Ten Tips For Optimizing Sign-up and Subscription Forms

Getting users to interact with your web site is of the utmost importance for any webmaster. The simple fact of the matter is that as soon as a user lands at your site your job is to sell them on something. Perhaps you're selling a product or a service. You might also be selling information, in which case positioning yourself as a real authority on your topic is your main task. For many webmasters the conversion goal is getting users to simply fill out a sign-up form. Whether for a newsletter you'll be mailing them or to gain access to a login-controlled section of your web site the last step of the process – the sign-up form – is of the utmost importance for your users. This is where they'll decide if they trust you, whether they really want what you're offering enough to give you their information or whether they'd rather get it from your competitor.

This list of optimization points to keep in mind for your sign-up pages should lead you in the right direction.

1. Only ask for what you need. If you're asking your users to sign up for your email newsletter do you really need to know their social security number? With all of the security scares dealing with identity users are more meticulous than ever about whom they give their detailed personal information to. Don't ask for their life story – just the details you'll need to identify/contact them.

2. Clearly mark your required fields. Make it obvious what information your users will have to enter to get what you're offering them. If they have to submit your form more than once to find out what they need to specify they'll grow impatient and maybe a little suspicious – two things you need to avoid.

3. Prominently note your sign-up policies. Include a reassurance that you won't sell your users information to a third party (and please, don't break this promise). Link to your privacy policy. This is important to internet users – they need to know they can trust you with their information.

4. Use pleasant colors. Don't use offensive colors or extreme contrasts. If your form is hideous or hurts people's eyes they certainly won't take the time to fill it out. Take a page out of Google's book – note their choice of soft colors in almost every user interface.

5. Test your form. There's nothing worse than thinking, "gee, no one has signed up in a while" and finding out that your form hasn't been functioning properly for a few days/weeks. Make sure to test your forms on a regular basis –if you're like most webmasters you're moving things around and editing files on a daily basis. You never know: you may have broken a piece of code by mistake. Better safe than sorry.

6. Reiterate the benefits. Face the fact that your users may have some doubts, and that these doubts will most likely surface at that final step of the sign-up process. Remind them once again why they're signing up for your service/product. Drive home the unique value once more in a friendly, concise manner.

7. Remind them they'll be able to unsubscribe. Not everyone wants to sign on for a long-term commitment. Provide an easy means for your members/users to unsubscribe from your service and stop receiving emails from you, and remind them of how easy this will be on your sign-up page.

8. Bring in test users. The best way to really test your sign-up form is to bring in less savvy users than yourself. It can be difficult to take a step back and see your own work the way the average user would. It's also difficult to self-test the usability of your web site and pages. The best way to find out how people will react to your form is to bring in some live guinea pigs. Send them to your home page, have them click through to your sign-up page and fill out the form – and closely monitor their response. People won't always be honest with you to your face so maybe an anonymous survey is in order – or perhaps just watch them closely and assess their reactions.

9. Minimize your form fill-out time. Internet users are notoriously impatient. You're not the only gig in town – if they feel antsy filling out your form they might just move along. Not everyone is going to have their hearts set on your product or service – make it painless for them.

10. Be pleasant and helpful with your error messages. "System Error 32034" is not a helpful or human message to provide your users if the form does not submit properly. Take the time to write custom errors messages that are apologetic and explain, if known, the reason the form did not go through. Perhaps the user neglected to fill out a required field in which case you should politely request that they provide that information. People make mistakes – help them along and they'll be less likely to abandon your sign-up form.

Productive Generating Traffic - 3 Top Ways to Create More Money in Generating Traffic

Making money through the internet is not very difficult of you know how to generate traffic. Generating traffic is very important to the basic survival of a website. If the websites have to face the competition on the web, they need to be properly backed by the promotional efforts. Once your website receives a large number of visitors per day, the chances of getting more business and making more money through your website increase. The time when you are initially promoting your website is very important. Once you are past that stage you can make lots of money through generating traffic.

When your website starts getting lots of traffic, the chances of making money through your website increase. First of all, you can lend the space available on your website to other websites to place their ads. When other websites place their ads on your website, they will need to pay a lot to you. In this way you can make lots of money through your website. Similarly, you can place the links of the other websites on your website.

In this way the chances of the other website getting visited increase a lot. For providing this serviced to the other website, you can charge them for this service. Generally the links are placed in a reciprocal manner. In this way if any one visits any of the two websites, the chances of getting a visitor increase for both of the websites. Pay per click advertising can also help you in making lots of money through internet marketing and web site traffic generation.

How to Boost Your Website Traffic for Free

There are various ways to generate and boost traffic on your website, but unfortunately, many of them will burn a hole in your pocket. For those who have just started their new venture or trying to build one up without investing a lot of capital, this can be a serious problem. However, there are a few competitive ways, to increase and boost website traffic for free.

