When people think about the Internet, they think about technology. When people hear that I am a Website strategy expert, they see me as a “techy type”.

But for me, the most intriguing aspect of your online business isn’t about the technology. It’s about human connections, and how you can create these in a virtual environment.

It’s commonly understood that “people buy emotionally, not intellectually.” Even when people think they’re making a rational decision, powerful subconscious factors come into play. To sell effectively, we’re told to anticipate our customers’ needs, to demonstrate that we “feel their pain”, and to respond to clues in their body language and tone of voice.

In the “real world” we do this very well. And we know that if we can have a direct, in-person conversation, there’s a pretty good chance that we’ll close the sale or keep a happy customer.

For the online visitor, your Website is the next best thing to that in-person conversation with you, your colleagues or employees. And since so many people are researching products and services on the Web, it’s critical that your site has maximum impact in persuading them to take the next step with you.

So how does your Website connect emotionally with your visitors? Do they feel listened to, understood and appreciated by your Internet presence? Are you instinctively meeting their real needs? Do your existing customers feel supported and valued when interacting with you online?

Or are you failing to evoke the crucial emotional responses which can significantly enhance your response rates, sales and ongoing return on your Web investment?

The Critical Emotions for Website Success

I’ve been working with client Web strategies in a wide range of industries since 1995. Based on this experience, I’ve identified some key emotions that you need to evoke in your online visitors to create and sustain a profitable relationship.

How well your Website does this can have a major effect on the visceral, instinctive reactions of your visitors, and their propensity to buy from or connect with you.

In total, I have twenty criteria for emotional connectedness that I suggest for any Website. That’s too many to discuss in this article, but let’s look at a few highlights:

Do I Feel Recognized?

When we first meet in a business setting, we’re introduced, or we introduce ourselves with some statement about what we do, and why we should connect with each other.

When we talk with customers or prospects, it’s important to show very quickly that we understand their issues and needs, and that we have ideas and solutions to address these.

The most important task for your home page is to accomplish this initial introduction. You’ve heard the “ten-second” rule about how long a visitor will stay on a site that doesn’t engage them.

So, does your home page really tell me what you do? Does it speak to me in specific terms that make very clear what services you provide, and what type of customers or clients you work with? Does it use language that I’ll understand even if I don’t know the jargon of your industry or specialization?

Sounds simple?

There are astounding numbers of Websites that fail to provide basic information on the home page.

If your goal is to get the customer to visit your store, does your home page clearly show your location, and how to get there? Every time you force the visitor to make a decision, such as “Do I click on the Contact Us page to find their address?”, you open up the possibility that they’ll make the wrong choice (from your viewpoint), or worse still, they’ll just leave.

And is it clear to me whether you can – or would want to – help me? Are you geared towards corporate bulk buyers, or small businesses, or both? Do you operate nationally or only in your immediate location? Will your visitors know what you mean by generic terms such as “business systems” or “total business solutions” or should you be more specific as to what you offer?
Do I Feel Engaged?

As we continue our “real-world” conversation, we start to find common points of interest, whether personal or professional. We begin to feel that we can relate with each other, and this helps to build our business relationship.

So your Website has to make the visitor feel drawn in – that they want to know more about your business, your products and your services – but again, from the viewpoint of their needs and interests. And you have to give the visitor a clear sense that you want to find those points of connection, and to learn more about them.

If the visitor doesn’t feel invited in, if they feel left to themselves to find their way around – if they’re overwhelmed, confused, or simply not interested in your site, they’ll leave.

Does your site present a bewildering array of manufacturers, products, or options without any guidance as to selecting from these? Think about the conversation that you’d have with a customer in your store. You’d find out what they were looking for, and then you’d ask a number of questions to help them find the right solution for their needs.

So how can you mirror this process online? You could offer a “Help Me” page that guides visitors through some Frequently Asked Questions or other choices and provides links to recommended products based on their answers. You could incorporate an interactive chat facility with a customer service agent during office hours, or access to a searchable knowledge base.
Do I Feel Convinced?

