Getting started with your leaflet distribution services are one of the most redeeming means to increase that xfactor over your contenders. How exactly? Letterbox and door drops is the solution. By utilising a never-ending leaflet distribution promotion you can achieve maximum
exposure via the letterbox. Its a very over looked promotion technique which turns out very good, that is ofcourse is using leaflet distribution services

If your product is made to appeal to a general market and you want to concentrate on a very specific country, letterbox promotion is a good, inexpensive way of reaching your target market.

But particular in the formulation of your leaflet distribution causes as this is key if you are to make the most of your investment.

Leaflet distribution provides you to give specified reaction from targeted groups of customers. It’s a particularly
functional tool for small business enterprises because it lets you to direct small resources where they are most likely to bring about result and quantify the success of campaigns accurately by studying answers. But remember that the results of leaflet distributoin aren’t guaranteed. A badly designed or aimed promotion will be a waste of cash

There are a number of various methods in which leaflet distribution has been applied in a governmental way. Several of these causes are as follows. One of the most frequent functions of booklet distribution is to provide individuals with information to counterpunch information that has been delivered by the opposition. The pamphlets can also be utilised to threaten individuals with an attack. This is peculiarly likely in battles in which ground forces can inform opposition parades that they will occupy if no action is made. The leaflets in war situations are often used to encourage the opposition to surrender and if how to go about surrendering without facilitating a retaliation.

If you have determined that a leaflet distribution will be a fresh form of advertising in order to bring in some much essential future work, then you need to set about the job of choosing the most acceptable company to conduct the distribution for you.

There are many elements to be deliberated when doing this, these are primary in getting the best effects from your campaign.

You need to study where you are going to target your material and the coverage and incursion that you want to accomplish. If you are just thinking of a modest promotion in the local region, it may be foresightful to select a small local business who just handle the small-scale distributions in one region. They are quite likely to be cost effective, and have shorter lead times. Accountability may be a problem if matters do not go according to plan, so this demands to be considered against the number of financial spending.

Remember, in these directories the best and most legitimate survey companies will be listed which you will be able to apply to for free. Legitimate survey companies never charge a fee to participate in their surveys. Getting Money Earn By Astronaut is simple. The average person is a member of ten or so free cash paying survey sites, read on more about Money Earn By Astronaut. While many will advise you not paying for taking surveys surveys membership are an exception you are not paying for taking surveys you are paying for being up to date of all the companies offering surveys plus the ones that are trusted and reliable. Also see Surveys Of Customer Satisfaction Of Walmart. Making money online by simply answering a few questions is something that a lot of people do and it can be fun and profitable.

How do you collect essential data about your customers? What techniques do you intend to use? Listed below are proven guidelines for writing effective surveys. They are by no means exhaustive. Read on to find out more about Money Earn By Astronaut. However the question is - is there money to be made simply by taking part in these surveys? Recently numerous online opportunities have arisen - advertising cash rewards in return for completing such surveys. Find out more about Money Earn By Astronaut and Surveys Of Customer Satisfaction Of Walmart. There is a way to get around this type of paid survey site and I want to show you how to do it.
Join for Free now at http://www.Top-PaidSurveys.org

For just an hour or two of your time you can expect to earn $75 $125 $175 even up to $300! Other research opportunities available to you are Paid to Shop Paid to Eat Paid to Watch Movies and More! Any man woman college student or senior can make money online through PayPal simply by joining the legit internet survey sites out there. More about Money Earn By Astronaut and Surveys Of Customer Satisfaction Of Walmart at our website. Get all the info on Money Earn By Astronaut from our homepage. Do you know why this was happening? An overwhelming number of these folks were using some sort of search engine to try to find places to answer surveys for money. Get paid survey network list absolutely FREE from our website! Absolutely no charge for joining the industry’s TOP 7 paying survey networks from www.top-paidsurveys.org

Apply To Take Surveys (and Get Paid!)
AND to View 100% of Survey Results of Your Choice From EVERY Industry!

