Archive for the ‘Internet marketing’ Category

Why Ebook Marketing Rocks

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Every month when I do the bookkeeping for my online business, I am thankful that I took the time to launch information products.

My information products add a very nice residual income stream to my business. They also provide leverage for me. Why? Because I can use them as assets in other ways.

For example, when a fellow business owner runs a contest, I can offer one of my products for additional exposure. I don’t have to create anything new, I just have to offer an existing product.

Even writing a guest blog post requires my time – this requires no time other than sending the winner a quick email letting them know where to download the product.

There are many other reasons by ebooks make a great addition to your business plan. Here are ten of them:

(And be sure to check out the coupon code below if you’re hesitant about writing your own ebooks!)

Top 10 Reasons eBook Marketing Rocks

eBook marketing is one of the most lucrative ways of making money on the Internet. It’s inexpensive to get started, there is minimal upkeep and the profit margin is huge. Whether you want to earn an extra few hundred dollars a month, or make a full-time income online, eBook marketing can be just the ticket.

eBooks are easy to create, sell and deliver and services like Mom PLR eBooks make it even easier.

Read on to find out the top 10 reasons eBook marketing rocks:

1. eBooks are popular.

Despite the so-called economic downturn, the demand for eBooks continues to increase. According to the International Digital Publishing Forum, sales of eBooks in the United States increased, from US$8 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 to over $17 in the last quarter of 2008. There’s no doubt that the demand for eBooks is high.

2. eBooks are easy to write.

You don’t have to be an expert or a writer to create and market your own eBooks. In fact, you don’t have to write them yourself. Services like Mom PLR eBooks create the eBooks for you, and all you have to do is to market them (and Mom PLR eBooks makes marketing easier, too).

3. eBooks are “green”.

Because eBooks are digital, they don’t require paper, ink and fuel to print, store and ship. This makes eBooks attractive to consumers, who are becomingly increasingly concerned about the environment.

4. eBooks are inexpensive to produce.

Because there’s no printing involved, all you need to produce an eBook is software to transform the text file into a PDF. This software is bundled in Mac computers, if that’s what you use, or is available inexpensively for Windows users. Plus, it’s super easy to update an eBook and make it more current, and you won’t be left with stockpiles of old or obsolete versions. That said, if your customers want a printed version of your eBook, you can easily make it available as well through print-on-demand services.

5. eBooks are cheap and easy to store.

If you were selling physical books, you would have to think of where to store all your stock. You could keep them in your house, or pay for storage space elsewhere. With eBooks, all you need is web hosting, which you can have for as little as $5 a month (and getting even cheaper). Plus, you don’t have to worry about protecting stocks from dust, rain, mold and rodents.

6. eBooks are free and fast to deliver.

You can “deliver” an eBook to your customer as quickly as you send Email. This is a big advantage, especially to customers who need to have the solution to their problems right now – like the Mom who is up at 2 am wondering how she can get her baby to sleep through the night.

7. eBooks can be consumed “on the go”.

Everybody’s so busy running around nowadays, and we like being able to bring information with us wherever we go. With a digital book reader or cell phone, your customers will be able to bring their eBooks with them anywhere. They’re much less bulky than printed books.

8. eBooks can be transformed into other information products.

From a marketing point of view, each eBook is a potential gold mine. You can: split it up into articles, short reports, or eCourses. You can transform it into audio and video. You can use it to provide regular content in membership sites. Or, you can combine individual but eBooks into “the ultimate resource” for your niche. As a member of Mom PLR eBooks, you’ll get a 5-day eCourse, newsletter topic ideas, and more tips for using and marketing your monthly eBook.

9. eBooks make it easy to cross-sell and upsell products.

A really cool feature of eBooks is they allow you to hyperlink to websites. This means you can add affiliate links to products or services that are relevant to the eBook’s topic. You could also link to other eBooks that you sell, including higher-priced products and continuity programs. This is why some marketers make money from giving away eBooks.

