• Internet Service Provider (ISP) Hosting
• Website Content
• Automation
• Immediate Response
• Immediate Follow Up
• Build a Customer Database
• Integrated Marketing Plan
• Meta-tags Preparation
• How to Win the ‘Battle of the Search Engines’
• Internet Marketing

• Online Ordering
• Focused, Fast, Easy, Friendly, Informative
• Free Something
• Problem Solving
• EZ Updates
• EZ Power Programming
• EZ Tools
• $50K/year Salesman
• 10x Profit Return
• Real World Applications
• Knowledge, Skills & Experience

This is usually to first mistake people (and corporations) make with their website. Not all ISP Hosting computers are created equal. The inferior companies will talk about downloads, transfers, storage capacity, back up systems and high-speed telephone connections. What you really need to know is if their Internet server computer is capable of handling your website programming requirements today and be capable of providing that same service as your website grows. You probably don’t know what types of technology you will be using on your website in the next 3 years, 5 years or 10 years…but you should feel comfortable in the knowledge that your ISP Hosting company will be capable of providing you with the service that you will need. Our websites use custom software programs that run right on the ISP Hosting computer and can be remotely operated by anyone on the Internet. Most ISP Hosting companies cannot handle this technology or even understand it. To avoid frustration and to save money, do your homework ahead of time and select the proper ISP Hosting company for your needs.

Content-Content-Content. Fill your website with as much information about your company, products and services as possible. Think of your website as an unlimited repository that can store any amount of information, from the biggest thing to the smallest detail. Put it all online. Your goal is to make your website so knowledgeable that it exceeds everyone’s knowledge of your products/services in your entire organization. Your website should become your smartest employee. Your website should be designed where it can learn new things as time goes on (see EZ Updates). Your website should be designed in such a manner that your Internet visitors can quickly and easily find the right information (see EZ Power Programming). The rule is to put it all online and then make it easy to find and get to it.

Make your website an employee. One that works 24/7, takes no vacations, no sick days, no holidays and will never sue you for any time of harassment issues. Automating a website (see EZ Power Programming) will enable your website to guide your Internet visitors to the right place, answer their questions and immediately respond back to them. Your website should become your best salesman, capable of handling any situation and providing you with either customer orders or qualified sales leads.

Many, many companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to get new customers and then dropping the ball by failing to make immediate follow up customer calls. What a waste of money. How does your website stand up to this issue? After you have gone through all of the trouble to get people to your website does it personally and immediately send them a confirmation, a thank you or a follow up message? What would you think of a company that sent you a nice thank you note that was personally written to you, thanking you for your interest along with a confirmation about sending you the information you requested? How many of those have you ever received? If someone has taken the time to find your website and request or order material from you, don’t you think you should lock up this potential customer with an immediate, personalized response?

After your website personally responded to a new potential customer you need to close the loop and make that personal telephone call. This is not a cold call. This is the warmest call you can get. This person has taken the time and trouble to go to your website, read your material, find out more about you and then submit his name to you for more information (or an order!). Whatever the case may be, you need to pick up the phone can spend just a couple of minutes with him. You will solidify a business relationship with this person. Numerous surveys have determined that a repeat customer will spend more money because they have achieved a buying confidence with your company. If you ask yourself the question…how much is a customer worth to me over the next few years?...you will gladly make your follow-up telephone calls.

Remember the Content Archive principle? This is another twist on that idea. Your website should be like glue and tries to capture everyone that goes to it. People came to your website for a reason. They probably looked around at your offerings, requested more information and maybe even placed an online order. You need to build a buying confidence level with your potential customers. You can do this by continuing getting your name, product or service in front of them. You do this by sending them information on a regular basis. A customer database will enable you to keep in touch with them via mail, fax or e-mail. One of your website goals is to get people to sign up for something (See Free Something) so that you can capture their name and information. You don’t know when they will buy from you, but these are great, qualified leads for your marketing efforts.

To maximize the success of your Internet website you need to develop an Integrated Marketing Plan that promotes your website from all possible sources. Everyone in your organization should ‘eat, sleep and breathe’ your website. Everyone should know the Internet address URL (ie, www.YourWebsite.com), and should be able to promote your special tools and features on your website. Every telephone call should make reference to your website. All stationary, business cards, faxes, catalogs, literature, promotions and advertising should make people aware of your Internet address. I can’t tell you how many times I spoke with the CEO (and Sales & Marketing managers) of corporations who thought they had a website, but didn’t know the Internet address. An effective Integrated Marketing Plan should make your website the focal point of your business. Once you drive your customers to your website, it’s up to your website to take over and handle them accordingly.

