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SITE-SELL! Issue #039
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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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December 31, 2003 Issue #039
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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) The SBI! Price-Testing is Over and the Winner Is...
*******************************************
2) SBI! *HOLIDAY* Special... Buy-1-Get-1-Free
Until Midnight January 5 of the New Year
*******************************************
3) It's The SiteSell Launch Fiesta Bowl!
-- Value Exchange, Part II
-- The FAST Fix Is In!
-- "Now Appearing, Live in the SE HQ... It's Teoma!"
-- Two New Sites and One Update
--
o Featured Articles
1) Why SBI! Is Invulnerable to the Infamous Google Dance
Let Others Wring Their Hands... SBIers Ring Their Cash Registers
2) Strong, Smart and REAL...
Why Value Exchanging is So, So, Important
Why BYOBAM Is Even More Important!
3) Laser-Beam SBI! To Your Online Business (or Planned Business)
Find YOUR Personal Best Approach at find.sitesell.com
4) Take the "Get to the Point" Test Today
5) Wishing You An Outstanding 2004
But Remember, 2004 Won't Just "Happen"... BYOBAM!
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>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITE-SELL XPRESS NEWS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****************
SPECIAL PREAMBLE
****************
This issue of SITE-SELL! is likely the most important one
that you'll ever read. I know it's the most important one
that I'll write. Why?
It contains the seeds for your small business success.
Naturally, you have to BYOBAM to nurture those seeds. If
you contribute that key part of the process, I promise you
this...
Save this issue and refer to it in exactly one year
-- you'll be amazed at how much your life has changed.
(NOTE: BYOBAM = Bring Your Own Motivation and Brain.)
And that, dear reader, is why I suggest strongly that you
print this zine, get your beverage-of-choice in one hand, a
highlighting pen in the other, put the printout carefully
between your teeth, and take everything to a quiet reading
room (preferably one with Net access to visit the URLs).
Close the door of that room, let the rest of the family know
you need two hours of quiet thought, and do not emerge until
you've made a concrete decision on whether 2004 is going to
be YOUR year. And if it is, HOW you're going to make it so.
The answers lie in this issue. Let's start with the news --
a whole lot has been happening around SiteSell and SBI! that
affect you. The articles after that tie it all together and
lead you to the directions you seek.
Ready? Let's begin...
-------
---1---
-------
The SBI! Price-Testing is Over and the Winner Is...
USD$495. (Renewal price stays at US$299.)
We actually did two forms of price-testing for SBI!...
1) "RTWV" (real-time "wallet-voting") -- this was
technologically difficult to implement but you can't come
closer to reality-testing.
2) MYPS! -- the Make Your Price Sell! survey.
They agreed. Hands down. No contest.
Here's the story behind the story...
I have a sneaking suspicion we could have priced SBI! at
$1,000, after all the homework we did on the new SBI! price.
But our goal is to make as many SBI! users as profitable as
possible and as quickly as possible, and we have no need to
price at the levels that SBI! is really worth.
-----SIDEBAR-----
THAT is the big advantage of building all our
own technology -- no third party partners to
shoot the price up, or dilute quality. So we
can OVERdeliver on quality AND price...
WIN-WIN-WIN.
Where does the third "WIN" come from?...
*YOUR* customer. :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
As I've mentioned recently, I would have loved to leave the
price at the current level. But...
SBIers are using enormous amounts of CPU and bandwidth,
which is increasing costs. This is a good thing, of
course... *ALMOST* too much of a good thing... but I call
these "pleasant problems" -- it's the ultimate proof that
all is right with SBIers' business worlds. :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
And so is our Alexa ranking... 262. Companies
just don't grow steadily from a 4,000 ranking
to 262 (passing companies like bCentral and
IBM along the way) unless they offer
tremendous value.. Take a look at this Alexa
comparison chart...
http://hardgoods.sitesell.com/img/sitesell-bcentral.png
Yes, we've caught and passed Microsoft's
bCentral.com, their small business
division... our direct competitor.
Only two reasons for that (and one of them is
NOT our overwhelming budgetary advantage!)...
1) SBI! -- we have created a wonderful product.
I get proud and excited, all over again,
every time I think of the impact that SBI!
makes upon small business people's lives.
Sorry to brag, but SiteSell's dedicated group
of 35 crazies are changing e-commerce. :-)
2) You -- none of this could happen without
your support. As promised years back, it's
been a double pleasure to see (and hear)
customers succeed....
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/traffic-alexa.html
http://results.sitesell.com/
http://seminars.sitesell.com/
You... and SBI!.
What a winning combination. :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
Where was I? Oh yes...
We started testing for "the best next price" for SBI! right
after we launched Form Build It!. We price-tested in two
different ways.
---------------------------------------------
First... the "vote with your wallet" test...
This test used REAL customers who paid REAL dollars with
their credit cards. Or at least they THOUGHT they were
paying a certain amount. Here's how it worked...
Visitor criteria for admission into this test were...
1) No SiteSell cookie
(i.e., never visited, never bought, not a 5P Affiliate)
2) Arrived directly to buildit.sitesell.com (only) via
affiliate link.
Those who met the above criteria were alternately assigned
one of four order pages. The pages were identical except
for price...
