Eye Opener – How To Survive An Earthquake

This article was a huge eye opener for me. Opposite of what we were all taught on how to survive and earthquake. But this guy knows what he is talking about and all of us need to listen. Especially those of us who live in  the fault zone. Read and learn to save your life and those around you. This is brought to you as a service today in respect to those lives lost in Japan.

What to do in an Earthquake

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP’S ARTICLE ON THE:
“TRIANGLE OF LIFE”

My name is Doug Copp.  I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most experienced rescue team.  The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries…

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years.  I have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake.  Every child was under its desk.  Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones.  They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles.  It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles.  I didn’t at the time know that the children were told to hide under something.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them.  This space is what I call the “triangle of life.”

The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact.  The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured.  The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the “triangles” you see formed.  They are everywhere.  It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Most everyone who simply “ducks and covers” WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death.  People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position.  You should too in an earthquake… It is a natural safety/survival instinct.  You can survive in a smaller void.  Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake.  Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake.  If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created.  Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight.  Brick buildings will break into individual bricks.  Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed.  A safe void will exist around the bed.  Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed.  How?  If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above.  If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway.  In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs.  The stairs have a different “moment of frequency” (they swing separately from the main part of the building).  The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place.  The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads – horribly mutilated.  Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away from the stairs.  The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged.  Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people.  They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible – It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior.  The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway… The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles.  They were all killed.  They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles.  Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them.  All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact.  Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word and save someone’s life… The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!

“We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly.”

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct.  The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul, University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test.  We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside.  Ten mannequins did “duck and cover,” and ten mannequins I used in my “triangle of life” survival method.  After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results.  The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the “triangle of life.”  This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA, Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

IM Tools You Can Get For Free

When I first started building my Internet Marketing journey, I was suffering from low budget. You know what I mean…

I wasn’t able to afford all the fancy tools, I had to make due with what was available for free. The hardest part was finding free tools that were worth a damn in the first place.

In this blog post I’m going to tell you about the best free internet marketing tools I’ve come across in the last 10 years of working online.

And if you know of some more cool free tools, then by all means please leave a comment with a link and description of your favorite free tools.

Seven Free Internet Marketing Tools That Are Killer Useful!

#1 FREE GRAPHICS EDITOR

You have heard of Photoshop. Ever seen the price tag? Well Pixlr.com is the free version of Photoshop and it’s web based so you can use it on any computer with Internet access. It’s a great program for whipping up banner ads, website headers, Twitter backgrounds, and soo much more.

The one problem I have with Pixlr, is they don’t have a way to save the files with the layers you’ve created. Which means once you are done, it’s hard to open the file and make changes to it later. Although, that’s a small price to pay to have access to such a powerful graphics editing application.

#2 FREE AUDIO EDITOR

Recording interviews and even recording your own thoughts makes for great information products. However, you’ll often need something to edit those audio files. Audacity has you covered with probably one of the most advanced pieces of software I’ve ever seen offered for free.

#3 FREE CONFERENCE CALLS

Being able to spread your message to more than one person at a time is what Internet marketing is all about. Being able to get up to 1,000 people on the same phone call all listening to what you have to say… THAT’S POWER! You can do it for free too with FreeConferenceCalling.com. I use this tool every week in my business and it has always been great.

#4 FREE WEBSITE BUILDER

Not too sure if building websites is important to Internet marketers…. NOT! Of course this is important and while Facebook is making it less and less important it is still a crucial part of marketing on the web. With Weebly you don’t even need to know any code, you just need to know how to read, drag, and drop. You might not even need to know how to read – It’s that easy!

I do not recommend you buy domain names or hosting through them though as they charge a hefty middle man fee. Use one of the bigger companies for that. Godaddy, Namecheap, Hostgator, Bluehost.

#5 FREE FILE CONVERTER

I’m not sure I would call this one a “crucial” tool but it sure does come in handy quite often for me. YouConvertIt.com will let you convert just about any filetype into the right filetype for you. From videos, documents, audios, and more.

#6 FREE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULER

I sell personal coaching to my business clients, in fact 1on1 coaching is and has always been my easiest money. Whether it be to a local business owner looking to increase their marketing or to Internet newbies wanting to learn how to build their first successful Internet business. To manage my schedule and automate the appointment setting part of things, I use Clickbook.

I just set my available dates and times, give out a link to my clients, and they can schedule the best time for them. Which lets me never have to worry about overlapping appointments or going back and forth about which date and time works best.

