Like A Bull with a nose ring

Why do they put a ring in a bull's nose?

Why to lead him around, of course. It's as simple as that.

That's how to write for a business web page.

Business web pages are not written like Emily Dickinson, John Steinbeck or William Shakespeare.

The way to write a web page is very very simple. Like a Bull with a nose ring.

(Definitely not the way that I wrote this posting.)

Demian Farnworth wrote "The Disgustingly Simple Rule for Web Writing That’s Often Hard to Swallow."

Top Level Recommendation - Newsletter

I attempt to recommend only good articles with solid substance in this space. Occasionally, an article is even better than most of the articles in this space.

There are three very valuable tips and one nice tip in today's recommendation.

The topic is how to write a successful Newsletter.

One thing that this article does not discuss is typography and layout. If you want your Newsletter to be printable and to look professional when it is printed - Qwerty's PDF services can really improve the printed look of your Newsletter.

BUT - looking great is not as important as the first three tips in "4 Easy Tips On Writing a Winning NewsLetter" by Ritu Pant.

Local Sports or the Olympics?

Although the internet landscape is slowly evolving away from this, it is still somewhat of a democracy in the oldest sense of the concept.

Fewer and fewer people stumble on the writing of another without being influenced in some way by some type of a ranking or recommendation tool, whether it be algorithmic or human. Yet this was not always the case. A decade ago, most Search Engines were either flat or almost flat when it came to serving as RELIABLE methods of filtering the noise from the signal. This is has changed and is continuing to develop.

However, as such tools and experts become more available and more reliable - the beginning internet writer has a tendency towards reticence based on intimidation.

But even Jane Austin was at one point intimidated by the writings of others. When it comes to the average modern novice novelist, a little reticence may have been helpful. Yet even today, some new authors produce first novels that are breathtakingly well written. A fact which Jane Austin could not boast. Her first novel, Susan, was not nearly as well written as later novels, a fact which caused her to revise it extensively.

But we are not speaking of the writing of novels but rather of the writing of internet posts. In some ways, an internet post should share more of the traits of a diary than of the traits of a novel. Do not misunderstand - rarely does a diary style blog become a top ranked blog. (There are some.) But the personality of a blog author and the individual flavor of her/his conversation is frequently the difference between a large audience and a less read blog.

Today's recommendation is especially for anyone who experiences writer's block due to being intimidated by the writings of some other internet publisher. The article is: "10 Ways to Avoid Writing Insecurity" by Sean Platt.

Keep the river flowing

What happens if you go to a retail store and find it closed when it is scheduled to be open and this happens repeatedly?

You start going to a more reliable store.

If people come to your business blog and keep finding no content, they eventually quit visiting.

How do you keep generating new content for your blog?

Orna Ross wrote: "

10 Surefire Steps to Beating Blogger’s Block

."

(Fewer than normal entrepreneurial articles were written in December, the frequency of this column is being reduced to three times a week, MWF, for awhile.)

Can We talk?

A tale of two paragraphs:

Hey there. Let me tell you what happened to me at work, yesterday.

A Very Pleasant Day to you, Permit me to describe the circumstances surrounding an incident which occurred at the writer's place of occupation the day prior to the writing of this composition.

If you write your blog based on the second choice, you will not be a large audience blogger. You may attract an audience from readers of classic literature, but I doubt that is the audience which you desire.

Dean Rieck wrote a number of suggestions for the blogger which are very useful in setting the tone of your writing.

Business Content Basics

In the Sound of Music, Maria teaches the Von Trapp children to sing by beginning with the basics.

In successful writing, it is necessary to know the Do Re Mi of writing copy.

Jim Lodico wrote: "Everything I Need To Know About Business Blogging I Learned In High School."

Listen My Children and You Shall Hear of the

Narrative is a very powerful marketing tool.

If you can reframe your message as a captivating story you can reach a larger audience and have more influence on those who hear you.

David Knowles wrote "Discover the Power of Storytelling"

Without Vitality, there is no Viability

In mid-twentieth century Sci-Fi flicks, the actor who supplied the voice for a robot would attempt to speak without inflection and without imbuing his/her diction with any emotion. (Later films tended to feature robotic characters with personality.)

One of the problems with many business blogs, especially the blogs of older corporations, is that the textual content is written to sound objective or journalistic.

Most successful business blogs are very opinionated and written from an editorial standpoint rather than a journalistic standpoint. Additionally, the successful blog's opinions are not focused on the services or products of the business which publishes the blog but rather on expressing the viewpoint of the business concerning other industry related developments or current events.