From personal experience, each of these consumer survey networks contains thousands of high paying multinational companies, ready to pay you $10-$300 for every survey done! Absolutely FREE to join.
Good Luck!

As a business, non-profit, government agency or association
manager, one way or the other (and sooner or later), you’ll
be paying for some kind of public relations results.

And hopefully, results that do something meaningful about
the behaviors of those important audiences of yours that
MOST affect the organization you manage.

Better yet, results that create the kind of external stakeholder
behavior change that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives.

And even better still when those results reflect how your
follow through persuaded those key outside folks to your
way of thinking as you helped move them to take actions
that allowed your department, group, division or subsidiary
to succeed.

In my view, the alternative is unacceptable: managers
preoccupied with simple tactics like press releases,
broadcast plugs, special events and brochures, which
deny them the best that public relations has to offer.

Instead, what is needed is good public relations
planning that really CAN alter individual perception
resulting in changed behaviors among key outside
audiences. But that only happens when you demand
more than just communications tactics. That’s when
you’ll receive the quality public relations results you
deserve.

Results, incidentally, based on a highly proactive premise
that can easily go your way: people act on their own
perception of the facts before them, which leads to
predictable behaviors about which something can be done.
When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by
reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the
very people whose behaviors affect the organization the
most, the public relations mission is usually accomplished.

When managers adopt such an approach to public relations,
the desired end-products should soon emerge. For instance,
prospects begin to do business with you; membership
applications start to rise; welcome bounces in show room
visits occur; customers starting to make repeat purchases;
capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your
way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures
start showing up; politicians and legislators begin looking
at you as a key member of the business, non-profit or
association communities; and community leaders begin to
seek you out.

Still another epiphany occurs when you realize that the
public relations people on your staff can be of real use for
your new opinion monitoring project. After all, they’re
already in the perception and behavior business. But to be
certain, determine if those PR folks really accept why it’s
SO important to know how your most important outside
audiences perceive your operations, products or services.
And this is really important: be sure they believe that
perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can
help or hurt your operation.

Is your PR plan now complete? Better sit down and review
it carefully with the public relations professionals on your
team, be they agency, staff or parent. Discuss how you will
monitor and gather perceptions by questioning members
of your most important outside audiences. Ask questions
like these: how much do you know about our organization?
Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased
with the exchange? Are you familiar with our services or
products and employees? Have you experienced problems
with our people or procedures?

If you decide that, instead of mobilizing your PR staff as
key audience data gatherers, you may try professional survey
firms to do the job. Just know that that may require more
expense than using those PR folks of yours in that monitoring
capacity. But whether it’s your people or a survey firm
asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify
untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might
translate into hurtful behaviors.

The most serious problem areas uncovered during your key
audience perception monitoring call for setting a realistic,
achievable PR goal. For example, will your goal be to
straighten out a dangerous misconception? Correct a gross
inaccuracy? Or, stop a potentially painful rumor before it
does more damage?

To show you how to reach that new goal, a matching strategy
should be established. However, there are only three strategic
options available to you when it comes to solving perception
and opinion problems. Change existing perception, create
perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. But the
wrong strategy pick will taste like raspberry jam on your
collard greens . So be certain your new strategy fits well with
your new public relations goal. You certainly don’t want to
select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy of
reinforcement.

One of the keys to success in public relations is the
persuasive message, one that helps move a key
audience to your way of thinking. It must be carefully
written, and aimed directly at your key external audience.
Lean on your best writer to accept the assignment because
s/he must produce language that is not merely compelling,
persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if it is to
shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and
lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Who will carry that message to the attention of your
target audience? Well, with your message written,
approved and ready to go, you and your people must
answer that question this way:”Communications tactics.”
And there is no shortage of such tactics available to you.
From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to
consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters,
personal meetings and many others. But be certain that
the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like
your audience members.

It’s an unfortunate, but true aspect of public relations
that HOW you communicate your message will bear
heavily on its believability, always fragile at best. Which
is why you may wish to unveil your corrective message
before smaller meetings and presentations rather than
using higher-profile news releases.

