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The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing for Speakers

A Three-Pronged Attack
by
Tom Antion

Introduction
 
The reason I got into this Internet Marketing stuff was because of statistics. I had a website for two years and didn't even know that statistics were being kept on the site. When I saw them for the first time I almost fainted. ONLY 400 PEOPLE HAD COME TO MY SITE IN TWO YEARS. . . . OUCH!!!
 
I was really depressed about it. I had fought with my web designer over that two year time period about updates taking forever, or more likely never being implemented at all. My Wake 'em Up Book was out a year before the webmaster got it on the site. The depression and shock that I felt was the best thing that ever happened to my career!
 
This was about 8 years ago. Now, at the time of this writing, I'll get many thousands of  visitors per day to my websites and earn over a million dollars a year selling my products and services on the Internet. I had to learn many things to make that happen. You’ve got to start somewhere and just consistently work at this to keep people coming regularly to your site and keep the numbers building. But it does start to mushroom after awhile.
 
I am not a tech guru . . . in fact, I’m not a techie in any way. I just studied the simple techniques that I can either do myself, or I can farm out to some professional that does it all the time. The more you do yourself, the cheaper this whole deal is going to be.  You can call or email me for recommendations of people that can do things you don't want to do yourself.
 
Website . . . Ya Gotta Have One
 
Everybody tells you must have a website, but hardly anybody tells you how to really have one that kicks, brings in business, gets you speaking engagements, and sells products for you.
 
What happens is that you spend a fortune getting someone to design a website for you, and then you sit there and wait for the money to roll into your bank account. It just doesn’t work like that. You need to make a commitment to actively manage your website operations and supervise, or completely control, the marketing efforts of your site.

If you do the things you learn in this book, you do have a good chance to have a successful website and there are very few of them out there.

By using this book (it wouldn't hurt you a bit to get the Butt Camp CD too) http://www.antion.com/buttcampcd.htm  you can develop a successful speaker electronic marketing system. I recently attended the Western Workshop of the NSA, (National Speaker’s Association), and it was very evident that there was only a handful of us who knew these techniques and tricks and had successful speaker websites.
 
Remember,  if you think that something is a little bit over your head, I don’t want you to worry. What I want you to do is try to understand the purpose, or the reason for doing or (the ) the particular technique. Then write it down.  Either follow up with me, or take it to your Webmaster and make sure he/she implements the idea for you even if you don’t understand the technical details of how to do it. You want to make sure your site complies with what we are going to discuss.
 
To help you with this, I have put What-You-Need-to-Know light bulbs just after sections that might be a little confusing if you are a beginner. I'm not expecting you to be able to do everything in this book . . . that would make you a “techie.” You must, however, know what needs to be done so you can make sure it gets done.
 

 Here's your first What You Need To Know revelation. You don't have to know everything, or even anything technical to make a lot of money with electronic marketing.

Watch out for electronic artists

Also, I want you to be prepared because many of your web designers and technical people driving old Ford Pintos will argue with you and try to talk you out of doing some of the things mentioned in this book. Always remember, this book came about because people making extremely large amounts of money taught me how to do it and I'm making extremely large amounts of money with the same techniques. Exactly how much money are your web designer and techie friends making actually selling things on the Internet?

You need to make sure that you don't get stuck in the typical trap of paying for a beautiful design of a website that nobody comes to . . . and more importantly, you need to make sure your web visitors stay and buy your products and services. The "Pretty Website Syndrome" is the most common problem I see. Everybody and their brothers and sisters are website designers because it is so easy. However, very few people know the marketing techniques I'm going to cover in this book.

You have to make sure your designer or web person knows how to do these things. If they don't, you need to educate them or get somebody else. It's that simple. I know you bleeding hearts out there are thinking, "Oh, but my web designer is so nice and the site looks so pretty, I couldn't possibly find someone else as nice."

I hate to be the one to tell you . . . nice is important, but nice ain't going to make you any money in this specific aspect of your electronic marketing efforts. I can virtually guarantee that your web designer doesn't know what is in this book. OK . . . maybe 2 percent at most might know some of what's here. Hey, maybe a tiny fraction of them know more. So what are the odds that one of these few select people is currently working as your web designer?