In boosting website traffic creativity and perseverance are key in learning how to boost your website traffic for free, but it can be done. Think quality, informational, and engrossing content. "Content is king on the web" and having quality content on your website can certainly enhance your website traffic. The best methods to learn how to boost or enhance your website traffic for free will start to crystallize. Let's have a look at them.

A- SEO based Content Writing: All 'Search Engines' give a lot of importance to good and quality content. A website or blog having quality content will always rank high in comparison to its competitors. Search engine optimization, or popularly known as SEO, content is one of the best and proven ways to increase website traffic for free. As long as the content is relevant, useful, engrossing, and takes advantage of keywords that are sought after via major search engines, your website will be high on ranking charts. Getting SEO content writing, will require either doing content writing yourself or hiring a professional content writer. Among the two options, second is more reliable as content writer knows how to write SEO based content.

B- Link Exchanging: After content writing, it is the turn of link exchanging or link building. Link exchanging is another way to increase website traffic for free. This is to trade links with other sites, similar or not. Getting a website's address or URL out to potential viewers or consumers even in the form of a simple link is a very cost effective way to increase potential visits everyday. Many websites use this great way to increase web site traffic for free by simply listing their "favorite" other websites under a links banner or a "We recommend" heading.

C- Posting Links: Posting links to a website on bulletin boards, in chat rooms, on peer-to-peer websites, and so on can also help in boosting website traffic. This easiest way to increase website traffic for free can take a bit of time, patience, and effort, but it can work out well in the long run.

D- Article submissions: Last but not the least is Article Submissions. Many websites, nowadays, capitalize on article posting websites or directories to plug themselves and increase website traffic for free. This works by writing an article on a topic that's relevant to your website in question and then referring to the website at the bottom or within the body of the article. As long as your website content is well written, it will increase website traffic for free.

Learning how to boost website traffic for free will take a little time and the effort might take even more to pay off. However, when multiple strategies are brought into play, it's fairly easy. Just exercise patience and it's possible to boost website traffic for free.

How To Boost Your Sales With Least Efforts

Do you have so many resale right products collecting dust in your hard
drive but you don't know how to sale it more and more? Well I have
asked you this question to let me answer it. This is the general problem
among masses that they possess a product but don't know how to
promote it.

You know this general principle that if your product is known to more
people you can surely earn more. For example if you have a product
concerning over Pet Care you can seek the help of people who have
site concerning over Pet Food. You can propose them to refer your
product to their customers. Many people know their product is a big
blast but they don't know how to explode it. So here are the tips you
have to follow to get blast your product.

1. Joint Ventures: Joint ventures are the best ways to promote your
products. It is any venture in which two or more individual tries to sell
their products jointly. With this you can introduce your product to
more customers and that is what all you need.

2. Affiliate Programs: Affiliate Programs can really boost up your sales
in a right direction. You can set up an affiliate program with a set
commission. You can set affiliate URLs and can track their performance.
Just set a good commission rate for more sales. Remember more sales
means more profits to you.

3. Customization: It means that your customers can customize your
product with their information. Imagine if you don't create a product
but can sell it with your name and information. You can design your
product in such a way that others can sell it out to make their
presence on the web.

4. Referrals: Remember that you buy a particular product because your
best friend refers it to you. Or you have seen an advertisement using
that particular product by a renowned person. Similar is on the Internet.
Refer your product to well known Internet marketers and ask them to
refer it to people if they find it good.

5. Cross Promotion: In earlier times there exists a barter system in which
people exchange commodities but don't pay for anything. So think on it in
a modern way. It means you can cross-sell your products without giving
any commissions. You can set a deal with other people to refer your
products to their customers and you will perform it vice versa.

6. Back End Products: Back End Products are the products that you refer
at the completion of your sales. They are the products that can really
make you earn more at the single instance. For example if you are selling
a healthcare product you can also refer an ebook of healthy diet as a
back end product.

7. Subscription: It is a matter that people want more in less. We all
want a lifetime resource in one time pay. For example if you have a site
over gardening give an offer to your visitors to subscribe for your daily
gardening tips. Refer some good resource (ebooks on gardening) to them
in your tips. You can also points out that they will get more info if they
subscribe. You can also set memberships plans and stressed out that
they will gain more if they will become members.

With all these tips you can find that there are thousands of people on
the net who are willing to buy your products.

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Copyright 2007 Raamakant S.

Ezine Publishing - Building From The Ground Up

Ezine publishing is a great way to earn revenue online. As an Ezine publisher you can earn profits by selling ad space and/or selling subscriptions. The greatest advantage of Ezine advertising is that the audience is laser targeted. It is not uncommon for larger Ezines to rake in high six to seven figure yearly revenue.

There are many routes one can take when starting a successful Ezine publication. The common problem most people have is finding out exactly where to start. In this post I'm going to outline where to begin as well as strategies to help you grow your Ezine into a success.

Pre Planning

Grab a pen and notepad and start brainstorming. Here are a few questions you need to answer.