#1) $299 #2) $349 3) $399 #4) $499
Once they saw one of these Order Pages, that was the only
page they could ever see. If they accidentally saw another
page (ex., a friend told them), they were out of the study.
(Yes, they could still order, but since we could not say
how this "contamination" affected results, we simply no
longer counted this person in the price-test.)
After purchase, they received our usual "Get Ready for Site
Build It!" post-order letter, but with a preface telling
them that they were part of a price test. The preface also
informed them that in fact they had paid the lowest price,
$299, regardless of what they THOUGHT they had paid.
-----SIDEBAR-----
THOSE "$499 buyers" were some
pretty HAPPY customers. :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
AFTER the purchase, we eliminated more customers from the
study...
1) visitors who saw two price-testing pages
("contaminants"), as mentioned above.
2) sales via inbound advisor group (since we could not be
sure of the process here, we simply did not count any order
that arrived after someone talked to one of our advisors).
3) those found (after the fact) to actually be a customer or
affiliate -- these folks likely had a new computer or
otherwise had wiped their cookies. However, it's easy for
us to find these folks by using our database-cascade
matching technology that we normally use to make sure 5P
Affiliates are paid for lifetime customers. Since we needed
new, unbiased visitors for this study, we eliminated anyone
found in our customer/affiliate/e-zine database.
The results? We tested TOO LOW. There was virtually no
price resistance. The ratio of sales at the three new price
points, setting $349 at a baseline of 1.0 was...
$349 1.0
$399 0.98
$499 0.90
-----SIDEBAR----
The $299 price started catching up to the
$349, after being behind it for a while,
likely because I wrote about this. We
considered whether I should write about the
price-testing. But, for those of you who
remember Amazon's fiasco (when they tried
real-time price-testing a while back), we
considered that total transparency was the
wise route, and we'd have to accept and
interpret the bias introduced by writing
about the study while in progress.
(Theoretically, it's best if no one knows
about the test -- but that's just not
practical or smart for the Net.)
-----SIDEBAR----
Back to the above results...
Classically, in a price test, there is a sudden drop-off
point. We didn't get one. And we'll gladly take 10% fewer
unit sales at $499. Frankly, SBI! is too good to be a
high-volume, low-price product. We should not position it
as such -- at $499, we hopefully will no longer encounter a
"too good to be true" sentiment. And yet it's still, by far,
the best small business bargain on the Net.
---------------------------------------------
Part 2 of the Price Test... The MYPS! Survey
We also used my old favorite, "Make Your Price Sell!," for
the final 36 hours. We used the same criteria for entry to
this study...
1) No SiteSell cookie
(i.e., never visited, never bought, not a 5P Affiliate)
2) Arrived directly to buildit.sitesell.com (only) via
affiliate link.
... except this time visitors did not get an Order Form at
all when they clicked on the Order button. Instead, they
received our "Form Build It! Launch Marketing Survey."
(Note that we did not call it a pricing survey -- no bias.)
The bottom line conclusion of that survey indicated an ideal
price point of $495, with a very high perceived value by the
customer. Again, there was no "plateau drop-off" -- all in
all, an interesting correlation between the THEORY of a
price survey and the PRACTICE of "real customers" who vote
with their wallets.
-----SIDEBAR-----
It's key not to let on that you are testing
for price in a survey, just that you are
doing a "marketing survey," otherwise, your
results will underestimate the reality.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Bottom line?
US$495. The real-time "actual-customer" agreed with the
MYPS! survey respondents. Two widely different approaches,
with completely different methodologies, math, statistics,
and interpretation... came up with the same number.
-----SIDEBAR-----
If you've been with us from earliest days
of MYSS!, you know the SiteSell goal has
never been to "milk" maximum dollars, to
"upsell" or to play any other "sales games"
with our customers. Instead, our approach
to business is "plain vanilla"...
We provide value.
You recognize it and purchase.
You succeed.
Since you succeed, we do, too.
And so the cycle continues.
Based on the above test results, we likely
would make greater profits with less effort
at a $995 price, but that has never been our
mission. So...
Site Build It! (SBI!) has been priced at $299
(USD) for almost three years, despite adding
functionality that, if bought separately
would cost thousands of dollars...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/value.html
http://buildit.sitesell.com/compare/compare1.html
So much has been added at no extra price over
those years. And the SBI! results and feedback...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/traffic-alexa.html
http://results.sitesell.com/
http://seminars.sitesell.com/
... speak for themselves! (Literally "speak"
for themselves" on the radio show at
seminars.sitesell.com.)
-----SIDEBAR-----
We thanked the survey folks by letting them know the results
of the survey and providing them with a special order page
that would allow them to order at $299 for three more days.
And THAT is the story about how we arrived at $495. We know
it's still underpriced, but it gives us enough breathing
room while still making it as accessible as possible.
How underpriced is SBI!?
Well, it is now only worth *9* times its price...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/value.html
But that's the way an ACCOUNTANT would think. If you think
like a business person, it's worth a heck of a lot more than
that. After all, as a BUSINESS PERSON...
What are hundreds, even thousands of new lifetime customers
worth to you? What are entirely new income streams worth?