#7 FREE PRESS RELEASE DISTRIBUTION

Getting the word out about your products and services is a must. Using a cleverly written press release you could end up getting massive publicity for your business. With PRLog you could end up getting all that buzz for FREE! Make sure you use the proper press release format to be taken seriously and keep your most important details at the top of the press release. Then explaining more and more reasons why your product is so news worthy as you get farther into the article.

Well there you have it seven free internet marketing tools that you could literally run your entire business with! I’ll also add that I’m a big fan of all the Google apps and there’s a lot more in that list that could have ended up on here. However, since the Google apps are more popular I decided to make room for less obvious, harder to find resources.

If you have some tools you’d like to tell the marketing community about go ahead and post them as a comment below. I’m sure we’d all love to find some more great free internet marketing tools.

Keeping Your Pages Alive

Using 301 Redirects For Search Engine Optimization

There are multiple reasons to redirect URLs. For one, your web pages may have moved but their old URLs may still live in users’ bookmarks or in search engine indexes. Without implementing some sort or redirection, that traffic would be lost to a 404 Error Page.

On occasions, you may also want to register several extensions for your domain name : ‘mydomain.com’, ‘mydomain.net’ and ‘mydomain.org’, and have ‘mydomain.net’ and ‘mydomain.org’ automatically redirect visitors to your site, hosted under ‘mydomain.com’.

Furthermore, if your company sells several products, you may want to give each of them an individual domain name, and have it point to a specific subdirectory of your main site. For example, if you own a site called ‘businessvideos.com’ that sells a product called ‘Marketing Made Easy’, you may want to set up a domain such as ‘marketingmadeeasy.com’, and redirect it to subdirectory: www.businessvideos.com/marketingmadeeasy/.

There are several ways to redirect domains, however, most of them will get you in trouble with the search engines. The search engine friendly way to redirect URLs is to use what is know as a 301 redirect (you can see how Google and Yahoo! specifically endorse this kind of redirection). Here is my take about the different redirection methods and their implications on search engine optimization:
Meta-Refresh Javascript Redirect

You can redirect visitors by placing a snippet of javascript code within the HTML code of the page you want to redirect. With this method, you can specify the number of seconds before the visitor is automatically redirected to the new page. Search engines don’t like this method, because of the potential for abuse: you could write an optimized page for a non-competitive search term, and then automatically redirect your unsuspecting visitor to whatever URL you want. For example, it could be relatively easy to write a page about English literature, have it indexed and highly ranked by the search engines, and then redirect your visitor to a casino or Viagra site. If search engines allowed this, users would quickly stop trusting them. That is why search engines penalize this practice, and why you should avoid it.

Parked Domains

You could register an additional domain name , park it, and make it point to the DNS servers of your main site’s hosting account, so that when somebody types the additional domain, they will be transported to your main site. However, this approach may lead to search engines listing the same content twice, one for your main domain, and one for your additional domain. In the past, unscrupulous webmasters would use multiple domains to spam search engines and directories, making them list the same pages hundreds of times under different domains. Even if your intentions are good, we don’t recommend this approach to redirecting your additional domains, since search engines may penalize your site for duplicate content.

302 and 301 Redirects

When a request for a page or URL is made by a browser, agent or spider, the web server where the page is hosted checks a file called ‘.htaccess’. This file contains instructions on how to handle specific requests and also plays a key role in security. The ‘.htaccess’ file can be modified so that it instructs browsers, agents or spiders that the page has either temporarily moved (302 redirect) or permanently moved (301 redirect). It is usually possible to implement this redirect without messing with the ‘.htaccess’ file directly, using your web host’s control panel instead.

From a search engine perspective, 301 redirects are the only acceptable way to redirect URLs. In the case of moved pages, search engines will index only the new URL, but will transfer link popularity from the old URL to the new one so that search engine rankings are not affected. The same behavior occurs when additional domains are set to point to the main domain through a 301 redirect.
The URL Forwarding Feature

Most domain registrars offer a feature called URL Forwarding. With this feature, you can register a new domain, such as ‘mydomain.net’, and have it point to mydomain.com (or to any other URL). The problem, however, is that registrars usually do this by implementing a 302 redirect (page moved temporarily). While Google handles 302 redirects very well, passing link popularity from the additional domain to the main one, other search engines don’t do this well, diluting link popularity by splitting it between the two domains, and negatively affecting rankings. Therefore, it is better not to use this method, and implement a 301 redirect instead.

