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SITE-SELL! Issue #005
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SITE-SELL!
The World's Most USABLE E-commerce E-zine
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>A free, twice-monthly e-zine dedicated to showing you ...
> ... how to MAKE YOUR SITE SELL!
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October 4, 1999
Issue #005
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Each issue of SITE-SELL contains USABLE
content in 1 or more of these categories...
CATEGORY IN THIS ISSUE?
> SITE-SELL XPRESS --> YES
1) Our Y-No-Buy Survey
2) SITE-SELL named in Top 200 by Sussex University
> HANDS-ON SITE SELLING --> YES
Common Sense, Long-Term Traffic-Building
> SITE-SELL! SPOTLIGHT --> NOT THIS ISSUE
> BEST OF THE REST --> YES
Preview of Sales from the EDGE
> TEST YOUR SITE --> YES
Search your own keyword
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SITE-SELL XPRESS -- News
What's new in the world of sitesell.com...
--
1) Our Y-No-Buy Survey
Remember the survey that we did to find out why people don't
buy? Well, work continues! This full, interactive report
will put you straight into the brain of the
"reluctant-to-buy" visitor.
We've already made a few important changes to the site
because of it. Here's just one of them...
>> THE FIVE MINUTE TOUR
http://www.sitesell.com/fiveminutes.html
--
2) SITE-SELL Named in Top 200 by Sussex University
Linda, from our support staff, sent me this note the other
day...
"Ken,
SiteSell is among the best 200 websites, according to Sussex
University. Top 200 Guide will be published by the Digital
Media Research Centre at the University of Sussex, UK, under
the direction of Professor Alan Cawson, Professor of Digital
Media at the University of Sussex. It covers Business,
Personal Finance, Marketing, E Commerce and Small Business."
Now, we get tons of "awards" that ask us to put their logo
on our Home Page. I'm not sure how dumb they think we must
be. ;-)
But it is kind of nice to get this recognition out of the
blue, from a university "across the pond" in that lovely old
seaside town of Brighton, England. Thanks, mates. :-)
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HANDS-ON SITE SELLING
Based on our own experience, this column features original,
in-the-trenches info that you can *USE.*
--
> Common Sense, Long-Term Traffic-Building
Michael Minkoff, an MYSS! owner, sent me this note a while
back...
"Ken... I am right in the middle of reading MYSS of which I
purchased from you recently. I am on page 83 of the
traffic-building volume, learning about the search engines
and Keyword-Focused Content Pages. I ran a search on
altavista for penny stocks and see that you practice what
you preach which gives much credibility to what I already
realize is the best US$17 I have spent in quite some time."
Michael Minkoff- President
Shoreline Mortgage Corporation
http://www.shorelinemtg.com "
-----
The note made me chuckle. I mean, I have barely touched the
Search Engine program since I set it up almost two years
ago. What can I say? I got curious to see how I was doing
TODAY across ALL the engines...
Before I share this with you, let me preface this by telling
you that I simply never check the Search Engines (SEs)
any more. The MYSS! SE program is straight-forward and low
maintenance. You don't have to...
o build different pages for each engine
o constantly worry about your position on each engine
o tweak continuously to gain an edge
o try to fool the engines -- you just work with them.
Seriously, all you do is cast a net... and watch your target
come to your site. So I never do what I am about to do in
this article -- I simply never check obsessively to see
where I score for each SE. (You do check performance when
you first set up your SE program. But after that, you leave
it alone.)
-----
And one other common sense piece of advice... SEs remain
the "bargain of the millennium." They are ideal for the
entrepreneur with a niche product and a limited marketing
budget.
But... ***the best way to generate traffic depends on your
particular business, the nature of your product and your
target customer.***
This may even mean that posting to newsgroups, which I
generally view as a time-waster, could be your method of
choice!
Another example is our own SITE-SELL venture... we will
grow SITE-SELL into a substantial business, with more books,
client-side tools, and a truly revolutionary server-side
solution (all under development). In *this particular case*,
an affiliate program is our most powerful, cost-effective
way to reach our goals.
So we built what Allan Gardyne, the GURU of affiliate
programs, has called...
"... the perfect revenue sharing program"
and
"...one of the most significant events in the revenue
sharing industry this year."
He also said...
"If you look at only ONE revenue sharing program this year,
make sure it's this one."
http://www.sitesell.com/affiliateprogram.html
If *you* establish an affiliate program, your obligation is
to give your affiliates all the tools necessary to succeed.
And you don't compete with them.
We spend a good part of our time and budget giving
affiliates new traffic-building tools, like server-side Page
Builders and a neat Sweepstakes that multiplies their
traffic. But we don't compete -- we depend on our
partners-in-sales to build the traffic.
See how every business is different, and so will build
traffic differently? That said, SEs remain one of the most
important tools in your traffic-building toolbox.
So, as I was saying, I got curious to see how my very first
site, PennyGold, was doing across ALL the SEs TODAY. Two
years after building the program, how did it stand up to all
the new competition that spends nights figuring out new ways
to score on the SEs?
I chose one of the important keywords that I tried to master
way back then... "penny mining stocks". I entered this
into every major SE. I also looked for the more generic
"penny stocks." What a shocker...