Although the word meta-tags is a computer programming term, we won’t get lost in computer-geek concepts here. But you should know that a webpage enables you to classify your website with keywords that can be used to index your company, products, services and website with the Internet Search Engines. Internet Search Engines enable people to go to a specific website (ie, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Exite, etc) and the find related websites to a word that they type in. Internet Search Engines take your word and scan through their database and then make a list of websites that relate to your search word. All the Internet user needs to do is to click on any of the hot-links to go to that particular website. So, as you can see it pays to get the right keywords listed in the meta-tags of your webpages. Proper meta-tag preparation will enable you be properly registered with the Internet Search Engines.

Go to any Internet Search Engine (ie, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Exite, etc) and type in a word to search. For example, try ‘underwater basket weaving’. Note the first 10 listings. Now go to another Internet Search Engine and do it again. Note those first 10 listings. Try this with several Internet Search Engines. Ever wonder how those websites got ranked in the top 10 listings? Or the top 3 listings? It’s not by accident. And it’s not because the Internet Gods were shinning their light on those websites that particular day. It’s because those website won the Battle of the Search Engines. How did they do that? First they prepared their websites properly, including the meta-tag preparation. Then they registered with the Internet Search Engines. The Internet Search Engines then sent out a ‘spider’ to the websites and collected data from the meta-tags and classified the website accordingly. When you go to an Internet Search Engine, the search feature of the database looks at the data that was retrieved by the spiders. Then a listing of websites relating to that topic is presented to you in the results window. In order for you to Win the Battle of the Search Engines you need to do your homework with the keywords, program your website with the proper meta-tags and then submit your website to the Internet Search Engines registration system on a periodic basis. The rest is history.

If you are serious about using the Internet to find people that are interested in your business then you need a REAL INTERNET MARKETING PROGRAM. At first glance this appears to be expensive, but after an honest cost-benefit analysis you will discover that it's the most COST-EFFECTIVE way to use the Internet. Some Internet search engines have a free registration program. Some charge a flat fee. Some charge what is called a "pay-per-click" system. Other systems include the opt-in e-mail programs. You need to establish a REAL marketing budget to address ALL of those systems. By making a substantial up-front financial committment you can position yourself to dominate the Internet in the area of your concern. Plan for at least a 6 month aggressive campaign. After that you can review your results and zero in on the thing that is generating interest in your business. Doing your Internet marketing on the cheap or shoe-string budget is really a waste of time. If you want RESULTS do it the right way.

The tremendous amount of information available on the Internet today is simply overwhelming. This has led to a new paradigm that says that ‘the attention span of an Internet visitor is that of a gnat’. That translates to the fact that people will not wait for hugh graphics to download or wade through stupid webpages. It also translates to the fact that when people decide they want something…they want it now. Whether it is more information or an order for an item, people want to get it done and move on to something else. If you do not have an online ordering system set up to handle information requests, orders or anything else, your customers will leave your website and go somewhere else. You might as well burn the money you have invested in your website. On the other hand, a website that can immediately process a request (see Automation) and respond right back to them with a personalized confirmation (see Immediate Response) will build a customer database (see Build a Customer Database) and make you money, many times more than anything that you have invested.

Have you ever surfed to a website, expecting to get more information about the thing that got you to that website, only to be confused by how to find it on the webpage? Or, gave up waiting for some huge graphic to download? We all have. Those webpages are classic examples of someone who has not sat down and thought out their webpages. They just threw something together and put it on the Internet. Or, they are so taken by their handiwork on some stupid graphic that they expect us to wait around for it to download. NOT! By now you know that it takes a lot of work to get people to your website. So then, why would you possible drive them away in the first 60 seconds? Yet it happens, all the time, every day. People that go to your website are looking for a solution to their problem. Whether you have one product or service or many, the approach is the same. Qualify this person by finding what they problem (interest) is and immediately direct them to it (your solution). Speed counts, as does an easy-to-use format, preferably an entertaining one. Your website is your chance to provide a non-threatening source of information, 24/7, that will immediately zero in on your Internet visitors. If you make it fun, friendly and informative you will get repeat visits. Repeat visits turn into sales and that means more money in your pocket for you. Remember the KISS method? Keep It Simple Stupid by being focused.

Probably one of the greatest words ever is the word FREE. It immediately conjures up emotion inside of us. The next step is to act on that emotion, which on the Internet translates into collecting information about this person for your customer database (see Build a Customer Database). People like free anything. Even better is that if your free something has real VALUE that they can benefit from. This combination will firmly implant your company, products or services into their minds. They will remember you, re-visit your website and keep watching you. It’s only time until that manifests into hard, cold cash. Find something that you can offer for free. It can be something in writing (like a Newsletter, Report or Outline, which is easily transmitted via e-mail, fax or mail), or some type of service (like a market analysis, consultation) or something tangible (like a ball cap, key chain, pen). Whatever you give away, the whole point is that your name (and web address) will be in front of your potential customer day after day. It is a long-term plan and the payoffs are huge.

