According to Google’s official blog, the new search indexing system was built because of the way the web is growing. With the advent of videos, images, news and real-time updates as well as higher user expectations, it has to keep up with such evolution of the web.

While the old index had several layers, of which the main layer or web Google needs to analyze every couple of weeks, Caffeine analyzes the web in smaller portions, updates its search index on a continuous basis, globally and also index web pages on an enormous scale. Hence, fresher information will be available to the public, and much faster too.

Mashable did a test on the new Google Caffeine, taking the developer version and comparing it to not only the current version of Google, but also to Bing as well. While the test was not scientifically correct, it found that the new Google was indeed faster, relies more on keyword strings to produce better results, and it is on par with Bing to get real-time information on breaking events.

Having said these, how is Google Caffeine going to affect your website rankings? Mainly, the speed at which Google will be able to update rankings due to website changes will be much faster. You or your SEO consultant will need to make sure that your website’s design is clean-cut, has no broken links, no spam elements or invisible text in the background, and the navigation from one page to another is well organized. You must also review the social bookmarks in your website. The more bookmark links you have to and from trusted websites, the better it is for your website. Lastly, sites with fresher content or updated news every day will be ranked much higher. This still holds true for Caffeine, as it does with the old Google index.

Overall, Google Caffeine is not going to have a huge effect on how you conduct your SEO, although it varies from site to site. Definitely, Caffeine will only get better as more updated features are developed, and while we wait to see that happen, just continue to do what you have always been doing for your website, and more aggressively – link building and content organizing – and the result will be a better experience for your users.

Meanwhile, if you want to know in detail how the old Google index works, here is a graphical representation, thanks to ppcblog.

1. The first Glance
Visitors to your website usually look at the top left hand corner of any website. Therefore, it is important to put your essential information there, such as your offers and promotions, and how your customers can benefit. Some visitors are at your website only for a little while, and it is vital to engage them as long as possible, or better still, engage them until they are ready to make a purchase. You should be able to let your visitors know what you are selling or offering for services right away, instead of having them search for it. Be mindful of how long your site takes to load too. It might just annoy some visitors who are inpatient.

2. Navigation
If your customers are looking for more information, they will loiter longer on your website to search for it. In this case, make sure that your information are easy to find. Place your information in the usual places, and make it very obvious what your visitors need to click on in order to find what they need. Never have more than 5 choices in your main navigation. Although creativity is a plus, follow the rules strictly when it comes to navigation and usability.

3. Contact Information
Will your customers, or rather, the search engines such as Yahoo or Google be able to find you when they need you? You must put your contact information very clearly and accurately so that they can be easily found. Usually, visitors will visit your website a few times before they decide to purchase, and when they do, make sure it is easy for them to contact you. It should be easy for them to complete an order through your website or get more information. Include a clear call to action.

4. Above the Fold Focus
Most of the time, your visitors will not bother to scroll down your page, unless you have already convinced them, in your first few lines, that it’s worth their while to do so. Hence, make sure your most vital information and propositions are above the fold. Visitors who have reached your FAQs page or your blog will be interested enough to continue to read what they have found.

5. Inviting Content
Give your visitors something they can look forward to every time they visit your website, and this means updating your website frequently. You need to give them something of value so that they will return, and this can be a blog, your latest events, or your new products or services.

6. Well-Organized Pages
Make sure that your page layout is clear, concise, and is able to give your visitors exactly what they want without them having to search for it. Visualise yourself as the customer, and try navigating your own website. Decide what you want the customer to know, and plan before you write, so that you can be sure  of coherent paragraphs.

7. Visual Appeal
While content is very important, so is an attractive website. Research on the colours that will work well for your target audience, and remember to leave some open space so that your site does not look too cluttered. Engage a professional website designer if you can afford because it is worth it.

8. Portraying Sincerity and Trustworthiness
People usually buy when they trust the supplier, and if you can ensure that your website is trustworthy, people will be more likely to buy from you. The search engines also base your web rankings on how trustworthy they think your pages are, so it is important to take this into consideration when you build your website.

9. Social Media Functions
Social media such as Facebook, DIGG and de.li.cious are getting more and more popular, and you may want to be sure each page on your website has a button that enables your visitors to share it with their friends easily. This will help you promote your products and services.