The successful blog also focuses on providing content which is useful for the reader but which is not merely a rehash of something which has been produced elsewhere.

The question of how to make a blog sound unique and imbue it with a consistent persona is one with which some companies have to struggle.

Dave Taylor wrote an article entitled "How To Write With a Distinctive Voice."

Presidential Powerpoint? (or Boardrooms For Bonzo?)

In my lifetime, only one president has truly been good at Salesmanship and Presentation. Although Clinton was good at schmoozing and building a powerbase, he never succeeded in convincing independents in America that he had a vision.

The one president that really convinced many Americans that he had a vision for the future was Ronald Reagan. He was so successful at Salesmanship that the term "Reagan Democrats" was coined to describe those voters who were persuaded by his presentation.

Whether you agree or disagree with Reagan's politics - his example of presentation and salesmanship should be studied as an example for improving your own presentations.

Steve W. Martin wrote "How Ronald Reagan Would Change Your Corporate Presentation."

P.S. If you do admire Reagan's politics, check out Abe and Ron.

Describe Your Perfect Fashion Widget Accessory

Say What?

I did not quite get that. Could you reword it, please?

Oh, wait a minute, I am not talking to a person I am reading your website and I have no idea what you just said. Worse than that, you have just asked me a question that must be answered or else the sale can not proceed.

But I don't understand the question.....so I can not give you the answer.

Oh, well, maybe my friendly search engine will direct me to your competitor's website which is much more friendly to novices.

Karon Thackston wrote: "How Poor Usability Can Kill Your Copy and Conversions."

Doc, You Gotta Help Me - I just Can't Seem To Stop Writing

In spite of the humorous title of this article, frequency of communication is an important business decision.

However, I would argue that consistency is actually more important than frequency. A few weeks ago, I had a booth at the North Georgia State Fair and this recommendation feature ground to a halt because I had too many things on my platter.

There are two main considerations in my opinion when considering frequency and both of them can be included under the single heading of Customer Expectation.

1. How will this frequency schedule affect my brand?
2. Can I commit to this frequency schedule?

I know that for this recommendation feature, I will probably eventually go back to once a day because I have found that twice a day places too much of a strain on my other responsibilities.

Seth Godin is both a writer and a start up visionary. (He is exemplary evidence that Marketing startups and Tech-Innovation startups don't have to play by the same rules.)

Seth wrote an article entitled "How Often Should You Publish?"

Conceptual Conduits

Ideas, Concepts and Viewpoints - "Let ME tell you what I think."

We have all met the bore. We may have occasionally been the bore.

But, communication is key to relationships. How should we communicate?

Big (non)-Secret: The Medium affects the effectiveness of Communication.

To borrow an idea from the past: A telegram should not read like a book, nor vice versa.

Yet some website owners don't know how to communicate effectively on the internet.

Sonia Simone wrote an article on improving the Quality of your content.

Speaking Ancient Greek to the construction worker

Monday Morning and Tuesday Afternoon, I wrote about business stupidity and delusions. In this article I would like to talk about communicating with the prospect.

Can you describe the prospect to me? How old is he or she? Is he married, single or divorced? Does he/she have children? Are they young or old? What is distracting him or her from listening to you?

Does your prospect know how to speak technobabble? If you are in the financial industry, can the prospect speak like Barrons, WSJ and an HBS faculty PHD?

There are two major problems that occur when many entrepreneurs attempt to speak to their prospects. First they don't know who their prospect is and Second, they try to speak as if their prospect is an industry insider.

Oh and just to make it more complicated, their target market is not homogenous. (That's technobabble for say that there is a lot of diversity among their prospects.)

To successfully market to your prospects, you need to identify (and I don't mean Guess) the different categories of prospects you have, you need to identify (and I don't mean guess) what their lifestyles (or if you are B2B, what their company is like on the inside) and then you have to learn their language.

Mike Moran wrote a nice article entitled "Do We Really Understand Personas?"

Who's your lead off batter?

In Baseball, the first four batters on the roster are the most important. Many coaches put the strongest batter in the fourth position which has been nicknamed "the clean up batter."

But in writing copy for your articles, you don't get three tries to get it right!

The two most important items for your article's copy are the Headline and the Lead Sentence. The next item (if the reader sticks around for the third item) is the opening paragraph. Bringing up fourth, which is a far weaker position in writing copy than in baseball, is the first sub-heading.

