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SITE-SELL! Issue #024
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SITE-SELL! The World's Most USABLE E-commerce E-zine ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >A free, occasional e-zine dedicated to showing you... >... how to SELL on the Net! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ March 27, 2002 Issue #024 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >ALL-TIME FAVORITE SITE-SELL! ARTICLE If a friend forwarded this copy of SITE-SELL! to you, here's our readers' all-time favorite SITE-SELL! article. It's a powerful example of how to makeover your own site to... ..... SELL on the Net! :-) http://articles.sitesell.com/bhh/ If you like what you see and want to keep getting more of the same, please visit... http://myss.sitesell.com/s-ezine.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >READER'S CHOICE... Care to see the VERY BEST ARTICLE (according to reader feedback) from each of our OTHER two e-zines?... http://articles.sitesell.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >TABLE OF CONTENTS o SITE-SELL! Xpress News 1) Coming VERY Soon -- Free Book Build It! Our Newest, Coolest Tool Meets Our Best PREseller -- o Featured Article 1) The Most Overlooked Small Business Opportunity on the Net ... and How to Earn a Superior Living at It ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITE-SELL XPRESS NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ----- --1-- ----- Coming VERY Soon -- Free Book Build It! Our Newest, Coolest Tool Meets Our Best PREseller SiteSell's sales are 95%+ affiliate-driven. When I talk about our affiliates being "partners in sales", believe me, this isn't just "motivational feel-good talk." I REALLY mean it. Yup, the success of our business depends solely on the success of our affiliates. Truly, they ARE the life-blood of SiteSell. This being the case, it is our job to provide our partners with... o high-quality/low cost products that are EASY to PREsell (of course, our commitment to OVERdelivery doesn't hurt either) AND... o ALL the TOOLS necessary to PREsell effectively with the HIGHEST possible Conversion Rate. -----SIDEBAR----- In a time when a Conversion Rate of 0.5% to 3% is considered the norm, some of our affiliates consistently convert 5-10%, with gusts (some months) of up to 20% of the visitors that they refer to us. With Conversion Rates like that and SiteSell's GENEROUS commission rates, it sure doesn't take long to build a more-than-satisfactory affiliate income! -----SIDEBAR----- No other program on the Net provides the wide variety of unique and powerful PREselling tools that the 5P Program does. And... If you look at all the TOOLS the 5 Pillar Program (SiteSell's affiliate program) provides to 5P Affiliates, there is one that stands "heads and shoulders" above the others when it comes to converting visitors into CUSTOMERS. That TOOL, of course, is the highly acclaimed... > *** Affiliate Masters Course *** The Affiliate Masters Course is an extensive (and intensive) 5-day e-mail course which shows you EXACTLY how to build a profitable online affiliate business. The course continues to garner accolades far and wide, across the breadth of the Net. Many students and gurus of "affiliatedom" have pronounced it... "the best information at succeeding at the affiliate game... JJJJJJat any price... JJJJJJJJJand it's free!" From brainstorming and researching profitable keywords, to building "SE-sexy" keyword-focused Web pages, to mounting huge and profitable Pay-Per-Click Search Engines campaigns, the course provides all the information needed for ANYONE to build a successful affiliate business. ---- The Affiliate Masters Course is a wonderful PREseller for 5P Affiliates for two reasons... 1) The course actually *IS* a complete, stand-alone blueprint for building a traffic-generating income-producing Theme-Based Content Site... for ANY affiliate of ANY program. -----SIDEBAR----- And it's NOT just for affiliates... The Masters Course will show you how to build traffic and PREsell your own goods and/or services. Learn how to become your OWN BEST REFERRER! -----SIDEBAR----- The Masters' high-quality, nothing-held-back information establishes SiteSell's credibility quickly. This is further enhanced by the fact that the course is FREE and NO purchase is required to successfully complete the course. 