• Bytes of Info - From the Editor: "Avoid Identity Theft When Using Social Network Sites" by Susan, Editor/Publisher

• Computer Chips & Tasty Tips: "Driver Alert" by Bill, Tech Support

• Business Resource Article: "Simple Strategies for Marketing Success" Author: Craig Warren

• Business Resource Article: "ABC's of RSS...." Author Sharon Housley

• Health Resource Article: "10 Ways To End Food Cravings" Author: Carol Solomon, Ph.D. MCC

• Contest
• Virtual View & Enjoy Bill's Music
• Inspirational
• Editor's Recommended Resources
• Feedback & Testimonials
• Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware

Simple Strategies for Marketing Success
Author: ©Craig Warren

Enhance Your Business Identity
All to often businesses try to cut corners to save a few dollars and end up creating the wrong business identity. Everything about your business from the office stationery to the product or services you sell is a reflection of how prospects percieve who you are.

No matter what size downline you have, you will build and establish a reputation for the goods and services you deliver. A positive perception brings prospects back to buy.

Perceived service or quality is the single most important factor in determining long-term profits. In short, you must always give people a great deal for their money as they perceive it. Every business has an identity whether or not it has been planned. Those who have the most successful identities have made it happen. It takes much planning, hard work, dedication, and consistency to develop a positive image.

Make Ads Believable
Whether you decide to to advertise a product or service that you believe will sell by direct mail, the inquiry follow-up method, magazines, newspapers, radio and so on-- the prospect must find your claims believable. Overstated claims are often ignored by readers.

Testimonials should always be used, especially when a claim appears to be overstated. Testimonals make claims credible and more believable. Endorsements from well-known persons, authorities or highly credentialed people make any claim more believable. Seek them out and use them.

Your product claims should be believable in a reader's mind from the beginning to the end. The theme and delivery of your entire message should be believable enough to lead a prospect to act and order.

People are reluctant to believe grossly exaggerated claims. More often than not it is better to understate exaggerated claims and zero in on the big benefits that are more believable. Make outlandish statements only if you can back it up. Make it easy for people to believe your claims and easy for them to buy.

Using Involvement Devices To Increase Sales
Any advertisement or direct mail package that gets a person either physically or mentally involved is called an "involvement device." Getting a person physically involved could mean moving a self- adhesive label from on spot to another, answering questions, checking off boxes, punching out holes and so on.

Getting a person mentally involved usually means using illustration, photos and advertising copy. The object is to lead a person to see oneself receiving a huge benefit from your offer and then taking the necessary action to get it.

The following involvement devices are typical of those used by business of every size:

Simple Questions:
Design questions that can be answered quickly and easily. Make the questions simple, and interesting. Never use negative- type answers.

Choice Offers:
Giving people a choice in an ad, sales letter, or order form gets them involved. The choice of colors, the length of a subscription, dates, or whatever else offers a choice.

Adhesive Labels:
This involvement device involves having a person transfer a label from one location to another. For example, this might be from a sales letter to the outside of a return envelope.

Stubs:
Tear-off stubs can be retained as reminders of when a sale or drawing will occur, as a receipt, as a guarantee, or as proof-of-purchase in a rebate offer.

All of the above are excellent involvement devices that lead a person toward making a purchase. Use them to increase your sales.

Write A Irresistible Teaser Copy
Teaser copy is used as the words imply-- to tease. The first job of any advertiser is to get the ad opened so the recipient can read what's inside. An effective teaser should focus on some huge benefit and be an introduction to what your sales letter, ad or circular has to say.

Teaser copy should stand out!! It should jump off the page and command a reader's attention and interest. The most effective attention-getting copy usally makes a promise that there is something worthwhile inside of great benefit to them.

Don't make your teaser copy to be excessive. You should only say enough to entice the reader to look inside. If you give to much information on the outside, readers may decide they already know what's offered inside and never open it. It should be short and to the point.

For Even MORE Traffic to Your Online Business...
Owned by Vector Central and this Ezine

____________________________________________________________________

ABC's of RSS....
Author ©Sharon Housley

Implementing RSS (Really Simple Syndication) can be aided by an understanding of the terms relating to RSS. Learn the ABCs of RSS....