If the visitor is seeing your business for the first time, they need to be comfortable that you are who you say you are, and that you can deliver what you promise.

One of the most important elements in establishing this part of the connection is to show the “faces” of your business. Have you noticed how many Websites don’t name any of their owners, or the people that customers will interact with? It’s much easier to have a conversation when I know who I’m talking to!

Customer testimonials and other third-party endorsements are critical elements in establishing trust – they say far more about you than your own marketing statements. How many sites have we all seen that trumpet “nationally recognized” or “premier provider . . .”? Prove it!

Include client quotes and success stories right across your site where they’re front and center as visitors are engaged in your content. If you win an award, tell the visitor what that means for them in terms of how you were evaluated.
Do I Feel Motivated?

Towards the end of our “real-world” conversation, we’ll hopefully close a sale, or we’ll talk about some next steps, or we might say “Let’s stay in touch”. To do that with our online visitor, we need to persuade them to buy something, or to tell us who they are, and give us permission to reconnect with them.

Too many Web pages tail off with no call to action or directions about where to go next. If you don’t issue a clear invitation, you again leave it to the visitor to work out what to do – and you run a big risk of losing them.

So at every point on every page where the visitor might be thinking “Tell me more”, or “How do I get this?”, provide a clickable link to the next step, to your shopping cart, to your newsletter subscription page, or to whatever you want them to do. Don’t wait until the end of the page – they may never get there! Look for the emotional “tipping points” on every page where they’re ready to talk more with you and grab them in the moment!

Diluting the Connection

Of course, it’s all too easy to undo all the good feeling that we create by frustrating or annoying the visitor, or simply by giving them a dead end.

One of my favorite bugbears is the site search engine that allows me to enter my query, and then tells me “No results found. Please try again with different search terms”.

How is that supposed to make me feel? What was wrong with my keywords or my parameters if the search page allowed me to select them? Am I being stupid? Or do you really not want to help me?

Your visitor is clearly looking for something, and has taken a step towards connecting with you. So how about a results page that lets them know that you can’t immediately answer their question, but offers a link to your contact form so that they can send a question, or some tips or suggestions on how to find more information.

The ultimate customer service feature is an opportunity to interact with a live assistant – if your site offers this utility, the search results page is a perfect place to maximize its visibility.

So how “Emotionally Connected” is your Website?

I hope that I’ve sparked your curiosity enough to take a fresh look at your Website.

Think about specifically why visitors are coming to your site, what might be on their minds, and review your copy and navigation accordingly. Think about new customers and existing ones, employees, media – everyone who might have a reason to visit. Are you doing everything that you can to create an “emotionally connected” experience for everyone?

The right mix will gain you significantly higher time spent on your site, more calls from pre-qualified leads, more signed contracts, happier repeat customers, attention from new markets, offers of strategic alliances and collaborations, and insights into creating successful new products and services.

(c) Philippa Gamse, 2005. All rights reserved.

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. How does your site rate against Philippa’s twenty “emotionally connected” criteria? Visit www.CyberSpeaker.com/ to find out. Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317 or mailto:pgamse@CyberSpeaker.com

You may have noticed lately that at some golf courses the starter and will a point of asking, or sometimes even suggesting which tee box golfers will be using during their round. With the growing popularity of golf and more golfers on many Niagara courses, you should soon expect to be advised about hitting from the proper tee boxes, But there is more to this trend than accommodating the masses.

Because slow play has become a concern for course managers and players alike, it only makes sense to take practical steps to speed up play and shorten the time it takes for a round of golf. There are many proven ways to speed up play, but enforcing the use of the skills- appropriate tee boxes – be they red, white, blue, gold or black – mightverywell be the simplest and most effective.

Slow play is not the only reason that every golfer should play the course at a length in keeping with their own abilities. Shorter hitters teeing oft from markers too far back will necessarily take more shots, encounter more hazards, incur more penalties, lose more balls, spend more time searching for balls, and require more time to complete their rounds. How much fun can that be? Scores balloon, handicaps soar and sandbaggers are born.

