If you want to get your website profitable, collecting email addresses and building a list of eager subscribers is a critical part of the equation.

As more traffic is driven to your site, whether from social media sites, PPC (Pay-per-Click), search engines or other methods, you should be trying to entice as many visitors as possible to subscribe to your email list.

This is a list of email addresses where your website visitors have “opted in” so they can receive more information from you.

This information can take many forms – articles, videos, photographs, audios, promotional offers, latest news in your industry, events lists – even the ubiquitous “newsletter”.

For you as a small business owner, using email to build an ongoing relationship with your online customers and prospects is exceedingly inexpensive!

A good autoresponder can be less than $10 per month (depending on the size of your list) – and sending the email is free!

If you use the SPAM scoring tool in your autoresponder, the majority of your emails will be received by your subscribers.

By sending out valuable and interesting (not self-serving!) content to your subscribers, you will continue to increase the number who not only open your emails – but who also look forward to reading them.

I am subscribed to many lists on the internet because I need to keep up with what is going on.

Recently I analysed my own behaviour as a subscriber. Out of the many emails I receive, there are only two that I read 100% of the time – and immediately click on their links to go to their website to read or watch the information they are sending to me.

So what sets the two of them apart?

They ALWAYS give me some new information that I didn’t already know.

They ALWAYS entertain me when providing that information (they both have a similar sense of humour to me!).

They ALWAYS are completely upfront if they are trying to get me to buy something specific from them.

Even if they are trying to make some money from me, they give me a minimum of 80% useful/great information then give me a sales pitch.

So now we’ve looked at what turns me into an “eager” subscriber – let’s look at the opposite end of the spectrum.

What do I hate enough that makes me unsubscribe immediately?

They ALWAYS are trying to sell me something.

They don’t give me any information that is useful for my business – only what they think will make me buy their stuff.

They make the big “We’re Wonderful” mistake!

They are so busy telling me that they know their stuff, that their product is the best in the world, that they are so wonderful etc. etc. – that they forget to tell me what their product will do for me!

There is a classic story about this – is the person who needs to buy a drill.

In reality, they don’t really want a drill – what they really need is a HOLE.

This concept should permeate ALL of your marketing – “sell” the result – if I want a hole, I don’t care if the person who is selling the drill has been in business for 100 years – I want someone who knows everything there is to know about creating the fastest, cleanest, easiest holes in the world!

If you can become adept at selling the “hole” rather than the “drill” in your promotional emails, you will get a far better response.

The big key to getting your subscribers to become “eager” to receive emails from you though – is to give them great content.

If you keep the 80% content/20% promotions rule and give great content, your email list will be full of “eager” subscribers who will be hanging out to open your emails to see what they can learn this time.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If you haven’t heard of Skype – or – you’ve heard of it and don’t use it – then you MUST read this post.

Skype is the best thing to happen to interpersonal communications since the mobile (cell) phone!

The best thing is – it’s FREE!

Any small business (with a Broadband Internet connection – in my humble opinion dial-up is too choppy) can use Skype.

So why should you be using Skype – and what do you use it for?

Skype can be used to talk to any other person who has Skype on their computer (as long as you both have “approved” each other as contacts).

You will need some speakers (to hear the other person), a microphone (so the other person can hear what you are saying) and optionally, a webcam (so the other person can see your face).

If you have a modern notebook computer (or an iMac like me), you will already have all of these!

If you have a desktop you may need to purchase all of them. But to give you an idea of cost, you can pay under $100 for a set of small speakers and a webcam (with an inbuilt microphone). I use Logitech because they are inexpensive and I haven’t ever had any problems with them – and I’ve used them for years.

If you need privacy for your calls (or are in an open-plan office environment), you can use a headset with a microphone – but I recommend still use a webcam.

I am a great believer in face-to-face communication. It reduces misunderstandings.

If you can see someone’s face when they are saying something to you, it is much easier to get a clearer understanding of their intentions. I find that emails can be very terse and I personally hate the phone. It is very easy to be “misled” on the phone. If I can see someone’s face, it is harder for them to say a bald-faced lie (but not impossible of course!!).

For that reason, I always recommend my small business clients to use a webcam wherever possible.

Once you have the equipment in place and connected to your computer, go to www.skype.com and download the latest version of Skype.

Following the download, Skype will lead you through the process of setting up your account.

I will note a couple of things.

Firstly – if you are a business – I normally suggest using your business name – possibly shortened – as your Skype name.

In some cases though, it may be better to use your own name. For example, we use my name “JPianto” as my Skype name because we have several websites and businesses – so I would have to be monitoring multiple Skype accounts – which can be done – but is very confusing!

Also – NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use your full name and date of birth and real address on ANY social media website or tool such as Skype.

You will find that my birthday is listed on all of these sites as 1st January with the correct year. My actual birthday is not in January at all!

I very rarely use my actual town as my location – I tend to use the more generic “Gippsland” – which is the Eastern part of the State of Victoria.

The reason I do this, is to avoid having multiple methods of ID on a website.

I suggest you do the same.

The internet is a fantastic tool – particularly for small businesses – but you need to be wary.

So – use your business name and real location in most cases – because if you are a “bricks and mortar” business, you want people to find you.

If like me, you work remotely, I suggest you use a more generic location and definitely not your real date of birth!

Now you have Skype downloaded, your Skype account set up and your equipment in place – what next?

Let all your contacts know you are now on Skype and that if they have a broadband connection they can talk to you for FREE on the internet (instead of using the phone).

