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WebPromote Weekly  - November, 1997: Volume 4

A free email newsletter sent out to 141,695 subscribers around the 
world. Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested 
associates. To unsubscribe from this mailing, simply forward this 
entire newsletter to unsubscribe@webpromote.com .

IN THIS ISSUE:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
* SECRETS TO SELLING ONLINE
* HOLIDAY PROMOTION
* NORTHERN LIGHT UPDATE

WHAT'S THE BUZZ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since last week many surveys have been released, illustrating that the 
Internet is more than just blossoming for electronic commerce - it is 
exploding with opportunity.   

*  A CNet headline reports a thirty-one percent increase in Internet 
   sales for the last U.S. business quarter.  

*  Internet usage in the U.S. by those above age 16 grew by almost ten 
   percent or 4.9 million users in the past three months to 56 million 
   individuals, according to market research analysts, IntelliQuest.  
   The study goes on to report that an additional 16 million adults   
   are anticipated to get online by 1999.  That represents a doubling 
   of Internet users in only fifteen months.

*  Eight percent of the entrepreneurs in a USA TODAY/Ernst & Young    
   survey said they use the Internet mainly for commerce, which 
   usually means taking orders electronically and accepting credit 
   cards for payment. Of the 398 entrepreneurs queried at the 
   Entrepreneur of the Year International Conference in Palm Springs, 
   CA, twenty-seven percent said they will have commercial ventures in 
   place over the next twelve to eighteen month.

To help you jockey yourself into position with the increasing number 
of online businesses, we begin this week's newsletter by welcoming a 
contribution from Paul Graham of Viaweb on secrets to selling online. 
 
Also, a November 26, 1997 headline from News Network, LLC reads, "Day 
After Thanksgiving Lines To Form In Cyberspace, Too."  Are you 
prepared?  WebPromote would like to offer you a stocking stuffer for 
your virtual holiday stocking to help you take advantage of the 
holiday rush.  Read below and then visit our Holiday Promotion 97 web 
page. Thank you for your continued support!

The WebPromote Team
http://www.WebPromote.com


SECRETS TO SELLING ONLINE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Paul Graham

CHOOSE THE RIGHT NICHE
Geography is almost irrelevant on the Internet. Niches on the Internet 
are based on what you sell, not where you are. And whatever you sell, 
you have to be the place to buy it, because your customers can just as 
easily visit any other online store.

HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES
In a print catalog, "production values" refers to the quality of the 
paper and printing processes used, the number and quality of images, 
and the care taken with graphic design. High production values are 
critically important in catalogs, which have to convince consumers to 
buy based on a few sheets of paper.  Production values are even more 
important on the Web. Consumers will not buy from an amateurish Web 
site.
Of course there is no direct connection between the quality of your 
site and the quality of your company. A company could have a brilliant 
graphic designer and lousy products. But usually there is a 
connection, and that is what visitors to your site will assume. If 
your company is unable to put up a good Web site, then it seems 
natural to assume that your company cannot deliver good products or 
services.

MAKE YOUR SITE EASY
If you want people to visit and order from your site, don't put any
obstacles in their way. Whatever you do, don't force visitors to 
register. You have to create yourself an account, with a user id and 
password, before you can even order from Wal-Mart. Do they expect 
online shoppers to remember a user id and password for every online 
store they visit?

PROMOTE YOUR SITE
Having a great Web site is not enough. You also have to bring people 
to it. Most sites get most of their hits from search engines, so step 
one is to make sure that you are indexed in all the major search 
engines.
The highest-paying traffic does not seem to come from search engines,
however, but through links from related sites. And the best way to get
other sites to link to you is to give them a percentage of the sales
generated by that link. Industry leaders like Amazon.Com have used 
this technique with great results.
Another way to get traffic is to buy banner ads that lead to your 
site. For example, you can buy banner ads on search engines that are 
tied to particular keywords. When you search for "books" in many 
search engines, you will see a banner ad for Amazon.Com.

CHANGE YOUR SITE
Overall, the more time a company spends on its online store, the 
better it tends to do. I doubt anyone can say now what the perfect 
online store should look like. The whole business of Internet commerce 
is only two years old. You are unlikely to get things exactly right on 
the first try. Like most sites, yours will evolve.
So you should be constantly improving your site. And even if you think 
your site is perfect, you should still change it regularly. A Web site 
that has not changed for months is boring. It feels abandoned.

THINK GLOBALLY
The remarkable thing about the Web is not just that you can sell 
direct to consumers so inexpensively, but that you can sell to 
consumers worldwide. Ultimately, international orders are going to be 
a big source of revenue for American companies.

Information provided by Viaweb.  The entire article is available at
http://www.viaweb.com/vw/secrets.html .

Get another opinion on making a successful storefront at
http://www.zdnet.com/pcmag/features/e-comm_sites/sb1.htm 


HOLIDAY PROMOTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This holiday season is expected to be the greatest year ever in the
history of Internet commerce.  To help your online business take
advantage of the frenzy, WebPromote is offering you a product bonus.
For a limited time only, you can get one WebPromote Blitz and one
WebPromote Direct Email of any mailing rate above 2500, at a ten 
percent savings.  

Visit http://www.WebPromote.com/holiday to learn more.  You have
until December 17, 1997 to take advantage of this offer.


NORTHERN LIGHT UPDATE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In last week's article, "Unique New Search Engine," we introduced you 
to Northern Light.  Unfortunately, right about the time that we 
supplied a URL to review their Special Collection web page, they 
changed it. The old URL http://www.nlsearch.com/docs/helpdir/A_E.htm  
has been replaced by the current URL, which is 
http://www.nlsearch.com/docs/A_E.htm . Please make a note of it. The 
Northern Light home page is at http://www.nlsearch.com .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comments and suggestions are welcomed at
http://www.WebPromote.com/suggest .

The WebPromote Weekly archive is found at
http://www.WebPromote.com/wpweekly .

For information on successfully promoting your business on the
Internet, contact the professionals at WebPromote:
http://www.WebPromote.com .

Or contact us at:
WebPromote - a division of Superhighway Consulting, Inc.
1580 S. Milwaukee Ave., Suite 320.
Libertyville, IL 60048
847.918.9292

Employment Opportunities at http://www.WebPromote.com/jobs .

** Visit us at Fall Internet World '97! **
 We'll be at booth #3125 - December 8-12
    Jacob J. Javits Center, New York
             See you there!





--=*( ataripl@piwo.bl.pg.gda.pl - NL )*=--