Using 10 words or less, write the best reason customers should do business with you.

The clarity of your offer is critical to generating more sales leads and conversions. It is the main reason why people should buy from you, and improving this one element can increase your sales without any additional expense. Considering the importance of this marketing statement, it is surprising that so many companies have not given it serious thought, and only provide the same weak claims.

Examples of Weak Selling Propositions:

· We have the best technology in the industry

· Use our service and you will save more money

· We provide the highest quality product available

People have repeatedly heard or read these types of generic marketing claims that don’t speak to their real needs. When potential customers see your offer, you only have a brief amount of time to get their attention and make a good first impression.

Examples of Good Selling Propositions:

· Our technology increases your output 22% more than the leading brand

· Save $32 dollars on every service purchased as a premium member

· The quality of xyz product is backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee

Be Specific

Trying to keep selling propositions too brief and generic can result in using vague terms that replace a more valuable description of your offer. General industry descriptions may seem clear to you, but do they convey the most important benefits to your potential customers?

When describing your product or service, answer the question of why it’s important to your customer. Use clear and specific words, numbers, or a percentage when applicable. Replace vague modifiers with quantitative facts to make the value proposition more credible. The more specific your offer is in terms of benefits to the customer, the better.

Key Point: Provide at least one benefit that differentiates you from the competition.

Optimizing your unique selling proposition is one critical part of the overall process of maximizing your online marketing and advertising campaigns. It can provide a competitive advantage keeping you focused on your core marketing message in the constant flow of business changes and customer needs.

Clear Value Conversions

Is your sales message in sync with your target audience? Does your marketing and advertising say what your potential customers want to hear? If not, then you could be missing a prime opportunity to increase click through rates, sales conversions, and revenue. Be sure to optimize your value proposition by focusing the content on your website landing pages to satisfy the specific needs of visitors, while differentiating your offer from the competitors, and using a clear call to action for them to get started.

Wriiten by Rick Smith: Online Advertising Service, Auto Dealer Websites, Online SEO.

Starting in 2010, that’s what you will be able to do Imagine your company’s emails coming .your brand here. Or your emails coming from you.yourlastname! Will Nike launch branded communities on a .nike domain? Can your company create an exciting microsite on .your product name? Whether you are a consumer products reseller, technology company or healthcare organization you need to understand how this upcoming domain registration change will impact your company’s online technology marketing efforts.

Starting sometime in 2010, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)  will allow customized top-level domain names.  ICANN is instituting the change to allow more visibility and intuitiveness in domain name choices.  After all, what does a “.com” mean to most people?  A .nike would be much more intuitive. ICANN is reviewing its application process and will soon announce when in 2010 the customized top-level domains will be available.  However, it’s not going to be as easy as buying a .com or .org domain name.  The ICANN application process will require the following:

• A business plan including a marketing plan listing how you will maintain and promote the domain over a 5-year period
• Policy overview
• Comprehensive documentation of community support (if the domain is for a community site)
• A competent and stable technology provider for registry services and hosting

Custom domains are not going to be a minor or cheap undertaking for most companies.  It will require a large budget and commitment to the project.  In order to apply to ICANN, you company is going to have first decide if a top-level custom domain is worth the effort.  Then you will have to get started immediately on the requirements listed above.

The amount of backlinks

The volume of backlinks to a page is one of the key properties the search engines consider when deciding where to position the page in the SERPS (Search Engine Page Results).

The source of the backlinks

The pages from which backlinks originate pass ‘authority’ and traffic to the page to which the backlinks point. So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive fairer consideration from the search engines. Pages from sources such as educational (.edu) or government (.gov) sites naturally posess more trust and authority.

Google Page Rank

Backlinks from web pages with high page rank (a ‘reward’ given by Google to any page that it considers over a period to have attracted, sustained and continued to accumulate relevant backlinks) pass some of their page rank via the backlink to the target page.

The ‘anchor text’

Just like a label, the backlink anchor text influences the search engines classification of the backlink. Relevance is the guiding principle for every search engine algorithms and it follows if the information on the page is about ‘drying chillis” then it is from a search engine’s point of view, more valuable for the backlink’s anchor text to this page to contain the word ‘chilli’ as opposed to a related term such as ‘drying spices’.

Common mistakes

The majority people screw up their backlinks building activities because they fixate on quantity as opposed to quality of backlinks. Having a substantial amount of backlinks to your page doesn’t automatically mean the search engines will view your page as relevant.

How to manufacture backlinks

So let me tell you my fail safe process for getting backlinks that will make the search engines take notice of you and bring the right type and relevant visitors to your web site.

