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SITE-SELL! Issue #036
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SITE-SELL! The World's Most USABLE E-commerce E-zine
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>A free, occasional e-zine dedicated to showing you...
>... how to SELL on the Net!
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October 27, 2003 Issue #036
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>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 (using the luxurious Beverly Hills Hotel)
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, SITE-SELL! is free. 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/
And NEW... a sample of SBIX...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/
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>Table of Contents
o SITE-SELL! Xpress News
1) Form Build It! In Final Beta...
Final Reminder Regarding Price Increase
--
o Featured Articles
1) The Long-Term Future of FREE Search Engines
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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITE-SELL XPRESS NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Form Build It! Is In Final Beta...
Final Reminder Regarding Price Increase
As I've just been telling the 5 Pillar Affiliates over the
weekend... I've seen it in its final form and function, and
it's impressive. Very.
I actually had hoped we'd be launching last Friday, but a
couple of last second glitches came up during testing,
pushing us back, likely by a week. But let me tell you a
bit more about FBI! now...
No matter what you want to do with Form Build It! (FBI!)...
Contact Us Form (cut down on spam by not putting an e-mail address)
Feedback Form
Customer Survey
Sales Contact Form
Request Form
Send Info Form (identify qualified/targeted prospects)
Problem Notification Form
Application for Employment
Simple Non-Credit-Card Order Form
Registration Form
Subscription Form for Autoresponder Series
Reservation Form
Sweepstakes
... Form Build It! (FBI!) OVERdelivers. And it's simple...
You build your form, add it to your Web page (works with
both SiteBuilder and HTML Editor Compatibility module), and
then watch the leads, referrals, etc. come pouring in.
You can check results, all stored in your database. You can
also opt to receive an e-mail with all the data from the
form, and even cc that e-mailed data to others. And you can
even send a sequential autoresponder (a SiteSell Masters
Course would be an example of this in action).
FBI! will provide an excellent new way to monetize traffic,
too... earning finder's fees, especially from offline
businesses. For details, see...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/services-referrer.html
-----SIDEBAR-----
My daughter is just chomping at the bit to
get going with this. It will be an important
monetization model for her site,
anguilla-beaches.com. There are so many
local businesses who would love to pay her on
a pay-per-lead or a pay-per-sale basis. And
Form Build It! will make it a trackable snap.
-----SIDEBAR-----
One of my favorite parts, though, is the CLIENT-side form
builder (no need to build block by block through our server,
yet it all still happens through the browser). It's
super-fast compared to SiteBuilder -- we're going to bring
this new technology over to SiteBuilder right after we
launch FBI!. It's going to knock SBIers' socks off.
-----SIDEBAR-----
We have also been doing major database and
hardware infrastructural work lately...
If you are an SBI! user, you've noticed an
appreciable increase in speed, and will
notice a blazing increase in speed of
building and across all functions of SBI!
progressively over the course of upcoming
weeks. It's all part of scaling up to meet
demands for our next level... 100K+ sites.
We're growing faster and faster, so have to
stay AHEAD of the demand curve continuously.
Pleasant problems, as the word spreads. :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
Exciting times! I can hardly wait to release FBI! -- if the
final ("final-final" actually! ;-) ) round of testing is
clean, it could be in a week.
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FINAL REMINDER: We'll be price-testing after the FBI!
launch, and increasing the price of SBI! following that.
We've kept the price of SBI! as low as possible, for as long
as possible. Now, though, the price must finally increase.
And, of course, considering what $299 bought years ago and
what it buys today... it really is WAY more than justified.
Now for the GREAT news...
When we start renewing annual subscriptions to SBI!, THAT
price will stay at US$299. So if you own SBI! BEFORE the
price increase, you're protected. I promise.
-----SIDEBAR-----
We won't announce when we're doing the
price-testing (and you likely won't see it).
But as soon as we have the data that we need,
the new price will start.
-----SIDEBAR-----
If you've been thinking of getting SBI! for yourself, do it
now. You'll get a price break now. And you'll lock in the
renewal price, too.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FEATURED ARTICLE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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---1---
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The Long-Term Future of FREE Search Engines
Every now and then, we get an e-mail that asks how long the
SBI! "free Search Engine traffic gravy train" can continue?
After all, how long can Google, Yahoo! and the rest of the
engines keep giving us all these valuable, targeted visitors?
Before I answer that, it's important that you understand
what Search Engines *REALLY* are. So, for a bit of
background, please read a post that I made some time back to
LED, and later improved for one of Allan Gardyne's forums...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/AP-post.txt
It talks about "the single most important factor that will
ultimately spell the success or failure of Google AdSense"
-- but for this article, the important part is the
discussion of the engines, and who their real customers are.
