A few weeks ago I was talking to a client about his website and had agreed to take a brief look at it to give my overall opinion.  I happened to be on my Mac and using the Safari browser at the time, and when I clicked on to the site it was a complete mess!

Tables were skewed, pictures half covered up, the drop down navigation didn’t work, etc.

I actually thought this guy was playing a trick on me — no one would EVER take this site seriously.

When I commented to the client that his little joke was “very funny,” I quickly found out that this was no joke.  That was his REAL site.

After talking to him a few minutes and pulling the site up in other browsers, it didn’t take too long to figure out that he was having some serious browser compatibility problems.  He had built the site for Internet Explorer, and it was a work of art in that browser platform, but it was all messed up on nearly every other browser I tried.

Despite all the advances of internet technology, all browsers are still not created equal when it comes to how your site is viewed.  Browser incompatibility represents a huge challenge for anyone building a website.  Browser compatibility issues can affect your images, JavaScript functions, style sheets, links, navigation, and page layout.

AND it can totally kill your website profits and subscription rates!

Internet explorer, for example, tries to figure out what you meant to put in your code and fills in the blanks.  In other words, if you’ve used incorrect HTML code in your webpage, Explorer will try to make the corrections or fill in the blanks resulting in a page layout that may not be what you intended.

So obviously, you’ve got to address this issue with your website — Which can be a total pain in the rear.

Your first stop should be to check your website in a variety of browsers.  There’s three ways you can go about checking browser compatibility:

1.  Download and install all those browsers onto your computer and view your website in each browser.  This would be a total pain in the neck and totally unnecessary.

2.  Purchase browser compatibility software or a service.  There are lots of great services out there to choose from if you Google it.  I wouldn’t suggest this option unless you have a lot of websites or your build websites for your clients.

3.  Use a free service online like www.browsershots.org.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you don’t really need to check your website in every browser in existence on the planet — that would be ridiculous!

The last time I checked, 99.2% of internet users only used seven browsers:

• Internet Explorer 6- 14.9%
• Internet Exploere 7 – 18.7%
• Internet Exploere 8 – 7.1%
• Firefox – 47.3%
• Google Chrome – 6%
• Safari – 3.1%
• Opera – 2.1%

Of course, these numbers change as new browsers come on the market, but it’s a pretty good place to start.

So I guess that I’m suggesting that even though technology continues to improve, browser compatibility STILL matters and you should definitely check your websites for compatibility!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Does Browser Compatibility STILL Matter?

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One of the most difficult challenges you’ll face as an online entrepreneur is pricing your products.  It’s difficult to strike a balance between pricing it high enough to make a good profit and low enough to make sales.

Lowering Your Price To Compete

This is a strategy that a lot of product owners mistakenly try in order to increase sales and gain more customers.  It sounds right — lower your price so that your product is less expensive than your competition.

Unfortunately, this strategy almost never works and will actually result in fewer sales, not more.

People don’t necessarily buy the cheapest product.  They usually buy the product that appears to be the best value for their money.

In addition, lowering your prices means less profit.  Earning less profits per sale may mean that you have a hard time keeping your business afloat.

Here’s a better strategy for pricing your products:

1.  Remain Competitive

You may not want to be the lowest priced product in your niche, but you do want to be competitive.  Take a look at the competition and what they’re offering.

You can’t price your product in a vacuum.

You’re competitors will help to guide you in your own pricing strategy.  You can take a look at the most expensive competitors and the bargain basement competitors and get a pretty good feel for what the market will bare in your industry or niche.

Once you know what your competition is doing, it will be easier to create a pricing strategy that gains a share of the market and creates sales.

2.  Create A Perception Of High Value

The best way to compete on price is to create a higher perceived value of your products compared to your competition.

You may even be able to charge significantly more for your product if you can prove to your potential customers that your product is better than anything else on the market.

The best way to create a higher perceived value is to pile on the bonuses.