More to the point, what is it worth not to waste a year or
two of your life, and thousands of dollars, doing what
everyone else is doing, and failing?
Please see the "Accountant" vs "Business Person" analysis
at...
https://secure.sitesell.com/build/order.html
-----SIDEBAR-----
The renewal rate price?
Based on our calculations, we can afford to
maintain the renewal rate at $299 annually
(which happens only after we launch SBI!
E-com, as promised -- folks have had quite a
long free ride thanks to that promise, and
meanwhile they are using our thoroughly
researched/recommended "cream of the cream"
of third party e-commerce third parties).
(Yes, SBI! is already e-com enabled -- just
plug-in-play any of the top services.)
We've made that $299 renewal promise to all
current owners, and will also maintain it for
folks who buy at the current price of $495.
But please note.... at a certain point, it's
possible that future customers may see a
higher renewal price -- one strong reason to
buy now. When you consider what SUCCESS is
worth and that the renewal price is "the same
old price," it's time to get going with SBI!.
And there's another reason to get going
NOW... the competition is weak. If you own
SBI!, it's like your competitors are babies
with candy. And you want that candy. :-)
Folks wonder how so many SBI! sites end up in
the Top 1-3%...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/traffic-alexa.html
Two reasons...
1) SBI! sites really *DO* build traffic. The
process and execution simply create sites
that WORK.
2) The competition is just plain weak. They
"put up sites" and then worry about building
traffic. Too late. No process. Poor,
non-integrated tools compared to the SBI!
combination of "process and power tools" that
minimize time and maximize results.
So get started NOW... while the "getting is
GREAT."
-----SIDEBAR-----
-------
---2---
-------
SBI! *HOLIDAY* Special... Buy-1-Get-1-Free
Until Midnight January 5 of the New Year
In case you haven't visited the site lately, we've been
running a special Holiday Buy-1-Get-1 promotion on Site
Build It!. It was supposed to end right after Christmas.
But...
"Please hold the Buy-1-Get-1 into the New Year."
...
"Please hold the Buy-1-Get-1 into the New Year."
...
If we've received that e-mail once, we've received it a
thousand times. And not just from customers... but from
affiliates, too, who want more time to reach as many
customers as possible during this vacation period.
Fair enough...
Here in Canada (and other Commonwealth countries like
Britain, Australia, and New Zealand), we celebrate a holiday
called "Boxing Day". "Boxing Day" falls on December 26, and
whatever its original source, it has come to be synonymous
with post-Christmas bargains, bargains, and MORE bargains!
Starting December 26, hordes of people are out and about
searching high and low for deals... and this stretches
through into the first week of the New Year. Of course, the
post-Christmas buying extravaganza occurs all over the
world, although not under the "Boxing Day" name.
And the same shopping frenzy happens online, too... without
the lineups, traffic or parking headaches! :-)
So we're extending the Buy-1-Get-1 to the end of "Boxing
Week." This is the last time anyone will ever be able to
get their hands on not one, but TWO years of the ultimate
all-tools-in-one e-business building solution FOR THE PRICE
OF ONE...
http://www.sitesell.com/
http://buildit.sitesell.com/
http://find.sitesell.com/
http://webmaster.sitesell.com/
--
Time *IS* of the essence. The SiteSell Holiday promotion is
over for good on January 5, midnight...
http://www.sitesell.com/
http://buildit.sitesell.com/
http://find.sitesell.com/
http://webmaster.sitesell.com/
Happy Holidays!
-------
P.S. It's so, so easy to move on and not make the most
important decision of your life. We've received e-mail from
folks who've wasted years and thousands of dollars. They
finally "hear about SBI! again." Within a few months, their
SBI!-driven business is up and thriving.
I've written about this before, and it's one of the reasons
that I've asked you to slow down with this issue, print it,
highlight it, and think about it. We literally see small
businesses flourish before our eyes, and if you are serious
about moving forward, now is the time, at the dawn of a new
year, to give this the thought and the determination it
deserves. Commit... then act.
Here's how easily a "miss" can happen. Mr. Blankenspoor
almost missed the message....
------------------------------------------
The package contains way more than expected.
I thought it was just some super-fancy
hosting (with marketing tracking and such),
but it turns out to be a complete guide to
build a business, with strategy and all.
Really worth the money!
I didn't know this before I bought. Was I
just misreading or may this be something to
place on your site (since in my opinion it
really raises the value of the whole package)?
Jacco Blankenspoor
jacco@pluginmedia.nl
Netherlands
------------------------------------------
No, he didn't "misread." It can be difficult to really "get"
how good and complete this process and package of tools are.
SBI! is THAT much farther ahead of everything else.
So, if you are the least bit unsure, the least bit confused,
please do what Mr. Blankenspoor did...
Do not bookmark us.
Do not put the decision off.
Instead, please realize...
You can't lose if you try it.
You can only lose if you do not try it.
As a valued customer, my advice to you is to order today and
try it BEFORE the Buy-1-Get-1 disappears...
https://secure.sitesell.com/build/order.html
And, if you're still not sure, despite the Guarantee and the
proven results, be sure to click on the link that says...
-------------------------------
"Click here ONLY if you have
decided NOT to give SBI! a try."