(more…)

How To Write Headlines That “Capture” Attention

Traffic. You need it. There are hundreds and thousands of “how to” manuals, systems, and web sites dedicated to this one topic. Traffic.

If you’re going to sell your product, people have to see it. If nobody visits your site, it is impossible to sell them anything.

On the flip side of that same coin, once you get them to your site, you have about 10 seconds to capture their attention. They need to want your product right away, or at least want to know more.
Have you ever visited a site and either clicked the “back” button or redirected to another site right away? It happens all the time. You weren’t “captured” by the headline.

I’m going to share with you my personal “how to” for writing headlines that “capture” attention…and help you to convert traffic to sales.

The Primary Headline is your biggest weapon of the sales page and should be used to showcase your biggest benefit to the reader. It should be large text, bold, and with different colors to highlight the most important points.

Answer these few questions for a start:
What is the ultimate “best reason” someone should buy your product?
What is the most desirable result of buying your product to the reader?
What, above everything else, would be most beneficial about buying it to the reader?
This is your chance to quickly summarize your entire salesletter in one or two eye-catching sentences that are GUARANTEED to be read by the visitor to your site.
Fire your biggest gun! You don’t have any time to lose…they need to be “captured” by what your product can accomplish for them!
Lay it all down…in one or two short sentences. What will the reader need to do, and what, in the end, will be the ULTIMATE reward for doing it? You can tell them details of how to do it later…for now, keep it simple, and keep the rewards in the forefront.
Do “this”, and get “that”. Having “this” will get you “that”. Cause and effect…a simple principle you’ve learned about since grade school. A simple cause leading to a highly rewarding effect…that’s what people are looking for.
This model can take many forms, but the principle is always the same. Risk/reward. Input/outcome. Time invested/money earned. Etc…
As with any type of advertisement or sales copy, there are some simple rules to follow in creating your headline…things that will help to boost the effect…

Use Details. The more specific you can be the better. Not only does your statement seem more believable with specifics, but in many instances it can see more reachable. It’s not just “create a guide”, it’s “create a 10 step guide”. It’s not just “create a membership course”, it’s “get started with one lesson written…”
Use Time Frames. One of the things most people want is a “time frame”. How long will this take? When can I expect results? It’s not just “earn money working from home”, it’s “make a living working JUST A FEW HOURS each week…” It’s “in as little as 48 hours…”
Use Word Pictures. Most people want the easiest route to their destination of choice. Use word pictures to describe the ultimate result most desirable to the reader. It’s not just “working at home”, it’s “working from the comfort of your easy chair”.
So, there’s a lot to convey in your headline. It sets the tone for your entire sales message, so spend some time developing it based on the things we’ve talked about here.
You need to “capture” the readers’ attention right away…and the Primary Headline will be the first thing they read…that they’re almost guaranteed to read. Make it count.

Five Steps To Writing A Great Salesletter

There is no doubt that having a great salesletter can make or break a product. You can sell a phenomenal product to a tightly focused audience, and if the sales copy is only marginal, your results will not be up to snuff.

One of the problems with writing copy stems from being too close to a project. If it is your product, sometimes it’s hard to step back and realize that the reasons you love it might not translate to someone else. It’s a lot like having kids. What is adorable or wonderful about your kid to you might be peculiar or irritating to someone else. Now maybe if they get to know your child, they’d find them adorable, too. That’s the purpose of the salesletter.

Your product is your “baby” at the moment. You’re already sold on it. You need to step back and try to think of what would make you spend your money on it if it wasn’t yours already.
So how do you do it? How do you write a great salesletter? I’m glad you asked…

1. Grab Attention: You MUST get the reader’s attention quickly. A pre-head, and then a main headline should grab hold of the reader and make them want to know more. If possible, you want to give the ultimate reward for the product right in the headline. If it is easy, requires little time or effort, and/or has a big payoff, the reader should be hooked with the possible results right away.
 – What is the ultimate “best reason” someone should buy your product?- What is the most desirable result of buying your product to the reader?- What, above everything else, would be most beneficial about buying it?

This is your chance to quickly encapsulate your entire salesletter in one, eye-catching sentence that is GUARANTEED to be read by the visitor to your site.

Fire your biggest gun!