It's relatively easy to design your web site, but putting in the appropriate marketing elements is not so easy. If you fall into the "Pretty Website Trap," it's going to cost you a lot of money.  If you want to stick with your current designer, this book  will educate him or her so that it pays off for you.

Here's a funny thing that happens all the time. I get into discussions with many of these designers who claim to know what they are doing. A certain marketing point will come up and, after they've seen my materials, they say, "Oh, I knew that." Funny thing is that when I review the sites they have designed, the element we were discussing is nowhere to be found. If they actually knew it, why didn't they bother to implement the idea for their client??? 

Designers that haven't come to my Butt Camp generally don't like me, because I expose them for what they are . . . electronic artists. Designers that come to my Butt Camp usually end up loving me before they leave because I have just put them into that tiny, tiny, percentage of people who can both design and market a website properly. That makes them VERY valuable to themselves and more importantly  . . . to you.

Learn from the Best

I'm also going to be telling you about a consultation I did with Corey Rudl, who just happens to sell 6 million dollars a year on the Internet. I have a website that brings in good money . . . I've earned as much as $25,000.00 by sending one email which drove people to one of my websites . . . and this guy ripped me to shreds. I'm going to tell you what I found out during this consultation, and all the improvements I've made to my site because of what I learned from him. It cost me 640 bucks to talk to this guy for an hour (now it's $1280 per hour) and I'm going to share the concepts he told me so you too can use them on your website. 

Remember -- I'm not a techie. I just know where to click to make money. I'm hoping I can be a model for you to just go out and do it! I will tell you that learning how to update my website myself is by far the best single investment in time and money I made in my entire speaking career. It is by far the biggest income generator and hassle reducer. It took a month and a half part-time with no help to learn how to update the site. With the update method I teach, that time can be reduced to a few hours of training. 

Ready to order click here 

Three-Pronged Attack

I'll be teaching you my Three-Pronged Attack of electronic marketing in this book. I want you to quit trying to sell speaking engagements. I'd rather have you sell your expert knowledge in as many formats as possible and the speaking engagements will come . . . and at a much higher fee. My fee has gone up five times the level it was before I started getting good at using the Internet and email marketing, and I get speaking engagements ten times easier than I ever did at the smaller fees. The clout I've gained from Internet marketing gets me much bigger engagements where I can sell $150,000.00 or more at the back of the room. This book will teach you how to gain that clout.

The Three Prongs

In Prong One you will create and market a killer website. That will entail creating it properly so that the marketing aspects are worked into the design of your site. You will learn many electronic methods of promoting the site along with all the traditional off-line methods. You will create the proper sales atmosphere on the site to maximize your return on investment, and learn the electronic mechanics of making your website an automatic sales machine.

Prong Two will be all about email list building and responsible email marketing. This is where the money is. Savvy companies large and small are using this extremely cost-effective method to reach out to their customers over and over. This creates more loyal customers and keeps their company name at the top of their customer's minds. The customers on your email list who hear from you regularly are the ones that pull out their wallets and buy. In a very short period of time I have been able to dominate the speaking industry because of my email magazine Great Speaking. You'll learn how to do this too in whatever industry you choose.

Prong Three will concentrate on product development and delivery and all the ways you can sell your knowledge electronically. You'll learn how to make downloadable products and e-courses that have no cost of goods sold. You'll learn how to make high profit CDs, audio and videotapes, and how to handle the order fulfillment process. And you'll learn how to sell your knowledge by doing seminars on the telephone.

If ever you feel like you are getting confused or lost, revert back to your three prongs. You're either working to make a great website, getting more people on your email list, or developing more things to sell to your target market.

One Page Websites

This is an entirely new method I've developed to make very low cost websites that sell digital products. These sites can be developed in a matter of days for almost no cost once you have your basic shopping system in place.

Just three of these sites gross over $90,000.00 per year and I'm constantly looking for new topics to develop on these low cost sites.

Mac vs PC Debate

I could care less what kind of computer you prefer to use. What I will tell you is that all the cool, cheap and free software to be a prolific Internet marketer is created for the PC. So you can be a Mac holdout if you want, but you are seriously impeding your Internet marketing operations. 

