier to read is a matter of both writing style and formatting technique. Here are some helpful hints.

Like immutable laws of nature, some rules are ironclad. Follow these directives and you can expect to succeed. Ignore even one of them and your business and personal achievements will be significantly diminished.