Here’s the thing – many players automatically play the white tees, for example, without giving a thought to the length of the white course. That’s a mistake. Here in Niagara, for instance, the white yardages range from 6,494 yards at International (R&B nines) to 6,181 yards at the Links of Niagara at Willodell (about the Niagara average), and down to 5,312 yards at Water Park. A mid-handicapper might struggle with the length of one course off the whites but master a shorter course playing from the same set of tees.

Instead, each player should play from the tees that most closely correspond to their comfort zone. That may very well mean playing the whites at course A, the blues at course B, maybe even the blacks or reds at course C. Although it seems a good idea, there is no standardization of tee colours with corresponding course lengths. Course handicap and slope ratings are calculations intended to equalize courses based on their length, contours, hazards, greens, trees, etc. – on a scorecard or in a computer, not on the course!

Working at stretching your game a bit by playing somewhat longer, more challenging courses or from tees a bit further back should not come at the expense of golfers playing behind you. While real improvements can only come en the course, the place to practice is the driving range. Choose a golf course that is in, keeping with your handicap, length off the tee, and the pace at which you play. By doing so, the game will be more enloyable. more clubs and shots will come into play, course management skills will improve, a round of golf will take a little less time, and friendly competitions and handicap play can be more fairly conducted.

Bill Rivers is an accomplished writer on outdoor subjects such as golf and fishing. Bill has many articles and course profiles on his Golf Tourism website – http://www.teeingitup.com

If you have ever traveled alone then you know that there are both great things about it, as well as not so great things. One of the positives from traveling alone is that you can go anywhere you want and at anytime that you want, there is no one else with you so you don’t have to think about anything other than what and where you want to go. Traveling alone can give you a lot of time to yourself, and you can really gather all of your thoughts and feelings and get to know yourself better.

Traveling with a friend or group of friends means more people making decisions. If you are on a trip to the South Pacific with four of your best friends, then wherever you go and whatever you do is a group thing, everyone agrees where to go and what to do. For instance, if there is a hike scheduled, then everyone goes, if there is a bike ride, then everyone goes. Someone could stay behind, but that is no fun.

Traveling with friends means spending less, there are so many places that discount group rates. It also means more time talking and socializing. Packing for the trip can be different whether you travel alone or with friends, but bringing the Acceletrim weight loss product with you either way will help you keep your energy up on the trip and keep you feeling your best. Traveling is fun either way, whether alone or with friends, maybe try both and see which one you enjoyed the most.

Webmasters and the New Year

It’s a time of year when people think about goals for the future. As webmasters of revenue-generating websites, we have these goals in common:

- Attract more visitors to our sites – Convert more visitors to customers – Keep those customers coming back

What worked last year or the year before might be less successful this year. The playing field changes, and the rules of the game can also change. What should we be looking at for 2006?

Attracting more visitors to our sites

First, take a look at how well your site is doing.

- Are you targeting keyword phrases that people are searching for these days? – Have you studied what your competitors are doing recently? – How many inbound links from quality, related sites do you currently have? – Has your SERP or Google PR changed?

With some do-it-yourself search optimization tools http://articles.websitesource.com/seo_do_it_yourself_8_16_2005.sh tml, you can check your site’s position in search engines, view its current Google PR, see what words your competitors’ sites are optimized for, find out where your site is ranked for search terms, analyze inbound links to competitors’ sites, and more. Your site may have been the “it” site for your product or service a couple of years ago, but if you haven’t at least kept up with your competitors, potential customers might not make it to your site.

Acquiring inbound links is an ongoing job. If you haven’t worked on this aspect of SEO recently, some newer sites are probably good candidates for a link exchange or one-way links to your site. Start by looking at who’s linking to your competitors’ sites, and look for other sites with related but not competing content.

Also consider the geographical areas you’re targeting. To attract more local visitors, get your site listed in local directories and put the name of your city and country in the <title> tag, at least for the Contact page. To attract more international customers, look for listings in international directories, and offer pricing in more than one currency if possible.

Converting more visitors to customers

You’ve got people coming to your site. Are they buying from you? If not, why not?

