========================================== Business Marketing Bulletin ========================================== September 25, 2007, Issue #69 Terri Seymour, Publisher http://www.seymourproducts.com mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com © 2007 All Rights Reserved Worldwide ========================================== In This Issue ========================================== 1. Top Sponsor Ads 2. Privacy Policy 3. What's New? 4. Feedback 5. Freebies & Biz Helpers 6. Feature Ad 7. Article: The Art of Website Maintenance 8. Feature Ad 9. eCommerce Tips & Info 10. This 'n That - Little Bit of Everything! 11. Subscription Management & Contact Info ========================================== Top Sponsor Ads ========================================== This Month's Special BUY 2 GET 1 50% OFF!! Buy any 2 items at regular price and get 1 at 50% off (Does NOT include the embroidered items, bonnet babies, or quilts!) ( you will need to send in your order before you pay, so we can figure your discount) 50% OFF item MUST BE of equal lesser value! http://delightfulkreations.com/store/aGo.asp?aff=94 *************************** Supporting our troops,teachers and the USA!! The coolest flag-wavin’, troop and teacher supportin’ products on the net…… http://www.cafepress.com/rightonstuff/3098244 ********** ATTENTION ********** You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to it. As a subscriber you have acknowledged that there will be both in-house and third party advertising as part of our content. This allows BMB to remain free. If you would like to be removed from this list, please see instructions at the end of this newsletter. Seymour Products values your privacy. http://www.seymourproducts.com/privacy.shtml Seymour Products is hosted by ICDSoft Hosting. No set-up fees, 1000 MB of space, $72 per year, plus numerous features! Incredible support system...minutes, not hours! You have a bigger plan option as well. http://www.icdsoft.com/?aff=terriseymour ========================================== What’s New? ========================================== Hello everyone and welcome new subscribers, Thank you for joining us this week. As always we have tried to find useful information and resources for all to use in their home/online business. If you are in need of a program, resource or information that we have not provided, just let me know and I will do my best to find what you are looking for. Just email me at mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=looking_for Always be sure to browse our store as we have over 800 programs, scripts, and ebooks that not only can you resell but you can use them yourself as well. I will be adding my ebooks to the resell list as well very soon, so if you have purchased either of my ebooks in the past and would like the updated resell rights versions, just let me know. Thank you. In the News Social Networking: A Time Waster Or The Next Big Thing In Collaboration? http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201808149&cid=RSSfeed_TechWeb New Ebooks this Week: Resell Ebooks Just $1.00 Each! Social Madness (int. marketing) Free College (education) Franchising Secrets (job & career) Classified Marketing Secrets (online & home biz) Advertising Options (online home biz) Understanding Acne (beauty & fashion) Keyword Coach (software & scripts) The Ultimate Collection of Marekting Tips (int. marketing) Retirement Planning (money & finances) The Blazed Trail (classics) Vinegar for Your Health (health & fitness) How I Sell 1000s Products from Home Using the Net (int. mark) Scorching Hot Resell Tips from a Resell Junkie ( ebook reselling) Keyword Content Multiplier (software & scripts) The RC Car Guide (entertainment & leisure) Allan Quartermain (classics) Sports Nutrition ( sports) Crocheting Made Easy (crafts & hobbies) Self-Improvement 65 PLR Article Pack (PLR articles) Auction Mercenary (eBay) http://www.seymourproducts.com/ebooks-resell **Weekly Subscriber Special** Valid from Tuesday September 25 through Friday Sept. 28 Package Plus Special Get extra free ebooks with the purchase of our money-saving packages. Package # 1 Get 10 extra free ebooks. Just email me with your choices. Package #2 Get 20 extra free ebooks. Package #3 Get 50 extra free ebooks. If you were thinking about opening your own ebook store, now is the time to get even more ebooks for your grand opening! Each package already includes free ebooks but now you get even more! http://www.seymourproducts.com/ebooks-resell NOTE: New eBooks listed above are not eligible for Weekly Subscriber Specials. Join the Seymour Products Trivia Challenge! Find the hidden trivia question and be the third person to send in the correct answer for a free feature ad in next week's issue of the Business Marketing Bulletin. Send your answer to mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=answer Congratulations to Carla Kroger for being last week's trivia challenge winner. Last week’s Q: What is a shark's skeleton made of? Last Week’s A: Cartilage Join in the fun and try to win a free feature ad. Good luck all! If you know anyone who could benefit from this ezine, please feel free to forward them a copy in its entirety. Thank you. If you would like to advertise in the BMB, please visit: http://www.seymourproducts.com/newsletter/advertise.shtml for more information. Advertising prices are as low as $2.00. I am also looking for ad swaps from other ezine publishers. BMB goes out to 625 subscribers. ========================================== Feedback ========================================== Please send in your comments, suggestions, questions, etc to mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=feedback We appreciate all feedback, good or bad! I have reprinted several of your articles on my new website http://www.advanceconfidently.com. Several of your