This is a guest post from Corey at content customs. Corey provides custom article writing for your blog or website.

Every web designer dreams of developing at least one authority web site that readers will turn to when they need quick answers to their tough questions.

There are many sites that aspire to such goals but few that actually make it. There are 4 steps to developing a site with a killer first impression.

You may not be guaranteed success by following all of the steps. However, you will likely be well on your way with your foot planted firmly in the right direction.

1. Have Your End Result In Mind

Before you even begin planning your web site, keep the end goal in mind. How much content do you need? How much will it cost to have this content produced? By keeping your ultimate goal in mind, you can design your web site to meet your goals from the ground up.

The best web sites were in planning for weeks before the first word was published. If you keep this in mind while developing your web site, you can make your first impression as powerful as your completed web site.

2. Brainstorm Article Topics

It is not enough to have a few keywords selected to develop your web site. You need to actively brainstorm exactly which articles you will feature on your web site.

When you have enough articles selected, you can begin rating them in order of importance and scheduling your web site development based on which articles will be the most powerful from the very beginning.

Be careful with blogs, however. If you put your best work in the first few blog posts, you may need to aggressively link back to them for the rest of the time that you are posting.

If you are having a hard time with your titles, you may want to consider hiring a company that offers article writing services. Most of the time, you will be able to get some good insight with which topics will work best to meet your goals.

3. Be a Problem Solver

Creating a web site that has a killer first impression is a great deal like inventing a new tool or product. If you solve a problem with your invention, it will likely be successful.

With every page of your web site, try to solve a specific problem or answer a specific question. Use keywords that draw traffic from people that are looking for such a solution or answer.

The more questions that you can answer, the more likely your web site will be to have a killer first impression.

4. Make Your Readers Hungry for More

This is often referred to as creating the web site sandwich. No matter what the sandwich, there are usually three elements – the top slice, middle and bottom slice.

You can keep this in mind when drafting each article. However, it is much more important to think of your web site in this way. The top slice can be content that draws readers in such as promises or marketing campaigns.

The middle can be the meat of your sandwich – solid groups of information in the form of articles or posts.

The bottom slice of your web site sandwich can be the content or features that keep the readers coming back for more – updated news or resources that are time sensitive.

Although there are generally 4 steps to developing a site with a killer first impression, there is also a great deal of work involved in accomplishing such goals.

Remain open to new ideas and, above all, be an individual. There are few successful web sites that simply copied another web site’s idea.

Even if they did, their approach required fresh ideas and a new approach. Try new things with your web site but be patient for your hard work to pay off. If you do so, your first impression will indeed be a killer.

This is a guest post from Keith J Gill

Let’s face it folks,… most people don’t fail because they have a poor internet business idea,… most people fail because they do not have “staying power”…

In other words, a lot of people new to the internet business world fail in their business attempts because they run out of money to sustain their business, especially at the critical beginning stages of just starting out…

Believe me, I know, I have been there, done that and I have the T-shirt to prove it.

A lot of people when they are starting out get so excited about their business product or idea that they have created that they just want to run right out and spend a bunch of money on Pay-Per-Click or other up front expensive advertising methods without a clue how to actually get a sustainable Return On Investment (ROI),.. Again, been there, done that also…

Here is what I see time and time again:

- Create an info product or application (digital or shippable)
- Selling price is $67.00
- Do some rudimentary Keyword Research
- Throw up some Pay Per Click (PPC)
- Spend $600 in PPC the first month
- Make a paltry 10 sales for a total of $670 gross
- have a net profit of $70.00
- Uh oh how do I pay for another $600 in PPC and remain profitable?
- Spend $35 in PPC (50%) of net profit
- Make 0 sales
- Net profit now $35
- Buy a nice steak dinner with that $35.00 and call it quits

OUCH!

So what is missing to help mitigate these situations for the new person just starting out?

There are numerous things that can help overcome the above failure scenario, such as:

- Knowing what is the best type of product to market and what actual market to be in that will have the best chance for success based on your knowledge, passions, interests and personality

- Knowing how to generate laser targeted traffic for pennies on the dollar

- Knowing how to write great ad copy so as to increase your conversion ratio so you get a higher ROI for every visitor you get to your site.