1. When you start you should focus on choosing the correct keywords.
2. Your objective should be to manufacture a keyword cloud.
3. I most often start with a single primary keyword or key phrase which has substantial visitor traffic.
4. To find out the amount of visitor traffic is being generated by searches for my top level keyword I use the Google keyword analyzer tool.
5. I analyse words and search phrases associated with my ‘top’ level phrase and create my ‘cloud’.
6. I then create content in the form of articles and videos containing backlinks with the right ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and disperse these to the various directories.
7. My guiding principle is to author content that will attract traffic and compel them to follow the backlinks to my money pages as well as send backlinks.

So what does this mean for Bloggers that promote product?

So, what this means is you have to state in your reviews or endorsing type of promotion, that you will be compensated should someone by from your link. Its pretty simple, the readers that come to your site will now be informed by you that you will be compensated if they buy from your link. In other words, you may want to attach a little note saying, “This is my affiliate link, if you buy this product after clicking on this link I will be compensated” You get the idea. If you have a lawyer already, he or she will most likely be able to give you ideas on what is best to do here. Please know that I am not giving any type of legal advice here and have am in no way claiming to have a legal background. “Yes, this is a mini disclaimer.”

This new ruling goes into effect on Dec. 1^st, 2009. You are not in a bad situation here and should consider that this could help you by eliminating the bad guys out there that are not honest. What will be bad is if you don’t follow the rules.

David Goldman, staff writer for CNN Money notes in his article released on October 6^th, that the existing rules carry a fine as high as $11,000 if product endorsers and reviewers don’t comply.

Frank Kern put together an article that truely gives a deeper look at this. do a google search for his name and you will find tons of his posts. In his post he reveals some pretty in depth content from pal that is a lawyer.

So, do yourself a favor and go to the Federal Trade Commission site and read the entire article.

Personally, I think it is great for bloggers that are truthful and want to give great content to help consumers make informed decision on a purchase. I truely am sold on the fact that this will help the good guy out there and weed out the deceptive marketers and give our customers a warm fuzzy felling again about buying online.

Stay well!

The Bloggomaniac

Surprisingly, the average Twitter user contributes very little. The median number of lifetime tweets per user is just one little tweet. How lonely it must be! According to the Harvard study, “This translates into over half of Twitter users tweeting less than once every 74 days”.

Some more interesting facts:

1. Men make up 45% of all Twitter users; women are 55%.

2. Both men and women tweet the same amount.

3. Men and women follow the same number of twitterers.

4. Men have 15% more followers then women, even though there are less men on Twitter.

5. 90% of all tweets come from just 10% of the Twitter users.

6. 25% of Twitter users have never made a single tweet.

7. Men are twice as likely to follow another man, whereas women are 25% as likely to follow a man versus a woman.

Think about it… Do you find yourself favoring one over the other? Or is it just the fact that in our blogging and online marketing world, the men seem to be the dominate “gurus”…

== Joanne ==

Source: Harvard Business School

However, their marketing tactics leaves it suspect. Just like Easy Google Profit that offers a 7 day trial for $1.97, and then dings your credit card for $72.71, RecessionProof360.com does the exact same thing. Only this time, your so called “trial period” lasts a whopping 24 hours, after which you are nailed for a further $87.71.

This is taken from their Terms page:

This is from recessionproof360’s Terms and Conditions.

5. Orders/Billing. In consideration for the Online Products you receive from Turner XP1 inc., you agree to pay the Fees (as defined below). You shall have the choice to pay the Fees via the credit card or debit card that you provide as part of your Application or update as a later date (”Active Credit Card”). Your card will be charged a processing fee of $1.97 to start your free trial;

Offer Details: Clicking the buy button will activate your trial membership with Turner XP1 inc. and provide instructions to the supplied email address! To activate your trial membership to Turner XP1 inc. your card will be charged $1.97 and then you can immediately take advantage of the exciting savings Turner XP1 inc. has to offer! After your 24 hour trial period it’s just $87.11 for each 30 days for Turner XP1 Inc.

Why I am even more skeptic?

1. They are using the same homepage graphics that the Easy Google Profit scam used initially.
2. The main promoter of the program, a blog called bizopscamreview, posts on June 2nd that he is making $343,000 (!!) PER month on the program, yet the domain for recessionproof360 wasnt registered until June 10th, and the bizopscamreview domain even wasnt registered until June 25th.
3. The watermark on this guys video shows a domain name registered more than a month after his so-called $343,000 screen shot.

This above amounts to nothing more than extremely deceptive advertising.

Another note? If you fail to make your RecessionProof360 payment monthly, and on time, you are charged 1.5% interest…LOL.. Gotta love it

My advice, tread carefully….

== Joanne ==

Contextual linking is just another way to make your site a bit more Google-friendly. If you are using Wordpress 2.5 or higher, help is as close as a plugin. The best plugin that I have found to make the job of contextual linking a lot less daunting is Ajay D’Souza’s Contextual Related Posts Wordpress plugin.

