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Is your site easy to
navigate?
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
When designing your website, your main
goal is to lead the visitor to where you
would like them to go and also keeping
the site easy to navigate.
If you sell real estate, you would want
to make it easy for a person to locate a
property in a certain area or neighborhood
but you would also want them to see
your main featured property.
A great way to show off your features
and what you have to offer for any type
business is to have the navigation bars
at the top of every page.
It need not be intrusive, just a list of
the various items or places that people
can see or visit on your site.
We have done this with TheDiscountPrinter.com
and it seems to help our visitors greatly.
We also have an on-site search engine
which will help anyone find whatever they
want on our site.
If someone is searching for "printed post-it notes,"
all they have to do is type that into the search
box and they will be shown a list of pages on
our site that offer the printed post-it notes.
Same thing for any item from printed pens to
U.S. flag items.
By having the navigation bars at the top of each
page, it not only makes it easier for the visitor
to find certain items, it also allows us to show
a list of what we have to offer and in turn, possibly
getting the customer interested in more of our
products. It puts ideas in their head that a search
would not have provided.
Someone may want custom printed frisbees and
in turn see our custom printed sunglasses and
think they would be a great match for a beach
party promotion or family reunion, and we are
able to capture both sales, rather than just the
one item. I can't tell you how many web companies
use frisbees to promote their sites.
Here is a great idea, too:
When the person visits our frisbee page, we
offer them custom printed sun glasses or key tags
or water bottles, etc. These are items that fit in
well together.
By having the navigation bars on every page,
this does the trick for you.
If you sell bicycles, you can also sell baby seats
or the ubiquitous "razor scooter." By putting
navigation bars at the top of the page listing all
the items, someone who is looking for a bike
seat, for instance, will also notice you offer bike
seats for babies and they may purchase
right on the spot.
This is a great way to upsell and it helps the
site visitor navigate comfortably and easily
around your site. This is a sure bet for repeat
business. The easier and more comfortable
a person feels, the more likely they are to
return and recommend you to friends.
To see our navigation structure, you can visit:
http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
. You'll notice
we have put the navigation bars lower on the
home page, but as you go through the site,
you will see the same bars at the top of each
page.
Making your site user friendly helps everyone.
It helps the visitor immensely and it helps your
bottom line, too!
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Increase sales with proper email procedures
By Tom Falco, (c) 2002
How long does it take for you to answer
email? Are you right on top of things or
do you make your customers wait for
an answer to their requests?
The rule of thumb is 24 hours. But the
sooner the better. Many large companies,
well-known companies, I may add, feel
that they can rest on their laurels and answer
email questions when they get around to it.
Most likely they are overloaded with mail
and it takes awhile, but for a customer waiting
for an answer, this is no consolation.
I can't tell you how many times I have
gone to a competitor because email
was not answered in a timely manner.
I emailed one company about buying
some connector wires for my new DVD
player. They took a week to respond.
In that time I got frustrated and returned
their brand to the store and purchased
another brand with better customer service.
I returned the whole DVD player just because
I couldn't get the proper info on a $9.00
wire.
Most of you are running small businesses
on or off the internet. There is no excuse for
you not to get back to people right away when
you are emailed for information.
Whether it is a quote request, a question about
a certain product or service or a comment, it is
very important to answer in a timely manner.
The success of your business depends on it.
Email is the top way that people communicate
on the internet. It is the way to get sales and
customers. People illegally harvest email
addresses to spam their messages to anyone
that they can. So when you are legitimately
receiving email from someone interested
enough in your product or service to contact
you, it is a great idea to respond right away
and keep the on-going correspondence in
order to get the sale!
I have emailed politicians of all sorts. Our local
mayor has never once responded to my emails.
Even an auto-response would be fine, but I
have never once received any type of response.
You can be damn sure that in the next election
he will not be getting my vote.
And this is the way people will feel about you
and your business if you don't respond to email
and don't respond in a timely manner.
The governor actually responds and right away!
It most likely is someone in his office doing this,
but it makes me feel like I am being heard and
that he cares about my comments. This is a
very good thing. This is how you should make
your customers feel.