A Band-Aid you could use is Virtual PC for the Mac. I've never heard anyone rave about how great it is though. Keep in mind you can buy an outrageously fast marketing PC for $350.00. I make more than that selling two CDs, so consider getting one and putting it to good use making money.

Why Should I Quit Selling Speeches?

It's one heck of a jump to go from someone not knowing you at all to giving you many thousands of dollars for a speaking engagement. And it's not just the money. It's the risk of putting you in front of their important audience.

Did you know that the people who hire you can get fired if you bomb at an important event? It's your job to lessen their risk. If they don't know you, or if they haven't heard about you in some credible fashion, your chances of getting hired for a major speaking engagement at a high fee are slim. I don't even have to mention the stiff competition at the higher levels, do I? You already know about that.

The method I use to sell my knowledge combines many different formats. First of all, selling a book or tape or downloadable product is much easier to do because not much money is at risk to the buyer. You can sell this kind of material at a ratio of 100, or even 1000 to one (one being a high-fee speaking engagement). 

Since the profit is very high in information products, this can create a very nice cash flow for you while spreading your name all over the world. People are actually buying a demonstration of your knowledge. Don't you wish everyone would buy your demo tape instead of you sending it out for free?

Your knowledge being spread via informational products is exposing you to many people that may have speaker-hiring responsibility, or to people who influence the hiring of speakers and trainers.

Another benefit you get from product cash flow is that you don't have to take every pitiful engagement that comes along. You can hold out for the better ones and only be seen speaking at the most prestigious events. This raises your celebrity image and allows you to continue to raise your speaking fee.

Reduce the Risk

Now, let's get back to the risk factor of those who consider hiring you. It's very likely when you get your name spread around enough via products that someone has already recommended you as a possible candidate for the engagement. They may have purchased one or more of your products and feel that your ideas would be perfect for their group. That recommendation by someone else reduces the risk of the person hiring you, especially if the recommendation came from someone of a higher rank in the organization.

What if they saw you in the media? What if they get your E-newsletter? Every time your name comes up somewhere, it is another chance that someone with hiring authority will be influenced to pick you . . . because the more your name is heard, the more credible you appear, which translates into LESS RISK for the person hiring you. In fact, when your name is heard enough, you pass the risk phase and turn into a "slam dunk" because they are absolutely sure you will be great! This is where you want to be, and this is where my e-marketing has helped me to get.

Products Phase 2

The sale of your knowledge through informational products will often result in more income and less work than actually doing your speaking engagements. I also look at it as a insurance policy. If for some reason I could no longer go out and speak, I could still have a very substantial income while staying at home.

Where you'll really make money with informational product sales is on the back end. I address this later in more detail in Chapter 2: The Website Sales Process. Keep in mind that most of the thousands of people who buy your informational products will never have the opportunity to hire you to speak, or influence anyone else to do so. But that doesn't mean they can't spend a substantial sum of money with you over a period of time.

Here's how the people who can't hire me to speak and I help each other. I sell them a really good, low-priced product like my Wake 'em Up book, or an audio tape that is packed full of good ideas. Then, once they see I know what I'm talking about, they might buy a CD for a couple hundred dollars, or a tape set, or the Wake 'em Up Video Professional Speaking System, or a consulting package, or join my mentor program . . . The deal is, I give them good information that will help them, and they give me money. This constant, and high-profit cash flow allows me to take only prime speaking engagements which raises my celebrity status. Pretty good deal wouldn't you say?

A Little Info About This Book

This book includes all the links you need to help make your electronic marketing efforts kick into gear. I've also included a special webpage where I'll post updates and new and exciting e-commerce developments as I learn about them. Thus, you can keep up with the latest and greatest developments between major updates of the book. 

This book has literally tons of information from the most dynamic field in existence today . . . the Internet. Don't be surprised if you go to a link and it's not there, or something has changed. That's the nature of the beast. Please send me a note and I'll post it on the updates page.

I've attempted to give you lots of resource choices on every topic I cover. This is not because I want to confuse you but because, as I just mentioned, some may close down before you get to them. I don't want you to be stranded while trying to find a particular service. It's doubtful that all of the links on a particular topic in this book would have changed. You should always have a couple from which to choose.