- Knowing how to set up the best automated systems so as to eliminate bottle necks that cause the drain on your top 2 most precious commodities,… TIME and MONEY.

Now all these things are great at increasing “staying power” and your chances for success…

In fact I know how to do most of those things in my own business consistently and even teach it sometimes to others…But the problem is most of those things have a learning curve…Some, like writing great ad copy, has a STEEP learning curve…

So what is the answer?

The answer is,… there is NO “perfect” answer and if anyone says there is they are a liar that needs to be publicly humiliated by pointing and laughing… just kidding.

Seriously with this being said though I think most people starting out need to have a perceptual, mental shift in how they are going to go about marketing their product or services…

What do I mean?

I mean…Don’t lead with your main product and always have “back-end” products based on similar markets as your main product that you can up-sell, down-sell or offer your prospects and customers in the future…

This is concept is what I like to call an “Automatic Up-Front Cash Generating Self-Funding Internet Business”.   It’s sometimes referred to as a “Self-Liquidating offer”, “front-end / back-end marketing” and a “Self-Funding promotion”…It sometimes even called an “Attraction Marketing system”…Whatever you call it is all the same basic concept

Let’s say you created an awesome shippable dog training method manual that you researched and can confidently charge at least $200 for.  Now if you don’t have staying power (aka lots of money) and you use the above PPC failure scenario you will be out of business just as quickly, maybe even quicker because it may be harder to sell a product on the first shot for $200 without establishing any kind of relationship or credibility

So what should you do?

Sell a $20 eBook, CD or DVD that gives “some” of the secrets that are contained in your $200 dog training manual.  At this point after they purchased your $20 product you now have “primed the pump” and the opportunity to “back-end” your customer into buying your full $200.00 manual….In fact you can build the offer for your “back-end” product right into your “front-end” product in the form of a subtle sales pitch while still offering value and quality

What just happened?  What happened is you sold a $20 product based on your main product which has established a relationship with a “buying customer” and has given you the credibility as an authority on the dog training market to that customer.  That customer will now and always be more opt to purchase from you again and again on the “back-end” including your more expensive $200 Dog training manual, as long as you continue to provide value and quality.

What’s more,… is that using this concept 100% of the gross profits from the $20 “front-end” product will go directly back into the “front-end” advertising to create a truly self-funding business system with pure profit generated on the “back-end”

In this scenario this is where you need to have the “perceptual mental shift” I spoke of…You need to drill it in your head these 2 things:

-Your profit is made on the “back-end”…
-All your advertising is paid for from the “front-end”

Getting clear on these 2 fundamental foundations will have you on your way to creating a truly “Automatic Self-Funding Internet Business”

Now, let your creative juices flow…

If you would like to learn more about how I implement these principles in my own business just come to my site at http://SelfFundingBusiness.com

Thanks
Keith J Gill

Keith J Gill is NOT an internet marketing guru and does not ever want to be considered one.  He is, however, an information product creator, obsessive entrepreneur, loving father, son, brother and friend.  You can contact Keith by visiting his blog at http://SelfFundingBusiness.com/news

This is a guest post from John Thomson who analyzing distinctive types of website hosting services on his blog. At his blog can read and explore more about web hosting services plus many more articles that will inform you about what to look when you are comparing web hosting plans and companies.

If you are brand new to the World Wide Web business world then one of the primary things that you will have to do is compare and decide on a magnificent web hosting company. These days it seems that there is a nonstop variety of hosting solutions that you have to select between for your site or web business. To begin with, you have to verify that the web hosting firm has the features and functionality that you require. The most valuable thing of website hosting is uptime, and this is considered to be the main feature of any website hosting plan.

A free of charge hosting, as a rule, allows crafting only the simplest websites consisting of a set of static pages. A big problem with free web hosting is that you will regularly have to display advertisements of some sort which “pays” for your web hosting. In order to triumph over the disadvantages of free of charge, paid hosting is chosen by majority of webmasters.