It has been said that people really don’t want money…money in and of itself is useless, it’s just printed paper. What they want is the things that money can buy and what those purchased things can do to make you feel good. For example…$50K for a car is just a stack of paper. Buying the car means that when you drive it you will feel good about your self and how you think other people will react over your new car. It’s feelings. And you get a lot of nice feelings with a $50K car. In this case the problem addressed was your feelings and the solution was the shiny new car. Now take this approach with your products or services. What is the problem that your customer has? Doesn’t your product or service solve his problem? If it does, and you build enough VALUE into your presentation of your solution to his problem, then price will not be the issue. In other words, if you want to increase your profits and you keep getting hit by the price issue, then re-think your approach. Everyone makes mousetraps. Some people even make better mousetraps. But if you can correctly address (identify) your customers needs (problem) and show him how you can help him solve it (solution) by giving him incredible service, support, product, etc (value) you can move his focus from price to problem solving and make the sale. Through a carefully thought out webpage design, you can have your website do this for your automatically. You have to begin with the end in mind and you need to consider all of the options and possibilities, but the result will show in your pocket book and bank account. Then, maybe you can go buy that $50K car and feel good yourself.

Websites are never complete. Actually they are a work in progress. You should be constantly looking for new things, different things to keep your website CONTENT fresh, new and updated. Your customers are looking to you for answers. Don’t disappoint them. Keep working on your website. With that in mind, when you originally sat down and planned your website you should have allowed for a way that you could make those updates easily. If you have 100 webpages and you find out that the telephone area code for your area is changing, does that make your palms sweat? Are you going to have to update 100 HTML files? And then in a few months you decide to move so you have to change your address? What about other content to your webpages. Do you have to pay your webmaster for every little change you need to make? How long does that take? Boy, this can sure become a mess. But, as you have probably guessed, there is help. Through our proprietary design technologies (remember, we are software developers first) we utilize a system that we call EZ Updates. We can make a single change to the area code and it will be instantly updated throughout the entire website, one webpage or thousands of them. In fact, we have a system that enables our clients to log onto their website, enter a security ID passcode and make changes on their own. Sometimes we don’t even know that the website has been updated by our client. We give them the right tools, they use them as they need them and everyone is happy. The key is freshness on your website. You customers will like that. If you have the EZ Update System, you’ll love doing it.

The real power behind a webpage is the underlying HTML code. HTML code by itself is very limited in its’ capabilities, but the thing to keep in mind is that it is great for cross-platform applications. That is just a fancy way to say that it works whether you have an IBM-type personal computer, an Apple or MAC, a main frame or just a workstation. It also means that it is OS independent so you can reach the Microsoft Windows people (3.x, Win95, Win98, Win2000, NT) or Unix or any other operating system. You can even reach the WebTV people. So how do we take this tremendous opportunity (all those systems, worldwide) and use a crummy little code system (HTML) to do spectacular things? Great questions. The answer is simply Power Programming. What if there was a way that you can write software programs that can AUTOMATICALLY GENERATE the required HTML code to perform the functions, features or tools that you want on your website? Well there is a way and now you know it as Power Programming. Use of Power Programming falls into two groups…those who don’t want to know how it works, but want the benefits of it on their website….and those who want to dive in and write the Power Programming themselves. Power Programming does get pretty involved, but the results are spectacular. I always tell my clients that ‘if you can think of it, we can write a program to do it’. Try that with your plain old text and graphics approach to websites. Power Programming unleashes the creative desires inside of you. Your website becomes dynamic and super responsive. Power Programming means that the only limit on your website is your imagination. Power Programming rockets you light years ahead of your competitors, doing business the old, tired way.

The use of Power Programming (see Power Programming) enables us to do things with our websites that other people (including webmasters) can only dream about (if they’re lucky). We have already developed certain technologies that we call our EZ Tools. Just a few of these EZ Tools are…EZ E-mail-to-Fax Printing System, which enable you to receive your e-mail directly from your fax machine. Now you don’t even have to log onto the Internet to get your e-mail. Imagine coming into the office on Monday morning and finding a stack of orders on your fax machine that came from your website. Your website orders are faxed directly from your website to your Inside Sales Department for follow-up and fulfillment. Since your website is your 24/7 salesman, automatically qualifying your online customers and helping them select your products and services, doesn’t it make sense to enable your website to work hand-in-hand with your Sales Department? Our clients think so, that’s why we developed this technology, and it’s yours to use as well. In fact, we have lots of EZ Tools that are real time savers and help you reduce your time, effort and expenses while making you more money. Visit our website for lots more information.