articles are exactly the kind of information I believe my perspective readers will enjoy. * Mark ========================================== Freebies & Biz Helpers ========================================== Add "Live Help" to your site to assist your visitors and customers when they need it. Install this easy to use script and keep your visitors happy! http://www.seymourproducts.com/ebooks-resell/view_item.php?ItemID=825 ****** Submit your site for more exposure http://submit2.jayde.com/ http://www.whatuseek.com/addurl.shtml http://www.dmegs.com/ ****** Free Download: A-ToolBar Contains 50 useful tools. http://www.metaeureka.com/download.shtml ****** Write Better Ads - Do It Free! http://www.WriteBetterAds.com ****** How are you doing with those articles? Here are more sites that you can submit to. http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml http://www.surefreearticles.com/ http://allarticles.cc/articles/add.html ========================================== Feature Ad ========================================== Has your company failed you? Poor upline support? Check out our new 941 option - Earn without selling! This program is for BUSY people who DON'T LIKE to sell, DON'T THINK they can sell, or simply DON'T WANT to sell! For a change, visit http://www.vanillabiz.com ========================================== Feature Article ========================================== The Art of Website Maintenance by Erin Ferree Now that you've designed and launched your website, you have a powerful marketing tool for your business. But, your website is only as useful as the content is current. The process of keeping the content on your site current is called website maintenance, and it's important to keep both visitors and search engines supplied with new information. Just like regular maintenance on your car, you have to make changes on your website every few months to make sure that things run smoothly. If you update the content on your website on a regular basis, potential clients will be drawn back to your site to find out "what's new". The search engines pay visits to websites in their queue regularly. The catch is that you'll stay in the queue only if you update your site regularly. If the search engines visit your site several times in a row, and don't find anything new, they may decide not to come back-which can be a blow to your search engine rankings. So, when is it appropriate to update your website? You don't want to waste time and money nitpicking at your site if you don't have updates of real value to add. You should update your site if you've: - Grown your skills. Have you gotten a new accreditation? New licensing? Improved your skills? Any change in your skill set is a great reason to update your website - and your potential clients - with your new capabilities. - Expanded your products or services. Do you have a new offering? Add it to your website and start making new sales in that area. - Completed a successful project. If you've just finished a project, include it on your website. Create an online portfolio, add a case study - build a section on your website to use as a place to show the world your success. - Gotten more testimonials, or added to your client list. Including more feedback on your offering helps to build your credibility. Be sure to get a testimonial from each of your successful client projects. Updating your testimonials regularly will also show clients who have visited your site a few times that your offerings are "up to snuff". - Written an article. Writing articles is a great way to keep your website up-to-date and to put more content on your site. Search engines love content-rich sites, and visitors will love to see the new information. So, if you write articles to educate your clients and promote your business, be sure to place them on your website as well. They're likely to be full of keywords related to your area of specialty, which will help your ranking in the search engines. - Issued Press releases. You should post all press releases and other information you publish about your company to your website. You never know who may be visiting, and you may get written up for your accomplishments. - Made changes in your business. Have you hired someone? Changed your business structure, and you're now required to notify the public of that? If so, you should probably review your website and evaluate how you can add that information. - Made Yearly check-ups. You should do a basic check on your site at least once a year, to make sure that the content is current. Some things to check include: *Your copyright statements should be updated yearly *Test and validate your links, to ensure that they still work *Your time references should be changed. If your "About" page says how many years you've been in business, this is the time to change that! *Your pricing and offerings - do you have new products or services? Have your prices increased over the past year? Spotlight any major updates on your home page as well, so that people will learn of those updates as soon as they enter your site. The search engines will also discover the new update as soon as they enter your home page if you leave a bit of information, with a link to the full story, on the home page. That will act as a breadcrumb for the engine to follow - the engines will follow your link to learn more about it. Any of these reasons, and dozens of others, are great reasons to make changes to your site. If you make keeping your website current a priority, it will pay off with better search engine rankings and increased sales and leads through your website. Once you've decided to make your changes, the next choice is how to go about doing that. There are two steps involved in maintaining your site: 1. First, decide whether you prefer to edit your content on paper or online. This can be done in a couple of ways. You can start by printing the pages that have outdated information and then updating that information on paper first. Or, you can copy and paste the outdated content from your website into a word processing program such as Microsoft Word and then edit that file on your computer. 