2. State the Problem: Your reader must find out why they need your product. What problem are you solving? What are the frustrations that you can alleviate with your product, manual, report? Many times, there are multiple problems that can be listed to make sure you address every angle possible.
I generally prefer to use the “3 Reasons Why”, or “5 Problems With” approach. Make a list of problems or issues that you know your audience deals with, and then explain a few details about these problems. Make them feel personal. 
3. Introduce the Product: Give details about your product, what will be included, and why it’s an answer to what your prospects are looking for. You’ll want to list solutions in direct answer to the problems described above. Brag on yourself a little, but do it in a humble manner. If you are the expert, be the expert. Tell them why your product can answer their concerns, solve their problems.
4. Give Plenty of Details: People want meat, not tofu. You must present the meat of what your prospects will be getting when they part with their hard earned cash. Bullet lists, subject or chapter heads, examples of real content. The more content shared here, the more they know they’ll get with the product, and the more valuable it will be to them. If you have proof, testimonials, etc…these are great information about the product, too, if used sparingly and properly.
5. Call to Action: In sales, this is the close. You must give the reader a reason to act. Ask them to buy, set a limit, or offer a bonus for quick action. Offer a satisfaction guarantee, too. Make them feel at once compelled to buy, as well as comfortable with buying.

There are a lot of ways to put a good salesletter together. Use the tools you have, and your own experience, to promote your baby. Make sure you incorporate these 5 steps, and you’ll be on your way to sales copy that really sells.

Three Keys to Getting The Order With Your Call To Action

You have traffic. People are seeing your site, your product. You’ve nearly perfected your headline writing skills, and you present your product well throughout the body of your salesletter.

Now it’s time to get the prospective buyer to part with some of their hard earned cash. It’s time to close.
In traditional sales, person to person, the close cannot be effective if it’s never attempted. Rule number one about the close, or “call to action”…it must exist. You CANNOT leave your salesletter hanging on the details of the product and the sales pitch…and an order button. You must ask for the business. Demand action…make it desirable…make it necessary.

You know the drill from every commercial advertisement you’ve seen on television…

“Operators are standing by … place your order NOW!”

Don’t delay. Quantities are limited. The next 10 callers get “xyz”. Yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah. Reminds me of the teacher on the Charlie Brown cartoons: “waaa, waaa, waaa, waaa, waaaa.”

Now as every good copywriter will tell you: it’s all about creating urgency. In other words, you don’t want them to delay in making the decision to buy … they might not ever be back again. You’ve got their attention RIGHT NOW, so you want them to make their decision RIGHT NOW.

Perhaps the best way to get them to do this is to impose some kind of deadline or limit which makes it necessary to order soon in order to take advantage of a special price, extra incentive, availability, or opportune time frame.

Special Price. By offering a discount to all who purchase within a specific period of time (or to a selected number of people who order … I.E. The first 100), you can create a sense of urgency. This is more effective if you are offering a premium product at a higher price point, than if you are offering something in the $15-20 range.

Extra Incentive. You may want to consider offering an additional bonus to those who order within a specified time or specific number. This CAN be an effective option for you to use. For example: If your product is about “setting up a mini-salesletter” you might state, “The first 100 people who order will receive a free copy of a legal disclaimer you can use on your website to protect you from FTC lawsuits and seizures…”

Availability or Restriction. Another option is to remove the special report from circulation after a specified date or a specified number of units are sold. Or, one other strategy that like is taking a special report “off the market” for an unspecified period of time. In other words, you “retire” the report for several months and then bring it back later – or even add more information to it and convert it into a larger product. Another idea is to no longer make it available from your website and only offer it as a backend to a second report you create later, etc.

For a restriction you could make a time frame appealing…like “make enough for another vacation before Christmas”, or “lose 15 pounds before spring break”.

The point is, you want to create a desire to act now. If they’ve read to the end of your salesletter…they’re interested! Close the sale. If you’ve created a product you believe in, you deserve to ask them to buy…convince them to buy. You don’t lie, or cheat. You make it better to act than to wait.
That sums it all up…make it better to act than to wait…

How To Embed Amazon S3 Video

Sometimes I like to write a quick post on how to do something technical that I found hard to solve.

How to embed video hosted on the Amazon S3 Web Service.

First, why Amazon S3?

Amazon basically offers storage of files at a very low cost and provides very scalable and reliable storage and backup at unbeatable prices.

How to Embed a Video stored on Amazon S3

Many sites are offering courses and membership areas to help you embed video into your blog or website that is stored on Amazon S3.  I did not feel like paying for the information because I knew I could figure it out.  I am a technical guy.  But I was pulling my hair out because I kept almost getting it to work, but not quit.

Eventually I downloaded JW FLV Media Player, posted the files in the root directory of my website and used the site setup wizard to get the code just right.

