BOOMER eZINE

The Online Entrepreneur Magazine

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Table of Contents for this issue.....

1.    Authors Comments

2.    Q & A, Suggestions and Comments

3.    HTML Editors

4.    Using an HTML Editor to Build an SBI web page

5.    Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool

6.    eBay Classified Ad

7.    Don’t Read This Next Article

8.    Niche Browser

9.    PopShops.com

Author's Comments  

After we published the last weekly issue, Linda and I drove to Dallas where we have been able to hold John Mark -Thomas Howe, our new grandson.  I have not lost my touch to walk and bounce a baby and put him to sleep.  It is just like riding a bicycle.  

Psalm 128 says “and may you live to see your children’s children”.  We consider ourselves fortunate that we now have two grandchildren that we can enjoy and we have fulfilled that verse in the psalm.  

This is the first issue of the monthly Boomer eZine.  Since we are not fighting weekly deadlines, we can put more time into each issue.  This one has two videos to help explain the articles.  

We hope you enjoy this issue.  

Q & A, Suggestions and Comments

Art Bedard , one of our readers, and John exchanged several emails during September about various subjects.  In one of them, Art wrote:

I think PopShops is the best thing I have seen on the web in years.

Here’s why.

A keyword searchable - image output index of millions of products for free. Just think, if you wanted to create a niche site of lets say "Fireplace Pokers". You could aggregate fireplace pokers from 15 vendors in a few minutes, spend five minutes or so making it look pretty. Get the domain name " firepokers.com" for $7.00 or so. Wa-la - You are in business with the largest collection of fire pokers in the world! My guess is that 'fireplace pokers' is one of 50,000 or so niches out there. The hell with the cynics, we live in a golden age! 

We never heard of it so we checked it out.  See the article about what John found at PopShops.com.  

If you have anything for this section or you have a suggestion for a topic for an article, please use this suggestion form to give us your suggestions or your input.  With your help, we can improve the Boomer eZine.  This link will open a new page.  Close the page to return to Boomer eZine.  

HTML Editors  

There are many HTML editors available to use for developing web pages.  Some cost some major money (Dreamweaver, FrontPage), but the good news is there are many free ones.  

I have already mentioned Page Breeze in a previous article.  My son, Justin, recommended this HTML editor to me so I downloaded it and tried it.  It works fine, but since I have used FrontPage 2000 for years, I will continue to use it as my HTML editor of choice.  

In my opinion, the best HTML editors are what are called WYSIWYG editors (pronounced wiziwig).  This stands for “what you see is what you get”.  When you use a WYSIWYG editor, you lay out the page like you would create a Word page placing your text and graphics.  The editor generates the HTML to produce a web page that looks like the page you created in the editor.  

The editors allow you to switch back and forth between the display where you see the page as you created it and the HTML that the editor created.  

Watch this short video about using a WISIWYG editor (in this case FrontPage) and watch me build a very simple web page.  I will show the Normal format and the corresponding HTML code.  

Play Video – HTML WYSIWIG Editor  

From this you can see that the editor takes the text and other information that you enter and generates the HTML code to properly place the items and objects on the web page, display the correct fonts, and format the web page the way you specify.  

Some people who are more techno-geek than I am like to write in pure HTML.  They say they can create a much more efficient web page which will load faster.  I will challenge them to create a page faster in raw code than a WYSIWYG editor can.  The loading time is a consideration, but as the world moves to high speed Internet, this is not much of a factor anymore.  

My time is priceless since I never have enough of it.  I want a tool like an HTML WYSIWYG editor that will generate a page for me quickly.  I want to create the page and post it on the Net so it can help my business.  The less time I invest in the creation of the page and the more money it generates, the better return on my time investment.  

I am on the mailing list for the weekly email from Jennifer Kyrnin who is the editor for About.com - Web Design.  She has some interesting articles about web design and web pages.  I recommend that you consider reading her information at http://webdesign.about.com  This will open a new window so once you have checked her out and signed up for her email newsletter, close the window and come on back.  

