How Turn Your Visitors Into Quality Leads

Converting "Traffic" to "Leads"

There are many different factors that must be considered when developing a successful website and online marketing campaign. A few of the factors that need to be considered are the following- Graphical Layout, Web Design, Relative Content, Logical Layout, Exposure, and Non-Intrusive Lead Generation.

Below is a brief description of each of these factors and what to look for to determine if you have all these factors working for you.

Graphical Layout-

The graphical layout of your site would be the graphical details of your site working together to create the right mood and visual appeal. Photos displayed on your site should be crisp high quality images. Web surfers in general respond better to uncluttered sites with readily available information that they are looking for.

Did you know that the colors of your website have a huge affect on how your website visitors perceive your site and services?

Careful consideration must be taken when selecting the color schemes for your site. The color combinations that you use invoke mood. If you set the proper "mood" for your website you will increase the click through rates, visit durations, and ultimately the amount of inquiries you get from your site.

Web Design-

How your site is "put-together" is another important aspect of your website. The way your site is programmed effects site load times, picture load times, cross-browser compatibility, search engine optimization, and the flexibility that you have to update your website.

Did you know that websites with a load time of 8 seconds or more lose 1/3 of their visitors?

Sites with slow load times can cause you to loose your visitors as quickly as they found you. If you are selecting a website provider, ask for examples of other clients sites, take note of how fast their website and pages load.

Cross-browser compatibility-

Another way you can loose visitors, through poor programming, is due to browser compatibility issues. Having a site that is not cross-compatible means that some of the visitors that come to your site will not be able to view it if they are using some other browser such as Firefox, Netscape, Opera. Not considering details such as this can cost you a lot of lost traffic and revenue.

Search engine optimization-

Many of today's real estate websites lack in this area. Designers are creating elaborate visually appealing sites that will never rank in the search engines because they are just one big image, slapped together in Photoshop and placed on the web. In order to compete in the search engines, your web designer better have some knowledge of how to optimize your site. Your site should use actual text whenever possible, keep the text images to minimum. Images will increase your sites load times and search engines cannot not "read" the text contained within an image. Proper meta-tags should always be used, even though all search engines do not place as high importance on them, as in the past.

Flexibility-

The simple fact is, most people who are interested in developing a website are not web designers, nor do they want to put forth the extreme time and effort necessary to learn. With that being said, it is important that every site owner have flexibility to access and easily make changes or additions to their website. Keeping current information on your website is the best way to keep visitors checking back to your website. Going through overloaded web designers to get the simplest changes made can become cumbersome and aggravating, as well as quite costly. Select a site provider that will give you simple tools to make changes to your website.

Relative Content-

We have discussed the visual and technical aspects of web design. The next big factor in generating leads from your website's traffic, would be "content relevance". One of the quickest ways to loose a visitor is to not have the information they are looking for readily available. The biggest thing you can do to increase the "viewing value" of your website, is to add detailed pages with multiple properly optimized photos. Content relevant to your sites theme will hold your visitors longer, as well as help you in the search engines for a wider range of keywords. If you are unable to easily develop a lot of your own content, RSS feeds are a great way to supplement fresh, new, constantly changing content to your site.

Logical Layout-

You can have tons of relative content, visual appeal, good ranking and still have horrible results because of a poor navigational layout. An overly complex site may make it difficult for your visitors to find the information they are looking for. Remember to K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple stupid). As a general rule it should not take more than 2-3 clicks to get to any bit of information on your website, from the homepage. If your information is hard to find, it is almost as bad as not offering it at all.

Exposure-

Simply put "no exposure=no leads". You can have the most elaborate and beautifully laid out website in the world, but if it cannot be found in the search engines- it's worthless. Always remember "visually appealing does not always = leads". A successful website is a delicate balance of all the factors mentioned in this article. Here are a few different methods of getting exposure for your website, to start generating revenue- natural search engine ranking, driving outside traffic to your website via marketing materials, pay-per-click.

Natural ranking is the most preferable method of exposure (and should be the main goal of every website). This is achieved through a website with proper on-page and off-page optimization.

Another way to expose your site is to drive outside traffic to your site thru marketing materials such as business cards, flyers, newspaper ads, billboards, commercials, and signs. This can be somewhat effective, but is only suggested to supplement the visitors you should be getting from your natural search engine results.

Pay-per-click is a good way to drive immediate traffic to your website, supplement your natural search engine rankings, as well as target smaller keywords and less popular searches that your site may not be optimized for. Always start off slow with your pay-per-click program, so that you can "fine tune" your cost-per-click, as well as make sure your generating enough revenue from your site to justify paying for clicks.