-------------------------------
I know the Net is a hard place to make a big decision. But
I also know that SBI! works -- we SEE it happen, day in and
day out, at a rate that validates SBI! as THE way for small
business to do business on the Net.
We guarantee that... if you don't like it
for any reason whatsoever, we reimburse you.
This is as close as a sure-thing, no-brainer decision you
will ever have to make. Start 2004 with ONE BIG STEP that
takes you closer to leading the business (and personal life)
that you've always wanted.
-------
---3---
-------
It's The SiteSell Launch Fiesta Bowl!
-- Value Exchange, Part II
-- The FAST Fix Is In!
-- "Now Appearing, Live in the SE HQ... It's Teoma!"
-- Two New Sites and One Update
Seeing as how it's football "bowl" season, we thought we'd
hold our own Fiesta Bowl... the SiteSell Launch Fiesta Bowl,
that is. Four major events in a single issue, and the best
part is you have great, mid-field seats...
-----
#1) Value Exchange, Part II
SBI! recently launched Value Exchange (VE), Part II.
VE II is running full steam ahead. So, if you have already
registered for the free version of VE, check your mailbox
and be on the lookout for the "Regarding Value Exchange"
e-mail. This is the e-mail you receive each time your site
matches another site registered in the Value Exchange.
You have registered for the Value Exchange, right? Right?
Right?
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/
I sure hope so. Even if you are not an SBI! user, Value
Exchange is THE best, time-effective, totally-non-spammy,
REAL way to exchange links with other sites related to yours
AND who WANT to exchange.
Even though the Value Exchange's advanced Status and
Accelerator tools are only available to SBIers, ANYONE can
participate in this program, AND receive relevant site
matches from a "pool" of thousands who WANT to exchange.
If you are not happy with your current traffic stats, or
your site does not have the link popularity it needs for the
SEs to recognize it as a *valuable*, *credible* resource, I
*HIGHLY* recommend you register for this program -- it will
help your site attain its full potential, faster.
-----SIDEBAR-----
I mention above... "if you are NOT an SBI!
user." This would be another serious mistake
if your current site generates less than 200
unique visitors per day -- many SBI! sites
created by "non-geeky" people generate
THOUSANDS of visitors per day. If your site
is not building serious traffic, you need SBI!.
No matter what, though, register for VE now
(it's free)...
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/
For SBI! owners... please note that you
register from Site Central, not the above URL.
-----SIDEBAR-----
Once you have registered, we'll alert you to new matches by
e-mail. Simply take a couple of minutes per week to handle
your new matches. Review new sites listed in the Value
Exchange Matching Sites table -- contact the applicable/good
ones, and delete the others.
In other words...
"Play with your matches" (despite what Mom used to say!). ;-)
Drop the rest.
--
A little background information...
VE focuses on bringing high quality sites together, and
encourages the sort of link exchanging that the SEs love...
Linking for the express purpose of providing valuable,
relevant content to your visitors -- and NOT linking in an
attempt to artificially inflate your link popularity (that's
more likely to get you penalized these days).
A proper link exchange strategy remains an important element
of any Web site's promotional program. The primary goal of
a link exchange is not to drive traffic DIRECTLY (i.e.,
through the links themselves). The key point is that
valuable in-pointing links are a critical element for the
way any SE *perceives* and evaluates your site.
Increasing the number of QUALITY in-pointing links to your
site may convince the SEs that your site is the most
relevant for your search terms. That improves your search
rankings at engines like Google.
Voila! More traffic!
And there is one more big benefit...
Inbound links are the only way to get into engines like
Teoma/Jeeves. (You cannot free-submit to Teoma/ Jeeves.
Their spiders must find you, and they do that through
following in-bound links.)
Following the linking strategy in the SBI! Action Guide and
using Value Exchange will build you a solid linking program
10 times out of 10. Google will love you, as will all the
other engines. It's WIN-WIN-WIN, as usual, with SBI!.
-----
What else launched? Oh yes...
#2) The FAST Fix Is In!
Like AltaVista, FAST/AllTheWeb now requires that a user
manually submits a randomly-generated alpha-numeric code in
order to successfully submit a Web page into their database.
This prevents unscrupulous submission services from
bombarding their database with low quality submissions.
Naturally, no way we want SBIers to go to all that trouble!
So we have made a submission to FAST as quick and easy as
the solution that has been working so well for AltaVista
(which also uses a graphic to fail automated submissions).
And...
As with AltaVista, we respect FAST/AllTheWeb's resources, so
no more than 1 page can be submitted from a single domain in
a 24-hour period. Anytime you build more than one page in a
single session, submit the additional pages manually through
SBI!, one per day, until completed -- just like you do for
AltaVista. Same goes for trying to submit the same page
twice within a 30-day period -- the WorldSubmitter software
won't allow it for two reasons...
1) It's just not necessary
2) It's not fair to FAST to submit too often.
FAST has implemented a graphic-submission process, but...
... The SBI! beat goes on!
-----------------------------------
And what else has launched? Good things come in threes. So...
#3) "Now Appearing, Live in Site Build It!'s SE HQ... It's Teoma!"