2) Building an effective Theme-Based Content Site manually is a time-consuming and tedious task. Wherever appropriate, The Affiliate Masters Course highlights Site Build It! and explains how its cutting-edge set of integrated tools reduces those mind-numbing, boring and/or complicated tasks to mere clicks of buttons. Why do something by hand when you can perform all the same tasks with the single click of a button? After all, our time is PRECIOUS. The old real estate saying applies equally well to TIME itself... "They aren't making any more of it!" And this is exactly what goes through the minds of smart students of The Affiliate Masters Course... "Hmmm... my time is worth a heck of a lot more than 50 cents an hour. Site Build It! is a bargain at ten times the price!" They buy Site Build It! for its power, its organization and its beneficial time-saving features... for its ability to make the technology and complexity of Net marketing disappear, allowing you to focus on what you know and love... the theme and content of your site. CLICK-KA-CHING! That's the sound of folks who use Site Build It!. CLICK-KA-CHING! That's the sound of commission checks for 5P Affiliates who let The Affiliate Masters Course do the PREselling of Site Build It! for them! WIN-WIN-WIN, all around. ---- Until recently, though, this course has been available only via e-mail. Admittedly, it's not the best way to transmit information of this quality and quantity (over 100 pages of "the best info... at any price... and it's free!"). Although students do recognize quality when they see it, they frequently ask... "Can I get this in PDF?" Very, very soon, the answer will be YES!. And that leads me to SiteSell's exciting news... The full course has been updated, refreshed and reformatted, and is about to be released as a FREE download BOOK, in very "printer-and-eye-friendly" PDF format. The already easy-to-follow course just got easier... and a whole lot easier on the eye! :-) HOWEVER... This new format raised a BIG cookie-tracking problem for us. How were we going to deliver a PDF file that would be hard-coded with each affiliate's RR URL (unique referral-redirect link) so that s/he would get credit for referrals that bought SiteSell products? Doing this manually was out of the question, of course. I knew that the Masters' course as an e-BOOK would substantially increase its PREselling power for all 5P Affiliates, so a solution had to be found. I put this problem to our techs and waited patiently (OK, OK, not so patiently!). Many hair-pulling-and-tearing experiments later, they had penetrated the arcane code of PDF technology! Today, I'm proud to announce our upcoming solution, another Internet affiliate first... > **FREE BOOK BUILD IT!** Within a few short days, affiliates will be able to click a "Free Book Build It!" button to create their own customized version of this e-book, complete with their own special referral-redirect link URLs. All they have to do is upload it and offer this powerful PREseller from their sites -- promoting this free download on their sites, via their e-zines, even on their local neighborhood grocery store bulletin boards! -----SIDEBAR----- What happens behind the scenes after the affiliate clicks "Free Book Build It!"? The software penetrates into the PDF book, finds all the links to our site, replaces them with the affiliate's unique links, puts the book back together again (and this Humpty-Dumpty has to comply with a complicated checksum to be readable, no matter what the URL is), then zips it up (together with a ReadMeFirst file) into a self-extracting zipped file... ready to be uploaded and offered! -----SIDEBAR----- Is there anything that people love more than a free book? What about when it's the updated and renowned Affiliate Masters Course? It's WIN-WIN-WIN, all the way around. If you have never taken The Affiliate Masters Course, don't miss this e-book... at an affiliate's Web site near you, SOON (Tuesday, April 2, to be exact). -----SIDEBAR----- Even if you HAVE taken the course, don't miss this updated and ever-so-readable version! :-) -----SIDEBAR----- OR... Better still, join the 5 Pillar Program Team today. Customize your own copy, read it and master this lucrative game, and then offer it as a powerful PREseller to Site Build It!. Great products to PREsell, cutting edge and state-of-the-Net affiliate tools, generous lifetime commissions, 2 tiers, and a legendary commitment to product OVERdelivery... the 5 Pillar Program. http://affiliates.sitesell.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FEATURED ARTICLE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------- ---1--- ------- The Most Overlooked Small Business Opportunity on the Net .... and How to Earn a Superior Living at It I recently returned from a 10 day Spring Break vacation on one of the most charming islands in the entire world, Anguilla... http://www.beaches.ai/ A friend of a friend has a financial services business there. And that got me thinking (yes, I know, THAT'S always a dangerous event -- luckily, it's rare!)