Your product may be priced at $97 when the rest of the competition is priced at $47, but if you offer bonuses worth an additional $2,000 you’ll be able to easily convince potential customers that your product is superior.

Perception is everything.

3.  Test Prices

One of the best ways to price your products to compete for massive sales is to test different price points.  There are software products that run on your server that will allow you to test different prices — and they’re well-worth the money.

You’d be surprised how often you can actually charge a lot more for your product than you’d expect.

The idea is to find that “sweet spot” where you’re maximizing profits, not necessarily sales.

Here’s an example:  Let’s say that you can sell 100 ebooks for a $10 dollar profit on each and make $1,000.  You test out different price points and find that you can also sell the same ebook for $50 profit, but you only sell 50 of them instead of 100.  In the first scenario, you’ve made $1,000.  At the higher price, you actually profit $2,500!

Testing is the best way to find the “sweet spot.”

In the end, it’s important to remember that buyers are always much more interested in getting the best value for their money rather than the cheapest product.  Knowing that is how you go about pricing your product to compete for massive sales.

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

If you'd like to get more answers to your online business and internet marketing questions, subscribe to Answers eMagazine now!

Pricing Your Products To Compete For Massive Sales

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Just a quick note today about something really surprising that I discovered this morning when I was looking over my tracking logs.

My purpose was to determine if I’m send out my email messages at the best times for each of my niches. To figure this out, I decided to start by taking a look at my website logs to see what time of day the most people actually visited my website from day to day.

As I started pouring over the statistics for each of my niches, I noticed an interesting and surprising trend…

The highest percentage of visitors to ALL my websites comes at the 1600 hour!

What really surprised me was that the 1600 hour (4:00 in the afternoon) was most popular in both business and non-business niches.

What does this mean?

Initially I was thinking that a 1600 high point made sense because a lot of people are winding down for the day at 4:00 in the afternoon before they head home for the day.  It’s a good time to catch up on email, do a little free surfing, etc.

But then it dawned on me that I’ve got website visitors coming in from all over the world and different time zones.

I even get visitors from Russia and Iran!

They obviously wouldn’t all be winding down their days at 1600 EST.

So that caused me to take a look at what countries my visitors are coming from… and not surprisingly the vast majority of my visitors in all my niches come from the US and Canada (followed closely by UK and Australia) which operate in my time zones.

Bingo!

Now I know the perfect time to send my email messages to my visitors in order to get the maximum click through rate!  It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure it out, just a little statistic sleuthing.

But here’s the really surprising part…

The magic hour for all my niches is 1600.

I don’t really get that because I have websites for stay at home moms, hobby enthusiasts, online business owners, parents, home schoolers, brick and mortar business owners, entrepreneurs, etc., yet the magic hour is still 1600 for all my niches!

What’s even more weird is that when I compare the statistics for different niches, they are nearly identical… usually within a few percentage points of each other.  In other words when I compare the times when people hit my site across different niches, they are nearly identical.

Take a look at the two graphs below taken from two completely different niches.

I’m not sure I understand why, but I can definitely make use of the information.

So, I’m curious… Are you finding that your website has the same magic hour as mine?

Is this just a quirk in my business or does everyone in the English-speaking market have the same magic hour for their websites?

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Surprising Time Tracking Trend

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As you probably already know, personalizing the email subject line with a name increases the response tremendously. It’s something I’ve been doing for years with all my autoresponder messages.

Well, that got me to wondering if it makes a difference exactly where that personalization is placed in the email subject line… so I decided to do some testing.

I tested several of my lists and kept the subject line exactly the same except for the placement of the [firstname]. In other words, I split tested like this:

1. [firstname] Subject line of the email

Email subject line test #1 went out to 50% of my subscribers.

2. Subject line of the email [firstname]

Email subject line test #2 went out to the other 50% of my subscribers (that’s why it’s called a split test – because it’s 50/50).

Here’s my email subject line test results:

Subject line #2 waaay out performed #1… but not in the way that you might think.