10. A Polished Finish
Finally, before you promote your website, make sure all your information are correct, and all your links are working. Check your spelling, layout, and grammar, in different browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, the three most popular browsers nowadays. Visitors will have more faith in you if you have an error-free and up-to-date website.

We have reviewed Facebook in detail, and the following are some ways that it could make your business experience better sales and profits.

1. Facebook Pages
Facebook Pages give businesses their own profiles on the social networking site, giving your business or brand an identity on Facebook. With such a Page, interested fans or customers can become “fans” of your business or brand Page, and when they do, all their friends will see this and perhaps become interested too. You are able to store photos, videos, company information, and also custom applications on your Page. All the activities which you post on your Page will be posted to your mini feed for all your friends to see.

2. Groups
Groups on Facebook are similar to Pages, but these are meant to be built around a group of people rather than an individual business or brand. There are no “Become a Fan” feature here, and groups do not share as much information with the users’ friends as users interact.

Many groups on Facebook can provide useful information and professional connections for your business. Each group features a Wall (like a guestbook with messages) and threaded discussion lists. Rather than trying to search for groups, watch the groups that your friends are joining, and if you find them interesting for your business, join them!

3. Advertising
Facebook has an advertising platform that enables businesses to specify a particular demographic group to target for their products and services, and then broadcast their advertisements to this particular group. You can also choose to narrow your target audience by age, sex, gender, the groups or fan Pages they join, or even specific keywords.

4. Applications
You can ask your developers to write software for the Applications in Facebook. This can help promote your business on Facebook. Applications give you full power to say or promote anything you want about your business, and use the social tie-ins provided by Facebook to do this. For example, Visa created the “Visa Business Network” application which extracts information about users and allows them to better network with other small business owners. They even integrated with Facebook advertising by offering those that install the application a credit towards advertising on Facebook.

On a personal level, if you blog, twitter, or read feeds, there are Facebook apps available for all these services. If you have already used these tools professionally, you can integrate them into your Facebook page.

After you add the respective app, you simply do what you were already doing and let the app do the work. You can see the Twitter updates from your Facebook contacts without necessarily following their updates in Twitter itself. If your business’ blog is on WordPress, you can add the WordPress app and your posts will automatically be pushed to your Facebook profile, along with recent comments. If you don’t host your blog with WordPress.com, you can easily use the built-in Notes application to post your blog feed as you publish. It will let your contacts know through your mini-feed when you have posted a new entry.

5. Polls
Facebook Polls are excellent for marketers looking to get a quick answer about a particular feature they would like to implement, or just to find out information and opinions from a specific demographic group. 

6. Facebook Connect
This feature enables a business website to easily integrate with Facebook. Businesses can integrate Facebook into users’ login process, retrieve users’ friend information, and even post data back to users’ mini feed so all their friends can see their activities. Learn more about this feature here.

7. Others
Here are several other ways to reinforce your Facebook business experience:

1. Post professional or business photos to reinforce your brand.
2. Post your newsletter subscription information and archives somewhere in your profile.
3. Add your Facebok URL to your email signature and any marketing collateral (business cards, leaflets, etc.) so prospects can learn more about you.
4. Post business updates on your wall. Focus on business activities, such as “Working with ABC Company on project K.”
5. Share useful articles and links to presentation and valuable resources that interest customers and prospects on your wall, to establish credibility.
6. Before traveling, check contacts locations so you can meet with those in the city where you’re heading.
7. Research prospects before meeting or contacting them.
8. Upload your contacts from your email client to find more connections.
9. Use “Find Friends” for suggestions of other people you may know to expand your network even further.
10. Look for mutual contacts on your contacts’ friend lists.
11. Find experts in your field and invite them as a guest blogger on your blog or speaker at your event.
12. Market your products by posting discounts and package deals.
13. Share survey or research data to gain credibility.
14. “Suggest Friends” to clients and colleagues — by helping them, you establish trust.

15. Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present.
16. Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.
17. Join network, industry and alumni groups related to your business.
18. Use search to find groups and fan pages related to your business by industry, location and career.

With so many possibilities, if you haven’t already use Facebook for your business, consider giving it a try using some of the tools mentioned above. Although this networking tool still has a long way to go, they will continue to grow too alongside your business. Have fun!

