Two Big Mistakes

By Jim Daniels
Posted Sunday, August 29, 2004

"They Took Minutes to Fix and Yielded Huge Results..."

Today I'd like to share with you just two tiny changes I made in my online marketing campaign recently. While the changes I made took literally minutes, the results have been nothing short of spectacular.

Chances are, you are making at least one of these two mistakes as well. If so, I urge you to fix them as soon as possible. I promise you'll be thrilled with the results.

MISTAKE 1: Sign up form missing on Home Page

For over two years my main page did not contain a signup form for my BizWeb eGazette, my free, weekly email newsletter. Sure, I had a link to my sample issue and lots of other pages at my site contained a signup form, but I never got around to adding the short form to my main page.

THE FIX: I added a short sign up form with a testimonial on my main page and my new subscriber signups nearly doubled, from 300 a week to close to 600. Geez, if I had smartened up a year ago I could be at 50,000 subscribers now instead of 34,000.

Learn from my mistake! If you are not using a signup form on your main page to collect email addresses of your visitors, you are making a big mistake. It really is as simple as asking for their email address using a form like the one I have at my main page.

Feel free to copy the html code of that signup form if you want. Then change each instance of my domain to your own. All you'll need to make it work is the "formmail" script on your web server. Most web hosts offer that basic script - my host includes it for free.

MISTAKE 2: Including the same signature file with all outgoing emails.

If you're not familiar with what a signature file is, click here for an explanation.

Although most online marketers know how to use a sig file, nearly all are limiting themselves with this tool. Here's how...

My old Sig looked like this:

JDD PUBLISHING - Home of "The BizWeb E-Gazette!" Low Cost, Powerful Internet Marketing! Mailto:JDDinfo@bizweb2000.com

Any time I replied to an email message it included that short signature at the end. Sure, I dabbled with other longer sigs but I never noticed much of a difference. That is, until I wised up and started targeting my sigs to each prospect...

THE FIX: Rather than use the same sig with every email, I now select from a menu of four separate signatures. Each one I created is geared to assist different people. It's usually pretty simple to tell from an email message what type of product or service a each person may be most interested in. Now, before I click "send" on any message, I simply use Eudora's drop down menu and select one of my four pre-written signature files. They are as such:

Sig 1: For newer contacts who may not have made a purchase yet. This introduces them to my online catalog.

Be sure to drop by my online catalog. I just updated it to include new products and services guaranteed to help grow your biz... (www.bizweb2000.com/products.htm)

Sig 2: For people who have expressed an interest in automating some of their website marketing tasks.

P.S. Stop by (www.bizweb2000.com/software.htm) and download the software we use to get site traffic. You can try them all for FREE today!

Sig 3: For folks just getting started who may be in need of a web host.

Do you need your own website? You can save lots of time and money at: (http://www.bizweb2000.com/v) ; come test drive "HiRize", where you can create, maintain and manage your website, all through one simple interface!

Sig 4: For people who appear willing to spend a little more for faster results online.

P.S. I've been working with a few cybermarketing pros you may have heard of. We put together a private site at (www.bizweb2000.com/imc/) that literally guarantees success in your online business. Take a second and visit!

These sigs work wonders for me! They are all mini-ads I designed to assist specific customers and prospects. I recommend YOU take a few minutes and set up a sig that promotes each of your top products and services. You'll quickly find that each client you deal with really does fit in well with one particular recommendation. This simple strategy can increase your online income more than you can imagine.

About the Author
* Article by Jim Daniels of JDD Publishing. Jim's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Visit (http://bizweb2000.com) for FREE "how-to" cybermarketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and more. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to their Free, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: mailto:freegazette@bizweb2000.com