The SE HQ has been reporting on Google and all the other
major engines for years now, day in and day out...
submitting, spidering, listings, rankings... all reported...
for all your pages. Invaluable, at-your-fingertips info.
And now we have added a new engine to the SE HQ...
Teoma is a high-quality, crawler-based, proprietary,
critically-lauded and now major SE.
http://www.teoma.com/
It is owned by Ask Jeeves, and provides the crawler-based
listings for the Jeeves Network. Together, they account for
over 10% of search traffic, so they are worth reporting.
http://www.ask.com/
While the addition of any new SE to the SE HQ is a reason
for celebration, the upcoming integration of Teoma into the
SE HQ coincides nicely with the launch of Value Exchange.
Why?
Well...
It can take as much as 6-9 months for Teoma's little
e-arachnoid to FIND your site. This can be accelerated by
establishing your link popularity in the Value Exchange,
trading links with high quality, relevant sites only. (And
SBIers get off to a roaring start by following the
link-building strategies outlined in the SBI! Action Guide.)
Beside Teoma's spider finding you through an inbound link,
there is no way to submit your site directly to Teoma, other
than to pay, either through PositionTech...
http://www.positiontech.com/askjeeves/index.htm
-OR THROUGH-
Ineedhits...
http://ask.ineedhits.com/
The cost? (both services are identical)...
o $30 for the first URL per domain
o $18 for all additional URLs up to 1,000
However, there IS a way that Teoma will add you to their
database for free. IT HAS TO FIND YOUR SITE ON ITS OWN, by
following an in-pointing link. Obviously, then, it's
important that your site has as many *quality* links as
possible to increase the likelihood of this eventuality.
********** Yes, one more VERY IMPORTANT reason to **********
********** register in the SiteSell Value Exchange! *********
The reporting process for Teoma is identical to that of the
other major engines, except for the "N/A" under "Date
Submitted" in the Submit-Spider-List report in the SE HQ
(since it is impossible to free-submit your site to Teoma).
-----SIDEBAR-----
Sounds like another good reason to get your
site built up to 20 pages and register for
the Value Exchange, right? :-)
-----SIDEBAR-----
While you may opt to pay for a page or two from your site to
be included in the Teoma database, don't do so just yet.
Work on building up your link popularity (Value Exchange!),
and see if you can get in for free first!
-----SIDEBAR------
If you ever do decide to pay for submission,
only pay for your home page and perhaps your
next most important page. After that, if
you wait and keep building topical content
pages, the spider will get around to the rest
of your site... sooner or later. :-)
-----SIDEBAR------
If you do pay for a page or two, it's interesting to note
how other pages seem to "fall" into their index within a few
more weeks. Perhaps they (reasonably enough) take such
payment as a sign of a serious site that deserves attention.
Who knows? I'm speculating, but it does seem to work. And
now our Teoma tracking sub-module keeps you up to date with
full spider-tracking, list-checking, and rank-reporting.
Yes, SBI! has just moved one more step ahead of the
competition... competition that is not even there. :-)
And you'll find Ask Jeeves/Teoma not only in the
Submit-Spider-List Report, but also in the Keyword Ranking
Report AND in the Keyword Searches Report (which tells you
how many times each engine finds you for each keyword -- a
revealing way to look at this data!).
Bottom line... If the SBI! HQ reports show you that you
have NOT made it into Teoma yet, work on establishing your
link popularity in the Value Exchange, trading links with
high quality, relevant sites only. (And, of course, follow
the link-building strategies outlined in the Action Guide.)
If you do not want to wait around for Teoma to find you,
submit a page or two at...
http://ask.ineedhits.com/
Or at...
http://www.positiontech.com/askjeeves/index.htm
That will get things rolling... all of it trackable by
SBI!'s new Teoma/Jeeves functionality in the SE HQ.
------
Did I say, "Good things come in threes"? Hmmmm, I've got
one more launch to report. Last, but not least...
#4) Two New Sites and One Update
We'll discuss these two launches a bit further below.
Suffice it to say for now... if you are wondering how you
and your SPECIFIC business circumstances or ideas fit into
SBI!, the answers are at...
http://find.sitesell.com/
This site provides thumbnail sketches of the 12 different
types of small businesses, along with links to THE
business-specific Web site that shows you EXACTLY how SBI!
fits with your individual circumstances. Invaluable.
-----
And we've also recently updated one of my favorite sites...
http://results.sitesell.com/
If you're looking for idea seeds, or have any doubt as to
whether YOU really could do this, don't miss this.
-----
And, if you already have a Web site, we challenge you to
take the "Get to the (Traffic) Point" test...
http://traffic-test.sitesell.com/
It's fun. Compare your results with friends, competition,
and even SBI! sites.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FEATURED ARTICLE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------
---1---
-------
Why SBI! Is Invulnerable to the Infamous Google Dance
Let Others Wring Their Hands... SBIers Ring Their Cash Registers
As I'm sure you're aware, Web marketers have been in an
uproar over the latest "Google dance." What have SBIers
been doing?
Yawning. And building their businesses.
They stick to the SBI! plan. They...
o commit to building great content
o keep on PREselling
o trust the system, both SBI!'s and the engines
o skip the short-term panics
o let others do the hand-wringing and the time-wasting at
all the "speculation" and "conspiracy" forums
And then? They do more of the same...
o keep on building high-value content according to the
SBI! methodology, using SBI! tools.