Research any site you do business with carefully, and don't forget to read the fine print. I don't mean you have to nit pick everything to death, but some of these relationships take considerable effort to set up, and you want to be sure you can live, for a while at least, with the deal you make.

I can't vouch for every website I reference. Use them at your own risk. Everything changes so fast, that something good one day could be bad the next. However, I will tell you if I've used a service and how it worked out for me.

Please email me with your comments and concerns regarding web marketing and I'll try to post answers on the updates page.

One Last Important Tip

This book has so much information you might tend to skim over some of the points, checklists and ideas. That's OK for a quick first read of the book. BUT DON'T FORGET TO GO BACK AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS!

Here's a $500,000.00 example: In Chapter One I talk about Electronic Ways to Get People to Return to Your Website. One of the ways mentioned briefly is to compile "What's New in Your Industry" information so people come back to your website to find out what's going on. This saves them time, so it should work pretty well in getting them to return to your site.

A guy I heard about in California took this one simple idea, expanded it and now makes a substantial amount of money. Apparently he spends about three months of the year researching the changes in California tax law. He compiles all the changes into a big binder and sells it for a large amount of money to California CPAs who must have the information to do their jobs properly. He then puts on high fee seminars for CPAs who want live explanations of the laws. In the report I read he makes about $500,000.00 in roughly six months time and takes the rest of the year off!

Think past the surface ideas you find in this book and relate them to what you do or what you would like to do. It's very likely you could hit on a big winner. 

Ready to order click here 

If after reading this guide you want someone to help manage your particular situation, please call or email me and I'll assist you in finding the appropriate help.

Chapter 1: How to Create a Speaker Website That Kicks

This is the "dummies consultation" on How to Create a Speaker Website That Kicks. I have to tell you up front that you may not like this section of the book, because this is not a save-all-of-the-world guarantee that you're going to be a rich speaker just because you have a website. 

A Rapidly Changing Field

The one thing you have to know is that the web is a rapidly, changing field. If I had written this last week, I might have learned something this week that makes it a little bit different. I don't claim to have all the answers. Many of the things I am going to tell you in this book are broad stroke principles that don't really change that rapidly. When you put some effort into what you read, you can expect to get some returns on it for quite a while so you don't have to worry about it changing every two seconds. 

As soon as I make such a statement though, something major will change, or I'll learn something new that will help you, so I'm setting up an update webpage just for you. Visit http://www.XXXXXXXXX for updates.

Benefits of a Kickin' Website

The benefits I have received by putting effort into my website, electronic magazine, and electronic marketing are: 

Benefit 1: More Money 

You Will Have More Money by learning this information and doing it yourself. As a speaker, I have saved a considerable amount of money by learning this information. Put a triple underline under the word considerable. The time I spent learning how to do my website update management is the best single investment I have made in my speaking career to date. I'm pretty well known today, but previously I was going to networking meetings and paying $35.00 to shake hands with a bunch of people that had no clue as to what I did, and frankly could care less. Now I reach people around the world who want to know me, and for a lot less money and time. 

Benefit 2: Increased Product Sales

Going online and doing it correctly generates many product sales. If you've read some of my past E-zines you may remember even in the early days that the combination of my electronic magazine and website brought in about $24,500 in a 10-day period while I was just sitting here. I'm a big advocate of making money this easily, aren't you?

One thing I want to make perfectly clear is that I'm an average guy who goes out, does things, and learns while he earns. You can make a lot of money that way too. 

Benefit 3: Goodbye, Press Kits

I cannot remember the last press kit I sent out ever since I designed a killer website. Many people have hired me directly after looking at the website and seeing the credibility I have established on the site. They didn't even ask for a video demo tape.

I was very proud of five particular videos I labored so hard to produce because they were uniquely packaged. They're sitting here gathering dust now. Soon, I'll be distributing my videos on a CD-ROM along with a copy of my website, for fifty-nine cents plus postage. I'll trade that low cost against a $20.00 - $30.00 press kit. Some people will say, "Some clients want the hard copies." However, I really don't care, because I know I can get enough bookings electronically. Therefore, it saves you from the tire kickers that want your press kit, your videos, and any other information they can get when they neither have a clue about what you offer, nor a serious intention to purchase. 