Finally, I found that this works with FLV files but not the other file types I was using, so I need to make all FLV from now on.

The good news is that with this code and wizard I can now embed video into my private membership sites that are hosted on Amazon S3.

If you are looking for the best video hosting solution that will allow you to embed video into your blogs and websites, I assure you the above solution using Amazon S3 and the Free Video Player are great options.

[UPDATE]

When I went to embed the code into WordPress, I found that WordPress has disabled the embed tag because of security issues. Luckily, I found the WordPress Plugin pb-embedFlash – The documentation was not great because it lacked the basic examples in a clear way. However, I experimented with it a bit and found I could simply type [flash url] and it would replace the tag with the flash player and play the FLV file.

Once you figure it out, it is even easier than downloading the player yourself and setting things up.

Simple Steps To Get Your Business Listed In The Big G

Many local business owners may think that getting your company website listed in Google, Yahoo or MSN is a mystical process only done by techies, with massive computing power at their disposal. But in reality for most small businesses getting those rankings simply comes down to making sure you have accomplished the basics.

Here are some simple steps to do that will give you a solid return for your business.

1. Always ensure that your ‘Title’ tags are related to the content of the site. What is a title tag? Where do I find that?  Simply put, your title tag is a line of HTML code that specifies the title of an individual web page. If you look in the upper left hand corner of your browser and in the first line of an individual search result, you’ll see the product of a title tag. Specifically, a title tag in HTML looks like this:

<title> San Jose Plumbing | Clean Plumbers, Inc </title>

The more you check around among SEO experts the consensus is that having correct title tags is one of the top three factors that determine where a search engine will rank you. Where many people fail with their title tags is they use the same text for every page on their and they fail to properly describe the page with their title tags. Imagine going to a book store and picking a book up off the shelf with the title “The Untold Story of the Crusades”. However, to your surprise, inside the book is a steamy romance. You, the reader, would want your money back. So spend a few minutes and look at the title tags of every page on your site and see if you have accurately described each of those  pages with your title tags. A good title tag will include the keyword you are trying to rank that page for, and don’t forget to add your company’s name as I’ve done in the example above. However you should note that brevity is a virtue; Google and the other SE’s will truncate your title tags after 65 characters including spaces so make sure the improtant stuff is in the first 65!

2. You Need To Make Your Meta Description Tags Count Too! If your title tags are the cover of your book, your meta description tags are the back cover jacket of the book that tells your reader what’s inside. If you were to look at the search results of any query, the text underneath the link but above the URL of a search result comes from what is in your meta description. (If you don’t have anything in the meta description, the search engines will typically pull a couple lines of text from the page and place it in the results.) To find your meta description tag pop open your site’s code and search for the following:

<META NAME=”Description” CONTENT=”Describe your site with Keyword Rich Text Here.”>

As I indicated in the example above, you should write a couple sentences that describe your site and/or your page. In your meta description, you get a bit more room to talk but you should use no more than 200 characters. Just like with your title tags, every page should have a unique meta description.

3. The URL and File Names You Choose Make a Difference. Which do you think looks better?

a) http://www.yourwebsite.com/catalog/index.ognc?CategoryID=7497
OR
b) http://www.yourwebsite.com/myproduct

You might have noticed I keep talking about keywords. Your URLs and page names matter for the purposes of generating a click to your site as well as improved search rankings. Several studies clearly demonstrate that short, descriptive URLs like example B increase the propensity of a searcher to click on your search result. Former Google search engineer Matt Cutts also says that having short, descriptive URLs is a factor in better rankings. Specifically, this means having a URL that has no more than 5 words after the .com/url extension. One of the best places to look for an example besides what I’ve put above is at Amazon.com. Do a search from their homepage for anything and you will see a solidly formed URL.

4. You Have To Let People Know About Your Site. Many business owners don’t leverage their online home, especially after they’ve spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars to have a nice web site created for them. Google is the ultimate democracy and it works by looking at the number of sites and people who link to you. While there are some caveats to this, you can prime the pump a bit. If I were a business owner, I’d take a couple minutes to create profiles on social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Merchant Circle, InLocal, and Google Maps. These will give you a handful of strong links to your site and let the search engines know you exist and start the process of getting your site listed. It is a nudge in the right direction and can be expanded quite a bit with other social media properties added into the mix.