And it all works out, just fine.
Yes, a few lost some placements -- but they had regained
them within a week or two. Others gained significantly.
Overall, though, it was a big yawn for SBIers.
Paul Colligan, one of the Net's savviest Webmasters and THE
FrontPage guru on the planet, had this to say recently about
SBI!...
------------------------------------------
I feel bad for those Webmasters who are
spending all of their time painstakingly
doing the work that FrontPage and Site Build
It do so much better. SBI! pushes the whole
concept of site-building-hosting-traffic to
the next level, in the same way that WYSIWYG
HTML Editors did (remember when we had to
hand-code HTML??).
Better results for our clients, less effort
by us. Need I say more?
Paul Colligan
President, FrontPageWorld
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
FrontPageWorld.com
Author, Special Edition
Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Publisher: Pearson Education
------------------------------------------
Hundreds of SBIers (well, "tens" anyway!) wrote to ask us if
they were missing something with this "Google dance thing,"
what all the hoopla was about. Allan Gardyne reported on
the experience of his assistant Rupert's two case study
sites during this latest Google dance...
---------------------------------------------
... cheap-computers-guide.com had been No.1
in Google for 15 months for the phrase "cheap
computers" (without the quotes).
After the Google changes, it dropped to
No.12. However, a few days ago, it had risen
to No.5 and then No.3 and now today he's back
at No.1.
On his DJ site, he stayed No.1 for "dj tips"
while his ranking for "dj equipment"
temporarily disappeared. Today, he's No.11.
---------------------------------------------
-----SIDEBAR-----
Have you missed those two case studies? Take
a peek at what a novice can do with SBI!...
http://affiliatesuccess.sitesell.com/pu_case.html
http://affiliatesuccess.sitesell.com/pu_case1.html
And if you're interested in using SBI! for
affiliate marketing, please see...
http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/
If you're thinking about ANY OTHER kind of business...
http://find.sitesell.com/
-----SIDEBAR-----
Yes... poor SBIers... stifled yawns all around the SBI! world.
Bottom line out of all this?
The rest of the world may have suffered, but SBIers don't do
anything "just for the engines." They keep it real... and
keep on working at building REAL businesses.
No games. No gossip. Just roll up the sleeves, use a great
suite of tools, follow a process, and set to work.
Working works. :-)
And I'll give the final word on this whole hysterical Google
Dance issue to Marc Liron, SBI! Certified Webmaster...
--------------------------------------------
This whole Google "issue" has blown up over
here in the UK on TV!
Lots of "experts" with their own opinion as
to what small businesses should be doing to
counter this problem... (Ho.Ho.)
Still, it has given me an opportunity to fire
off lots of SBI related e-mails to add some
balance to the knee-jerk advice being given
out.
As for my own site www.updatexp.com:
I have seen my stats suffer by about 1,100
visits a day for over TWO WEEKS.
But over the last 3 days, traffic is up 1,300
a day. I am actually now doing better!!!
As you say offer lots of quality content and
you have nothing to fear with Google tweaking
things occasionally.
Kind Regards
Marc Liron
www.updatexp.com
marc@updatexp.com
--------------------------------------------
-------
---2---
-------
Strong, Smart and REAL...
Why Value Exchanging is So, So, Important
Why BYOBAM Is Even More Important!
A strong, smart and REAL linking program is becoming more
and more important...
-----SIDEBAR-----
You may have noticed that some of the most
important stuff SBI! does is not the
sexiest... it's just hard, background work
that provides the basis upon which YOU can
build a truly successful online business.
Naturally, SBIers do have ONE obligation...
BYOBAM...
Bring Your Own *BAM*... Brain and Motivation. :-)
I promise... if you *DO* Bring Your Own BAM...
SBI! guarantees your business will go...
BAM!
-----SIDEBAR-----
Why is a strong link program so important?...
1) A solid link popularity score improves your search
results/rankings at engines like Google.
2) It is also the only way to get into engines like
Teoma/Jeeves. (You cannot free-submit to Teoma/
Jeeves. Their spiders must find you, and they
do that by following in-bound links.)
Value Exchange (VE) greatly accelerates link recruitment,
maintenance and monitoring of your Value Exchange program,
all while staying REAL. The matching-and-managing tools are
the part of VE that you see (i.e., the foreground). Only
SBIers have the full management tools, yet even the (free)
matching functionality is invaluable.
-----
So even if you do not own SBI! yet...
Register for VE as soon as you have at least 20 pages....
http://value-exchange.sitesell.com/
It's free. And the match notification is a fast, easy way
to develop quality, REAL, link exchanges. Naturally, we
hope that when you try just one small part of Value
Exchange, which itself is just one of 50+ modules and
sub-modules, you'll realize the tremendous value of the
entire suite of process and tools...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/value.html
http://buildit.sitesell.com/compare/compare1.html
https://secure.sitesell.com/build/order.html
-----
Beyond the SBIers "link management tools," SBI! users ALSO
benefit from some powerful automated link management
functionality that work constantly in the background.
This new technology, powered by a unique bot...