Fact is, a second perception monitoring session will be
needed to measure your progress in moving key audience
perception,. The results will be your first progress report.
Happily, you can use many of the same questions used in
your benchmark session. But now, you will be watching
for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in
your direction.

Oh, yes. Because a program occasionally can lose some
of its early velocity, here are two remedies. Either add
more communications tactics, or increase their frequencies,
or both.

And finally, publicity placements are satisfying, but when
it’s REAL public relations performance you want, you had
best shoot for creating the kind of external stakeholder
behavior change that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives. And do so by persuading those key
outside folks to your way of thinking by helping move
them to take actions that allow your unit to succeed.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over
230 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Visit =>http://www.PRCommentary.com

Internet Niche Marketing System Launched For Easy Passive Income
Generation

Frank Kern and Ed Dale launched Underachiever
iPack , an interactive internet marketing system to easily
find hot niche markets, create effective niche market
information products and selling them on the Internet.

January 21, 2005 — Internet marketing professionals had long
back understood that the creation of information products in
niches and selling them to a hungry market is a sure way to
generating a stable passive income. However only experts could
walk down the mysterious world of successful internet niche
marketing. Not any more…

Ed Dale and Frank Kern have spilled the beans and have created
an interactive internet niche marketing system, Underachiever
iPack that takes away the mystery and art element from
successful niche marketing and converts that to a simple system
with four easy to follow steps:

1. Find a hungry niche market 2. Find out what people in this
market want to buy 3. Create the product they want 4. Have a
website and market your product

Frank Kern said, “A complete A to Z Internet marketing arsenal.
This shows you how to and where to get the tools you’ll need to
begin. We’ve even found “secret passes” that let you try most of
this stuff for free.” He added, “How to find white hot markets
that are eager to buy using the market radar method. We will
walk you through the exact steps (in real time) you need to take
when you’re tracking down a responsive market that’s ripe for
the picking.” “You’ll discover exactly how to get a brand new
product created in a hurry … when the pressure is on!”

Web site owners have long been hesitating to explore this potent
approach for creating a passive income stream because they
thought that creating and marketing their own products is a
chore that is best left to experts. This system intends to
change that perception and makes it possible for net marketers
to harness that raw power of internet niche marketing.

About Underachiever iPack:

Underachiever iPack is a fully Interactive DVD Navigation System
that simplifies the process to create a successful Internet
Business selling information products To laser targeted Niche
Markets. The iPack system is made up of two components,
iConference and iWorkshop, collectively over 30 hours of
interactive media which allows you the choice of going at your
own pace. Visit Underachiever
iPack to learn more about the software.

About Frank Kern and Ed Dale:

Frank Kern and Ed Dale are the creators of the Underachiever
Method which is quite popular with internet marketers worldwide.
In July 2005, 756 people, from all walks of life, took part in
their Thirty Day Challenge - ‘To Make Their First Dollar Online
In 30 Days Using The Underachiever System’.

Contact:

Dan Radcliff http://www.dynamicniche.com

The very first thing to do before venturing into the Adwords arena is to brainstorm and come up with a list of as many keywords for your product as possible. This is definitely the most important step in the process. The larger your list of keywords, the better. One word keywords are acceptable but don’t rely on them exclusively. Be creative. If you sell custom dog houses, don’t use a single keyword like dog (doghouse might be OK) Use phrases like “custom dog houses” or “quality dog houses”.

Find Relevant Words with Little Competition. You’ll probably be able to think of 10 - 20 keyword phrases right off the top of your head but these are the same keywords that your competitors will think of. The more people that are bidding on a keyword, the more expensive it will be to obtain an ad on the first page.

Your goal is to find keywords that have relevance to your product but that have little competition. Google returns different results for singular and plural search terms. Also consider common possible misspellings of your keywords (is doghouse, above, the way it is normally spelled?).