Laptops are perfect for this. Even if you are away
on vacation or even for a long weekend, use the
laptop. Answer emails. Even if you have to
follow up later, at least acknowledge that you
received the mail. And I don't mean with an
auto-responder, I mean with something like:
"Dear Mrs. Smith,
Thank you for writing. As soon as I am able
to look into your concern, I will get back with you."
Or:
"Dear Jack,
I received your quote request. We will have a quote
for you by the end of tomorrow. Thank you for
allowing us to bid on this job."
It is that easy. Then you can go back to what you
were doing and respond in full to the quote or
whatever at a later time.
Try it. It improves customer service.
And increases sales.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
An easy way to add new pages
to the search engines
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
A great way to get new
web pages onto
the search engines is to make sure they
are linked to your home page and any
other pages you have on any other sites.
Periodically, the search engines "re-crawl"
each web site to make sure pages are
current and up-to-date.
This is great because as you make changes
to your pages, meta-tag, titles, etc, the engines
capture the new items and changes, keeping
your listing current. They will also add any new
pages and remove any dead pages.
Many times you have added a new page and
find it necessary to then submit that page to
the major search engines. But don't.
It is much easier to let the engines crawl the site
and just pick up all new pages and links.
Google is excellent at this and so is All The Web.
Since many other search engines use Google's
and All The Web's listings, they will automatically
show up on the other search engines as well.
Make sure the link to the new page is on the
home page. It doesn't have to be prominent.
If there is no link to the page from anywhere
on the site, the crawler will miss the page.
In many cases a page is intended to draw
visitors as a "gateway" page. Not meant to
be clicked on from the home page. But it is
a good idea to put a link on the homepage.
And if you have other websites, I would suggest
you put a link from them to the new page, also.
For a limited time, only. Just until the page
is crawled and added to the listings on the
search engines.
You can place the link in a small area of the
home page, keep it at the bottom and keep it
small (maybe 8 pt.) and just have it there for
the web crawlers. Do the same with any other
web sites you have, just put a link to the one
page and leave it until the page is crawled.
Again: Even if the page is meant to be a
"gateway" page and only have one way in,
not including the home page, it seems to be a
good idea to put a small link on the home page.
Keep it small and low key if necessary, but this
is a vital step in getting the new page listed
fast.
Important: Never "hide" a link by making it the
same color as the background of the page.
Search engines don't like this and you will be
penalized if they find out.
Just keep the link small and unobtrusive. It
will do the trick.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Gateway pages are the way to
the top of the search engines
Using gateway pages is the one main way
to get your web site to the top of the search
engines.
The search engines are trying to be more
and more relevant every day. They are
tired of the tricks people use to get visitors
and they are catching on and penalizing the
scammers by removing their pages altogether.
One great was is through gateway pages.
Gateway pages are pages that people use
to enter your site other than through the
home page. They are dedicated to one
subject or item. From the gateway page
you can send visitors to the home page,
but the gateway is used to get them to
the site to begin with.
For instance, we sell promotional items and
have pages set up for each item. It works
out that way for ordering reasons, but those
are gateway pages. You should create
gateway pages if you don't have them.
We sell too many products to hope to get
every visitor in through the home page, but
as people search for certain items, they find
them through our gateway pages.
We have pages set up for promotional pens,
post-it notes, frisbees, sunglasses, golf items,
and so on.
Now each page needs to be relevant to what
the visitor is searching for. So when a person
goes to a search engine and types in "3M
post-it notes" or printed "golf balls", each page
containing that content will show up. The more
relevant it is to the key word search, the closer
to the top of the search engine it will be.
This is a no-brainer for items like the above, but
we have found that one of our largest sources of
income is through family and school reunions. So
we have a page or two dedicated just to reunions.
And we are actually at the top of the search engines
under "reunions," "reunion items" and phrases
like these! According to our web page stats, the
reunion gateway page is the third most popular
gateway entrance page after pens and post-it notes!
So if you are selling real estate, for instance, how
about setting up a page maybe on real estate
insurance questions or mortgage questions or other
related things that people are interested in?
If you sell pet supplies, how about setting up pages
dedicated to each type of animal. Set up one page
for cats, one for dogs and on and on. The advantage
to this is that every page is a gateway page and the
more gateway pages you have, the more visitors
you will have to your site.