Benefit 4: Sayonara, Printing Costs

I do a lot less printing since I have the website. When someone wants to have something sent to them, I talk him or her out of it. I tell them I'm simply going to send them the same thing that is on my website and almost all of them take the website option. They get the information quickly, make their decision, and hire or don't hire me. Great, that's fine. I don't spend a nickel on them.

That's at least four major benefits from having your own web site. Let's get to the steak and potatoes of what you can do to develop your own Kickin' Site. The first thing you need to consider is a name for your site . . . this is extremely important to your success.

Developing your Site


I know there are many different levels of Internet knowledge in the people reading this book, so I'm going to start out on a basic level. Advanced Internet and web development folks can skip to Search Engine Strategies .


Should You Have Your Own Domain Name?

A question I get all the time is "Tom should I have my own domain name?" A domain name, by the way, is like "antion.com." You don't want to get something like "Geocities/ImTooCheapToGetMyOwnDomainName/joeblow.htm," even though it's free. All your promotional efforts will be wasted if Geocities makes some small change. People won't be able to find your site anymore. If you have your own domain name, you can move and be hosted anywhere around the world and people will still be able to find you through all your promotional efforts. In addition, having your own domain name gives you greater credibility.

Tip: If you think of a good name, get it now because they're going fast. A friend of mind just sold his for $90,000.00. He had "helpdesk.com." The domain name can be a valuable entity for you in the future if you get a good one.

There's lots of talk now about new top level domains that will be available soon. I think they will make lots of money for domain name sellers, but won't do much for the typical business person. Watch the update site as that saga progresses.


What Name Should I Use?

It's better not to use your own name. If I had to do it over again, I would not use my name as my main site. I would still have http://www.antion.com but I wouldn't have developed it as deeply as I did. In fact, I just bought three other ones that include important keywords in the name. http://www.dynamicspeaking.com http://www.greatspeaking.com/ and http://www.speak4money.com . 

If anybody knows my name, they will easily be able to find me on the Internet. I want the people who never heard of me to be able to type in something in the search engines and find me. You want to make sure the people who don't know you're out there can find you.

Here's a couple fun and useful free tools to help you get ideas for domain names. You can register the ones you want right at these sites: http://www.nameboy.com  


How Much Should It Cost?

When you do get your domain name, it should cost less than $15.00. You can easily find places where you can get a domain name for $15.00 per year or less. One place is called http://KickStartDomains.com where $15.00 is the actual fee for the domain name. A lot people that have contacted me are paying $200.00 or more because they don't know how to fill out the form. If you pay anything above $15.00, you're paying the company to fill out the form for you and submit it. I suggest you think up a domain name you want and get a techie friend to check it out for you. It only takes about 3-5 minutes to fill out the form yourself.

Tip: You can easily check to see if a domain name you want is available. If it isn't, you can see who owns it by clicking on the "who is" button. I bought http://www.dynamicspeaking.com for only $119.00. So, don't feel that all is lost just because the domain name you want is not available. Make an offer and see what happens.

BIG WARNING: Make sure your name, or your company name is listed as the Administrative Contact for your website. Some people will trick you into doing everything for you including listing "themselves" as the administrative contact. This gives THEM total control of your website. You'll be stuck dealing with them every step of the way and if you want to move to a different host, they may make it very difficult or even impossible for you to do so. In effect, they own your website. And it will be even worse if they go out of business and disappear.

I get asked all the time, "Once you have the domain does that name automatically go up on the Web?"

The answer is no. You can find places that "park it." This means if you just get the name and you're not ready to go live with it, you can store it somewhere for almost nothing. When you're ready to go live with it, you have to pick an Web Hosting Service. There are thousands of those around. Therefore, you can park it for almost nothing if you buy it now. 


What is an ISP?

ISPs simply are the companies that give you an email address and access to the Internet. That's about it. This does not necessarily mean they host websites. That is called a Web Hosting Service. In some cases they do both functions, but not always. There are thousands of ISPs you can read about at the links below. You might want to ask a few questions before you pick an ISP. 