A - AutoDiscovery
Auto Discovery is code that is inserted into the header of an HTML web page, which then indicates to readers that an RSS feed is available for the content.
B - Blogs
Blogs are web logs that are updated regularly, usually on a daily basis. Blogs generally contain information related to a specific topic. In some cases, blogs are used as daily diaries about people's personal lives, political views, or even as social commentaries. The truth of the matter is that blogs can be shaped into whatever the author wants them to be. While initially thought of as diaries or online journals, blogs have evolved into the latest fresh web content.
C - Cache
Cache is a temporary storage area for frequently-accessed or recently-accessed data. Having certain data stored in a cache area speeds up the operation of the computer. Using a cache with RSS feeds will help minimize bandwidth and display an RSS feed's content quicker.
D - Display
RSS Many webmasters post the content of an RSS feed on their website. They use either PHP, ASP, or javascript for such purposes. If done properly, the feed's content will dynamically update as the content of the feed changes.
E - Elements
Within an RSS feed, there are various feed elements. The elements of an RSS feed are defined by tags.
F - Filter
Many RSS feeds contain duplicate or similar content. Publishers can filter RSS feeds so that they only see content that they wish to see, by filtering out duplicate postings.
G - GUID
GUID stands for Globally Unique IDentifier. The RSS specification strongly suggests that each RSS feed item have a unique GUID. If you are creating feeds, a GUID is important because GUIDs are often used by feed readers and aggregators to determine if a feed item is new or simply an existing item that has been updated. Each item in the RSS feed should have a unique GUID.
H - HTML
HTML, which is the acronym for HyperText Markup Language, is frequently used to design websites.
I - iTunes Namespace
The iTunes Namespace allows the user to add the information necessary to have a podcast listed on the Apple iTunes Music Store (ITMS). J - JavaScript Javascript can be used to display the content of an RSS feed.
K - Keywords
Keywords should be integrated into the RSS feed to help search engines determine what the RSS feed is about.
L - Links
Links are used to direct RSS readers to the original webpage containing information that directly relates to the feed.
M - Mashup
A mashup is a combination of multiple RSS feeds that have been merged together to create a new, single feed.
N - Namespace Extensions
The RSS specification allows you to create and use your own custom elements (tags) in any RSS feed by declaring your own namespace. Doing this is 100% in line with the RSS specification and the feed will validate. However, you should have a specific and well-planned reason to do so. No RSS readers, or other RSS processing applications, will be able to use your custom info for any purpose. Adding elements (tags) would typically be used only in an in-house situation where both the writing application and the reading application have prior knowledge of the new tags.
O - OPML
OPML, or Outline Processor Markup Language, is a file format standard that can be used to exchange subscription lists between programs. OPML is used as a standard to import or export groups of RSS feed subscriptions. OPML was initially designed by Radio UserLand as a file format for outlines. The purpose of this format is to provide a way to exchange information between outliners and Internet services. OPML has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of RSS feeds between RSS aggregators. OPML is an open format, allowing other services to extend the format. While OPML was not initially designed as a vehicle to share RSS feeds, it has become the de facto standard. OPML, like RSS, is based on RSS, and because of the similarities, those familiar with RSS have embraced OPML as a way to share RSS feed collections
P - Podcasting
Podcasting is online audio content that is delivered via an RSS feed. Many people equate podcasting to "radio on demand". However, in reality, podcasting gives the listener far more options than radio does, in terms of content and programming. In addition, podcast listeners can determine their own time and the place for listening, meaning they decide what programming they want to receive, and when they want to listen to it. Listeners can retain audio archives to listen to later, at their leisure. While blogs have turned many bloggers into journalists, podcasting has the potential to turn podcasters into radio personalities.
Q - Query
Webmasters can create RSS feeds based on search queries for their websites.
R - RSS
RSS is a standard format for syndicating content on the Internet. The content can be anything! Information contained in an RSS feed is often syndicated on other sites, which expands its reach. Website visitors love RSS because they choose which feeds they wish to subscribe to. If at any point they are unhappy with the content contained in the RSS feed, they simply unsubscribe and no longer receive notification of feed updates. RSS is really a win-win for both subscribers and publishers. In order to get a better understanding of how RSS works, download an RSS reader or use a web aggregator and subscribe to an RSS feed (they are usually indicated by a small orange icon).
S - Syndication
Syndication is the supply of material for reuse and integration with other material.
T - Template
Many webmasters use templates to layout the contents of their RSS feed and make it match there website.
U - URL
URLs can be embedded into the description of the RSS feed items, so that when the feed is syndicated, the content originator gains backlinks.
V- Validate
Feed validation is important. If a feed is not properly formed, it will not always be valid for reading.
W - Website
Updates RSS feeds can be set up to notify visitors when a website changes.
X - XML
RSS is a subset of XML, or eXtensible Markup Language.
Y - Yahoo Answers
Yahoo's interactive system of questions and answers can be tracked using RSS feeds. You can create keyword or category feeds for anything in Yahoo Answers.
Z - Zero Feeds
Not having RSS feeds for your website puts you at a competitive disadvantage. RSS feeds bring traffic and help the stickiness of your website.