Each page should have navigation bars to allow the
visitor to find the rest of the site. But getting them
to the site is the main thing.
There are four important things that need to work together.
If you use all four of these methods and intermingle them,
then you should be at the top or near top of the search
engines in no time. Most of your competitors are not
doing this and you will be way ahead of the game.
1) CONTENT
The content has to be what the search words are
pointing to. If the search word is "business cards,"
then the page must deal with business cards. Period.
2) TITLE
The title of the page must match the subject. For
business cards, you could put as title: "Business
cards, business cards printers, color business
cards, calling cards, cards printers," and so on.
Notice we use plurals. This is important. Use plurals
so it covers all types of searches.
The title is what comes up at the bar on top
of the page. Check out most web pages and
see what shows there. Some go on and on,
right off the page. That is ok.
A realtor could put: "Real estate, realtors, houses
for sale, local realtors, rentals, condos," etc.
See how this works?
Don't leave the title blank. So many web pages
come up with "Page 1" as the title. What a waste.
3) KEY WORDS
These are hidden as part of the meta tags
(we will go into meta tags in our next issue).
The key words are words that you would think
people would be searching for to find your site.
Search engines like Overture and Google offer
key word suggestion tools and show what
popular phrases or words people are currently
using to find any certain item or subject.
For business cards you would of course repeat
the words used in the title (this is important), but you
would also use other things. Put phrases or words
people might use like "personalized cards", even
"biz cards", spell the words wrong if you think
people will do that. We get more hits through
"stationary" than the correct spelling of
"stationery." Honest.
4) HEADINGS
The headings should match the title subject
and words. Headings are created as part of
the meta tags.
Headings should match the title words and
key words. There is a theme here. All the
important words should match.
Headings are seen on the page. You would
indicate through the meta tags which words are
the headings, but you would not be able to
tell by looking at the page. The headings aren't
necessarily the headlines on the page, but the
most important words.
Use the headings wisely and use them often on
the page. Try to repeat them without being obvious.
Search engines don't like repeating for no reason
at all.
You could call the page: "Personalized Post-It Notes,"
and then go on to say: "We pride ourselves on printing
personalized printed post it notes. Post its are the
best form of advertising. We are proud to sell only
3M brand post-it notes. Order some post-it notes today!"
Get the headings to sort of blend into the page by
using them rather than being so obvious like we do
above. You could use the word "post-it notes" as
headings simply by using it as part of a pricing chart
and having "post-it note prices" be part of the heading.
Just use it as you would normally on the page, and in
the meta tags, just make it a "heading." No one will
know, but when the search engines crawl the page,
they will find the word as a "heading" and use it as that.
We keep repeating the words post-it notes. Notice we
use all different phrases from "post its" to "post it notes"
and "post-it notes," with and without the hyphen. People
use all types of spellings to find this product. This is
important as part of the key words and also title.
If there are many ways that people would use to spell
or find your product like "stationery" or "stationary" or
"post its" or "post-it notes," then use them.
One good thing to do is at the very bottom of the page,
add some key words in small type and make them a
heading. They can be in 8 point type. The reasoning for
this is that they sort of tie in the whole page. The page
starts with the title at top, using the key words and goes
through the key words in the meta tags, the headings,
the content and finally the headings again at the bottom
of the page. One tidy little package.
The search engines love this! This is a relevant page
and when visitors are searching for the subject, this is
what comes up, the exact subject they are looking for.
This will bring you to the top and keep you at the top of
the search engines. All search engines are thrilled to have
their visitors search for a certain subject and find it on the
first try without having to go from site to site searching the
list for what they want. This makes that particular search
engine look accurate and right on, and it will bring you
customers. It all works hand-in-hand.
Remember, search engines need relevant material for
their visitors. They need you as much as you need them.
What would a search engine be without content?
Think about it.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Meta tags: The most important part of a web page
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
Meta tags are probably the most important part
of your web page. Most, if not all search
engines use these hidden messages to rank
and place your site on their listings.
The meta tags are read mostly by web-crawlers
but humans at various search engines use them
as well to find which category each page belongs
in and what you are trying to promote on each
page.
Every page of your website should have complete
meta tags, not just the home page.
What are meta tags?
