"What is Viral Marketng?" by Dipen

Spreading the Word with Viral Marketing
      Have you ever visited a Web site and found an article, a coupon, a special, or something else that impressed you so much that you immediately
sent an e-mail to your friends about it? If you have, you’ve already been bitten by the viral marketing bug! Viral marketing, which is often referred to as “word-of-mouse” marketing, is a low-cost, highly effective way to market your product or service using the Internet. Just like a flu virus in humans, viral marketing replicates and propagates itself online.
      Viral marketing enables you to capitalize on referrals from an unbiased third party—the consumer! The power that peers and reference groups have over the purchasing decision is phenomenal. Similar to how a positive

Advice Columns are Important for Website Creation

Establish Yourself as an Expert with Advice Columns
Some Web sites are incorporating advice columns. People will return again and again to read the e-mails asking for advice and to see the responses that are given. This also helps perpetuate an image of your company as an expert in your given field.

"Special Events Reminder Services In Your Website" by Dipen

Special Events Reminder Services
    People can sign up to be reminded of something via e-mail on specified dates. This feature was originally thought of by a florist to remind people about important dates. You can remind people about any number of things relating to your business. If you own a site that sells fishing and hunting gear, you could get visitors to sign up to be reminded when certain fishing or hunting seasons start. You should try to develop a reminder service that relates to something that you sell from your site. In your reminder you can include suggestions about what fishing fly works best at this time of the year.
    Reminder services are becoming very popular with e-commerce sites. Their services are very much appreciated by busy people who are not good with

"Add Update Reminders to Your Website" by Dipen

Keep Customers in Touch with Update Reminders
Ask visitors to your site if they would like to be notified when there are updates or content changes to your pages. This is similar to a mailing list except that you write to the “list” only when changes have been made. This is effective when you have a newsletter or a frequently visited calendar of events on your site.

"Add Games to your Website for Better Results" by Dipen

Who Doesn’t Love Games?
More and more sites are featuring fun activities and games. Again, your content must be appropriate given your objectives and target markets.Just about anything goes here. You can host anything from a Star Wars trivia contest to having guests play an interactive game with other visitors. Allow visitors an easy way to “Tell a friend” about your game.

"Add Jokes to Your Website" by Dipen

Benefiting from Humor with Jokes and Trivia
“Laughter is the best medicine” and could prove to be a popular feature of your Web page. People enjoy trivia, or a Thought of the Day, and there are many sources for you to draw from. Be sure to update regularly. Again, this gives you the opportunity to ask if your visitors would like to be notified when you update this section of your Web site and offers a viral marketing opportunity as well. Always make sure that whatever you include as content on your Web site is appropriate given your objectives and target market.

"Keep Visitors Happy with Cartoons" by Dipen

Keep Them Happy with Cartoons
Displaying relevant cartoons keeps your site dynamic and fun. You do not necessarily have to create all of the content and features yourself. If you update this weekly, ask if visitors would like to be notified via e-mail when you update your Web site. 

Get More and More Traffic

Encourage Repeat Visits with Your Site of the Day
       Having your own Site of the Day or Site of the Week listing means a great deal of work, searching the Internet for a cool site to add or looking through all the submissions.
       However, if your picks are interesting to your audience, you might find that avid Internet users come back every day to see what great new site is listed. Remember that this must be updated on schedule; displaying a week-old Site of the Day reflects poorly on your site and your company. For more information, see my next articles 18 about hosting your own award site.

"Surveys are also helpful to get more traffic" by Dipen

Inviting Visitors to Contribute with Surveys
     Performing surveys is a way to increase the traffic to your site. For people to want to fill out the survey and see the results, the survey topic must be interesting. To encourage input, consider having the survey results available to participants only. Your survey could be on a topic concerning current events or something pertaining to your industry.
    The more controversial or debatable the topic of the survey, the more people will visit to contribute or see the results. If you want to draw a very targeted audience, pick a topic that is of interest to that market alone.
      In performing these surveys, you are building repeat traffic and you are gathering valuable information on your market. If you hold an interesting survey every week or every month, then you will retain a loyal audience of repeat visitors. If your surveys are newsworthy, then you can send out press releases to publicize the results and gain publicity for your site.
     Your surveys should be short and to the point. Let people know why you are asking them to do the survey and when the deadline is. Make your questions clear and concise. The responses should be Yes/No or multiple choice. When reporting the results, don’t just put them on your Web page; post the results to newsgroups and mailing lists that would be interested. Don’t forget to add your signature file. If you are holding weekly or monthly surveys, let people know via your signature file what the next survey topic will be and that there is more information on your Web site.
     Again, ask people if they’d like to be notified of survey results, either by e-mail or by prior notification as to when the results will be posted on the site. You might also ask if they’d like to be notified when you are conducting a new survey.