1) finds all other pages that link to you by scouring your
site's log files -- you likely don't know about many of
these inbound links to you, but Value Exchange's little
bot-pet (affectionately called "GoGetIt!") does.
2) finds all other pages that link to you by querying the
Search Engines -- yup, GoGetIt! does that, too.
3) monitors, tracks, and manages all pages that link to you
-- yes, GoGetIt! is one tireless little bot.
GoGetIt! analyzes the links and submits the best ones to each
engine that is missing each URL from its respective index,
accelerating the "discovery" of these pages by the engines.
This is a bit tricky to understand, so here's an example...
Your site has a link from abc.com/abc.html -- GoGetIt! found
that in your log files. Google doesn't know about it, and
it's a high-quality link. So GoGetIt! submits to Google.
It only ever does this once (GoGetIt! never submits the same
"foreign" URL to the same engine twice) -- once Google
spiders the abc.com URL, it finds that link to YOU.
Bingo!
Powerful stuff. A rising tide. Not sexy, but it works,
and it works the way engines love it to work.... naturally.
Value Exchange has only been launched for a week or so. And
even the savviest of SBIers are "blown away"...
---------------------------------------------------
Ken,
I am "blown away" with the development you guys have put
into this latest "part" of SBI....
How many times can we keep saying the best just got
better..?
You have actually written a "bot" to find those incoming
links NOT registered with the major SE's.. AND then submit
them on our behalf... I can not think of another company
that does this sort of thing for its customers!
Even when the "Big Players" catch onto what you are
achieving with SBI! (if they ever do!), I can't see them
developing a product with this much focus, on the small
business succeeding online.
No wonder SiteSell is now in the top 300 at Alexa.com!
AGAIN.... thanks for ALL you guys are doing with SBI!.
Merry Christmas to you and yours :-)
Kind Regards
Marc Liron
www.updatexp.com
marc@updatexp.com
---------------------------------------------------
... which really helped to make those pre-launch long days
and short nights all that more worthwhile! :-)
Value Exchange is one of those technologies that builds
traffic... while the SBIers builds business. THAT is the
way e-commerce SHOULD be done.
-------
---3---
-------
Laser-Beam SBI! To Your Online Business (or Planned Business)
Find YOUR Personal Best Approach at find.sitesell.com
Not sure how SBI! could help you? Not sure where your
business fits in? Not sure what your business is? Just
thinking about it? Then please... visit this site...
http://find.sitesell.com/
I'm sure you'll find the EXACT fit for you, whatever your
business (or planned new venture) happens to be...
o Infopreneur... InfoPublishing
o Already Have an E-commerce/Corporate Site
o Webmaster
o Affiliate Marketer
o LOCAL Business with LOCAL Clients
o Service Seller
o Network Marketer
o Online Auction Seller
o Referrer/Finder
o Hard Goods Vendor
o E-goods Merchant
o Sales/Rentals Agent
Often, the greatest barrier to making the right decision is
not having the correct, exact, and needed information. This
site will point you in the right direction so that you
understand exactly what SBI! will do for you... and why you
will succeed.
http://find.sitesell.com/
And remember, if hundreds of others have done this...
http://results.sitesell.com/
... you can, too.
-------
---4---
-------
Take the "Get to the Point" Test Today
Another new Web site, BRAND-SPANKING new. And fun, too!
Do YOU already have a Web site? Yes? Put it to the test.
Take the "Get to the Alexa Point Test" at...
http://traffic-test.sitesell.com
Then compare YOUR test results with a "few" sample SBI!
sites at our newly updated...
http://results.sitesell.com/
When was the last time you saw 250 or so "sample sites"? We
decided to have a bit of fun with this and added more sites,
and then ordered them all according to their Alexa ranking
in each category. Take a look...
http://results.sitesell.com/
(Remember, most of these sites are built by ordinary small
business people, just like you. You CAN achieve the same
results -- all you have to do is BYOBAM.)
Compare the above SBI! results against the "success stories"
of any other small business Web hosting company in the
world, for example...
http://www.interland.com/sb/testimonials
No matter who you compare against, no other company provides
the process, the tools, everything you need to...
Build a BUSINESS.
-------
---5---
-------
Wishing You An Outstanding 2004
But Remember, 2004 Won't Just "Happen"... BYOBAM!
What a fantastic year it's been.
I've believed from my earliest days on the Net that it was a
liberating medium. It has the potential to free you from a
9-to-5, Monday-Friday life of working for someone else. It
empowers you to determine your own destiny... to own your
own business... to own your very own life.
Lead a life of passion that every human being SHOULD live...
... DESERVES to live.
For that to happen though, the complexity and technological
barriers have to disappear. And one of my favorite word-
smiths on the Web says it best about SBI!...
------------------------------------------
I was working with a product called 'Site
Build It!' and had this flashback to my
training center days. I was suddenly struck
by the fact that this site-building tool
does almost everything that a group of
trainers and hundreds of pages of manuals did
back at that training center. And, in many
ways, it does it better.
Nick Usborne
excessvoice.com
nick@nickusborne.com
Author, Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade
ISBN: 0071380396
------------------------------------------
Yes, SBI! does do it better.
