Fishing for traffic? Try this one...

If you were fishing for Barracuda you wouldn�t go to the Arctic, would you?

And you wouldn�t try to find many Killer Whales on the Equator either, would you?

So, if you�re marketing your site to other Marketers and Opportunity Seekers where do you think you should advertise?

Where is the place you�re likely to get best response?

Yep, you�re right! You�d go wherever other marketers are advertising and viewing websites. Wouldn�t you?

So, I�ve found this new site that delivers a torrent of targeted traffic for online marketers. It�s called Traffic-Splash and they also provide promotional tools to help you build your business.

You can join for free and this gives you the ability to generate up to 250 hits an hour to your sites or you can upgrade and generate up to 750 hits an hour.

They have a special half-price offer for now, where you can upgrade at half-price ($4.98 a month), earning 50% on all your referrals and any random referrals that the owners generate for you too.

The traffic is all well targeted, I�ve not found any cold barracuda yet, so I�m very pleased with the results so far!

I think you�ll be pleased too. Check it out.
http://traffic-splash.com/index.php?referer=Mommytyme

Happy Fishing!

Warm Regards
Valerie

PS What�s warm and wet and puts floods of eyeballs on your site? Only way you�re gonna find out is by checking out the promotional tools at http://traffic-splash.com/index.php?referer=Mommytyme

Mommy's Reviews you can Use: Pursuit of Handmade!

Mommy's Reviews you can Use: Pursuit of Handmade!

5 Keys to Selling Success...

5 Keys to Creating Websites that Sell

Your business website is essentially your storefront, business card and most significant marketing piece all rolled into one. How it affects your visitors and customers is then essential to your success. Provide a memorable experience and customers are sure to return time and time again. Let’s take a look at five keys to creating a website that sells.

Key #1 Make your website interactive.

As the internet continues to grow and evolve it’s becoming more important to create a community around your business. To accomplish this you want to engage your visitors and customers. This can be accomplished a number of ways. You can:

* Provide a forum
* Post surveys or polls
* Enable visitors and customers to review or rank items. For example a “How valuable was this article?” question and a scale of 1 to 5 stars or a ranking from 1-10.
* Offer a blog and inspire comments and feedback
* Host contests and sweepstakes
* Publish video and audio content as well as written content. This gives users another way to access you and your personality.

Key #2 Make sure your website provides value.

People go online for a number of reasons. They go online to research a potential purchase, to seek solutions for a problem they’re having and to be entertained. If your website provides all three; products, information, and entertainment then you’re in tip top shape. The good news is your content can provide both the information and the entertainment and when written well, can also inspire purchases. Here are a few ideas to provide value for your customers and prospects:

* How to articles, videos, and audio
* Tips articles, videos, and audio
* Case studies
* Workbooks and reports
* Interviews with experts
* Product reviews


Key #3 Make sure your website is easy to navigate.

It takes a visitor about 20 seconds to make a decision about whether they’re going to stay on your website or click away. If your site is laid out nicely, with products and services, information, prices, FAQs, and content easy to find then people are more likely to hang out – the longer they stay on your site the more likely they are to make a purchase or to return again.

To make your site easy to navigate consider:
* Keeping your site simple.
* Keep your pages uniform with the same options and appearance.
* If you have a lot of content, great! Use drop down menus and organize your content by topic for easier access.
* Offer a search function where users can search for products, services, or content topics quickly and easily.
* Provide a way for users to easily go back to previous pages. A back key is an option however if every page has the same options and drop down menus, including the ability to quickly return to the home page, a visitor will always be able to find what they need.
* Test your website’s appearance on different browsers to make sure every visitor has a good experience.
Key #4 Make your website easy on the eyes.

Ever visit a website and the text was so small or the colors so incompatible that you couldn’t read a word? Readability is critical to a selling website. Make sure:

* Your colors are easy on the eyes,
* Your graphics aren’t distracting
* And keep formatting like underlining, bold and italics to a minimum.
* Spacing between sentences and paragraphs is adequate
* Font size is large enough for people to read and font is easy to read


Key #5 Give them a soft sell.