Lead Generation-

You can supply the information, generate traffic, hold the traffics' attention, but that does NOT create a lead for you. The simple fact is, generating leads is more than just supplying a phone number or e-mail address on the home page of your website.

Websites can be the perfect platform for generating information requests, offering free value services, and offering a variety of other information requests where your visitors expect you to contact them. Slapping your visitors in the face with an "insert your e-mail here" form on every page is a poor way to generate leads. Well developed lead generation tools are non-threatening devices, and will not run off your visitors. They are simply another page of your site that allow your visitors to request services or information.

It is important that you make an informed decision when choosing a website company. Choose a company that will get all the factors working for you.

Jeremy Futch
VP/Marketing Director
RapidListings
Real Estate Websites
www.rapidlistings.com

Starting Salary and Income Ranges for Pharmaceutical Drug Sales Representatives

When I was a pharmaceutical drug sales representative, I remember that one of the doctors I called on had asked me how much money drug representatives make. When I told him the different salary ranges, he was very surprised, especially with what the high performers can make in this field.

The fact is that overall incomes of pharmaceutical drug sales representatives can come from a few different sources including base salary, sales bonuses and other benefits.

Base Salary

The main component of income for a drug representative of course is the base salary. The starting salary for recent university or college graduates with no prior experience in sales could be in the mid $30,000s to $40,000s range. Those with a few years of related work experience could negotiate to the higher end of this range.

Base salaries typically increase quite well with years of service to a pharmaceutical company. After several years, the base salary of a drug sales representative could be in the $50,000s to $70,000s range. Promotions to specialist hospital pharmaceutical sales positions will often result in an even higher range.

Sales Bonuses for Good Performance

Most pharmaceutical sales forces reward their drug reps with financial sales bonuses if certain quotas are achieved or exceeded. Depending on how much sales quotas or budgets are exceeded, the bonus component of a drug rep’s overall earnings can be very significant. This is how the big money in pharmaceutical sales is made.

High performers can earn bonuses that push their overall earnings to six figures. On top of that, the top pharmaceutical sales representatives can win special vacation trips as part of performance incentives.

Company Car and Other Perks

The use of the company car and other perks such as excellent health benefits will amount to the equivalent of several thousand dollars so these should also be taken into account. The cost of a recent model car and all the expenses associated with it such as fuel plus repairs do add up. All of these auto expenses are covered by the company. This is a very nice perk when considering that in most other jobs, car expenses come out from one's own pocket.

So when evaluating job offers from pharmaceutical companies, new sales reps who have never been in the industry should not worry too much about starting salaries. Income will go up significantly if performance is there. It is much more important to get the sales experience first and then in the future, there is always the option to move to other pharmaceutical companies if the overall earning potentials are greater elsewhere.

Building Trust For Lifetime Success

Trust.

One word.

One very powerful word that can increase both first time and repeat sales to an unlimited degree.

Trust.

What is it? Why is it so important? How do you get it?

Confidence in you from your cutomers, builds relationships and as a result, more sales, and through excellent customer service.

That's the short and sweet of it.

Now, how about a little more meat to it.

What is trust and why is it so important?

Definition: confidence in a person or thing because of the qualities one perceives or seems to perceive in him or it. (Webster's)

The confidence that any visitor or potential customer has about your business, service or product is the foundation of present and future success.

Before any potential customer even enters your site for the first time, there's this underlying feeling of distrust. It's automatic.

Either they're new to the Internet, received a poor product or service from a competitor or have already been scammed a few times.

Your first contact is either in some ad you placed in an ezine, classified, message board, banner, search engine description or some other form of advertising. Was it full of hype or were you honest in what your product or service delivers?

Once that customer enters your site and they don't see what was stated in your ad...........

goodbye, you just lost a sale and probably a lifetime customer.

If you can't be honest in your ad, then you're pobably not going to be with your product or service. So, why should that visitor stick around only to be disappointed or scammed again? Would you?

Do you know what happens when that visitor leaves your site? They email an ezine editor, friend, or leave a nasty little post on a message board about their not so wonderful experience with you, and you're credibility is gone.

How do you build that trust?

Believe it or not, it's not that hard. It does take effort and it's an ongoing process, not something you do once and forget about it.

Be Honest.

The importance of building trust really shows through here. Honesty should be at the front of your mind when you write up your ads and web site copy. Especially when that advertisement includes something free. Don't use free just to get visitors, your trust and credibility takes a hard nose dive when the "freebie" is junk.

Only write exactly what your product or service delivers and leave the hype and exageration out.

Don't Hype

I always skip over the ads that actually promise truckloads of money with little or no effort. Come on.