10. eBooks are interactive.

eBooks are going high-tech! You can now add audio and video files into them. You can insert a survey form that the reader can instantly submit via the Internet. All this makes for a richer experience with eBooks, which is sure to make them even more irresistible to consumers.

In short, eBook marketing is one of the easiest ways to earn passive income online and Mom PLR eBooks makes it even easier.

Click here to try Mom PLR eBooks. Use coupon code “10 off” to get $10 off your first month of membership.

189 Tips

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

I talk about Jimmy D. Brown periodically on my blog. He’s one of the most no-nonsense internet marketing teachers/gurus out there. I told someone recently that he sounds a bit like a Southern Baptist preacher – but only because he tries so hard to motivate you to take action in your business. Jimmy wants everyone to enjoy the benefits he has gotten from this whole internet marketing gig!

Jimmy sent me an article this morning – actually it’s more of a collection of some of the “best of” advice he’s come across from bloggers like me. You’ll see my link below to a free .pdf I released several weeks ago with my 100 Top Blogging Tips, as well as wisdom from the likes of Alice Seba, Lynn Terry, Nicole Dean – some of my favorite women and certainly successful business owners.

There’s a lot to learn here. I hope you take the time to really digest the info. :-)

189 Internet Marketing Tips, Tactics and Techniques

By Jimmy D. Brown of http://www.JimmyBrown.com

Have you ever wished someone would do all of the “research” for you so you could just cut to the chase? I know I have. There have been many times I’d like to not waste hours of my life sifting through low-quality articles and blog posts to find the occasional gem.

If only someone else had written this article for me to read a long time ago. :-) Fortunately, I’m gonna save you the trouble of getting double vision from staring at your computer screen trying to find some good internet marketing reads.

Below you’ll find some great “tips based” blog posts that are filled with meaty ideas. Some of these authors you’ve probably heard of, some you might not have heard of. All deserve to be included for providing some golden nuggets in their content.

10 Ways To Make $10K Per Month
By Jimmy D. Brown
http://www.jimmybrown.com/10-ways-to-make-10k/

27 Ways To Get Your Blog Readers To Comment
By Nicole Dean
http://nicoleonthenet.com/2008/blog-readers-commen/

11 Steps To Getting More Blog Traffic
By Alice Seba
http://www.internetmarketingsweetie.com/blog/blog-traffic

21 Ways to Add More Subscribers
By Terry Dean
http://www.terrydean.org/21-ways-to-add-more-subscribers/

10 Free Ways To Drive Traffic To A Brand New Website
By Lynn Terry
http://www.clicknewz.com/633/traffic-tips-for-new-sites/

100 Free Blogging Tips

By Carrie Lauth < —– (that’s me!)
http://carrielauth.com/blog/free-100-top-blogging-tips/

5 Simple Ways To Increase Click Through Rates
By Zac Johnson
http://zacjohnson.com/5-simple-ways-to-increase-click-through-rates/

5 Simple Steps To Effectively Promote Your Affiliate Products
By Paula Brett
http://paula-brett.com/blog/5-simple-steps-to-effectively-promote-your-affiliate-products/

Parenting Niche: How to Build Your Opt in List

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

One of the most important things we internet marketers do is building an opt in list. Whether they’re newsletter subscribers, email feed readers, or simply handed over their email for a mini course, your opt in list is one of your most important assets.

This is true for mom bloggers and other bloggers too. It’s often the last thing a blogger thinks about. They’re concerned with getting involved with social media and being seen everywhere, but there is major power in showing up in someone’s email inbox too. ;)

This article from the folks at Mom PLR Ebooks have some great ideas for using Private Label Rights content to quickly build your opt in list.