Karon Thackston wrote "Get To The Point."

P.S. The first two comments (currently the only two comments) are amusing.

Lower Your Google Bounce Rate

One of the smart technologies which Google now incorporates into its search engines measures how dissatisfied your website visitor is when he or she first lands on your web page. (If you are unfamiliar with this topic, see Google's Bounce Rate explanation.)

Michael Fleischner wrote an article detailing Seven Tactics for improving the amount of time that visitors spend on your web site.

Four Out Of Five is not Bad

There are many mistakes which website owners make. I have frequently done indepth evaluations of websites which have included many mistakes.

However, some mistakes are more visible and obvious to the casual visitor than others.

Corte Swearingen wrote an article entitled: "Five Prominent Website Mistakes." However, I recommend only the first four of Corte's tip.

The fifth tip is good for personal websites and for some websites which already have a well developed audience base. But it can adversely affect the load time and bandwidth of a website which is still seeking growth.

That depends upon what your definition of the word "We" is

If a book of quotations written a century from now contains any William Jefferson Clinton quotations it will probably quote his "depends upon your definition" quote.

But this posting has nothing to do with politics or presidential trials.

This summer an author sent out a newsletter in which he suggested banishing the word "We" from sales communication.

Another author has a sales communication book entitled "We."

But the thing is, you see, that the two authors were using the word "We" with two completely different meanings.

Thus I find myself agreeing with the points which both authors made.

Confused? Good.

If you would like to know why you should use the word "We" and why you should also banish the word "We" then visit Steve Yastrow's article which explains.

I'll Give You A Daisy A Day, Dear.

Apparently, one of the hardest tasks for most small business in house marketing is, looking at your content from the perspective of the outside world.

In order for your internet marketing efforts to be successful, you have to avoid the head on approach to promoting yourself.

Winning a prospect has some similarities to courting a sweetheart.

If you are going to win someone's heart, then you have to convince that person that he or she will benefit from dealing with you. But you also have to convince the person that you hope to win, that he or she is special. If you come off sounding to your prospects as if anyone will do, they may seek someone who will make them feel as if they are the most important people in the whole wide world.

But you also can not come across as if you will wait for your prospect forever, or your prospect may take you for granted.

Ardath Albee wrote an article about "Back Story."

Reframe it as a Narrative

Today's recommendation is unusual for this column. The author of the article is not writing for a business audience.

However, any business owner who will read this article with the attitude - "How will this information help me to connect better with my internet audience?" - will benefit greatly from reading this article.

Narrative is one of the most powerful tools in connecting to your audience and it is also rarely used effectively by small business owners.

I strongly recommend reading the Scientific American article, "The Secrets of Storytelling" by Jeremy Hsu

Twenty Plus Tips for Good Website Design

Web Design is not primarily about Graphics.

Design also includes how your website "works" for your visitor. Many first time website owners focus on trying to impress their visitors. This is usually a mistake. Instead focus on satisfying your visitor.

Henriette Martel wrote an article entitled "Design Tips for Your Website" which focuses on three main categories: the text, the layout and the navigation.

Her tips are concise and relevant.

Design Tips for Your Website

Don't Reason With Your Visitor

It is rare to find a "Did It In House" website that does not attempt to present logical evidence for using the company's product or service.

The right approach is to focus on the Wants, Dreams and Pains of your prospect.

If a guy wants to buy a diamond for a gal - Which do you think is foremost in his mind: Logic or Emotion?

Well, believe it or not, many purchases of services and products are based on Alleviating Pains, Fulfilling Dreams and Acquiring Wants.

Jennifer Horowitz wrote "Add Emotional Impact To Your Content."

Quit Marketing Your Product (or Your Service)

One of the biggest mental roadblocks in dealing with small business owners is that they try to cut corners when it comes to textual content. Instead of paying a professional writer of business copy to write their marketing text, they attempt to do it in house.

Now this would not be so bad, if it were not for the fact that many of them proceed to write copy which focuses on telling how good their product is, how great their services are and what a great company they run.

This is the wrong approach to marketing.

Your task as a marketer is to provide a solution to a problem. You need to focus on identifying the client's biggest headache and then show them how you can remove that headache.

Ben Jones wrote: "Small Business Marketing: The Secret Revealed!"

P.S. Ben also recommends another article on this topic as well.