A shared web hosting vendor is a vendor that serves your website along with several other websites, all on the same IP address. This aspect of hosting serves several sites in a single server. Since lots of sites are sharing the same IP and services, there’s a risk for your web page to be hacked.

Dedicated website hosting is a wise selection for someone who requests extra storage and traffic, and also requests resources that are not accessible with shared and without charge website hosting. Various site hosting vendors will rent you the server while retaining possession of the hardware, as others will sell it to you absolute. In the majority of cases, you can expect to pay $180 to $600 dollars per month, but expenditure can go up depending on your supplier and the website hosting solution. The top thing about the dedicated site hosting is having entire regulation over your website.

Co-location means that a good deal of your technology equipment is placed off-site. Your infrastructure should be housed in a state-of-the-art data center, with redundant air cooling and filtering systems, considered to work even in the event of a power crash. Since the data centers do business with a gigantic figure of customers, their overhead expenditure are seen to turn out to be extremely low, which is why they are capable to grant you with very updated and technologically sophisticated solutions at a very low cost. Taking into account the advantages with the colocation plans, it is very clear why these services are seen to be so useful for most businesses at present.

Reseller site hosting is practically identical to virtual hosting except for they provide you further regulation over your account. Reseller hosting is repeatedly used by companies wishing to add an extra income stream to their company due to their current buyer base and requirements. Website hosting resellers act free of website hosting firms, and are not treated as staff. Reselling hosting resources is a terrific commerce choice because it gives you the opportunity to set up a corporation without the overhead charge of buying costly servers, routers, and dedicated data transfer.

Consequently, as you can see, site hosting is quite easy to use (and affordable) and I truly wanted to clarify it so that newbies could get a grasp about web hosting.

This month Business Week did its 5th annual article on America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.

In the article, you’ll see several college students that started out in their dorm room to create solid growing businesses. You’ll also see lots of the young entrepreneurs focused in the area of online business.

My three favorite businesses highlighted in the article are:

NoteHall.com – Four college students started this business which is an online market place for buying and selling class notes. It’s 2010 expected revenue is $900K.

GiveReal.com – A very creative business idea that uses a Facebook application to allow friends and families to buy each other drinks. With over 500,000 bars and restaurants available around the USA this is a home run!

IdeaPaint - Three college students who couldn’t afford a whiteboard for brainstorming sessions, decided to create a brand new product to compete with whiteboards. IdeaPaint is a special paint that turns a wall into a dry erase board for much less then buying an actual whiteboard.

These stories just go to show you there are tons of opportunities out there if you apply yourself!

In the internet marketing world you always hear marketers talking about traffic. Traffic this, Traffic that, how to get more traffic, etc… Traffic is the lifeblood of any internet business.

Sometimes by focusing on traffic, you as a marketer can forget about one key principle. People are behind the traffic to your site. It is important to always keep that in perspective or your site and brand will suffer from one time “hit it and quit it” traffic.

People are what buy your products, click your ads, make more page impressions, and virally spread the word about your site.

Therefore, it is important for you to use your site as a way to engage people and let them know you are human. The profit of any internet business, is directly influenced by the number of people inspired to believe and trust in the site. Your personal relationship with readers will do this more then anything!

To help you engage and build trust with your readers here are six internet business tips:

1. Blogging Contests: I wrote a long post about blogging contests, which are perfect to engage your readers.
2. Social Media: Build friends on social media sites like twitter, facebook and stumbleupon and actually communicate with your friends. Join groups on these sites adding value to the group and build relationships and trust off your site.
3. Comments: Actively respond to comments from readers. Over deliver every time. Get out and comment on other blogs and some of the same readers may see you have been active. This helps them gain trust in you and your brand.
4. Take Care of Your Readers: Most people don’t just read a site’s content and become a fan. On your site take care of your readers. Take surveys about which topics they would like to learn more about and deliver it. Encourage your reader to join you on social media sites and communicate with you.
5. Share personal stories with your readers: People want to know there is a real person behind the blog, twitter account or facebook profile. Sharing personal stories lets people know you are human.
6. Partnership: You can’t get people engaged unless they trust you. Associating yourself with other popular brands can help you build trust quickly. Networking with other sites or brands in your niche and doing guest posts can help you build trust quickly.