PLR – A Cost-Effective, Time-Efficient Solution for Building Your Parent-Targeted Mailing List

By now you’ve probably heard of PLR and its use in online business. If not, it stands for “private label rights” and refers to ready-made content that you can purchase, edit and brand for your business. It may come in the form of articles, reports, ebooks or even pre-made sales pages, opt-in (or squeeze) pages, graphics, audio recordings and even video.

There are plenty of uses for PLR from adding content to your website to creating products for sale, but have you considered what an effective tool PLR can be for building your mailing list?

How to Build Your List with PLR

- Brand and publish a PLR report as an ethical bribe for signing up for your list. Your visitor signs up for your list and you give them instant access to a valuable report that helps parents become more informed or solve a problem. Make sure you include mention of the free report with all your sign up boxes.

- If the PLR reports include ecovers, use them to make them more attractive and tangible to your potential subscriber. It also draws the eye into your subscription box when it’s on a page with other content. Parents are busy people, make it easy for them to find your great offer.

- Use PLR opt-in or squeeze page templates to simplify the list-building process. Many PLR providers sell ready-made templates that streamline the process of collecting email addresses. Simply modify the text, insert your autoresponder code and load up the html pages. Promote your opt-in pages in your article bylines, YouTube videos and wherever you publish content.

- Use PLR banners to promote your report giveaway. Put them on your blog, invite your affiliates to use them and swap or purchase ad space to get the word out there. Find out where your target parent market hangs out and be seen.

- Use topic-relevant PLR articles and other content to drive traffic to your opt-in page. Include a recommendation for your mailing list as a place to get further information.

- Don’t stop there. You don’t just have to make one freebie offer to build your list. Publish other opt-in pages with offers that will attract more parents in your targeted audience. The nice thing about PLR is that it’s cost-effective and time-efficient to test out a variety of free offers to build your list.

Key Tip – Make the PLR Your Own

Private label rights means you have the opportunity to make customize the content so it suits your message and your target audience. Although the terms of service with PLR providers varies, in most cases you can do things like add logo, insert case studies, comments from customers, add your own opinions and more.

Parents who subscribe to your mailing list want to get a feel for WHO you are before they buy from you, so taking the time to make PLR uniquely yours can go a long way. That doesn’t mean you need to rewrite it from scratch, but insert elements that will give your readers more insight into your company and what you stand for.

A Free PLR Package to Help You Build Your Parenting Mailing List

It’s amazing how easy it can be to build a list when you’ve got ready-made tools to help you. You can actually get a free PLR list-building package right here. It includes:

- a free report
- opt-in page template and suggested text
- ecovers in 4 sizes
- promotional graphics

…to help you get started. Click here to get yours

How To Use PLR Reports

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

There have been so many free PLR reports floating around recently. I thought it would be a good idea to post this article with suggestions on how to USE them. If they sit on your desktop they won’t do any good in your business.

Melissa Ingold of Special Reports Club wrote this article and she’s a great source of wisdom on the topic.

10 Ways To Use PLR Reports

1. You can easily monetize your special report by using your affiliate links. There will almost always be an opportunity to make a reference to a particular product, service, or website in a report. For instance, if you have a report on teleseminars you can use your affiliate link to recommend a service that can be used to set up a phone line and record the seminar.

2. Using special reports as a bonus incentive is a great way to get people to subscribe to your mailing list. Once they’re on your list, you’ll not only be able to provide them with valuable information, but you can promote your products and services to them as well. Don’t forget to surprise your current subscribers every so often with a new, and free, special report that they can download. They’ll love you for it.

3. Beef up the value of your current products and services by giving away special reports as a bonus gift to those who buy from you.

4. If you have a membership site you can quickly add a lot of beneficial content by providing them as a resource to your members.

5. Surveys are a great way to find out what your customers want, but sometimes it can be difficult to get people to take the time to answer your questions. Giving a report away as reward to someone who does your survey is a great motivator.

6. Personalize one for your niche market and sell it as a special introductory product and get more of your target market into your marketing funnel.