1. What niche will your Ezine cover?


2. Who is your target audience?


3. How often will your Ezine be published?


4. Where will you generate content from?


5. How will you distribute your Ezine?


6. How will you generate subscriptions to your Ezine?

What niche will your Ezine cover?

Before you get started with your Ezine you need to identify the niche it will cover. You want to choose a niche you are very knowledgeable about. For example if I were to start an Ezine today it would be about making money on the internet. It is imperative that you choose a niche you are passionate about. Every step after this will be built upon your choice niche. Choose carefully because there is no changing your niche once you start building your Ezine.

Who is your target audience?

The success of your Ezine rests upon how accurately you define your target market. Your target audience has a direct effect on a number of choices you will make including artwork, content, advertising, etc. I suggest being specific as possible. Below I have compiled some questions that will help you narrow down your target audience.

What age group are you targeting? No more than 5 years apart.


What gender are you targeting?


What special interest do they all share?


What is the average salary you are targeting?

These are a few questions you can ask yourself to help you be as specific as possible. Challenge yourself to come up with more questions that will narrow down your audience even more.

How often will your Ezine be published?

Ezines are usually published Weekly, bi weekly, or monthly. When first starting your Ezine publication it's a good idea to publish bi weekly to monthly. I always recommend monthly for the first six months. This gives you enough time to organize and take care of unforeseen problems. The worst case scenario for a new Ezine is to miss a publication. Whichever publishing schedule you choose be sure you can stick to it.

Where will your content be generated from?

Content is the backbone of your Ezine. There are different sources you can use in order to get content for your Ezine. The main point I want to stress is quality. You want your content to be of the greatest quality possible. If readers find they enjoyed the content there is a good chance they will be reading the next issue.

Article directories are a common source for many Ezines content. Some of these directories such as Ezinearticles.com have hundreds of thousands of articles in their database that you may use as content. Even though many Ezines do it, I personally don't recommend this way. 99% of these articles are low quality. Many authors write these low quality articles for the sole purpose of generating traffic to their website. This usually results in rushed and not very informative articles. Another disadvantage is that many of these articles have already been recycled many times by other Ezine publications.

Writing your own content has always been the best way. You always want your content to be creative and have a distinct personality. Pasting together articles from random authors usually results in a lack of writing consistency. I suggest starting with a small team of great writers to help provide content. This is very useful because writing every article yourself can be very time consuming. Also you will still be able to publish your Ezine when you experience periods of writing blocks.

How will you distribute your Ezine?

Ezines are usually distributed to subscribers via email. You will need an auto responder to save and manage email lists. I use aweber.com for all my email list needs. However there are different formats you must consider when sending out your Ezine. I've seen many Ezines send html code directly in the email. I strongly recommend not doing that. I prefer putting together a great .PDF and sending a link to the .PDF in the email. This is great because you can format the Ezine to your desire, and you get more control as far as graphics, layout designs, etc.

How will you generate subscriptions to your Ezine?

Generating subscriptions can be the most difficult task if you don't have a plan. There is always the advertising method, which can get a bit costly. If you're on a tight budget and can't afford advertising I suggest building traffic through great content. I would hold off on starting an actual Ezine until I got enough traffic to continuously generate subscriptions.

I suggest starting off with a blog. Buy your domain than install Wordpress.org on it. Start updating your blog everyday with great articles you've written for your niche. Sign up for social book marking websites such ass blogcatalog.com and mybloglog.com. Visit similar blogs and exchange links. You want to get your blog popular in the blogosphere of your niche. Commenting on similar blogs is a great way to start networking and generating targeted traffic to you blog. Make sure you update as much as possible with great content. This process may take 4-6 months before you start generating enough steady traffic to start publishing your Ezine.

7 Key Steps to Ezine Publishing

Topic – For ezine publishing you have to write articles. Fist you have to choose the topic. You should choose such a topic that is interesting and useful. You can choose from any category. There are several categories are available in ezines. You can choose from there also.

Target – Select the target. When you select your target, you can write it better, make it specific to the readers and can go for fast ezine publishing.

Write – Write articles for ezine publication. You writing should fit the target audience and the ezine specification. If the ezine lays out any specific style, word limit, language style, you should follow it. Otherwise your article will not be published.

Content Quality - Content quality is a very important matter for ezine publishing. Ezine publishing needs a standard of the content. Ezines have different quality requirements. You should understand and meet the required quality of the ezines. Fast ezine publishing is possible with better quality.

Submit – Submit the articles to the ezines. You can submit your articles to the specific category that suits your article. After you submit your article you have to wait for a few days. The editor or the ezines check the article and approve it if it is at par with the standard. Then you get a confirmation email and your article is published.

Use the ezine space effectively – Use the ezine space effectively as it provides very less space. You should put your identity and work there to get other buyers and visitors to your website.

Links to your site – Put links to your site from the ezines. Many of them permit this. Sometimes you can also place the links in the article.