A Two-Fer: The One Thing that Can Improve The Effectiveness of Articles

Today, I am recommending two articles from different writers on the same topic.

When you write an article, you probably are aware of the structure of the article. You might even create a formal outline before you write the article.

However, many times readers of articles indicate that when they read an article they can not always follow the flow of the writer's thoughts.

One of the greatest resources for improving how effective your articles are, is to use headings and subheadings.

If you don't use subheads, you may want to read Sonia Simone's article first.

If you already use Subheads and want to improve your use of them, then read Alexandria Brown's article.

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

Do you ever get what authors call "writer's block?"

Every successful entrepreneur has the ability to imagine a vision and crystallize that vision so that it can be turned into reality.

But every once in awhile those of us who rely on our mind's ability to come up with new ideas, find that we have a dry spell.

Recently, one New York consulting firm did a survey poll in order to discover how business people generate new ideas.

_____________
Today's recommendation requires just a bit more patience than normal. I am recommending a PDF from Idea Champions. However, since this is not a Web Page but rather a download, when you click on the link, you will be taken to a page where you have to click on another link.

"Sorry About That, Chief."

At BNET's Team Taskmaster in this article, in the first sentence, click on the words "which catalysts spurred its clients’ brightest ideas."

Again, This is the LINK.

Sometimes, its all in how you package it

Sometimes, even the best content in the world will only be considered by your audience if the packaging is right.

Let me illustrate:

Would you believe that some of the top read writers on the internet compete to have their content "re-packaged?"

Every month, writers send proposals to ChangeThis.com. These proposals are then posted for public voting on the Change This proposal page. This link goes to that page.

Whichever five proposals gets the most votes that month, then gets the chance to be featured as a Change This eBook.

End of Illustration.

The point is that the Media in which information is presented affects the optimal format of the information.

Have you ever been to a Power Point presentation where the speaker attempted to put the entire text of his speech on the screen. Bad Decision.

The substance of the speech might be GREAT and yet placing it on the screen ruins the speech.

In the early days of the web, there was no professional looking page layout. When websites started being designed to resemble printed documents, many websites were mis-designed to scroll downwards through more than a dozen screens or more. This was a mistake for the same reason that putting all the content of a speech on a projection screen is a mistake.

Content needs to be formatted for the medium in which it is being presented and the limitations, as well as the advantages, of the medium used need to be understood and respected.

The amount of content which you need to present, should have an affect on your media choice. If you are presenting a lot of content, it is frequently a good idea to present this content as an eBook. A professionally designed eBook can be used as a Premium in lead harvesting, as a community development giveaway or as a product for marketing.

(Disclosure: My consultancy provides typography and page layout services for eBooks and other electronic publications including eNewsletters and Presentations.)

Vera Raposo wrote an article on how to market eBooks. (The Ebay suggestion is obsolete. see the comments below the article.)

Using message structuring to develop your audience base

If you're just hanging with your friends, you don't need message structuring. In fact, in many friendship circles, slang and informality go a lot farther than grammar and vocabulary.

But things are a lot different in the business world. Although it sometimes pays off for a salesperson in a one on one presentation to abandon business formality, it almost never pays off in a larger audience. Even your best buddy may feel humiliated and embarrassed if you speak and act the way that you do when the two of you are just hangin' out.

In the venue of Internet Publishing, if you are seeking to build a large audience in the business community, there is a very fine line between formality and personality. Unfortunately, that fine line moves drastically in one direction or another depending upon the specific audience on which you are focusing.

Let me illustrate this by referencing two writers whose articles are featured regularly in the right sidebar of rainmakerwebsites.com

Jill Konrath writes articles that are specifically geared towards helping those sales organizations and sales people who are involved in long term sales processes with large corporations. Within these processes, there are several sales stages which need to be respected and are only occasionally skipped. Both the critical nature of these negotiations and the amount of structure that is built into the organizations involved necessitate that the presentations be relatively formal. In her writing to this audience, Jill must focus more on the structure of her message than on presenting herself within her message. However, enough of Jill's personality comes through to make her message viable in the internet venue.

Rosa Say writes articles that translate sound business practices and processes into the Hawaiian traditional culture and which help integrate traditional Hawaiian values and principles into activities which result in long term business profit and growth. As part of her effort to communicate these values both to the business owner on the islands and to the internet business world outside of the islands, Rosa must incorporate more of her own personality into her articles as a means of illustrating the principles and values of the Hawaiian culture.

Both Jill and Rosa use message structuring as an essential tool for communicating with a business audience.