There are many other ways to engage people so be creative and make sure you always over deliver to your readers. Once you engage and build the trust of your readers your internet business will never be the same.

In the past I’ve done my fair share of niche marketing. Back in 2004, I was jumping into niche after niche trying to make a buck. Yes you can make money doing this but…. I’ve been there done that and it is a ton of work for a short term business. I no longer recommend it to anyone.

I did make good money jumping from niche to niche, but I’ve found there is way more money in fully developing 1 or 2 niches versus targeting 20 different niches. I therefore, favor finding 1 or 2 niches I am passionate about and digging deep to uncover all the profit opportunities. This gives me a huge edge over the competition and is by far the most profitable method I have to making money online.

Before you select a niche you will want to do some brainstorming about your interests.

Here are five cool places to uncover hot six figure niches.

1. Google Trends: This is a service provided by big Google itself showing online trends about any topic you want. You can either search for your topic or look at the hot trends section. You can also change the date range to see how any topic was performing in the past.

2. Flippa: This is one of the largest online marketplaces for buying and selling websites. On Flippa actual revenue and traffic statistics are published for sites being sold. If you find a site for sale in the niche that interests you, then review the statistics and how the site is making money. This will give you some good ideas on how much opportunity you could have in the niche.

With Flippa if a site is not making the type of money you think it should, don’t just assume there is no money to be made. Dig into the niche and see where the opportunities are and see if you can improve on them.

3. Ebay Pluse: Ebay is one of the largest consumer marketplaces online. With Ebay Pluse you can search by any category and quickly see what customers are interested in. You can also see who are the largest sellers for the particular category.

4. Dummies: Online information products offer great opportunity for finding a six figure niche. A great place to find a niche market for information products is to explore Dummies.com. You will find many categories of hot niche markets that are great targets for online marketing.

5. Paypal Shops: Tons of online business is handled over Paypal. Fortunately, with Paypal shops you can pick any category and see how many transactions any merchant has completed with Paypal. This is great to see where money is flowing and some of the results will surprise you. For instance, as of today BeyondBedding.com has made 139,890 transactions on Paypal. Who would have every thought bedding online is that hot.

Uncovering a six figure niche does take some work, but if you do your research there are plenty of opportunities online. Once you find your niche dig deep and uncover all the profitable opportunities. My guess is you will be much more successful with this strategy then jumping from niche to niche!

I get a lot of questions from people on memberships sites.  

There is no doubt that there is money in membership websites if you approach it correctly.

But what most people fail to realize is that running a membership site is a lot of work.   You need to be very good at building business systems that roll out new high quality content to keep your members enrolled and your monthly income steady (kind of like running a blog:-.

And that is only ½ the story.  Since each month you will have members drop off you will have to keep replenishing the site with new members to keep your revenue steady.

So don’t be mistaken by people that sell you the hype that it is as easy as throwing up a membership site buying a little traffic and then updating it once a month with a lot of content.  If you try this strategy people will not stay! 

You really need to have a focus on delivering high quality unique content all the time.  It is best if the content can not be easily found anywhere else.  Also allowing user contributed content via a forum can be very helpful for keeping members involved and your membership site remain sticky.

Here are 7 factors you should consider when deciding if a membership website will fit the market you are considering:

1. Are people widely passionate about the topic?  Think of markets like make money online, gambling (poker, blackjack etc..), weight loss, acne, and religion to name a few.

2. Are people currently spending money in the market around their passion?

3. Are people creating social network groups around the topic on social networking sites like Myspace, and Facebook?

4. Can you produce unique content around the topic to keep people excited about it?

5. Is there an easy way to reach the market online or offline? 

6. Are there backend products in the market you can sell to your members via onetime offers?

7. Do you have a good network of industry contacts in the market that you can interview to easily create unique content?

I hope this helps clear up some of the questions on membership sites.  There is no doubt that membership sites are one of the many great business models you can use online. Just be sure you are evaluating the market correctly and that you a system in place to continually produce high quality content to serve the market.