"Bulletin Boards" by Dipen

World Interaction with Bulletin Boards
It can be very satisfying to see people join in from all over the world just
to interact with each other on a topic that relates to your Web site. Beware, you will have to keep an eye on the messages and may even have to play referee occasionally.

"Add Bookmark us and get more traffic" by Dipen

Ensuring Your Site Gets Bookmarked
      Encourage visitors to add you to their bookmark list. At appropriate parts of your site, display the call to action “Bookmark me now!” .A call to action is often effective. Make sure the title of the page that has the “Bookmark me now!” clearly identifies your site and its contents in an enticing way, because the title is what appears in the bookmark file as a description. Whenever I see “Bookmark this site now!” I always consider it. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t, but I always consider it. Often, when the call to action
is not presented, I don’t think about it and don’t bookmark it. Then,
days later when I want to go back there, I wish I had remembered to
bookmark it.

"Tip of the Day to Encourage Repeat Visits" by Dipen

Providing a Tip of the Day to Encourage Repeat Visits
        Have a section that offers cool tips that relate to your business, your products or services, or your target market. These tips can be from one sentence to one paragraph long. If visitors find your advice helpful, they will return repeatedly to see what interesting piece of information you have displayed that day. Ask your visitors if they would be interested in receiving the tip via e-mail or if they would like  to be notified when the tip has been updated so they can then visit your Web site. Encourage people to send the tip to a friend. You can also encourage others to use your tip on their Web site as long as they provide a link back to your site as the source.

"Traffic by Online Chat Sessions" by Dipen

Investing in Online Chat Sessions
      Chat rooms are very popular and, to some, even addictive. If you have a chat forum on your site, make sure that the topic relates to your business and that participants are likely to be your target market. To encourage repeat visitors, you could change the topic from day to day or week to week. You could also have celebrity appearances in your chat sessions. These sessions should be regularly scheduled, and the upcoming events should be posted on your site so that your visitors will know what is going on when, and will not

"Using Employment Opportunities to Increase Visitors" by Dipen

Using Employment Opportunities to Increase Visitors
People involved in a job search or interested in new job opportunities
will revisit your site occasionally to see your list of available positions.

"More traffic by Contests and Competitions" by Dipen

Luring Customers with Contests and Competitions
      Contests and competitions are great traffic builders. Some sites hold regular contests on a weekly or monthly basis to generate repeat visitors
Holding contests is also a great way to find out about your target market by requesting information on the entry form.
     What type of contest you hold depends upon your Internet marketing objectives. If you want to attract as many people as possible to your site regardless of who they are, then offer items such as money, trips, cars, computers. If you want to attract potential customers from your target market, then give away something that relates to your products and industry.
     You can simply request that people fill out an electronic ballot to enter the contest. If you want to find out something about the people entering, ask them to answer an appropriate question or two. If you want to do some market research, again, ask a question or two. Make it easy and unobtrusive. The more fields they have to fill out the fewer people will enter your contest. Be selective with the questions you ask.

