What is there for me?

Most websites have one aim to recieve attention. No one browses the internet to give attention. The result is .....................most websites are a total waste of money.

On the cyber world people are extremely selfish. They come with one question. The question is, "what is there for me?" But what do they get in response. Please , please give me attention! What do they do?

They take of and run to your competitor seeking for an answer to their question.

If you dont design and develop a website from this point you are doomed to join the ranks of all the dot com failures. To escape from this and hold on to your vistors and lead them to take the right action..............just give them something of value. Give them attention.

Think of their highest needs and serve them. Give them a reason to stay and when they leave to come back. Make them remember you on their way home and a motivation to tell their spouses and friends about you.

But if your website is made to get attention. Then am sorry. You are in the wrong place. Go for fashion show!

Can I show you Corey's business plan?

Hi,

Discover the exact strategies that Internet marketing
authority Corey Rudl personally uses to MAKE $10.42 FOR
EVERY $1 HE SPENDS in online marketing -- AUTOMATICALLY!

When I first saw Coreys web site I was skeptical since
there are so-called "cutting-edge" Internet marketing gurus
popping up on the Internet every day! But after a little
research, I quickly learned that this guy is for real.

With four extremely successful online businesses, all started
on a shoestring budget, he is...

EARNING OVER $5.2 MILLION IN SALES and attracting
more than 6 million visitors every year!

... all from one small office!

Since Corey practices what he preaches, the tips, tricks,
and techniques that he teaches ARE NOT based on fluff theory.
Instead, they are the "real deal" strategies that Corey has
personally developed and proved to be enormously profitable!

It's no wonder that Coreys course "The Insider Secrets to
Marketing Your Business on the Internet" literally crushed
the competition and became the #1 BEST-SELLING INTERNET
MARKETING COURSE overnight!

In this 1,000+ page Internet marketing bible, Corey exposes
you to every single strategy and technique that you must know
if you want to start, build, and grow a successful business
on the Internet -- from the ground up, including...

1) Web page promotion and design
2) Getting ranked at the top of search engines
3) Turning leads into lifetime customers with e-mail marketing
4) Building a responsive opt-in e-mail list fast
5) Exploiting AOL and other online services
6) Free and low-cost online classified ads that produce sales
7) Dominating your market with affiliate/associate programs
8) Newsgroup promotions
9) Snowballing your profits with autoresponders
10) How and when to promote yourself on bulletin boards
11) Getting links from high traffic sites
12) Sales strategies
13) Writing killer ad copy
14) Banner ads (tips and tricks)
15) Profiting with discussion lists and newsletters
16) Completely automating your business

... and this is just the tip of the iceberg!

Whether you are a complete newbie or a seasoned Internet
marketer, I guarantee you will benefit from the unconventional
tips and tricks that Corey will show you.

In fact I think the hundreds of testimonials Corey has posted
on his web site speak for themselves...

"Two months have passed... I have made WELL OVER $30,000
from my site!"

-- Joe Malek, Mortgage Network London Inc

"Corey convinced me to try some of the approaches. My
personal income from my site then almost DOUBLED."

-- David Beroff, Note Worth Service LLC

"The results from using this course were that my online
SALES INCREASED BY 500%!"

-- David Katz, Hair Loss Solutions

When you click on the link below and visit Coreys web site,
you will see dozens more testimonials like these that show
you the REAL RESULTS that real people -- just like you and
me -- are achieving every day, using Coreys strategies.

So if you are interested in starting a business or just
increasing your profits from an existing business, go to...

http://www.marketingtips.com/t.cgi/822262

And discover the same strategies that Corey has personally
used to help thousands of other people just like you build
their online business... you'll be glad you did!

All the best...


Samuel

People like it when they have more than oney way to kill a rat or subscribe to your newsletter. As most of you are aware the internet is freely available not just to individuals but to to companies as well in this part of the world.

So when you are creating a newsletter take note that many may not to be able to suscribe online even when the spirit is willing.

I'm talking from experience.

I'm building an Online Newsletter(eBiznews) mailing list and many people want to join. Initially I thought it was cool for them to subscribe online. You know what, I have met so many of the guys I sent the mail inviting them to subscribe and they were not that happy because I was denying them a book(I'm giving a free book for everyone who subscribes a $13.95 Value).

They told me it not possible for them to go to the internet. So I gave them another option. A very simple one........................ Just email to subscribe. You need no internet to email unless you are using Yahoo or any other online email services which everyone should have.