Most companies would love to have a highly qualified, result-orientated outside salesman helping their customers buy from them. Let’s see what kind of qualities and abilities this VIRTUAL person should have. He should be gender neutral (so we don’t have to worry about whether he is a he or she J ). He should be available 24/7, and very knowledgeable about our products. In fact, he should know everything about every product or service ever made (even the old ones). He should be fast, friendly, easy to work with, provide immediate assistance, and provide immediate response. He should be able to work with multiple clients at the same time, let’s say hundreds…no wait…thousands of clients at the same time. He should cover all of our territories, no wait Nationwide…no wait Worldwide. Yeah. And he should be able to work with our Inside Sales Department, our Customer Service Department, our Billing & Inventory Dept and even our Shipping Dept. He should be able to give us a price, check stock levels, get a pre-authorized negotiation price (if necessary), collect the billing information from our customer and send the order to the Shipping Dept to be fulfilled. Oh, and while we’re at it, he should be able to know whether this is a new customer or an existing customer, the credit limit of the customer and any other important things (like discount levels) that may need to be considered. And heck, why not make this guy work everyday of the year, no vacations, no sick time, no days off and always have a great, friendly attitude. Why we can even make sure that he will never quit so we don’t need a non-compete clause and he will never ever hit us with some kind of discrimination or harassment lawsuit. Oh yeah, and never request a raise, ask for a promotion, gossip, require a benefit package, retirement, and so on. If we left anything out, let’s throw that in there too. Now the big question…..do you think you can ever find someone to do all of that? Probably not. And for $50K/year? Definitely not. So….here’s the clincher…does your website match up?

Whenever I talk to a potential new client who is interested in doing business on the Internet, I ask them how much money they are expecting to make with their website. $10K, $25K, $50K, $100K, $0? What? Most people don’t know. Do you know why? Because they haven’t thought about it. They haven’t make a plan. They haven’t set goals. They don’t know how they are going to achieve it. In fact, they don’t even know WHAT they want to achieve. Now they go ahead and get online and guess what?….They are disappointed in the results. And this is the part that always amazes me. How can they be disappointed when the have failed to make a plan and do the things necessary to make it so? Were they expecting lightening to strike? What they failed to do was to PLAN THE WORK and then WORK THE PLAN. If you are failing on the Internet it is because you have failed to plan. If you want to make $25K on the Internet, make a plan. You need a Business Plan, a Strategic Plan, a Marketing Plan and an Action Plan. There is no magic here. Ask the RIGHT questions. Get the RIGHT information. Make your PLAN. WORK your plan. Review your results and make the adjustments necessary. If you wanted to make $25K would you be willing to spend $2,500? That’s a pretty good return isn’t it? What if that same $2,500 made you $50K? Or even $100K? As you can see, it’s not really how much you spend….it’s getting the right PLAN together. And getting the right plan means finding someone with the right Specialized Knowledge, Experience and Skills that can help you achieve your goals, preferably through some kind of personalized, one-on-one mentoring, coaching and training program. The bottom-line? Professional help pays…it doesn’t cost. And best of all, you don’t need to re-invent the wheel.

Let’s face it…websites with plain old text & graphics just don’t cut it. Maybe a few years ago it was kind of cool to see something on the Internet. But today we are way past that. You want to MAKE MONEY. You don’t care about the pretty little flaming logo. You want money and you want to know how to make more of it. The Internet is a wonderful opportunity to market your products and services. It’s very cost effective if done right. But what you really need to MAKE MONEY is a website that can produce results. Guaranteed. Reliably. Repeatedly. And most of all Consistently. And the way to do that is to get real world applications on your website. Things like product stock checks, inventory systems, database systems, customer qualification screenings, customer follow-up systems, a sales leads generator, referral systems, automatic processing, customized printout systems and any other system that will reduce your work, make you more effective and generate more money to your bottom line. Doing less work, having less frustrations while making more sales and depositing more money into your bank account does not happen by chance. It happens by planning and using the right tools. And guess what? The technology is there. Do you know who will use it? The smart ones. The Successful ones. The ones at the bank!

Don't "re-invent the wheel"! Find someone who has already done what you want to do and get them to be your coach or mentor. They have already spent years finding out what does work and what does not work. You can save time, money and frustration by taking advantage of someone elses knowledge, skills and experience. Your goal is to "be there" not "getting there". Don't waste your time learning the ropes when there are plenty of professional people who can shorten your journey and make it a lot more fun.