Featured Links

Other Topics
Sponsored Links





Quote of the Day

"Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come."

Carl Sandburg








 




 
Featured Publishing Articles

Ezine Publishing As A Business
Ezine Publishing As A Business © 2002 Elena Fawkner If you have your own website, or are planning to create one soon, in the course of your research you will have read about the importance of publishing an ezine (electronic newsletter) as a way of ...

Negotiate a Raise
Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to republish this article electronically, or in print, providing you include my byline, copyright notice, and full information from the resource box. Please change my web site urls to clickable hyperlinks on web ...

What Your Employees Want You to Know (But You Might Be Afraid to Ask)
This is a challenge for every company owner and manager. You have tremendous plans for growth and expect a lot of your employees. But do you know if the company is meeting your best employees’ expectations? Are you providing the type of environment that ...




The Virtual Edge - Work At Home Success
 
Do you have the Virtual Edge with your business? That website that when people go there they say, Wow, I want to work with that company. If not, here are a few pointers.

Packing a Punch

Your website is the one thing that defines you and your business and has the potential to draw the entire virtual world to your products or services. How important is it? Well, I just recently had mine redone, and I immediately starting gaining more clients. Also, because I added a more professional edge to my site, I started getting clients who were a higher caliber and who paid more!

Here are a few pointers I think you might find useful:

The First Glance - Hook Them!! Keep in mind that the first thing listed in the main body of your site should be the best you offer. The main thing you are bringing people to the site to see. It has to clearly state what is it you want to sell, offer, feature, etc. Go look at your site, have you done it?

Buttons That Tell & Sell - Those side and top buttons—you need to clearly set up so that people want to click on them and find out more. Also, you need to have these labeled correctly so they know what they are clicking on to see. That name is critical to making them take the time to check out that page.

Bullet Power- Clients often skim sites and rarely read through the entire site. They look for items that interest them. If you list paragraph after paragraph, it won’t get read. Think back, do you read those paragraphs. I don’t! Therefore use bullets or symbols instead. And try the slanted bullets or a different bullet style for more eye appeal.

Chose Your Words Wisely - Every word on your site should say something important. Absolutely you need to use keywords, but you also need to use convincing words to sell you and your business. Don’t get so caught up in keywords that you lose the focus of the site. Write the text, edit and delete, and repeat that last step over and over until you have it just right.

Convenience -- Clickable Links -- In the body of the website itself, whenever you are providing a reference to a site, make sure you have a clickable link, even if you have it on the side panel. People often won’t take the time to go look for the button, so make it easy for them.

Colors Are Cool -- Match your colors to your business and you. I just started another new


site and added my favorite colors to it. It has a softer feel and look to it and yet still has the professional edge I need for virtual assisting.

Front Page Magic – Offer Something FREE - On your front page, it helps to offer something for FREE. I offer a free booklet on obtaining clients in a pdf format. How about a free 10 ways to do whatever it is you do? That sort of thing. Let people long after they leave your site remember you and want to come back to you with their money and business.

Contests - Come One- Come All -- Yes, we know they work. They get people to your site and that adds to your traffic. But, here’s a tip to make them really successful. Follow-up each response with a personal e-mail. Now, the key is not making it a hard sale sales letter they will never read. Instead, a “Hi, thanks for entering the contests, I’m sorry you did/didn’t win, but I’m ...” And then give them something special, including a coupon off of your services. Make them feel special.

Newsletter -- List your newsletter on numerous pages if not all. This is what is going to be reconnecting you to your clients and potential clients.

The Eyes Have It - I strongly suggest you have another friend or business associate view your site and offer opinions. It’s incredible what they can see that you don’t as you are too close to it.

Eyes -- Take Two -- Right now, stop and check out your site. Have you looked at it from a potential client’s viewpoint? What did you think? Did it clearly define you and what you offered? Did it spark your interest?

I hope these tips help you to get the virtual edge you need for your business. Good luck!






Publishing News


Self-Publishing Company Acquires Its Rival
New York Times, United States - 8 hours ago
By MOTOKO RICH; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF Author Solutions, a publisher of print-on-demand books based in Bloomington, Ind., has acquired Xlibris, ...
Author Solutions buys self-publisher Xlibris Indianapolis Business Journal
all 3 news articles

AdAge.com

Publisher Meredith to cut 250 jobs, take charge
Reuters - 17 hours ago
"The recessionary economy has impacted both publishing and broadcasting advertising, which accounts for approximately 60 percent of our revenue stream," ...
Meredith magazine cut; 100 lose jobs DesMoinesRegister.com
Magazine publisher Meredith cuts 250 jobs Boston Herald
Market Report -- In Play (MDP) MSN Money
all 59 news articles

Keppler & Schwarzmann (Publishers) Puck Magazine,
Auction Central News, NY - 1 hour ago
803, illustrations, original wrappers, worn at edges, hole punch at spine, Judge Publishing, New York, 1897, 4to.(20) 1. (a)Bloomsbury Auctions Limited ...

Tate Publishing Releases Video Book Trailers
PR Web (press release), WA - 3 hours ago
Tate Publishing is leading the publishing industry once again with the announcement of their most recent service. Tate Publishing will now be releasing ...

ECM Publishers president Jeff Athmann resigns, accepts new ...
Coon Rapids ECM Publishers, MN - 19 hours ago
Julian Andersen, publisher and chief executive officer of ECM Publishers, Inc., today (Wednesday, Jan. 7) announced that Jeff Athmann, president and chief ...