Meta tags consist of the Title of the page, the
Description and most importantly the Key Words.
They are "hidden" when looking at the site on line
but visible when seeing the "source" or HTML code.
The meta tags go right below the <head> of the page
and above the <body>.
The web-crawlers read the meta tags and use them
as a road map as to what you are promoting on
the various pages of your site.
These three elements should be tied together
in format and style so they compliment each
other and reinforce the content of your web page.
We sell promotional items. So let's use this as
an example. The home page is a bit general
so lets go to one of our item pages: Post-It Notes.
TITLE
For the title we use: "Personalized 3M Post-It Notes printers,
Custom Printed Post It Notes and Cube Pads printing,
Promotional Logos Items at TheDiscountPrinter.com"
This is what you will see at the top of that page in
the bar when you call up the web page. It is the
actual title of the page. It is long, but that is okay.
Many titles run off the page. Their main purpose is
to announce the page and "frame it" with the important
subject words.
We use our name too, TheDiscountPrinter.com simply
because people may type in the name to find us
after seeing an ad or after visiting in the past. So we
want them to find us by name as well as subject.
DESCRIPTION
The description is important because many search
engines use the description as the wording under
your listing on their search pages.
If you call up our Post-It Notes page, you will see:
"Save! Below wholesale custom printed 3M Post-It
notes printed, printing promotional post its,
sticky pads"
This is what people will see under our listing of
Post-It Notes on the search engines. Note that the
description mentions the product several times
and in several ways, also it matches what the title
says. This is important to tie the two together.
KEY WORDS
This is a very important element of the meta tags.
The key words are the actual words and phrases
that people will use to find your page or site.
Tie the words in with the title and the description.
Use the same phrases in all three elements.
For our post-it notes page, we use: Where do I find,
get, search for personalized 3M post-it notes printer,
logo post it notes printer, post it notes printing printer,
post its, personal logos post-its, stickies notes, printing
sticky notes, stickey pads, sticky pads, business office
post it stickies, stickys, discount printing, custom printed
post-it notes, labels, post-it notes, screen printing"
Note that we use all kinds of phrases and words that
people would use to find our page. Note that we use
phrases such as "where do I find...."
Believe it or not, many people type in "where do
I find post-it notes" and this total phrase comes up
as number one if it matches what we have as key
word phrases.
We don't list any of our other products here like
pens, key tags, labels, etc. because they are not
relevant to this page. Keep the key words
relevant. Keep the page relevant.
The more pages and items you sell, the more
opportunity you have for listings in the engines.
Each product and page is another "gateway"
into your site.
Search engines are striving daily to keep all the
listings relevant and the more relevant you are
the higher you will be on the engines.
If you are promoting post-it notes, then post-it notes
should be the subject of the page. Not printed pens,
for example.
Put a comma between all key word phrases.
One more element that is not part of the meta tags
but does tie into the meta tags is the headlines
on the page.
Each page should have headlines. This is not just
large type. This is actual type designated as
headline copy. It can be any size.
If you use FrontPage to design your site, then there
is an actual area where you would designate
headlines for the page. I am sure this is the same
with Dreamweaver and other web design tools.
The headlines should tie in with the meta tags. Use
the headlines properly. Don't waste words and don't
overdo words. But try to repeat words.
The headline of our post-it notes page is:
"Personalized - Custom Printed -
Original 3M Post-It Notes - Post Its
We print these sticky pads here. We offer all sizes and
you may cover the whole Post It pad if you wish!"
Notice we use the words post-it notes, post its, etc.
several ways and several times. The headline when
seen on the page is not necessarily large type.
It can be small type, but it is designated a headline.
This ties in with the three elements of the meta tags:
The title, the description and the key words. If all
of these elements match up and truly are the content
of the page you are promoting, then there will be
no problem getting to the top of the search engines.
Remember: Relevance is the key. The web page
must be relevant. It must provide what you are
saying it provides and the important part is actually
saying what it provides through the three elements
of the meta tags and the headlines.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
The power of calendar advertising
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
One of the oldest and most common forms
of advertising and marketing is calendars.
Calendar advertising goes back 100 years
or more and it is still a popular method of
marketing today. Why? Because it works.