Both subject lines had about the same open rate, but subject line #2 averaged a 2% better click through rate. But that wasn’t the number that surprised me.

What really surprised me was that putting the personalization at the beginning of the subject line produced a 1.59% spam complaint rate! Subject line #2, where the [firstname] was at the end of the subject line, resulted in a 0% spam complaint rate.

In other words, split testing showed that putting the [firstname] at the beginning of the email subject line looks more like spam to email recipients… even if it’s an email message (like a newsletter) that they are expecting.

Those results were very surprising to me.

So, as you might imagine, I’ve changed all my subject lines to reflect these results. All the [firstname] tags are at the end of my subject lines.

I wonder if my response would be better with the name in the middle of the subject line? Time for another email split test!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

If you'd like to get more answers to your online business and internet marketing questions, subscribe to Answers eMagazine now!

Surprising Email Subject Line Test Results

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When Aweber first posed the question, “Can you get more readers by displaying your subscriber count,” on their blog, it got me to thinking about some of my niche businesses. I use email marketing extensively in my business, so anything that will increase my subscribers is a good thing.

The general idea here is that you may be able to turn more of your website visitors into subscribers if you can prove to them that many other website visitors have made the same choice. Marc Kline puts it like this:

Just because someone else does something, doesn’t mean you should, does it? Maybe not, but from infancy all the way through adulthood, we take cues from others on what is worth our attention.

To test the theory, Aweber makes it possible to display a chicklet that shows your website visitors how many others are benefiting from your email newsletter… in other words, the chicklet shows your current subscriber count under your subscription form.

It’s a nice little setup because all you have to do is insert the code and Aweber keeps track and maintains your subscriber count for you. No fuss, no hassle.

So I decided to test out the whole social proof theory with a couple of my niche websites that offer newsletters.

To my complete surprise, displaying the subscriber count under the subscription form appears to have increased my subscription rate by 33%!

In fairness, I’ve only been running the chicklet for a month and most of my niches are somewhat cyclical, so it just could be a coincidence… I haven’t suspended the test yet to make sure that the increases are due to the subscriber count display and not to some other factor such as the time of year or other promotions that may increase my subscription rate, but I don’t think this is the case because of the way I tested it.

My results are based on a split test (page A without chicklet and page B with chicklet) and appear to be sound. I don’t think the cyclical nature of the niches in the test really has anything to do with the results and I find the results encouraging so far. Encouraging enough that I’m expanding the test to include more of my niches.

So, why would displaying the subscriber count make more people subscribe themselves?

It really comes down to the whole idea that people prefer to commit to things that others have already committed to and found success. It’s kind of the same idea as putting testimonials on sales pages to show prospects that others have found success with the product and you will too.

Your newsletter or ezine is one of your products, so if you can essentially provide testimony or proof that others have subscribed, it makes sense that it would increase your subscription rate. I agree with Marc Kline when he says:

This social proof might not make everyone want to jump on the bandwagon, but when subscribers are considering why they would want to give up some more time and inbox space to get your email, things like links to a privacy policy and subscriber counts may prove to be the tipping point. Showing your subscriber can help you to boost conversions on your sign up forms.

Anyway you look at it, it’s something worth testing for your own business and it’s another reason why I love Aweber… they are always helping me to be more effective and successful in my email marketing!

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

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Can You Increase Your Subscription Rate With This Simple Chicklet?

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Newsletters and ezines are a fantastic way to follow up with your target audience and keep your business on the tip of their tongue… so to speak.

Marketing a business with email newsletters can benefit your business because the people who sign up for your newsletter want to hear your message, they are already familiar with your products and services, and you can build a lot of rapport with your target audience through a newsletter. In addition, a well-written newsletter provides you with a tremendous amount of credibility. It puts them in a warm, ready to buy, frame of mind.

Most important of all, however, is that newsletters and ezines can create the additional benefit of generating revenue for your business, provided that you don’t practice any of these humongous newsletter mistakes!