This great little plugin allows you to choose the number of related posts that you want to display and whether you want to do it automatically. The article does not even need to be tagged for the plugin to do its magic. In addition, the Contextual Related Posts plugin also allows you to determine what pages or posts from specific categories that you may want to exclude.

If you have no related posts to display, you will be given the choice of displaying “No Related Posts” or having nothing appear at all. Your grouping of related posts will automatically be added to the bottom of each post, without having to add any coding to your template whatsoever.

Head over to http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/contextual-related-posts/ and download the plugin. Extract the zip files and upload it to the plugins folder. Activate and configure it to your liking by following the assistance given on the plugin download page.

Related post contextual linking simply doesn’t get much easier than this.

Fake Blog aka Flog

A few high profile scams lately using fake testimonials have drawn the ire of many consumer defenders, including some state Attorney Generals. While the practice of using “paid” reviews has long been a sales technique on and offline, the use of fake testimonials is downright disgusting. Once the FTC’s rules are in effect, you will have to be prepared to disclose the contact info of those providing testimonials.

Many advertisers will give a blogger a free sample and ask them to write a review on the product, they may pay the blogger, or they may offer some other benefit. Soon These benefits will have to be clearly disclosed. The rules would include a review of a book that you recently read and, as an Amazon affiliate; you have posted a link so that readers would be able to purchase the book. Perhaps you are a parent that received a free product, like a coupon to try organic baby food. You blog about how good you think the product is. On your blog, you will have to be very clear that you received a free sample. Everyone will be open to scrutiny, not just those that use their blogs to generate an income.

Offline companies are responsible for the actions of their sales reps and that responsibility will extend to online sales. It appears that the FTC will include bloggers, even those that blog for personal reasons, as a part of advertiser’s responsibility. This means that we may see many changes in affiliate programs as companies and advertising networks struggle to comply.

Let me be clear, the bloggers and/or sites may not be in the US at all. Rightly or not, the US has been long known to claim that if a US resident is able to access a site, that site and the owner of that site are subject to US law. The upshot may be that it may be easier for non-US based advertisers to require the use of geographic blocking technology be used so that US residents are not able to access sites that offer “paid” reviews of their products. This technology is available because the ranges of IPs that are used in the US are blocked.

My guess is that whether or not the FTC is the proper body to regulate is a topic that will generate many heated discussions. The FTC is currently working on rules that will change how bloggers blog about any products and they expect that the rules will be in place by the early fall of 2009.

Flippa

To sum it up, as both a regular seller and buyer on Sitepoint, this move has been disasterous. It’s obvious from talk, posts, and tweets around the net that I am not alone in thinking this way either. Most have been irked from the moment the announcement was made, and the reaction from Sitepoint owners and management has done absolutely NOTHING to make most of us regulars feel any better about the move. The reason for the move was supposedly because their marketplace had “outgrown its tab”. I find this highly unlikely. That “tab” was generating tens of thousands of dollars monthly for them!

It seems ego and complete unprofessionalism are more Sitepoint’s style these days. When confronted with hundreds of comments and complaints about not only the impending move, but the total lack of warning about that move occured, SitePoint co-founder, Mark Harbottles’ response is nothing short of appalling:

Our buyers aren’t going anywhere. They are savvy business people. They don’t care about the design of the site or the fact the logo sucks (the current logo is a placeholder BTW), they simply get on with the business of buying, and we’ve made it a lot easier for them to do that on flippa.com.

Meanwhile while you all whine and complain about the fees, the design, etc. the smart sellers are listing their sites on flippa.com and they are attracting the majority of the buyer interest. They will also get the added benefit of the PR we’re about to roll out.

So, it’s totally up to you! If you want to come across to flippa and sell your site in the professional marketplace we’re creating for serious buyers, we welcome you with open arms. If not, please do go to digitalpoint. List your site for free and see if the old adage of “you get what you pay for” applies.

A Summary of The Flippa Flop:

• The name is ridiculous and unprofessional. It leads one to believe that it’s all about “flipping for profit”, and not targeting the revenue potential of owning a piece of web property long term.
• The new fee structure is nothing less than greedy. Their previous plan lined their pockets more than adequately for the service provided. There was no need to add a 5% success fee, when NO additional services are offered nor provided, to justify that fee.

