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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 18 October 2004
In this issue...
- Online Advertising Opportunities For South West Businesses
- This Fortnight's Question
- Pay Per Click Advertising Gone Crazy
- Top Signs Of Internet Addiction
- Resources For Small Business
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ONLINE ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOUTH WEST BUSINESSES
This one's just for our readers in the south west of Western
Australia. Or those that want to do business there.
South West Life (www.southwestlife.com.au)
has recently launched a wide range of very effective online advertising
options, even for those without websites.
These advertising options are amongst the most cost effective in
the south west, and provide real results for your money. Here are
some of the options:
- ONLINE STORE - First of all, for those businesses in
the south west that don't have a website, they can obtain an online
store, complete with shopping cart and online credit card payments
for only $99 per year. Yes, it's true! While it might normally
cost thousands of dollars to build a website to do this, South
West Life is now able to offer an online store at such a low price
because of technological improvements and systems that have been
developed by SWeCS.
For only $99 per year, a business that produces goods in the south
west can have an online store that includes:
- all of their products listed with photos, description, quantities,
prices, etc
- shopping cart system for customers to browse through and click
on products, adding them to the cart
- shopping cart automatically calculates the total, plus shipping
and GST
- normal payment options are available as standard (eg. cheque,
direct deposit, COD) plus online credit card payment is available
through Paymate.com.au (NOTE: Paymate fees apply)
Not only that, but your store benefits instantly from the traffic
that South West Life already has (over 8,200 subscribers and over
17,000 visitors per month).
The $99 is an introductory price, so be sure to get in quick for
that one.
- DIRECTORY LISTING - For those businesses in the south
west who already have a website, then the South West Life Accommodation
and Business Directory is definitely for you. In response to regular
demand by their visitors, South West Life have created the directory
so that readers can directly view listings of local businesses,
instead of contacting South West Life administration for details
of local services.
The cost of a Directory listing is only $55 per year, and you
get the following:
- A logo or photo
- A description
- Your contact details
- An email link
- A website link
- Statistics on how many times your listing is viewed and your
website link visited
South West Life delivers results due to their high number of visitors
seeking local information
- GENERAL ADVERTISING - South West Life is emailed out
every month to it's 8,200 subscribers, plus the website itself
receives over 500 visitors a day. Gain exposure for your business
through that traffic by taking out a general advertising package
for an edition (1 month). The cost is only $49.50 and you receive
advertising on the home page, a main article page, in the mailouts,
plus you get full statistics on the results of your advertising
- COMPETITION ADVERTISING - Gain even more exposure by
providing a prize for the monthly South West Life competitions.
One of the most popular sections of the site, your business can
receive coverage throughout the site in return for the provision
of a prize
- EVENT ADVERTISING - FREE! - If you've got an event happening
the south west, let everyone know about it for free in the South
West Life calendar
- JOB VACANCIES - FREE! - Advertise your south west job
vacancy for free
And more options are still available! To find out more about any
of these options, visit www.southwestlife.com.au/advertising.htm.
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THIS FORTNIGHT'S QUESTION
This fortnight's question comes from Barry:
"When I view my website statistics, I see that certain
undesirable websites sometimes appear in the list of 'referring
sites'. When I visit those sites I don't see a link to my site anywhere.
Why? "
This is an act of spam by the website because of a mistaken belief
that it will increase their "link popularity" and search
engine ranking. Using software, they send requests to your website
over and over that register as "hits" in your statistics.
This in turn lists their site in your 'referring sites' list. If
your websites openly lists it's website statistics online, this
creates a link back to the spam site. This in turn is supposed to
signify to the search engines that your site links to their site,
thereby increasing their overall "link popularity" and
then search engine ranking.
The plan does not work. Not only do most websites not show their
website stats publicly, most search engines also know to give very
little weight, if any, to links coming from website statistic pages.
So at the end of the day they are wasting their time.
In terms of the effect on your site, there are few. The main one
is that it can effect the accuracy of your website statistics. If
you have regular offenders, there are ways to block them from visiting
your site (depending on your hosting provider). Talk to your webmaster
or hosting company for possible solutions.
Got a question? Send it to us at admin@southwestecommerce.com
and we'll do our best to answer it, as well as publish one every
fortnight for everyone to see.
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PAY PER CLICK ADVERTISING GONE CRAZY
Pay Per Click search engine advertising can be very effective because
you only pay after you get a targetted visitor. But it's always
very important to measure the return on your investment and only
pay what is reasonable.
For many search engine terms you can still get a number 1 position
around Australia, or even the world, for as little as $0.10 per
click. However, there are also many search terms that have been
clearly overdone, and the bidding prices are so high that it's hard
to imagine how anyone is making a profit.
For example, as we write this newsletter, the top paying bid for
the search term "domain names" in Australia is $12.04
per click! Think that's high? The top bid on some international
search engines for the term "legal malpractice" is over
$100 per click!
Now, we aren't experts on the legal malpractice industry - perhaps
these businesses are still making a profit even after paying that
kind of money. But either way it does serve as a reminder that it's
better to be number 3 and profitable than number 1 and losing money.
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TOP SIGNS OF INTERNET ADDICTION
- You wake up at 3 am to go to the bathroom and stop to check
your e-mail on the way back to bed.
- You get a tattoo that reads "This body best viewed with
Internet Explorer 5 or higher."
- You name your children Eudora, Mozilla and Dotcom.
- You turn off your modem and get this awful empty feeling, like
you just pulled the plug on a loved one.
- You spend half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap...and
your child in the overhead compartment.
- You decide to stay at university for an additional year or two,
just for the free Internet access.
- You laugh at people with 28,800 modems.
- You start using smiley's in your snail mail.
- You haven't logged in for two hours. You start to twitch.
- You pick up the phone and manually dial your ISP's access number.
- You try to hum to communicate with the modem. And you succeed.
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RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS
Ecommerce Library
Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library,
full of FREE information about getting more out
of the Internet. Sections include Web Site
Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet
Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer &
Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.
Newsletter Archives
The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a
wealth of FREE information on small business and
the Internet. Browse through the main topics or
search for your particular query.
SWeCS Affiliate Program
Start up another income stream, by earning
commissions for each referral who signs up for
one of our services.
Affiliate Directory
Browse through a list of reviewed Affiliate
programs. Let us do the work of testing it out
for you!
Do you know of a resource that should be added
here? Email us and let us know. There is only one
condition - it must be free.
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OTHER EMAIL NEWSLETTERS
Here's some other email newsletters you might
like:
www.southwestlife.com.au
www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm
www.west-oz.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp
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