7. Expand the special report into a full size information product.

8. If you need fresh content for your website, newsletter or blog, you can break up a special report into smaller sections to create your own articles.

9. Create an ecourse using the content in the special report. Just load the content into an autoresponder system and the autoresponder will mail each day’s lesson out to your list. Then at the end you can recommend your other products and services.

10. Sell the reports as they are on your website, or with a sales letter. Implementing private label rights special reports into you business is a quick way to get content on your website or blog, to create your own information products and beef up your current ones, not to mention how enticing they are as freebies.

The minimal investment you make now in the PLR special reports can repay you several times over in the long-term. If you need of fresh content right away, or you just want to generate some extra cash with special reports, Melissa Ingold has created a site to bring you quality PLR special reports every month. Each month you’ll have access to a brand new, 2000+ word special report on a business related topic. Click this link to put the power of PLR to work for you!

Free Report: Info Products Plus Giveaway

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

Crissy of IndieBizChicks was kind enough to let me distribute a report she recently put together.
crissy
It covers the basics of creating an information product, especially for a beginner.

If you’re a new internet marketer or mom blogger, you may not think you have it in you to create an info product.

But, you do. :)

If you’re creating content for a blog or a website, you can add an additional income stream to your business by creating an information product.

Crissy’s report, which you can download right here: What The #%? Are Info Products Anyway? offers some suggestions to help you brainstorm ideas for your first info product, as well as guiding you how to do it.

More than that, she’s got a sweet deal for my readers and subscribers. Crissy is giving away two copies of her newest ebooks!

How To Give Good Blog and How To Get Great Press

To win, simply leave a comment below and be sure to let me know whether you want “blog” or “press”.

I’ll choose two random winners on Friday, March 27, 2009 at 5 P.M Eastern time.


Articles, Shmarticles

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

No really. Articles.

There are new articles here on this site. You can see them here. (Look for the New! next to them.)

These aren’t just any articles.

They are articles that you can publish on your own site, and rebrand with affiliate links.

What!? You’re not an affiliate yet?

Fix that by going here and signing up.

Then come back here and read the articles. If they suit your target market, publish them on your blog/site/newsletter/etc. Use an affiliate link at the end.

Earn commissions!

Shmart marketers use articles.

Shmart marketers also write articles.

I just joined another article marketing challenge. This one is hosted by Jeff Herring: 100 articles, 100 days.

Join Me?

The Top 3 Things To Do In Your Online Business

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

When you’re just getting started (or even if you’ve been at it awhile but are just feeling overwhelmed!), it’s easy to get lost with your online business.

But the whole thing really can be boiled down to just a few simple activities that are repeated over and over.

While you only have to pick your domain name once, and install a blog once, and choose a newsletter management system once (if you choose well the first time that is!),  the stuff you do everyday you’ll do over and over and over again.

I came across this article from Jimmy D. Brown (I mentioned him the other day when I published an article he wrote about affiliate marketing remember?) and thought it was awesome.

I hope you enjoy it and it helps you remember to keep things simple.

The Top 3 Money-Making “To Do” Activities

By Jimmy D. Brown
http://www.HomepreneurHabits.com

I’ve always been impressed with those who can take overwhelming things and handle them with ease and poise. It never seemed to work that way for me, until I discovered the secret for tackling those daunting tasks.

The secret is simple: make things simple!

With just about every major undertaking, things can be simplified into a handful of “core” components. That makes them manageable. Manageable fosters productivity simply because I can work on something that seems accomplishable. And when productivity goes up, desired results come.

I received the following question from one of my clients…

?”If you have to pick, what would you say are the top 2 or 3 things we should concentrate on? I’ve heard the domain/site(blog) are the most important, then others say writing info products, others say lists. For short term and long term investment, what is the most important things to
be working on

This client wants things simplified. And rightly so. He knows the secret to success is getting things down into manageable chunks.