So just subscribe and get your book.

And tell others about it. It is very simple. Have never owned a book so easily.

Just subscribe. It is all free!

Get a free book here

Subscribe to my freeebizkenya enewsletter and you will get a free book- Greatest money making secret by Joe Vitale. It is a 111pages ebook for free. But you can buy this book from Amazon.com at USD 13.95

Fill your email address at bottom of this page and you will get this book for free. (Scroll down)

or

click Here and then sign sign in if you have a Yahoo ID.

or

Write to ebizkenya-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Kind Regards,
Samuel Kariuki

Subscribe to ebizkenya
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You get what you pay for

When you browse the internet you will be able to see a competition of cheap websites. You cant tell by their look but by how they serve their clients. Cheap websites are expensive. Cheap not just in how much you paid your designer but in every service you get ranging from the sitemaster to the host.

It is a fact there are many overpriced services out there which you should take but in most cases those who charge too little are more concerned with daily servival than your business. Cheap websites are more dangerous than having non at all.

They hurt your image and your business. They chase away your customers. They tell them you are cheap.

Before thinking about what the sales person is telling ask first about the value offering of their service. a web application should not be an expense but an investment with returns. Those services that dont offer any measurable value are too expensive though in most cases they are cheap and they are what many people will go for them.

To succeed on the net be willing to invest wisely.

Again I dont say you have to pay a fortune for a website.Negotiate with a good service provider who offers value for the best deal. Shop everywhere possible but remember you will most likely get what you pay for!

The mind of a techie

I'm neither psychiatrist nor a psychologist.I dont even have any ambitions of becoming a neurosurgion. But,I have observed with great keenness the kind of web applications that web designers and developers are sending to the internet.

This group of elite technicians whose contributions to the development in internet is highly appreciated.There zeal to using new tools and technology has transformed the way we do business on the internet.

However if you think of any failure, any frustration, any loss, on the internet it is the work of a techie. They are the worst people to entrust your online business to. They will experiement on it with any new software, with unfocussed zeal they will make your website clown on the internet, with little knowledge they will ruin your business. But that is not the tragedy.

The tragedy is when you give them the responsibility of your website. They are neither businessmen. They have technical minds like those of their engineering brothers. They care less about your customers. They are not writers. They are driven by what that software can do not what that market niche needs.

So how do deal with them, granted that you cant do away with them. Be clear of your goals are. Be focussed the tell them what you want them to do with their tools not them telling you what they can do with their tools for your business.

Be the architect of your web site. But remember you need to be a great architect who is well informed, well learned and well equiped to do the architect's work.

If not the team of a bad archtect and a techie would create a dot com buble site. And all your money will go to drain.

So if you are thinking of talking to a well learned and skilled ebusiness architect then email mtandao2003@yahoo.com .

Have a good day.

Wasting money on banner ads

No one would take hard earned money to the drain unless he has lost his head. But many do because they dont know. They are wasting a good part of their advertising on banner ads on the two Kenyan dailies home page. Visit either of their homepage and you will see what am talking about.

But that couldnt be a big issue if they were for free. The issue is that some of those ads have cost their owners over Kshs 300,000 to appear there. The returns are quite low. This has left many people disillusioned by this magical promises made by the sales people. If you did your homework well you cant give up internet marketing so easily.

Banner ads have their place but they shouldnt't cost that much neither should they be the main way of advertisng on the net. At best they should be number four. When you all place those banner ads on Nation and East African Standard the best you are doing in branding their site. They should be paying you. Not the other way round.

Banner ads are good for low cost advertising or free link exchanges. You should not place them on clattered pages and they should be done in an innovative way. They need to have more text and less of graphics. And please measure how much traffic they are sending to you site. Keep on changing them on where they appear. They really bore to have them on the same place. For that reason they may never get noticed.

So rethink your online marketin or talk to the experts.

Have a creative day.

Selling to America

Did you know that over 50% of all web users are found in America. Well, this may depress you having in mind that there are over 100million internet users in the world and Americas population is about 4% of the global population. But you shouldn't be depressed. Look at the bright side of this story.

Those who see opportunity must have already seen one. One of the advantages of the web is that it enables you to do business across borders with customers you may never get any other chance to deal with...............including George W.

With the internet you can say the worlds largest economy is ours for grabs. We can sell to them at a touch of a button. We can market to them right into their bedrooms. We can prove our expertise through their technology. We can shout to their offices that they can come to Kenya for their next vacation. As in we have an immenese opportunity for us to sell ourselves to the US.

