Mark Recommends...
If you have a Web site, I recommend...
For Web Hosting:
I recommend 1&1.com for hosting. I've found that it's easy to administer multiple sites (I have about 45 sites that I manage), and you get a ton of storage and bandwidth at at great price. Plus, domain names are a bargain at about $6.00 each. I've saved hundreds of dollars and hours of time since switching to 1&1.com.
Auto Responder, Shopping Cart, Product Downloader, and MUCH More!
I recommend www.kickstartcart.com for a complete e-commerce solution for small business. It's affordable. It's complete. It has great on-line training. And you can get the first thirty days free to check it out and play with it. Just think, you could be making money on-line before you need to pay for your auto responders and shopping cart. Affordable and Powerful. Click Here to try the World's Smartest Shopping Cart system.
To take Credit Cards
You can arrange for a merchant account, but the easiest and fastest way is to use PayPal. They now make it really easy to set up an account and link it to your shopping cart, like KickStartCart discussed above. Check out https://www.paypal.com/us/mrb/pal=GDD3YNA6RERQ2
For Audio Clips on the Web:I recommend www.instantaudio.com for easily adding audio clips to your Web site. It's simple, yet there's lots of flexibility. You can phone in the clip and it's instantly available for you to paste into your site or blog. You can record clips from your computer's microphone. You can upload clips you've gotten from other sources. You can ask your clients to call with their testimonials. Or you can easily hire a professional voice to make your clip. They process and host all the audio. You just paste it into your Web or blog code. Very easy to use!
You can also send audio post cards by e-mail. A cool tool for your clients, but I don't recommend sending it to people you don't know.
For Creating Sales Letters:
Wow! Does this stuff make writing a sales letter easy. There are 12 steps to fill out, and then push the button and the sales letter appears, formatted, and ready to post to your website. (Check out the letter I wrote with it for www.LinuxBriefing.com) It includes a tutorial on how to write compelling sales letters. You'll learn more about how to make your business really sell in a couple of hours, making this product well worth the investment. Click here to check it out!
For Creating Web Headers:
The Web Headers that I have on the top of some of my sites (such as www.DriveTimeU.com) came from this simple program. Saves me many hours and many dollars. So check out www.headergenerator.com.
Web Advertising to Get Traffic
Yahoo Search Marketing is offering $100 credit with promo code US1641B until November 30, 2005. Go to searchmarketing.yahoo.com/choice for details on how to use their sponsored search or ad words to get traffic.
Increasing Web Sales
http://www.xsitepro.com/exit_report.html talks about how to use exit surveys to increase sales.
http://www.The-E-Code.com/CIIM.pdf cool stuff that’s about four years old, but worth knowing about e-mail marketing and testing.
General Business Ideas
You can get a copy of Bill Swanson's (CEO of Raytheon) The CEO's Secret Handbook for free! It was given rave reviews by Business 2.0 magazine and Bill decided to offer it to the world. Go to http://wwwxt.raytheon.com/communications/whs_rules/ and Raytheon will send you a copy.