Think Like Your Customer. In building your keyword list, you want to “get into your customer’s head”. What phrases might he be searching on? These phrases don’t necessarily have to exactly match your product. If you’re selling custom dog houses, your ideal customer might be searching on “gourmet dog food” in order to find a new entrée for Rover. Now, after seeing your ad pop up, he might very well decide to investigate getting Rover a new house to go with his new dinner! Be creative! How does your customer search for things online? Figure this out and you’re on your way to making sales!

One other thing to consider is that Google offers 4 different types of searches or matching options. Because this is an important concept to understand, you might want to go to https://adwords.google.com/select/faq/account.html to see exactly how Google defines these different matching options:

Broad Match - This is the default option. If you include general keyword or keyword phrases-such as tennis shoes-in your keyword list, your ads will appear when users search for tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms.

Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes.

Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets-such as [tennis shoes]-your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query.

Negative Keyword - If your keyword is tennis shoes and you add the negative keyword -red, your ad will not appear when a user searches on red tennis shoes.

Maximize the number of keyword phrases you’re bidding on. After you’re done brainstorming your keyword list, add the plural form to each and every singular keyword phrase (where it makes sense grammatically to do so).

Finally, include keywords in both quotes “dog house” and brackets [dog house] for all key phrases longer than one word. Use negative keywords where necessary. For example, if you’re selling dog house plans, it might make sense to include the negative keyword -free so that your ad won’t show up when someone searches for “free dog house plans”.

There are a number of good resources to help you in creating your keyword list including Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordSandbox

As you begin to use the Adwords ad creation form, you’ll notice one of the relatively minor annoyances to using Adwords, which is that is that you are limited to 25 characters for the headline and 35 characters for lines 2 & 3 and 35 characters for the display url. You’ll realize quickly that when you’re creating ads, you’ll be focused on writing snappy text that will reach out and grab your customers, not on counting characters.

Since Google doesn’t let you know until you’ve used up all of the available characters for that line, things can get a bit frustrating. You have no advance notice that you’ve only got 3 characters left to use (and probably need 5!) and so you simply run out of space.

This is one of the reasons that we created Ad Word Assistant, software that counts characters as you type (among other things). Visit http://www.mannmadesoftware.com/adword_assistant.asp?adcode=ezinarticles to see all of the features and benefits of Ad Word Assistant.

Importance of Headline - The first line in the Adwords ad is the headline. You want to get people to click on your ad and visit your site and therefore the wording of your ad is critical. Your ad needs to grab someone’s attention and compel them to click on it. One user gets very good results by being a bit offbeat with his ads. His headlines make his ads stand out from the pack and so he gets good clickthroughs.

For example, if he were writing an ad for a golf related product, his headline wouldn’t read “Improve Your Golf Game” but rather something like “Does Your Golf Game Suck?” Now certainly that is offbeat, and some might say vulgar, but the point is, his ads are very effective.

Subsequent Lines - Lines 2 and 3 are more advertising lines, limited to 35 characters on each. You don’t have much “real estate” to use with your ad, so use your words effectively. Line 4 is the visible url for the ad, which must be part of the actual url that you send your visitors to, but doesn’t have to be the exact page.

Target Position #2 to #6 on First Page - Cost-Per-Click or CPC is the essence of what you’re paying to run your Adwords campaign. Your goal is to have the minimum CPC that you can while still placing your ad in an optimum position in the search results. “Optimum position” is being on the first page, not in the #1 position, but somewhere between #2 and #5 or #6, depending on the economics.

First page is important, if at all possible. The #1 spot is generally not desired because quite often people will come to a search results page and click on the first two ads just out of habit. Be the second one they click on rather than the first one they leave.

You’ll want to avoid paying “big bucks” for a click during the early stages of your Adwords career. Stick to the $.05 to $.10 keywords at first and see what kind of results you’re getting. If you cannot get on the first page with a large number of your keywords, there is probably something amiss.