So why not get innovative ways to do it and bring foreign exchange to Kenya without reinventing Goldenberg. But we can be inspired by the motive (Pattni claims it is what inspired Goldenberg) of making Kenya live without keeping on begging from IMF and other donors.

Hei wake up and do something about this opportunity. It may not be there tommorow.

These annoying ego sites.

There are over 35 million websites on the internet 12% of them being porn sites. When someone launches his browser to the internet all these sites compete for his attention. The truth of the matter is that he will browse at most 10 websites in a day.

He will recall at most twenty good websites that he can talk about without reffering anywhere else. What are the chances that he will recall yours?

These simple statics are aimed at showing you that when you launch into the net you must have a very clear goal of what you want to achieve.

You can't afford to launch into the net leave alone being there just because your competitors are there or because everyone else has a website.

These egosites are a waste of resources. Many of them when the surfer finds them he leaves irritated if at all he gets in. They neither serve your cusomers or make your employees happy.They should,with very good reasons, be sent to the slums of the internet.

So next time you think why you need a website just remember to ask yourself whether it is because it will massage your ego.

Jobs at Shell

Dear all,

Shell is looking to recruit management trainees to join their new crop
of hires for 2005. They would like individuals who fit the profile below:

* East Africans (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania)
* fresh graduates, or individuals with a max. of 2 years working
experience
* not more than 26 years of age
* at least an upper 2nd class degree
* demonstrated commercial orientation
* preferably having played a key role in a student association,e.g.AIESEC,Marketing, Finance or Economics Students Association, etc.

If you have friends or relatives who fit this profile, please ask them to forwar d their CVs to Justine Nzyoka jnzyoka@deloitte.co.keby Friday 13th August 2004.

Success to all of you

How to be found on Search Engines

In a previous article I had said that if you are not found on the search engines you can as well consider yourself non existent. I said you need to optiomize your site for search engines and stated a few reasons why you might not be found.

But apart from being found by the search engine spiders or robots there are other ways to be found which can guarantee you that you will be seen. They cost a few coins but they are effective. They ensure you are ahead of your competitors. I will state them here though I will share the details in latter articles or you can contact me for more light on them.

These are:
1.Pay per click (PPC) search engines where you bid for top keywords that you want to use then you pay for them as traffic is directed to your site. Very effective and the only competition is with those who have bidded for similar keywords.

2.Purchase sponsor links e.g in google on pages that have search results of the words or phrases that the searchers have sarched for. It is inexpensive and you definately would require this at least for your key word. You will always be on the first page. It is guaranteed.

So if you find it hard to appear on top ten using optimization then these two are perfect options. They are not the only ways that will direct traffic to your site but they are quite effective when using search engines.

They dont guarantee more income since your website should but you will certainly have traffic flowing and all you need to do is to hold that traffic, sell to them or make them come again.

Have a great day.

Who owns your website?

Call any company and ask the question, "who is incharge of your website?" I can bet you will be told it is IT department 99% of the times. No wonder those websites.

The website is an integral part of a business to be a concern of one department leave a lone a department. The companies that are the cutting edge of using the internet for their business dont do this.Every one is involved, everyone has the input. I dont mean every one can design a website or write perfect html. But they know what they would want to achieve and then the techies can work towards getting heir.

Techies are not trained to write let alone to market. They are not PR people or sales people or communications people. So if you leave the website to them you are sacrificing all these opportunities that the internet offers to you. They may get that flashy website but which is damn useless to you.

So whoever you are try to get involved in your organization's website design and development. You will be surprised how valuable that involvemen could be.

Please email me your feedback at mtandao2003@yahoo.co.uk

Have a great day!

A commercial suicide?

"A company that neglects its website may be commiting commercial suicide. A website is becoming the gate-way to a company's brands,products, and services-even if the firm does not sell on-line. A useless website suggests a useless company, and a rival is only a mouse-click away." The Economist

What is the value of your website?

Most organizations have some kind of web presence. But that is all. The days of ego sites are long gone and the mistakes that lead to the burst of the dot com bubble should not be replicated here in Kenya. We should embrace best ebusiness practices or we will remain on the internet's slums.

A website that brings no cashflow, improve customer service, or enhance your marketing activities or add no other value to different aspects of your business is an unacceptable expenditure. Please do away with it or rethink about its need. Have well laid out goal for your website.

Companies that have clear objectives of being on the net and work towards achieving these objectives are finding it very satisfactory to be there. The rest are either highly disillusioned or are simply sending alot of cash in the botomless pit that the internet can be.