Brent Hodgson has a great post over at his blog titled 5 Tips for Getting Freakin’ Awesome Testimonials.   All the tips he provides are excellent, but my favorite tip was number 2 which shows you how to ask for a testimonial.  If you do this correctly, it will lead your customers into providing you a killer testimonial.

In addition to the five tips Brent discusses, it is very important to consider how you will get testimonials for a brand new product launch.

The challenge with launching a new product becomes how do you get testimonials before you have sales?

It is important you get testimonials before you launch your product because you want your sales copy converting as high as possible on launch day.  Otherwise, your JV partners will not be happy when they send you traffic and you will obviously lose a ton of sales.

What I see many internet marketers do is use testimonials from the same JV partners that they are using to launch their products.  I highly disagree with this method and my split testing results has proved this method is not the best.

Think about it do you think people really believe the testimonial if they see it is the same people that emailed them pre-selling the product during the launch? 

Based on my split testing results my conversion has been much higher using two other methods.

The first method I use for a launch is to set up a landing page and advertise my product via PPC with very highly targeted keywords.  I focus only on the search network, not the content network because I want highly targeted traffic to flow to my page.  These are the people who are passionate about my niche so they will give the best testimonials if my product impresses them.  

On my landing page, I offer the product for free to a very limited number of people in exchange for a testimonial.   This method will normally give you plenty of testimonials to use if you have a good product. 

Some people will take your product and not provide a testimonial. If you fear this (which I would not) you have two options. 

1.  You can require them to leave their telephone number and then personally connect with them before you send the product.

2.  You could simply charge them for your product then give them their money back once they give you a testimonial.

Another method I use is to visit social networking site or forums and connect with people that would have a specific interest in the product I am about to launch.  I then connect with these people and give them a free copy in exchange for their honest testimonial.

Even after your product is launched you should never stop trying to get testimonials.  A cool thing I have done in the past that has increased conversion is to provide a down sell option on my order page which provides a discount if you buy and agree to give a testimonial.

One last tip, don’t forget about video testimonials because they can be even more impacting than written testimonials if you can line them up.

Isn’t the web just great!

Ok, I admit I am a little bit of a junky when it comes to good headlines in web sales copy.  In fact, I am such a junky I even keep copies of good headline I see on the web to make my copywriting easier.

Think about the impact of a good headline.  Which book would you be more likely to pick up: Your Comprehensive Guide to Financial Health or How to Become a Millionaire for $1 a Day? 

Obviously if you’re like me, you were probably drawn more to the second one—and for good reason. No matter how compelling or informative the guts of your content might be, it’s unlikely to get much face time unless it’s preceded by a compelling title that snags the attention of potential readers.

And this doesn’t apply only to books—the power of the well-crafted headline is relevant for all mediums, from newspapers to billboards to television to and even your website’s sales copy.

In today’s age of tons of website competition, millions of great bloggers, and web 2.0 Digg like sites, it’s much more of a challenge to set your online content apart from the thousands of other similar virtual venues. The single most effective way to attract traffic to your website and sales letters is through the effective use of action-oriented headlines.

Strategies to Reel ‘em In

Some of the best sales headlines I have ever seen have utilized some common tricks and strategies to entice potential customers into action. Below is what I recommend to help you craft topnotch headlines:

•  Use “How-to” verbiage: Web surfers are busier than ever these days, and if they’re looking for something online, they want it quickly and succinctly. Busy browsers are drawn to “how-to” lists as quick, to-the-point direction for accomplishing a specific task.

•  Use numbers: It’s been proven that people are enticed by numbered lists. It gives them a clear expectation of the amount of content they’ll be expected to digest. Plus, numbered items are easier to scan quickly—and while content is king, quick content is even better.

•  Be specific: Online readers despise ambiguity. It’s okay to be clever in your headline, but be sure to tell potential consumers exactly what they’re going to get.