So, what are these core practices for building an internet business? There are three things – and three things only – that you need to concentrate on with your business…

1. Offer Development.

You cannot make money online unless you have an OFFER. It’s that simple. Unless there is some way for income to be generated, you can’t get paid. End of discussion. Every business is founded upon a revenue-generating offer. Now, this can either be your own offer (small reports, ebooks, membership sites, coaching/consulting, advertising, etc.) or something you promote as an affiliate and earn revenue for referred sales.

2. List Marketing.

The fortune is in the list. You’ve heard it an untold number of times in the past, right? Building and profiting from opt-in lists should be a major priority on your schedule. You need to devote yourself to attracting new subscribers and then getting all of your subscribers to spend money with you … by purchasing your OFFERS (see #1 above).

3. Traffic.

The third and final thing you need to concentrate on is “traffic”. This includes both traffic GENERATION (getting visitors to a site) and traffic CONVERSION (getting that traffic to buy). This includes things like: starting an affiliate program, buying PPC ads, participating in joint ventures, utilizing viral marketing tools, raising your visitor value, tweaking your sales pages, etc.

With each of these categories, you have a variety of options to choose from in directing your attention. It would be foolish for me to say “grow your affiliate program” as your number # traffic activity since I don’t know if you even have your own product to sell. That’s why I don’t recommend specific activities, but rather three key categories of business-building.

With each of these categories, find 2-3 activities to work on each week and you should see results in a short amount of time.

I recommend you work on offer development every Monday, list marketing every Tuesday, and traffic generation every Wednesday. If you just spend a couple hours each of these days working on these core parts of your business, sales should come.

In a nutshell -

• Find an offer to promote.
• Setup a list to promote the offer.
• Drive traffic to the list opt-in page.

Keep it simple. Keep it successful.

—————-
Jimmy D. Brown is the author of the 65-page “operations manual”, Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business. Learn The Internet Marketer’s Weekly R.O.U.T.I.N.E.™ at http://www.HomepreneurHabits.com

Note from Carrie:

These principles apply no matter what kind of online business you have. If you’re a mom blogger, your goal is still to sell products and get more traffic and subscribers right?

Ditto if you’re an affiliate marketer. More offers, more traffic. What do you think?

More Free PLR: Report & Marketing Materials

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

10membershipideas-smThis seems to be the month for all kinds of cool stuff for internet marketers! There’s free plr for the mom niche, free WordPress blog installations, and more stuff I’ve mentioned to my newsletter subscribers (sign up box is on the top right – hint hint!).

Now it’s http://www.specialreportclub.com that’s offering a FREE private label rights report plus the marketing materials you need to distribute it.

The package includes a 30-page report on the hot topic of online memberships, a 10-page giveaway report and marketing goodies like a ready-to-use sales page, opt-in page for building your subscriber base, prewritten autoresponder messages, graphics and a bunch of other instantly usable stuff.

(And as always, since it’s private label rights, both reports are customizable, and editable.)

You can get all the details and grab yours immediately at: http://www.specialreportclub.com

Affiliate Marketing Tips from Jimmy

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Jimmy D. Brown is one of my favorite internet marketers. For years, I was a member of his List and Traffic membership site.  He’s one of the best teachers you’ll come across. His style is direct and easy for the beginner to understand, but there’s plenty of meat for the seasoned marketer as well.

affiliatenairebuttonJimmy recently launched another awesome membership program, all about affiliate marketing. It’s called AffliateNaire.

Since I’ve been talking a lot about affiliate marketing lately, I thought I would publish a few of Jimmy’s articles on the topic.

I highly recommend any of Jimmy’s learning products if you need a helping hand with your business. Jimmy is definitely a no nonsense type of guy. You won’t see pictures of his fancy cars and gargantuan homes on his sales pages, but he’s one of the oldest and most well known marketers on the internet.

How to Promote Any Affiliate Program In 5 Easy Steps

By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire

…………………….