Try to look at your site with fresh eyes. Better yet, get someone else to. Do the colors and design look dated? Does the page look good in newer, larger monitors as well as smaller ones? An updated design may be what your site needs to keep it looking like a quality contender in your field.

Analyze your traffic stats. If you have a lot of visitors who don’t click beyond the landing page, either you aren’t targeting the right visitors or they aren’t drawn in once they arrive. On the other hand, if your visitors typically view a number of pages and then leave, perhaps the path of information and action isn’t clear enough. Or there may be another problem with your site that’s turning people off.

Of course, the above must be compared with the number of returning visitors. Consumers typically visit a site about three times before buying.

Follow the path from arriving at the site — on any page — to reading about a product or service, finding more information, and placing an order. Is the path easy to follow? Do all the links work? If you have another person looking at your site, watch that person’s eye movement, observe if any pauses suggest confusion, and listen to the commentary and questions.

Check that the content is current. If you still advertise a special that expired two months ago, for example, it looks like no one is attending to the business.

Do you offer as many payment options as possible? Perhaps you couldn’t afford a merchant account to accept credit card payments when you were starting out, but you can now. If visitors often get to the point of sale and then leave, a lack of payment choices that suit them may be the reason.

Keeping customers coming back

Think about your successes over the past year. What products or services were the most popular? How did people find out about them? What positive feedback did you receive? Use all of that information to make your strengths even better.

If you received any negative feedback, look at it as an opportunity to improve your service or product line.

An opt-in mailing list or newsletter is a low-cost, effective way to keep your company name in your customers’ minds. During the order process, provide a check box for customers to choose if they want to receive mailings from you. If they choose yes, you have their permission to send them information about specials, new products, and other news.

People online are becoming increasingly annoyed by spam and aware of privacy issues. Your website should include a privacy policy, and your mailings should include a link for recipients to unsubscribe if they want to. Don’t send out regular mailings more than once a month, and provide information that’s useful to the recipients.

Content 2006-style

Regular new, quality content attracts more visitors to your site and provides a reason to come back. Once thought of as a fad for personal sites, increasingly more businesses are adding blogs to their websites. Blogs provide a less formal medium to convey information, people can subscribe to them and be notified when they have new content, and they keep search engine spiders coming back whenever you add new content. With thousands of new blogs starting up every day, blogs are the wave of the future.

In this blog, we’ll be discussing what’s new and useful for webmasters and for people who spend a lot of time online. We invite you to stay tuned.

F1 driver Schumacher announced his retirement this season, “It depends on how competitive we are” Schumacher said who has five straight world titles, and who has struggled to compete with F1 drivers Alonso’s Renault and Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren-Mercedes.

Midpoint race is the United States Grand Prix on July 2nd; Schumacher wants at least to be in a good position able to win if possible.

Michael finished third in the 2005 season, 71 points behind F1 driver Alonso, Schumacher has denied reports that said he may move to another team. Schumacher’s future will be with Ferrari looking to win the world championship.

Making a fresh start after a recent bankruptcy is the best approach for
rebuilding your credit history. Filing bankruptcy will result in a
negative credit rating, and make it more difficult to achieve great
financing rates. However, this situation can be temporary. After a bankruptcy,
you should be eager to improve your rating. Those who act quickly to
boost their credit score can expect a higher credit rating in as little
as one year.

How a Bankruptcy Affects Your Credit

The average credit score falls below 600 following a bankruptcy. In
some instances, scores are much lower, perhaps below 500. The only way to
improve your score is to establish new credit accounts. Realistically,
this is hard to do. Lenders who review your credit application will
notice a recent bankruptcy. Hence, applications for personal loans, credit
cards, etc may be denied.

Getting a Home Equity Loan after Bankruptcy

The easiest type of credit to obtain following a bankruptcy involves
loans that are secured by collateral. For example, a secured credit card,
auto loan, mortgage, etc. With this said, those hoping to improve their
credit after bankruptcy may attempt to acquire a home equity loan.