If you want your business message to develop a visitor base or an internet audience, you need some method of organizing the process you use in developing each of your postings. David Peralty suggests one method of internet article development in "Organizing A Blog Post."

Are You Quotable?

Have you ever looked up a concept in a Book of Quotations? Have you ever inserted a Shakespearean line into a text?

What is it that makes a statement quotable? Why do some quotations endure while others are fads that gradually disappear?

Maki wrote a great article that summarizes some of the ideas in another writer's piece on writing compositions.

If you want your Internet Publishing to be read and passed around, then read "How To Say Nothing in 500 words."

And You're Telling Me this because ... ?

About four weeks ago, I wrote about the need for a business to have a purpose for existing.

In this posting, I would like to focus on content's need to have a mission.

Your website's visitor is not Sergeant Friday and presumably you have something which you hope to accomplish by having a web site.

So the textual content (the copy) of your website needs to further the mission which you are hoping to accomplish.

But some website copy seems to be self-destructive when it comes to accomplishing the apparent purpose of the website.

Ardath Albee wrote "Content Without A Goal Is Unemployed."

Improving The Effectiveness of your Homepage

What happens when someone sees your website address on your business card?

Well, let's hope for the sake of discussion that they visit your website's home page.

Now what happens?

Well that depends on how effective your website's home page is.

Edward Chan shows five ways to improve the effectiveness of your website's homepage in "Does Your Homepage Engage Visitors?"

Does the textual content of your website swing?

Some websites are written as if they were corporate reports.

Well, as Duke Ellington said, "It Don't Mean A Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing."

Sonia Simone wrote "The Duke Ellington Guide To Copy That Swings."

Web Copy That Sells

What is the difference between an effective marketing website and an ineffective one?

Content.

Content that Persuades versus content that just sits there and Bores the visitor to Sleep.

Clayton Makepeace tells us the "Seven Characteristics of Great Sales Copy."

Make It Easy on Your Visitor

If your website could benefit your business in one way and one way only, what would you want it to be?

To create frustration in your Visitors.

No?

Then why is your website so fancy and so cool but absolutely a labyrinth for the visitor to use?

Angie McKaig wrote: "Why Your Website needs to be Simplified."

Real and Yet Professional

One of the ways in which Internet Publishing differs from writing white papers is that successful blogging usually requires that the authors personality can be seen in what is written, while in writing white papers there is a need for more objectivity.

However, sometimes an internet writer lets his hair down too much. The article resembles a stereotypical photo from the 1970s. (I graduated from High School in the 70s, so I am allowed.)

How does an Internet writer show his audience his or her real self while also maintaining a degree of professionalism necessary to developing a good brand?

Chris Brogan wrote "If You Intend to Blog Seriously."

HIgh Ranking Persuasion

The purpose of web copy is to persuade humans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ranking is not the purpose, ranking is a tactic. Copy which makes ranking the main priority is self-defeating.

But there is a way to do SEO correctly. But it takes a writer who can write persuasive copy. Many SEO people couldn't persuade a child to eat candy!

Karon Thackston wrote an excellent article showing the difference between good web copy and SEO garbage. It is entitled "Stop the Slaughter of Innocent Copy."

You're Website is Up To Bat. Did it Get A Hit?

SEO thinks that the goal of SEM is getting a click.

It isn't. The Goal of SEM is satisfying the Visitor when he first arrives.

When a Search Engine user clicks a link on the Search Engine page for your webpage, its time for your website to step up to the plate. Will the batter, your website get a hit? Will it be a base hit or a triple or a home run? Or will your website STRIKE OUT?

If the visitor from the search engine looks at the link's landing page on your site and decides that this is NOT what he was looking for, then your website, STRUCK OUT! If the visitor decides to click on a link, that is a base hit.

What makes the difference between a STRIKE OUT and a Base Hit?

Content!!!!!!!

Copy which is Keyword loaded is probably going to STRIKE OUT! Copy which is focused on persuading the user may get a hit.

Maki wrote an article on how to reduce the number of visitors who leave your landing page without looking at any other content.

Developing a successful Local website

Business Owners whose market is geographically limited often think that only SEO can get them the exposure in local search that is necessary to be found. However, just as with any other website ranking in Search Engines is not limited to the artificial sounding copy which many SEO firms produce.

(In an upcoming post on this website, I will present an article from a copy writer whose use of keywords is so deft and subtle that it does not interfere with the reader. I once had to read a paragraph twice that she had written to find the second occurrence of the key phrase that she was embedding!)