If you travel a lot, it would be nice if your ISP had regional or national coverage which means you will be able to dial into them toll free when you are traveling. Also, ask them about the types of connections and how many dial up numbers they have. You don't want to get busy signals all the time.

The need for a regional or national ISP is decreasing as broadband Internet is available in many hotels and Wi Fi wireless high-speed Internet is becoming more and more available just about everywhere you go. My entire retreat center has high-speed wireless Internet access over the entire two acre estate. Come visit me some time http://www.GreatInternetMarketing.com/retreatcenter.htm

Some ISPs may give you website space, but you must be sure you can use your own domain name.

Look for ISPs here:
http://www.isp.com?antion
http://thelist.internet.com    


What about AOL?

AOL is a special kind of animal. It is its own online network. You have to pay to use it, although you can send email "to" AOL members at no charge. AOL has all kinds of features and webpages that are only available to AOL subscribers. 

I would not recommend using AOL to do serious Internet business. It is simply not set up for it. Trying to send large amounts of email through AOL will more than likely get you kicked off of their service. 

Another important thing about AOL is that if something goes wrong at AOL, which is not unheard of, all the members are cut off from the Internet. If you are depending on your Internet operations to bring you business, you certainly don't want that to happen to you. AOL is simply not designed for the commercial applications we're talking about in this book. That doesn't mean I'm suggesting you go out and cancel your account. AOL has helped me out of many jams in the past. In fact, they saved my butt several times on a recent trip to Thailand when I had to get some emails out and couldn't get to an Internet café (a place where you can rent Internet access). AOL actually had a local number in Bangkok!


What is a Web Hosting Service?

This is a place that has one or many computers that store your website and make it available to the Internet. Your website is housed on a "web server" which is basically a specialized computer.

Web hosting services typically have many more services than a simple ISP. You can get email through them, some provide you with shopping carts (that are usually pieces of junk), web authoring software (again very low level software), statistics, automatic backups, and tons of other things that are website related.

The problem with web hosting services is that in many cases they go through a continual porpoise cycle, i.e., they provide really good service so all their customers brag about them and they get a good rating in an Internet magazine. Then they get a rush of new websites to host and everything slows down because they don't have enough computer space and tech support to handle the surge in business. As a result, your website slows down and you can never get anyone on the tech support phone. Six months later they start to improve and add new equipment and hire more people and everything is fine again until the next rush.

I've been through several of these cycles and sometimes it's just not pretty. I get mad, they get mad, but unless you are willing to spring for the money to be hosted on a "dedicated server" (yours is the only website on the computer) you've got to live with what they give you. It's just too difficult to move to a different host every time you have a little trouble. And where would you move to? The next host could be just coming off of the high (good service) part of their cycle and, in a few months, your website would be no better off than it was at the old hosting company.

Picking a Web Host

Here is a checklist of points to consider when selecting your web host (you may not understand some of these terms yet, but you will by the time you finish reading this book):

Avoid freebie hosting and hosting offered by your ISP (they do too many things and have too much demand on their bandwith to do a super great job at web hosting). Get good solid hosting because you will be crying big tears if your site loads as slow as molasses or never loads at all.

a  If you are using Microsoft Front Page to create your website, do they have Front Page Extensions installed to make all the different parts of Front Page work?

a  Do they give you autoresponders? [NOTE: You'll learn all about what these are later.] (available in the shopping system http://www.KickStartCart.com )

a  Can they handle multimedia and CGI scripts? Do you have full access to the cgi-bin?  You may want to have things like Real Audio and Real Video. Or you might want to put some custom functionality in it, like a 'recommend me form,' or something like that (also available in http://www.KickStartCart.com ). If they can't handle it, you can't have it on your website.

a  How about backups? Do they have a reliable system? How often do they back up? How long will it take to restore your site from backup if something goes wrong? [NOTE: This doesn't relieve you of the necessity of doing your own backups.]

a  What statistics packages do they make available to you? Do they just have a bare bones package, or maybe none at all? Do they make really advanced packages available? Do they have “real time” statistics? Is there a monthly cost for the advanced packages? Do you have access to the “raw server logs”?