Mistake #1: Unprofessional Design

When you’re designing the look and feel of your newsletter or ezine, it’s best to make it look like an integrated component of your business.

Even if you choose to create a newsletter that’s strictly text, there are still things that you can include that will call to mind your website or business to the reader. For example, you could use your business tagline in the beginning of your email message.

In addition to looking like a part of your business, your newsletter should also look clean, easy to read, and well thought out. You don’t want to present a sloppy or unprofessional image to your target audience because it will hurt the revenue generating power of your newsletter and may actually hurt the business itself.

Mistake #2: Misspellings and Bad Grammar

Okay, everyone, including me, makes a spelling mistake or a grammar slip from time to time. But if you make a habit of it with your newsletter or ezine, it won’t be an effective marketing tool for your business. When a potential customer reads a newsletter full of misspellings and bad grammar then may assume that your business is equally sloppy.

In addition, simple spelling and grammar mistakes hurt your credibility with your target audience. If you can’t even spell correctly, what’s to say that they should trust your advice? Perhaps you’re a complete dope… at least your prospects may think it’s possible.

Mistake #3: Blatant Outside Advertising

This one is probably a sore spot with a lot of business owners. Some businesses earn quite a bit of money through outside advertising in their newsletters. It’s a business model that works very well for a lot of businesses, but it’s something to think carefully about.

When you get ready to start your own newsletter or ezine, you should carefully consider the purpose of your newsletter. For example, if your newsletter is designed to spotlight your product and it’s importance in your field, then carrying outside advertising really works counter to that purpose. You would want to point your target to your product and your product alone.

On the other hand, if your newsletter is designed with the sole purpose of generating revenue, then outside advertising might be necessary. Remember, whenever you accept outside advertising into your newsletter or ezine, you are inviting your readers to visit those other website, rather than your own. Therefore, you must determine if outside advertising fits into your overall newsletter model.

Blatant or “in your face” advertising is probably never a good idea, regardless of your newsletter model. It irritates your subscribers and costs you rapport and credibility with them. In my opinion, it’s much better to go with more passive advertising like linking within articles, small graphics, resource boxes, etc.

Mistake #4: Non-Focused Content

This is a humongous mistake that I see email marketers make all the time… sending the wrong kind of content to their target audience. For example, a stock trading newsletter should never send a weight loss article to their target audience unless it directly related to a specific stock. That would be completely ridiculous… but it happens all the time.

Your target audience subscribes to your newsletter because they want to receive information on your niche or business. If you fail to send them the kind of information that they expect, or that you’ve advertised, then you’ve irreparably hurt your own credibility.

Mistake #5: Ineffective Mail Frequency

In order for a newsletter or ezine to be effective in generating revenue or sales for a business, it has to be sent out at regular intervals and often enough to become a good marketing tool.

In my experience, you’ve got to send out a newsletter at least once every two weeks to be effective. You would be better off, however, to send something to your subscribers weekly.

The reason for more frequent contact is so that your subscribers remember you and don’t hit the “spam” button as soon as you send them something. In other words, if you don’t send mailings to your subscribers often enough, then will forget you, they will forget your product, and they will forget that they ever subscribed to your newsletter. All of this works counter to your marketing goals.

Of course, it’s also possible to go too far in the other direction and mail your target audience too often. You should take a look at your overall newsletter goals and your newsletter model to determine how often you should mail your subscribers.

There’s a lot of other mistakes that newsletter and ezine owners make that hurt their business, but these are the really humongous mistakes.

No matter how you approach your newsletter and what newsletter model you choose to employ, your overriding goal should be to put your subscribers in a warm, ready to buy frame of mind. If you do, your list will be more responsive whether you’re marketing your own products, affiliate marketing, or simply selling advertising.

In the end, building rapport, trust, and credibility with your subscribers will generate a substantial amount of revenue for your business.

Post from: Arvada Yates at iMarketingWatch.com

If you'd like to get more answers to your online business and internet marketing questions, subscribe to Answers eMagazine now!

Humongous Newsletter Mistakes

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