People may have different reasons for using image search engines. There are teenagers looking for pictures of their teen idols, iTunes users looking for an obscure cover of a 1960’s album, and bloggers looking for an image to use for their blog (in violation of all copyright regulations, of course!).

There will also be shoppers looking for pictures of cars, furniture, holiday destinations or clothing. If you are selling products or services it is the shoppers you are looking for. However, all of these persons may be potential future customers or subscribers. And they may become regular readers. You want that!

Note also that all the major search engines now include image search listings in regular web search results. If you have optimized your images correctly, you can get yourself a very attractive top 10 position by tagging your images correctly.

Help the search engine understand what the image is about. If you want your images to rank higher than others for a particular keyword phrase, you need to help the search engine understand what the picture is depicting.

You can do this by the following means:

1. Use descriptive file names

Make sure that the file name describes the image with keyword phrases searchers are likely to use.

Bad: www.yoursite.com/images/photo-356789.jpg
Good: www.yoursite.com/images/row-boat-by-lake.jpg
Good: www. yoursite/images/red-volkswagen-beetle-car.jpg

2. Use the HTML ALT tags actively

(If you do not know what that is, make sure you use the description field in your blog or content publishing software when adding an image).

Bad: <img src=”http://www.yoursite.com/images/6789stp.jpg” alt=”Image”>.

Good: <img src=”http://www.yoursite.com/images/young-woman-pc-reading-news.jpg” alt=”Young woman reading news on PC”>.

If you have a series of images, use variation:

“Blond woman reading news on PC”
“Black woman twittering on a Mac”
“Asian man with laptop on table”

Both photographers and webmasters are notoriously bad at using words for feelings, abstracts and the like — even if people do search for images that may be used to illustrate non-concrete topics. This is where you can gain a competitive advantage.

“Happy woman using PC to search the Web”
“Moody and cranky girl”
“Green background texture”

3. Add descriptive text close to the picture

In order to determine what the picture is depicting, the search engines will also look at the text close to the image.

Good: An increasing number of women are found to be searching the web on their PC when looking for news.

<img src=”http://www.yoursite.com/images/young-woman-pc-reading-news.jpg” alt=”Young woman reading news on PC”>.

This text may also be used by the search engine as a snippet that describes the image.

4. Keep the most important images close to the top headline or title

Embedding the image close to the top headline (which should be very similar to the TITLE-field) will increase your chances of having your picture in Google News, as it helps Google match the content of the article with the image.

It is a fair guess that the same principle applies to Image Search.

5. Put the photos within articles and blog posts

The search engines have a tendency of ignoring images in sidebars and other places where they can be interpreted as ads or navigational elements.

Images in articles and blog posts have the greatest chance of success.

There are also other technical issues to keep in mind:

6. Do not add code to break out of frames

The Bing Blog recommends you to watch out for frame breaking:

“Sites that attempt to break frames make it more difficult for the image to display correctly within search. Make sure you’re testing your site against the search engines.”

If you don’t know what we are talking about, you are probably in the clear.

7. Use images that read well when thumbnailed

Use high quality pictures with high contrasts and clear, bright, colors. The search engines will generate small thumbnails to include in search engine results, and you want images that survive that reduction in file size.

If you are not a photographer yourself, you can buy royalt free high quality images from stock photo suppliers like Photos.com and Shutterstock for a reasonable price.

Google are looking for large size photos with good aspect ratios.

8. Make the photos accessible

Make sure that the directory that contains your images can be accessed by the search engine crawlers.

Check your robots.txt file or ask your IT people to do it for you.

9. Use the social photo sites

Upload some of your images to photo hosting sites like Flickr.com. Add links back to the relevant page on your site.

Flickr may generatate traffic on its own, and the search engines may also include Flickr images in their image search results.

Check how many pictures Google has indexed. To check what images Google has indexed from your site, use the following URL, replacing “yoursite.com” with your domain name: http://images.google.com/images?q=site:yoursite.com

Note that it normally takes longer for the search engines to index pictures than ordinary text content.

Source: Pandia Search Engine News

First, find a photograph of a picture that is compatible with your other chosen photographs. When you blend you must pre-visualize and feel the design.

Second, select a background then right click and select inverse to close on the subject. Background is preferably white.