-----SIDEBAR----
You can double-check the results. Just do what the vast
majority of searchers do (URLs supplied below)...
o use each SE's default settings
o enter "penny mining stocks" (without the quotes).
-----SIDEBAR----
Despite the fact that I have neglected my SE program for
almost two years, and despite the fact that there is a ton
of new competition (I was surprised to see just how many),
my first site still did quite well...
-----SIDEBAR-----
Your goal is to be on Page 1 of any search result. So that's
what I stick to below...
-----SIDEBAR-----
Here's how PennyGold scores for the major SEs...
AOL.COM Search
http://search.aol.com/
Page 1, #8 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Alta Vista
http://www.altavista.com/
Page 1, #1 and #5
Page 1, #4 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Excite
http://www.excite.com/
Page 1, #5 (plus an article about us on Page 1, #4!)
HotBot
http://www.hotbot.com/
Page 1, #1 and #2
Page 1, #3, 9, and 10 for the more generic "penny stocks"
InfoSeek
http://infoseek.go.com/
Page 1, #1 and #2 (plus a forum about us on Page 1, #3!)
Page 1, #10 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Lycos
http://www.lycos.com/
Page 1, #4 (plus an article about us on Page 1, #2!)
Page 1, #4 for the more generic "penny stocks"
MSN Web Search
http://search.msn.com/
Page 1, #1 and #2
Page 1, #5 and #7 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Northern Light
http://www.northernlight.com/
Page 1, #2 and #3 (plus article about us on Page 1, #1!)
Page 1, #3 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Netscape and Google (Netscape Search is powered by Google)
http://search.netscape.com/
http://www.google.com/
Page 1, #1 (and #1a), #5
Page 1, #3 for the more generic "penny stocks" on Netscape
Page 1, #8 for the more generic "penny stocks" on Google
Consider the cumulative power of the above kind of results.
Then multiply that by similar results for 40 other keywords.
It's kind of like throwing a net on the Net...
... and it brings back only targeted customers... without
harming or tricking the engines.
You know what? I don't do anything complicated. I don't
design for each engine. One size fits all. I don't try to
trick the engines. And the MYSS! SE program simply brings in
targeted traffic, day after day, month after month, year
after year.
I won't say that it's easy. Nothing truly worthwhile is
easy. If it was, everyone would be doing it -- so it would
soon no longer work, especially on the Net!
But as you see, the PennyGold site still works two years
later. And while it ain't easy, the MYSS! Search Engine
program *is* straight-forward and do-able. All you have to
do is...
DO IT! :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
DIRECTORIES
Directories are *not* the same as Search Engines. Actually,
the concept is totally different. So I've listed the search
results separately here, just FYI...
Yahoo and Snap (both powered by Inktomi)
http://www.yahoo.com/
http://home.snap.com/
Page 1, #6 and #13
Page 1, #1 and #2 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Open Directory Project
http://dmoz.org/
Page 1, #6 for the more generic "penny stocks"
LookSmart
http://www.looksmart.com/
Page 1, #1 and #4 (from the Directory)
Page 1, #5 for the more generic "penny stocks"
Yes, MYSS! covers how to list and do well with the
directories, too.
-----SIDEBAR-----
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BEST OF THE REST
So many e-zines... so little time. And so little USABLE
stuff. This section only contains especially important Web
sales-getting articles from other e-zines (we subscribe to
over 100 of them). Only major stuff "makes the cut."
--
Make Your Site SELL! (MYSS!) is a classic. It's not a
high-tech book that will quickly become obsolete.
The volumes on product and site-selling will be as valid in
five years as they are now. Traffic-building strategies
change faster, but the MYSS! concepts are so fundamentally
strong that I expect the information to remain valid for at
least two-three more years (as you have seen above).
But every now and then, something new and important *will*
come along. Sales from the EDGE, the companion e-zine for
MYSS! owners, keeps you up to date on that. And now....
I can't help but tout the upcoming article in Sales from the
EDGE. It will contain the first important addition to
traffic generating since I wrote MYSS!. If you are not yet
an MYSS! owner, can I *respectfully* ask you a question?...
> "What are you waiting for?" ;-)
The cost is only US$17...
The money back Guarantee is air-tight...
http://www.sitesell.com/guarantee.html
You'll never see raving fans like this anywhere else...
http://www.sitesell.com/testimonials.html
And Sales from the EDGE keeps you on the cutting edge,
without glutting you with tons of useless theory and info.
If you're at all serious about selling on the Web, MYSS! is
as close to a "no-brainer" as you'll ever find.
Buy it. If you're not happy for any reason whatsoever, just
ask for your money back...
https://secure.sitesell.com/order.html
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TEST YOUR SITE
A challenge to you, dear reader. Go to your site right now
and test it. Here's what to do...
--
Pick *YOUR* most important keyword. Now...
Go to all the above SE URLs. Search for each of them. If
you don't score on Page 1 for at least half of them...
Do something about it, because you're wasting the bargain of
the Millennium.
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>> http://www.sitesell.com/site-sell-backissues.html
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Written by Ken Evoy, M.D.,
President of SiteSell.com Inc.
(c) and ™ SiteSell.com Inc. All rights reserved.