If you want to sign up for her email, click the Stay up to date! link to the right of her picture and you can sign up for her weekly email.  She also has a free class on coding HTML that I have taken.  

In her last week’s issue, she listed 44 free web editors.  I am not going to list them in this article, but I recommend that you read about them at http://webdesign.about.com/b/a/256114.htm  You can find one that you like and start using it.  This link will open in a new window.  Close it to return to Boomer eZine.  

Using an HTML Editor to Build an SBI web page  

SBI allows you to build web pages using the SiteBuilder or to upload your own web pages that you built with an HTML editor.  The SiteBuilder works well for inexperienced webmasters since it leads you through the process block by block and builds a nice web page.  

I have built many SBI web pages using both upload and SiteBuilder.  I have found that I like to use a combination of both methods.  

When you use SiteBuilder, you are asked for the page file name, the page title, the description, and the keywords.  These are VERY important for search engine optimization which SBI does so well.

Here is a picture of the first part of SiteBuilder.  Just fill in the blanks and SiteBuilder builds the Header section of your web page for you.  You will see this same information in the video in a few minutes.  

I use the first block of SiteBuilder to enter the Headline for the page.  This creates the H1 – H4 heading tag for the page.  The number 1 – 4 indicates the size of the font for the header (1 = largest).  In the video, notice that I do not copy the header HTML code from the editor.  I use the SiteBuilder header block.  

I create the entire page in FrontPage and then I copy the HTML from after the heading (H1 HTML code) through the last code before the end of the body.  I paste this into a Text block in the SiteBuilder where it is accepted as HTML.  I use the HTML comment tag to show the start and end of the code that I am pasting into the SiteBuilder.  This is so I will remember what code I copied the next time I edit this page.  I will point this out in the video that follows.  

I then include my custom footer HTML in the next text block and my page is built.  If you do not have a custom footer, you can use the SBI Footer.  

Look over my shoulder to see how I so this.  

Play Video – Build an SBI webpage using HTML Editor  

My advice – If you do not know anything about HTML or building a web page, start with the full SiteBuilder.  You can build a great web page without any previous HTML knowledge.  As you learn about web pages and HTML, you can blend using an HTML editor with the SiteBuilder.  When you become really proficient in web page design, you can use the upload feature to upload your complete page.  

I can upload my own pages, but I tend to stay with the combination of the SiteBuilder and my HTML editor so I get the full SEO help from SBI.  

Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool  

There has been a lot of discussion on the Net about the Overture Keyword tool and the fact that it seems that Yahoo is not supporting it.  

I just read in a recent issue of “Site Pro News” that the Overture Keyword tool is back.  Check this URL for more information http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/014878.html  

I went to the keyword tool at  

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/  

It gave me search data for January 2007 for retirement jobs.  This is the month of data that is currently being posted.  

I like this tool since it gives good results and it is free, but it was not working well for a period of time.  Even to the point where Site Build It stopped using it as a data source for its Brainstorm It tool.  My personal opinion is that this improved the Brainstormer since the data now comes from Wordtracker which is a better and more comprehensive keyword source.  

I have not used Overture for several months due to the problems with it.  Let’s watch it and see how it performs.  It is a handy tool to have in your tool chest if it is working correctly.  

eBay Classified Ad  

I ran an eBay classified ad titled “DON'T JUST BUILD A WEBSITE” with a subtitle “BUILD A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BUSINESS USING SITE BUILD IT”.

This ad was a featured ad which cost $40.40 for the month run.  It received 329 views so the cost per click was $0.123.  On a previous test, the ad received 185 hits, and I thought that was good.   This is in the very competitive web hosting/website keyword arena so I consider this a very attractive price for advertising.

This run of the ad did not sell an SBI, but I do not plan to stop running the ad.  I will now work on improving the ad and see if I can improve the conversions.  Since I have not made a sale with the ad, improving the conversions means that one sale is a 100% improvement.