People expect to be sold to and they’re looking for it – they’re wary. Instead of hitting website visitors with a hard sell, provide information, solve their problems and show them the benefits of your products or services. They’ll be much more receptive and appreciative.

Creating a website that sells requires a structured approach and a desire to create the best experience possible for your visitors. Once you’ve created your website, consider testing it and asking associates, friends and family for their opinion.



Now that you have read this... What do you think? Do you agree? What are some tips you can offer your fellow handmade vendors? Feel free to share! Do you have a blog that promotes and helps other Etsy, Zibbet, Winkelf, Artfire, etc. Sellers? Well, post it here! The more information we all have, the better equipped we are to take on the challenge of making it in our own biz...

reBlog from Mommy Tyme: Mommy's Reviews you can Use

I found this fascinating quote today:

Do you create any of these items? Do you create something that can benefit these items? Do you create the supplies used to Make these items? if so, post your comment describing why your items are special along with the URL to your shop! I will show you off for our Purses Page!Mommy Tyme, Mommy's Reviews you can Use, Feb 2010

You should read the whole article.

How to Earn Slide up Ads? Do they work?

Over the years, we've all been taught that the best way to grow a sizeable mailing list is to give our visitors a great offer they can't say no to. And the most common way to attract more traffic and readers is to pay or trade with another marketer to have a popup window or hover ad on their site with your offer and hope that the visitors will be intrigued enough to sign up.

But more recently, we're learning that popup ads, hover ads and all those other gimmicks are simply driving visitors AWAY and leaving us with no sales and an unresponsive list.

Until now, there wasn't a sure-fire way to get your ad noticed without getting on people's nerves. One ad network is looking to change that - and do it all for free.

It's called SlideUpAds - http://www.SlideUpAds.com/4326

SlideUpAds is a unique, eye-catching way to advertise your site across an entire network without having to resort to distracting popups or banners.

With SlideUpAds, your ad appears at the bottom frame of the user's screen, so they can still scroll on the web page without being interrupted on whatever they're viewing. Since your ad slides up from the bottom gradually (and quickly), it's more likely to get noticed without being distracting and abruptly closed.

SlideUpAds costs nothing to join and there's no charge for any advertising. You simply fill out a short form and get the details of your account, then upload your ad and you're ready to go! It's simple and straightforward and most ads can be online within a few minutes.

For a limited time, SlideUpAds is also opening the doors to what they call a
"Viral Marketing Avalanche". If you refer a friend and THEY join, you get 100% of that person's credits. If your friend refers a friend, you get 100% of THEIR credits too! Of course, your friends still get to keep their credits, but it's like getting double or even triple the exposure without doing any extra work!

Many people are reporting terrific success with SlideUpAds, particularly where popups and hover ads simply haven't performed well in the past. Consider testing your current opt-in form with SlideUpAds and gauge the response for yourself - you may be pleasantly surprised at the results!

To learn more, visit http://www.SlideUpAds.com/4326 - it's free to join and there's no membership fee.

http://www.SlideUpAds.com/4326

Free advertising? Email marketing? Leads to your shop?

One of the reasons I created this blog was to review and discuss all the many advertising, promotional and marketing services available.  As you know, there are thousands- and the process of trying to find the right fit for you can be overwhelming!  I have learned by trial and error which ones work, and which ones are a con!

One that I have been pretty pleased with is Advertyze!  You receive 50 free email marketing ads each week- as a free member.  You can increase these with upgrade to your membership, but for a small biz... 50 may be just the right amount for you!  I had signed up several months ago, but did not have time to really explore Advertyze until now.  It is really easy to use, no tricky sign ups, no forced affiliate marketing, and no email inbox overload!  In fact, the same day I signed up I had access to my first week's advertisement.  So, it is quick, easy, no strings, and really worth a moment of your time!

Have you tried Advertyze?  If so, love to hear your thoughts.  I will give you an update in a week or two of how it has helped, if it helps, my website and sales!  For now, if you would like to give it a try... here is the link

http://www.advertyze.com/members/go.php?r=12736