What other method has your ad or message
in front of your prospects 365 days a year?
Calendars are easy to order and they come in
so many styles and shapes.
Wall calendars are by far the most popular. One
reason is that they are placed up on a wall and
anyone in the vacinity will see the calendar with
your ad printed right there.
Others prefer desk calendars, pocket calendars
and even magnetic calendars, all of them great
ways to share your message with clients.
The best part about calendars, especially wall
calendars are that they come in many themes
so there is sure to be something that relates
to your business.
There are animal and nature calendars, outer space,
cars, fish, religious, puppies, flowers and so on.
There is even one very popular calendar that displays
old barns in the U.S. Each month has a beautiful barn
photograph in vivid color.
"I Love America" calendars are very hot right now
and are very appreciated by customers and clients.
A classy way to go are pocket planners. These are
the leather bound carry around calendars which have
your name, website address or whatever foil printed
on the cover. This is a very elegant corporate gift.
They make a good impression on anyone receiving
them.
Everyone uses calendars and everyone appreciates
the gesture of receiving a nice gift like this. It's practical
and makes people feel good. They remember you for
remembering them.
A wall calendar with just your web address printed
large on the bottom is a perfect marketing tool.
TheDiscountPrinter.com offers a very large line of
calendars and most ship in 5-10 business days. So
you can place your order today and be giving out
calendars as holiday gifts right away!
To see the line of popular, colorful and fun calendars,
please go to: http://www.thediscountprinter.com./Calendars.htm
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Make your business cards work for you
Tom Falco (c) 2002
Are your business cards working for you or
are they just there. Blah. Doing nothing?
Sure, they are great, they are given to
clients and customers so that they can
have all your info like phone numbers,
fax, etc. But are they really being used to
get new business?
Take your card out. Look at it. Is it ugly?
I bet it consists of the name of the business,
your name, the phone, fax and maybe a stupid
little clip art logo somewhere in the corner.
BORING!
Why not use the cards to actually get you new
business?
The cards you have now are great for people
who you already deal with. It does have all of
your contact info and that is great. But what about
using business cards as mini post cards? They
can be used to drum up new business.
Business cards should be colorful and come
right to the point. If you are promoting your
website, why not have the website printed
huge on the card; from one side to the other
across the whole card?
If it is a web name that explains the site, that
is all you need. For example:
www.balloonrides.com would seem to tell
the story. Nothing else is needed, except
maybe a phone number.
My brothers buy and sell houses. They buy
run down houses, renovate them and resell them.
Their card says simply: "We buy Houses"
and has the phone number. What else is needed?
Some friends own a society magazine. When they
go out and take photos at charity events, they hand
out a color card with photos of the covers of the
magazine and it says: "Look in our next issue for
your photo!" This brings in many new subscribers.
Think of your new business card as a two or three
line ad. Imagine you only have two or three lines
to tell the story.
Some examples:
Joe's Bike Shop
Best Deals on the Net
www.joesbikes.com
Quality Car Wash
We come to you.
555-5555
or how about just the web address like:
www.PartyGowns.com
www.TheBestRealtors.com
www.Condos.com
www.PetSupplyStore.com
These web addresses are self-explanatory
and there is no need for anything else if
all you want is people to visit your website.
Regular formatted business cards are great
for regular clients who need your telephone
numbers and other info, but for drumming up
new business, think outside the box. Think in
a new way.
TheDiscountPrinter.com has many great new
business card templates and designs and you
can easily create a masterpiece on line.
There are colorful backgrounds that will fit
any need and all you do is type in your info
and it is printed right on the colorful background.
These are perfect for leaving behind. Put them
on bulleting boards at the super market or in
coffee shops. Leave them at the doctor's office
waiting room, in restaurants, etc.
These new style colorful cards which come right
to the point will be picked up by people and used.
Try it. It is an inexpensive way to get the word out
and it works.
Below you will also see one of our most popular
past articles on writing two-line ads. This article
has run many times in many publications all over
the world. Use it for your business card creation.
To see business card templates and to order
and design your cards right on line, go to:
http://www.thediscountprinter.com/businesscards.htm
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
ARE YOU LOSING BUSINESS
WITH YOUR FAQ PAGE?