... Do you know what the single largest sector of the business world is? SERVICES! Care to guess the single most overlooked business opportunity on the Net? SERVICES! -- Let's digress for a moment before we talk about the excellent online prospects in the area of SERVICES... SOHOs/small businesses *DO* have excellent prospects in the two major online e-commerce areas that get so much coverage... o Affiliate programs -- Done properly, there's good money to be made PREselling other merchants' products. -----SIDEBAR----- Allan Gardyne (yes, of associateprograms.com fame) has said that "if you join only one program, make it the 5 Pillar Program" and he has called it "the perfect revenue sharing program." Ralph Wilson (wilsonweb.com) says that "Ken Evoy has taken affiliate programs to the next level." For more information... http://affiliates.sitesell.com -----SIDEBAR----- o E-goods -- Develop your own e-good. What's an e-good? It's a digital product. What's so great about this? It turns the Net into a frictionless DISTRIBUTION medium. So what? Well, if you have an online store that sells widgets, you still have to pick-pack-and-ship, just like any OFFLINE mail order operation. In this case, the Net is reduced to merely being a COMMUNICATION medium, an online catalog, really... an excellent one, of course. But you still have all the hassle of dealing with products made of MOLECULES. Give me products made of ELECTRONS, any day! They pass right through the Internet... real smooth! The powerful combination of digital fulfillment and total automation (so easy and D0-able on the Net) translates into a unprecedented ability to SCALE your business! After you've developed your e-good, your incremental costs are the same whether you sell one product, or 1,000,000 products... ZERO time (no pick- pack-and-ship) and ZERO dollars (except for small % for transaction processing). What could me more encouraging and satisfying? (Besides Angelina Jolie smiling at me, that is? :-) ) -----SIDEBAR----- If selling e-goods interests you... Three NEW modules are coming to Site Build It! in the near future (April-May window). An *E-commerce Module* provides you with a merchant account to clear credit cards online. Plus, you'll have the ability to digitally deliver your e-goods in much the same fashion that SiteSell does now. An *Affiliate Module* will allow you to build and manage your own affiliate program. Offer your visitors "commission incentives" to promote YOUR products on their Web sites. A *Mailout Module* will allow you to build, manage, and contact several E-mail Address Lists (in text and HTML formatted e-mails)... 1) Opt-in e-zine 2) Customer e-zines 3) Affiliate e-zine (In addition, we are putting the finishing touches on a powerful server-side module which will provide Photoshop-quality logos and navbars which you can build with a few keystrokes and button clicks.) This e-commerce value bundle (the first 3 modules) will be offered separately, for a fixed annual fee, plus a percentage of your sales that's lower than ANY OTHER COMPANY in this space. (The OPT-IN zine will be part of the "regular," current affiliate value bundle, permanently.) But you haven't heard the BEST part yet... I'll be offering ALL 3 new modules in the e-commerce value bundle to current SBI! subscribers for FREE. Site Build It! will be THE ultimate, the total, e-commerce Web hosting package! Heck, even in its present form, SBI!'ers are super-impressed with its innovative capabilities and affordable price... http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-samplesites/ Wait 'til they see how e-goods e-commerce adds to the bottom line! :-) In short... If you're already a Site Build It! subscriber when we launch the new modules, these modules will AUTOMATICALLY be added to the remainder of your current annual subscription... AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE (except, of course, for the % for transaction processing). If you're NOT YET a SBI!'er, get it now. Start building your site while you create your e-good (digital book, collection of photos, software, etc., etc.). By the time you're ready to sell your e-good, we'll be ready to accommodate you with the most radical, advanced Web hosting on the Net, at no extra charge, same as for existing SBI!'ers! SBI! is the future of e-commerce Web hosting. (Think about it... you don't have to take your phone apart and understand its technology to make a business phone call, do you?) Get SBI! now... and receive the E-commerce Value Bundle free for the rest of the year, too... http://buildit.sitesell.com -----SIDEBAR----- OK, end of digression (actually, end of SIDEBAR off the digression!). Our bottom line so far? Building an affiliate business and selling e-goods certainly deserve all their "good press." But NOW, let's talk about the largest single sector of the business world, SERVICES! Selling your services online is a FANTASTIC way to leverage your income-building potential -- all at a minimum cost. -----SIDEBAR----- By services, I don't necessarily mean Net- related services like programming or Web design (although they can and should be included here). You could be... o a cartoon artist o an import/export specialist for Germany o am investment specialist in Brazilian bonds o