There are many stories of people losing money with their Adwords campaigns and most of these stories can be traced back to paying too much for keywords. Find the obscure relevant keywords that your competitors have missed. Be an Adwords success story.

Reading a good eBook about AdWords would be the next logical step. I have reviewed a very good eBook on my website:

http://www.mannmadesoftware.com/adwords123.asp

Copyright © 2005 by MannMade Software, LLC All Rights Reserved

John W. Mann, “The Ad Tracking Mann” is the owner of
MannMade Software, LLC a software development company
specializing in software & eBooks for the online sales & marketing
niche market.

Currently John is in the process of writing an eBook titled
“The Definitive Guide to Ad Tracking & Split Testing” (due out Dec 2005)
as well as developing what he refers to as “The Best Ad Tracking Software”
called TBATS for short.

Anyone wishing to learn more about the eBook or TBATS should visit http://www.MannMadeSoftware.com/

Designing a web site is hard enough. You spend countless hours working on how it is
going to look and what cool specials effects it is going to have. You even spent hours
picking out your site colors. So now what?

Now you have to promote it. But how? There are many ways. You can submit them to
search engines, join a pay per click advertising program and link exchanges. Of these
link exchanges are the ones most picked, mainly because they are free. But do they
work.

According to the emails that keep coming into my inbox, link exchange is dead. The
big search engines know what they are about. Back scratching. You link to me and I
will link to you. It does not help your SEO or your quest to be #1 on Google or Yahoo.
But it does give you awareness to the people you exchanged links to. And this can be
helpful.

I believe there is no one way to get your site ranked number one with anyone. But I do
think if you plan your strategy correctly and use all of the tools available to you, you
can get what you are looking for. You designed your site and you know what your
audience is looking for. You may even know where your audience is.

So just because you hear certain marketing methods are dead, don’t give up hope and
sell your domain name. Use the normal process to get ranked among the big boys and
use you link exchanges for awareness to you targeted audience.

Michael is currently growing his new venture as editor of Christian InTech. Michael
spends most of his time gathering technical articles and information for his site. You
can find his site at http://www.christianintech.com.

This article is allowed for reproduction as long as the links are included. © 2005
Christian InTech

Do you use Manual Surf Traffic Exchanges to drive traffic to your websites or affiliate links?

In case if you are a new internet marketer and do not know what is a Manual Surf Traffic Exchange, here is a short explanation:

“Manual Surf Traffic Exchange is a online service, where members can show their websites to other members, by viewing (surfing) other members websites.”

This is a very easy way to receive traffic, especially if you have limited budget, but have time to view other websites. And if you don’t want to pay your time, you can purchase traffic directly from traffic exchange programs.

However, you should know that these type of traffic is “ineffective” traffic. Ineffective means the conversion rate of your product or service from traffic exchanges will be lower than other highly targeted traffic sources like PPC visitors.

Note, this does not mean using traffic exchange is not profitable. This is because the cost of each traffic exchange hit is greatly cheaper than other traffic sources.
And if you do it right, the ROI (Return On Investment) will be positive.

Many marketers claim that Manual Surf Traffic Exchange is not useful. They are completely wrong because they missed some very important keys when using traffic exchanges.

Now let me expose two of the secret keys that will turn your traffic exchange failure to success:

1. Method - Capture Leads And Do Not Sell Directly

Every traffic exchange user is busy at surfing. They do not have time and intention to read your long webpage. So NEVER put your sales page. Instead, put a lead capturing page with a “Attention Grabbing Headline”, “Amazing Benefits” and a “Opt In Form”. Remember, your purpose is to capture email addresses and then follow up with additional sales materials.

2. Target - Webmasters Who Want Traffic

Do you notice the common purpose of the traffic exchange users? Yes they are webmasters or affiliates who want to promote their own websites. Remember, these people is your target market, not kids, not elders. If you are promoting high quality advertising related product or service, then I can guarantee you will convert them to sales very well!

Now it is your time to make money by using traffic exchanges! Here is the number one manual surf traffic exchange that I would like to recommend - TopSurfer.