The key point is how critical the "editorial" is -- Google's
real customer is the "advertiser" and not the "searcher."
"Free search results" merely comprise the "editorial"... the
equivalent of the news and articles in a newspaper -- the
ads pay the freight. And that, of course, is far more true
for Search Engines than newspapers.
But... if you don't have editorial to bring the eyeballs
(and the eyeballs are very targeted in the land of Search
Engines), then you won't have advertisers. Without highly
relevant search results, why would surfers come to Google?
And if they didn't come, the advertisers would flee.
And guess what?
SBIers *ARE* the editorial content. :-)
Google needs SBI!.
(Think I'm over-stating the case?... Wait until
you read the interview with Sergey Brin,
co-founder of Google, just a bit further below).
Yes, Google needs SBIers to keep creating solid, niche
content. And the smart engines will continue to not just
allow, but will want, free Search Engine submissions.
Why?
There are two major reasons...
"Editorial content" and "ads" must be kept separate. Search
results are editorial. Just like a newspaper, you don't
expect the news to be a paid ad. If they are, the integrity
of your entire product becomes suspect.
And "Major Reason #2"...
As soon as you make people pay for something, far fewer will
use it. Many, many more sites submit to Google than
Inktomi. So Inktomi's database of pages is bound to shrink
compared to Google's.
If Yahoo! (the owner of Inktomi) does not understand (and
I'd be surprised!) that the Paid Inclusion model degrades
the spidered-engine model for these two reasons, it faces a
bleak future. Search is all about delivering good editorial
to searchers, who click on advertising.
If you blur the dividing lines, if you ask sites to pay to
be included, you lose the diversity that makes your engine a
good tool for surfers to use, which means you lose eyeballs,
which means you lose income from advertisers.
-----
Here's my vision of the 1-2 year future for the free Search
Engines. There will be 3 major players...
1) Yahoo (through Inktomi, which they now own, perhaps
augmented with AltaVista and FAST, which they also own --
somehow they'll blend all this into one engine). Their
directory will become less important as a traffic-driver.
2) Google -- 'nuff said. They'll keep growing. This group
is just too smart to fade away, as earlier #1 engines have
done. They do everything right, and keep on doing it.
3) MSN -- Microsoft is writing its own engine. In a year or
so, they'll own their own technology and a significant
percentage of free search.
The dark horse is Jeeves/Teoma -- do they have enough
muscle? A great engine, but if they aren't bought by MSN,
they may have to morph their model to survive. And their %
share is so small -- how will they increase it, with
Microsoft entering the arena? (They could make it
interesting if they merge with LookSmart, resulting in an
excellent engine, a "directory" and a pay-per-click format,
especially since LookSmart is on the ropes after being
dropped by MSN.).
--
What about directories? In the next few years, they will
become irrelevant. They depend on high fees (which greatly
reduces submissions) and human editors. As technology
continues to improve (but human editors don't -- technology
improves monthly but humans take millions of years to evolve!),
spider-&-algorithm-based engines will rule. Human-edited
listings can't keep up with ever-improving technology.
-----
SBI! gets you into all of them for free, and it's in both
the engines' interest AND yours that the status quo be
maintained for years to come.
Here's how SBI! gets you into the "Big 3" right now...
-----SIDEBAR-----
If you don't own SBI!, you CAN still do all
of the following manually...
o Submitting to each engine.
o Checking to see if spiders have visited
(by reviewing log files).
o Checking to see if each page has been
indexed.
o Reviewing your ranking for each keyword
for each page.
o Resubmitting when spiders don't visit, or
if you do not get indexed, or
when you get dropped by an engine.
You COULD do all that... manually... over and
over... week after week, month after month...
But why would you want to?
-----SIDEBAR-----
Where were we? Oh yes...
Here's how SBI! gets you into the "Big 3" right now...
1) Google -- no problem. They understand that directories
and paid submission are doomed models. GREAT search is all
about having the largest, freshest database of sites,
combined with outstanding technology to decipher it all and
deliver relevant results. SBI! sites are spidered by
Google like clockwork, and do EXCEPTIONALLY WELL there.
-----SIDEBAR----
The day before we mailed this issue of Sales
from the EDGE, Danny Sullivan (he of
searchenginewatch.com fame) published an
interview he did with Sergey Brin, Google's
co-founder and President, Technology. Here
are the key excerpts...
-----
Sullivan: "You've had a variety of new
things come up over the past year. What do
you like the most?"