Third, select the Move tool and click inside of the selection and drag it over to your desired image. Dragging will create a new layer on the new document which is a replica of the original selection.

Fourth, create a layer mask on the layer of the object you drag over. Click on Layer > add Layer Mask or click on the Add a Mask icon in the layers palette. Choose the linear gradient tool with foreground to transparent and black as the foreground color and swipe. The longer the swipes you create the smoother the blend will be. Gradient layer masking allows you to create professional blends.

To add more character to the final image, you can create a gradient fill layer on the adjustment/fill layer icon on the bottom of the layers palette. Choose the settings in the dialog box. To see scale the possible output, change the blending modes and opacity. After those easy steps, you can now have a glimpse of your blended masterpiece!

To be properly guided, you can view rubylith by toggling the “|” key or going on the channels palette onto the layer mask channel. Click the eye on and off. For the beginners, the rubylith will teach you the right thing to do. To bring back your original pixels on the layer mask, select white but you can use any level of grey in between.

To practice with blending images, what you are advised to do, is take a picture of a subject and drag it over to different backgrounds like sunset, beach or other significant backgrounds. Make a good layer mask to cover the rough edges and put the blending mode on screen, lighten or overlay. You can use layer masking if you did not make selections beforehand. You can also use the star gradient tool to create starburst effect. Open your mind to other possibilities and enjoy the blending power of Photoshop!

Master The Basics Of Adobe Photoshop tutorials with the 2 Hour Easy To Use Adobe Photoshop tutorials for beginners.

1. Create a blog and submit it to free blog directories.
2. Submit your website address to the major search engines such as Google and Yahoo.
3. Optimize each page of your website for a particular keyword or search phrase.
4. Add a link in your email signature to your website.
5. Leave comments or feedback on other people’s blogs with a back link to your site.
6. Answer people’s questions on www.answers.yahoo.com.
7. Write a press release and submit it to the press releases sites on the web. 
8. Advertise your website in the appropriate category on CraigsList.com.
9. Provide a testimonial on a product/service that you have used in exchange for a back link to your site.
10. Make a custom 404 error pages for your website redirecting people to your home page.
11. Use PPC search engine advertising.
12. Add a “bookmark this site” or “Share this site” link on all pages of your website.
13. Have a tell-a-friend form on your site.
14. Send articles to ezines publishers that include a link to your website.
15. Give away a freebie to keep people coming back to your site.
16. Add an RSS feed to your blog.
17. Submit your site to any related niche directories on the net.
18. Participate in a banner or link exchange program.
19. Create a software program and give it away for free.
20. Purchase the misspellings or variations of your domain name, or those of your competitors.
21. Buy a domain name related to your site that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
22. Pass out business cards with your domain on them everywhere you go.
23. Start an affiliate program and let your affiliates send you visitors.
24. Start a page on social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace.
25. Submit a viral video to youtube.com, myspacetv.com, dailymotion.com, etc.
26. Conduct and publish surveys to your website.
27. Find joint venture partners that will send you traffic.
28. Start your own newsletter or ezines.
29. Use an autoresponder or email campaign to keep people coming back to your site.
30. Send a free copy of your product to other site owners in exchange for a product review.
31. Buy and use a memorable domain name.
32. Deep-link your webpages with high page ranks.
33. Submit reviews to Amazon for books and other products that you have read.
34. Use a traffic exchange.
35. Get referrals from similar but non-competing sites.
36. Create and sell a product with resell or giveaway rights.
37. Email your list. If you don’t have one, get one.
38. Participate in forums with page rank of 6 or higher, with an active link in your signature.
39. Ping your article’s website address using Pingomatic or Pingler.com.
40. Sell or place classified ads on www.eBay.com with a link to your site.
41. Post free classified ads on any of the sites that allow them with a link to your site.
42. Exchange reciprocal links with other related websites.
43. Network with other people at seminars or other live events.
44. Purchase advertising in popular newsletters or ezines.
45. Advertise on other product’s “thank you” pages.
46. Create a free eBook and list in on the “free eBook” sites.
47. Create a site map and include a link to the site map on every page of your website. 
48. Use hubsites such as Hubpages, Xomba and Squidoo to get more attention.
49. For SEO, use relevant keyword phrases (two to three words) rather than single keywords for your website.
50. Content is king, and most importantly, fresh content. Keep them updated.