2. After you have updated your text content you can choose either to make the changes yourself or to hire a web designer to make the changes. There are several tools that you can use to make changes to your site yourself. We recommend an easy-to-use tool called Macromedia Contribute. It's fairly inexpensive, its simple to set up and learn, and it allows you to back up to older versions of your site if you make mistakes. We suggest that you use this tool to make only simple text changes. More complicated changes - for example, to the overall design or navigation - are more difficult to make, and having a professional make those changes will save you energy and frustration. If you are comfortable with a more complicated software program, then we recommend a professional-grade tool such as Dreamweaver. With a better software package, you'll be able to make some of the more complicated changes yourself. By building more and more current information into your website, you will also begin to build trust with your potential clients, since they will have a snapshot of what's currently happening in your business available to them. Your website can go a long way towards making sure that your online prospects know, like, and trust you - which can lead to more sales from your website. About The Author Erin Ferree is a brand identity designer who creates big visibility for small businesses. Her workbook, "Design a Website That Works", will walk you through all of the questions that you need to answer in order to create the best possible website. http://www.Elf-Design.com http://www.elf-design.com/products-webWorkbook.html ----------------------------------------------------------- If you would be interested in any of my articles for reprint or reference you can see the complete list at http://www.seymourproducts.com/articles/index.shtml Feel free to use any of the articles you feel are appropriate. Also, if you would like to be added to my personal mailing list for articles only, terri@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Feature Ad ========================================== Need an extra pair of hands? Daily Administration provides dependable administrative support. Your deadlines are met with accuracy & you receive personalized attention. Services include html Newsletters, Follow up calls, Website updates, Word processing and more http://www.dailyadministration.com Mention this ad and save 10% ========================================== eCommerce Tips & Info ========================================== Tips on marketing your ebooks: Put your ebook in your sigtag along with a free bonus. The free bonus will attract more people and bring in more sales. Use an excerpt from your ebook as an article and submit it to as many directories as possible. Be sure to mention your ebook in your resource box. Ask a few people to write reviews for your ebook in exchange for a free copy. Post the reviews on your site. Click to continue with more tips....... http://www.seymourproducts.com/articles/market-ebook.shtml ****** Raise your ranking and get more traffic by starting a blog. First step is to take a look at some other blogs to get a feel of how they are done. Simply pick your favorite search engines, do a search for blogs and spend sometime reading and studying them. Get familiar with different styles, formats and content until you feel like you know what you would want to do with your blog. You can then get started on your own blog. There are lots of sites where you can start your own blog for free: BlogDrive.com Blogger.com/start LiveJournal.com ========================================== This ‘n That - A Little Bit of Everything! ========================================== Want to find out how smart you really are?! http://www.mensa-test.com/ That which is striking and beautiful is not always good, but that which is good is always beautiful. * Ninon de L'Enclos Free Parenting Guide http://thebabyboutiqueatwombswindow.com/blog/get-a-free-ebook/ This week's riddle: The Barrel A man takes a barrel that weighs 20 pounds, and then puts something in it. It now weighs less than 20 pounds. What did he put in the barrel? Answer at the end of the ezine. ========================================== Subscription Management ========================================== Subscriptions to this weekly ezine are free. To receive this newsletter: Send a blank email to: mailto:subscribe@seymourproducts.com To not receive this newsletter: Send blank email to: mailto:unsubscribe@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Contact Info ========================================== Terri & Terry Seymour Publishers, Business Marketing Bulletin Owners, Seymour Products http://www.seymourproducts.com mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com ========================================== Legal Disclaimer The Business Marketing Bulletin does not make any warranties, express or implied, regarding the use of the links that we provide in our advertising. We don't guarantee the accuracy, completion, usefulness or legality of any advertisements, resources, information, products, services, income processes or programs. We disclaim any responsibility and/or all liability arising out of, or relating to, any item listed in this ezine, and/or websites. ========================================== Answer to riddle: He put a hole in the barrel so what was in it leaked out and the barrel weighed less. Who's the subject of William Manchester's book, American Caesar? mailto:terri@seymourproducts.com?subject=answer