Using ezine articles is a great way to promote your favorite affiliate program. What I’d like to do in this article is provide you with a simple system for effectively writing an ezine article that strategically promotes your offer.

There are five steps…

1. CHOOSE THE OFFER YOU WISH TO PROMOTE

This one is kind of a no-brainer. It all begins with deciding what you want to promote. What offer would you like to send traffic to.

HINT: You can promote your affiliate link directly, but what works better is to promote a list at YOUR site which you then use to promote your affiliate link over and over again after the visitor becomes a subscribers.

2. DETERMINE YOUR “USEFUL, BUT INCOMPLETE” APPROACH.

I love to use what I have coined as the “useful, but incomplete” approach when using freebies of any kind. (Ezine articles, free eBooks, reports, eCourses, etc.)

What I mean by that is simply this: You provide your reader with “useful” information (something they find of value and are able to actually apply) but make certain that it is “incomplete” in that they can better use the information by making a purchase.

That’s “useful, but incomplete.” And it works like a charm.

The idea is to use your content to build up to your desired response. You provide the reader with content, and then you make an offer that allows them to fully utilize the content, gain extra insight from the content or maximize the content in some additional way.

Let me give you an example -

If I wanted to promote an autoresponder service in an ezine article, how could I do it? I’d write an article that explains how to benefit from using autoresponders. My article would exlain different uses of autoresponders
and how the reader could profit from implementing the ideas.

** I.E. 7 Ways To Create Revenue Streams With Autoresponders

Naturally, they will need an autoresponder service in order to use the information, right? And I just happen to know of a great service they can use. More on that later.

OK, so that’s an example of how to promote a SERVICE offer with your ezine article. What about a software product or an eBook?

Want some examples?

Good, because I’ve got two…

TO PROMOTE A SOFTWARE PRODUCT. Let’s suppose you want to promote
a software program that creates “ecovers”. How can you do it?

– Write an article outlining how important presentation of your
offer is, and how creating a cover graphic can increase response
rates by up to 1300%

– Write a step-by-step tutorial article for “do-it-yourselfers”,
explaining how to design your own graphics from scratch. Then
promote the software as a super-simplified way of doing it.

TO PROMOTE AN EBOOK. Let’s suppose you want to promote an ebook
that teaches advanced list-building strategies. How can you do it?

– Write an article that covers the “basics” of building lists,
and then promote the eBook as the “advanced” tactics.

– Write an article on how to profit from a list, and then promote
the eBook as the “how to build the list.”

See how easy this is?

That’s how it works. Determine what your “useful, but incomplete”
approach will be, and then…

3. TURN YOUR APPROACH INTO A TIPS OR TUTORIAL ARTICLE.

Let’s use my example again. I decided that I would describe various uses of autoresponders and how the reader can actually profit from them. What kind of tips list or tutorial could I create?

* How to Generate More Subscribers, Sales and Profits With
Automated Follow-Up Messages”

* 7 Powerful And Profitable Ways To Use Autoresponders To Skyrocket
Your Sales and Subscribers!

* Want to Increase Your Online Profits And Leads? Here are 7 Ways
to Do It…

I actually went with the middle title. I wrote my list of the 7 ideas that I wanted to share. And I had the makings of a perfect article to promote an offer.

That’s all you need to do. Determine your end result. Decide how to get there with your “useful, but incomplete” approach. And then develop a list, or even a step-by-step tutorial for your article that leads the reader along.

With each new “idea” or “way” or “tip” or “step” or “strategy” that you share, you can further direct the reader towards realizing their need of your upcoming offer, and lay the foundation for them to accept the offer.

4. EXPAND ON EACH POINT TO BUILD YOUR CONTENT.

Here’s more of the easy part. Just “fill-in-the-blanks” to complete your article. Write 1-2 short paragraphs for each of your points. Make them good. Provide quality content. The offer you will soon make will see poor results if your information isn’t useful.