So the question you should be asking yourself is "why am I on the internet?". The answer to this question should make business sense to you if not..................... You have been conned!

Have you been googled today?

Do you know Google is the world's fastest growing brand? Do you know if cant be found in Google 80% of internet surfers may never find you? If you are not on search engines you are not on the radar of the people you are targeting.

There are many reasons why you might not be found using google. These include:
1.Poorly written HTML.
2.Dynamic pages.
3.Poor content.
4.Poorly selected keywords.
5.Few links to the site.
6.Not submitted.
7.Blacklisted by the search engine.
8.Not submitted to the search engines.
9.Too many graphics with not html equivalent

These are the main reasons but not the only ones. They can be overcome and you can start having people coming to your site from the search engines.

Why dont you think about it over the weekend or let us think together about it.

Have a great weekend.

Why do you have that website ?

Every wednesday in Kenya people are set to watch the Apprentice on KTN TV. I have done the same though not religeously. Many people like the program for different reasons. Many enjoy seeing their favorite characters win, others look forward to seeing that arrogant guy loose, others is the tasks to be carried out while to others they just watch.

I started watching it due to the noise being made in our neighbourhood about the program. One thing has consistently come out in Trump which if we applied in our websites we can be very successful.

That is setting out clear measurable objectives. I mean you are clear on what you want to achieve, metrics to measure that achievement and why not state clearly the consequences for achieving and not achieving these objectives.

For example if it was sales you could sale we want to increase our sales directly coming from our website by by 10% by December 31, 2004. Simple. The objective is to increase sales. The measure is in percentage and the date deadline.

Then you could work around all the relevant features of your web campaign that would allow you achieve this goal. And you can add some incentives like a 1% bonus of the online sales to the team in charge of the website (or fire them!).

Want to set ambitious but achievable objectives of your website and strategies to achieve them just email me or call 0721303864. We will ensure your website is an investment not an expenditure.

Business plan competition

Those of you who have read the Nation today there is a ICT business plan competition. This is in line with the mission of this blog. To help Kenyans bridge get more from the internet.

This competition is sponsored by c4idea.com, NIC Bank and Delloite and Touche. It is a good way to help you make a business plan for that idea you have always wanted to write but had no motivation.

The motivation is good prizes to be won.

Why not visit www.ictpark.com for more details.

Content is the King

The other day I visited a website of a leading marketing research firm in Kenya (no names mentioned to protect the innocent) just to see what kind of services they have. First it took me a while before I could load the page.Take note I use the most recent Internet Explorer!

When I got into the site I couldn't read a thing. It was full of images that made no sense to me. They had used pure javascript to generate these images. I was dissappointed and I may never visit the site again. I didnt get to know what they do.

This story illustrates a common (wrong) belief among many that the more beautiful a site is the better. When we are browsing we are not visiting a fasion show of who has the best graphics (unless that is what you are purposely doing). Visit yahoo or BBC or CNN .What do you like inthat sites?

We are seeking information. We know we are to read on the internet. We are looking for words that communicate to us. We want to hear your site. So let your site speak with words.

Content is the king.Your site which you may call a palace. Good content is a benovelent king who attracts more vistors to your site. They will not mind staying there longer and coming again.

Bad content is the opposite. It makes me take off immediately I land on the first page with no plans to come again.

So make it your plan to have good content. Otherwise talk to the experts on the strategy and the creativity required to write content that will make you money.

Talk to email or call 0721303864 .

Have a great day.

Email marketing - think about it

Sometime last year there were some email conversations going round that were quite irritating. This is what came close to what the people in the western are complaining about- SPAM. Spam is unsolicated mail and in USA it is a criminal offense to send SPAM or UCM.

The advent of spam can be explained by the explosion of email marketing in the west. Companies and individuals are reaping a great number of returns based on email marketing.

The email is not just a fast method of forwarding information (or jokes) but a great tool to do marketing for your business. You can use the email for branding, customer support, generate leads or even close sales.

But many who have tried to do it have either burnt their fingers or come out disillusioned basically because they did it wrongly. You need to start on the right footing if you are get anywhere with email marketing. The value of first impressions cant over empasised.

You need to have clear goals. You need the right people and you need to integrate your email marketing to the whole of your marketing plan.

You can do all this for yourself or email or call 0721303864 for the experts. We provide both startegic and creative services to ensure you reap maximum returns in your email marketing.