BIG BOLD HEADLINES are a sure sign of hype to nth degree. Promises that are impossible, like the truckloads of cash, are always a big giveaway. If your product doesn't have it or do it, then don't promise it.

Follow Up

If you've done everything right so far and you are making sales, don't forget about the customer. Follow up with a thank you letter. Add a special bonus that they didn't know about. Ask them if they like your product or service. Ask if there is anything else you can help them with.

Bottom line is, build a relationship without trying to always sell them something. Talk to them, not at them or down to them. Be their friend and actually help them out when they need it, if you can.

Use Testimonials on your site.

When you followed up with your customers and asked if they liked your product, then ask if you can use their comments on your site. Of course, you'll also include their name, email and website address.

Testimonials build enormous instant credibility. If a visitor to your site sees that there are already satisified customers, then you deliver what you say you will and you've kept in touch with that customer. Plus the name and email also keeps the visitor comfortable as they know that they can get in touch with that person to verify what they had to say was, in fact, true.

As you can see, building trust isn't all that hard.

Just be sincere. Be personable. Be available.

If you follow these few rules to help you gain trust and credibility among both your site's visitors and your peers, then you'll gain both lifetime customers of your product and lifetime relationships with some really good people.

You can find additional info at the following links:

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Work at Home - How to Choose a Home Based Business and Make Money Without Getting Scammed Part 2

ncreasingly people work out of their home to supplement their income every single day. Home based businesses offer a level freedom and flexibility unmatched by traditional means. This is a $430 Billion a year industry, that's more than the consumer industry, food industry and the pharmaceutical industry combined. By the time you finish reading this sentence someone new would have entered into a Home Based Business venture.

Don't buy into the hype, you will fail unless you go into this with a concise plan of action, the right mindset and start making the smart decisions from beginning. You've all heard of doing it right the first time. This begins with picking a work at home job or home based business opportunity that fits you, not the one claiming to make the most money in the shortest period of time. I would know, I've been down that road.

To start you out in the right direction here are a few work at home offers to avoid. Beware of paid survey and data entry scams. These seem to be all the rage these days. They promise an easy buck of course, but the facts are that very few people make any money filling out surveys and those that do make money make very little.

Here's how paid surveys work in a nut shell. You are paying for a list of companies who supposedly would pay you $1-$15 for filling out surveys which are sent to you by email. The companies on these lists are just as easily found by doing a search engine query yourself. You now have to sign up with each individual company on the list which does take a lot of time. Each company wants in-depth demographic data about you and your household under the guise of only sending you surveys you qualify for. You start receiving surveys almost instantly, though not all have an offer of cash most are points for various sweepstakes. The surveys that do offer cash initially would more than often enough claim that you did not quality for the cash after you filled out the survey and may then offer you points towards prizes and such.

Just about now you would be wondering why you had to fill out the demographic data if they were not going to send you qualified surveys. That question would soon be answered when your telephone starts ringing off the hook with sales calls conveniently geared towards you and your lifestyle, along with your junk mail intake going through the roof.

Another heavily promoted scam is data entry jobs. The technique itself is not the scam but more the language used to promote it. These are promoted as get rich by doing simple data entry; this is far from the truth. These Data Entry Jobs are simply affiliate programs, you are told to write ads promoting various products and services in hopes of getting a commission from any possible sales. This has gotten so bad that Google among other payment providers have been actively canceling owners and promoters of so called "data entry jobs" from their system.

You can find additional info at the following links:

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How to Make Money with Arts and Crafts

I have been to many arts and craft fairs and festivals in my life and there’s on thing I notice in all of them. They are busy. If you pay attention to what’s going on at these fairs and festivals, you’ll notice that people buy these crafts. I thought to myself “Why can’t I do this?” Well, guess what, I can do this and I do.

Let me tell you how I got started in doing arts and crafts. After I visited many of the arts and crafts fairs and festivals, I went home and decided get some e-books on making arts and crafts. The first e-book I got was about soap making. I got this e-book because at the last arts and crafts festival I was at, the soaps was the biggest sellers. I read the e-book and learned how to make soap. I got to work on making soap for the nest arts and craft festival. I didn’t want to make a lot of soap at first for fear of not selling it all. Well, I made about 100 bars of soap and asked a friend if I can sell at his book. He said yes. I ended up selling 75 bars of soap. I made a nice little profit from selling the soap.

After that arts and crafts festival, I went home and got a few more e-books. I got about gel candle making, bath salt making and perfume making. I read all the e-books and got busy with making some more soap, and I started to make perfume, bath salt and gel candles. With the research that I did by going to the arts and crafts fairs and festival, I found out what was hot to sell now.