If you have some specific suppliers or customers for example, that you contact frequently – and who are interstate or even international – then I seriously suggest you contact them and tell them you would like to communicate with them using Skype instead of the telephone. If they don’t know what Skype is – just send them to this webpage!

Here is a link you can cut and paste to give them:

http://www.cheapeasywebsite.com/latest/every-small-business-should-use-skype-to-save-money

As I mentioned above, they may already have everything they need (if they use a notebook computer – or if they use an iMac). If they are an important client or supplier – I sometimes suggest providing them with the webcam!

Another thing to do with your Skype name is – put it on all your marketing materials – business cards, letterheads, email signatures (you DO have one of those don’t you!), menus (if you’re a restaurant) etc. etc.

This form of internet communication is called VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol – which means nothing more than sending “voice” over the web.

As an added bonus to this – we use Skype for our family communications too. Chris (my partner) uses Skype with a webcam to talk to his two granddaughters who live about 6 hours away. My parents use Skype to talk to their grandson – who lives 10,000 miles away (in the UK!). The webcams allow both ends to see each other – and because it’s free – they can talk for hours!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let me start by asking you a simple question.

If you were choosing a contractor to build your new home – who would you choose?

Would it be someone completely unknown to you – or – someone who is trusted by someone YOU trust – such as a close family friend or relative?

Of course, the answer is the person who is already considered trustworthy by someone you trust.

You already know that Trust is really important in life – and it is especially so with a website.

It is vitally important that your website creates an environment of trust otherwise, most of your efforts will be wasted.

Have you ever consciously considered how to create an environment of trust on your website?

Don’t panic, it’s actually quite simple to increase the environment of trust for your online visitors, it just takes a little forethought and some small changes.

Building trust for your online visitors cannot be achieved by just a single action. Trust is achieved by many little actions you take throughout your website which when taken together as a whole, gives users a sense of stability, honesty and legitimacy for your business and services you provide.

The good news is that only a few website owners focus on building trust in the minds of their visitors. So, if you do it well, it can become a real and sustainable advantage for your business and you can get one over your competitors straight away.

Here are 12 simple steps you can take to get started.

• Your website design is the first impression.
  Make sure it is professional and even more important relevant to the subject matter.
• Navigation must be intuitive.
  If visitors can’t find what they are looking for easily, they will question your competence in providing what they want.
• People buy from People.
  Make the website personal by giving it its own tone and voice.
• Follow the HEART rule of creating online content.
  HEART stands for Honest, Exclusive, Accurate, Relevant and Timely.
• Build Empathy.
  Use language that is appropriate to the audience.
• Regularly add new content to your site.
  It shows that the business is alive and kicking.
• Check ALL links.
  Doubts will quickly form in your visitors’ minds if links don’t work or, worse still, take them to error pages.
• Good grammar and spelling matter.
  Errors give the impression of sloppiness and carelessness.
• Don’t put down, curse or insult competitors.
  It’s unprofessional.
• Don’t Sell, Sell, Sell
  Focus on building your long-term reputation, not on making quick sales.
• Provide Content People will Like.
  Write articles for humans, not search engines.
• Make your ‘About’ Page Personal and Comprehensive.
  It plays an important part in making visitors feel comfortable that real people are behind the site.

The last tip is to keep your website up to date.

Ensure that you are continually improving your trustworthiness in the eyes of your clients and visitors.

Every time you go to a website, ask yourself whether you trust it or not. Then ask yourself why you have formed the opinion you have – and adjust your own website.

Trust is a way to “reduce the risk” in the eyes of your clients. Make sure you live up to it and they will keep coming back for more – time and time again!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

When a small business installs Wordpress on their web host, one of the very first things I suggest they do is install a plugin called “dofollow”.

There is a whole lot of “hoo-hah” on the web about nofollow comments – so what is it all about?


In essence, “nofollow” was supposed to be a means of preventing spam comments affecting Google’s rankings. Basically, if a blog has “nofollow” set on their comments, it means that if I were to leave a comment and link back to my website, Google will theoretically not “count” that link when working out the page rank for my website page.

Why is this important?

Page rank is (again theoretically!) supposed to be one of the parameters in the calculation Google uses to determine where your website is placed in their search listings.

The better the page rank, the more highly Google rates your content, so your website page should (theoretically!) be listed higher in Google’s listings. So if I am choosing places to spend my time and leave comments in a manner which is going to increase my own website’s ranking, I will obviously choose somewhere my links are counted.

Why all the “theoreticals”?

Well, all of this is theory. Google’s calculations (algorithms) are very closely guarded. No-one really knows exactly how it all works.

Some very experienced people therefore make “educated guesses” when looking at the results.

But – not all may be what it seems!

I have seen nofollow comment links show up in places where it would indicate they ARE counted.

Small Business Websites Should TURN OFF nofollow

In any case, for our purpose (small business websites), the reason to use turn off nofollow is different and really important.

Small business websites should be encouraging as much interaction as possible from their website visitors. One way of doing this is to set comments to “dofollow”.

Spam can be controlled using Akismet (a plugin which comes with every Wordpress installation) and moderation.

Having a website which encourages more people to comment is great! If you haven’t already worked this out – Google loves fresh content.

Guess what comments are?

Fresh content – that you haven’t had to create yourself!

Encourage your website visitors to leave comments – good and bad! – on all your updates.

And definitely install the plugin called “dofollow”.