John Jantsch wrote an article in which he shows a real life case study of a company whose Search Engine ranking was achieved by concentrating on Content, Links and HTML coding.

Quit Trying To Dazzle and Start Selling

Wow! That was brilliant!

Place an Order?

We'll get back to you on that, we want to consider our options.

Have you ever gone to a website and had to wait until the most fantastic and gorgeous multimedia presentation that you have ever seen L - o - a - d - e - d and then spent 1 to 2 minutes running before finally showing you the website?

Recently I tried to read an article and was shown an advertisement which was supposed to go away in ten seconds, it had a countdown feature, but when the countdown reached 3 seconds it resetted itself and started over, the first time it happened, I ignored it but when it happened again I started thinking about it. It took a few seconds but quickly dawned on me that the site assumed that all of its visitors would have their cookie settings set to "accept all." That is just as stupid as the company that places downloadables on its site in a format which is not "universal."

(Universal refers to formats such as HTML, PDF, JPEG, SWF, etc which are accessible on Windows, Mac OS Classic, Mac OS X and Unix/Linux without purchasing a proprietary application.)

Many small business website owners get talked into using audio, video, or flash as a means of impressing their visitors. Do not misunderstand, I am not talking about using audio samples to sell music or recorded materials, nor am I talking about using video to build a social media community, nor am I talking about using flash in a widget or to present a 300 by 100 sidebar graphic. I am talking about full-screen splash intros on a investment advisors website and background music on a mortgage brokers website. The use of "stuff" which does not actually SELL your service or product but is only for the purpose of Impressing or Dazzling or Entertaining is a marketing mistake.

Do you think I am wrong?

Don't take my word for it. Read what Clayton Makepiece wrote about worthless movie-style TV ads in the Major Corporation market.

SEM Expert Argues Against SEO Control

Anyone who hangs around me long enough, learns that I don't put much stock in traditional SEO. Ironically, when people first hear that my internet focus is on helping Businesses 1. Acquire Traffic; 2.Convert to Leads; 3. Repeat Visits; 4. Build Alliances and Community; - they ASSUME that I do SEO.

I don't do SEO. Now don't misunderstand. I am not saying that there is no place for a moderate amount of SEO when initially setting up a site (and maybe once a year) but SEO is not nearly as important to the effectiveness of your business website as many people think that it is.

Mike Moran specializes in (and is a recognized expert) Search Engine Marketing. He recently wrote an article about people who obsess over trying to control their rankings. He argues that a company needs to avoid seeking to control the Search Engine ranking and focus on PLEASING THEIR INTERNET AUDIENCE.

Exactly! Well said.

Here are links to my previous recommendation editorials which stress Content over SEO. Tactics Killed The Goose; Site Design is more important than Ranking; What Are You Doing Here? Additionally if you read through my Rainmakerwebsites.com website you will find me arguing against focusing your attention primarily on SEO.

What Are You Doing Here?

The effectiveness of your website has an INITIAL major hurdle - convincing the visitor to stick around for more than 10 seconds.

The key to grabbing the visitor's attention is two-fold. First you need to know the MOTIVATION of your site's visitors and then you need to make your website useful and useable.

Chris Garrett wrote "How To Build A Useful Site."

Tactics Killed The Goose

In war, it is extremely important that the officers keep the differences between Mission, Strategy and Tactics clear in their minds. If a strategy does not further the War's ultimate mission, then it is not beneficial. If a tactic does not further the current strategy it is also useless.

Occasionally, a tactic is not only useless it is also detrimental and costly. It can even destroy the mission.

Search Engine ranking is a tactic! How you rank in a search engine may or may not affect the profitability of your business. If your website is very profitable, be cautious concerning making changes to your website solely for the purpose of moving one or two places in ranking.

Qwerty recommends very highly the article: Should You Change Your Copy When Rankings Fall? by Karon Thackston

Make me WANT to listen

"And now we interrupt our program to bring you this crass commercial message..."

If you really want to get more clients, quit telling your prospects what you want them to hear! Instead, find out what it is that makes your prospects drop everything and choose to pay attention.

Terry Paulsen wrote an article entitled "Earned Attention Is the Only Attention Worth Having!" It is based on an excerpt from an article in the magazine Business 2.0. The source of the excerpt is: Jeff Hicks, President and CEO, Crispin Porter & Bogusky