You can download this free report called “Make Money with Digital Photography.” If you’re still undecided, this might change your mind. Here are 18 reasons why digital photography makes a great home career:

1. Minimum equipment required

To make money with digital photography, all you need are: a digital camera, a computer, and Internet access. In fact, you may already have all three.

2. No need for special training

Anybody who can take decent pictures can make money by selling digital photos. You don’t have to have formal training, or so many years of experience. You can be young or old, male or female.

3. Low start-up costs

Aside from the equipment required, you don’t need to make any other investments. This means you can get started immediately.

4. No need to leave home

If you like, you can do sell digital photographs completely from home. Yes, that includes taking photographs.

5. Money in your hard drive

You may already have pictures in your computer that you can sell right away. In fact, you should begin with those.

6. Make money when traveling

If you like to travel, you can make your trip pay for itself by taking pictures on your trip and selling them online.

7. Location independent business

You can have sell your digital photographs from anywhere, as long as you have your equipment (see number 1). This means you could be a nomad and still make a living.

8. Flexible hours

Work when you want, as much as you want. Do it full time or part time. It’s up to you!

9. No need to build websites

Although you’ll be selling digital photographs online, you absolutely don’t have to build a website – unlike other online marketers.

10. Stock photo sites do the marketing for you

You don’t have to do any marketing, either, because stock photo sites do it all for you. All you have to do is take high-quality photographs. (More on that in “Make Money with Digital Photography.”

11. No fees to sell online

You don’t have to pay any fees to sell in stock photo sites. It’s completely free to become a member and start selling your photos.

12. No need to set up a shopping cart

Again, stock photo sites take care of processing payments for your photographs. You will have to be able to accept payments from stock photo sites. A PayPal account should be enough.

13. Enhanced creativity

This business forces you to become more creative, such as in the way you choose the subjects of your pictures, to how you edit them.

14. Sharper photography skills

You have to improve your photography skills if you want to succeed in this business. The longer you keep at it, the better you’ll become.

15. Build your portfolio and expertise

Selling digital photos online helps build your reputation as a photographer. You can easily build a portfolio based on your best-selling pictures.

16. Profit from passion

You can easily combine this home business with a hobby or special interest you have. Because of the wide range of subjects that are in high demand, you don’t have to take pictures that you don’t care about.

17. Steady demand

As more and more stock photos are sold and bought, the demand for fresh photos increases. Marketers always want unique pictures for their materials, which further increases the demand for more digital photos.

18. It’s profitable

Because of low overhead costs, it’s easy to earn a full-time income from selling digital photography. University students are doing it, stay at home Moms are doing it, and you can do it too.

However, you have to know some insider secrets. Which types of photographs sell easily online? How do you avoid legal problems? How do you work with stock photo sites? How can you sell more photos?

You’ll find the answers in “Make Money with Digital Photography.” It’s completely free, so go and grab it now.

Using Save for Web

When your image is ready to be put onto your web page, select “Save for Web”… from the File menu. The “Save for Web” dialog appears:

This dialog box allows you to tell Photoshop how you’d like to optimize your graphic for the internet. You have the ability to select the file format to produce (GIF, JPEG or PNG), what size palette you’d like to use, how to cut down the colors to fit the chosen palette size, how much to dither the optimized image (if at all) and how much image quality to sacrifice in order to produce a smaller file size.

Image views

You will see four tabs above the image view pane on the left side of the screen. These options allow you to view the original image, the optimized version (this is the default), the original and optimized versions side-by-side (“2-Up”) and the original, optimized and two variations on the optimization all together (“4-Up”).

You can use the Zoom tool to zoom in and out of the image; the Hand tool to move the view around; and the Eyedropper tool to select a color from the image which can be used by various color options on the right of the dialog.

Presets

There are many options in the Save for Web dialog, and the choices here can be quite bewildering! Fortunately, there are lists of presets you can choose from to make it easier. Select the Settings: drop-down list, which is located just below the Cancel button, to bring up the list of presets

Three basic image formats exists in the presets – GIF, JPEG and PNG. The rule of thumb is to use JPEG’s for photos and GIF’s for all else. For a full guide on choosing the right image format.