Brin: "I'm really excited about our
self-serve AdSense. I think this is changing
webmasters' lives. They can make money on
something that was a hobby, and they don't
have to do weird search deals. Think of it.
We send you checks. I'm hoping that it can
help spur the next generation of content
development on the Web. You can't do a good
job of search unless what you're looking for
is out there."
-----
Sullivan: "What do you do to go beyond links
as a way of improving results?"
Brin: "There are completely new ranking
technologies that we are working on. We try
about a half-dozen a month and launch on a
limited test basis. We fundamentally work
with all of the world's knowledge. There are
just different ways to approach that. There
are many, many things you can do, and we're
not going to exhaust them any time soon. Over
time, our searches will only get better."
-----
Sullivan: "Will you ever consider supporting
paid inclusion?"
Brin: "You want to keep any kind of payment
separate from organic search results. I think
it's important to distinguish those things."
-----
-----
Regarding the three points above...
Google and SiteSell are on such a tight
wavelength, it amazes me. We jumped on
AdSense on the very first days, and obviously
feel the same...
http://adsense.sitesell.com/
--
Google will always be improving its search
algorithms, looking for more and more, and
better and better ways to deliver a better
and better answer to a very simple question...
"Find me the most relevant sites for ______"
(Sometimes, the simplest questions require
the most amazing technology to answer well!)
What does that mean for Site Build It!? Our
"keep it real" approach will always keep our
customers at or near the top. No tricks.
Real content. Work WITH the engines, not
against them. Yes, do it smartly. Yes, you
need good tools. But that's our job, and we
do it well.
--
Finally, note how clearly Mr. Brin
differentiates any kind of payment from
editorial. It's church and state -- this is
clear and inviolate for Google. Perhaps the
smartest company on the Net today.
-----SIDEBAR----
Now, where was I... oh yes, how SBI! gets you into the
Big 3 right now (we'll include the 4th "long-shot" too)...
2) Yahoo/Inktomi -- Their free submitter is on-again,
off-again (mostly "on" lately). We have an algorithm to
detect when it's on, and submit at those times. Not all
pages may get submitted, but more than enough do. And the
Inktomi free-ranging, link-following spiders have been very
active. So if you have a page or two in their index, or if
you have incoming links, more and more pages will get found.
RECOMMENDATION: If you're patient, just keep building great
content and list your site with SBI! Value Exchange (yes,
Part II is launching right after FBI!). You'll get into
Inktomi sooner or later. But I'm not such a patient person,
so I did my own little experiment with my daughter Nori's
site, anguilla-beaches.com...
We submitted two anguilla-beaches.com pages through the
pay-for-inclusion program of positiontech.com -- she now has
a whole bunch of others listed with Inktomi for free. So I'd
recommend paying to submit your most important page or two
after a couple of months, if you just can't get in for free.
Let the spiders take over from there. :-)
(You DO want to have pages in Inktomi, because it's just a
matter of time until Yahoo! switches from Google.)
-----SIDEBAR-----
If enough people do this, it may be enough to
keep the "paid submission" concept alive for
longer than I foresee. But ultimately,
unless Inktomi spiders MOST pages for free,
its smaller database will hurt its search
results... which undermines everything else.
-----SIDEBAR-----
3) MSN -- unstable right now. Their new spiders are going
nuts sucking up all the pages they can find. So if you
have incoming links, you'll likely get picked up. However,
none of this will show up in the *NEW* MSN until they launch
that engine (at least 6 months). Meanwhile, they depend on
Inktomi for submissions (yes, SBI! takes care of all this --
don't worry). It will be interesting to see if they
ultimately "go Google" or "go Inktomi" for submission. I'm
sure Google hopes they use the pay-for-inclusion model. ;-)
Right now, though, SBI! pages are getting sucked up like
a vacuum cleaner sucks up dust. No problem here.
-----
4) Jeeves/Teoma -- no way to submit to them other than
pay-for-inclusion. However, their spider follows links
aggressively so that's a great way to get in. When Value
Exchange II launches, there will be several ways to lead
Inktomi and Teoma spiders to incoming links, as well as to
create them. So you can be patient, or you can pay to
submit to them -- but they don't contribute enough traffic
now for me to recommend that... yet.
Right now, it takes a long time, but as you build your SBI!
site, and as you get incoming links, Teoma/Jeeves WILL
discover your site and spider your pages. Patience is a
virtue, and along with quality content, WILL get you in.