a  What kind of connection do they have to the Internet? Do they have superfast T-1 or T-3 lines or something slower?

a  Are there limits on file transfers? Will you have to pay more soon after you sign up and your site starts getting busier?

a  Do they have secure server capability for your e-commerce efforts? [NOTE: This may not matter if you have a top notch system like http://www.KickStartCart.com that provides you with the secure server.]

a  How much space do you get? How much does extra space cost as your website grows? My site has grown to nearly 200 Mega Bytes in 2.5 years.

a  Do they provide web-based administration. This allows you to operate your server from a webpage with no technical experience.

a  Do they have complete email services like Pop 3 mailboxes and the newer IMAP? Do they give you unlimited email aliases?

a  Do they require a long term contract. Avoid them if they do. What will you do if their service is poor?

a  What is their uptime? A good web host should be up and running 99.9 to 100% of the time.  

a  Is their tech support any good? They should have support by phone and email 24/7.  . . .You might want to test them out on this before you sign up.

a  Watch out for ripoffs. You should never pay extra for autoresponders, email aliases, CGI bins, statistics and POP mailboxes

Here’s a directory of web hosts:

http://www.webhostdir.com/

Ready to order click here 

Changing Web Hosts

This is usually a massive pain in the neck if you have a complex website, and only a very large pain in the neck if you have a plain website. You don't want to lose any of your files or the functionality of your website while making the move. 

Why would you want to move? Well maybe the web host has old and slow server computers, or maybe they have a slow connection to the Internet. Maybe they can't handle Front Page websites, CGI scripts and streaming video. Maybe they are just jerks and never return your calls or emails. Whatever the reason, think long and hard before you make the move and plan for disaster. Here are some tips to help you reduce the size of the pain that you are definitely going to suffer:

a Don't quit your old web host until the new site is up and running perfectly.

a Before you do anything, make sure your new hosting service can do what you want it to do. If moving a complex site is a massive pain in the neck, then doing it twice would be considered massive, colossal and you're-a-big-dummy-for-not-checking-the-new-place-out-first pain in the neck.

a You must make sure you have a copy of every single file that will be transferred to the new web host both on your hard drive and backed up to a floppy, zip drive, or CD. This list of files could include graphics, text files, web pages, and whatever else you have cooked up that is included in your web site.

a You must stay organized. Match all of the directories and folders on your hard drive to the ones you have on your website. Example: If you have a folder for 'images' on your Web site, then make a folder of the same on your hard drive and keep all your images in that folder. 

a Once you have your entire website organized on your hard drive and backed up, then upload the files to the new host.

a If you have forms, CGI scripts, secure servers, shopping carts and similar advanced functionality, someone (probably not you, unless you are a techie) must make the appropriate coding changes to get everything working again.

a Test everything thoroughly over a couple of days, and have some of your friends test things too. Make sure everything is working perfectly before you actually make the switch.

a After you're thoroughly satisfied that everything is working properly, go ahead and authorize the new webhost to make the changes needed for the Internet world to find you at your new home. This step could be a pain in the neck too, so you'll just have to plug along until it gets done. Be prepared for the fact that you will probably not get much cooperation from the host you're leaving. Get the new host to advise you on the steps you need to take. For security purposes, you might have to jump through a few hoops to get the change made. This is really a good thing because you don't want others to be able to gain access to your website.

What You Need To Know

You have to have a name for your website. You have to have some way to access the Internet when you are at home and also when traveling, and you have to have a really reliable place to store your website so the world can see it.

Excerpt on Spamming Search Engines

Excerpt about Keywords

Where to Place Keywords

I’m going to give you lots of places where keywords can be put on your page. That doesn’t mean that every page you create will have keywords in all of these places. You can put too many keywords on the page and do yourself more damage than not having enough. You’ll learn more about the total number of keywords you should have when we talk about the modern-day side door strategy later.

One of the main places that a search engine looks for the keywords is in the "Title Bar" of your web page. The title bar is usually a blue bar across the top of each one of your webpages. It is also the link that someone clicks on when they receive the results of a search AND it is also the text used when someone "bookmarks" your site or puts it in their favorite places (many browsers allow the person bookmarking the webpage to change the text that they see in their list of bookmarks). 