But it takes work. Yes, it removes the complexity. Yes, it
makes the technology disappear. So it needs LESS work.
LESS headache. LESS tedium. You get to spend your time on
building your business, not fighting tools and tech.
But it still takes WORK.
Because this is about building a REAL business. There is no
get-rich-quick promise here, only the promise that *IT*
works if you do.
*YOU* have to BYOBAM.
I wish you a happy, healthy, passionate and ultimately
prosperous 2004. I wish you the time and the courage to
reach your dreams.
See you in 2004. And remember, when I do see you on the
other side of turning over the calendar...
BAM!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~SITESELL PRODUCTS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
---------
SBI! URLs
---------
o The Site Build It! Summary Site
"Why build JUST a Web site...
when you COULD build a Web BUSINESS?"
http://www.sitesell.com/buildit/
o "Find YOUR Small Business (Or Idea)"
No matter what your small business
(or planned new venture) may be...
o Infopreneur... InfoPublishing
o Already Have an E-commerce/Corporate Site
o Webmaster
o Affiliate Marketer
o LOCAL Business with LOCAL Clients
o Service Seller
o Network Marketer
o Online Auction Seller
o Referrer/Finder
o Hard Goods Vendor
o E-goods Merchant
o Sales/Rentals Agent
Visit this site to see EXACTLY how you and SBI!
fit to perfection and profits...
http://www.sitesell.com/find/
o Quick Tour Slide Show
A fast step-by-step demo of how SBI! works
http://www.sitesell.com/quicktour/
o For Webmasters Only...
http://www.sitesell.com/webmaster/
o SBI! is All About "Profitable RESULTS"
Here's one way to look at SBI! results...
http://buildit.sitesell.com/sbi-businesses/traffic-alexa.html
And here is another... hundreds of successful SBIers...
http://www.sitesell.com/results/
o Local Radio Goes Global... Catch Ken "Live"...
http://www.sitesell.com/seminars/
o Put your site (or sites of friends or competitors!) to the
"Get to the Alexa Point Test"
http://www.sitesell.com/traffic-test/
o Get a Certified SBI! Webmaster to do it for you...
http://www.sitesell.com/directory/
o Have a question? Ask an actual SBI! owner...
http://www.sitesell.com/question/
-----------------------------------------
SITESELL.COM HOME PAGE AND OTHER PRODUCTS
-----------------------------------------
o SiteSell Home Page
http://www.sitesell.com/
o Make Your Site SELL! 2002
"The definitive work on making any Web site SELL!"
http://www.sitesell.com/myss/
o Make Your Knowledge Sell!
"Turn knowledge into income -- sell your brain on the Net."
http://www.sitesell.com/myks/
o Make Your Price Sell!
"Price with complete confidence & double your Net profits."
http://www.sitesell.com/myps/
o Make Your Words Sell!
"Want to sell MORE? Become an e-persuader."
http://www.sitesell.com/myws/
o Make Your Net Auction Sell!
"An e-biz in every closet... Get into Auction Action!"
http://www.sitesell.com/mynas/
-----------------------------------------------
Free SBI! Resources
-----------------------------------------------
o SpamCheck Report
Now your readers can stay out of the "Junk Mail Folder."
For this free service, please visit...
http://www.sitesell.com/spamcheck/
o SiteSell Value Exchange
"The World's ONLY Value Exchanger"
Exchange links in a way that search engines LOVE...
http://www.sitesell.com/value-exchange/
-----------------------------------------------
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.
The following are available as SiteSell-quality e-books, via
direct download from the URLs below....
o Affiliate Masters Course
Become a high-earning affiliate champion.
http://www.sitesell.com/aff-masters/
o Service Sellers Masters Course
Attract new clients from around the world...
Or from around the block
http://www.sitesell.com/services/
o Make Your Net Auction Sell, The Masters Course
Start and grow a profitable Net auction business.
MYNAS! --> Now Free!
http://www.sitesell.com/mynas-masters/
o Webmaster BUSINESS Master Course
Show Webmasters How to Run The BUSINESS of WebMastering...
Including, Of Course, Using the Ultimate PRODUCTIVITY Tool.
http://www.sitesell.com/webmasterbusiness/
The following courses are offered via e-mail only...
o InfoProducts Masters Course
How to brainstorm, create, produce, and sell
your very own infoproduct online
tims@sitesell.net
o Pricing Masters Course
"How much money are YOU leaving on the table?"
tpms@sitesell.net
o Netwriting Masters Course
Want to sell more? Write better.
twms@sitesell.net
And here is "The #1 E-commerce Trio of E-zines"...
It begins at the Beverly Hills Hotel,
and gets better from there!
http://www.sitesell.com/articles/
-----------------------------------------
SiteSell.com's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program
-----------------------------------------
o SiteSell.com's 5 Pillar Affiliate Program
Graduated from the Aff Master's Course? Get your PhD, Free!
And Earn Substantial Lifetime Income at the Same Time.
http://www.sitesell.com/affiliates/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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...
http://www.sitesell.com/unsubscribe-ss.html
If you use more than one e-mail address, be sure to use the
address that received THIS issue, or we will not be able to
find you in the database if you enter a different address.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
(c) copyright 2004 SiteSell.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~