-----
One last point about the directories, especially Yahoo!'s
$299 fee. As you know, SBI! Product Manager Paul Crane has
reported how he paid $299 each for both Ultimatefatburner
and Ultimatefatburner-store to get into Yahoo!. The value of
such a listing was NOT, in his view, the traffic it drives.
At this point, the DIRECTORY itself doesn't drive any
traffic (although we'll see if anything happens when they
switch over from Google). But the credibility of the link
from Yahoo! does seem to improve Google page and relevancy
rankings. Depending on your budget, and if you're striking
out at Google and are too impatient to re-work your pages'
content, this could still be reason enough to submit to
Yahoo!'s directory.
For now.
-----
Bottom line?
The basic SBI! strategy (create great content and let SBI!
do all the tedious, tiresome, repetitive and complicated
stuff) gets it all done, no matter what your particular
business model may be... and it will do so for years and
years to come. Free traffic = the very foundation upon
which you MUST build a successful online business.
Your only "payment" decision may come after 2-4 months, if
you can't get a nibble from Inktomi. Right now, that's the
only general "paid" recommendation I would make. And even
then, it's only for your most important page or two, because
the spiders will pick up your other pages after that.
-----SIDEBAR-----
I'm not talking about Pay-Per-Click engines
here. That's a whole different conversation.
Measure your ROI and if it's profitable, do
it. For SBI! users, see the Action Guide and
the PPC HQs for up-to-date advice. Once
again, the tools make that a snap, too.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Under special circumstances outlined above, you may also
want to consider Yahoo! and Jeeves. But my recommendation
is to simply keep creating more and more and MORE high-value
content, get incoming links from zeal.com (which gets you
into LookSmart for free) and dmoz.org (before you go
"commercial"), as well as industry-specific sites, and...
Be patient. Good things will happen.
The process works... thousands and thousands and thousands
of times. We see it happening and working, over and over
again. And it's in the engines' best interests for the SBI!
gravy train to keep on rolling.
Let those well-heeled advertisers pay for their traffic.
They know their role in the food-chain... ADVERTISERS.
YOUR role is content-provider. In return for providing all
that content, you receive free traffic.
YOU have all the tools (either through SBI! or by spending
thousands of dollars at 15+ other companies to assemble it
all) and you have the knowledge to build content. When you
build your own, the traffic just keeps building and building
-- and YOU own your business, not the engines. After all...
What happens to an advertiser's traffic when it stops paying
for all that advertising?
Gone. Nada. Bye.
But SBI!-built traffic just keeps on rolling. :-)
--
Whatever your niche and business, follow the
best-practices-based, step-by-step SBI! process, applying it
to your own particular niche to build a high-traffic,
theme-based content site...
STEP 1) Create high-value content, which...
STEP 2) Ranks well at the Search Engines (SBI!'s help and
tools make it easy) and so attracts free, targeted,
interested visitors, who...
STEP 3) Are PREsold by your relevant, original, high-value
information, and then...
STEP 4) Monetize those targeted, PREsold visitors in a
variety of ways. Convert those warm, willing-to-buy visitors
into customers... into multiple streams of revenue.
Develop a monetization mix that makes sense for YOU. Here
are details on how to convert targeted traffic into dollars...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/
From real estate in Anguilla to ringtones (from Bach to
Radiohead), 17th century Flemish coins to 1950s Barbies,
from nutritionals to calling cards, from electronics to
fitness training, the niches are infinite. But no matter
what, it MUST start with significant volumes of WARM,
TARGETED traffic, and SBI! delivers THAT in spades...
http://results.sitesell.com/
THEN monetize those targeted, PREsold visitors.
THAT is what SBI! is all about.
And the beat goes on... and on. :-)
If you have not yet tried SBI!, try it now (protected by the
Success Guarantee), and lock in current prices.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITESELL PRODUCTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Site Build It!
"E-commerce for the rest of us"
http://buildit.sitesell.com/
Take the SBI! Quick Tour at...
http://quicktour.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/
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Free SBI! Resources
-----------------------------------------------
o SpamCheck Report
Now your readers can stay out of the "Junk Mail Folder."
For this free service, please visit...
http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/
o SiteSell Value Exchange
"The World's ONLY Value Exchanger"
Exchange links in a way that search engines LOVE...
http://value-exchange.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.
Service Sellers Masters Course
Attract new clients from around the world...
Or from around the block
tsms@sitesell.net
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
------------------
Other Free Goodies
------------------
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Graduated from the Aff Master's Course? Get your PhD, Free!
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The SBI! Sweepstakes
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Written by Ken Evoy, M.D.
President, SiteSell.com
(c) copyright 2003 SiteSell.com
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