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
The most important and best way to
communicate on the internet is via email.
Even if people visit your website, it is
important to get them communicating
through email. It is said that it takes some
people 7 to 9 communictions or visits
with you and your site to place an order,
so email communication is an important thing.
In fact, one email can easily do the trick
and get you business.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) pages are
a very good idea for large sites that don't have
time to take customers emails or phone calls,
but for small businesses on the web, it is
imperitive to communicate with your clients.
FAQ pages may help answer questions, but that
may not keep the customer at your site. If a person
has to call or email you for information, it is an
opening to communication which is beneficial
for both parties.
In our business we keep answering the same
questions over and over again and I am always
tempted to put the answer right on the order page:
"NO, WE DON'T HAVE THAT." But I find that
by emailing the customer back and telling them
that "we don't have that, but we have this, why
not try this?" it seems to work.
We opened a line of communication, they in
turn speak with a real person and take our
advice and look at the other product whereas
an FAQ page or answer on line would have
just had the visitor click off and go to another
similar site for what they wanted.
Many of you may feel that the customer will
not bother to inquire and just go away, but it
seems that people are persistant and if you
give them an easy way to contact you, they
will.
Make sure your contact info is available and
easy accessible. Put a phone number and
email address where they are easily seen.
People will use them and when they do,
this is your entre into selling them. The door
is open. Sell them your product.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Fax signatures increase sales
By Tom Falco (C)
A great way to advertise specials and
up-sell
are fax signatures.
Just like email signatures they can bring in
more business.
We have sold more products by using this
small, unassuming method.
Basically, all you do is put a tag line or two
at the bottom of all your fax cover sheets.
Type it in a fancy or odd typeface, something
that will stand out, Comic Sans is good for this.
There are many ways to use the signature or tag line.
If you sell realty, you can have one line that says:
"Interest rates dropped again today, call us for more info."
For a toy store: "Our new line of Sesame Street
toys is now in."
For a website: "Did you see our new collection
of eBooks and selling tips?"
Just tag this at the very bottom of the fax cover sheet.
We have listed some of our products and people
have asked about them because they saw the list.
Each time you fax someone a mini advertisement
is going out with your transmission.
Caution: Use this only for legitimate fax trasmissions.
Don't start faxing everyone you know. Just use it
in your normal day-to-day fax correspondence.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
WHY WEB PAGE TITLES ARE IMPORTANT
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
Page titles are very important in getting
your site to the top of the search engines.
Although we have discussed meta tags (key words)
and description as being important combined with
titles, the title is the main thing read by the
web crawlers and editors of the search engines.
What is in your title? The title is the copy that
is in the top bar of the web page when it is open,
it's usually blue on most computers.
What do you have there? Nothing? Many pages
you open have "page 1" in the spot. What a waste.
No wonder they are nowhere to be found on the
search engines.
It's important to use that title to define the page that
is being "titled." It must be accurate, too. You cannot
put "Pamela Anderson" as the title of your page
and expect to fool the search engines. Those days
are gone.
Unless you have a famous website or name, you
don't need to include that in the title. If you sell
dolls for instance, the best thing in the title would
be "dolls, Barbie, toys, girls toys, etc." These are
the keywords that people will be using if they
are looking for dolls.
Each page of your site should have its own title
and be specific to the item being sold or promoted
on that particular page. It must be relevant. The
search engines love this. When you are relevant
it makes them relevant.
If you sell insurance, the title should have words
like: insurance, homeowners insurance, Allstate,
State Farm, auto, car insurance, etc. Try not to
repeat words too much. Search engines don't like
that either.
Titles are very important in getting your pages
categorized by the search engines. It would
behoove you to go through your whole website,
page by page and make sure each page has its
proper title. This will help your listing in search
engines dramatically.
Even if pages are similar, it would be a good
idea to have different words in the titles. This will
allow the search engines to list you more than
once under different categories.
We sell calendars. We have puppy calendars
and kitten calendars. So since the calendars
are on different pages of our site, we can get
listed under "puppy," kitten" and so on. This allows
each page to have its own separate identity and
makes the keyword search relevant. We of course
include "calendars" in the titles, but the actual
words "puppy, puppies, dogs, pets" and so on
make the pages more specific.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
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