Web Marketing Ezine

March 19th., 2003               Issue #221                ISSN 1444-2027

"Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language."

Read the whole Cluetrain Manifesto at http://www.webmarketingezine.com/cluetrain.htm

Online Spending Booming, But...

Online spending is booming. Online retail sales in the US exceeded USD45 billion in 2002, reports E- commerce Times. 

"According to new figures released by the US Department of Commerce, online retail sales totalled USD14.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2002, a rise of 28 percent on the preceding quarter.

N.B. The Departments figures do not include online travel or other ticket sales or money spent through online brokerages."

The fascinating thing is to reflect on how much business isn't done online. The same Department of Commerce figures show that 98.4% of all retail sales are still made through traditional channels.

Adding appropriate online techniques to an existing 'dirt-world' business, and you have a formula for growing a business strongly. If you run an offline business, I'd recommend you read Sharon Fling's great e-book 

MailWasher- A Very Useful Anti-Spam Tool

It's amazing how much garbage I receive in my email Inbox each day. What's really annoying is the number of viruses that come with this rubbish. One action I've decided to take, is to use an excellent anti-spam tool, MailWasher.

MailWasher is a free program that resides on your computer. It intercepts your email before your email client sees it. This gives you a chance to preview the email without downloading it, preventing viruses getting onto your computer. At this point, you can;

• check the email for known viruses 

• check the sender against public blacklists

• check the sender against your personal blacklist

• check the sender against your personal 'friend's' list

• choose to just delete the email

• choose to 'bounce' the email back to the sender- acting as if your email address was not a valid one. This can result in your address being removed from the spammers' lists. That's great!

• at the end of this process, open your email client, and read the emails you have decided to accept

I'd suggest that the MailWasher Anti-Spam tool is well worth a serious look.

Expired Domain Names Search

The following item was published in the latest edition Dennis Gaskill's excellent 'Almost A Newsletter'

"This WhoIs.net feature lets you search for expired domain names containing a keyword or keywords of your choosing. There are sites that charge a membership fee for you to read their own limited list of expired domain names, so being able to search ALL the expired domains for ANY keyword - for FREE - is a pretty good thing.

In addition to finding good (and bad) domain names that are not already taken, the bonus is that many will have some built-in traffic to them because they may already be listed in search engines, have incoming links to them, and be in people's bookmarks.

On the downside, some of them may have developed a bad reputation with consumers or search engines, so if you use this method to find a domain name, I'd recommend placing a prominent announcement on your index page that the domain is under new management or something to that effect."

I'd also note that most of the domains listed have disappeared from the search engines. Most, not all- there's still gold in there! Check it out for yourself at WhoIs.net's expired domain names site. And, why not get your own copy of Dennis' free newsletter?

Web Marketing Ezine is enjoying a surge in our Search Engine rankings, and our traffic. We owe much of it to the advice of Dan Thies, now available to you in this excellent book.

Finally - a fast, simple, and effective system that targets your best customers and brings them to you for free. Get Search Engine Fast Start

Advertising or promotional costs divided by the number of click-throughs. For example, if your company spends $30,000 to purchase 1 million impressions for on an online ad campaign, and the ad achieves a 0.5 percent click-through rate resulting in 5,000 visits to your Web site, your acquisition cost equals $6 per person. 

-Source: NetLingo- The Internet Dictionary http://www.netlingo.com
The NetLingo Dictionary book is 528-pages of over 2500 terms. Learn more...

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4. A Touch of Humor

 

Marketing Two-Upmanship

A retailer was dismayed when a competitor selling the same type of product opened next-door to him, displaying a large sign proclaiming "Best Deals".

Not long after he was horrified to find yet another competitor move in next-door, on the other side if his store. It's large sign was even more disturbing- "Lowest Prices".

After his initial panic, and concern that he would be driven out of business, he looked for a way to turn the situation to his marketing advantage. Finally, an idea came to him. Next day, he proudly unveiled a new and huge sign over his front door. It read,

"Main Entrance"!

Enjoy over 30 more marketing jokes on our new Marketing Jokes pages.

5. Classified Ads

Ezine Advertising WORKS! Showcase your ad. in "The Human Face of
Web Marketing", at just $20 for four insertions. Just go to
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/advertise.shtml

6. Free Training Courses

Increase your knowledge; hone your skills; improve your results! Take advantage of some of the finest FREE training courses on the Web by visiting our Free Training Course listing at;
http://www.webmarketingezine.com/freetrainingcourses.shtml

You'll find courses on IT, Computing, Software, Business and Personal Development. With over 35 courses to choose from, you're sure to find something!

7. Feature Articles

Internet Advertising FAQ's

by Shelley Lowery

If you're marketing a product on the Internet, developing a successful advertising campaign is an important part of your success. Here are the answers to some of the most common internet advertising questions...

Get Free Publicity by 'Talking The Talk' 

by George McKenzie

When you're trying to persuade a reporter to do a story about you or your business, you're much more likely to succeed if you know how to 'talk the talk'...


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               Web Marketing Ezine is published by John Payne