Optimizing GIFs

If you’re creating a GIF you will want to start off with a preset such as GIF 32 Dithered, which works well for most GIFs. From there you can fine-tune the optimization to suit your needs.

Colours

This is where you choose the size of your GIF palette. A palette of 32 colors is often sufficient for web images, but if your image has loads of detail and looks too fuzzy/blurry/banded with 32, up it to 64, 128 or 256. If your image has very few colors in to start with, or doesn’t look too bad with fewer colors, select 16, 8, 4 or even 2! This will make the GIF file size smaller.

Optimizing JPEGs

If you’re creating a JPEG you will want to start off with a preset such as JPEG Medium, which typically works well for most JPEGs. From there you can fine-tune the optimization to suit your needs. Some of the important optimization options are as follows:

Quality

Two ways to alter the compression quality include the Low/Medium/High/Maximum list (for quick access) and the Quality slider (for fine control). The lower the quality setting, the more blurry and bitty the JPEG will appear, but the resulting file size will be smaller.

Progressive

A progressive JPEG is similar to an interlaced GIF. The image loads gradually on the Web page – a low res image first and then the full, high-resolution image. Again, this is great for keeping your viewers on slow modems from getting bored, but it does mean a slightly larger file size. Please note that older browsers don’t support progressive JPEGs.

Matte

If your Photoshop image has transparent areas, you can fill them with a specified matte color with this drop-down box.

Optimizing PNGs

Your options for optimizing a PNG-24 are much the same as those for optimizing a JPEG. Similarly, the options for optimizing a PNG-8 are very similar to those for optimizing a GIF. See the GIF and JPEG sections above for details.

And, if you really can’t be bothered…
…you can always allow Photoshop to optimize the image for you! Select the little arrow just to the right of the Settings… box and select Optimize to File Size.

In the dialog that pops up, choose Auto Select GIF/JPEG then enter your desired file size. Click on OK and Photoshop will do the rest for you! If you’re not pleased with the results you can tweak the settings as described in the sections above, or just choose a slightly larger file size and try again.

Saving the image

Once you’re happy with your optimized image, click OK to save it to disk. The file saved will be a copy of your original image, unless you specifically overwrite the original with the optimized file.

People search online for information and will look to you, as a subject matter expert, to provide it to them. Every week (or whatever schedule works) provides an opportunity to build on this, while reinforcing your brand.

2. Build a relationship with the people on your list

It’s common knowledge that people like to buy from people they like. By using ezines to connect with readers in their homes, you can develop a relationship of familiarity and trust. Be sure to share a little about yourself or your company in every issue, whether it is an anecdote, event, or employee spotlight.

3. Keep in touch with prospects and clients

Consideration should be given to eventually developing two ezines: one for prospects and one for clients, as each require different information. This is a great way to notify your readers of weekly specials or upcoming product launches, offer new articles or customer stories, and provide links (or urls) to updated FAQs, blogs and splash pages.

4. Drive traffic to your website or blog

As noted in #3, remember to call attention to new blog posts or other changes to your website with links directly to those pages. Remind readers of your online newsletter archives. Promote special sales (maybe with discount coupon codes only for subscribers) with a link to the sales page. Use links to turn your ezines and newsletters into “silent salespersons”– driving traffic to your website and building your lists around the clock.

5. Build content on your website

Make a habit to adding your ezines and newsletters to your website in an archive area. This serves a several important purposes: o Visitors can read an issue or two to determine if your ezine will be of interest to them, which could help to increase sign-ups and potential sales. If you optimize your article placements, you will not only make your website “meatier”, but you’ll also bring new traffic from the search engines.

6. Get feedback from your readers

Make it easy for you to stay in touch with prospects and customers and vice versa. Ask them to take action and comment on your articles and offers. Conduct polls and surveys. Start a “Letters to the Editor” column in your ezine. Feedback allows you to fine tune your messages, target your marketing, and expand your product line. It’s also great for relationship building!

7. Develop an information product

If you deliver your newsletter once a week and include two articles, at the end of a year you’ll have 104 well-researched articles in your portfolio! Pick the best-of-the-best and turn them into a bonus ebook for opting-in to your list, submit to download sites to build your list, or sell in PDF-format!