Remember, you are trying to presell the reader on the idea that they are going to need your offer. If you don’t provide them with quality information that they WANT to begin using immediately, then why will they want to buy what you are promoting?

Light a fire in them. Motivate them. Challenge them. Give them such nuggets of gold that they want to keep mining until they hit the mother lode!

5. PUT ON THE FINISHING TOUCHES WITH THE “FIVE PILLARS”

There are five things that you should always do to finish up your ezine article. Don’t skip any of them. They are all critical…

* POLISH. Re-read your article. Does it provide information that really is “useful” to the reader? And yet leaves them wanting even more? That’s what you want. Polish it. Put on the wax and make it shine. It has a very specific
purpose — make certain it has the means to achieve it.

* PROMOTE. Use your resource box to promote your offer. This is why we’ve written the article, right? Remember step one? It’s time to put it into play. Give the reader what they (hopefully) are wanting…a way to maximize the information you gave them.

* PROOF. Don’t do this yourself. Have a trusted friend, relative or co-worker check your article for grammatical and typographical errors. The last thing you want to do is present a poor image after sharing some high quality information.

* PUBLISH. Zip your new article out to your favorite list of publishers. Submit it to the announcement lists and the ezine directories. Don’t forget to publish it yourself in your own newsletter!

* PROFIT. If you’ve covered all the bases that I’ve mentioned, then profits are almost certain to start coming in when your ezine article is published. You deserve it. Be proud of your accomplishments.

And then start it all over again!

That’s how you promote your favorite affiliate program in 5 easy steps using ezine articles.

Obviously, there are many other ways to promote your affiliate program, as well as a considerable more “details” in the strategy we’ve looked at today. If you’d like 52 great ways to promote your affiliate link AND complete step-by-step details for each of them, be sure to read the important details below…

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire“, teaching
you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in
only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in
the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!
Visit Affiliatenaire.

…………………….

Is An Easy Site Builder for You?

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

I got an email from a customer the other day that I thought would be helpful to some of you. If you’re looking to build a website and haven’t decided on which tool to use it might give you some direction.

I just started a new site on Internet Based Family, but I’m finding that I can’t do the things I want with it–like HTML version newsletters and placing ads and/or banners along the margins or even in sections of the page. I think this is due to the limitation of the site builder program.

Now, I’m looking into Mom Webs. It looks like it would give me more features that I want.

I do well learning new programs on the computer even though I don’t know HTML.

Do you think Mom Webs would be a better choice for me?

The Easy Site Builder can be somewhat limiting. Of course, it’s a great fit for certain people. More on that later.

First, it’s important to explain that MomWebs is a webhost – meaning they just host your files on the internet, they provide web space for your website.

You still have to figure out how you’re actually going to build and manage your site.

Wordpress is my website building tool of choice. I’m using it for all my sites now. It’s easy to use and adding content is a breeze.

However, if you’re not comfortable with the technical aspects of installing Wordpress and fiddling with the code that runs Wordpress, you might want someone else to build it. I use FreshNets for my Wordpress work and highly recommend their services.

Does That Mean Site Builders Are Bad?

Not at all.

Different tools are right for different jobs.Bucket Buddy

I still recommend the Internet Based Family site builder to certain people.

For instance, someone who has an offline business who just wants a good looking website to display their contact info, services, directions, about page, maybe a few articles.

It’s perfect for this type of business owner because they don’t have to wait on someone else to add a page to their site.

I run into this all the time – people pay thousands of dollars to have a beautiful site built, and then have to wait a month for someone to update their site when their business hours change or they need to make some quick, simple update to their site. Why wait and pay for someone else to do this?

It’s also risky not to OWN your domain and site, which may be the case if you hire it out to a web developer.

For online business owners though, it’s limiting, which is why I recommend WordPress exclusively for people who want to build an online business.

Different tools for different needs.

Creative Commons License photo credit: tornatore