TopSurfer not just provides real and steady traffic, and its wholesale membership is also the best among all traffic exchanges. You not just receive traffic, and you can also make 100% profit by reselling the membership! Visit this link to join:

http://www.marktse.com/topsurfer/

To your online success,
Mark Tse

PS. Want to rule traffic exchanges? Get all the keys from “Traffic Exchange Secrets Revealed”:
http://www.marktse.com/recommend/traffic-exchange-secrets/

This article is written by Mark Tse. Mark shares free tips, articles and downloads about Internet Marketing. You can visit his blog and read his latest posts here:

www.marktse.com/blog/

There are many types of disposable wipers sold in the current janitorial and healthcare markets. Each type of wiper is suited for an individual use and treated with different chemicals. Center pull disposable wipers are great for anywhere you need disposable wipers in a hurry. These wipers are loaded into a dispenser and the wipers are dispensed through a central hole on the bottom of the dispenser. These wipers are economical and great for auto shops, work shops, classrooms and just about anywhere you would need to wipe something up in a hurry.

Microfiber cleaning cloths are designed for specific uses. The selection of microfiber cloths include bathroom fixtures cloth microfiber towels, glass and surface microfiber cloth towels, all purpose microfiber towels and super absorbent cleaning clothes.

Wiper roll dispensers are for the really big jobs. This disposable wiper dispenser holds wipers up to 16 inches wide and can hold the equivalent of 100 pounds of cleaning rags. These dispensers are great for school lunchrooms and cafeterias where quick and easy cleanup is needed.

All purpose disposable cleaning wipers - All purpose wipers are a great alternative to old fashioned towels and rags. A box of 176 wipers costs about 25 dollars and made especially for cleaning. If you don’t like the price or the hassle of cloth material towels this is a great alternative. Absorbency pockets on disposable cleaning cloths soak up more liquids and the retain the liquid better than cloth towels.

Automotive cleaning wipers (gas station windshield towels) - When your looking for car windshield towels price is usually the main concern.

Dusting disposable wipers are specially treated with oils and dust treatments to pick up more dust than conventional towels. Some dusters are treated with antimicrobial additives to prevent kill mold and bacteria.

Food Service wipers - Food service wipers is one of the largest sections in our wiper line. Food service wipers can come treated with antimicrobial solutions to prohibit growth of bacteria on food service counters. Some food service wipers can be used up to 2 days and then discarded.

Personal care wipers - Personal care wipers are ideal for camping or cleaning up the kids.

Rag replacement wipers - Rag disposable wipers are reinforced to give you the full strength of a traditional cloth towel. Replacement wiper towels absorb more liquids and have better liquid retention.

Specialty wipers - Our specialty wipers section has a large assortment of wipers to perform a variety of delicate tasks. These wipers include lens cleaning wipers, delicate materials cleaning and antistatic electronic cleaning wipers.

Utility wipers - Utility wipes are perfect for cleaning spray wipe and go tasks. Absorbent and strong.

Great cleaning tips and cleaning information by Lee Harris can be found at http://www.monsterjanitorial.com. Lee Harris is an expert in the cleaning industry and can answer all your questions about disposable wipers.

So, you don’t have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign? You don’t have a staff of hundreds, venture capital backing or someone from Star Trek as your spokesperson? Then perhaps it’s time to look into one of the advantages that you do have over these e-commerce giants… customer service.

You might wonder how a small company can hope to give better customer service than these heavily staffed, heavily funded e-giants. Believe it or not, it may be your lack of size, that just might give you the edge.

Think about your average customer service experience in an off-line setting. Where do you usually have the kinds of customer service experiences that are so positive, you come away raving to your friends and co-workers?

While I can’t answer for you, I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of my experiences of this nature have come with small businesses, often very small. Conversely, I can also say that as a rule, my biggest customer service nightmares have come with the biggest companies.

Of course, there are always exceptions, but this theory has proven to be surprisingly consistent for me. I would bet that if you compile a quick mental list of your best and worst experiences as a customer, you might find this to be true for you as well.