" Increase traffic by adding A Calendar of Events"by Dipen

A Calendar of Events Keeps Visitors Informed
       A comprehensive, current calendar of events related to your company or your industry can encourage repeat visits. Your calendar should always be kept up to date and be of value to your readers. A calendar of events for a band might show their scheduled appearances. A calendar of events of what is going on in your business community is very appropriate for a Chamber of Commerce or Board of Trade site. This can encourage a lot of repeat traffic as long as the calendar is kept current and complete. Calendars of events are also appropriate on community sites, because residents access these calendars often to stay current. Again, you can ask

Specials and Promotions

Specials and Promotions
       Everyone likes to get a deal. You might consider having a special promotions section on your Web site. You’ll want to change your promotion
fairly frequently and let your site visitors know: “We change our specials every week. Bookmark our site and keep checking back!”
       You might employ permission marketing here as well: “We change our specials every week. Click here if you’d like to be notified when we update” or “Click here to receive our e-specials weekly.” If you send e-specials via e-mail, make sure you give them a reason to visit your site and provide the appropriate hypertext links in the e-mail.
       Make it easy to have your site visitors tell their friends about your specials. Have a “Tell a friend about this special” button placed next to each one of your special promotions. You can leverage the viral marketing with an incentive: “Tell three friends about our special and be included in a drawing for (something appropriate for your target market).”

"Best Price Cupons and Discounts can increase traffic" by Dipen

Everyone Wants the Best Price—Coupons and Discounts
       Offer coupons and discount vouchers that can be printed from your site. You can change the coupon daily or weekly to encourage repeat visits. People will come back to your site again and again if they know they can find good deals there. This is a great strategy to use in conjunction with a free sample giveaway. If people liked the sample, give them a coupon to purchase the regular version at a discount. If they like the regular version, they may purchase it again at full price or recommend the product to a friend. You can also ask people if they want to be notified by e-mail when you update the coupons on your Web site. This once again gives you the opportunity to present them with new information about your business. Offering coupons is a great idea if you have a physical location as well as a Web site. These can be your loss leader to get customers to come into your store.
     You can develop a coupon banner ad that links to your site, where the coupon can be printed. The banner ads should be placed on sites frequented by your target market. You can trade coupons with noncompeting sites that target the same market you do. Your coupon on their site links to your site, and their coupon on your site links to their site.
     By offering coupons from your Web site, you also cut down your overhead cost because people are printing the coupons on their own printers, thus not using your paper. Remember that you should have terms and conditions on the coupons that are available for printing. For example, you should have an expiration date. Someone could print a coupon, then visit your store in a year and try to use it. You should try to have the expiration date close to the release of the coupon. This will entice the visitor to use the coupon more quickly and then come back for more coupons.
    We are seeing an increase in the number of coupon-related sites that are appearing on the Internet. CoolSavings.com (http://www.coolsavings.com) is an online coupon network where businesses can advertise and place coupons for their products and services. Sites like these are a good way to promote your business, for they receive a high amount of traffic. Another benefit is that the traffic is already in a buying mood. CoolSavings.com has been a household name since it launched its national advertising campaign in the
late 1990s. If you offer coupons from your site, it benefits you to be listed on these types of sites. If you are not aiming for a national appeal, you should search to find out if there are coupon networks in the geographic location that you are targeting.There are meta-indexes to sites with coupons or discounts
from which you can be linked for greater exposure. 

"Free Samples Work More" by Dipen

Give a Taste of Your Product with Sample Giveaways
Use a traditional marketing approach and give away free samples of your product from your Web site. After giving away the samples, follow up with an e-mail. Ask the people who received a sample what they thought of it, if they had any problems, and if they have any questions.
      Direct the samplers back to your Web site for more information and discounts on purchasing the regular version of the product. If you have a number of products, you might consider alternating your free samples.
     Ask if visitors would like to be notified by e-mail when you change your free sample. This gives you permission to e-mail the visitors on a regular basis to remind them about the sample. You also get to update them with new information regarding your Web site, your products, or your company. This can entice them to visit your site again. Make sure you include your signature file in your e-mail message.
     Free samples also provide a great viral marketing opportunity.