A problem I see all the time is where people put their name in the title bar or use "home page." All of this is meaningless. What you want to do is put keywords in the title bar. 

Tip: Go though your website and make sure each page has keywords in the title bar. Using keywords in the page title tells someone what's on that page. If you look at my home page, for example, http://www.antion.com  , it does not say, "Hey this is the big shot speaker Tom Antion." My keywords in the title bar say "presentation skills," "speeches," or "public speaking." Use something relevant to the search engines and your topics. The title bar is weighted very heavily when the search engine is looking for the page. 

Ethically Spy on Your Competition’s Keywords

Here’s a great idea. Why not let your competition do lots of work for you and you reap the benefits?

You can find out what keywords your competitors are using by opening their websites in Internet Explorer browser. After the site you are spying on is open click on “view” then click “source”.

A window will open and it will show you all the behind-the-scenes HTML coding of the site. This most likely will include the keywords that site is using to try to grab traffic.

Some very sophisticated webmasters can hide this information from you or even feed you false information, but that is very rare. For the most part you will see what words they are using.

Just because you find these words don’t assume the webmaster for the site you are looking at knew what he/she was doing with them. Your job is to look for words that you may have overlooked and take them to the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool to see the popularity of the keywords you find.

Ethically Spy on Your Competition’s Traffic

While you’re busy spying on your competition you may as well spy on their traffic. Although there are lots of factors at play, you might be better served by emulating sites that have lots of traffic.

One way to check on traffic is to use the free Alexa Toolbar http://www.Alexa.com . You can download and install this toolbar in seconds. It will tell you how much traffic a site is getting and also it’s rank among all the other sites it looks at on the Internet. You can compare your traffic to another site and you can even look at an archive of how websites looked in the past.

While I’m thinking about spying don’t forget to take your competitors’ email addresses out of your database so they don’t see what promotions you’re sending out.

Ready to order click here 

Excerpt about Easier Shopping Systems

Sequential Autoresponders

Inexpensive autoresponders are available that also send follow up messages at intervals you specify. I just did a FREE 7 Day Mini Course on Electronic Marketing. The person would send an email to mailto:MiniCourse@aweber.com  and immediately get the first lesson and then another lesson each day for the next six days. I had 1200 people sign up for this in about five days and they spent about $7,000.00 the first week after determining I knew what I was talking about when it comes to E-marketing. One month of this service was only $19.95, and it goes as low as $14.95 if you buy a whole year. You can check it out at http://www.aweber.com/?23558

The way I do it now is with http://www.KickStartCart.com because it is totally integrated with my shopping system and the autoresponders can be tied to a specific purchase which is an extremely powerful sales and customer service technique. The way it works is that when someone buys a product they automatically subscribe themselves to follow up emails. The emails can be used to give additional tips on how to use what they bought, or to sell them more products.  The customer can unsubscribe themselves anytime if they don’t feel your emails are of value.

Excerpt on CD Production

Excerpt from Resource Section

Meta Search Engines

(They search many other regular search engines at once)

http://www.askjeeves.com

http://www.metacrawler.com

http://www.dogpile.com/

http://cyber411.com/

http://www.metafind.com/

http://www.copernic.com (You must install their free software)

Sound File Search Engine

http://www.findsounds.com/

Graphic Search Engine

http://www.ditto.com

Legal Search Engine

http://www.findlaw.com

Excerpt from Glossary

Glossary

| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

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A.
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Active X: Controls created by Microsoft that will make your web browser "active." For instance it will allow it to show animation.

Administrative Contact: In essence the owner of a website. Make sure it's you whenever you buy a domain name.

Adobe Acrobat: Program used to convert files to "pdf" format for use in E-books. Can be read by both Macs and PCs.

Adobe Reader: Free program used to view "pdf" files.

ADSL (asynchronous DSL): is a cheaper version of DSL Internet access where your download speed is faster than your upload speed.

Ad Swap: The act of trading classified ads with another E-zine publisher.

Affiliate Program (also associate program): Software that allows other people to sell your products on their website for a commission. The software tracks what you owe them.

Keep in mind. The actual book is more than 30 times larger than this excerpt.

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