Home equity loans are based on the equity you have built in your home,
and are secured by the property. Homeowners get these loans as a means
of financing home improvement projects, debt consolidations, college
tuition, etc. The amount a homeowner obtains varies. However, the loan
cannot exceed the total equity amount. If you have recently had a
bankruptcy discharged, these loan may help improve your credit score.

Ways to Use a Home Equity Loan to Improve Credit

Visit www.abcloanguide.com to find a list of reputable
online lenders for a home equity loan after bankruptcy. If getting a
home equity loan, there are many options available to you.
Homeowners may actually use the money to finance a large expense, and
repay the loan. On the other hand, homeowners may choose not to spend
the money.

Instead, the funds can be placed in a savings account. In turn, the
home equity loan is repaid using the original funds. After a few months,
the homeowners may choose to completely payoff the home equity loan.
Once the loan balance is paid in full, this will reflect positively on
your credit report, and increase your score.

View our recommended after bankruptcy home equity loan lenders online.

Also, visit ABC Loan Guide to view our recommended sources for a free trans union, experian and equifax credit report.

The father of basketball, Dr. James Naismith came up with the game in 1892 and the first game was played in Beaver Falls Pennsylvania on April 8 1893 between the New Brighton YMCA and the Geneva College. The game was very popular and by 1914 as many as 360 colleges boasted basketball teams. In 1939, the first NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship tournament was held which was won by the University of Oregon.

The formation of Pro basketball in 1896 came about from a dispute between YMCA team members and officials and ended in the members forming a professional team that played for money. In 1898, the NBL (National Basketball League) was formed and produced the first basketball stars – Ed Wachter and Barney Sedran.

The first two professional basketball teams to achieve success were the Buffalo Germans and the Celtics but during the 1930’s favorites included the New York Renaissance and the Harlem Globetrotters. During this time, womens basketball was also popular and produced great players such as Babe Didrikson and Alline Banks Sprouse.

In 1940, the first college basketball game was shown on TV. This game was played between Pittsburgh and Fordham at Madison Square Garden, and catapulted basketball into a national sensation. Since then basketball has been one of the most watched sports and in fact the March Madness, when almost 350 American colleges compete for the NCAA basketball crown is the most watched event in the United States.

In Pro basketball during the 1940’s and 50’s the Minneapolis Lakers were a huge favorite of many winning 5 NBA championship titles and producing starts like Bob Cousy and Bob Pettit. But during the late 1950’s up until 1969, the Celtics had the court winning 11 NBA titles (8 f them right in a row). During this era favorite players included Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlin of the Philadelphia Warriors.

During 1963 to 1975 The University of California, Los Angeles was in the spotlight winning 10 national championships, including seven in a row. Some of the great players of this UCLA team include Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jamaal Wilkes, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich and Marques Johnson.

In 1967 the American Basketball Association (ABA) was formed and many will remember one of the satart players Julius Erving as well as their red white and blue basketballs. The ABA only lasted until 1976 when it broke up and many of the teams joined the NBA.

In the 1960’s, womens basketball introduced the 5 player full court format and made dribbling fully legal but it wasn’t until 1985 that the Basketball Hall of Fame began inducting woman coaches and players. Some of the first women to get this honor include Carol Blazejowski, Ann Meyers, Cheryl Miller; Nancy Lieberman-Cline and Anne Donovan.

In the late 1970’s start players like Larry Bird of Indiana State University and Michigan State Universities Magic Johnson emerged and the late 1980s saw such major players as Isiah Thomas and Dennis Rodman. But perhaps the most beloved player of all is Michael Jordan who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships in the 1990s.

Are you building a direct sales or mlm business online? Using lead capture pages can significantly improve your recruiting results and save you lots of time and money! I have known a few people who earned 5-figure monthly incomes in their mlm businesses and they used lead capture pages for Internet marketing.

What is a lead capture page?

A lead capture page is similar to a minisite in that it is a simple, one page website that leads your visitor to take ONE action…opting in to your mailing list to receive more information about your business opportunity or product.

What are the advantages of lead capture pages?