"Increase Traffic by Adding Free Stuf" by Dipen

Free Stuff—Everyone Loves It
       Giving things away is a great way to increase traffic—everybody likes a
freebie. If you give something different away each week, you are sure to have a steady stream of repeat traffic. When you have freebies or giveaways on your site, your pages can also be listed and linked from the many sites on the Internet that list places where people can receive free stuff. To find these listings of free stuff, simply go to a search engine and do a search on “Free Stuff Index” or “Free Stuff Links.” You will be amazed at how many people are giving things away online.
        You don’t have to give something away to everyone. You could simply have a drawing every week. You could then ask entrants if they would like you to notify them of the winner, which again gives you permission to e-mail them.
       If you want to bring only people from your target market to your site, then don’t give away mainstream items as screen savers, shareware games, utilities, and so on. Try to give away something that only people interested in your industry would want.
       If you don’t care what traffic comes your way, and any traffic is good traffic, then give away useful things that everybody needs. Try to have your logo and URL displayed on the item. For example, a neat screen saver can be made that displays your logo and URL. When this is made available as a download, there is no handling or shipping charges associated with it. If your freebie is something that has your URL on it and is something that is generally kept around a computer, it reminds and encourages people to visit your site. A mouse pad displaying your URL is a good example.
        You should change your freebie often and let your site visitors know how often you do this. Something like “We change our free offer every single week! Keep checking back” or “Click here to be notified by e-mail when we update” also works well.
        Freebies provide ideal viral marketing opportunities as well. Have a “Tell a friend about this” button near the freebie so site visitors can quickly and easily tell their friends.

"Get More Traffic by adding a what's new Page"by Dipen

Use a What’s New Page for Repeat Visits
        A What’s New page can mean different things to different sites. For some, this page updates users with the summaries of the most recent product or service offerings. Your What’s New page should be accessible from your home page so that when people visit your site they do not have to search through your entire site to find out what is new. If visitors repeatedly find interesting additions in the What’s New section, they will come back to your site on a regular basis to check out what’s new. Without this, they might visit and search through your site and find that nothing is new and they just wasted 20 minutes looking for anything new. Here you can leverage this repeat-traffic generator with permission marketing by asking if visitors would like to be notified via e-mail when you’ve added something to the What’s New
section. It’s all about getting their permission to send them e-mail and therefore include them in your community.
           Another approach is for the What’s New page to cover What’s New in your industry or What’s New in your product line. Whatever it is, you should always make sure that it is of interest to your target market.
          Again, you can ask your visitors if they would like to be notified when
updates are made to this section of your Web site. This once again gives you permission to e-mail them and present them with new information that might make them want to come back to your site again.

"Encourage Repeat Visits To Get More Traffic" by Dipen

Encourage Repeat Visits
      Just as you would want customers to visit your place of business frequently, so too in cyberspace you want customers and potential customers
to visit often. The more often people visit your site, the more likely they are to purchase something. You want to ensure that the techniques you use to get repeat traffic are appropriate for your target market.
     For example, if you were having a contest on your site targeted toward children, you would not want to give away a bread-maker as the prize. That

"Web Site Elements To Get More Traffic" by Dipen

Web Site Elements To Get More Traffic

      There are many little things that will spice up your Web site to “keep visitors coming back.” Learn the tips, tools, and techniques to get visitors to return to your site again and again. In my next articles,I will cover:

• • Attractive Web site content

• • How to have your own What’s New page, Tip of the Day, and Awards page

• • Hosting online seminars

• • Ensuring that you are bookmarked

• • Cartoons, contests, jokes, and trivia

• • Calendar of events and reminder services

• • Interesting bulletin boards

• • Online chat sessions, workshops, and discussion groups

• • Special guests or celebrity appearances

• • Giveaways, awards, and surveys

• • Offline tactics for promotion.

"Visual Notes For Website Building" by Dipen

Visual Notes

      Check your site using different browsers. What viewers see when your site is downloaded depends on what browser they are using. Different browsers display the same Web site differently. Before you post your site on-line, check your site with the most popular browsers:

• • Netscape Navigator 7.x

• • Netscape Navigator 6.x

• • Netscape Navigator 4.x

• • Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x

• • Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x

• • Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.x

"Notes to Build a Website" by Dipen

Other Notes

• Your home page should be 50 KB or less and should be displayed on no more than one or two screens.

• Studies have shown that visitors rarely wait beyond 15 seconds to download a site.

• Test the download time of your site using different connection speeds to ensure that it is reasonable for all users.

• Also avoid dead links. These are links that don’t go anywhere and the viewer usually receives a “404—File not Found” error message from the Web server after clicking on a dead link.

• Verify periodically that all your links are still active.