  I asked @sitepointmatt about this fee. Here is the conversation:

  sitepointmatt @Lukevdp GreatDomains, AfterNIC, Sedo.com, etc. all take a _MUCH_ higher success fee…

  iBlogaholic @sitepointmatt Sedo etc act as intermediaries – you dont. Whats the justification for list fee + success fee except for greed?

  sitepointmatt @iBlogaholic Sedo charges 10% for successful sales through its marketplace. If they get involved in escrow, it’s an additional percentage.

  iBlogaholic @sitepointmatt Granted yes, but, it’s also free to list at Sedo – Flippa wont be.

  sitepointmatt @iBlogaholic We could go free, but then we’d be like eBay’s Internet Businesses category with 30K junk listings per month

  @sitepointmatt $19 is reasonable. 5% for no extras is not. it’s extortion (metaphorically). I KNOW I’m not the only one saying this either

• The lack of warning about the move was inconsiderate! An announcement by Andrew on June 11th, stated it would be “very soon”, but no date was ever provided. A little post was made on their developement blog June 22nd, giving only hours notice. The result was hundreds of unaware people thinking their browser had been hijacked!
• The Flippa site itself is horrible to navigate! Why would anyone want to pay for a featured listing? It appears on the homepage only, and once someone clicks on “Buy A Website”, it is never seen again. Featured and Ending Soon listings also fall well below the fold of their homepage, most likely missed by 90% of their traffic.

  The ‘at a glance’ capabilities are so difficult to use, I don’t even want to get into them. It would be a whole post in itself. You truly have to go and play over there to see what I am referring to. Consider your normal search habits and you will see what I mean. Here is one small sample though of what I am referring to…This is the Latest Auctions tab on their homepage. As you can see, dates are all mixed in, and the default is listing end time…



Flippa's Latest Auctions

• The new “rules” do absolutely nothing to encourage sellers to build a solid legitimate business. They are geared towards Flippa greed only.

  For example:
  – Private offers outside the system “expressly forbidden”, including listing in more than 1 place

  – “Users may not link to certain categories of external site. These include: Pages which could be classified as self-promotion, such as pages affiliated with the user” – this means no more list building, a huge downfall for many

  And my favorite:

  Flippa’s Role
  Flippa does not enter into monetary transactions or business dealings between marketplace buyers and sellers. Flippa is a neutral facilitator only, and will not be responsible for the failure of either party to follow through with their obligations, agreed or otherwise. The content of a marketplace listing is the responsibility of the respective sellers including compliance with all laws and not engaging in misleading and/or deceptive conduct and therefore Flippa is not liable for any violations of rights of a third party, in particular intellectual property rights, trade mark rights, and copyright resulting from a marketplace listing. Flippa reserves the right to remove any listing, bid, offer or comment from the system at its own discretion.

  In other words, apart from verifying a telephone number, that can be obtained by anyone with a $20 buck pre-paid phone, they do nothing to justify the increased pricing and success fee.

• Mark states that “savvy business people…don’t care about the design of the site or the fact the logo sucks”, but on a quick scan of comments around the net, I found no less than 5 places where he states he is “very much looking forward to replacing the ugly placeholder logo with something more permanent.” Come on Mark – who gives a WHOOT what the logo looks like!! Your logo doesn’t provide functionality – the old Sitepoint Marketplace did…
• A quick glance at Flippa at the time of this posting reveals absolutely no sites listed in the Start Up section so far today. Normally there would have been close to a dozen by this time. The Established section has 1 added, and there is nothing new in the Premium section.

What Sitepoint/Flippa seems to forget is that without sellers listing products and services, they will be out of business. Trust lost in the way they have handled this move, and the utter inability to listen to what their customers are telling them, is going to be the downfall of a once fabulous place to do business.

In a nutshell, the Twitpocalypse is similar to the Y2K bug. There is a unique identifier that is associated to each tweet sent out over Twitter. It is assigned an incremental number value. That indentifier has now exceeded 2,147,483,647, officially at 2009-06-12 23:52:04 GMT.

What’s so special about this big number? Simply put, it’s the limit of a signed interger; the way data is stored in a computer’s memory. Not surprisingly, it’s a pretty complicated value, with that one sentence I didn’t even manage to explain properly. Those of you wanting the real scoop of what an “integer” is, feel free to visit Wikipedia – Integer.

Cool Random Tidbit: Twitter broadcasts 90 tweets per second!

The end result is that some of your favorite third-party Twitter services are not designed to handle this and the sequence will suddenly turn into negative numbers. At this point, they are very likely to malfunction or crash.

Twitter Applications And Services Affected By The Twitpocalypse:

Twitterrific.com – it’’s iPhone app, Twitterrific 2.0.1, is affected and offline, but their Mac version is fine.
Status: developers have released Twitterrific 2.0.2 for iPhone App Store approval.

TweetDeck.com – not all users affected by the inability to delete already read tweets.
Status: update patch already release for download

Tweetie iPhone App – reported issues with its Trend features.
Status: investigating

Beak Mac App – this popular new Twitter app for Mac users is also affected.
Status: developer indicates all will be well by this evening

DestroyTwitter.com – not affecting everyone, but reports that it’s attempting to create Tweets with negative IDs at times.
Status: investigating

The good news is, Twitter itself is just fine, and we can continue on with our regular tweeting as usual!!

== Joanne ==
P.S If your twitter service or app is affected and not reported above, please let us know so we can update this post.