an expert in Japanese netsuke o an accountant with special knowledge of tax havens o a copywriter o a trainer (of just about anything!) o an editor for medical articles o someone who creates indexes for books o a pharmaceutical expert o a translator (do you know two languages?) The diversity of this world, and the people in it, never ceases to amaze me. Just about everyone has an expertise in something that they could sell. Heck, odds are they are already selling it as their primary income source... but have never thought seriously about generating customers globally by using the Web's full potential. (Which brings me back to my friend of a friend in Anguilla!) -----SIDEBAR----- Dubious? Don't think this happens? Well, consider this... I found SiteSell's current FileMaker Database Programmer on the Internet. I've never met him in person. He happens to live in Australia, which is about as far from Montreal, Canada, as one can get unless you move to the South pole! But this "service-provider" has made over $80,000 of additional income from SiteSell in the last 18 months! -----SIDEBAR----- Note the word "current" above? I like to keep him on his toes! ;-) I learned that from my wife, who introduces me as her "first husband." ;-) -----SIDEBAR----- How much of that $80,000 would he have earned if I had not found him through the Internet? That's correct -- ZERO. And that's another VERY attractive aspect about selling your services on the Net. A single client can bring in substantial dollars. So techniques like mastering the SEs, paid-inclusion programs, listing in directories and building massive Pay-Per-Click campaigns have a terrific ROI (Return on Investment). ----- What do most service businesses do online to add new clients to their roster? Either... o nothing at all -OR- o put up a "circa 1997" brochure site that no one visits (except for a few local clients, who don't see the point, nor would I) -OR- o post their services on any number of online spots, such as Guru.com. That simply does NOT get the job done. -- Think about the process of hiring a new service provider, say a top-notch FileMaker programmer or a real estate agent in Anguilla! What's the key? Trust... o Are they good? o Are they honest? o Are they easy to work with? o And so on, and so on... Building that trust means building a relationship with a potential client. That's why anyone selling their services via the Net really MUST have his/her own Web site. In order for someone to hire you... 1) First, they MUST be able to find you (most surfers use search results provided by Search Engines). 2) Second, they simply MUST get to know you and trust you. You accomplish this by building credibility and providing valuable information (the content) on your site. You have to show your potential employers that you can provide THE solution that they seek. How do you get found? Simple. Build lots and lots of Keyword-Focused Content Pages, all within a Theme-Based Content Site, which of course is tightly related to the service you are selling. ---- OK, let's recap... In order to effectively sell your services online, you must have a Web site that... o introduces you as the expert, and builds your credibility with your visitor. o effectively targets various appropriate keyword phrases to ensure that the people who need your service find your Web site. o "GIVES before TAKING" -- provides the visitor with some free valuable information in the form of content, and/or a free opt-in e-zine. Actually, when it comes to selling a service, a top-notch e-zine is INVALUABLE! And what's the easiest, headache-free way to accomplish all this? You guessed it... Site Build It!... http://buildit.sitesell.com With SBI!, you focus ONLY on your business. We take care of all the rest for you. It's as easy as using the phone, unless you're using one of those new-fangled wireless babies, in which case SBI! is much easier! ;-) ---- Here are just a few of the many more reasons why Site Build It! is a MUST for A-N-Y-O-N-E who wants to sell a service online... 1) With the server-side tools of the SBI! system, you can build your own Theme-Based Content Site(s), filled with as many keyword-focused content pages as you wish -- without the complexities and headaches of HTML or FTP. *YOU* only have to worry about what you already know... your business. 2) The client-side SBI! Manager and its incredible Brainstorming tool hones in on the most profitable keywords for you to target. 3) Use the Manager, as well, to build a massive Pay-Per-Click Search Engine campaign. Both of these intensive tasks would normally take hours, even days but with the SBI! Manager they can be done... .... in minutes. 4) As I mentioned, the ROI is superb. It's really worth it to spend on paid-inclusion programs, Pay-Per-Click campaigns, and directory listings (and naturally, SBI! makes it all, including the tracking, a snap!) When a client can bring you thousands of dollars in business, it stretches how much you can afford to pay for certain traffic-building strategies. 