The problem with large companies is usually a volume issue. Many of these businesses have such a large volume of customer service inquiries, that they simply don’t have the manpower to adequately provide timely and efficient service. Often, it is difficult to even find the proper channel for which to take your customer service issue.

Large e-commerce companies aren’t immune to these kinds of issues. In fact, they are often even less prepared to handle the flow of questions and comments that come in from their site on a daily basis. Many of these companies experience massive volume of traffic to their sites. A nice problem to have, but a problem that can often leave the customer out in the cold.

A recent Gartner study surveyed 50 top-rated internet retail sites on their customer service readiness and effectiveness. The results were very telling. Not one of these 50 sites ranked as excellent with regards to customer service readiness. 23% graded out as average, and 73% were rated below average, and 4% rated poor.

CNET quoted another recent study by Resource Marketing which showed similar results. “Wal-Mart online is a maze, Williams-Sonoma makes customers fill out applications every time they shop, and KBkids.com automatically sends new customers its electronic newsletter, whether they ask for it or not.” Caroline Cofer, a spokesperson for Resource Marketing added that many of these large merchants are “making some scary mistakes.”

Now, with many of these large e-tailers streamlining operations in order to stay afloat, it is difficult to imagine customer service improving. In fact, customer service issues on-line have become such an issue, that an entire sector has evolved to deal with the problems. Companies such as Egain Communications and Kana Communications offer automated, CRM (customer relation management) solutions. Many of these automated services are ASP (application service provider) models that feature multi-channel response e-mail systems.

In other words, software that attempts to emulate a real human. On one hand, these companies should be admired for their vision, and will probably be rewarded with booming sales. On the other hand, the technology has a way to go before it is a replacement for human interaction.

Have you ever sent a question to a site’s customer service center, and received the answer to the wrong question? More than likely, this was the result of automated CRM software that was unable to properly interpret your question and send the correct response.

This is where your advantage as a small company comes into play. While you may not enjoy the volume of these sites, you can create a higher percentage of repeat visitors/buyers with superior customer service. Generally, when you hear people talk about improving customer service, you hear things like: “make yourself available” and “give good contact information.” This is true, but it goes beyond that.

What people really want is speed. People want their questions answered now. People want their customer service issue resolved in a hurry. Providing a phone number is a must, but chances are, people don’t want to go off-line and call you for the answers to their questions unless it is a last resort. In the e-world, people want an i-response: Immediate, internet response.

Of course, you can’t be everywhere at once. Managing a small business or website is already a full-time job. But making customer service a focal point of your website can pay immense dividends for your traffic and or profit. Think of it this way, if you can respond to a customer’s question within 24 hours, you are beating about 50% of the large e-companies already.

If you can respond within 12 hours, I would estimate that you would be beating somewhere around 80%. If you can respond within 6 hours, you are providing customer service that most e-commerce giants only dream about.

A quick list of ways to improve your customer service:

1. Speed!

We all know as customers, that few things are more valuable to us than time. Standing in line is no fun at the supermarket, and waiting for a response from a customer service center is no fun either.

2. Contact information.

Make it easy to find. Make it an address that you or an employee checks on a regular basis. Don’t make the customer work to find you.

3. Live chat.

Offer your customers the opportunity to use instant messaging software to contact you. MSN Messenger and ICQ are two widely used formats that work on almost all platforms, and it’s 100% free.

4. F.A.Q and search options.

Make them thorough. Not all sites need F.A.Q (frequently asked questions) pages, but if your site does, then make it thorough and easy to understand. If your site has an search box, be sure that it gives adequate results. Test it out. It’s surprising how many high-profile websites have inadequate in-site search functions.

5. Your customer is always right.

We all know that this is bull, but, the old adage still stands the test of time. Whether or not the customer is “right,” our job as customer service managers is to put out fires. Quick, pleasant responses to even the most irate customers will almost always cool the situation. In fact, an efficient customer service agent can turn even the most irate customer into a loyal customer.