I sent the ad to a friend, Steve Coleman , and asked his input.  He said the sales copy was too long.  Steve, it looks like you are right.  I will streamline the copy and see if I can’t attract a buyer on the next ad run.

The key point is the ad is attracting traffic.  That is the first challenge.  Now I need to convert the traffic to sales.

Don ’t Read This Next Article  

Made you look, didn’t I?  

This type of headline is a real attention getter.  The classified ad from the prior article uses this psychology to get attention.  I changed the ad headline from the previous 30-day run and the views increased from 185 to 329.  That is a significant increase (78%).  

I am running a pay per click program now on AdCenter and this same type of headline is getting the same great results.  

I am testing two ads for the same keywords.  One ad lists the item and some benefits.  The other ad says “ Don ’t buy the item until you check out the deals at my URL.  

The first ad is getting a click through rate (CTR) of 1.71%.  The negative ad ( Don ’t do it) is getting a CTR of 15.26%.  

People do not like to be told “ Don ’t do something”.  They will automatically want to find out why.  

This is great psychology to use to attract attention to your ads.  Try it and see how it works for you.  

Niche Browser  

I came across a really powerful browser tool recently.  It is offered by Jason Moffat, Internet marketer.  I went to Jason’s blog and he says that Niche Browser was actually created by Derek Franklin.  

I downloaded Niche Browser and tested it.  It makes research much easier and faster.  Anything “free” on the Internet is selling something so if you can get past the annoying home page selling Affiliate RockStar Products and a popup box, you can really cover the Internet quickly.  

Here is a picture of the browser with retirement jobs typed in the search box in the upper left corner.  

When you load the tool and close the popup, click on the HELP icon in the upper left of the page.  This will start a video that shows you how to use it.  Niche Browser allows you to go to many different websites from this one browser page so you do not have to open a new window in Internet Explorer or FireFox to search for each particular site.  

I played with it using “retirement jobs” and very quickly, I found out a lot of new, helpful information about my major keyword.  

Nothing is ever free on the Internet, but the benefits of this tool outweigh the aggravation of the sales pitch on the home page and the popup box.

You can download the Niche Browser at http://www.nichebrowser.com

Try it and see what you think.  

PopShops.com  

Taking the suggestion from Art, I checked out PopShops.  I agree with Art, it is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I needed for something like this for a current project so I jumped right in.  

In overview, PopShops is a site where you can generate an online store where you have an affiliate relationship with merchants and promote the merchant’s products.  This is very similar to the aStore concept at Amazon, which I use, but PopShops gives you the entire merchant base of Commission Junction, LinkShare, ShareASale, and Red Galoshes.  

To use it, you register with PopShops.  The basic plan is free which includes up to ten free shops.  There are upgraded plans for $5 and $30 per month if you want more stores or more capability.  

Next, you register with the program providers (Commission Junction, LinkShare, etc.)  Since I am already a member of these two programs, I only had to register with ShareASale.  When you register, you do have to have a legitimate website or blog so keep that in mind before you jump into this.  

You then design your shop and add items to it.  Shop design is easy.  You just specify how many columns and rows in the shop and the type of display for the product (graphic or text link, size of display).  When you are ready to “pop it” into your site, you copy a few lines of Java script that PopShops gives you, and you insert this script in the HTML on your page where you want the shop to appear.  

When your page loads, the shop is updated each time from feeds from the various merchant sites and you display the latest prices for the products.  

This is one of the really nice features of this concept.  If you had a static link with a price on your site to the merchant’s page, you would have to make certain that you updated the price periodically.  PopShops serves up the most current information each time the page loads.  

Let’s stop on this for now.  I have already set up a shop, and I will monitor it during the next month.  I will write an article about my experience with PopShops in next month’s issue.  

Our thanks to Art Bedard for the tip.  

That wraps up our issue for this week.  Until next week, stay tuned.  

John and Linda Howe  

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