5) SE expertise? Ha! Just hit the "Analyze It!" button, and your page is critiqued for over 30 parameters that account for top Search Engine (SE) rankings. All you have to do to start ranking well at the engines is follow directions! :-) What about submitting, and when should you re-submit? Relax and focus on your business -- SBI! submits your pages automatically, in an SE-friendly way. We even track and report spider visits to ensure that the SEs "get the message." And SBI! tells you how well each page is doing at each of the major engines. 6) SBI! also tracks and analyzes click-ins and click-throughs so that you can easily get the "big picture" of your traffic-building efforts... that way, you know where and how to best spend your time and money. 7) Soon, you'll have your own opt-in e-zine ability, to continuously build and strengthen relationships with potential clients. And you'll also be able to sell an e-book on your area of expertise, which has two advantages... i) develops an extra stream of income ii) builds a strong-but-unspoken "expert" image. I could go on and on, but here's the bottom line... Site Build It! truly is a fascinating and amazing tool! If you haven't yet seen how some of our enterprising customers are using SBI!, click on the "Click here to see actual customer SBI! sites" link on the SBI! home page. Enjoy the slide show... http://buildit.sitesell.com Remember too... the SBI! guarantee is "good as gold." Try it. If Site Build It! doesn't exceed your wildest expectations, just ask for your money back. You can even keep your new domain name as a gift from us. http://buildit.sitesell.com -----SIDEBAR----- Remember, as mentioned above... Purchase SBI! now and get the full e-commerce value bundle FREE for the rest of the year... o E-commerce Module -- automatic sale and fulfillment of e-goods, including merchant account. o Affiliate Module -- now you can have thousands of folks PREselling for YOU! o Mailout Module -- build, manage, and contact several E-mail Address Lists. -----SIDEBAR----- No doubt about it... it's amazing how under-represented services are in the land of e-commerce. But, in a sense, that's a good thing. Why? Because... SBI! is about to give you THE edge on your competition! :-) http://buildit.sitesell.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITESELL PRODUCTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Site Build It! "Build income through content." http://buildit.sitesell.com http://freetour.sitesell.com Make Your Site SELL! 2002 "The definitive work on making any Web site SELL!" http://myss.sitesell.com Make Your Knowledge Sell! "Turn knowledge into income -- sell your brain on the Net." http://myks.sitesell.com Make Your Price Sell! "Price with complete confidence & double your Net profits." http://myps.sitesell.com Make Your Words Sell! "Want to sell MORE? Become an e-persuader." http://myws.sitesell.com Make Your Net Auction Sell! "An e-biz in every closet... Get into Auction Action!" http://mynas.sitesell.com Surefire Premium Processing "Premium Processing for Premium Companies" http://surefire.sitesell.com ----------------------------------------------- SiteSell University: The Masters Courses (Free) ----------------------------------------------- SiteSell University is free. The Masters Courses cover all the vital "must-get-it-right" issues with fresh, original, and valuable thinking. You won't read this anywhere else on the Net. And, best of all, the courses are free. Take the courses that interest you today. You'll receive your first e-mail installment immediately, followed by four more installments daily. Affiliate Masters Course Shows you how to become a high-earning affiliate champion. tams@sitesell.net InfoProducts Masters Course How to brainstorm, create, produce, and sell your very own infoproduct online tims@sitesell.net Pricing Masters Course "How much money are YOU leaving on the table?" tpms@sitesell.net Netwriting Masters Course Want to sell more? Write better. twms@sitesell.net Net Auction Masters Course Start and grow a profitable Net auction business. tnams@sitesell.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back issues available at... http://www.sitesell.com/site-sell-backissues.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TO UNSUBSCRIBE To unsubscribe, go to the following URL and enter your e-mail address. If you use more than one e-mail address, be sure to enter the same one that you used when you subscribed. http://www.sitesell.com/unsubscribe-ss.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WANT TO CHANGE THE E-MAIL ADDRESS AT WHICH YOU RECEIVE THIS? http://www.sitesell.com/change-email.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by Ken Evoy, M.D., President, SiteSell.com Inc. (c) copyright 2002 SiteSell.com Inc.