8. Grow your mailing list

Let your ezine subscribers work for you. Be sure to remind your readers that it’s okay to forward your newsletter to anyone they’d like. In addition, it’s important to include sign-up instructions for those who received your ezine from viral marketing methods. A simple line titled, “Get Your Own Copy of XXXXXX”, with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page is all it takes!

9. Gather demographic data

By offering surveys, feedback forms, and niche reports, you’ll be able to get valuable information about your prospects and customers. Learn what makes your readers tick, how to better serve them, and how to give them what they want. Make sure they become repeat customers!

10. Save money!

All of the above benefits of publishing an ezine are free or almost free. The small cost of a top-rated ezine publishing system is nothing compared to the cost of brochures, business cards, advertising, direct mail, pay-per-click or other means of promotion. Not only that, but someone has to manage that production! Because your newsletter is delivered online, you can grow your list to be as large as you want without worrying about the expense. Bottom line − it’s proven that email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing solution for companies just like yours!

Great Autoresponders

Some great autoresponders I have used and would recommend are AWeber, GetResponse, AutoResponder Plus and SiteBuild It! Use their trial copies to have a feel of the software, and choose it based on your own experience.

Short of going door to door in a Santa suit, how can businesses increase profits and prevent a blue Christmas? Despite economic gloom, industry leaders have found that an e-mail follow up strategy can increase sales by a cheery 35%. To weather the ailing economy, use a follow up autoresponder during your holiday campaigns.

What Does It Do?

Follow up autoresponders follow up with your leads for you. You create a series of messages, and decide when they should be sent, (daily, weekly, etc.). Your autoresponder will send the messages to each new lead automatically. With no further intervention from you, your leads will remember you throughout the winter chill. And this regular reminding will mean more sales during the all-important holiday shopping season.

Give yourself the gift of a higher conversion rate. Follow up automatically using these simple steps:

- Offer Useful Information
- Personalize Your Messages
- Track Your Leads
- Broadcast Tailor-Made Offers

Offer Useful Information

Write your follow up messages for your leads – not for yourself. You want to talk about your great service, but your leads just want to know what they’ll get out of it.

At some point, you must have purchased something like your product. What were you looking for then? Was it information about pricing, styles, or holiday gift wrapping? Maybe just a clearer explanation of the product? Figure that out, and put the answer in your follow up messages. That’s what your leads want to know.

Personalize Your Messages

You don’t open postal mail addressed to “Current Resident”, and your leads aren’t going to read e-mail addressed to “Dear Internet Friend.” People are simply more likely to read messages that address them by name.

Autoresponders let you use variables to personalize your messages. This way, you write just one message, but Lenny Lead reads “Happy Holidays, Lenny!” while Kate Customer reads “Happy Holidays, Kate!”

Names are only the beginning of the personalization features available, though. In addition to full, first, and last names, some autoresponders let you add e-mail addresses, dates, or an ad category. The best even correct the capitalization in your leads’ names, giving your messages a much more professional look.

Track Your Leads

Get even better results from your snowballing list of leads by experimenting with follow up content and timing. Your experimentation will be much more successful if you have access to proper statistics.

Only use a follow up autoresponder that offers detailed lead statistics. Look for live, graphical stats that
show your incoming leads broken down by day / week / month, all of your active leads, and leads who have requested removal from your list.

Broadcast Tailor-Made Offers

To get more bang for your holiday buck, look for an autoresponder that also lets you broadcast extra e-mails to all of your leads. Some even allow you to send tailor-made offers only to leads who meet certain criteria.

For instance, send everyone who’s been on your list for a month a special discount. Or, notify all leads interested in a certain product when a new shipment comes in.

Follow up messages keep leads warm. Use periodic broadcasts to convert them to sales.

Prevent a Crummy Christmas

Businesses of all sizes have seen their sales grow by leaps and bounds because of automated follow up. Implement your follow up strategy now to make the best use of holiday leads. Then, enjoy the season – your autoresponder is following up for you.

Great Autoresponders

Some great autoresponders I have used and would recommend are AWeber, GetResponse, AutoResponder Plus and SiteBuild It! Use their trial copies to have a feel of the software, and choose it based on your own experience.

Have a great holiday in the meantime!