| LED Digest 2046: Getting the Ball Rolling |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" pair Networks: The LED's Web Host Hosting and Domain Reg. from a Trusted Leader pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest post, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. November 15, 2005 Issue #2046 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ======= NEW ===================== <Moderator Comment> --== Getting the Ball Rolling ==-- ~ Noah Masterson "We have two opt-in e-mail lists..." --== Greenzapper? ==-- ~ Tom Anson "Has anyone heard of GreenZap before?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Where to Start? ==-- ~ Bill Davison "...the far more productive and smaller cost is off-line advertising." ==== BILLBOARD =================== --== The New LED Site ==-- ~ James Haley --== Google Droppings ==-- ~ Beth Earle ======== NEW ==================================== <Moderator Comment> First of all, sorry for the slack delivery! I'll just say, "some stuff came up" and leave it at that. James Haley has a terrific idea (see the Bulletin Board) -- give me some "recommendo's" about the upcoming LED site! I have to come out and admit, red-faced, that the site is yet to be officially started. So I'm at ground zero and looking for any input -- bring it on! My timeline is roughly launching it sometime in February. Hopefully I'll have some time this holiday season to get cracking. Send in those posts!!! -Adam ------------------------ From: Noah Masterson Subject: Getting the Ball Rolling - new topics! Things must be pretty slow, if the LED Digest hasn't gone out for a few days. I guess it's time for lurkers like me to start posting. I posted last week about Google results for my website, www.dc-baby.com, and received some valuable advice by personal e-mail, but nothing public. So, I thought I'd post a few more questions, to try and get some content rolling. So, answer away! 1. eBooks. There have been some great posts about this in the past couple of months. I am self-publishing a paperback, and am considering offering an eBook version as well. The book is a reference for parents in the Washington, DC, area, with separate chapters on Pregnancy, Child Care, Kids' Classes, etc. I am thinking about offering these chapters as standalone ebooks, to give people a chance to "try before they buy" at a very reasonable price. Any thoughts on / experience with this? 2. E-mail ads. We have two opt-in e-mail lists: One for people wishing to receive notice whenever the website is updated, which is handled automatically, and one for people wishing to receive updates on the book, such as additions, corrections, author signings, etc, which I do manually. For this latter list, we have had some inquiries into advertising. The list is very small right now (only about 70 subscribers), but highly targeted: Everyone on the list is a DC parent and/or parenting resource. I plan to charge an advertising rate of $0.25 per recipient for a button or several lines of text. I realize this is high, but like I said, it's a highly targeted list and I think the market will bare it. Anyone agree? Disagree? 3. Accounting. In our rush to produce and publish a website and book, I have neglected to consult with an accountant. I realize this is stupid, but there just hasn't been time. We are registered as a business in our city (Alexandria, VA), and we are charging sales tax on direct sales to Virginians. We are not, however, incorporated or registered as any other legal entity besides the bare minimum for VA sales tax. (From the IRS website, it didn't appear we needed a federal Tax ID number, but I could be wrong.) Outside of that, I am keeping good record of all business-related income and expenses. I planned to file income taxes jointly with my wife, and include business income and expenses in that filing. I know I am long overdue to hire an accountant (the book comes out this week). That being the case, what information and paperwork should I gather before my first consultation, to make the session as productive as possible? Any other tax / finance / business-related tips? 4. Sponsored search ads. I have some experience managing Overture and Adwords links, but in a totally different industry (mutual funds, of all things). In my experience, you get more clicks for the $$ from Adwords, but the rate of conversion is much more volatile - and ultimately slower - than Overture's. True? False? Anecdotal at best? I hope this gets the ball rolling! Noah Masterson www.dc-baby.com ------- new post - new topic -------- From: Tom Anson Subject: Greenzapper.com Hi Adam and fellow LED-ers, There was a discussion a little while back about PayPal and other online payment options. One service that no one mentioned was GreenZap (www.greenzapper.com). I just received an email about this service, and the person who passed it along spoke very highly of it, and said that it was a great alternative to PayPal. She said: ------------------ "GreenZap is a global online payment solution provider. They provide a fast, easy-to-use and secure way for you to safely send, receive and do just about anything with money online. GreenZap can be used to purchase goods and services on EBay(r), Yahoo Auctions(r), Craig's list(tm), or any number of other consumer-driven sales sites." ------------------ Has anyone heard of GreenZap before? I'm not really crazy about my present merchant account, and I've given some thought to switching to PayPal (since the upgrades in the services provided). But cheaper than free is interesting. I just wonder about the details. Any thoughts about or experiences with GreenZap would be appreciated. Tom Anson Anson Aromatic Essentials ===== CONTINUING ================================= From: Bill Davison Subject: Starting > I am setting up a new website to sell maternity wear. > I don't know where to start to get people to come to > my website. Any suggesitions are greatly appreciated. - LilianPhuong Dang, LED 2044 Unless you have a godzillion bucks to offer to all of LED's SEO dieties, the far more productive and thousands smaller cost is "off-line advertising." It's explained here: http://www.bizwebpage.com/production.html Bill Davison bizwebpage.com ==== BILLBOARD =================================== From: James Haley Subject: New Topic - LED Site Since we have some kind of a lull, why don't we put in some suggestions for Adam and the new LED website that is in the works. I'm not sure how far along he is but a nice robust Content Management Systems that is easy to install open source and free would be great. I've played with a lot of them that come with the Fantastico Install software on the hosting service that I use, and they all have some great features that Adam could use and make his life easier. I'm biased towards Mambo because it seems so slick, and has tons of programmers making free components and modules, but phpnuke or postnuke, cmsnuke.... there are lots to choose from. Most of these open sources have forums, blogs, automated lists for things like the LED list. Also built in Banner components so LED can sell some space to support this great list. So does anybody have any ideas for a great LED site.... this is assuming that its not already done. :) James Haley ------- new post - new topic ----- From: Beth Ann Earle Subject: Google droppings > ... my website (Est. 1999) dropped in the Google natural > listings from about number 6 to somewhere that I can't > even find! It has constantly been appearing at around > number 6 for the last two years... - Sanjeev Sachdeva, LED 2044 Hi, guys. We've heard word that Google is going through a massive update, nicknamed "Jagger," that seems to be giving big benefits to long-established "authority" sites and giving big penalties to sites that use hidden text, bad linking strategies, etc. (NOT that Sanjeev's site uses any of those -- oftentimes, well-done sites accidentally get caught in the wrong net). Of course, every time they go through one of these things, there's always an adjustment period, so we're just watching right now to see what happens. If things don't right themselves by the end of the month, we'll be out there, looking for new info and reviewing strategies (granted, naturally, that good Google rankings aren't the be-all-end-all of Internet marketing. We don't need to start *that* row again). Regards, Beth Earle www.pilotfishseo.com ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by pair Networks: pair.com for Hosting | pairNIC.com for Domains Copyright 1995-2005 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Forgiveness is love in its most noble form." - Anon. |