Many people are using replicated, company provided websites, but those are ineffective. They bunch the business opportunity together with the product information, and they give the prospect too much information that causes them to make a decision against the company too quickly. They rarely have a strong call to action, and most don’t have a way to keep in contact with the visitor…and “dripping” information over a period of time is THE way to recruit for an mlm opportunity.

They’re also an inexpensive alternative for people who want to build their mlm online but don’t want to create their own website.

In addition, your business is not right for everyone, but your visitor may be perfect for your product. You can build two separate lead capture pages…one for product, one for biz op, and market them appropriately for greater profitability.

Lead capture pages save you tons of time and money!

How so? Because the prospect will be opting in to your autoresponder- a series of email messages providing info about your company that you write at one time but that are sent out, automatically, to every prospect! It’s “set it and forget it”. How’s that for working once and getting paid again and again?

Lead capture pages are very inexpensive to build. It’s also much more cost effective to market with them than to buy overpriced “leads” that are sometimes collected in dubious manner and sold to who knows how many other network marketers.

My recommendation?

I recommend you look into Ez MLM Lead Capture Pages at http://www.business-moms-expo.com/lead_capture_pages.html for a very low cost professionally designed lead capture page today!

Carrie Lauth is a work at home Mom of 3 (with the 4th currently downloading) who publishes a newsletter for Moms doing direct sales on the Net. Grab your free copy plus extra subscriber goodies at http://www.business-moms-expo.com

Fitness guru, Tony Little, designed the Gazelle Cross Trainer Pro. This fitness machine is one of his latest models of Gazelle trainers. It was designed to offer an aerobic style work out that provides both upper and lower body muscle toning. This resistance-training machine is great for strength training too. It is effective for all levels of fitness and it offers a low impact work out, so it is easy on the joints, knees and ankles as well. The Gazelle Cross Trainer Pro also provides an excellent cardiovascular work out.

The Gazelle was designed with the technology to mimic natural walking or running, only it is suspended in mid-air and your feet actually remain on the foot platforms. This helps to reduce the impact on your joints.

Other features that come standard with the Gazelle Cross Trainer Pro are:

* Foam covered handlebars made for comfort and durability.
* Constructed of lasting, durable steel.
* Weight capacity is 300lbs, whereas most fitness machines offer 250 lb weight capacity.
* Attached water bottle for convenience.
* Manufacturer warranty for 1 year.

The Gazelle Cross Trainer Pro has the patented Dual Pivot System and Independent foot action, which makes it so that your legs and feet have a greater range of motion and freedom. Another detail is the Bi-directional hydraulic resistance. This makes the work out more challenging. The computer system on the Gazelle Cross Trainer Pro helps you record your distance, time, calories burned and heart rate.
And one unique characteristic with this fitness trainer is that is folds up for easy storage.

About the Author

Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Elliptical-Trainer-Solutions.com. He provides more elliptical trainer ratings, rankings and elliptical trainer reviews that you can research in your pajamas on his website.

What does a high traffic marketing article look like? Actually most web site or blog site owners have no idea and wouldn’t recognize one, even if it walked right past them.

Yet the World Wide Web registers every month, quite a huge number of high traffic marketing articles that attract search engine traffic that runs into the millions.

A high traffic marketing article will tend to be a keyword-rich article based on popular keywords searched often in leading search engines. To create this kind of high traffic marketing article, calls for the use of carefully selected popular keyword phrases that are bast suited for your site based on a number of factors. This includes how the particular site in question is ranked. The lower ranked a site is, the less competitive keyword phrases that have to be selected.

There is another type of high traffic marketing article that will usually not feature highly at search engines but will enjoy huge traffic via the numerous links pointed at it. This kind of article is usually created with the idea of attracting as many links as possible. There is even a name for this kind of high traffic marketing article. It is often referred to as a link-baiting article.

Creating high traffic marketing articles is a sure way to attract targeted constant visitors to any web site.

Get more information now to help you grow your traffic overnight using articles. See my articles marketing blog or get my high value email newsletter on the same subject, send a blank Email Now to get it Free. This is a limited time offer.