Take the work out of it for your visitors. Encourage them to ask questions and reward them with quick, friendly responses. Your customers and visitors are the most important asset you have. Make them feel that way!

About Tony Marino, Ph.D., Marketing

Dr. Tony Marino is not only the CEO of America Web Works (http://www.AmericaWebWorks.com), he is also the Founder of the http://www.AudioVideoStreams.com, the International ePublisher’s Association, Christian Times eBusiness Newsletter and the author of the ePublishing Master’s Course at: http://www.ePublisherUniversity.com Additionally, he holds Email Compliance Officer status for many of today’s leading Network Marketing companies.

He has also worked with the likes of legendary Direct Marketers Ted Nicholas and Gary Halbert. Best-Selling Authors, Harvey McKay, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. ABC Television’s, Jimmie Kimmel and NBC’s, Carson Daly. Online Marketers, Dale Calvert and Jay Abraham just to name a few. His offices are location in Portland and Los Angeles and he’d love to hear from you anytime!

866-824-9684

A Secret Way of Getting Traffic: Submitting to Online Directories

If you are reading this article, more likely than not you own a website that you would like to see be a success. To achieve that level, you need traffic to your site. But where does traffic come from?

One of the better ways to get traffic for your site is to submit your site to the many directories that exist online. Online directories are similar to your phone book yellow pages: These directories are categorized (education, entertainment, health, etc.), and when you submit your website, you suggest a category for your website. Often, you will even be able to submit to a sub-category within a major category. For example, suppose your website is about aromatherapy.
In your submission request, you would suggest “Health” as your main category, “Alternative Medicine” as your sub-category, and “Aromatherapy” as a further sub-category.

Some of the leading online directories are Yahoo!, MSN Small Business, and the DMOZ directory. Unlike search engines, however, listings in online directories are usually not free. As of this writing, you can submit for free to the Yahoo! Directory (http://dir.yahoo.com), but there is not guarantee on how quickly your website will be reviewed for listing. If you need your site reviewed faster, you can pay Yahoo! $299 US for “expedited” service and they will review your site within seven days. However, this fee is a yearly recurring fee. Your website is subject to a yearly review, and is guaranteed neither initial inclusion or to remain listed year after year.

The MSN service is $49 US, and it functions more like a search engine submit service. Their submission service includes inclusion in their own small business directory. DMOZ, on the other hand, is free, but because it is operated by volunteers, it could be awhile before your site is included. Your best options are to submit to DMOZ and pay for the MSN and Yahoo! services.

But why should you spend money? Can’t you just optimize your site for the search engines? You can, but not everyone goes to a search engine for what they are looking for. For example, if someone is searching for gourmet dog treats, they may not use a search engine. Instead, they might go to one of the online directories and look at the listings, much like someone would use the yellow pages in their phone book. Your investment in gaining inclusion in the online directories will pay off for you in a multitude of ways.

1. You will increase traffic to your site. Your site will be included in the online directories, as well as the search engines, and this will help you gain traffic as people search directory listings and find your website.

2. You will increase the number of backlinks to your site. If the directory pages are listed in search engines, the link they provide for your site will be listed in the search engines. This benefits you by creating more ways for people to find your site. Ultimately, this will provide more traffic for you.

3. Submitting to directories is a quick way to gain links. Optimizing your site for the search engines is very difficult and time-consuming.
It can take a lot of time to learn how to write for the search engines. In the meantime, any links you can get will help you with the search engines, and submitting to directories will get you links.

4. Submitting to directories is relatively inexpensive, and a good investment. As stated earlier, you can submit to Yahoo! and MSN for less than $350. DMOZ is free. If you run a search for online directories, you will find many more where you could submit inexpensively, or even for free.

In short, submitting to online directories is one of the best ways for you to build traffic to your website. In the end, you need traffic to survive online. So get started!

Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster of a leading internet directory called http://www.indexplex.com.

Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this resource box remains intact together with a working hyperlink.