5. Check the Text of Your Site. One of the things I run into all the time are websites with relatively little text, content that says nothing about the business and/or fails to use keywords related to the business. When the search engines visit your site, they download a page and look at the text trying to make a determination of what the website as a whole is about and where it belongs. If you are trying to get ranked for “San Jose Plumber”, you should have at least a page with that keyword in it a couple times. It’s also important that the copy appear natural and be understandable because after all, a website that captures the interest of the search engines but fails to capture the interest of your customers can hardly be justifiable.

Of course there are other things you can do to jump start your ranking in the search engines but these basic steps are a huge fast track to getting it right and going for your business. If you do these simple prcedures now you will see results that get you up in the rankings. If you wait…. Well you will still be in the same place you are in now. No high Search Engine rankings. Fewer customers, and thus you might be leaving revenue on the web page so to speak.

Close The Deal

In this issue:

• Eight steps to a compelling close …
• The two spreadsheets you must have to plan a successful final assault …
• How to fully dimensionalize the value of your offer in ways that make your prospect eager to buy now …
• Two ways to introduce your price without inducing sticker shock …
• Five techniques for making your price feel like the bargain of the century …
• The secret of creating guarantee copy that pulls double duty …
• The #1 mistake even top copywriters make when writing offer copy …
• When treating your prospect like a three-year-old pays big dividends …
• The amazing power of the “Crossroads Close” – and how it can help send your response through the roof …
• The four most effective techniques I’ve ever used when writing my P.S. …
• And much, MUCH MORE!

Dear Business-Builder,

OK … So you’ve grabbed your prospect’s attention with a compelling proposition, story, USP, intrigue or advertorial headline.

You’ve intensified his resolve to read your ad with deck copy that illuminates and expands on your head … intrigues him with reasons why, if he stops reading now, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life … and just for good measure, you threw in a heaping helping of credibility elements.

You’ve opened your body copy fast – so fast in fact, that your prospect was emotionally invested and completely committed to reading every word you had to say before he knew what hit him.

You’ve led him through your sales arguments hand-in-hand; showing him how your product will bring tremendous value to his life by granting him his heart’s deepest desires.

Starting from a fact or proposition he can’t help but agree with, you’ve led him, step-by-careful-step through every benefit your product provides and every “reason why” he deserves to have those benefits in his life.

You’ve proved every product claim with testimonials from recognized experts, the media and of course, your customers.

You’ve heaped on tons more credibility; validating your sales propositions with quotes, charts, tables and data from third parties he trusts.

You’ve anticipated and defused every objection he could possibly have to buying this product … from you … today.

And you’ve sweetened the pot by regaling your prospect with a truckload of additional free gifts he gets just for buying the product.

At this point, anyone with a pulse or capable of fogging a mirror should already be cutting you a check or reciting their MasterCard number to one of your customer service reps.

And frankly, because you’ve salted your spreads with action devices that present your toll-free number and/or direct him to your order form, some of your prospects will be.

But you’re not through yet – not by a long shot.

Because now, it’s time to turn up the heat – with closing copy that’s so powerful, it vaporizes every remaining ounce of resistance and magically transforms mere prospects into paying customers. (more…)

Mobile For Local?

I bet as local business it had not occurred to you that having your website available to be read and seen on mobile devices was at all necessary, much less,  easy to do. Most local businesses struggle to just get a website going. But to  optimize it for the latest trends and accessibility provided by fast emerging technologies is out of reach for most.

There is much talk going on in the web circles about how how mobile access to your local business through local search (which is booming by the way) or by direct access to your site is going to be very valuable to you as a business owner in creating and keeping new customers in coming years.

So you probably have no clue how to make your business be seen on mobile phones, PDA’s and so on. Well I am here to tell you that it is in fact down right easy to do. Yes due to the fact that there are smart entrepreneurs out there coming up with great new ideas every month we now how at least two very viable ways to get our online web sites converted for free so that mobile users can see and access your business on the go.

These two sites are easy to use, free, and take very little time to set up. It does not get much better than that. The first one is my choice of the way to go.  Winksite allows you to provide your content for the mobile crowd. It is all online, step by step and easy to do. It sets you with a mobile URL, has revenue sharing if you want to put ads in your site, and they put you into their mobile directory.

The second option is called Mofuse and it is similar to Winksite with easy to do step by step integration and again it is free to use for standard functionality. If your site is a WordPress blog they provide a plug in you can use that detects if a user is coming from a mobile device and automatically serves them a mobile friendly version of your blog.

So go mobile for your business and capture more of those local customers!

Here is my Mofuse mobile URL to check out: http://kevinrockwell.mofuse.mobi/

And here is my Winksite mobile URL: http://winksite.mobi/rockkvid/kr