Anyway, I went back to another arts and crafts festival and ended up getting my own booth. I ended up selling all but 10 bars of soap, selling all the bath salt I made, selling all but 1 gel candle and I sold all perfume I made. That weekend I made about $500 with only putting in $100 in products. I was happy. So I went home and ended up get another e-book. I got how to make a wind chime e-book. Well, to make this long story short, I read the e-book made some wind chimes for another arts and crafts festival. I ended up selling all of the wind chimes.

You can find additional info at the following links:

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Travel eBusiness Models - Travelocity

Travelocity.com / Travelocity.co.uk is owned and operated by Sabre Holdings – a products, distribution and technology solutions company focused on the travel industry. Their consumer direct and business direct side of the business is Travelocity. Travelocity has several million registered users and booked $4.9 billion worth of travel business in 2004. [Sabre-Holdings.com]

At the time of writing, Travelocity is the second most popular brand in the world in the Internet travel marketplace. Travelocity.com is also the 386th most popular website in the world, whilst the British version, Travelocity.co.uk is the 4884th most popular. [Ranking.com]

Travelocity was established in 1996 as a subsidiary or Sabre Holdings and was the first travel website that allowed users to browse, reserve and book travel-related products online. [Answers.com]

Initially Travelocity appeared to be extremely ‘community orientated’ – regularly arranging offline meetings and presentations for ‘do-it-yourself travellers’.

In 1998 Travelocity changed direction and became more ‘travel deals orientated’. They did this by incorporating the availability to book flights, hotels and car hire directly from their home page. [Archive.org]

In 2000 Travelocity became more aware of the need to market themselves as a brand. This resulted in 2002 with a complete re-design of the website to make it more user-friendly and encourage return visitors.

Travelocity’s present day website (designed in 2004) ‘look and feel’ is starting to rely more on a higher percentage of graphics. This offers website users a more visually appealing experience, although it does rely on the user being more likely to have a slightly faster Internet connection than they used to. [Archive.org]

Travelocity Position

Travelocity.com is a fun, friendly, informative, useful and easy to use website. In addition to this it is professional and reliable. This demonstrates that Travelocity is comfortable to try and be a ‘love all, serve all’ Internet Travel Portal.

Travelocity is however a company with an aggressive stance. It does not form strategic alliances with other companies in order to promote affiliate-marketing programmes. In addition, it regularly seeks out potential competitors to buy.

In 2000, Travelocity purchased another early web travel company, Preview Travel, [Answers.com] whilst in 2002 it purchased Site59.com – a New York based travel business that specialise in late bookings.

On 12th May 2005 it was announced that Travelocity had agreed to buy lastminute.com for £577m – creating Europe's biggest online travel retailer. [Silicon.com] Part of the reason why Travelocity wants to gain dominance quickly in the Internet Travel Marketplace and grow by acquisition is that it understands that the market is growing and evolving quickly.

It wants to be the first choice in the majority of consumers’ minds for future travel purchases. This is therefore one of their major strengths. Whether or not their decision not to evolve by forming strategic alliances may thwart this aggressive growth strategy is yet to be seen.

To a certain degree, opportunities within the Internet travel marketplace for Travelocity are still limitless. They can still expand to cover more countries Internationally, they can still improve upon their overall marketshare and they can still expect both Internet users and the amount of Internet users willing to book online to increase significantly.

Travelocity Core Competences

Travelocity are striving towards ensuring that their brand is the most recognised and trusted available in the Internet Travel marketplace. Their most important core competency is to offer an integrated, easy-to-use and intuitive website that keeps people wanting to come back to it much more that any competitor in the field.

Travelocity Competitive Advantage

Travelocity have recently introduced their Bill of Rights onto their website:
Customers have the right toÂ…

1) Get what you booked
2) The best overall value in travel
3) Accurate and objective information upfront

4) Find what you’re looking for quickly and easily

5) A straightforward presentation of your options

6) Speak with someone and get help anytime

7) Be inspired by your travel company

[Travelocity.com]

These seven key customer issues have been highlighted to demonstrate why Travelocity believe that they are better than the competition. Travelocity want their brand to represent trust, reliability and service and therefore define what they believe their competitive advantage to be.

The Merchant Model Conclusion

The merchant model is without doubt the most competitive Internet business model for the travel industry. The two main worldwide competitors – Expedia and Travelocity have chosen to focus upon price and service level differentiation respectively. It could be argued that Expedia however focus on their value-adding activities – their existing infrastructure in order to derive their core competencies of efficiency and price. Travelocity on the other hand rely upon their ‘bill of rights’ core competency in order to drive their ‘value adding activities’.

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