•  State a benefit: Why should someone visit your website or read your content if they’re not getting anything out of it? Convey what sets you apart from the competition, and link that to a tangible advantage for the customer.

•  Keep keywords in mind: Don’t sacrifice organic search benefit for cute copy. Make sure to lead with high-performing keyword phrases that will help give your web page a boost in the Yahoos and Googles of the world.

•  Lead with an exciting verb: This is a time-tested way of calling the customer to action. The quality of the verb is important, too: for instance, “discover” is much more powerful than “find”, and “kick-start” is more likely to get noticed than “begin”.

•  Ask a Question: This is another proven way of intriguing the browser into wanting to learn more, making them more likely to read on to find the answer.

7 Examples of Effective Sales Copy Headlines

Below, I have compiled some examples of compelling, powerful headlines that would be likely to engage the attention—and, ultimately, the business—of potential customers. Feel free to substitute phrasings to meet your specific online business needs.

1. Finally Revealed…Website Traffic Secrets Of The World’s Top Guru’s Guaranteed to Ignite Your Website’s Traffic In As Little As 3 Days

2. Top Weight Loss Doctor Reveals Amazing Diet Secret That Forces Your Body To Melt Fat Like Marshmallows Over A Burning Hot Campfire.

3. ”The 7 Stupidest Mistakes Most Men Make That Can Literally Guarantee They Will Never Score A Smoken Hot Woman”

4. I Will Rush-Ship You Advance Copies Of The World’s Most Anticipated (Secret) Golf Training Videos On How To Swing Like A PGA Pro!

5. You’re about to Learn10 Secrets Most People Never Now about Getting Rock Hard Six Pack Abs without Crunches

6. The World’s Most Natural Potty-Training System Guaranteed To Have Your Toddler Fully Potty Trained In Just 7 Days

7. Confidential….  Finally Revealed 10 Hand To Hand Combat Secrets For Winning a Fight without Ever Throwing A Punch

One of the topics I find really interesting when speaking with Internet entrepreneurs and marketers is the topic of goal setting.  In fact, often when I meet a new Internet entrepreneur or marketer trying to succeed online, one of the first questions I ask is what are your business goals.

Normally, I find this is not the question new Internet entrepreneurs or marketers want to hear.  Often time they even brush over this question and try to change the subject to making money online.

If I do get a response to my question on goals, it usually yields some generic response like make money, or become rich online.  I guess technically this is a goal, but it does not represent a clearly defined goal that is critical to help most Internet entrepreneurs succeed online.

If you want real success online you need to get serious about your goals.  I can almost guarantee you if you do not get serious about your goals than your success online will be limited. 

Here are some tips you can implement today for goal setting your way to success online:

1.  Write your goals down clearly in a positive context and be very specific when defining them. 

2.  Make your goals achievable.  Start small and once you see initial success online you can begin to expand your goals.  There is nothing wrong with having a long term hard to reach goal, but do not let it make you lose focus on achieving your smaller goals.  Remember you have to walk before you can run! 

3.  Put a timeline on your goals including a date you will start your goals and a date you will finish your goals.

4.  List the challenges you will face to achieve your goals.  Listing your challenges will help you overcome them as you hit road blocks.

5.  List people who can help you accomplish your goals.  Surrounding yourself with positive people who can help you achieve your goals is one of the best ways to ensure you will reach your goals.

6.  Write down a specific action plan for each goal and how you will achieve it.  The key here is to be specific and to focus on defining the specific activities that will help you accomplish the goal. 

7.  Surround yourself with visual images that highlight your goal achievement. These visual images can be used everyday to help remind you where you are heading and what the end result is going to be when you accomplish your goals.   

8.  To help with this you may get a piece of white poster board and fill it with pictures that will represent a visual collage of your goal achievements.  Look at these pictures every morning when you get up and throughout the day when you have a chance.  This will give you constant reminders of where you are heading and what you are trying to achieve.  It will also help you view your day positively.

9.  Take action, remain positive and be persistent with 100% focus on completing the activities that will ensure your success with achieving your goals.  Do not take no for an answer!

Successful goal setting can be your biggest asset between success and failure for your online business!